<< Back to all Blogs

About Me:

terri77

I am 46, single, no kids. I am a health care professional. I feel that I'm generally a very good saver and a not so good budgeter - hence the credit card debt payoff I worked through in 2020.

My personal finance goals for 2024:

1. Contribute maximum to Thrift Savings Plan. This is a recurring goal that I’ve accomplished every year since 2008.

2. Contribute maximum to Roth IRA. This is a recurring goal that I’ve accomplished every year since 2001.

3. Pay off credit cards. Completed January 2021. Now the strategy is to pay off my credit cards monthly with no balance carryover.

4. Build up emergency & long-term savings. I completed my initial goal in April 2021. I have 3-6 months of expenses saved at this time & I continue to save for my next car purchase, which is hopefully many years away. I use high yield savings and CDs.

5. Invest in brokerage account. I started with the proceeds from selling my condo & have added monthly. This account is for a future down payment when I purchase a home again.

6. Give to church monthly. I attend two churches right now so I alternate my monthly offerings.

7. Give to charity monthly. Food banks are my preferred charity to give to. I have automated my charitable donations at work to give with my biweekly paychecks.

8. Apply for promotions as they become available. Right now I’m very happy in my current position, so this isn’t much of a goal currently. I have received several raises, I enjoy the work I do, & the people I work with…I’m very happy to stay where I am.

9. New goal for 2024! Build new home with $100k down. This will be funded from my brokerage account & cash savings. 🏡

Paid off my car this morning!

December 12th, 2020 at 04:35 pm

I always say that I'll let the final payment go through as usual, but like with my TSP loan I couldn't wait. My automatic payment of $200 went through yesterday & I had $180.15 remaining. I scheduled the $180.16 payoff amount for today. She's all mine now! 🚙

This is my second loan payoff this year & I've moved my anticipated credit card pay off from spring 2021 to January 2021. My balance will never be zero as I don't pay in cash, but it should just be my usual monthly purchases on my balance after next month, rather than recurring debt. I am now down to $3k from $22k earlier this year.

My next paycheck I will contribute $700 to my TSP to max out for the year. I still have $2k remaining to contribute on my 2020 IRA. $500 will be contributed on the 15th.

I'm so excited for my progress this year. It's like I woke up out of a slumber. Next year I'll be able to focus on rebuilding my savings.

Still no news about whether federal employees will get a raise next year, but I'm still due for a step increase. Of course, we will have to begin paying back deferrred OASDI taxes in the new year.

I enjoyed my day off yesterday. I ran some errands, did some house chores, & had a belated birthday lunch with a friend. Today will be more of the same. I slept in very late today. I guess my body needed it.

Have a great weekend & happy Hanukkah to those celebrating! 🕎

Net Worth $1,102,723

Posted in Retirement readings, General musings, Debt diet, Net Worth, Credit Cards, Debt, Personal Finance, Retirement | 16 Comments »

16 Responses to “Paid off my car this morning!”

MonkeyMama Says:
December 12th, 2020 at 06:50 pm 1607799027
1607799027

Woohoo!
Wink Says:
December 12th, 2020 at 08:19 pm 1607804391
1607804391

Congratulations!!!
Dido Says:
December 12th, 2020 at 11:37 pm 1607816268
1607816268

Congrats on the payoff and on so much good progress this year!
mumof2 Says:
December 13th, 2020 at 12:33 am 1607819595
1607819595

congrats...that is awesome
LuckyRobin Says:
December 13th, 2020 at 04:31 am 1607833907
1607833907

You are really cranking that debt payoff out this year. I'm really pleased for you.
CB in the City Says:
December 13th, 2020 at 04:40 pm 1607877644
1607877644

Congrats!
disneysteve Says:
December 14th, 2020 at 01:30 am 1607909436
1607909436

Congrats! That's terrific.
Baroque Says:
December 14th, 2020 at 05:16 am 1607923004
1607923004

Well done!!
ceejay74 Says:
December 14th, 2020 at 05:27 am 1607923624
1607923624

WOO HOO! Doing the virtual happy dance for you. Well done!!
livingalmostlarge Says:
December 14th, 2020 at 10:46 pm 1607985971
1607985971

Congratulations! I swear it feels so much better to drive a paid for car! I just paid ours off in September!
Petunia 100 Says:
December 17th, 2020 at 05:08 am 1608181695
1608181695

Congrats on reaching this goal!
rob62521 Says:
December 18th, 2020 at 09:13 pm 1608325986
1608325986

Way to go!
Rachael777 Says:
December 22nd, 2020 at 03:19 pm 1608650367
1608650367

I reread some entries and back in May 2011 you were at a networth of $277k. .. so 5x growth in 9 years!! Impressive and I can feel your excitement through the computer What was your path to $1mm so others can learn?
terri77 Says:
December 22nd, 2020 at 03:44 pm 1608651869
1608651869

Wow! Thanks so much for reading, Rachael! I will say the biggest thing for me is consistent saving & investing. As you can see from my sidebar, I maximized my retirement vehicles for many years. I started investing my last year of college. I think the minimum investment was $25 or $50 monthly. I graduated with very little school loan debt thanks to my parents & a scholarship. I lived at home until I bought my own home with 20% down. My mortgage is less than I would pay in rent. I have splurged on buying new cars the last two times, but I am happy to keep those cars for several years. I also like to travel & don’t regret the money spent on experiences. One thing I have done wrong is having a shopping habit which led to my credit card debt. I used to spend every weekend shopping. It was my past time. This year has taught me how little I needed all those things. I have been a bit of a hoarder, now I’m trying to declutter my home through eBay & Facebook sales.
Rachael Resk Says:
December 22nd, 2020 at 04:33 pm 1608654829
1608654829

Thanks for sharing. It is interesting the path you chose as it shows that regardless of what was going on (life circumstances, other debt) you kept strict to your investment commitment and it shows the value of investing early in real terms. I would be interested to learn if your net worth is all in financial investments and what you chose or if you have other non financial investments. Through your blog you are a mentor to others and people are reading in part to learn (as well as support you) especially when you almost five-tuple your networth in 9 years!! Great job and REALLY excited for you. Keep it up. By the way I am running an online zoom David Ramsey course next month. I will post it separately if any from this group want to join.
terri77 Says:
December 22nd, 2020 at 07:05 pm 1608663958
1608663958

That sounds great, Rachael! I know many have found success with Ramsey’s principles. I have started back listening to him when I am working in the evenings. The stories are very interesting.

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)

Name:	*
Email:	Will not be published.
	Subscribe: Notify me of additional comments to this entry.
URL:
Verification:	* Please spell out the number 4. [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]

Firefly's Personal Finance Blog

Working out my spending impulses.

Paid off my car this morning!

16 Responses to “Paid off my car this morning!”

Leave a Reply