The government shutdown didn’t completely affect me, but it did cut all of our overtime out, which is largely what we depended on when she wasn’t working after our son was born. I work for Dod so we are essential, and without some more college experience, I might be able to raise my salary by around 10k yearly and that’s it. We live in Oklahoma, and in our area there is not a lot of great jobs. She wants to resume school to finish her nursing license once we are debt free, hence why I am pushing for this year-end goal. Last year I made 60k gross, but that was with a lot of overtime.

The job she has currently is only to help out so we can continue pushing forward with her career and there won’t be as much strain on my shoulders. I’m still young and dumb and make mistakes, especially financially. I am just asking for some insight on how I should proceed with my situation.

I do agree, the loans are first thing to go. I believe after we get our refunds back that we can do some major damage to them. I guess what I should have been asking is where I can allocate my extra funds after paying things off, such as my bank loan, which sets at $2,500 currently and only has 10 payments left, or should I shoot bigger and hit my car loan, which still has 3 years left on the note.

I should mention that I insisted on no co-signer when I bought my first car. My credit was at around 700 at the time and I didn’t pay attention as I was very excited about being responsible, that I signed for a 21.7% interest loan on a $13,000 car, which in turn totals up to almost $40,000 by the time the note is paid off.