Monthly TD Line of Credit

It is the end of the month and time to find out what my student debt is at. This month I put in 150.00 +65.00 +200.00 = 415.00.
In total this month I put in 415.00. This brings my total line of credit down to $33,189.37. This means that in total I have put in $1,191.44. I am very proud of this number. I know that its not massive but it is a start. I updated my debt tracker to reflect these numbers.

Math:
34,380.81 - 1,191.44= $33,189.37


$415.00 is not enough to meet my debt repayment goals so how do I increase this amount. I have bee reading a lot of other blogs to get ideas. One of the blogs that I was reading had a 'snowflake jar' which puzzled me. So I googled it and came across another idea to help pay down my debt. The idea of snowflake finance is to put what ever is left over even it its only 25 cents in to your debt. So I am going to try this method. Actually I already did with my lay 2 pays ago. The money that was left over before last pay was almost enough to completely pay off the remanning debt to Dave. This made me feel really great! So I am completely on board with this idea. I hope that the $24 will be the first to go into my 'snowflake fund' aka my Student Debt.


What about you? Will you start a snowflake jar?

Monthly TD Line of Credit

It is the end of the month and time to find out what my student debt is at. This month I put in 150.00 +65.00 +200.00 = 415.00.
In total this month I put in 415.00. This brings my total line of credit down to $33,189.37. This means that in total I have put in $1,191.44. I am very proud of this number. I know that its not massive but it is a start.

Math:
34,380.81 - 1,191.44= $33,189.37


$415.00 is not enough to meet my debt repayment goals so how do I increase this amount. I have bee reading a lot of other blogs to get ideas. One of the blogs that I was reading had a 'snowflake jar' which puzzled me. So I googled it and came across another idea to help pay down my debt. The idea of snowflake finance is to put what ever is left over even it its only 25 cents in to your debt. So I am going to try this method. Actually I already did with my lay 2 pays ago. The money that was left over before last pay was almost enough to completely pay off the remanning debt to Dave. This made me feel really great! So I am completely on board with this idea. I hope that the $24 will be the first to go into my 'snowflake fund' aka my Student Debt.


What about you? Will you start a snowflake jar?

Choices

As you know I don't have a car. So to get to work I spent 2.5 hours on 2 different busses. As a result I spend quite a bit of time watching people. While riding the bus to work yesterday two different girls sat in front of me. The first one has a Puma bag and a Guess purse and the second one had a Coach purse and a small Coach purse she was using as a wallet. Both girls were around the same age as I am-early twenties.

What struck me was the contrast between myself and these girls. The idea of spending $100, $300 or $500 on bags blows my mind. The most I have ever spent on a bag was 15 euros when I was in Millano and even then my travelling companion had to convince me it wasn't a stupid waste of money. The idea of spending money on something to hold my money in has always been a difficult one for me especially when I will end up with nothing to put in the wallet. My current wallet is a mistery gift it was either given to my sister or I one Christmas. But no one knows for who or my whome so it just showed up on my desk on boxing day when we were clearning up the living room.

One of the things that I noticed about many of the Personal Finance blogs was that the people writing them confessed to being shoppaholics. This is something that I am definitely not!

I often wonder how people can be so in to cloths. It might just be me but I have never been part of the 'in style.' But the strange thing is that I have noticed I start trends. Nothing crazy or really 'new' but in my 'I can't be bothered about fashion' I end up becoming 'fashionable.'

What prompted this post besides the bag girls was two girls on the bus today. They were clearly friends and in there late teens or early 20's. But both were wearing the exact same things, not brands but style. Both had jeggins on with flat knee high boots. Both were in long purple tops (different shades), both had fitted leather jackets on and designer bags. Even more ironic both were heading off to the mall.

So I am curious is most of people's debt consumer as with the case of girls I observe on the bus?

Commitments- How Debt Paralyses Me

When I first committed to paying down my student debt after the first $700.00. I was only able to put in $150.00 a pay cheque. This was because I also had all the sundry debts to take care off. Now that I have taken care of most of the Sundry debt, I have bumped it up to $200.00 a pay cheque. Once the Sundry debt is completely gone and christmas is gone, things are going to change. I am making a stance and committing to it now and you are all going to be my witnesses this World Wide Web of information and mass of people.

