[Debt Beatdown] Annual Financial Review
Current Student Loan Debt: $44, 094.
Happy Holidays! It’s been just over two weeks since the last Debt Beatdown report and I’m sure you’re anxious to know how things have progressed. In my last report, I shared some of the challenges of living a systematic lifestyle during the holiday season. I’m happy to say that we made it through and I learned a lot along the way about family and compromise.
As of December 5, I finished the pre-work for DB and officially started the 12-month countdown. Yay! So what have I been doing since then? Reviewing, planning and writing.
Reviewing
To accompany my annual review, I decided to do a financial review for 2011. If you didn’t get a chance to read my annual review, check it out. I honestly had a fantastic year, financially and otherwise. Still, there’s always room for improvement. Financially, here’s what went well and what didn’t. Continue Reading →
[Debt Beatdown] Holiday Thoughts
It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote an update on my goal to pay off 45K in one year. In my last article, I wrote about downsizing and other pre-work that had to be done. It was a busy period. These last 2 1/2 weeks have been less busy, yet more challenging, mostly on an emotional and mental level. Simply put, the holidays are a difficult time to cut back. Continue Reading →
[Debt Beatdown] Moved, Sold and Eliminated
Dear Reader: Since this is a holiday week I’m going to flip the script a bit. Instead of three articles this week, there will be two. One today and one on Wednesday. Also, I normally post my Debt Beatdown Report on Fridays, but since this week is Thanksgiving & Black Friday, I’m posting my progress on Monday (today). Enjoy!
Whew! It’s been an exhausting month. I have officially finished the pre-work I had to do before kickstarting the debt beatdown adventure. There were three areas that I needed to handle: lower my housing costs, automate expenses, and sell anything I didn’t need. Here’s how it went: Continue Reading →
[Debt Beatdown] Downsizing, Budgeting…and Skydiving?
Two weeks ago I wrote about a new adventure: Paying off the 45K I own in student loans within one year. My promise was to report back every two weeks to give you an update on my progress. This is the first report and it covers the changes and preparations I’ve made over the past two weeks.
There have been a lot of changes over the past two weeks–all of them good. Continue Reading →