| A new year!! I joined this site on January 1, 3 years ago in a state of abject despair over the condition of my finances and the amount of debt I had hanging over my head, robbing me of all sense of freedom. I am proud that I have diligently updated this information every month since then and have for the most part stayed on the path of determined debt payoff. I am really happy that my student loans are down to $29,500!!! That is amazing to me!!! I know I can knock them off once and for all in the next 12 months, and though that will take sacrifice, focus and hard work, once that albatross is off my neck, I am going to be one happy camper! This is not to say the RE situation is not horrible; the house is now well over $100K underwater, and the ability to refinance to lower rates is about nil, even though I have near perfect credit. I still have one paying roommate and am very grateful for that, but I also still have family members staying in my other rental room, so I am losing out on that income every month. Due to their age and this economy, their prospects for long term employment are grim, but I do plan to urge them to think outside the box to come up with ways to earn some income and begin making a contribution to the household expenses. I must say I am feeling some resentment as I did not expect this situation (their continued unemployment and lack of financial contribution to the household) to continue for this long (14 months now and counting...). I will be asking other family members to make a contribution to help cover their 'room and board' so to speak, and we'll see how that goes. Right now I am the only one making sacrifices, which is pretty unfair. The RE market in this area continues its downward plunge and it seems more folks are foreclosing and short selling, hence the monthly decline in the stated value of the home. Given better market conditions, it would be nice to just sell and find cheaper accommodations, but it seems I can't get out of this mess without tremendous personal cost to my financial record, which I am not willing to take on right now. Plus, the nature of my job/organization precludes me from having bad credit. Anyway, that dead horse has been beaten enough times.
The goals for 2011:
1.) Continue my snowball to pay off the Student Loans by year end.
2.) Modest rental increase for roommate whose been at the same rent for 3 years.
3.) Back to 10% gross into my 401 (k).
4.) Add to monthly income through sibling contributions to assist with room and board for parents staying in the house,
5.) Find additional income streams.
In follow up to the December post, I did not travel for Christmas; this saved me well over a grand in travel costs and gifts, but I don't think I'll do that again, not even in the interests of financial freedom. Need four new tires on the car + an alignment = $650, also needed some repairs done around the house costing several hundred dollars. I depleted my Baby Step 1 Emergency Savings account as a result. Will need to replenish that this month. And the beat goes on...
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Home value is updated monthly from Zillow.com/Zestimate
(Purchase price was $370K in August 2006).
Other Mortgage = HELOC/2nd Mortgage
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