Debt Dumpers 2020

Try Universal. I’m in my 40s, and I love it as an extended weekend trip. Your kids might like it too.

I know folks in their 20s that are burnt out on Disney from their parents taking them so often. The magic is gone for them.
I love Universal and so do my kids (two of them in there 20’s) and while they still enjoy Disney, it has changed over the years and not always for the better. It used to be much more enjoyable. I’m not sure I want to go now. Thank goodness we took multiple trips last year.
 
I am not in insurance sales but my old job was in payroll & employee benefits and I have seen the difference that having adequate cover (or not) can have on families when things don't go as hoped.

If the worst happens life for the survivors is hard enough, removing or minimising at least, money worries is probably the greatest act of love that can be left behind.

And if you get to the end of the 25 years and are still here you could feel like you have wasted the money but I would say that you have invested in peace of mind.

My concern with having/depending on life insurance offered through our jobs is that if you become sick enough to lose your job, you also lose your life insurance.
We had a coworker that I lost touch with after I moved to the division where I work now. She developed cancer in her early 50s and battled it several years. She was intermittently out of work and eventually out of work for at least 6 months which is longer than the time limit that our hospital will hold a job for someone. They let her go/fired her eventually which I would assume would cancel her benefits package (health/life/dental ins.) She later died and I hoped, for the sake of her family, she had separate life insurance.
Looking back now it seems naïve, but until that point, it never dawned on me that it could happen in that order; I had always worried about needing life insurance for things like car or plane accidents. That's when I switched to my own policy separate from work. My job still provides a minimal amount (I think one year's salary) and we don't pay toward that at all.


The problem I have with short policies is that we expect to not need it after that but if you still do, it will definitely cost more. Who knows what other diagnoses we might have at that later time that will drive the cost up higher than usual?
Diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, etc.
When we first chose dh's 20 year plan, ds23 was a toddler and I figured in 20 yrs he'd be moved out, independent, and our house would be paid off or close to it, and we wouldn't need insurance after that. The thing is, even if you don't need it, it's nice to have. It's one less thing to worry about at a time of grief.
Peace of mind is priceless.
 
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My concern with having/depending on life insurance offered through our jobs is that if you become sick enough to lose your job, you also lose your life insurance.
We had a coworker that I lost touch with after I moved to the division where I work now. She developed cancer in her early 50s and battled it several years. She was intermittently out of work and eventually out of work for at least 6 months which is longer than the time limit that our hospital will hold a job for someone. They let her go/fired her eventually which I would assume would cancel her benefits package (health/life/dental ins.) She later died and I hoped, for the sake of her family, she had separate life insurance.
Looking back now it seems naïve, but until that point, it never dawned on me that it could happen in that order; I had always worried about needing life insurance for things like car or plane accidents. That's when I switched to my own policy separate from work. My job still provides a minimal amount (I think one year's salary) and we don't pay toward that at all.


The problem I have with short policies is that we expect to not need it after that but if you still do, it will definitely cost more. Who knows what other diagnoses we might have at that later time that will drive the cost up higher than usual?
Diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, etc.
When we first chose dh's 20 year plan, ds23 was a toddler and I figured in 20 yrs he'd be moved out, independent, and our house would be paid off or close to it, and we wouldn't need insurance after that. The thing is, even if you don't need it, it's nice to have. It's one less thing to worry about at a time of grief.
Peace of mind is priceless.

We purchased 20 year term policies when our kids were 2 and newborn. They are both autistic and now we will likely have to support them well into adulthood. We took out new 30 year term plans 2 years ago that will take us age 69. By then we should have enough saved in investment accounts that should something happen to us, our sons will be covered.

No one truly knows what life has in store.
 
I didn't mean to suggest that you should only take advantage of life insurance linked to a job - just that my job meant I saw the impact of bereavement on people, and life insurance made a big difference to the families. I would never rely on anything that was linked to my job as I always wanted to be able to walk away at a moment's notice.

A really popular benefit in the UK is a season ticket loan to enable people to buy an annual train ticket to get to work in the city at a reduced cost and spread the repayments monthly - this typically means that you get 12 months of travel for the price of 10.5 months. I would never take a loan as I didn't want to have to that debt holding over me and just accepted the higher cost as the price of personal flexibility. More than once knowing I could walk away kept me working somewhere for a bit longer while I found something else. Sometimes saving money isn't the most important thing.

