Sistah Ant asked me to clarify if I was going to pay down some of debt in 2009 or all of it. I meant to say ALL of it. That means about $15K remaining. Of course, I’m having a bad February and March trying to make that goal. I just bought plane tickets for me and my boyfriend to go to Monterrey, CA for my dad’s 70th birthday party. It’s a big ole’ shindig with family from all over CA, and possibly Chicago and Portland coming to town. I love my pop. I’m so glad he’s still with us, but zowee, it’s a tad expensive.
Luckily since boyfriend travels for work, he has points we can use for car and hotel rental to try and save money, plus we’ll be able to crash with friends on some nights to keep our hotel expenses down. (We aren’t going to get out of staying overnight in Monterrey, but we’re now trying to block off a whole set of rooms at a discount for the entire family.)
Also, Reader Tim mentioned, ‘If…you do find yourself out of work, how much of a hit will that make to your debt reduction?”. He doesn’t know that I am a government contractor on a stable contract. I also was highly rated during my last review, so I won’t be dumped anytime soon. I make it a point of not being redundant. That’s one reason why I left telecom 2 years ago. I just found out from my old colleagues that they are *still* being downsized. Call it paranoia, but doing federal contracting work on 5-7 year term GSA contracts can be a very good thing. (Or for any other three/four letter agency here in town.)
I want to place a priority on debt repayment over saving, because I am still saving money. I just don’t have the 3-6 month cushion recommended by most financial planners. Instead, I focused on by 401k plan and trying to catch up with my own age group in terms of net worth. I am trying to look at long term. In one year, if am poorly rated and cut from my job (**HIGHLY** unlikely), I will have 401k assets to fall back on. I will also have a car to sell, possibly a condo I could liquidate, and NO CREDIT CARD DEBT. I can’t tell you how much better off my net worth will be just be getting rid of it.
Everyone makes choices. JD at Get Rich Slowly always says, ‘Do what works for you.’ For me, the right choice is to focus on debt repayment. I still kick a little money to automatic savings every week. I’m just not pouring money into an emergency fund at the moment.
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- September 2009 Goals Update 2009 Goal #1 Pay down credit card debt by December...
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