To this:
Being debt-free never felt so good!
Showing posts with label debt-free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debt-free. Show all posts
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
I did it!
Okay, today is a pretty big day for me. Are you ready for this?
That's right! I paid off the last $359.44 remaining on my student loans. As of right now, I don't owe anyone any money!
While it's pretty exciting, it's also a little anti-climactic. When I made the payment online, my computer didn't sing and there were no fireworks or brass bands around to mark this momentous occasion. It's just me, all debt-free and shit.
Those are some pretty cool words, though: debt-free. I like it!
So now I find myself in this odd no man's land of not having to pay anything off. Soon we'll have a mortgage that will need tackling but until then, my money is mine! (Except for bills and such, but since I pay those in full when they're due, they're no problem.)
It's a weird feeling, I won't lie, but it's also amazing!
NO MORE STUDENT LOANS FOR ME!!!
TODAY I BECAME DEBT-FREE!
That's right! I paid off the last $359.44 remaining on my student loans. As of right now, I don't owe anyone any money!
While it's pretty exciting, it's also a little anti-climactic. When I made the payment online, my computer didn't sing and there were no fireworks or brass bands around to mark this momentous occasion. It's just me, all debt-free and shit.
Those are some pretty cool words, though: debt-free. I like it!
So now I find myself in this odd no man's land of not having to pay anything off. Soon we'll have a mortgage that will need tackling but until then, my money is mine! (Except for bills and such, but since I pay those in full when they're due, they're no problem.)
It's a weird feeling, I won't lie, but it's also amazing!
NO MORE STUDENT LOANS FOR ME!!!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Fun time money news
Remember those student loans I've been paying off? Well, they're not quite gone yet but I'm getting there! As of today, all that's left owing is $1,357.26. That's it. I'm pretty excited. I'm even more excited that my next paycheque will have a little overtime on it, which will go nicely on this balance.
But do you know what's most exciting? Next month is a 3-pay month and it marks the first 3-pay month since I finished school where I won't have to put one of those paycheques on my debt. It is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel! Sure, I'll have to use a little of that cash to finish paying this off, but not much.
This - THIS - is what I've been waiting for for almost seven years now. I almost can't believe I made it! And I'm also going to have a brief respite between paying off one debt and adding another (a mortgage). Yes, a mortgage is good debt as it means a house, but it's still debt and repayment. But I will have a fleeting moment where I don't owe anyone anything AT ALL!
I say, indeed.
But do you know what's most exciting? Next month is a 3-pay month and it marks the first 3-pay month since I finished school where I won't have to put one of those paycheques on my debt. It is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel! Sure, I'll have to use a little of that cash to finish paying this off, but not much.
This - THIS - is what I've been waiting for for almost seven years now. I almost can't believe I made it! And I'm also going to have a brief respite between paying off one debt and adding another (a mortgage). Yes, a mortgage is good debt as it means a house, but it's still debt and repayment. But I will have a fleeting moment where I don't owe anyone anything AT ALL!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Student loan update
It's been awhile since I've checked in on my student loans so I took some time today to do so.
My main priority right now is to pay off the last loan I have with CIBC, as it's the lowest balance of the remaining two and because I really don't want to have to deal with CIBC anymore. (We just never got along.)
The current balance of my CIBC loan: $2,409.76
I made a payment two days ago (and I don't know if it's been applied yet) and another automatic payment will go through on Monday; these payments will either lower my total owing by $60 or $160. I'm kind of hoping it's the latter, as that will help that much more.
The $100 I put on the loan was in response to me wanting to buy two new shirts - but instead of buying the shirts I took that money and put it toward my loans as I said I'd do. I've been doing my best to be diligent and only buy what I need, which is why it's taken me so long to make a payment like this. But I'm proud of myself for living up to my own standard!
Another reason it's so important to me to pay down this loan is because I'm charged interest daily. Yup, daily. But my interest rate is 5.5%, so my actual charge is lower as my balance gets lower. Back in August, with a balance of $3,981.35 I was paying $0.60/day in interest. Today, with my balance at $2,409.76 I'm paying $0.36/day in interest - and that's a big difference.
But it's not just the CIBC loan I'm paying down. I'm also working away at my second (and last) National Student Loan Service Centre loan.
Current balance with NSLSC: $5,561.22
Current interest rate: $0.80/day
THAT is some steep interest to be paying - almost a dollar a day! I'm currently only paying the minimum payment on this loan until I finish with CIBC; then all extra monies get rolled together to pay this baby down!
