The root of all evil, and amortization headaches
Boy, LJ seems chatty today!
So today I went and looked into getting a debt consolidation loan from my credit union. I have a pretty modest amount of unsecured debt, like less than five thousand dollars. But I want it GONE. The interest rates on it are INSANE and paying it down feels like Sisyphus sometimes. I'll get a much better interest rate (like 12%) from the credit union. I found out that if I get a 30 month loan and pay it all off, the monthly payment on it will only be slightly less than what I pay now in payments, but...it'll be paid off in 30 months. AND the biweekly paycheck deduction for it would be almost exactly the amount I put in savings, so if I take the savings money and put it toward the debt, which is a smarter use for it anyway, my actual take-home pay won't change at all, but I won't have to pay any monthly payments on this crap. That savings account is NOT my retirement savings account, that's separate, this was just sort of a sock-money-away account, which of course I can still keep putting money into. I put a lot of my freelance money in there.
Then, the strategy is to keep the accounts open, which helps your credit rating...but to keep them open you kind of have to buy something small once a month and then pay it off immediately. I won't have trouble with that, I'm not in the habit of using my credit cards to buy things. Almost the entire balance is from a couple of bigger purchases (my computer, for example).
I got the appointment for my pre-op consult for my gastric bypass today. It's May 12th. This is when I'll meet the surgeon and we'll decide on a date. I have to schedule it at least four weeks out from then to give my mother time to make travel plans, which puts me to the middle of June, but I think I'm going to go ahead and see if I can have it the second week in July, a couple of weeks later. I'm supposed to do two Pride festivals in late June. I can't have it the first week of July because if there's anything that a full-time RVer who works at RV parks and campgrounds can't do, it's leave work on Memorial Day, Labor Day or the 4th of July.
So...yeah!
Got a haircut last night, thank GOD. My hairdresser, bless her heart, wanted to "try something different." She wanted to leave some of the length (it's gotten pretty shaggy) and try and style it differently. Yeah, wasn't feeling it. I explained to her that I've found this haircut, my usual haircut, which both looks good and which I can make look good myself (which isn't always the case with haircuts, as we know), and it's kind of become a security blanket. So she cut it the normal way. Got my eyebrows waxed, too, so today I'm sporting that oh-so-attractive "no, I'm not really wearing crazy pink eyeshadow" look.
So today I went and looked into getting a debt consolidation loan from my credit union. I have a pretty modest amount of unsecured debt, like less than five thousand dollars. But I want it GONE. The interest rates on it are INSANE and paying it down feels like Sisyphus sometimes. I'll get a much better interest rate (like 12%) from the credit union. I found out that if I get a 30 month loan and pay it all off, the monthly payment on it will only be slightly less than what I pay now in payments, but...it'll be paid off in 30 months. AND the biweekly paycheck deduction for it would be almost exactly the amount I put in savings, so if I take the savings money and put it toward the debt, which is a smarter use for it anyway, my actual take-home pay won't change at all, but I won't have to pay any monthly payments on this crap. That savings account is NOT my retirement savings account, that's separate, this was just sort of a sock-money-away account, which of course I can still keep putting money into. I put a lot of my freelance money in there.
Then, the strategy is to keep the accounts open, which helps your credit rating...but to keep them open you kind of have to buy something small once a month and then pay it off immediately. I won't have trouble with that, I'm not in the habit of using my credit cards to buy things. Almost the entire balance is from a couple of bigger purchases (my computer, for example).
I got the appointment for my pre-op consult for my gastric bypass today. It's May 12th. This is when I'll meet the surgeon and we'll decide on a date. I have to schedule it at least four weeks out from then to give my mother time to make travel plans, which puts me to the middle of June, but I think I'm going to go ahead and see if I can have it the second week in July, a couple of weeks later. I'm supposed to do two Pride festivals in late June. I can't have it the first week of July because if there's anything that a full-time RVer who works at RV parks and campgrounds can't do, it's leave work on Memorial Day, Labor Day or the 4th of July.
So...yeah!
Got a haircut last night, thank GOD. My hairdresser, bless her heart, wanted to "try something different." She wanted to leave some of the length (it's gotten pretty shaggy) and try and style it differently. Yeah, wasn't feeling it. I explained to her that I've found this haircut, my usual haircut, which both looks good and which I can make look good myself (which isn't always the case with haircuts, as we know), and it's kind of become a security blanket. So she cut it the normal way. Got my eyebrows waxed, too, so today I'm sporting that oh-so-attractive "no, I'm not really wearing crazy pink eyeshadow" look.