Started seriously trying to get my debt under control in February 2015, at which point I created a spreadsheet of all my debt to track monthly (suggestion from forum) and found I had $88,392.72 in debt. This was split between ~$39k in credit card, ~$36k in student loans, and ~$14k in car loan. The credit card debt was a combination of some unexpected/unfortunate circumstances, and bad decisions.
I started by consolidating my credit into a consolidated loan with lower interest (suggestion from here). I then prioritized loans based on interest rates (suggestion from here also). I reduced expenses (got rid of TV service, downgraded phone plan, got a lower rent apartment, didn't travel as much, ate out much less, started doing meal prep, etc - also suggestions from here), and made some extra cash where I could.
Now, I'm at: Credit card: paid off monthly, $0 balance! Consolidated loan: ~$18k; Student loans: ~$20k; Car loan: ~$1.5k; (So a total of a little under $40k, as mentioned above.)
I do fall into a somewhat higher income bracket, but getting to this point did require sacrifice - I decided not to buy a home at this time to focus on debt, and reduced expenses as per above, among other things.
I haven't managed to put as much into savings as I would like, and am starting to focus on that more now that I have the debt more under control. I should note though that during the same period I did increase my retirement savings by about +80% through employer & my contributions, plus an upturn in the economy.
Looking forward to hopefully being debt free in about 1.5 years, or less!
Submitted July 11, 2017 at 01:04PM by LochNessJackalope http://ift.tt/2tEwvty
