All Forum Posts by: Laura H.

Way to go, @Cliff Harrison! It really is a great town - I lived there for ten years, myself.

I'll be closing my first deal on Feb 1st - a 2BR/1.5BA duplex in LS.

Mind if I ask where about in LS? What rent numbers do you have/expect to see?

Feel free to PM if you don't want to share publicly.

@Steve Stackman - What did you think of the course?

Looks like a nice place! Have they had many showings? Any feedback from them? Anything on the seller's disclosure that might scare folks away? Are the neighbor's properties well-kept?

So here's what we came up with last night:

We can use some available cash and $5k of the "Oh Sh*t Fund" to pay off half of the $15k balance. That will still leave us with $20k in reserves in case it all hits the fan. For the other half of the credit card balance, we'll cash out the $7k in stocks. Boom. No more credit card debt.

I've temporarily stopped contributions to my 401(k) so we can throw as much "personal" money at the student loan debt as possible. We can snowball the CC minimum payments we were making into this to make it go even further. We'll start with the one with the highest interest rate (also the one I hate the most and with the lowest balance, so win-win) and keep going until they're all paid off. Should take two years or less.

The excess rental income and refi leftovers will be treated separately (as it always should have been) and go toward a new purchase. If there's some magical deal I just can't pass up, we'll have the funds to do something about it. This gives me the security I need to keep paying down the debt.

Thank you, everyone for your feedback - it really helped!

@James Triano - Our credit scores are already around 800 and we're using less than 20% of our available revolving credit. My concern is more about the monthly payments sucking up what we could be saving toward another property. More on that in a minute...

That's a good point about the 401(k) versus a Roth IRA. Who knows what'll happen with taxes by the time I retire - it might be a good idea to make sure any retirement income I have is mine and not the government's.

Ah, that makes sense, @Sarah Ottesen. Good thing banks don't loan 100% of the value anymore, eh? (Or at least none of the ones I've talked to recently do...)

I think I'm going to sit down tonight with my hubs, some 'nog, and a spreadsheet and figure out how we can get this stuff paid off ASAP. I'll let you all know what we figure out.

Thank you, everyone, for your responses!

@Joe Splitrock - We followed *some* of Dave's advice about 8 years ago and supplemented the rest with what we thought was best for us at the time. Yes, I realize this was dumb. I should have created more spreadsheets and made sure we stuck to our guns. But life happened and now I'm paying closer attention. Onward and upward.

And correction - the $25k is in stocks. I somewhat agree with you that those funds should have gone to the emergencies we had, but our concern at the time was capital gains. It was always my husband's thinking that the $25k was ONLY to be used if one of us lost our job. I'm wondering now if we should have a "Well Darn" in addition to an "Oh Sh*t" fund.

I think my concern with waiting to buy more is that market may change in the coming year - interest rates have already gone up and inventory is down. As I said, patience is not my strong suit. But *sigh* I should probably be more concerned about clearing the debt we have now so that we can afford more later.

Thank you for your insight!

Ha! Glad I'm not the only one, @Sarah Ottesen!

It has to be a balance for us - we did Steps 1 and 3 before (hence "The Oh Sh*t Fund") and part of Step 2 (credit card debt only). At the time it didn't make sense for us to pay off my student loans when 1) the rate was so low and 2) the interest is tax deductible. I kind of regret that now.

I do see what you mean about the 401(k), however - I'm definitely not getting 13% interest there. It's hard for me to let go of the mentality that saving for my 401(k) now is "more important" than paying off debt. That whole compounded interest thing. But if I pay off debt, I have more free to save, right? I think? Ha!

@Brendan Woulfe - Your assumptions are half-correct ;o) The $25k is in stocks, but they're not earning anywhere near 13% annually. What about capital gains, though? we've had these stocks for almost ten years - could the capital gains wipe out the usefulness of tapping into this money?

@Ralph R. - I think your response was perfect! I appreciate your insight - it gets me thinking outside of my own head. Thank you!

@Sophie Thomas - If there is one thing I wish for, it's more patience when it comes to goals. What are your thoughts on *how* to pay off the credit cards? Use the refi or stocks? Or our paycheck excess? All of the above?

@James Triano - Our DTI would slightly improve by paying the cards off. I like the idea of separating RE money and personal money and filling the coffers for each separately. What is your thought on the pre-tax benefit of having my 401(k) withheld from each check?

You know, @Brock Y., I've done that balance transfer game before but hadn't even thought of it in this case... It all depends on the upfront fees and how fast you can pay it off. I don't know why it didn't occur to me this time around. Definitely something to look into - thanks!!