Debt Plan/Life Plan

[LiquidMercury]

I'm sure you know this, but "free" tickets really aren't free. My husband is currently traveling on a "free" ticket overseas and spent $52.90 in fees for his ticket. It's a fantastic deal and a pretty nominal cost and 100% worth it since it is for his business, but it's still not truly free.

There also may be other expenses like transportation to & from the airport and/or airport parking, transportation costs at destination (taxi or rental car or public transport fees), gratuities, etc. Even with bare bones spending on your vacation just be honest & realistic about what you will spend when deciding whether or not you can afford it.

$5 for me to book a flight
$5 for me to book my SO a flight
No hotel costs
No car rental costs
No parking costs

Food Allocation - 500 for the week if I'm realistic.

$510 for a vacation versus $250/week if I just ate at home so the additional "cost" can be estimated at $260. It comes down to getting more value out of putting that $260 @ 0% interest debt or being in a better place mentally. I suppose I'll decide that at some point as I don't have to book months in advance and it can be a last minute decision if I feel like it.

[LiquidMercury]

True dat. I had free plane tickets, rental car and hotels for my 10 day vacation last year with my family (4). Cost me $5,000. Maybe not typical, and not applicable to the OP, but was frustrating. Gas, food, fees, parking, souvenirs, tours, animal sitting all added up. The free condo in Panama CIty 2 years ago cost me $3,500 for the same reasons.

I think we could do a really cheap vacation on points if my family liked to just sit on the beach. They don't. I do.

Tom

Ah the joys of kids. Luckily it's just myself and my SO and our ideal vacation is just sitting on a beach, relaxing, and taking advantage of the spa (also free for me), going on hikes (free), and exploring wherever we are (free outside of food/drink assuming we don't buy souvenirs which I don't imagine we would since my SO would rather bring additional shoes than have more stuff to bring home). Our careers have us simply "going" all the time and are high-stress so truly doing nothing on a beach is the most amazing thing for us.

[LiquidMercury]

You can start with 6 months, eliminate your debt and then bump it up to a years worth of expenses. Going this route will help by not only freeing up the amount that you have to push towards your EF but it also lowers the total amount that you will need in your EF since you not longer have debt to pay on each month.

I'll keep that in mind.

6 months EF, CC debt free, and enough money to buy a ring might have to be my new 2014 goals.

When do people generally start throwing additional money at a mortgage?

[scfr]

$5 for me to book a flight
$5 for me to book my SO a flight

No US Customs User Fee, US Immigration User Fee, US APHIS User Fee, and September 11th Security Fee? If you are a US citizen traveling internationally who is able to avoid these fees, please share how. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know.

[LiquidMercury]

No US Customs User Fee, US Immigration User Fee, US APHIS User Fee, and September 11th Security Fee? If you are a US citizen traveling internationally who is able to avoid these fees, please share how. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know.

Go to Puerto Rico (My most likely destination so as to not have to deal with the fees you outlined). Then you only have the 9/11 fee of $5 which doesn't go up to 7.50 until July 2014 if I recall.

[corn18]

Ah the joys of kids. Luckily it's just myself and my SO and our ideal vacation is just sitting on a beach, relaxing, and taking advantage of the spa (also free for me), going on hikes (free), and exploring wherever we are (free outside of food/drink assuming we don't buy souvenirs which I don't imagine we would since my SO would rather bring additional shoes than have more stuff to bring home). Our careers have us simply "going" all the time and are high-stress so truly doing nothing on a beach is the most amazing thing for us.

That is awesome. You could do a very cheap vacation, indeed. I would love that.

[scfr]

Go to Puerto Rico (My most likely destination so as to not have to deal with the fees you outlined). Then you only have the 9/11 fee of $5 which doesn't go up to 7.50 until July 2014 if I recall.

Got it - Thanks! And no currency conversion costs either.

[scfr]

When do people generally start throwing additional money at a mortgage?

I can only answer for myself but we started putting extra money towards our mortgage once we had sufficient savings to cover anything else we might need (extra ample EF and cash-flowing my husband's business) and were putting the maximum allowed in tax-deferred retirement savings. The mortgage was our only debt. The mortgage was paid off when we were 40-ish.

[sblatner]

I think you should plan on six months expenses but expenses that you would incur if you didn't travel 5-6 days per week. If you were to change jobs, get laid off or get sick, your expenses would go up as the company wouldn't be paying for you.

[LiquidMercury]

I think you should plan on six months expenses but expenses that you would incur if you didn't travel 5-6 days per week. If you were to change jobs, get laid off or get sick, your expenses would go up as the company wouldn't be paying for you.

That's a good point.

I imagine my total expenses in a month if I wasn't traveling to be around 3500 a month. Guess I've got some work to do.

[LiquidMercury]

Another question

Would it be better to simply throw as much money at the 0% interest (only CC debt I'll have here after next month) or to continue to payments on it and whittle it down while also contributing equally to my EF?

[LiquidMercury]

Just a bit of an update:

Received a written offer today for a new job (40k more base salary, significantly higher bonus potential) so that should allow me to go to town on things faster.

CC debt is going down:

Card 1 - 12.99% APR - $1,000
Card 2 - 0% APR - $6400
Card 3 - 0% APR - $500
Card 4 - 0% APR - $4900

I'll have the CC with the 12.99% paid off middle of next month and I should get cashed out for my unused vacation which should be $4k or so.

Should I take that 4k and put it towards 0% CC debt, or pad the emergency fund more (only have 4500 in EF)?

[scfr]

Did you get another credit card since starting this thread?!?

Does the new job have a retirement plan? Is it comparable to the one you have now?

[LiquidMercury]

Same retirement plan basically (6% matching).
Also they pay for a company cruise each year so that may take care of my trip to the carribean I was thinking of heh.

No I didn't get a new credit card I think I just forgot to put my best buy credit card in my initial post (the $500 one that is 0% apr).

[scfr]

This is what I'd do:

1. With 4K vacation cash out, increase EF ... and I'd probably wipe out the $500 cc for the psychological benefit and one less bill to track
2. Split pay increase between building up EF and paying down cc w/ 0% ending Apr '15
3. Once EF is at 6 months expenses, attack other debt (car loan and cc w/ 0% ending Jan '17) --- if you can trim expenses, you can hit 6 months EF earlier
4. Start saving for next car (with the goal to pay cash) and ring (doing only wedding bands is an option ... I wouldn't buy an engagement ring until all other debts were paid off ... if she really wants a ring w/ a gem, what about a goal of a 5-year anniversary ring in lieu of an engagement ring?)

In the meantime, continue contributing to retirement as you have been and maintain or cut back current expenses. Fight off the temptation to escalate lifestyle due to pay increase.