The first and fifteenth of each month I will update you on the status towards our goal of paying off $60K in one year.
** Check out the Real Time Debt Tracker!!! Keep up to the minute tabs on our debt balance and whether we can pay it off in 365 days! **
To date, we have paid off $54,369 of our debt in 274 days. We have about three months left in our year so in
order to pay our debt off on time, we will need to pay
approximately $1,877 each month for the remaining four months. We
average almost $4,000 a month in debt payments so we are still way ahead of
schedule.
I got a raise!! My company awards raises once a year and I got one! Combined with increase in the cost of my health insurance I will probably bring home about $200 extra a month. Yay!!
I got a bonus!! I got a $4,300 bonus that I will receive on September 15th. More like half of that after taxes but that's fine - I'll take what I can get! Plus by the time I get my bonus we should (hopefully) have our $60K Project completely paid off. Sooo.... what to do with the extra money??
Side hustles. Our second income streams make a tremendous difference. I highly recommend a side hustle if you can swing it. I am a question writer for the CPA exam and just got a check this week for $630 bucks from questions I wrote in the past. I also earned $240 this week by writing additional questions and will receive that money in about a month or so. All going towards debt, baby!! Kickin' it to the curb.
Why I do this. If you add up all the minimum payments we will no longer be making when we pay off the $60K, we will have an additional $550 of cashflow free'd up each month - about $6,600 a year! That is extra money that can be put to good use towards savings, retirement, a wedding or a house.
Just want to say thanks to all of you who have left such positive and inspiring comments on my blog. You are what keeps me going!! I hope you keep going, too. Trust me, the results and the feeling of accomplishment are completely worth it!
Stay tuned,
11 comments:
Side hustles are a great way to earn extra cash - and writing questions for the CPA exam, that is one I've never heard before!
Congrats to you. That is awesome. I am surprised you haven't made the news.
Yes side hustles are great as long as you have time for them. I am amazed at the amount of extra projects some can take on.
Great job! You're almost finished paying off all your debt!
That's so exciting! Congrats on the raise and progress on your goal!
Yay raise! Yay bonus! Yay hustle! YAY! paying your debt ahead of schedule! You're doing awesome and I'm sure you'll meet your goals before you know it. :)
Wooooowwww! I'm impressed. You're doing great. I'm sure it will feel so good to get this debt behind you for good.
Feels good already! A little disconcerting that this isn't the last of our
debt to be paid off but at least we're making progress.
Wow, question writer for CPA exam?! I had no idea you got paid for that! I'm sitting for the exam now so feel free to share any you may have written...J/K!!!
Nice try! :)
What do you do for a living for your main source of income that you can afford 6k+ payments a month?
I sold my soul to a public accounting firm about 7 years ago and Mike does acquisition analysis for a real estate company. But, of the $6,000 of debt payments we have been averaging a month, only about $4,000 comes from our actually salaries. We have definitely gotten lucky and earned some bonuses in the last year, but a lot of the remaining $2,000 each month was earned through our side hustles.
We definitely bring in a decent income - which is why I was so frustrated a year ago when it felt like we were still living paycheck to paycheck. When your debt payments are a large part of your take home pay, decent income starts to feel like "I'm trapped in this job because I NEED to make this much money to survive." Not wanting this feeling is probably one of the biggest motivators for starting The $60K Project. Hope this answers your question!