And to meet my goal of only having $5,000 of loan left by the end of 2011, I need to pay off another $2,970.98 by the end of this year. I will say right now that this is starting to feel a little daunting but I've got some overtime moolah coming my way and that will go nicely on the loan. But I have to be careful because Christmas is also coming up and I love Christmas! It's so hard for me to not spoil everyone I love with gobs of presents.
But as long as I'm careful and frugal and pay attention to what I'm spending I can do this!
My main priority right now is to pay off the last loan I have with CIBC, as it's the lowest balance of the remaining two and because I really don't want to have to deal with CIBC anymore. (We just never got along.)
The current balance of my CIBC loan: $2,409.76
I made a payment two days ago (and I don't know if it's been applied yet) and another automatic payment will go through on Monday; these payments will either lower my total owing by $60 or $160. I'm kind of hoping it's the latter, as that will help that much more.
The $100 I put on the loan was in response to me wanting to buy two new shirts - but instead of buying the shirts I took that money and put it toward my loans as I said I'd do. I've been doing my best to be diligent and only buy what I need, which is why it's taken me so long to make a payment like this. But I'm proud of myself for living up to my own standard!
Another reason it's so important to me to pay down this loan is because I'm charged interest daily. Yup, daily. But my interest rate is 5.5%, so my actual charge is lower as my balance gets lower. Back in August, with a balance of $3,981.35 I was paying $0.60/day in interest. Today, with my balance at $2,409.76 I'm paying $0.36/day in interest - and that's a big difference.
But it's not just the CIBC loan I'm paying down. I'm also working away at my second (and last) National Student Loan Service Centre loan.
Current balance with NSLSC: $5,561.22
Current interest rate: $0.80/day
THAT is some steep interest to be paying - almost a dollar a day! I'm currently only paying the minimum payment on this loan until I finish with CIBC; then all extra monies get rolled together to pay this baby down!
And to meet my goal of only having $5,000 of loan left by the end of 2011, I need to pay off another $2,970.98 by the end of this year. I will say right now that this is starting to feel a little daunting but I've got some overtime moolah coming my way and that will go nicely on the loan. But I have to be careful because Christmas is also coming up and I love Christmas! It's so hard for me to not spoil everyone I love with gobs of presents.
But as long as I'm careful and frugal and pay attention to what I'm spending I can do this!
Friday, October 7, 2011
2011 Goal Update #2
It's that time again - to see how I'm doing on my 2011 goals. And I'm so late on doing this update. So late. I wanted to do this sooner; I even started writing this post last week. But then my life got supercalifragilisticexpiali-busy and, well, here we are, updating super late. Such is life. Anyhoo, here's the latest rundown:
Goal:Plank - I did not do a single plank in September. This is because I quickly realized how much I hate doing planks. HATE. In all honesty, I don't see me continuing on with this, but I'll give it October before I admit defeat.
Goal:Run - I was having a tough go of it for a bit in September while running: I wasn't able to get anywhere near the distance I needed to meet my goals and I was tiring easily. But I was able to rebound and I've hit my 4km goal! Again, it's not four consecutive kilometres, but I'm running four of them all the same. My current run workout is to walk 0.25 km then run 1 km, for a total distance of 5 km. This is working out well so far and I'm hoping to slowly turn those walking sections into running sections as I aim for 4.5 km by the end of October. Still on track!
Goal:Food - Also something I stopped doing was logging my food. I've signed up for no less than four online food journals and ALL OF THEM are pains in the ass. The problem with the online journals is that they depend on users to enter foods and the nutritional values. If a food item isn't entered, you can create it but you need to know the nutritional info for it and that's not the easiest thing, especially if you're eating non-packaged food. So I'm going back to my pen and paper journal and just writing everything down. I want to see a nutritionist this month so I'll have something to show for that appointment without spending hours on the computer to log three meals.
Goal:Weight - My goal is to be at 170 lb and on my last update, I was 22.4 lb away from that (and needed to lose 5.6 lb/month). Today, I'm at 190.2 lb which is 20.2 lb away from my goal. The good news is that I'm moving in the right direction. The less-than-good news is that I didn't lose 5.6 lb last month, so now I have to lose 6.7 lb/month to hit my final goal. While this is still doable, it's at the high end of steady weight loss. But I'm not going to let that get me down - I'm going to keep trying!
