Debt Free Journey – Part III – 2021 Q3 Update

The 2021 goal was to bring our non-mortgage debt down to 0 by the end of the year. In our 2021 Q2 Update, we were at $94,264. So where are we at today? TL;DR > Our Total Non-Mortgage Debt is…

$82,377

Debt Composition

That remaining $82k-ish can be broken down into the following:

• Personal Loans
• Student Loans
• Car Loans
• Balance Transfers
• HELOC (new)

Personal Loans

Amount: $34,744

Interest Rate: 6.890%

Monthly Payment: $543

Still moving this loan along slowly. I won’t get too into the weeds yet but looking to wipe this loan out completely with a cashout refi. Stay tuned.

Student Loans

Amount: $5,886

Interest Rate: 5.500%

Monthly Payment: $100

Like the personal loan, this one’s just moving along slow & steady. The cashout refi would also potentially wipe this one out too.

Car Loans

Amount: $4,025

Interest Rate: 0.000%

Monthly Payment: $575

Moose has 97 payments left. At a 0% rate, there’s nothing special to do here. Just keep it going.

Balance Transfers

Amount: $27,952

Interest Rate: 0.000% (but typical transfer fees are 3-4%)

Monthly Payment: >$1,000

Still doing a horrible job tracking progress & payments on these balance transfers. The balance transfer offers were a bit slow to pop up when the two promos were expiring as I mentioned in the last update but we paid off both balances in time with side hustle income and extra available credit in the HELOC. Now if offers continue to roll in, I think we’ll try to move debt back into a 0% balance transfer instead of the HELOC. Let’s see if we can put more focus on that plan for $1,000/mo payments here and then just continue to accelerate the pay off with additional side hustlin.

HELOC

Amount: $9,770

Interest Rate: 2.990% (interest only)

Monthly Payment: $24

We opened this line up to fund the down payment on the investment property earlier this year but when the balance transfers were expiring, we opted to put some of it on here while we buy time to move it back into 0% BTs. The HELOC is an interest only payment so it’s only $24/mo for now. Once additional BT options pop up, we can move this back over and get back to paying principal.

In summary

Half way through the year and we’re still kinda dragging. I’m a little excited to get this cashout refi moving because it will take care of a decent portion of the remaining debt. Also, we need to really start getting into the weeds & deep diving into the paydown of the balance transfer debt. I still think we can do this. We just have to start making it more of a priority.

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