Help with Budget recently divorced.

[disneysteve]

I have always had a car loan and plan to keep one as I enjoy newer vehicles under warantee.

I missed this comment earlier. If your mindset is that you will always be in debt, guess what. You will always be in debt.

If you really want to own a new car every few years, that's fine if you budget and save accordingly and pay cash for them. If you need to borrow, you can't afford it.

[jpg7n16]

I am single and trying to reduce my income as I don't want to be paying extreme taxes come next spring.

100% honest: I would gladly pay $1 million in taxes if I had the income to warrant it.

[afreshup]

Your doing fine

For this economy, you're doing fine, however, if you really want to increase your savings the best thing to do is get rid of all of your payments. I am about 5 months from being debt free. My goal is to pay cash for everything here on out. But it took me making two car payments, credit card payments and a house payments to get there. So bottom line, it's okay to have those things, especially if you work hard to get them, just remember to start saving for your next car and motorcyle, don't go back into debt.

[28andlearning]

Just wanted to post an update.

No more auto debt.
Motorcycle is down to $4000
Credit card is at $6500 to cover the outstanding balance on the car but should be paid off by the end of the year.

Hoping to be debt free by next spring.

[Eagle]

Just wanted to post an update.

No more auto debt.
Motorcycle is down to $4000
Credit card is at $6500 to cover the outstanding balance on the car but should be paid off by the end of the year.

Hoping to be debt free by next spring.

Wow! Congrats! Looks like you paid 40k worth of debt off with your auto loan.

How much do you have in savings now?

Have you been investing in your 401k?

Have you considered opening a Traditional or ROTH IRA?

Keep up the good work! You'll very soon be debt free! Fantastic!

[TheKayla]

You shouldn't have an auto loan that is 50% of your yearly income, downgrade the car. I made this mistake myself, I know it hurts! You can wipe out the CC pretty fast too to free up some extra income, as well as sell the motorcycle or pay it off fast as well. All in all though, your vehicles are still saying you live above your means! Once you can get more balanced out, start saving aggressively to catch up -- if necessary budget in other areas as well and live more frugally.

[Eagle]

You shouldn't have an auto loan that is 50% of your yearly income, downgrade the car. I made this mistake myself, I know it hurts! You can wipe out the CC pretty fast too to free up some extra income, as well as sell the motorcycle or pay it off fast as well. All in all though, your vehicles are still saying you live above your means! Once you can get more balanced out, start saving aggressively to catch up -- if necessary budget in other areas as well and live more frugally.

Hey TheKayla did you see 28andlearning's latest post? The auto debt (40k) is paid off. I think I'd disagree and say that the OP is living within their means if they can do that in 3 years. It seems things are going well for the OP.

Just wanted to post an update.

No more auto debt.
Motorcycle is down to $4000
Credit card is at $6500 to cover the outstanding balance on the car but should be paid off by the end of the year.

Hoping to be debt free by next spring.

[snafu]

Thanks for the update. I'm hopeful you transferred CC debt to one of the no fee, 0% interest for 'X' months as I'm confident you can handle the requirement to clear the balance before their outrageous rate kicks in. I suggest you check your credit score, free from one of the four credit agencies or Discover Card or the free version of creditkarma.com.

Next, you're vested, how is your retirement plan growing? Do you know what your are paying in fees and those silent Management Expenses?

[Eagle]

Thanks for the update. I'm hopeful you transferred CC debt to one of the no fee, 0% interest for 'X' months as I'm confident you can handle the requirement to clear the balance before their outrageous rate kicks in. I suggest you check your credit score, free from one of the four credit agencies or Discover Card or the free version of creditkarma.com.

Next, you're vested, how is your retirement plan growing? Do you know what your are paying in fees and those silent Management Expenses?

@28andlearning
You can get free credit reports from all 3 major credit companies (TransUnion, Equifax, & Experian) here: www.annualcreditreport.com

I wouldn't count on the CreditKarma scores being reliable. See the "Full Credit Report" menu item under the "My Finances" tab on your Credit Karma account home page. Note that the "credit score" that is available for free at Credit Karma is a Vantage score, not a FICO score, so don't rely on it. See this link thread.

Discover is a good resource to get your TransUnion credit score I believe. The two credit cards from whom you can get your free TransUnion FICO score now are Discover Card and Barclay Card.

[28andlearning]

My retirement is doing "ok". I currently have a little over $40,000 now. Savings has the $1000 Emergency Funds and I have $8000 in checking. I will be getting the Alaska Permenant Fund within the next month and will use that to pay down more debt and then use whats in my checking account to pay off the rest of the $6400 balance owed on the credit card. I will then work on paying off my motorycle. Hoping to have everything paid off by May 2015.

I used the annual credit report website and everything shows green, so I imagine thats good. Last time I checked my credit score was around 780, so I imagine I am doing fine in that department.

[28andlearning]

Down to $2600 on my credit card and then I need to pay off my motorcycle. Hoping to have the credit card paid off before 2015. Then work on getting the Motorcycle paid off by May 2015. Still on track!

Looking forward to only making payments on my house.

[28andlearning]

Figured I would update. I no longer have any credit card debt and only owe 3k on the motorcycle. I have plenty of money in the bank to pay it off and will just have a mortgage payment here in a few months. Housing Market is looking better and I have enough equity in my current place to sell. So I am keeping a decent amount of cash in the bank as I am looking to move into something with a little more lot space and a bigger house.

Planning to finance my next house conventional, current one is FHA and the fee's suck.

[Green43]

Well, color me optimistic but you have one VERY big thing going for you. You only have YOU to agree on a budget.. You are already budget conscious just get it going the right direction and hold the course, it may take you a year or two but you will get there. Good luck.