Starting January 1st I will put $300 per pay cheque into my student debt. This will only add up to $600.00 a month which is less then 50% of what I want to be putting into it. But its a start. I wanted to get a second job by February but if I get to go on this conference it looks like March 1st will have to be the official second job start date now.... sigh...


Its November now and I am silently freaking over February 2011. So much will come at me all at once:

* I will have a car by then

* I will have a car payment in what ever form

* I will have insurance and gas

* My first OSAP payment hits plus the 6 months of interest that has added up

*Feb. 23 I will en-role in my company stock option (10% of my income)

* The conference (if I can go)

All these extras and now I am committing to $600 into debt repayment

Breath, Sarah, Breath

I can do it, I can do it!!!

Sundry Debt Update and Extra December Pay Cheque

I am so excited I gave the last $62.80 to Dave today. Which means that he is completely pied off!!!! YAHOO finally since it was outstanding since August. Also the first $50 for Miranda is sitting on my desk ready to give her when I next see her, and at the rate that we are going it might not be until after next week's pay day. If this happens then I will have the next $80 for her. Which means that after she has that $80.00 I will be Sundry Debt free!!! I know I am jumping the gun a little bit but I am excited about the idea. To be even a little bit debt free is an exciting prospect.

In other news next month I get 3 pay cheques and I have spent the last couple of night agonizing over it to the point were I can't get to sleep. Its pathetic I mean now that I have money and I am trying to pay down debt and its an extra pay cheque I am still stressing over it. I had originally wanted to put the extra money left over after my automatic general saving deduction and cat fund deduction into debt. But other things have come up like my car fund which has to be at $2000 by the end of December. Also I have the chance to go to an academic conference in Cuba in February. And since there is no 'spare' credit (thank God) It has to be paid for in cash. The other thing is that I am not treating it as 'bonus or extra cash' for me its just another pay day. So I want to make sure I use it wisely. sigh.... advice anyone....

When Life Gets in the Way and Specific Funds Explanation

I have mentioned in a few of my last posts about "when life gets in the way" and that I would explain my reasons for splitting up my Savings into two different funds (general savings and Specific funds). I have also mentioned before about the importance of putting 10% your savings away or paying yourself first. You will also notice that I do not have an emergency fund.

The general savings fund is the place I put 10% of my income. Its strictly for savings or investing. That is I have not completely decided what to do with it. So until I make the decision, it will sit as my general savings fund, collecting 10% of my income every pay.

The first Specific fund is my car fund. Basically I spend up to 5h each day on buses and walking to and from work, were by car its 15-25 min. So I want a car so I can take the extra 4h I would save and put it towards time for a second job which is one of my goals for next year.

Now the Cat fund is a little bit more complex and has a story behind it. Two years ago this month a cat acquired me.

When I was going to university the lady who lived upstairs of me rescued animals. All animals she was not discriminating. But at the time she was focused on local stray cats. I worked while at university in the campus safety and student safety DPTM so I knew many of the first year Rez. kids. A couple first year friends of mine told me they had spotted a cat living in Chaplain North Quad which is one of the court yards that make up Chaplain College. My friends asked me if they were able to catch the cat would I be willing to foster it until they could find a home for it. I said of course and latter that week when they caught it they brought it to my place. I came back home for the Friday and Saturday to see a movie with a friend. While at home in Toronto I picked up a flee collar for the cat from a local pet store and when I got home I put it on him.

The next morning I woke up with large brown insects crawling across my chest. I had no idea what they were at the time and where they came from. But as I stripped my bed I found more crawling in and among my sheets. It didn't take long for me to isolate the source- the cat. It cost me $200 for the emergency vet on call visit, to fine out that the cat was covered in Ticks. By the time I had completely de-ticked him I had taken off over 500 ticks. I made the decision that day that if i was shelling out $200 then the cat was officially 'bought.' What followed was monthly vet visits for a variety of different things, to the point where I stated to joke about him being my thousand dollar kitty.

We surpassed the thousand dollar mark this last October when Salem (my cat) ate a piece of string and it got rapped around his tongue causing him to toss up anything he tried to eat or drink. He spent 2 nights in the vet hospital. The vet first quoted me at $1150 and it ended up coming to $750. I had $250 from the reimbursement of dental expenses I get back though my insurance and I slashed my budget to squeeze out another $250, my mom was nice enough to cover the rest. But I realized then that I needed to have a Cat Fund to make sure that if anything else like this again happened I was finically prepared. Especially now that I have another car Max and there are always yearly vet check ups.