One of the big things I have seen is people only "bothering" to insure the breadwinner - ignoring that the SAHM does a 1,001 things that are not easy/cheap to replace but have a big impact on quality of life for everyone. How much does it cost to have someone pick up the children from school and take them to activities - making sure they have appropriate food and equipment? I don't mean that dad's can't do that, of course they can, but trying to do that whilst holding down their job to keep the roof over their heads is a worry that can be avoided.
 


We purchased 20 year term policies when our kids were 2 and newborn. They are both autistic and now we will likely have to support them well into adulthood. We took out new 30 year term plans 2 years ago that will take us age 69. By then we should have enough saved in investment accounts that should something happen to us, our sons will be covered.

No one truly knows what life has in store.


totally get it.

despite all 'the experts' (dave ramsey in particular) bashing whole life policies dh and i both took them out when we first married (he in his early 20's/me turning 30). sure, we paid more than what we would have for term but we both became (in separate events) totally and permanently disabled in our 40's. if we had term life IF anyone would cover us it would cost a ton, but our whole life remains a manageable premium. good thing b/c our youngest is autistic and since we missed out on over 20 years of retirement savings those 2 six figure whole life policies will provide monies for his support as well as a nest egg for our older child after we pass.
 
Well, I went ahead and pulled the plug on our August WDW trip. I just couldn't get excited about flying down to spend money in the August sweltering heat with masks on especially the kids, and limited hours particularly at night, no great answer on transportation there, and no park hopping. As an adult, I could probably deal however miserably, but the kids probably wouldn't be digging it for a week straight. I'll just read on the boards instead for now, to see how things shake out down there. How Disney tackles the thunderstorm mad rush when the sky cracks and people going running under shelter, and how they will manage the Emporium store, etc. So, going to try again next year in spring when it isn't as humid hot, and maybe a Universal trip also.

I'm okay with not doing anything this summer but a few local things. DH, however, really wants to do something and wants to go camping. I checked hard into VRBO and local realtor sites for the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach single vacation homes (not condos), but not seeing anything against the filters applied, short supply and probably last minute timing isn't good.
 
Well, I went ahead and pulled the plug on our August WDW trip. I just couldn't get excited about flying down to spend money in the August sweltering heat with masks on especially the kids, and limited hours particularly at night, no great answer on transportation there, and no park hopping. As an adult, I could probably deal however miserably, but the kids probably wouldn't be digging it for a week straight. I'll just read on the boards instead for now, to see how things shake out down there. How Disney tackles the thunderstorm mad rush when the sky cracks and people going running under shelter, and how they will manage the Emporium store, etc. So, going to try again next year in spring when it isn't as humid hot, and maybe a Universal trip also.

I'm okay with not doing anything this summer but a few local things. DH, however, really wants to do something and wants to go camping. I checked hard into VRBO and local realtor sites for the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach single vacation homes (not condos), but not seeing anything against the filters applied, short supply and probably last minute timing isn't good.
That stinks. I hope you’re able to work out a fun alternative. I was hoping to do a FL beach trip over a long Labor Day weekend but due to FL covid rates, anyone returning/entering NJ from certain states, FL being one of them, has to quarantine for 14 days. At least we’re saving money, right?
 


I also pulled the plug on the WDW portion of our November trip. We hadn't bought tickets before this happened and since there is no guarantee we'd be able to buy them before November, we decided to just nix those plans. 🙁 Plus we dont know if our cruise is actually going to happen and if it doesnt, we won't be heading to Florida. At this point I'm wondering if I should cancel my flight out there on AA (1. Because we won't need to be there 3 days in advance and 2. If I wait till closer to november I dont believe I'll get my points back). As it stands now I think if I cancelled the flight I'd get my points back and not have to pay a fee (I booked on a web special). If I do cancel the flight I'll book a flight out there on SW. At least then if we do have to cancel I know it wont be a problem and I'd get my points back.
 
Oof!! Life has been rough! I've been totally silent for a while because life has been cray cray in a bad way. I work for our states major health organization, so life has been busy. We also managed to move all the way to San Diego mid pandemic! THAT was insane.

We were able to sell our house and my husbands truck! With our house money we were able to pay off almost all of our debt! The only thing left is our car debt (about $11,000) and my student loans ($21,000). So our revised life plan is to really aggressively chip away at those.

I do need some advice! We are trying to start a zero sum budget! How do you get started? How do you account for the timing of bills and income? My biggest frustration is that the money will be there but will it be there at the right time. Like yes we make enough to pay the rent in a month, but it takes some funds from different paychecks. How do you account for that with a zero sum budget. I tried to use the dave ramsey budgeting tool, but it doesn't really encompass the details I want! Any advice on how to get started? With us making more money I want to make sure we are being really smart and controlling our money to work for us!