Goal:Pants - I'll provide photo evidence next week. I simply have not had time to try them on in the past week. I'm so lame.
Goal:Dress - Please see Goal:Pants. Blargh.
Goal:Debt - I currently owe $9,162.21, which is $672.88 less than last month's total owing. I'm also (of course) waiting on more money to be applied to the loan, which will bring it down by another $400 - and bring it under $9,000! That will mean only $3,762.21 left to pay off this year. I'm feeling a little less confident right now about hitting my goals, but I should also be racking up some overtime this fall so hopefully that will give me the boost I need.
Overall, the numbers that I want to go down (my weight and my debt) are going down and the number that I want to go up (my running distance) is going up. As for my clothes, check in with me on Wednesday, 'kay? I promise I'll have something by then!
Goal:Plank - I did not do a single plank in September. This is because I quickly realized how much I hate doing planks. HATE. In all honesty, I don't see me continuing on with this, but I'll give it October before I admit defeat.
Goal:Run - I was having a tough go of it for a bit in September while running: I wasn't able to get anywhere near the distance I needed to meet my goals and I was tiring easily. But I was able to rebound and I've hit my 4km goal! Again, it's not four consecutive kilometres, but I'm running four of them all the same. My current run workout is to walk 0.25 km then run 1 km, for a total distance of 5 km. This is working out well so far and I'm hoping to slowly turn those walking sections into running sections as I aim for 4.5 km by the end of October. Still on track!
Goal:Food - Also something I stopped doing was logging my food. I've signed up for no less than four online food journals and ALL OF THEM are pains in the ass. The problem with the online journals is that they depend on users to enter foods and the nutritional values. If a food item isn't entered, you can create it but you need to know the nutritional info for it and that's not the easiest thing, especially if you're eating non-packaged food. So I'm going back to my pen and paper journal and just writing everything down. I want to see a nutritionist this month so I'll have something to show for that appointment without spending hours on the computer to log three meals.
Goal:Weight - My goal is to be at 170 lb and on my last update, I was 22.4 lb away from that (and needed to lose 5.6 lb/month). Today, I'm at 190.2 lb which is 20.2 lb away from my goal. The good news is that I'm moving in the right direction. The less-than-good news is that I didn't lose 5.6 lb last month, so now I have to lose 6.7 lb/month to hit my final goal. While this is still doable, it's at the high end of steady weight loss. But I'm not going to let that get me down - I'm going to keep trying!
Goal:Pants - I'll provide photo evidence next week. I simply have not had time to try them on in the past week. I'm so lame.
Goal:Dress - Please see Goal:Pants. Blargh.
Goal:Debt - I currently owe $9,162.21, which is $672.88 less than last month's total owing. I'm also (of course) waiting on more money to be applied to the loan, which will bring it down by another $400 - and bring it under $9,000! That will mean only $3,762.21 left to pay off this year. I'm feeling a little less confident right now about hitting my goals, but I should also be racking up some overtime this fall so hopefully that will give me the boost I need.
Overall, the numbers that I want to go down (my weight and my debt) are going down and the number that I want to go up (my running distance) is going up. As for my clothes, check in with me on Wednesday, 'kay? I promise I'll have something by then!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It is Sunday
And I am at work. Sigh.
The Royal Wedding is done and once the election is over, my work life should return to some variety of normal.
On the plus side, I did something pretty awesome yesterday:
I PAID OFF THE LAST OF MY CONSUMER DEBT!
That's right, this girl is consumer debt-free! It was rather anti-climactic, I must say; I just punched in a few number and selected the proper account and the magic of online banking wiped my debt away.
It won't really sink in until tomorrow, when the banks open and the transaction goes through, but when it does I will gaze lovingly at the big, round $0.00 balance sitting there.
Now on to those student loans!
The Royal Wedding is done and once the election is over, my work life should return to some variety of normal.
On the plus side, I did something pretty awesome yesterday:
I PAID OFF THE LAST OF MY CONSUMER DEBT!
That's right, this girl is consumer debt-free! It was rather anti-climactic, I must say; I just punched in a few number and selected the proper account and the magic of online banking wiped my debt away.
It won't really sink in until tomorrow, when the banks open and the transaction goes through, but when it does I will gaze lovingly at the big, round $0.00 balance sitting there.
Now on to those student loans!
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