Another Debt Erased
August was great month for the DeliverAwayDebt household. We were able to pay off our second mortgage (woot). This was our largest debt, and we finished it one month ahead of schedule. Any Dave Ramsey fans out there will wonder why the hell we went after the largest debt. Its completely opposite of how it’s suppose to be done. I KNOW but we didn’t care.
When you are paying off debt, the mind can play tricks on you. That’s why DR suggests the smallest to largest route so you can get the easy, momentum building debts out of the way. Since my wife and I already learned how our minds have played tricks on us, we knew the order was not an issue anymore. Once you have the behavior under control, you can look at the whole picture and make the right moves.
The right move for us, was to pay off our largest debt, which was also our highest interest rate. We had one more reason to pay off the second mortgage before the others, we want to sell our house early next year. Without having a second mortgage on our house, it will be much easier to start the process.
Net Worth Snapshot
Emergency Fund
As usually it remains steady at $1,000. One of my goals this year was to bring that up to $2,000. I will begin the process starting this month.
401K
Since our economy is riding a roller coaster, my 401K will continue to go up and down along with it :-)
Car
I’m still amazed that this car is holding it’s value. Whether I could get this much remains to be seen though. I heard on the radio this morning that used car prices a still on the rise. A 3 year old Escalade has 36% higher value this year, then a 3 year old Escalade last year. That’s amazing if you ask me. Looks like a car could almost be considered an investment, ok – maybe not.
House
I adjusted the value of the house in July and will be adjusting in November again.
Debt Snowball
As I stated above, the second mortgage is done. Our next focus is the student loan. This one will be paid off during September and then it’s on to the 401K loans. According to our plan, we will have the the student loan and two 401K loans paid off by the end of the year. We are really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now and it’s full steam ahead.
Looking back to January 2010
Networth – January 2010 The past 8 months have involved a ton of hard work and sacrifice to keep the debt train rolling. I want to take a second to show you what you can do if you put your mind to it. Since January (8 months ago) we’ve paid off $31,598 in debt and changed our networth from -$56,893.89 to -$20,694.73 (a $36,199 increase). If you are trying to blast away your debt, it can be done. If you need help getting started or just need someone to talk to about it, drop me a line or give me a call 734-743-1517. I’m here to provide any support you need 
How was your month? Did you make progress, or did Summer happen to you??
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeff this rocks!!! You are on fire…. I don’t earn enough cash to make mega payments month by month but I did add another $1000 to my emergency fund yesterday… Woo hoo!
@Forest $1000 to the EF is AWESOME my friend. Keep it up brother!!
Congrats on the EF, Forest!
You too, Jeff! Keep up the great work! A phone number, huh? Hmmm…
Hey Funk, thanks I’ll keep on keepin’ on
Yeah, I get so many requests for my digits I figured I’d see if anyone would call haha, maybe not. Notice anything else different on the site?
I am SO EXCITED FOR YOU. You guys are busting it. I hope you share this post link with my readers on September 3rd for my Financial Updates post and linky-linky. This is so inspirational.
@Jolyn Many thanks Young Lady
I look forward to seeing you update tomorrow. Isn’t it fun for everyone to hold you accountable during the updates? I’d better see some movement otherwise I’m going to come knocking on your door, and I won’t be delivering pizza!!
Great work Jeff! All of those side hustles/second jobs are really paying off for you.
Good thoughts on shoring up the E Fund a bit. I think after paying 2 of my 3 student loans off, I’m going to shore up the levees on my EFund as well.
I also wish my snowball is as big as yours. 4k+ a month! Dude you’re killing it. When you’re debt free, that’s an extra 60k a year. What are you going to do with that cash!?
@Jeff yes sir, it’s awesome to see how all the hard work is paying off. It really keeps me going. I haven’t planned out what I’m going to do with all the extra money once I’m done. I’m too focused at the task at hand to worry about it yet. I still have a ton of debt to blow away. Just keep plugging away at your snowball, it will continue to get bigger and bigger. When I was delivering and not working any OT I was snowballing $1,500 ish.
Congrats again. That snowball keeps getting bigger from here.
You should start think about what to do with that extra cash once you finish the debt. We finished our snowball in May and still have no idea what I want to do with the extra cash. Aside from a small vacation it’s mostly just gone in the bank
@Derek, you’re right. Maybe at the end of the year we’ll figure it out better. Retirement, College, house are all on the list
I have a question. The last time you posted your update I just assumed you would knock out the 401k loan thats sitting at 8.25% with a balance similar to the student loan. What is your rational for knocking that one out? Does it have a much higher monthly payment giving you more cash flow? Or is there another reason to get rid of it?
@Marie, great question. It’s a little bit of a mind game with the student loan. I promised my wife we’d knock out the student loan after the 2nd mortgage. It’s her student loan and as a stay at home Mom she HATES having to see that monthly payment. We can pay the student loan off during September and then the with any luck the 401K #1 in October. If I did the 401K loan first, it would still take until October to pay off it off so the savings on interest isn’t much.
Great job paying off that 2nd mortgage! That interest rate musta been crazy high yeah?
I look at my budget and progress once a quarter, or once every 6 months actually. Donno, it’s not very exciting and just steady.
@FS Yes sir, that interest rate was VERY high. It’s nice to be finished with it. I have the feeling that I will follow a similar track with my “checkups” once the debt is gone. Although every 6 months might be a little too long for me.
This is great! Definitely gives me motivation. Your snowball amount is huge – if you keep up this rate, your debt will be gone in less than a year!
Great job! Ive been following your progress for a few months now and just saw your first networth post. Its amazing how far a person can go if they really put in the time and effort like you have. Its encouraging to see!
@Ben Thank you sir, I’m glad you are one of the thousands that follow – ok maybe not that many but someday… It’s a lot of time, but it has been worth it so far.
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