I made a quick projection of one scenario of what a CC debt payoff projection may look like. It assumes around $520 per month paid toward CC debt principal. It could get paid faster or slower than that, but this projection shows all CC debt paid off September 2013. That's 16 months from now.

We started getting very serious about CC debt reduction 20 months ago. That means we're on the downward slope (I hope anyway). Here's my projection:

Date CC Debt
2012 Jun $7,346
2012 Jul $6,826
2012 Aug $6,305
2012 Sep $5,783
2012 Oct $5,259
2012 Nov $4,740
2012 Dec $4,219
2013 Jan $3,695
2013 Feb $3,194
2013 Mar $2,689
2013 Apr $2,180
2013 May $1,659
2013 Jun $1,142
2013 Jul $625
2013 Aug $108
2013 Sep $-

I'm fairly certain the debt will get attacked faster than that. And, of course, each month more money goes toward principal, and less toward interest. But, I wanted to have some sort of end date in mind, without spending too much time over analyzing things.

I'm late this month (almost a month late) because I've been busy with work. But here are the numbers:

May 2012 Debt
Mort 1 $102,970
Mort 2 $69,160
CC1 $3,059
CC2 $1,925
CC3 $961
CC4 $2,408
Van Loan $5,413

Debt reduced by $1,181.

I wasn't as aggressive this month on debt repayment, mostly because I was busy with work, and couldn't spend the time figuring out what I should pay, so I winged it a bit. Our checking account shows it, too. Our end of month balance is about $1,100.

Nice to see CC3 down to triple digits, and CC2 below the 2K mark. As things quiet down at work, I can spend a bit more time allocating payments toward debt.

Hopefully I can post my June debt update in a week or so.

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring. It sure was hot over Memorial Day.

Yesterday when I updated my monthly debt progress, I upped my monthly debt retirement goal from $1,000 to $1,050.

I was thinking about how that $1,050 number was pretty much pulled out of thin air. I didn't base it on anything other than my gut feeling that it was an amount I thought I could handle without stretching myself too much. I thought I should base that figure on something real. Like, my average monthly debt retirement over the past year. I've already confessed to over-analyzing things.

So, I went through my monthly debt retirement figures over the past year. I omitted the month where I got my tax refund, and I averaged the remaining months. And it turns out I came up with $1,052. Darn close to what my gut feeling was yesterday.

Is it really a good goal to match last years debt retirement? Probably not. So, I will set a new goal. My new goal is to pay off debt at a rate of 5% more than last year's average - or $1,105 per month principal payment.

What a month was March! It seemed as if money was flowing in and out at an abnormal pace. Here are my new updated debt figures. Slowly chipping away.

April 2012 Debt
Mort 1 $103,172
Mort 2 $69,370
CC1 $3,220
CC2 $2,058
CC3 $1,151
CC4 $2,502
Van Loan $5,604

Total principal paid as compared to last month: $1,123. CC 3 is scheduled to be history in October. It's nice to see it melting down. We're also sending $190 worth of principal toward the van now.

I've decided to up my monthly payoff goal. For a year, my goal has been $1,000 per month. I've hit that most (not all) months. I'll up that 5% to $1,050 per month. I think that doable without stretching too much.

Have any of you done the True Colors/Real Colors personality sorter? It's a new twist one the Keirsey-Bates temperment sorter.

I'm a Green - the analytical type. We analyze things to death, and usually need a yellow (my DW, for instance) to take action, and actually get things finished.

My pesonality shows through on this blog, how I am always posting different personal financial calculations. Well, to ring true with my Green personality, I compared my current daily interest cost with my daily interest cost last April.

Current daily interest cost - $19.95
Daily interest cost last April - $24.46

Or, each day I'm paying 82% of the interest that I was last April. I'm such a Green.

This month, I will spend each day:

$1.55 in interest on credit card debt.

$2.21 in interest on credit card debt plus auto loan debt.

$19.95 in interest on credit card debt plus auto loan debt plus mortgage debt.

That total is now less than $20 per day! Of course $19.95 is still a wretched abomination. But, as I always say, I'm moving in the right direction.

I've been targeting CC1 - my biggest CC balance and also greatest interest rate card.

A year ago, when we owed a bunch of money, the minimum payment due was always about $100 plus interest charged for that month. As I've been making progress on it, that formula seemed to change, the minumum amount due was something less than $100 plus interest charged. In February it was just about $90 plus interest charged.

In February, through a combination of a balance transfer and a hefty payment, the balance decreasd from mid $7,000s to mis $3,000s. Now the minimum due is about $42 plus interest due.

I'll keep throwing as much money as I can toward this card. It's funny the mental games CC companies play depending on if you're paying the account slowly or quickly.

Mort 1 $103,373
Mort 2 $69,580
CC1 $3,317
CC2 $2,190
CC3 $1,340
CC4 $2,606
Van Loan $5,794

Difference as compared to last month: $3,739

BAM!

