So we moved in November from Florida to Georgia. The move was a little bit hectic considering it is around the holidays.
I unfortunately had to take a loan against my 401k, which I DO NOT recommend. However, for this opportunity, I did what I had to do.
I had paid off about $10,000 worth of credit card debt, only to accumulate about $15,000 worth of debt due to the move. However, I do have a plan to pay all of it off within 2 years. Between now, January 2024, and the end of next year, December 2025, I have a snowball plan that I will be following strictly and with discipline.
That being said, the plan is to pay off 4-5 of the smaller credit card debts with my Tax Return this year. With the remaining money, I will be putting it to the side for a vacation we will be taking towards the end of this year to celebrate a few things all at once. Also, between now and the end of this year, not including the money I will be using from my tax return, I will have paid off roughly $7,800 in debt this year. Assuming, I do not accumulate any more credit card debt, I will be halfway done with paying off my credit card debt.
On top of by the end of next year I will have also paid off about half of the car loan for my wife’s car.
Speaking of being halfway done with the car loan, I want to give a brief update on my 5 year and 10 year goals that I have currently come up with and have given some thought to.
After the credit card debt is all paid off, I will only use some of the credit cards so that they still get usage, but I will be able to pay them off monthly from then on. Then I can use the extra money and put some to the side for savings and other things, as well as use some of the extra money to put towards the car loan for the wife’s car so that it can be paid off sooner and with less interest.
On top of trying to pay off the car sooner, I will be putting money to the side once all of the cards are paid off so that we can save up to purchase a house/condo, or some sort of property.
Within the next 5 years, my goal is to have all of my credit card debt paid off, as well as the car loan paid off. Hopefully once those 2 goals are done, I can start saving more money more seriously for buying a house for my family and I. Hopefully I can get a decent mortgage that isn’t too much higher than what we are paying now for rent. Because once her car is paid off, that will be an extra $1,050 per month that we can put to the side. So between the $650 from monthly credit card debt payments and the $1,050 from monthly car loan payments, that would be around $20,400 I can put to the side for a property.
However, I do know that that is honestly a little unrealistic because we have 2 kids to take care of and 2 cars to maintain as well as some other minor things to keep up. So if we could get at least half of that put a side within a year, it will still help us reach our goals for the future.
Just because we WOULD have the extra money to play with, doesn’t mean that we SHOULD play with the money. It will go into a high yield savings account so that it can build at least a little bit while it is being put to the side.
Now let me talk briefly about my 10 year goal. With the kids being 11-12 years of age by this point we will have them in school, unless my wife does indeed decide to do homeschooling, in which case it may still be a little hectic. My wife, if she chooses, will go back to work while the boys are in school to bring in some extra income to put to the side for other things.
Once we have purchased our 1st home/property, I will be looking into getting a 2nd one to use as a rental property. It will either be a rental by lease agreement, or I may decide to put it up for use on AirBnb. Or if I get multiple properties, I might use 1 for rental by lease and the other on AirBnb depending on how it all goes.
While all of this is going on, I will also be in the process of writing a book. In this book, I will be talking about budgeting, finances and financial planning for the future as a new parent. Whether it be for your personal future, the future of your children or both. Because all of these options are good options. However, in my personal opinion, if you choose to focus on your personal financial future I would say to at least teach your child/children about finances and budgeting and all of that stuff so that they can also look into these things as they get older and become adults and go out into the real world.
Thank you for coming to my blog and reading my thoughts as they come. I appreciate any and all feedback/comments.
Maybe strike up a conversation in the comments about your opinions and thoughts and how you would go about this.
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