If I didn't have a house payment I would feel more comfortable too but I am not sure how to get around that anytime soon. Over the next little while I hope to have enough cash we aside to cover 6 months worth of bills.
House, utilities, auto insurance, mobile phones and Internet are my only bills. Home insurance and property taxes are held in escrow.
Debt FREEDOM is the most worthy objective!
When we counsol people we ALWAYS tell them the only acceptable debt is your mortgage, adn that you should pay it off as quickly as possible. We often hear "but what about the taxes we save because we can claim our interest as a deduction?". That's an easy question to answer: You only get your tax percentage back. Example given: You pay $10,000 in mortgage interest to the bank and are in the 25% tax bracket - you only get to save $2,500 in federal income tax. Put another way - YOU ARE SPENDING A DOLLAR TO SAVE A QUARTER! Its stupid, but people have a hard time understanding it.
Six years ago my wife and I started the Dave Ramsey "debt snowball". I can flat out tell you:
1) If you have an "all in - we're sticking with this plan" attitude it ABSOLUTELY works!
2) It is the most empowering feeling to watch your debt shrink.
I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to see someone else mention wanting to get out of debt - stick with it brother as you CAN do it!
JYD #123 The great one formerly known as Architect.
I am now a fictional British television police officer (currently a Detective Sgt) at Thames Valley Station. My governor is Detective Inspector Fred Thursday and it’s 1969.