I transferred a big chunk of money ($1,290) from CC 1 to the now interest free CC4. The rest of the reduction is due to our tax refund.

This is an interesting time for me financially. We were able to pay down quite a bit of debt with our tax refund. Now that we have our CC debt somewhat tamed, I've been using more of my mental energy on our mortgage debt, unsold house, etc.

I'm guessing most of you watched M*A*S*H. When the choppers came in with wounded soldiers, Hawkeye and Margaret would triage the patients. They took the terribly worst off ones first, and the really bad ones second. That's what my finances feel like. I concentrated on the high interest credit card debt first because it was killing us, and left the really bad mortgage debt for later. I feel as if it's later now, and we need to start addressing the mortgage debt, even ahead of the CC debt now.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but we have renters living in our house #1 now. They are interested in buying the house, so we agreed to rent to them for one year, take the houde off the market, and revisit in July.

Wheter or not they are the purchasers, we have to unload that house this summer.

So, I'm going to start hoarding cash ahead of paying off CC debt, so we can be in a better position to close on the house when the time comes. I'll still pay more than minimum payments, but not as much as the past 16 months.

I hope this is the right decision. If not, I'm sure someone will let me know.

I applied for and was approved for a new credit card about a month ago. The money I had transferred over is transfered now. It's at a 0.0% APR through Jan. 2013. All is well.

I received notification via email that my new Feb. bill was posted. To my mild surprise, they have charged me approximately 3.5% of my balance - $94 on a $2,700 balance.

I'll pay it - no problem there at all. It's just a bit surprising to have an actual legitimate amount to pay on a brand new credit card. I was expecting $30, or $50 or $60 max.

Our Federal income tax refund was direct deposited into our checking account last night. What a great surprise today!

The refund was $3,434. I held back $600 for our basement windows project, and $750 for our final heating fuel fill up. The $2,084 balance was transferred to CC1.

Wow is that great!

I paid off twice our monthly debt retirement amount in one fell swoop.

I feel as if I'm in a financial holding pattern.

DW checked the status of our federal refund last night. It's estimated that we will receive our refund on February 14. Plenty of time to pay our bills before the end of the month, but I want it NOW nonetheless.

Also, as I've mentioned previously, I opened a new CC for balance transfers. I transferred all of CC4 and part of CC 1. The transactions still haven't shown up. The new card stated that it could take up to two weeks for the tranfers to complete. This Friday will be two weeks for the transfer of CC4, and next Monday (I think) will be two weeks for the partial transfer of CC1.

Total credit line on new CC is $9K. I transferred $2,700 total from the two cards. That way I'm utilizing 30% of the new CC, which I've heard helps your utilization ratio for your credit rating.

Also on hold is the total state and federal refund because of someone else claiming DS1, and the adoption credit.

So, we wait. Good things will happen.

Our state of Michigan income tax refund was direct deposited into our account today. $603.

DW and I have different opinions as to what to do with it. I, of course, want to put it all toward debt immediately. She wants new basement windows. We do, of course, need new basement windows. They'll keep water (and cats) out of the basement, and help to some extent keep the house warmer.

My sense is to wait, her sense is to fix them now.

We'll be getting our federal refund shortly, and the money will be enough to get new windows, and take a sizeable chunk out of the debt balance.

Mort 1 - $103,572
Mort 2 - $69,790
CC 1 - $7,335
CC2 - $2,322
CC3 - $1,526
CC4 - $1,410
Van Loan - $5,984

Difference as compared to a month ago: $1,322!

Some changes to note: we finally began making some progress in paying family members on Mort 2. $210 per month. Not an incredible whole lot, but one drip at a time.

Also, I transferred the balance of CC4 to a brand new credit card. 0.0% introductory APR for 12 months, and no balance transfer fees. I don't really like that I'm playing the balance transfer game. Obviously, at some point I'm going to have to buck up and pay it off. But, I do like the idea of concentrating efforts on the behemouth CC 1, which has an APR of 8.9%.

Back to the real highlight of this post - we have $1,322 less in debt that we did a month ago. That's about 10% of our total credit card debt. Gone!

Still lots and lots of progress to be made, but things are getting better - a lot better than they were fifteen months ago.

We ended up filing our taxes as if DS 1 didn't exist. We'll now wait for the refund checks and the new birth certificate before we pursue the rest of our refund/adoption credit with IRS.

I just checked my checking account balance. It's +$900. Not bad for the end of the month. Actually, it's pretty darn great. We still have our van payment to make before the end of the month, and we still owe $300 on our heating fuel. So, we'll end the month about $400 to the positive. That cash will go toward CC4.

If we get our reduced income tax refunds (state and fed) in the next two or three weeks, the opressive CC4 balance will be history.

That, my friends will be cause for a (no cost) celebration! Then I will start with much vim and vigor to tackle CC1.

I did some figuring on the credit card balance that I transferred today. That would be CC4 with the $1416 balance. As long as I pay the balance off by this April, I will be about $60 ahead, compared to not doing the balance transfer.

