I Am In Debt
And I think that's a good place to start if I'm starting a blog about debt.
Though I would like to promise that this experience will be inspiring for all of us, what I want/need most in this moment of indebtedness is accountability. I have a lot of debt to clear, and I've made considerable progress from where I was even a year ago. I spent 2017 thinking almost exclusively of debt, strategies to get out of debt, and even, investment strategies. (I don't think that putting all of my money towards debt is a good strategy when I'm still rather young and compound interest would work in my favor should I open a retirement account somewhere.)
I hesitate to even put the numbers down. This is a lot of money.
Ahhhhhhh
(deep breath)
Here we go. This is what I owe. The list is ordered by priority.
1. Current Credit Card (Bank of America Mastercard) = $1,214.85
2. CareCredit* = $2,000
3. ConServe Debt Collection** = $1,381.90
4. American Express Credit Card*** = $3,650
5. Loan from parents = $1,300
6. Fedloan = $134,506.46
What I have in Savings and other accounts.
1. Bank of America Savings = $1,214.85
2. Acorns Micro-investing = $166.77
*The CareCredit debt was taken out last December to cover a root canal and a couple of crowns. I do not have dental insurance, health insurance yes, dental no, and I hadn't been able to afford a visit to the dentist for several years. When I finally got myself in there, they found that an old filling had cracked and the tooth beneath was rotting. A tooth adjacent to that tragedy had a cavity. So. Go to the dentist often is what I got out of that experience. My teeth look great now. The crowns are pretty.
**This was initially an institutional loan from my undergraduate university. I took it out to go on a study abroad. I loved the experience, and I would absolutely recommend that students study abroad and learn a new language. (I speak French now, yay.) HOWEVER I recommend that you avoid "study abroad programs" like the plague. Once I got to France, I realized that I could have applied to that university directly as a foreign student. I would have had much more flexibility and choice regarding classes available to me, and I would have been better immersed in the French student life. And I would have spent 600 Euros for the year instead of $1600 + food and travel.
***The bulk of these charges were made on regular living expenses, mostly food, groceries, metrocard (I live in New York City) while I was completing an internship with a large book publisher. I was really confident that I would find a job in publishing immediately after the experience. I did not. After struggling to pay the minimum every month on the card, I went for a string of months where I didn't pay anything at all. AMEX cancelled the card. I found a job shortly after my card was cancelled and I talked to a rep about a payment plan that would put me back in good standing with the company. I would like to have this card back one day.
Because the above is so bleak, I feel like I need to contextualize those numbers a little bit. There has been considerable progress.
In 2017 I paid down
1. $1,560 towards ConServe debt.
2. $2,769 to American Express.
At the beginning of 2017 I had nothing in savings. That has changed! I started the Acorns account January 2018 and I'm already closing in on $200.
2017 also saw some unexpected expenses that set me back a bit. One was the root canal. Another was my sister's wedding, which I flew back for in February. Both of those things are things that I gladly took debt on for and now I just need to be really dedicated about paying them off as soon as possible.
And that said, I would like to have much more to show for 2018 this time next year, so for the record,
#GOALS
1. Pay off CareCredit
2. Pay off ConServe
3. Pay off American Express
4. Pay back parents by Christmas
5. Pay off at least the two smallest student loans with the Feds, $690 and $882 respectively.
6. Have three months worth of living expenses set aside in savings = $6,840
7. Have $3000 in a Vanguard target retirement account.
8. Have $1000 in my Acorns portfolio.
This is much more ambitious than I have been in the past but holy fuck I am so tired of watching $$$ disappear to Conserve and Credit Card debt. Seriously. Let's get this over with.
I'll be posting as I find new strategies to pay off debt more quickly, and I'll be back the 1st and 15th of every month to account for progress made. Let's do this.
Though I would like to promise that this experience will be inspiring for all of us, what I want/need most in this moment of indebtedness is accountability. I have a lot of debt to clear, and I've made considerable progress from where I was even a year ago. I spent 2017 thinking almost exclusively of debt, strategies to get out of debt, and even, investment strategies. (I don't think that putting all of my money towards debt is a good strategy when I'm still rather young and compound interest would work in my favor should I open a retirement account somewhere.)
I hesitate to even put the numbers down. This is a lot of money.
Ahhhhhhh
(deep breath)
Here we go. This is what I owe. The list is ordered by priority.
1. Current Credit Card (Bank of America Mastercard) = $1,214.85
2. CareCredit* = $2,000
3. ConServe Debt Collection** = $1,381.90
4. American Express Credit Card*** = $3,650
5. Loan from parents = $1,300
6. Fedloan = $134,506.46
What I have in Savings and other accounts.
1. Bank of America Savings = $1,214.85
2. Acorns Micro-investing = $166.77
*The CareCredit debt was taken out last December to cover a root canal and a couple of crowns. I do not have dental insurance, health insurance yes, dental no, and I hadn't been able to afford a visit to the dentist for several years. When I finally got myself in there, they found that an old filling had cracked and the tooth beneath was rotting. A tooth adjacent to that tragedy had a cavity. So. Go to the dentist often is what I got out of that experience. My teeth look great now. The crowns are pretty.
**This was initially an institutional loan from my undergraduate university. I took it out to go on a study abroad. I loved the experience, and I would absolutely recommend that students study abroad and learn a new language. (I speak French now, yay.) HOWEVER I recommend that you avoid "study abroad programs" like the plague. Once I got to France, I realized that I could have applied to that university directly as a foreign student. I would have had much more flexibility and choice regarding classes available to me, and I would have been better immersed in the French student life. And I would have spent 600 Euros for the year instead of $1600 + food and travel.
***The bulk of these charges were made on regular living expenses, mostly food, groceries, metrocard (I live in New York City) while I was completing an internship with a large book publisher. I was really confident that I would find a job in publishing immediately after the experience. I did not. After struggling to pay the minimum every month on the card, I went for a string of months where I didn't pay anything at all. AMEX cancelled the card. I found a job shortly after my card was cancelled and I talked to a rep about a payment plan that would put me back in good standing with the company. I would like to have this card back one day.
Because the above is so bleak, I feel like I need to contextualize those numbers a little bit. There has been considerable progress.
In 2017 I paid down
1. $1,560 towards ConServe debt.
2. $2,769 to American Express.
At the beginning of 2017 I had nothing in savings. That has changed! I started the Acorns account January 2018 and I'm already closing in on $200.
2017 also saw some unexpected expenses that set me back a bit. One was the root canal. Another was my sister's wedding, which I flew back for in February. Both of those things are things that I gladly took debt on for and now I just need to be really dedicated about paying them off as soon as possible.
And that said, I would like to have much more to show for 2018 this time next year, so for the record,
#GOALS
1. Pay off CareCredit
2. Pay off ConServe
3. Pay off American Express
4. Pay back parents by Christmas
5. Pay off at least the two smallest student loans with the Feds, $690 and $882 respectively.
6. Have three months worth of living expenses set aside in savings = $6,840
7. Have $3000 in a Vanguard target retirement account.
8. Have $1000 in my Acorns portfolio.
This is much more ambitious than I have been in the past but holy fuck I am so tired of watching $$$ disappear to Conserve and Credit Card debt. Seriously. Let's get this over with.
I'll be posting as I find new strategies to pay off debt more quickly, and I'll be back the 1st and 15th of every month to account for progress made. Let's do this.
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