Debt Dumpers 2024

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Thanks. I bought the car 18 months ago, and it had 11k miles on it (it's a 2016 Fusion). They told me when I bought it that they had just put brand new tires on it. That was 20k miles ago as I'm not up to 32k. When I took it in, the gentleman helping me looked at them and said the type tires that were put on were the type they use on EVs and only get about 20k-30k miles. Not sure why they'd put such a soft tire that only gets 20k miles on a car when you buy it used, but I don't have a choice.

Now we turn our focus to my wife's car and a couple of issues. She's got an oil leak, we believe, plus she's going to need new tires soon. So that'll be coming in the next couple of weeks. Will probably have to go get a loan for those 2 things as these tires wiped our day to day account out. So it's going to be even more tight for the next 2-3 weeks until our mid-May checks. We're going to try and stretch it until then to get the 2 things done to her car.

Tires wear out between 40k-60k miles if you take good care of them, electric vehicles get slightly less due to the weight of the vehicle. Note how many miles you have now, and when you’ve added 30k more miles, start preparing to have to replace them soonish. Hopefully by that point you are in a better spot financially and can start sucking away money so that you don’t have to pull from your emergency fund when you get told you need new ones. I’m doing the same for myself because I know it is coming one of these days.

 

[focusondisney]

they weren't in stock. We said what we were looking for which is really no bells and whistles, just ones that wash and dry our clothes. We ended up with commercial washer and dryer. Can't wait for them to arrive!

Are they Maytag by any chance? We just had to get a new washer last week, the transmission on our old one went, was gonna cost $800+ to repair. Ours was 10 years old, apparently that’s the outside timeframe for most washers now. I wanted a basic top load that I could select the water levels. Which apparently isn’t really an option on most washers anymore. We went in wanting a Whirlpool but ended up with a Maytag Commercial model on the suggestion of the store manager, it has 4 different water levels plus an auto sensing setting. I never heard of commercial models for home use before. It was delivered last Friday & so far I love it. Good luck with yours!

 

[dpswift]

Thanks. I bought the car 18 months ago, and it had 11k miles on it (it's a 2016 Fusion). They told me when I bought it that they had just put brand new tires on it. That was 20k miles ago as I'm not up to 32k. When I took it in, the gentleman helping me looked at them and said the type tires that were put on were the type they use on EVs and only get about 20k-30k miles. Not sure why they'd put such a soft tire that only gets 20k miles on a car when you buy it used, but I don't have a choice.

Now we turn our focus to my wife's car and a couple of issues. She's got an oil leak, we believe, plus she's going to need new tires soon. So that'll be coming in the next couple of weeks. Will probably have to go get a loan for those 2 things as these tires wiped our day to day account out. So it's going to be even more tight for the next 2-3 weeks until our mid-May checks. We're going to try and stretch it until then to get the 2 things done to her car.

Thank you for the update.keep working on your budget and get creative with food. Jump back over to the eat at home thread for inspiration.

If someone gives you advice that you don’t like simply move on. You don’t need to give explanations. I am happy that you are posting again

 

[Nettlelondon]

Thanks. I bought the car 18 months ago, and it had 11k miles on it (it's a 2016 Fusion). They told me when I bought it that they had just put brand new tires on it. That was 20k miles ago as I'm not up to 32k. When I took it in, the gentleman helping me looked at them and said the type tires that were put on were the type they use on EVs and only get about 20k-30k miles. Not sure why they'd put such a soft tire that only gets 20k miles on a car when you buy it used, but I don't have a choice.

Now we turn our focus to my wife's car and a couple of issues. She's got an oil leak, we believe, plus she's going to need new tires soon. So that'll be coming in the next couple of weeks. Will probably have to go get a loan for those 2 things as these tires wiped our day to day account out. So it's going to be even more tight for the next 2-3 weeks until our mid-May checks. We're going to try and stretch it until then to get the 2 things done to her car.

If you do need to get a loan at least you have got the next week or two to look for options and will hopefully be able to avoid really horrid interest rates.

Keep plugging away and try not to get disheartened. It will get better.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

Are they Maytag by any chance? We just had to get a new washer last week, the transmission on our old one went, was gonna cost $800+ to repair. Ours was 10 years old, apparently that’s the outside timeframe for most washers now. I wanted a basic top load that I could select the water levels. Which apparently isn’t really an option on most washers anymore. We went in wanting a Whirlpool but ended up with a Maytag Commercial model on the suggestion of the store manager, it has 4 different water levels plus an auto sensing setting. I never heard of commercial models for home use before. It was delivered last Friday & so far I love it. Good luck with yours!

