Y'all I didn't realized it's been a year since my last debt free journey update! Last time I did an update we were still working on paying off a personal loan, I feel like that was another lifetime!
We definitely did finish paying off the personal loan which freed up $320 per month! It was our largest payment and such a relief to have out of our lives! We've also paid off Josh's Ford Explorer which was $310 per month making it our second largest payment! We paid the Explorer off on valentines day this year. We took the next few months to save up for upcoming events. Josh was in a wedding and I went to Bookcon in NYC, both were the same weekend. We also went home in May for a friends wedding which wasn't too expensive but we did need a hotel and to board the dogs.
We've recently starting chipping away at my Discover student loan. It's payment is $126 per month at 9.3% interest! Ugh. As of right now we owe $6,932 on it (when we started pay off Josh's car, they were about equal in amount due, we chose to pay off the car because of the monthly payment). While we've been saving for other stuff, we've still managed to throw about $600 extra on to this loan in April and May. We're hoping to have it totally paid off by the time I start school in August. However, we have to save for when my Mom comes to visit (we're going to Niagara Falls and Toronto), and I have to pay for some of my school fees and books. So, it may take us until September or October - it really just depends on how much I make at work this summer. I thought about getting a summer job at a seasonal restaurant, but Josh is deploying later this year, so I want to spend time with him. Some things are more important than paying off debt.
After this student loan is done, we just have the giant behemoth student loan. The payment on that one is $225 per month at 11% interest (thanks, Navient). We currently owe $19,405 on it and I don't think it will go down much before we get to it. Only about $40 of that monthly payment goes towards principal (original payoff date is January 2043!!!). I hate this freaking loan so much.
We're hoping to be debt free by the time Josh comes home from deployment, but I have a HEAVY course-load (6 classes) for the fall semester, so I'll only be working 3 days per week from September to December. So we may not be debt free until the fall, which I'm coming to terms with. Either way, 2020 is the year we will be debt free! We're super excited and can't wait to start saving for our future.
Once we finish paying off our debt, we plan to save a 6 month emergency fund which will be $10,000. Our monthly expenses come to a little below that, but we want an even number. That shouldn't take more than a few months to save (especially if Josh gets promoted and if I get a Paralegal job when I get out of school). After that, we plan to open two Roth IRA's and pay 15% of our income to them monthly. We don't plan to use Josh's TSP while he's in the Army because he's getting out at the beginning of 2022 and we don't want to have to deal with rollovers. Plus, with our current income the Roth's are perfect.
We also plan to start saving for both new (to us) cars and a house. Once Josh is out of the Army, he will be using his GI bill to finish school (he's taking classes now). While he's in school, we plan to rent until we're sure of where we'll be living and what his income will be. We have plenty of time to save for a house, so we want to take advantage of that time. Both of our cars are in the 130-150,000 mile range so we know we'll need new cars in the semi-near-ish future. We plan to pay cash for any future cars, so we'll start saving ASAP.
I'm so ready to actually have money again and use it to prepare for our future rather than pay for our past! Hopefully I'll do a better job of keeping y'all updated on our progress, but if not you know I'll be posting once we're debt free!