One way to look at that is - sixty bucks is sixty bucks - the balance transfer was a good thing. Another way to look at it is - Was the hassle worth it to save sixty bucks, or about $6.66 per month over the nine months? My final verdict is that the hassle was worth it. It wasn't really much of a hassle anyway.

Sixty dollars of avoided interest is sixty dollars that went somewhere else. Ultimately it has decreased our total debt load. But, I would feel more victorious if the number were a bit bigger.

The only factor I'm not totally sure about is affect on credit score. I've heard that the credit inquiry associated with opening a new CC dings your FICO score about five points. I also know that having a credit card with a low utilization ratio improves your score. This is a $5,000 limit card, and less than 30% of it is utilized. I hope that the utilization factor has improved my score by more than the 5 point ding. I'll go with that assumption, anyway. So, that coupled with the $60 savings (again, as long as I get it paid off by April), it was a good decision.

In one of my very early blog posts (last April)I described different "personalities" that I envisioned each of my credit cards having.

I described CC4 as a sort of an imp or a gremlin. He is green with a sinister smile and razor sharp teeth. He jumps around a lot and chews stuff up and just plain creates a mess of things.

Since that original post, I have transferred the balance to a new credit card. It has had a 0.0% interest rate, that will baloon to 20.99% in February. The balance is now 50% of what it was in April. So, now I envision the same little gremlin, only I've knocked out about half its teeth. But, it's regaining strength, and is becoming ready to reign more terror on my finances.

I described CC2 as a slow moving giant with a big club. He kind of swings that club around a lot and crushes my finances.

Something signifiant has happened to that card since April - the interest rate dropped from 12.9 to 8.9%. The balance is 87% of what it was in April. So the "giant" (principal potion) is nearly as big as it was 9 months ago, but the club (interest portion) has decreased in size and damage causing potential quite a bit. But, it's still a pretty big club!

In April I wrote that CC's 2 and 3 have lower interest rates - in the 5% range, They are like two overgrown, clumsy kids, kind of tripping on things an knocking stuff over, but creating spills that I can tend to. I'd just rather be doing other things with my time (or money) so to speak.

Nothing has changed on the interest side. CC 3 demands a higher monthly payment, so the principal has dropped accordingly by 49%. So it's more of a toddler now, rather than a clumsy overgrown kid.

Here's my beginning of the year debt update:

Mort 1 - $103,771
Mort 2 - $70,000
CC 1 - $7,731
CC2 - $2,453
CC3 - $1,716
CC4 - $1,416
Van Loan - $6,174

Total principal paid as compared to one month ago: $936

That's short of my $1,000 monthly goal. Well, $64 short to be exact. But, I've already written about our holiday spending, so not too bad.

I will continue to concentrate on CC4. That's the one that was transferred to a 0.0% for 6 months card. February will be the final interest free month. Then it shhots up to 20.99%. We'll pay it off when we get our tax refund, but until then, interest will accumulate mightily.

I'll begin my first blog post by summarizing a recent post I made in the forums.

Debt is Nov. 2010

Mort. 1 - $106,600 $988/mo. 6.25%
Mort. 2 - $70,000 0/mo. 0.00%
CC 1 - $9,376 195/mo. 12.90%
CC 2 - $3,530 $150/mo. 16.99%
CC 3 - $4,330 $140/mo. 5.25%
CC 4 - $1,090 $310/mo. 5.78%
CC 5 - $4,255 $225/mo. 5.32%

Current Debt
Mort. 1 - $105,500 $738/mo. 6.25%
Mort. 2 - $70,000 0/mo. 0.00%
CC 1 - $8,934 $183/mo. 12.90%
CC 2 - $2,848 $68.50/mo. 16.99%
CC 3 - $3,862 $140/mo. 5.25%
CC 4 - Paid in Full
CC 5 - $3,336 $195/mo. 5.32%
Van Loan - $7,894 $210/mo. 4.02%

Debt to Asset Ratio - 77.6% (or I owe creditors more than 3/4ths of the value of my total assets)

Non-Mortgage Debt Payment to After Tax Income Ratio - 18.1% (or nearly 1 out of 5 of my after tax income dollars go toward paying off credit cards and a vehicle)

Total Debt Payment to After Tax Income Ratio - 33.5% (or just a smidge more than 1 out of 3 of my after tax income dollars go toward paying off all debt)

The house that mortgage #1 is held against is for sale. We no longer live in it. It is rented out for $725/mo. It is more than 200 miles away from where we live now.

The house that mortgage #2 is held against is where we live. It is my family's original farmstead. We borrowed money from a couple of family members, and we'll need to repay it after house #1 sells.

And then there's the credit card debt. Nearly $19,0000 worth. We're working away at knocking that out. And the van loan.

Well, this is a start. Nothing in the way of new info that I haven't already included in the forums up to now, but if I keep up with this blog, I'll try to not only keep track of where I'm going, but how we got here in the first place.