Yes! It is the Maytag Commercial model and I am really excited for it! I have to go out of town the day it is delivered and I am sad I can't do the first round of laundry in them haha. It is really hard to find a basic top loader that doesn't do all sorts of crazy things. If you ask most people, they only use about 3-4 features so I would rather just get a basic washer/dryer that has the 3-4 features we use!

 

[focusondisney]

Yes! It is the Maytag Commercial model and I am really excited for it!

I hope you love it too!

 

[princesscinderella]

Thanks. I bought the car 18 months ago, and it had 11k miles on it (it's a 2016 Fusion). They told me when I bought it that they had just put brand new tires on it. That was 20k miles ago as I'm not up to 32k. When I took it in, the gentleman helping me looked at them and said the type tires that were put on were the type they use on EVs and only get about 20k-30k miles. Not sure why they'd put such a soft tire that only gets 20k miles on a car when you buy it used, but I don't have a choice.

Now we turn our focus to my wife's car and a couple of issues. She's got an oil leak, we believe, plus she's going to need new tires soon. So that'll be coming in the next couple of weeks. Will probably have to go get a loan for those 2 things as these tires wiped our day to day account out. So it's going to be even more tight for the next 2-3 weeks until our mid-May checks. We're going to try and stretch it until then to get the 2 things done to her car.

I went through two sets of tires in two years on my mini van one were coopers and the other were Kumho which the dealership said were good tires. I was so upset that I had to buy them every year but they were crazy bald I think from cheaper rubber on hot highways. I got top of the line Michelin tires with the thickest tread and have gotten two years out of them and they were only $200 more for the set than the other two cheaper brands. Make sure you get the best as they definitely are not making good rubber on the cheaper tires anymore especially if you live in a warm climate where the pavement gets crazy hot.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

In not all cases, but in many, it is debatable about what exactly is “needed” to live.
We all have different comfort levels and perceptions.

"Needs" are pretty simple. Food, shelter, transportation to work to pay for these things and so on. It amazes me how many people think things like restaurant meals or a vacation are a "need".

I don’t think someone who is putting extra towards their mortgage meets the definition of living paycheck to paycheck. Someone who lives pay to pay has no extra money and no savings.

When I was speaking with my bank, I got told that if I didn't do that I could expect my payments to double at renewal time. If that happens, I lose my house. So now I work extra jobs to try and make sure I'm covering the extra interest. I don't have time or money to have any fun. My life is currently consisting of work, sleep, and maybe a bit of reading if I'm lucky. If I were to lose my job tomorrow, I'd be living in my car in less than 3 months. That, in my opinion, qualifies.

I'm aware that some people aren't even that well off, don't have the ability to earn extra, etc. I don't consider that pay to pay, I consider it "in trouble".

 

[AJollyHoliday]

When I was speaking with my bank, I got told that if I didn't do that I could expect my payments to double at renewal time. If that happens, I lose my house. So now I work extra jobs to try and make sure I'm covering the extra interest. I don't have time or money to have any fun. My life is currently consisting of work, sleep, and maybe a bit of reading if I'm lucky. If I were to lose my job tomorrow, I'd be living in my car in less than 3 months. That, in my opinion, qualifies.

I'm aware that some people aren't even that well off, don't have the ability to earn extra, etc. I don't consider that pay to pay, I consider it "in trouble".

What do you mean by "renewal time"? Do you have an adjustable rate mortgage?

 

[goofytinkerbell]

To me, living check to check would mean that if you didn’t receive the next check (for whatever reason) then some bills would not be able to be paid.

THIS! People are saying that just because you had an extra couple bucks means you're not pay to pay, but If I missed a pay I couldn't pay the regular bills. And there's always some disaster that wipes out anything I might've been able to keep.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

What do you mean by "renewal time"? Do you have an adjustable rate mortgage?

Canada does things differently than the US
When we buy a house, we lock in an interest rate for the term. The term can be anywhere between 2/3 years and 7, though the options seem to change somewhat depending on the bank and their mood. So you take out a 20 year mortgage, and then you lock yourself into either a variable or fixed rate for a number of years. Say it's 5. At the end of the 5 years you go back in and do it all over again, with a new interest rate. Maybe this time it's 4 years and the interest rate is 3% higher. If you were on a fixed rate and the interest rates in general skyrocketed during your term, your payments will hike above your new negotiated rate to cover the bank's "loss".

