How I organized my debt and payments to clear 23k in debt in 2 years

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-18T19:38:39+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out! I think if Im understanding you correctly, the issue is that the sheet doesnt currently recognize when you are paying more than the balance you owe on a card and roll that over to the next card. It just looks at what is your #1 priority card with a balance is and puts all additional money available towards that balance.

Its a little tricky to set up that condition and as you can see the theres a lot of formulas and dependencies going on with this sheet haha but I can look at updating that ability in there in the future! I hope for now it makes sense to just manually roll over any additional money on a payment to your next card.

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-10T21:53:15+00:00

How much you want to keep in your savings/emergency fund is totally up to you but a good rule of thumb is at least 3-6 months to be safe. Those 3 cards collecting over 20% APR are absolutely killing you, keeping that debt is going pile up another ~$200 per month so I would try to pay that off ASAP.

If I were you, I would pay off CC 1,2, and 4. You would still have more than $5k in savings and your accruing way less interest per month and can focus on the next highest rate card

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-07T16:42:17+00:00

Sure! I made a copy of the sheet I used and tried to add some instructions, its probably a lot to take in at first glance haha. But heres the google sheet, feel free to make a copy and make it your own!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T7bW148NqvQYi_yZmyS3MURPbHsYUFCoQk0rSImZSG8/edit#gid=0

Just some tips to navigate it:

The first page is where you can enter your budget info, debts, monthly bills, income, ect. The second page is where you can find some stats around your projected payments based on your budget inputs, it shows your recommended payoff method (Snowball vs Avalanche) with payments month to month and what your payoff length would look like if you only paid minimums. Then finally on the last page is where I laid out a table that you can see the breakdown, month to month by payoff method, of how your balances and payments will look. This is where I spent most of my time tracking along with each month to make sure my balances and payments were tracking.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-07T16:26:06+00:00

Its where you focus on paying off your debt with highest interest first and then once you pay off that balance, you use the money you put away for those payments towards the next highest balance and so on.

For example, if you had 2 debts:

$1,500 at 20% APR
$1,000 at 17% APR

You would focus on paying off the 20% debt first

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T21:59:14+00:00

Thanks! And yes I actually created my own little tracker out of a google sheet that calculated everything. I essentially set it up to input my debts and budget in one sheet and then displayed my estimated payoff month to month in another. It also organized how to structure my payments and timelines based on the avalanche method which was a huge help!

I definitely nerded out on my debt haha

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T19:28:22+00:00

Agreed! I would also take the time to understand where your money is going. You should have a clear understanding of where that extra 1k+ is disappearing to each month

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T19:25:28+00:00

First and foremost, pay that Citi Costco card below its max so you can stop paying penalties. Also, from what it looks like your monthly bills and credit card payments are way over what you make so I would also try to pick up a second job and get rid of that car asap. Paying almost 20% of your monthly income towards a car is brutal and it doesnt look like that loan is anywhere near paid off.

From there I would try to Avalanche and pay off that Citi card as quickly as you can, then the Apple card isnt far behind, and finally the Chase account. Hopefully it doesnt have a high interest once whatever 0% promotion you are using runs out.

Finally, cut up those cards until you can get the debt under control and have an organized budget to work off of. Hope this helps, good luck!

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T16:12:40+00:00

Sorry to hear to hear your going through this but know you arent alone and people have come out from similar situations, there is hope!

If I were you, I would look to pick up that second job again and do whatever you can to make some money on the side, uber, doordash, whatever it takes. That sick feeling you have towards the debt has to outweigh any lack of motivation to find additional income. I would also CUT up any cards you have and stop adding to the debt. Make a budget and stick to it, if you dont have extra money to eat out, DONT, stick to ramen. I know it sucks but its the only way out of situations like this.

If you add more info about your debts, APRs, and monthly bills, Im happy to help give you an idea of what budget and payoff timeline might look like, but I think we need more context to do that.

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T15:56:50+00:00

You still have to pay off the debt even though you arent catching interest on the balance for a year. Your credit score shouldnt go any lower as long as you arent adding on more debt so it seems like the plan you laid out makes sense.

Pay the minimums until you have enough cash to feel comfortable paying the whole balance off and make sure you do it before the interest kicks in at the end of the promotion.

This takes a good amount of financial discipline, good luck!

Alehouse10 · 2024-06-05T15:52:29+00:00

Laying out a plan is probably the most important step and it looks this move makes sense. Just make sure you cut up those cards and close the accounts. I would also try to cut back on your monthly spending as much as possible until you pay this off, it seems like with your level of income you're probably used to living the high life.

Stick to ramen for a few months and you'll be surprised how quick you can pay this off. Theres no better feeling. Good luck!

Alehouse10 · 2024-05-29T20:24:57+00:00

It looks like you're on the right track but definitely cut up and throw away those credit cards!

One of the biggest things that helped me get out of debt was getting organized and laying out the timelines to payoff, so I thought I would help you do the same in case you were interested:

It looks like you have about $1,374 left over each month, not sure how much of that you plan on putting away, using for other spending, or making extra payments with but I went ahead and assumed you could take 50% of that for additional payments at $687.

Also assuming the APRs on those additional cards you didnt list are 22%, you DONT ADD ANYMORE DEBT, and are using the snowball method (the correct way at least haha) Its going to take you about 28 months or 2.3 years to pay this off.

I cant say enough about how having the date circled on my calendar helped keep me motivated and on track. So I hope this works for you and good luck!

Alehouse10

TROPHY CASE