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I'm Debt Free* !!!!
(*=except for my mortgage ... for now...)
So I was looking at my accounts tonight (at 1:30am...this is what I do when I can't sleep... lol), and I noticed that my car loan's balance was just under $2,300. That got me to thinking... Why not just pay it off? I've been paying $900/mo on the loan for the last year anyway, so by that schedule, it'd be paid off in 2.5 months anyway. I currently have just over $16k in my "general savings" account, of which $3k is designated as my "floor", and $10k for my wedding. So with $3k "extra", I figured why not just cut to the chase and pay off the car loan? My goal was to have it paid off by the time we get married anyway. So I just submitted the payment with my bank (hooray for 24-hr online banking!), which means that effective 24-48 hours from now, I will officially be DEBT FREE except for my $120k mortgage (1.5 yrs into a $130k, 15yr, 2.75% note). I'm so excited.
Besides this being absolutely awesome .... It also means that I'll be able to take that $900/mo loan payment and funnel it into my TSP. Since I'm already contributing $500/mo to my Roth TSP, I just now also set up to contribute 20% of my base pay (~$1033/mo) into the Traditional TSP. That means I'll also be able to just about max out my TSP this year!
With my plans to get married later this year, my/our tax bill is going to rise significantly -- after pay raises for both of us this summer, she'll be adding ~$45k/yr to my $67k/yr of taxable pay, plus ~$33k between us in non-taxable housing & food allowances.... (side note: the prospect of earning that much between us is actually somewhat intimidating for me...whether growing up or as an adult, I've never though of myself as "well-off" in any way, so the idea of a $150k+ household income is a bit mind-boggling for me...) So I/we will definitely be getting bumped out of the 15% tax bracket this year, but I suppose I knew that was inevitable anyway. So to reduce the blow of the new tax bracket, I figure boosting my pre-tax retirement savings is worthwhile. In time I may swing back toward more Roth contributions, but for now, I'll ease the transition. Also expecting to max her Roth IRA & almost max her TSP, though we'll still need to sit down & hammer out an actual budget once things eventually settle down post-wedding (I'm a finance nerd, but she doesn't know a lot money-wise...though she is at least reasonably frugal & willing/interested in learning more).
So there we have it, folks... I paid off my $19k car loan in 19 months, my only debt remaining is a VERY affordable home mortgage, and I'm gonna be maxing out BOTH my Roth IRA & TSP accounts! After our wedding, we'll need to tackle her ~$12k student loans... but I'm confident we can clear those out within a year no problem. Past that, it'll just be the mortgages on both of our houses (~200k total). Sorry to ramble on, but I'm just thrilled to have my car paid off, and things appear great looking forward, so I'm rather excited right now... I guess I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. Woohoo!!!
So I was looking at my accounts tonight (at 1:30am...this is what I do when I can't sleep... lol), and I noticed that my car loan's balance was just under $2,300. That got me to thinking... Why not just pay it off? I've been paying $900/mo on the loan for the last year anyway, so by that schedule, it'd be paid off in 2.5 months anyway. I currently have just over $16k in my "general savings" account, of which $3k is designated as my "floor", and $10k for my wedding. So with $3k "extra", I figured why not just cut to the chase and pay off the car loan? My goal was to have it paid off by the time we get married anyway. So I just submitted the payment with my bank (hooray for 24-hr online banking!), which means that effective 24-48 hours from now, I will officially be DEBT FREE except for my $120k mortgage (1.5 yrs into a $130k, 15yr, 2.75% note). I'm so excited.
Besides this being absolutely awesome .... It also means that I'll be able to take that $900/mo loan payment and funnel it into my TSP. Since I'm already contributing $500/mo to my Roth TSP, I just now also set up to contribute 20% of my base pay (~$1033/mo) into the Traditional TSP. That means I'll also be able to just about max out my TSP this year!With my plans to get married later this year, my/our tax bill is going to rise significantly -- after pay raises for both of us this summer, she'll be adding ~$45k/yr to my $67k/yr of taxable pay, plus ~$33k between us in non-taxable housing & food allowances.... (side note: the prospect of earning that much between us is actually somewhat intimidating for me...whether growing up or as an adult, I've never though of myself as "well-off" in any way, so the idea of a $150k+ household income is a bit mind-boggling for me...) So I/we will definitely be getting bumped out of the 15% tax bracket this year, but I suppose I knew that was inevitable anyway. So to reduce the blow of the new tax bracket, I figure boosting my pre-tax retirement savings is worthwhile. In time I may swing back toward more Roth contributions, but for now, I'll ease the transition. Also expecting to max her Roth IRA & almost max her TSP, though we'll still need to sit down & hammer out an actual budget once things eventually settle down post-wedding (I'm a finance nerd, but she doesn't know a lot money-wise...though she is at least reasonably frugal & willing/interested in learning more).
So there we have it, folks... I paid off my $19k car loan in 19 months, my only debt remaining is a VERY affordable home mortgage, and I'm gonna be maxing out BOTH my Roth IRA & TSP accounts! After our wedding, we'll need to tackle her ~$12k student loans... but I'm confident we can clear those out within a year no problem. Past that, it'll just be the mortgages on both of our houses (~200k total). Sorry to ramble on, but I'm just thrilled to have my car paid off, and things appear great looking forward, so I'm rather excited right now... I guess I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. Woohoo!!!
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