For the record, that's where I'm at. Interest rates spiked during my term, and if I don't cover the extra interest that I didn't pay during the term then my payments will go way up. They're already going to be higher because the interest rate is up, but then they'll tack on extra. By working extra now and trying to pay that down, I can control how it gets paid. If I don't, I'm stuck with higher rates for the next term, and my employment situation is already volatile.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

Canada does things differently than the US
When we buy a house, we lock in an interest rate for the term. The term can be anywhere between 2/3 years and 7, though the options seem to change somewhat depending on the bank and their mood. So you take out a 20 year mortgage, and then you lock yourself into either a variable or fixed rate for a number of years. Say it's 5. At the end of the 5 years you go back in and do it all over again, with a new interest rate. Maybe this time it's 4 years and the interest rate is 3% higher. If you were on a fixed rate and the interest rates in general skyrocketed during your term, your payments will hike above your new negotiated rate to cover the bank's "loss".

For the record, that's where I'm at. Interest rates spiked during my term, and if I don't cover the extra interest that I didn't pay during the term then my payments will go way up. They're already going to be higher because the interest rate is up, but then they'll tack on extra. By working extra now and trying to pay that down, I can control how it gets paid. If I don't, I'm stuck with higher rates for the next term, and my employment situation is already volatile.

My gosh! That is very stressful! I am sorry that you are going through that and it makes me grateful for my US mortgage.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

This is all since the last time I posted., and the totals are with my updates included.

Financials:
1. Put an extra $2000 on my mortgage. $950/$2000
Couldn't do it, too many bils

2. Put $2000 in savings to help pay for yearly bills (comes out in November). $895/$2000
+$115
I don't think I'm going to make the goal, but I'm trying to side hustle a bit more. People don't have the extra money to pay me to do things, so it's not going well. I HAVE to have that money together for bills that come due once per year, so I'm going to have to figure that out soon.

I also earned an extra $50 since the last update, which immediately went to the above, plus $50 in gift cards with took a bit of pressure off the hiked fuel prices.

Other:
1. Clean out 500 items of junk. 149/500
+13
2. Make an "in case of death" folder (containing will, important info). 1/1 DONE
3. Get 60 minutes of exercise per week. 16/52
+3. Almost missed a couple weeks because of extra working
4. Read at least 1 non fiction book related to professional development. DONE
Had to read for work:
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
As an aside, do NOT recommend
5. Do 12 hours of skills development (example, take a course). 15/12 DONE
Working on an online course. +2.5hrs. Technically done the goal, but not done the course
6. Find a new job! (carryover from previous year). 0/1
-Checked job sites, applied for 5 jobs.
-Talked to 2 contacts about possibilities, but nobody seems to be hiring
7. Finish some of the partially done craft projects I have (carryover from previous year). 1/2
-Nothing since last update
8. Organize my "stuff". 3/10
-Nothing since last update
9. Do at least 1 home improvement project. 1/1 DONE

My office gave everyone "pay increases", which should have been done 6 months ago. No back pay, and the increase is less than half the official inflation rate for last year for this area. I guess I should be thankful, since I survived 2 rounds of layoffs, but things are getting pretty ugly.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

My gosh! That is very stressful! I am sorry that you are going through that and it makes me grateful for my US mortgage.

You guys have it worse in some ways and better in others If I were more financially stable it probably wouldn't be so bad, but it is what it is... I'm trying to make the best of it, and do what I can to survive.

I didn't expect to be eating so many noodles at this stage of my life

 

[RJPoste]

Though, I've been a member on the site a long time, I never really had the time to spend on the Forums. WOW! I never thought about a thread like this and think it is great!

We are lucky enough to have climbed out of debt. There are so many strategies (they aren't "tricks". Tricks are for magicians. Good planning and work, sometimes hard work, hopefully can make things better.) listed above already. The thing that helped me most and still helps me to not slip is tracking. This goes for both my finances and my health.

