Owning Up

Posted by Jessie with 1 comment | in Debt

I think that the first step to clearing out any debt you may have, and planning for long term savings you first have to own up to yourself. This is what this blog is for me - owning up to my debt, and making the conscious choice to eliminate it.

So.. here goes.

My Alberta student loan is sitting at a 3% variable interest rate, I'm making payments at just over $60/month. My loan term is currently sitting at 112 months.

My Canada student loan is sitting at a 5.5% variable interest rate. I'm also making payments at just over $60/month. The loan term is 63 months.

My student loans entered into repayment in November 2008. Although I could have ramped up payments during the first 6 months after graduation to avoid interest, that didn't happen as much as I would have liked.

My credit card's interest rate is 11%, to have that rate I have to pay an annual fee of $22. Right now, that's worth it for me. Once the debt is down, I will re-consider if an annual fee is worth a lower interest rate.

I don't think it's fair for a person to only look at there debt (it's also depressing)... so lets have a look at my savings goals...

The goal for my emergency savings is to have 3 months of fixed expenses covered.

The goal for my planned spending is to have $1000. Planned spending for me includes gifts, car repairs, and other small life expenses such as these.

I picked a random goal for my RRSP line (which is actually two RRSP's). My goal (for now) will be $50,000.

My house deposit fund is my most recent endevour. This is actually a joint account with my boyfriend. We would like to be able to buy a house in the next two to three years - and this fund is what's going to help us do it. I started the account with $50 (just last week) and we are going to depost $150/week to boost this fund. We plan on rotating weeks so its fair, and this also matches up with our pay cheques from work.

okay... thats it...

i realize that my debt might not be as overwhelming as some - but it's mine, and it's scary... and i'm going to take you through getting rid of it.