February 2007

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. My church had been putting on some seminars called "Financial Peace University" that I thought would have been great to go to, but they were always on an evening that I had class. (I'm taking night classes at a community college in order to get my pre-requisites for med school that I hope to begin in the fall of 2010). Then during one of my GWO (Girls Weekend Out), my friend Heather told us all about Dave Ramsey. She told me to cut up all my credit cards, set a budget and about the "Debt Snowball" theory to pay off your debts. Now, getting rid of the credit card sounded a bit much, but I was willing to see what Mr. Ramsey had to say, so I bought and read his book, "The Total Money Makeover." I was inspired and so, in mid-February, in agreement with my husband, we cut up our credit cards (in a tearful ceremony).



We also set a budget, decided which items were important to save for (i.e. Christmas and my tuition) and started our debt snowball. Below are our starting balances. Again, this is my personal journey to eliminate my debt, so please don't judge the amount. We never pay late and have good credit, but we'd like to have this money available for things other than credit card payments.

From Smallest to Largest
1) Kohl's Card - $160.27 - 21.9% - $10 min payment
2) Nelnet (Jen's Student Loan) - $330.85 - 5.14% - $0 min payment (deferred)
3) HH Gregg (Refrigerator) - $970.48 - 0% (if paid before June) - $29 min payment
4) Nelnet (Eric's Student Loan) - $2,546.15 - 5.14% - $51,92 min payment
5) Toyota Financial (Jen's Car) - $5,411.50 - 2.9% - $318.07 min payment
6) Bank of America (Credit Card) - $9,741.65 - 22.24% - $283 min payment
7) Firstmerit Bank (Eric's Car) - $15,545.53 - 6.5% - $399.96 min payment
8) National City (Home Equity) - $24,118.37 - 8.75% - $173.83 (interest only payment)
9) Bank of America (Credit Card) - $24,839.97 - 19.24% - $695 min payment

TOTAL DEBT = $83,664.77 TOTAL PAYMENTS = $1,960.78