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I posted a few months back and wanted to give you all an update on my situation. the advice here is great - I wish I could be more active, but unfortunately my time does not permit it right now...
As a reminder, I am 27, make about $60K, low cost of living area, I wish I had gotten serious about this sooner, but now I am committed to making progress.
When I started tracking my debt in March 06, my debts totaled $50,958. I have paid off over $17,000 of this so far. I have not been saving a lot, but I recently got hired by the company at which I had been consulting, so I am going to be saving a lot more now.
My current debts stand at:
$1369 car (will be paid off by this time next month!!!)
$32450 student loans
and I have:
$1200 EF
My student loans have been going mostly nowhere since I have been paying the minimum payments. I do a lot better focusing on knocking out one thing at a time. So when I am finished with my car, I will be putting that $1300 a month toward my loan.
At my new job, I can put 6% of my income into a 401K to get their max match of 4%. In addition, they contribute 5% more regardless of whether I contribute or not. So, that will be 15% of my income going to that. I have an account at Vanguard with a mix of different funds recommended by my cousin who is a real genius with investments.
In addition, I plan to start a Roth IRA as soon as I have enough in my EF to weather the $3000 initial deposit that I think Vanguard requires, if I was reading correctly...
I guess the next steps would be to start saving for a house. I don't think I'll have a great idea on exactly where I want to be living for a few years, though...and I think I will have my loans paid off in 2.5-3 years, so I will focus on that for now. Also I want to eventually get some money together for a new car although that should be 5+ years away....I bought a new car in 2004. I know, I know, I could have gotten a slightly used one...but I am glad with my choice as reliability is very important to me and I have had 3 problem-free years so far!
As a reminder, I am 27, make about $60K, low cost of living area, I wish I had gotten serious about this sooner, but now I am committed to making progress.
When I started tracking my debt in March 06, my debts totaled $50,958. I have paid off over $17,000 of this so far. I have not been saving a lot, but I recently got hired by the company at which I had been consulting, so I am going to be saving a lot more now.
My current debts stand at:
$1369 car (will be paid off by this time next month!!!)
$32450 student loans
and I have:
$1200 EF
My student loans have been going mostly nowhere since I have been paying the minimum payments. I do a lot better focusing on knocking out one thing at a time. So when I am finished with my car, I will be putting that $1300 a month toward my loan.
At my new job, I can put 6% of my income into a 401K to get their max match of 4%. In addition, they contribute 5% more regardless of whether I contribute or not. So, that will be 15% of my income going to that. I have an account at Vanguard with a mix of different funds recommended by my cousin who is a real genius with investments.
In addition, I plan to start a Roth IRA as soon as I have enough in my EF to weather the $3000 initial deposit that I think Vanguard requires, if I was reading correctly...
I guess the next steps would be to start saving for a house. I don't think I'll have a great idea on exactly where I want to be living for a few years, though...and I think I will have my loans paid off in 2.5-3 years, so I will focus on that for now. Also I want to eventually get some money together for a new car although that should be 5+ years away....I bought a new car in 2004. I know, I know, I could have gotten a slightly used one...but I am glad with my choice as reliability is very important to me and I have had 3 problem-free years so far!
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