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Debt Free
$25,691.32 in student loans, paid off as of today. That’s $30,100 (give or take $100) of debt paid off total over the last 3.5 years of financial consciousness. I think I’m supposed to throw a party or something. I’m still kinda in shock.
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First and last credit card
My first credit card — a Chase Rewards card that I got back in 2005 to help with Thorn expenses — is now my last and final. It had a $300 credit limit when I got it, and had a $2700 limit earlier this evening. I paid the remaining bit of balance on it this morning and closed it just 20 minutes ago once I saw the balance was $0. It took 2 minutes and 52 seconds to sever my last line of revolving credit. I feel strangely… cut loose. Like I’m no longer wrapped up in so much of America’s debt problem, even though I still have loans. But…
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Step 0, done
Thanks to my NC and federal tax returns, I am now current on all credit cards and ready to “snowflake” my way to a starter emergency fund (with the help of my IN tax return and the economic stimulus check, yes). In the process, I paid off what remained of my tax debt from last year with no additional money out of pocket. Lingering headache aside, today is starting off very well. Windfalls are nice. Paying well over $900 toward my high-interest debts in a month is nice, too. Now I just need to get those interest rates lowered with some phone calls during lunch.
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On tax returns and economic stimuli
So, as I’ve made clear in the past, I’ve decided to take on my debt full-tilt using ideas from Dave Ramsey’s books and various financial blogs I read. My budgeting earlier this year was skewed by irregular income for a couple of months, courtesy of leaving teaching, having unemployed time, then starting a new gig. I’ve been chipping down at one debt in particular these past few months — it’s a credit card where one charge went just over the credit limit, blooming in fees and extra charges beyond what I could pay during my paycheck-to-paycheck living while teaching. I made out like a bandit on my tax return this…