In other words, if your emergency fund doesn't have $ 1,000 in it, you should hold back
on extra debt payments.
Savings Examples: building an emergency fund, reducing debt
with extra debt payments, saving for a home down payment, saving for retirement, etc..
During those six months of the 0 % interest rate, you can pay the minimum amount due while
making extra debt payments to Credit Card 3 (for a total of $ 200) so you can pay it off before the new credit card interest rate resets.
When I started paying of debt I started with $ 1,000 and while I was paying off debt, I would add a percentage to my savings every time I made
an extra debt payment until I reached a month of expenses.
Living Expenses: Debt: Savings: Rent - $ 400 CC's: $ 275 General: $ 0 (bad, I know) Phone - $ 65 Private Student Loan: $ 310 RDF's: $ 0 (ug, I am horrible) Car Insurance - $ 90 Navient Student Loan: $ 100 Groceries - $ 200 Other Federal Loans: $ 170 Fun - $ 50
Extra Debt Payment: $ 500 Travel - $ 50 Wedding - $ 200
Financial / Savings goal - Savings (emergency / opportunity fund),
Extra debt payment, after - tax retirement savings, after - tax investing, savings for specific goals (wedding, house, travel, college, etc..)
They will check in with you and your progress, talk you off of the ledge if there is a point where you want to take
your extra debt payment money and go to the opening day of the newest high - end fashion designer collaboration with Target.
The only thing I can't pay is
my extra debt payments.
Mind you, not all lenders allow this and the ones that do check that you can afford
the extra debt payment.
Focus on lowering your expenses, find ways to make extra money, and commit to making
extra debt payments each month until you eliminate your balance.
When making your budget, make sure that you prioritize
your extra debt payments.
With this method, whenever you find unexpected money, no matter how small the amount seems to be, you make
an extra debt payment.
So, when you are comparing debt payoff to investing, you can think of
your extra debt payment like an investment in which there is zero risk of losing money due to a loss of principal.
We have 6 months of expenses saved, and we're halting
our extra debt payments right now and putting the money in savings.
50 % of your take home pay (a.k.a. net after taxes) should be allocated to your fixed expenses and bills including minimum debt payments, 30 % can be spent on variable monthly expenses and 20 % should be saved or used to make
extra debt payments.