and I can't wait to get started.

One thing I'm wondering doh....

Aside from the house which is almost done (25000$ left to pay) we have one credit card with 890$ balance, and we have 2 credit margins from the bank, one of thems we owned appx 1500$ and the other (big one) we owned 26 000$.

We have two cars...and old 1998 one paid in full. and a 2003 Toyota Matrix, also paid in full.

Should I sell the Matrix to pay some of the credit margin or keep it since it is paid in full.

DH says it wouldn't be a good idea to sell the Matrix since we do need two cars for work and would probably only get 10-12K for the Matrix and still need to buy another car for 4-5k after that and that would leave us with only 7-5k to put on the margin.

We also have over 7000$ emergency funds in the bank. I was thinking of taking 6000$ from it and pay, the CC, the small credit margin, and put the rest on the big credit margin.

Your opinions please :)

Ok, jmho here...

I wouldn't sell the car since you need one anyway. I also would not touch the money in the emergency fund. You've done well to save it, and you never know when you might really need it. Just having it there gives you a sense of security that nothing else does. I would just start paying down on that $890 credit card balance and then snowball the money you've been paying on that to knock out the $1500 bank note. Do the same with both of those payments on the larger note. When that's done (and it will happen sooner than you imagine) then start the snowball on the house. That's what I would do.....and I have to qualify this by saying Gripey and I have paid off over 200,000. in the past 5 years doing this. (I just updated the totals on our paid down debt numbers....I was shocked!) It's hard not to get over anxious...sort of like dieting. But remember you didn't accumulate this debt overnight and it won't go away overnight either. Just keep plugging along and before you know it, you'll see some real results! Hope this helps a bit. ;)

(I'm not sure Dave R. would agree with me about the E.F. but that is what I'd do anyway)

I'd have to say I agree totally with Lisa. You can knock out those two little ones pretty quickly, I imagine. And with your bigger emergecy fund you've already got you won't get hit as bad if it were a lot smaller. You've already got it in place, keep it.

You've done really well already, having two paid-for cars (I'd keep those, as well), you've got a good amount of money set aside for emergencies, and your house isn't too far away from being paid for. Your debt isn't too outrageous. And now knowing where you stand and what your goals are I imagine you will do well enough to knock all of it out pretty soon. I mean, you've done all of this well enough already, even before deciding to get out of debt. Obviously bright people. If you decide now to not go into debt anymore, start using your extra money (which I bet before didn't have a purpose and seemed to just dissapear) for paying down what you have (which isn't too much), then you can start seeing it turn around really soon.

Keep up the good work, I think you're doing great. :)

Thank's girls :) I really do appreciate your wisdom words :angel:

Okay so I will keep the cars (DH will be happy about this one!)

I think I'll still take 2000$ from the $7K EF and get rid of the 2 small debts. Which will still leave me $5K for emergency funds. I've check things out and believe that, by being careful a little, we could live on DH salary only and put all mine toward the debts....if everything goes good...everything should be paid in 12-14months (except for house) :cool:

Nath

Enjoy this journey as well Nath.. It's somewhat like diet and exercise....can have it's highs and lows but for the most part it's soooooo rewarding.

Nath, let us know your progress, and enjoy your journey... you can do it!

I'm reading dave's book now. He makes a lot of sense to me. I guess i'm standing apart from the crowd, but it think i would use the ef (all but 1-2k). If you are paying higher interest on your debts than you are getting from your ef, it makes sense from a financial standpoint to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible. I use emigrant direct for savings,and they give a rate of 4.25%- but i have cc's that charge 12%, so i'm losing money if i keep my savings and don't pay down my cc's. i definitely believe in having at least $1000 in the ef no matter what though.
having said all that, if it stresses you out too much to not have that $7000 ef, by all means, keep it! getting out of debt is stressful enough, and if you feel more secure with the bigger ef, you may do well to keep it.
i agree with everyone else about the cars. they are paid off which is great!!
I hope you enjoy becoming debt free!!!!:smball:

Originally posted by Nath.

Okay so I will keep the cars (DH will be happy about this one!)

I think I'll still take 2000$ from the $7K EF and get rid of the 2 small debts. Which will still leave me $5K for emergency funds. I've check things out and believe that, by being careful a little, we could live on DH salary only and put all mine toward the debts....if everything goes good...everything should be paid in 12-14months (except for house) :cool:

Nath

I think this is a good plan! :) Good luck! :cheergrl:

I'll be watching your journey and cheering you on, you're already doing great! I'd also keep the cars and I'm one that would keep 2-3k in the EF and pay the rest onto the debt.

I'm in a situation where I feel like I'm on a marathon as our only real bill is the mortgage and it's going to be a long slow haul, we just refi'd and the first real payment starts this month.

kj

I have a different response here. Dave definitely says to only leave a $1000 in the bank and pay on debt with the rest. When we started his plan we only had $1000 in the bank. We did work up to $2000 though and felt much more comfortable with that amount.

What I would do though would be to take from your savings and pay off the small credit card and the small bank loan. Then I would take what you were paying on those loans and use that amount as extra principal payments, and get your debt snowball rolling. This will still leave a big amount in your ef and really help in getting the snowball rolling.

I would not sell the car, since it is paid for. If you could not meet your monthly obligations, that might be an option, but you seem to be doing fine, so I would not sell it.

Jennifer