 

[barkley]

Canada does things differently than the US
When we buy a house, we lock in an interest rate for the term. The term can be anywhere between 2/3 years and 7, though the options seem to change somewhat depending on the bank and their mood. So you take out a 20 year mortgage, and then you lock yourself into either a variable or fixed rate for a number of years. Say it's 5. At the end of the 5 years you go back in and do it all over again, with a new interest rate. Maybe this time it's 4 years and the interest rate is 3% higher. If you were on a fixed rate and the interest rates in general skyrocketed during your term, your payments will hike above your new negotiated rate to cover the bank's "loss".

For the record, that's where I'm at. Interest rates spiked during my term, and if I don't cover the extra interest that I didn't pay during the term then my payments will go way up. They're already going to be higher because the interest rate is up, but then they'll tack on extra. By working extra now and trying to pay that down, I can control how it gets paid. If I don't, I'm stuck with higher rates for the next term, and my employment situation is already volatile.

just curious. so is there an 'average' length of time canadians have as a (for lack of a better word-) mindset for paying off a home? here in the u.s. the old 30 year mortgages seem to have set the point-people might take longer b/c of refinancing and thereby resetting to a new 30 year period or opting for a shorter 20 or 15 but in general it seems the goal for most.

 

[pblack]

Mid-April just Financial update

2024 Financial Goals:

• Add at least $2000 to my main emergency savings on top of my auto contributions - added $100 today. 100/2000
• Increase my contributions to my other savings goals by at least $25/each pay period - Increased each of my "extra" savings goals by $25 last pay check. This will now be an ongoing increase. Complete.
• Look into a living will/trust (We have friends that keep telling us to do this and with everything going on in my life at the moment, I feel like I should actually look into this more.) - My dad will be signing paperwork within the next few weeks. As long as my brother pays half like he said he would, i'm looking at about $850 or so out of my pocket. So almost complete for my dad's stuff (which was more pressing for me), but nothing on the personal front yet.
• **Adding a new goal** Get our home equity loan down to $20k (currently at ~$26.5k) - This one may be a bit of a stretch, but I've decided to try and focus on throwing extra money at this to pay it down quicker. I've been throwing at least $10 extra at it with my normal payments, this last month I threw an extra $25 at it. I'm not planning to aggressively pay this one down, but I would like to pay it off sooner rather than later hence the focus on it.

My husbands paychecks fell at weird times (for me) this month and he has a 3 paycheck month next month. I'm hoping to use his extra check next month to fund our travel plans. I need to pay off the remaining balance of our September cruise by the beginning of June. I joined AARP (not just for 'old' people!) a couple months ago for like $8 for the year (they were running a promo) in order to buy discounted Carnival cruise gift cards. My plan is to buy the discounted gift cards in order to pay off the remainder of our cruise balance. This will save me $250. The Carnival gift cards are 10% off so the $500 gift card is only $450 with membership. I just purchased 1 gift card to use for our sail n sign card for our cruise next month.

We FINALLY have a good weather weekend this weekend in my part of CA. My plan is to finish up the backyard project we've been trying to complete since the end of last year. All we really need to do is buy more white rock to fill in a couple areas. I've also been cleaning up our backyard (pressure washing/cleaning off cushions/etc) for summer prep.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

 

[Nettlelondon]

I don't know about in Canada but in the UK mortgages used to be for 25 years, with rates fixed for a variety of terms. Our first mortgage was fixed for the lifetime but that was because we got it from the bank my husband worked for at the time and one of the employee benefits was a low rate mortgage (made it very difficult for people to leave). Fix periods tend to be 2, 3 or 5 years. At the end of that period you revert to the Standard Variable Rate or you find a new fix, either with the same lender or with another.

Depending on what has happened to interest rates in between times this can either lead to a reduction in the rate or, as is happening at the moment, a large jump. This is causing a lot of people a lot of problems.

High house prices, especially in the South East (London and surronds) has led to an increase in the number of people taking 30, 35 or 40 year mortgages.

Refinancing usually comes with a fee, but this can often be rolled in to the borrowing so repayable over the remaining length of the mortgage.

Some lenders allow overpayment, either monthly or as a lump sum, but this generally limited to 10% of the balance outstanding, anything above that attracts a penalty.

You can also take second mortgages allowing the release of any equity that has built up during a rising market and also secured on the house. These are often for shorter periods and at completely different rates, but usually lower than unsecured personal borrowing.

At refinancing time you can also opt to refinance for longer than was left on the mortgage being rearranged, but there is usually a hard limit of repayment must be made before the borrower reaches 75 - although there are now some lenders who will push this out, again due to rising house prices.

