Hi All. First time posting here, and I hope this is the right place. I'm hoping some of you who might read this could help me make an informed decision about which debt to start attacking now that I have some extra money monthly. I've read a few posts here with stats, so here are mine:
33F and 34M Homeowners, 2 kids
- One working partner, one full-time stay-at-home partner
- Mortgage is $1,400, we personally pay $1,200 and have a renter who pays us $400, so total monthly mortgage payment is $1,600.
- 1 car paid for, 1 car $12,000 at 3.5%, monthly payment is $325 (purchased 2 years ago)
- $4,000 on credit card, which we plan to pay off with income taxes (this year was a little rough with vehicle repairs and medical)
- $6,000 on a special 0.00% interest credit card we used for home repairs immediately upon moving in last year, payments at $235
- Student Loans $8,000 at 8%
- Emergency savings of $8,000, plus an additional $3,600 towards mortgage only payments in an emergency
- Retirement contributions are at 10% from single income
We are doing pretty OK with "making ends meet", putting food on the table. We have what we need, and we adjust the flexible monthly spending to meet other needs (ex: power bill is now 50% less due to weather, so the money we spent at 50% more is spent on more groceries or entertainment, etc. ). Of the 2 kids, the oldest just started 5K, the other is 2 years away from 5K. I know that I could work and cover the cost of daycare for just 1 child and use that extra $ (2 children was appx $1,300/month, my take-home was $1,500/month at a M-F 9-5), but this is not the issue I am trying to address, so please no advice on that subject. We are able to make all of our payments on time.
The extra disposable I will have comes from a cash side-hustle I will start doing for $100/week, so an extra $400/month towards something. I am interested in hearing which of the above mentioned debts would others consider the bigger priority? My gut REALLY wants to put it all towards the student loan, mainly for the fact that 1) it is mine personally, not "family debt", and 2) it has been sitting at just about the same balance for YEARS because of Life Happenings and only able to afford interest-only payments.
I need to take my emotions out of this decision, so that's why I think it would be helpful to me to post and see what a non-involved party would do in my shoes. I apologize if this was a long read, it's tough to compress your life into a few paragraphs.
Thanks in advance to any who consider weighing in on my finances and help me decide where to put this extra $ where it will do the most good.
Submitted November 09, 2019 at 05:57PM by justcallmeusername https://ift.tt/2NVE2gv
