Smaller and Smaller an Smaller

Good Saturday Morning Bloggers!!

I just wanted to post a little "Great for me" item. Today i made a payment on my Car Loan and dropped the balance to $1500!!!

For those who have not been reading this for very long - I am on the verge of paying off my car 10 months earlier than it should have been.

Now, some of you may be saying - But Gails says to pay off the most expensive debt first. Well here's the thing. I started to move up in the corporation, and at the time I had a comparatively very small amount of consumer debt at the time. I had been moving all the extra money when I first got my car loan to all of the debts I had outstanding at the time, and was successful at getting myself down to 2 creditors from 6. Then I started to notice something...

While I have two creditors, I was using my credit card to fill the whole in the income and the actual bills. I HAD to get a car due toan accidentt hat wrote off my previous car, and since at the time I was just out of school (literally), and I needed a car to get to my job in SCarborough because I lived in a place that did not have any other means of practical transportation (unless I got up at 3am everyday to catch a GO to Union, and then the subways back to Scarborough), and we new I had to finance no matter what I bought. I found the best car on fuel ecomony, and service ratings, for an amount I could handle at the time.
I began climbing the corporate ladder, and thus began increasing my paycheck as we went, So, the extra money allowed me to pay off almost all my creditors, and handle the car loan, rent and life in a more comfortable fashion. When I first chenged jobs the credit wasn't that bad - but through some decisions that cost quite a bit, I have gotten into the horrible range. All along I had been making extra payments onto my car loan to bring it down and increase the wrth of my equity column.

Now that I am on the verge of paying this loan off, I have a large dilemma on a personal level.

While i know paying down my largest interest item first saves tons of money over the long run, I am within two months of completing the car loan. Incidently, because I'm so far ahead of schedule, the payments to the car loan could t comparatively very small from here on in. So here is my dilemma...

I am receiving a return on my taxes this year (FINALLY!). It is enough that after May's car payment there will be no money left to owe on the Car loan once I've used my tax return. After completing this loan i can snowball the amount I am using to pay the car, into making quite a substantial payment onto my current credit (Remember it's up to $26,700). So do I pay off the car loan and snowball the money to pay down that atrocious Credit CArd? Or do I use that money to pay a bit onto the credit, and wait three months to begin the snowballing.

My personal choice is to knock out the car loan forever, and then the next month to turn the two payments I was making (one to car, one to Credit) into one very large payment onto my credit card.

So currntly I am paying about $850 onto my Visa (minimum is $550) and $600 onto my car loan, so the snowball will be $1450 per month after the car loan is gone. So I get a creditor gone early, and get a chance to actually take substantial chunks out of my credit disaster.

I've made up my mind - mostly, but what do YOU think??

A New Endeavour

In an effort to help further myself, I have been watching Gail and reading her blog. In doing so I have started a new endeavour in my Quest for Financial Abundance - by joining a Gail Club!!

Right here in KW I meet with people of a like mind in wanting to get out of the debt crater. We began last night with our first meeting. And we will continue every other week with the group, talking about how to save money, where to find the best products/services/advice for the most bang our buck can get, and a whole host of other things.

Out of last night came a thinking session for me - at work, when I'm supposed to be thinking about work related things, I had a hard time getting my mind off of what I really want to accomplish and how this new group can help me on my path.

As a result of that thinking - I am here to update my path to financial freedom:

Current Debt:

Car - loan is now at $2,100 an falling
CIBC - I really should freeze this card and be done with it.... it is now at $26,700 and hovering.

I started Gail's Jars in January, and have fallen off the wagon a little on sticking with them. I have learned that the visual aspect of this is good for me, but that I am lazy with writing it all down, remembering the binder (perhaps I need a bigger purse?) and actually following through with using my planner (perhaps I need a binder that will close and hold all of these items together)

So, this weekend I have tasks to complete while I attempt to enjoy the weather...

My tasks for this weekend include:

1. Head to best friend's house for some wedding day planning on hair, makeup, accommodations for the wedding on June 26, 2009.
2. Attend hair consult at 12pm Saturday
3. Re-do taxes one more time (I made a mistake I need to fix)
4. Spend some time with my budget, the bank statements and my bills and get caught up. NO MORE SLACKING!
5. Find T-shirts for Bachelorette Party next weekend and iron-on additions to them.
6. Go over training to be delivered on Monday to ensure I have completed everything necessary. (without spelling mistakes)
7. De winter my car - change tires, change oil, check fluids, VACUUM and WASH the inside.

May the weather be warm enough that I may complete some of these tasks outdoors, perhaps go for a bike ride and get rid of the rest of winter from my car!!