We had a semi-fixed mortgage once my husband left the bank, in that it was a tracker loan. Our repayments were set to be the Bank of England Base Rate plus 0.75% so when rates went up our repayments increased a few weeks later, and vice versa. We paid our mortgage off very early by never reducing the repayment when the rates dropped. My husband thought we should split it and invest some of the overpayment as we might have been able to make more that way but I just wanted it gone and as I was the one who did the admin of phoning the mortgage company to sort it out, I got to call the shots. If he felt strongly enough about it he could have done it himself but he never did.

And there endeth the lesson on UK mortgages for anyone interested.

 

[huggybuff]

Non-Payday Friday here but I did get something paid off, so yay

Week 16

2024 Financial Goals

1. Pay off my credit cards and car loan in 2 years by using the debt avalanche. I decided to just pay off my Sephora card since the balance was down to about $45 bucks. Another one bites the dust Next pay period looks to be tight with a lot of automatic payments coming out around the first of the month so I'll likely have to wait another pay period on attacking the Q Card again.

2. Increase my monthly payments to my husband for household expenses by $800 a month beginning in May and open a joint checking account where we will each contribute monthly. We figured giving me until May to sock some extra cash into my checking would be a good idea since my personal loan is now paid off and that was sucking $1000 off the top of my paycheck once a month. I haven't settled on how much to increase my payments to my husband yet. The extra $300 for April felt like a lot so I can't imagine how $800 a month more would impact me. He said he was flexible on the amount so I'm not worried. He reallllly wants to knock out the debt from his 2 credit cards.

3. Set aside $285 per month from January-June to cover the cost of our hotel for our anniversary trip in July to Monterey. $285 more into my HYSA (4/6)

4. Begin paying for our 2025 spring break cruise to Mexico in March. Payments will be $450 a month from March-December. (1/10) Now waiting for my 4/26 check to pay this.

5. Continue using the YNAB app and website to track my money daily. I'm still tracking my money the old fashioned way with a register but I really like the budgeting aspect of YNAB and am getting more and more used to it. Movin and groovin. (15/52)


2024 Personal Goals

1. Finish deep cleaning and organizing my kitchen. My husband is basically the Swedish Chef so he makes quite a mess when he cooks. I appreciate the fact that he does all of the cooking but it's a lot to keep on top of TBH. I need to do a better job and put in more effort. I will track this weekly. I still have to reorganize my baking cabinet. (6/52)

2. Once I feel like my kitchen is back under control I'll transition to organizing my clothes that are in boxes in our bedroom. I will tackle this at least one of the days of my weekend. This will begin on Monday...err, the coming Monday, 4/22. Sure, that's what I meant. No one notice I changed this again.

3. Reorganize and deep clean my bathroom. I have too much on the countertop and need to make use of the cabinets in a more organized manner. Snoozed.

4. By July I'd like to be at the point I can begin to tackle my boxes that are still unpacked in the garage. I had a storage unit for years and now they're just sitting untouched since we moved into the house 3 years ago. Snoozed.

5. In August I'd like to make my stepson's room into a workout room. He's a senior in high school this year and he'll be starting college next fall. He's only staying over 1 or 2 nights a week at most at this point since he lives with his mom so I don't feel I'll be booting him out or anything. I am at my highest weight ever and I honestly don't even know what that is since I'm scared to get on the scale. I can have all of the DVDs and online workouts in the world but they do no good if you don't use them. I think having a space set aside will really help me out. I have a series of 5 beginner rides that I'm starting tomorrow morning.

6. Get my passport at some point this year to be ready for the cruise in 2025. This probably won't happen for at least a few months.

7. I came up with a new goal. Get back to baking on a weekly basis. This will begin when my kitchen is 'done'. JK, I know a kitchen is never truly caught up on. Snoozed until I cross #1 off of my list.

Enjoy your weekends everyone!

 

[goofytinkerbell]

just curious. so is there an 'average' length of time canadians have as a (for lack of a better word-) mindset for paying off a home? here in the u.s. the old 30 year mortgages seem to have set the point-people might take longer b/c of refinancing and thereby resetting to a new 30 year period or opting for a shorter 20 or 15 but in general it seems the goal for most.

For quite a while there was a limit of 20 years, at least in my province. Years and years ago you could get 30 years, but it wasn't something they encouraged. Now they're bringing back 30 years mortgages, but only for very specific situations.