Final, a goal update:

2020 Financial Goals:
- Pay off $5000 in credit card debt - All cc debt has been paid
- Save $4000 for Disney World trip in September (It will be my first trip to WDW! So excited!) - Our WDW trip has been canceled because of Covid and the move!

Personal Goals:
- Get answers on my fertility (hopefully leading to pregnancy!) - Found out that we are expecting and due Nov. 2020!!
- Read 12 books - 4 down! I could be farther along on this one but life has been wild.

Updated Financial Goals:
- Start a christmas savings
- Begin using a zero sum budget tool!
 
Oof!! Life has been rough! I've been totally silent for a while because life has been cray cray in a bad way. I work for our states major health organization, so life has been busy. We also managed to move all the way to San Diego mid pandemic! THAT was insane.

We were able to sell our house and my husbands truck! With our house money we were able to pay off almost all of our debt! The only thing left is our car debt (about $11,000) and my student loans ($21,000). So our revised life plan is to really aggressively chip away at those.

I do need some advice! We are trying to start a zero sum budget! How do you get started? How do you account for the timing of bills and income? My biggest frustration is that the money will be there but will it be there at the right time. Like yes we make enough to pay the rent in a month, but it takes some funds from different paychecks. How do you account for that with a zero sum budget. I tried to use the dave ramsey budgeting tool, but it doesn't really encompass the details I want! Any advice on how to get started? With us making more money I want to make sure we are being really smart and controlling our money to work for us!

Final, a goal update:

2020 Financial Goals:
- Pay off $5000 in credit card debt - All cc debt has been paid
- Save $4000 for Disney World trip in September (It will be my first trip to WDW! So excited!) - Our WDW trip has been canceled because of Covid and the move!

Personal Goals:
- Get answers on my fertility (hopefully leading to pregnancy!) - Found out that we are expecting and due Nov. 2020!!
- Read 12 books - 4 down! I could be farther along on this one but life has been wild.

Updated Financial Goals:
- Start a christmas savings
- Begin using a zero sum budget tool!

first-congratulations!!!!


zero sum budget-there are templates out on the web you can use but when i helped dd start hers, after we figured out all the payments/dates we ended up pulling a cushion amount from her savings (for her $1000) that was equivalent (and a bit more) to her highest single monthly bill (rent) to always have sitting in her checking account. it sux not to have it earning interest but that way since her rent and other payments don't nicely align with her pay dates we know there's always enough to cover it until the funds get direct deposited (or if something hiccups with direct deposit).
 
Well, I went ahead and pulled the plug on our August WDW trip. I just couldn't get excited about flying down to spend money in the August sweltering heat with masks on especially the kids, and limited hours particularly at night, no great answer on transportation there, and no park hopping. As an adult, I could probably deal however miserably, but the kids probably wouldn't be digging it for a week straight. I'll just read on the boards instead for now, to see how things shake out down there. How Disney tackles the thunderstorm mad rush when the sky cracks and people going running under shelter, and how they will manage the Emporium store, etc. So, going to try again next year in spring when it isn't as humid hot, and maybe a Universal trip also.

I'm okay with not doing anything this summer but a few local things. DH, however, really wants to do something and wants to go camping. I checked hard into VRBO and local realtor sites for the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach single vacation homes (not condos), but not seeing anything against the filters applied, short supply and probably last minute timing isn't good.

There are two places I know of that are like VRBO that rent out campers. Maybe one of those would be available?
 
Oof!! Life has been rough! I've been totally silent for a while because life has been cray cray in a bad way. I work for our states major health organization, so life has been busy. We also managed to move all the way to San Diego mid pandemic! THAT was insane.

We were able to sell our house and my husbands truck! With our house money we were able to pay off almost all of our debt! The only thing left is our car debt (about $11,000) and my student loans ($21,000). So our revised life plan is to really aggressively chip away at those.

I do need some advice! We are trying to start a zero sum budget! How do you get started? How do you account for the timing of bills and income? My biggest frustration is that the money will be there but will it be there at the right time. Like yes we make enough to pay the rent in a month, but it takes some funds from different paychecks. How do you account for that with a zero sum budget. I tried to use the dave ramsey budgeting tool, but it doesn't really encompass the details I want! Any advice on how to get started? With us making more money I want to make sure we are being really smart and controlling our money to work for us!