So that's the story behind the Cat fund. I have it set for $2500 but basically I will just let it grow and grow until a situation arises where I need to dip into it. Every pay cheque I put in $50.

Blog Enhancement

I am so excited I found a way to track my savings and debts visually on my blog. Don't laugh at me I know its basic and simple but I am not all that tech. savvy !!

Any ways I have Split my financial information up into 3 general sections:

1) Debts

2)General Savings

3) Special Funds

I've spent the last couple of hours trying to sort this out. I will likely change it but for now I am very happy with it.

I will explain my reason for the splits in another post when I blog about when "life gets in the way."

The 10 % Rule OR Paying Yourself First

When I first started to read books on personal finance, the one things every book I read had in common was the 10% rule. The 10% rule stipulates that 10% of everything you earn should be put in to some kind of savings. This is also known as paying yourself first. I decided that this was a good idea so I have started this process. Recently I read that you should be calculating 10% of your gross income not your net pay. Prior to reading this I had been putting in calculating based on my net pay. Which doesn't seam like a lot but over time the few extra dollars I'm sure would add up. Prior to last pay I had $425.05 in my 10% account. Last pay I put in another 140.91. This brings my total to $565.96.

10% fund has: $565.96 (425.05+149.01)

Putting the 10% aside was easy but deciding was to do with it has not been. I have had conflicting advice on what to do with it. So for now its just sitting in my money master account. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

GST/HST Cheque

In Ontario we get GST (Goods and Services Tax) cheques. They come four times a year: January, April, July, October. So I confess I was shocked to see a cheque for me in the mail box last week. Especially since we got one last month as well. But who am I to complain. Any ways I cashed it today and deposited it directly into my TD Line of credit. It's was only $65.00 but every little bit counts.

According to TD my line of credit currently stands at $ -33,389.37.

Now I don't know if it includes the $200.00 I put in this last pay or not. So we will have to wait and see when I do my monthly up dates.

Plan of Attack: Student Debt Part 2

I blogged a little while back about the size of my student debt. To recap my TD Canadatrust Student line of credit is $34, 380.00. Now my line of credit was originally only support to go to $34,000.00, but for a couple of months during the summer I did not pay my minimum payment on it. This happened because for a couple of months while I was still taking my last summer course to finish my degree I was not working. Never do as I did. Not paying your monthly minimum is a bad idea. So when it came time to catch up my first payment was $700.00. It was a real squeeze. Since I started my new full time job I have been putting in $150.00 every bi-weekly paycheque. So about $300.00 a month. As well in Ontario we get GST/ HST cheques from the government. So every one I get I will continue to put into my student debt. My goal before September 2011 is to get a significant about of the principle down. So that when October 2011 roles around and they add principle on top of the interest to my monthly payments I will hopefully not be paying $700.00 each month.

What about my National Student Loan you ask? Well I do not start making payments on it until February 2011. So until then I am focusing on my TD student loan.

Of course don't forget that I have also had several other sundry debts as well. In total $727. 41 which I have systematically reduced down to $192.80.

Focusing only on the TD line of credit at $34,380.81 and my sundry debts at $727.41, how much have I paid off since August 23, 2010?

As of the end of October 2010 I have put in $776.44 bringing by debt down to $33,604.37.

As of November 10th 2010 I have paid down $534.61 in sundry debt.

In total I have paid down $776.44 + $ 533.61= $1310.05 in debt.

So that leaves me with $34,380.81 +$776.44+ 13,058.00 -$1310.05 =$46,905.20 in debt

As of November 16th 2010 debt remaining: $46,905.20 (including OSAP debt)

Plan of Attack: Student Debt Part 1

When it comes to the 'Plan of attack' there are two distinct camps.

The first camp advises people to list all there debt from smallest amount to largest amount. The systematically work your way through the smallest to the largest. The idea being that if you have small success from the begging you will be more motivated to get all the debt paid down. The second reason for this approach is that the small amounts you paid can then be added to the larger debts to pay down the principle faster.

The second camp advises people to start with the debts which have the highest interest rate. The idea being that the higher the interest rate the less you are able to put into the principle and the more in the end you will end up paying to the lender to get your debt paid off.

Both methods work if you only have CREDIT CARD DEBT!!!

Student debt is very different and requires a different approach.

