Around April, when my pregnancy was beginning to get real, and all the legalities from the sale of my house had settled, I was able to total my debts. I was also starting to find some stable ground to stand on. Because I now had a tiny ticking time bomb inside me, I wanted to create a road map to get where I wanted to be to help the beautiful person-to-be inside me enter a more stable home. I love, love, LOVED my house, but it had become an anchor pulling me into financial terrority I did not want to be in. In addition to the value of my home dropping over 30%, I was losing money each month that it was rented out. I still feel confident that I had the capital to ride it out, in 7, 10 or 18 years the value of home would have risen, and the investment would have paid off well. Yet, at the time, I was struggling with credit card debt, lines of credit, and not making enough money to have a positive balance at the end of the month. At this point in time, I no longer had my home, and instead owed other people over $65,000.
My goals in May, 2014 were:
1. Pay off my $10,500 credit card balance transfer, at $4101 in May PASS - Paid in full :D
2. Pay $1800 of my line of credit FAIL - only paid off $1000
3. Pay $600 on student loan #1 PASS - Paid in full :D
4. Pay $300 on student loan #2 PASS - Paid $575
5. Pay $1500 on personal loan PASS - Paid $1500
6. Save $1000 for maternity leave PASS - saved $1500
7. Save 5750 as an emergency fund PASS - saved $750
May:
Total Debt: $58,425
Total Savings $5
October:
Total Debt: $46.000
Total Savings: $2250
Total debt reduction: $12,425
There were broken down month by month and pay by pay. I had to alter these goals in August (I may write a blog post about this) as it was becoming clearer that I would be induced prior to the end of October, and I had some financial targets I wanted to hit to feel "ready" for the baby. I highly recommend this for both long and short term goals. It's a great way to see if your goal is realistic, and how hard it may be to obtain. In my case, I was incredibly hard to stick to my debt repayment/savings budget but being 1) short term 2) a upcoming huge life event and 3) just prior to pay reduction (taking maternity leave) a good choice for me.
Between March and the end of October I've reduced my overall debt about $19,000 and increased my savings by around $2000 (which I will be using until I receive my EI and can complete another budget). I've had a lot of demons but .... that's none too shabby.
