Hello JUNE!!!
I am loving the warmer weather…it puts me in a better mood and makes me feel better overall!
I can still say things are going really well for me. My job is great and I feel important. It’s pretty stress free and while it’s not what I want to do forever I definitely can’t complain. I do wake up at 4:30 am so I’ve been trying to make sleep a priority which has been a struggle some days. I’ve been super sleepy!
My goal for May was to put an extra $250 toward my debt, but you’ll see below that I was able to pay a lot more than that!
My goal for June is to pay off my UPromise credit card ($560.68) and to avoid increasing my debt AT ALL. After that I’ll probably start tackling my Bank of America credit card.
At this point in my life my perspective on bill paying/debt has completely shifted. Honestly, and increase in income definitely helps, but I’m learning to not allow spending money to stress me out. I have it, I’m fine, I’ve always been fine. Paying off debt is fun because it makes it go away! And paying bills isn’t a big deal because I know I have sufficient funds. This is a Law of Attraction practice of course, which has finally come to light in my life.
I recently heard this quote, “Money is like manure…if you pile it up it stinks, but if you spread it around it helps things grow.” I love it!
I also ended up finishing Rich Dad, Poor Dad! It was hard to put down and I definitely recommend you read it! It has changed some of my future goals.
Anyway, here’s my debt analysis for May:
DEBT PAYMENT/INCOME SPREADSHEET
*This spreadsheet does not include payments for my car (a lease) or my insurance (life, health, vision, dental)*
CURRENT FICO SCORE: 666
THE GOOD NEWS
My credit score went up one point
My score actually had gone down about 3 points during May because I charged a pretty large amount to my Bank of America credit card. However, it went back up!
I paid off my Care Credit card
FIANALLY!!!! I paid about $650 toward my Care Credit card which means I paid it off completely! I’m so excited about it and it’s amazing to finally see a big fat ZERO on my statement. Also, once my credit score updates it should see the change and I expect it to go up quite a few points!
I made a decent amount of extra income
Last month I mentioned that all extra income from now on will be paid toward my debt, which is exactly what I did and then some. I’ve still been putting off going through everything in my room to either sell, donate, or trash. I really want to simplify my belongings but it’s honestly such a pain in the butt. I know I have at least a few hundred dollars of stuff I could sell so I just need to get on it!
I paid off the most debt in one month EVER
I paid off about $515 of my debt! The most I’ve ever paid off before was about $400 back in December. After looking at my fixed income and all of my expenses, I am on track to put at least a total of $600 a month toward my debt each month. Of course a decent chunk of my payments go toward interest, but the more I decrease my debt the less interest I pay.
THE BAD NEWS
I spent a lot on “unnecessary” items
By unnecessary I mean clothes…workout clothes specifically. However, I workout 6x a week and sometimes twice in a day. So everything will be put to good use and I don’t plan on shopping for clothes for awhile! I did end up charging a lot of it on my Bank of America credit card which you can see went up. But lately I’ve only been charging groceries and gas on this card then paying that off right away!
Consolidating my student loans was a fail
Personally I don’t like that I have 11 different student loans with various interest rates. I was hoping to consolidate all of them and get a rate closer to 3-4%. I applied through SoFi and was declined but allowed a co-signer (which my dad agreed to). However, they don’t offer a rate until they run a hard pull on my dad’s credit which I didn’t like. I applied through another loan provider and was offered a rate of about 5.55% which was too high.
So I just said forget it. As long as I keep making these high payments I’ll soon get out of consumerism debt and then I’ll tackle those student loans like a cray woman!
In June I’ll have a bit of a change (my car lease is ending) but I’m not worried about it! I’ll update you all then! π