Not sure what I mean, let me explain. In Ontario, Canada which is were I live OSAP (National Student Loans) gives graduated students 6 months before they have to make their first payment. Interest still collects over those 6 months which is then paid in a lump sum on your first payment. In comparison when you have a student loan from a bank, in my case TD CanadaTrust (TD), the first year you are only expected to pay the interest. After the first year you are expected to play both a chunk of the principle and the monthly interest.

As for payment plan lengths National Student Loans automatically places students on a 9.5 year payment plan. As for my TD loan there is no real payment timeline, basically its when ever the loan is paid off. The thing about this is that you could take 9.5 years to pay off your National Student Loan and 10 years to pay off your Bank loan. However by the time you paid it off at this rate you would have likely paid for the original loan 2 times over. Also it hinders your ability to qualify for a mortgage when you want to buy your first home. For all the above reasons I am going to accelerate my payment plans.

The first steps to payin' off debt

In my last post I mentioned that I have several sundry debts to friends. I recommend that they be the first things you tackle. Taking my own advise the first thing I did was pay off Jessica. I owed her money for the last of our shared phone bill a total of $117.56. The second one I started to work on was my debt to Dave. Now he's not fully paid off, but because he is the biggest I wanted a good chunk of it paid. I have given him $270 of the $332.80 that I owed him. So $332.80-$270= $62.80 that I still owe him. He would have been paid off last month but 'life got in the way.' So he was willing enough to let me delay for a month. The topic of 'life getting in the way' I will talk about in another post. The other debts that I took care of was the $27.05 that I owed Dan. I am also happy to report that as of last night I have also paid of John which was $120.00. This leaves me with the last amount I owe to Dave and the full amount of $130.00 I owe Miranda.

Original sundry debt amount: $727.41

Current amount paid back: $534.61

Amount Outstanding: 192.80

Ownin' Up to the Debt

The first thing that Gail taught me was to Own Up to my student debt. To be honest I thought I knew what it was. I had it at a nice round number about 40,000.00. Ya I was way off almost 10,000.00 off. Gail has a great worksheet on her website that can help you as it did me own up to my debt. I know its scary to go it, but trust me you will start to feel you have a handle on your finances, when you actually know the true numbers. The second piece of advice that I have gained is: to write down any personal debt you have outstanding with friends. Then systematically get rid of the second list and plan out how you will work your way through the first list.

this is my First list:

PAY OFF IN Who you owe For What How Much Interest Rate 12 months 24 months 36 months TD Canada Trust student debt $34,380.81 5.00% $3,008.32 $1,539.97 $1,042.57 National Student Loans student debt $13,058.00 7.50% $1,169.78 $604.29 $412.60 TOTAL: $47,438.81 $4,178.10 $2,145.27 $1,455

TOTAL: 47,428.81

That is a VERY SCARRY NUMBER!!! I honestly can tell you my parents don't even know its that high. And of course I had no idea.

The second list included the sundry debts to friends:

Jessica (last phone bill for our aptm in Uni.)~ $117.56

John (Moving truck)~ $120.00

Miranda (concert ticket)~$130.00

Dan (containers)~ $27.05

Dave (trip)~ $332.80

TOTAL: 727.41

So GRAND TOTAL: 47,428.81 + 7.27.41 =48,156.22

Ya almost $50,000.00 in student debt and I want it paid off in 3.5 years. This is the first of my grand plans and this blog is going to help me keep on track.

About me

I got out of university just at the tail end of the most recent recession. Talk about a real downer. But we do as we must and I am chugging along.

Financial education was not high on family's list of things to teach us kids. My dad was a politician and my mom did mortgages. So ask me about mortgages and politics and I can tell you more then you would likely care to know. But when it comes to stocks and retirement funds, I am hopeless. I am not even sure my parents have it sorted out yet and they've had more time then me too.

So I have sought to educate myself.

I love watching the show: Till Debt Do Us Part and Gail Vaz-Oxlande has been very insightful with her tips. But I am not married and do not own anything but debt at this point in my life. As such most of her trips are good to have for the future, but have no baring on my current situation.

I have searched the internet and looked for financial books/ magazines for advice for people like me:

1) more (student) debt then income

2) minimal financial background

3) big dreams

And I have found snippets of advice but no real plan of attack.

So I am starting this blog to track my ability to get ride of the first item, build on the second item and realize the third.