Final, a goal update:

2020 Financial Goals:
- Pay off $5000 in credit card debt - All cc debt has been paid
- Save $4000 for Disney World trip in September (It will be my first trip to WDW! So excited!) - Our WDW trip has been canceled because of Covid and the move!

Personal Goals:
- Get answers on my fertility (hopefully leading to pregnancy!) - Found out that we are expecting and due Nov. 2020!!
- Read 12 books - 4 down! I could be farther along on this one but life has been wild.

Updated Financial Goals:
- Start a christmas savings
- Begin using a zero sum budget tool!


I wrote out all of my bills and their due dates. Then I separate our checks into 1st of the month and the 15th month (I get paid the 1st and 16th but my husband is every other Friday). I then write out each check and go down the list to see what needs to be paid before the next check. I typically have to save a couple hundred from middle of the month to move to the next first of the month if both paychecks aren't on the 1st or really close. Hopefully that makes sense
 
I also pulled the plug on the WDW portion of our November trip. We hadn't bought tickets before this happened and since there is no guarantee we'd be able to buy them before November, we decided to just nix those plans. 🙁 Plus we dont know if our cruise is actually going to happen and if it doesnt, we won't be heading to Florida. At this point I'm wondering if I should cancel my flight out there on AA (1. Because we won't need to be there 3 days in advance and 2. If I wait till closer to november I dont believe I'll get my points back). As it stands now I think if I cancelled the flight I'd get my points back and not have to pay a fee (I booked on a web special). If I do cancel the flight I'll book a flight out there on SW. At least then if we do have to cancel I know it wont be a problem and I'd get my points back.
So much up in the air right now with cruises. We had one flight to MCO on AA, DH cancelled it and got his points back. I still have to cancel the return trip which was booked with SW.
How do you get started? How do you account for the timing of bills and income? My biggest frustration is that the money will be there but will it be there at the right time. Like yes we make enough to pay the rent in a month, but it takes some funds from different paychecks. How do you account for that with a zero sum budget. I tried to use the dave ramsey budgeting tool, but it doesn't really encompass the details I want! Any advice on how to get started? With us making more money I want to make sure we are being really smart and controlling our money to work for us!
Congrats, first of all. About the zero based budget now: I use the Dave Ramsey budget app. It has it's flaws. One is that it's a monthly budget, which for me I also don't like to do but it's laid out that way. Also, would like a total sum accounting feauture with each area on the app and overall. I have heard some positives about YNAB tool. The paychecks for the month ahead need to be estimated, you can adjust slightly as you go, same with bills. Then, you'll have to reallocate if you take more out then anticipated on the tool, or have an excess, so that it shows zero or every dollar again. In actual practice, I got us ahead on rent (our rent is close to 3k) so that I take money and put it in a separate checking account ahead of the month we actually have to pay. Then, write the check prior to the first (we pay rent by a handwritten check, that's how our landlord wants rent paid). I have a separate checking account just for that, it eases my worry this way.
 
Here is my mid-year update:
  1. Reduce restaurant spending - Welp. COVID. So......I smashed this goal. I haven't been to a restaurant and have gotten take out maybe 5 times since March.
  2. Increase emergency fund by $3000 - Increased by $4,000 already. Met my goal. However, I calculated out 6 months of expenses and transferred the amount over that into a new "bucket" for a future house downpayment.
  3. $100 per month toward a Christmas fund - On track - monthly recurring transfers.
  4. $70 a month + credit card rewards toward Vacation fund - On track - monthly recurring transfers.
  5. $40 a month toward car maintenance fund - On track - monthly recurring transfers.
  6. $33 a month toward ARDC yearly fees - On track - monthly recurring transfers.

On the personal front:
  1. Lose weight - 40lbs would be nice. Down about 10lbs
  2. Run 650 miles - HAHAHAHAH. I got sick in February, then COVID happened and work and stress and I have ran maybe 3 times since my last race. I really need to start up again but it's hot now and hard.
  3. Join the library and stop buying books! Yikes, never happened.
Onto what I am super annoyed about...................

As I mentioned, I got sick in February. On top of that, I needed to go to the emergency room because my doctor was concerned I had appendicitis (I didn't). I ended up with about 6 different ER, doctors, radiology, etc bills. No big deal, my HSA covered it. HOWEVER, I'm a complete idiot and somehow missed one of the bills. It was $109 and it would have been no problem to pay. It just got lost in the shuffle and WENT TO COLLECTIONS. I'm so mad at myself. I paid it RIGHT when I found out and it's not on my credit report yet, but they will probably still report it. I'm sooooo mad at myself- it'll kill my credit score, probably.
 
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