My Boyfriend’s Money Epiphany/ USAA 100% PAID
My boyfriend had a money epiphany this weekend. He decided that the key to financial happiness is not building some big company and selling it for a lot of money to retire. It’s living frugally and consistently spending less than you earn. Blank stare.
Mind you - he’s considerably older than I am, makes more money than me, but also has a lot more expenses than I do. Oh yeah, and in addition, he spends a lot more too.
He’s decided to cash out most of his 401(k) and pay off everything he owes - which after the car loan, the credit cards, and his legal fees are quite the heap.
I think I’m rubbing off on him. With all of that out of the way, he’s free to start building again. And without car, rent (he’s paying 6 months in advance), or credit card payments, he’s going to be able to save quite a chunk of change very quickly.
I have replaced all of the lightbulbs in our new place to energy efficient ones. We’re using an evap cooler instead of AC for most of the summer. These both yield substantial energy savings. Internet is $30/month. Satellite TV is $35. Water and garbage are still an unknown, but because it’s from the City, it should be too steep.
Today - I officially paid off my USAA Amex card and can now move that $1700/month toward the Costco Amex - bringing the total snowball to around $2300/month. This also breaks the barrier and brings my Credit Card debt to under $20K. This feels really REALLY good!
Sure - I would love to be able to pay everything off with one fell swoop, but at my age, it would cost me a fortune in retirement earnings to cash mine out. Maybe I just like doing stuff the hard way, but when this debt is all gone, I can be sure I’m never EVER going to be back in this situation again!
And that’s more than I can say for all of the people who “paid off” their credit cards with their HELOCs.
