Thursday, December 10, 2009

Adding it up

I have been afraid to add up all of my debt. But, I can't get where I need to go if I don't know where I am now. As hard as it is, this needs to be done.

Line of Credit $30,016 bal $545 a mo 9% int
Visa one 8,119 bal 275 a mo 26% int (WOW, I know)
Visa two 11,000 bal 205 a mo 11% int
Personal Loan 5,463 bal 205 a mo 8.25% int
Medical Credit Card 6,664 bal 165 a mo 11.9% int
Master Card one 9,165 bal 165 a mo 9%
Credit Card one 7,695 bal 160 a mo 4.9%
Veterinary Credit Card 2,070 bal 135 a mo 23%
Master Card one 1,009 bal 50 a mo 12%
Visa three 853 bal 19 a mo 9%
Furniture 1,600 bal 109 a mo 0% (I did buy some furniture)
Car Repair Card 1,565 bal 89 a mo 22%
Auto Loan 1,891 bal 350 a mo 5.75%
Office Store Card 261 bal 50 a mo 24%


This is awful, but I included everything except the mortgage. Adding it all up it totals $87,371.00 if I did my math right. The total monthly payments are $2,522 a month. That doesn't include the house. I would like to accelerate that too, but right now, I need to concentrate on these debts. Also, I have NO Savings. Nada, nothing. It ALL goes to pay the bills and pay expenses.
The next thing I need to do is figure how long it would take me to pay these off if I just kept making the minimums. So, I plugged all these into the Debt Payoff Calculator at CNN Money.Com. There is a link to it under Free Resources on the right column of this blog, if you want to try it. Anyway, at the rate I am paying these it will take me about 20 years and cost me approximately $20,000 in interest. Even after paying all these off I will most likely still not have what I really want: Security and the knowledge that my husband and I can enjoy a comfortable retirement. I don't see room for saving an emergency fund, or funding our retirement account, or doing badly needed repairs and updates to our house. Forget about a vacation, we haven't had one in years. I really, really, really have been thinking a lot about bankruptcy. Frankly, I'm worried. I haven't been sleeping much, and if I try to talk to my husband about it, we will just fight. It is really putting a strain on our marriage. I need to figure a way out. I have 2 goals, pay off the debt AND save money. But how to do both at once? Let me know what you think. What have you done to save for a rainy day? Is it working?

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