Comments on: 2009 Debt Snowball Challenge

By: Debt Snowball Update! | Common Sense With Money

Debt Snowball Update! | Common Sense With Money — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:20:22 +0000

[...] months ago I shared with you my family’s plan to pay off in six months our new minivan. As I spelled it out back then, I talked my husband into sending every bit of [...]

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:55:45 +0000

Hi Mercedes,

This was a really cool post. I still have a car loan and a student loan in addition to our mortgage. I’d really like to pay off the car at least so we have more money to put in an emergency fund and towards our mortgage. Thanks for the good information!

By: charlene

charlene — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:08:27 +0000

Hi Mercedes,

We did the debt snowball a few years ago to pay off our cc and cars. One thing that was really motivating to me was having a simple sheet of paper on the fridge with the running balance. Everytime we could squeeze and extra $100, or $20 or whatever I would take a pen and update the balance. It was so motivating to have the balance constantly updated and to face the challenge every morning. We actually got notices from our CC company that I couldn’t make any more payments because I would be paying toward the balance several times a week

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:43:34 +0000

Mercedes, I am curious about an aspect of buying a car on ebay. With any other ebay purchase, I am totally committed if I bid. Is it the same for a vehicle? Since the distance is too far to personally check the vehicle before the end of the auction, what recourse do you have if it has a problem that should have been disclosed? Leaving negative feedback would just not be enough!

Also, as for minivan opinions, we have a Nissan Quest and we love it. We don’t understand why it has not grabbed more of the market than Honda or Toyota. The specific reason we bought our 2004 model (new) was that we could get the DVD player at a standard trim level. To get the DVD player on Honda or Toyota, we would have had to spend thousands more to buy the upgraded trim package.

Minivan vs. SUV: My brother has a Ford Expedition and I looked up cargo space on our two vehicles. The Quest has about 1/3 to 1/2 more space because its floor is so much lower than the Expedition. People get SUVs because they need to haul a bunch of stuff but guess what, a minivan has a lot more space. Just my two cents worth.

By: Mercedes

Mercedes — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:08:55 +0000

Nancy, the reason I don’t want to do that is not to drain our emergency fund. the way things are right now, who knows what the future may hold and we would like to be prepared. We prefer to aggressively pay the loan.

Mercedes

By: Mercedes

Mercedes — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:59:26 +0000

I’ll let you know Jennifer, I am new to minivans so it’s a learning experience for me still. I do love the room though.

Mercedes

By: Mercedes

Mercedes — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:58:37 +0000

Thanks for the heads up Kacie. I double checked with my husband and there’s no penalty for prepaying. phew!

By: Lisa Fischer

Lisa Fischer — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:03:22 +0000

Great post. For Xmas a couple of years ago, my parents gave each of their six kids & a few of the older grandkids, Dave Ramsey’s TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER book. My husband read it in a couple of days & got right on it….it took me a few weeks but I finally gave in & read it as well. Sad to say, but we were the ONLY receivers of the book that read it. And the funny part, all of those that got the book deal with financial issues…except for my husband & I. My only wish is that I would have been given that book 15 years ago when dh & I first got married. Even though we have done so well, there was a LOT more we could of done.

We are also believers of paying in cash for big ticket items. We’ve had one car loan (borrowed the money from my sister & paid her more than the interest at the bank but less than what a loan would have been for us). Our last van purchased 2 years ago (around $18k) was paid for in cash. My husband believes that if we can’t pay for it, we don’t need it!! We have the one nice vehicle & he drives a 1995 Geo Metro that he paid $2000 cash for & when gas was near $4.00/gallon, he could of probably sold that thing for more than he paid for it! LOL

And I like how you stated that you are not showing off, but stating this IS something a person can do. Like us, we have 4 kids, one measly income of $35,000/year & are living comfortably in this wretched economy. The only debt we have is our mortgage of $110k. Our monthly pmt is still based on when we had two incomes ($720/mo) & haven’t had any problems paying that. Now if we’d have a $300-400/mo car loan….we’d be hurting. I think that is what hurts people, paying one or TWO loans and a boat, RV etc & then they wonder why they are broke!? HELLO!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:59:43 +0000

We need to replace our minivan and hope to do it by the end of the year. Currently we have about $550 in savings for it. I hope to have $10,000 saved by the end of the year, we will see how close I get! We might do what you are doing and take out a small loan at the end of the year and then pay it off quickly in the spring. Not sure yet, let us know how you like the Toyota because that is one of the ones we are looking at. I know you can do it! Good luck!

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:15:17 +0000

A Debt Snowball is when you have more than one bill and you pay off lowest bill and take what you were paying on that and apply it to the next lowest and so on and so on. Thus, the snowball!

Kudos to you folks taking FPU! It’s an awesome program. I’m blessed to be a facilitator and I’ve seen the Gazelle Intensity in action…it works!!