Struggling to be debt free

Okay readers, I have put together a list of goals for myself for 2016.  Some of them are similar to last years goals, but there are quite a few new ones on this list.   1. Payoff student loan 2. Increase emergency fund to $15,000 3. Save $2,000 towards a new vehicle 4. Begin retirement contributions and save $5,500 towards retirement 6. Begin investing in mutual funds 7. Maintain a $1,000 (work) travel fund 8. Build a $1,000 car maintenance fund 9. Build a $500 home maintenance fund 10. Build a $750 medical fund 11. Build a $500 pet fund  12. Lose 30lbs!!!! 13. Read 24 books 14. Travel somewhere cool! Those are a lot of goals and I'm not sure if I am going to be able to accomplish them all. However, I know that I have accomplished a lot this year, way more than I thought possible.  I wish everyone luck in setting forth their new goals and sticking to them in 2016. 

And a Happy New Year, if I don't put up another post before then.  I had a wonderful Christmas and I hope everyone else did as well!   I do plan on getting a post with my 2016 goals and another with my 2015 year end results.  I think I did pretty well in 2015 and I can't wait for 2016! I need to start working on closing out the last pay period so I can make a payment on my student loan before the 1st of January.  The office will be pretty empty today so I will probably do some of that at work today.I only have to work 3.5 days this week so I am pretty excited about. I stayed within my Christmas budget so I am very pumped that I was able to do that AND I even have some money left over. The exact amount still needs to be determined though! Okay, I've got a few things to do before work today so I am off. 

Although I will receive one more paycheck in 2015, I think that I have put away all that I am going to save for 2015.  I have $10,006 in my emergency fund and $4,020 in my online savings account.  I'm hoping the interest rate hike will boost the interest rate on my "high yield" savings account.  Anyways, all of my extra money this month will go towards making my goal of paying $20,000 towards my student loan. Because I won't be adding anymore money to savings this year I will be able to put an extra $100 on my student loan from my December 31, 2015 paycheck.  That means I am only $154.78 short of making my goal of $20,000.  I'm hoping that I will be able to find that money through leftover Christmas spending.  But....you guys know by now that I am crazy.  I have a secret goal to get my student loan balance down into the $3,000s by the end of the year.  That would take about an extra $165 on top of what I already need to make my $20,000 goal....

Yesterday I made a payment on my student in the amount of $545.  $250 came from the travel voucher reimbursement that I just received, $260 came from my budget and $35 came from leftover money from the last budget period.  That payment dropped the balance owing down to $4,904 (with interest through 12/31)!! I achieved my newest goal of paying the student loan into the $4,000s by the end of the year.  I also accomplished my new goal of paying $19,000 on the student loan this year.  The total amount paid onto my student loan this year is $19,253.22! I have not done an updated calculation on the interest, but I will do one at the end of the year after I make my final payment for 2015.  It will likely be just over $500 interest.  I now have a new goal to pay $20,000 to the loan by the end of the year.  I have a $492 payment budgeted out of my last paycheck of the year.  That leaves me $254.78 short of my goal.  I have 15 days to find that ext...

$200 utilities $100 regular groceries $1604 Christmas Gifts, groceries, etc. $260 Student loan $33 alarm monitoring $200 spending $25 savings $100 gas A super large portion of the income is going towards Christmas.  I am hoping and fairly certain that at least a portion of that will be left over and applied to my student loan at the end of the year.  I'm not planning on doing many one on one Holiday celebrations, but there are a few parties that I am planning on attending so anything I have to bring will come out of the Christmas gift, groceries, etc. line item. There has been no mention of year end bonuses and I'm pretty sure we won't get anything.  There is a small chance that we will receive grocery gift cards or something like that.  I would prefer to have the week off between Christmas and New Year's, but no one is asking for my opinion.  However, that would require that the firm give us our 12/31 paychecks on Christmas eve and I doubt that the f...

I made a $250 payment on my student loan out of the travel voucher money that I just received.  The balance is now down to $5,442.  I'm now paid up through April of 2023.  Slow progress, but the numbers are definitely falling!

I finally received a travel voucher reimbursement check yesterday, just shy of 3 months after the travel! It is for just over $1,000 and half of it will be going back into my travel fund and half will go towards my student loan.  This will help me make my goal of $19,000 paid on my student loan by the end of the year. I still have about $400 in travel vouchers outstanding, but I'll worry about those later.  I only have one more trip scheduled for the rest of the year and that $500 should cover it (gas hotel room, etc.) With this travel voucher payment and the rest of the money I have budgeted for my student loan for the year, I should be able to get my student loan balance down into the $4,000s by the end of December!!!

I have been tracking my student loan payoff amounts (somewhat) for 2015.  The total amount owed at the end of each month is shown below. December 2014: $23,650 April 2015: $19,408 May 2015: $18,939 June 2015: $16,632 July 2015: $14,824 August 2015: $12,392 September 2015: $9,999 October 2015: $8,019 November 2015: $5,692 (with interest calculated through 12/15) As of Monday, I have paid a total of $18,458.22 to my student loan this year.  Of that amount $493.46 has gone towards interest.  I will probably pay about $500 in interest by the end of the year. My goal is pay $19,000 to the loan by the end of the year, only $541.78 left to go before December 31, 2015. When I look at my budget I'm about $50 short, but  I will figure it out.  I can't believe I'm about to pay $19,000 in one year onto my student loan, it's crazy, especially where at the beginning of the year I was still paying for dental expenses. I'm so glad that I've been able to do so much...

I just wanted to put up a quick post before I get off to work today.  I made a  payment on Monday and my student loan balance fell to $5,692!!! I am in the $5,000s.  I originally thought that by the end of December I would only get the balance down to $5,600, but by the end of November I made it!  My next payment is not due until February of 2023.  I still have another $492 budgeted for an end of December payment!! My goal, now, is to get this thing paid down into the $4,000s before the new year.  I will have to scrimp, save and cut back on Christmas, but I will do it.  If this all works out, then that will be less money that I have to pull out of savings at the end of January to pay it off.  Happy Holidays everyone!!