August 2008 Debt Report Update
I have some new numbers for this month’s debt report since the IRS applied my stimulus check to what I owe them:
Debt balances:
- Dentist (crown): $325
- Attorney: $449
- IRS: $2,752.40
- CFCU Visa: $4,826.15
- Chase HELOC: $4,847.58
- Capital One HELOC: $21,440.60
First mortgage balance: $117,050
Debt Balance excluding co-signed student loans and first mortgage: $34,641
Total debt including first mortgage, excluding student loans: $151,691
Student Loans:
- Co-signed student loan, approximate balance: $45,238 (need a complete audit on these accounts; not sure this balance is correct or even close)
Possible total balance including 1st mortgage: $196,929
I had a sick feeling deep in my gut that this was going to happen. Oh, well. Less debt to the IRS is good.
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Zillow: 155,500.00
Mort: 117,050.00
HELOC1: 4,847.58
HELOC2: 21,440.60
Homeowner’s equity: 12,161.82
Maybe with just the two of you, you should be in an apartment, saving money?
Walking away from the house isn’t going to hurt you; you own less than 8% of it. And this is before a hurricane damages it or the area, further lowering values.
Maybe your sister in Dallas can rent you a room.
Comment by zum dhood | August 30, 2008
Zum, I already explained why we aren’t moving in a previous post and comments. We have pets and my son’s father lives near here. I’m not taking my son to Dallas that far away from his father unless I have no other choice. Right now I still have a choice.
As of this writing, it’s too late to sell before a hurricane. Gustav is a category 4 storm expected to become a category 5 storm over night. It will make landfall likely here on Monday afternoon as a category 4 storm. It’s Saturday evening now.
Comment by joubess | August 30, 2008
It’s September… debt update?
Comment by Shom Drood | September 10, 2008
Will post a September update when we get internet access back at home. I don’t have the info with me and I have to access at a coffee shop. We lost cable and power in Hurricane Gustav. The power came back on last Tuesday, but the cable (ISP, only reason we have cable) hasn’t come back up yet. The cable is lying across the street and in a neighbor’s backyard on the end of a broken telephone pole. The electric company replaced the pole, cut the old one off so as not to disturb the cable lines and restored power, but they don’t touch cable.
Some people still don’t have power and some stop lights are still out. Many stores and shops are still operating under reduced hours and limited supplies.
Since New Orleans wasn’t hammered and flooded the national news didn’t report on the huge amount of destruction in Baton Rouge. Gustav was the worst hurricane Baton Rouge has had in at least 50 years. We’ve had Betsy (1965), Camille (1969), Andrew (1992), Katrina and Rita (2005) and now Gustav (2008). Gustav is the worst. We were very fortunate that Ike went farther west than Rita did in 2005. We are devastated enough. A second hurricane 12 days after such a bad one would have really been horrible.
If you are inclined to give generously, please give to the American Red Cross disaster fund. Between Gustav and Ike, that fund is really in need of donations.
Comment by joubess | September 17, 2008
Your blog is great, I started a similar type blog. It really helps me when I compare one month to the next. I was seeing some progress, but the debt is creeping back up again so it can get really stressful and discouraging.
I say keep paying on that house (it looks like you intend to stay)…it will be completely worth it. I finally got mine paid off, but I still have 27,000 in CC debt, which is amazing to me. My husband and I are reasonably smart people but the debt sure creeps in.
Comment by Mom in Debt Too | September 28, 2008
Hi Mom in Debt Too,
Just keep plugging along and pay off those credit cards. Don’t borrow on your house to do it. You’ll make get them paid off quickly without a house payment.
The reason the debt creeps in on us is we have begun to manage our personal finances the way big businesses manage their daily cash flow. They borrow money one day to cover the cash flow they will need by 10 am the next day. After the daily receipts have been counted and they’ve collected enough to pay it back and pay for the next day’s cash flow needs too, they pay back the over night loan. These over night loans of cash cover everything from employee paychecks, tax payments and company vehicle maintenance to supply purchases. This cash is what makes the American economy work. But what also makes it work is it’s very short-term borrowing at very low interest rates.
Small business doesn’t operate this way, and neither do households.
We consumers don’t have daily cash coming in like big business. We borrow month-to-month to cover our cash flow short falls, but don’t pay it back as soon as we have enough money to cover that short fall. We should also be able to manage our budgets without daily injections of borrowed cash followed by daily repayments of borrowed cash. We have a much smaller system and we can cover our cash flows on our monthly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly or weekly paychecks. Or at least we should be able to do so.
I’m glad you like my blog and I hope you’ll return regularly to read the content or subscribe in the righthand sidebar.
Sherri
Comment by joubess | September 28, 2008