Money related questions

[estrellita]

I've been meaning to write this up for a little while and am just getting around to it So things have been better with our money issues. H is still working job #2 but getting close to wanting to be done. Before he is though, I wanted to start throwing the extra money towards something. With #2 on the way, I want to get something paid off so we are in a better spot for having 2 in DC. #2 won't be in DC until the end of April next year so we have some time, but the sooner the better!

Anyways, I am trying to decide what we should be focusing on. We have a few debts we're working on. H also has student loans but his have been a pain to deal with so right now I'm just going to include mine in this. Basically we are getting maybe $(poof) extra every month from job #2. It's going into our second checking account (that I only use to buy coffee because I get half off with that card, and we've used it to pay the credit cards around Christmas).

PDQ numbers

Info and numbers:
-I want to make sure we have enough funds for the hospital bills. We have a separate savings account I can set money aside in. I have $1k in our healthcare FSA (because I wasn't sure I'd need more than that), and our "big" savings account has about $(poof) currently (use it occasionally to pay my CC but it's no more than $100 usually and gets replenished when we get paid). My OOP max if I remember correctly from last year is about $4250 not including copays and that's just for myself. It's a $7k family max I believe but I don't think we will reach that (hopefully not at least).

Our debts are as follows (not including mortgage or any CCs as those get paid off monthly, we don't carry a balance):
-Car loan: $(poof) remaining, payment is $(poof). Interest 2.99% I think.
-Window financing: Around $(poof), I'd have to look at the exact number, payment is $(poof) (which is slightly above the actual payment amount). I can't remember the interest rate.
-My student loans: $(poof) and $(poof) remaining, payments of $(poof) and $(poof) (I recently paid my smallest one off! Yay!). Interest on both is 6.8%.

I want to maybe make our other savings total about $(poof) just so we have that set aside for hospital bills and can add to it as needed. I know I can get on a payment plan if needed also but I believe they require a 10% payment (that's what they said for the bills from my surgery but I paid it off before they took me off my low payment plan).

What do you think? What should we be throwing extra money towards right now?

(Disclaimer: I am going to bed in a min so if I don't respond right away, that's why.. just wanted to get this out there!)

[amaranth]

A few questions, but I'm going to bed too so will read/respond tomorrow.

1: How old is your car/mileage?
2: If you could find the window interest rate that would be helpful
3: Other than the fact that work sucks (I get it!) why is your husband planning to quit soon?

At $300 extra a month, even if he works 11 more months, that's only $3300. That is going to make paying stuff off pretty tricky, so I'm trying to figure out where progress will make the best investment for your future and predicted future expenses.

[estrellita]

amaranth
1. The car we're still paying for is a 2007 we've had for 3 years. Mileage is up there, I think around 160k and we plan on using it for vacation this summer. My car is a 2005 with just over 80k and that's paid off.
3. He is getting burnt out. It's hard to work long days and he doesn't get as much time with E as he'd like. He definitely doesn't want to do another holiday season there, and baby is due in Dec anyways so he'd quit before then. He will need to quit so he can take E to DC while I'm on ML. He goes in too early and leaves too late for their hours if he works both jobs and it doesn't make sense for me to use the gas to drive in on the days he works.

I also want to take any bonuses, my overtime, etc to put towards things so it's not just this income we'll use. I just don't have exact numbers on those things since they vary. I'll also get a bonus in Feb next year that will help pay down whatever is left (it's usually around $1600-2k after taxes).

I'm thinking we should focus on the car since that's lower and at some point we'll probably need a new one. I don't want to owe on it whenever we end up trading it in (and of course I don't want payments again but we'll focus on that when the time comes). That's part of the reason our car loan was higher. H still owed quite a bit on his car when we traded it in.

[estrellita]

May 19, 2017 7:20:10 GMT -5 suzv said:

estrellita, I'd focus on the car right now too. That payment is high for the age and mileage of that car. I'd want it paid off quickly. I also hate having car payments and always focus on getting rid of them when I can.

It is H owed a lot on his old car because he had a lot of money issues and his credit was horrible, so the only loan he could get was a really high interest rate. His old car died so he needed a new car at the time and didn't have many options. The loan would have been a lot less if it hadn't been for that!

[amaranth]

I'm curious to see what others say, but given your response I'd also focus on the car. Something that liable to die/need work needs to be paid off ASAP.

[bk1]

I would pay on the car. I'm thinking the same - that's a high payment and I would want it paid off ASAP in case you need to replace it.

[estrellita]

Perfect, we will focus on the car!

Once that's paid off, what might be the best option? Put extra money towards one thing or a little extra on everything? I'm 99% sure the interest rate on the windows is higher than my student loans but I could be wrong. Or focus on the windows, especially since that's such a low payment?

[bk1]

May 19, 2017 10:36:09 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Perfect, we will focus on the car!

Once that's paid off, what might be the best option? Put extra money towards one thing or a little extra on everything? I'm 99% sure the interest rate on the windows is higher than my student loans but I could be wrong. Or focus on the windows, especially since that's such a low payment?

I would pay more on the windows next.

[amaranth]

May 19, 2017 11:07:48 GMT -5 bk1 said:

May 19, 2017 10:36:09 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Perfect, we will focus on the car!

Once that's paid off, what might be the best option? Put extra money towards one thing or a little extra on everything? I'm 99% sure the interest rate on the windows is higher than my student loans but I could be wrong. Or focus on the windows, especially since that's such a low payment?

I would pay more on the windows next.

Ditto. They're also unlikely to be flexible if you fell upon hard times and had to adjust payments, whereas school loans are a bit more understanding. 

[wanderingenough]

without knowing the amount or rates on your H's SLs (and are they all gov?), i'd say car then windows. confirm the window interest rate, though. that sounds like the kind of thing that could be high and you may not even be hitting principle on with the $75.

[estrellita]

wanderingenough I think his interest rates are close to mine. I can't remember if they're gov loans.. They just make it difficult to pay ahead so we started focusing on my loans.

I could be wrong on the windows interest rate. I know our payment is like $72 and change so that's why I bumped it up, but that's a good point that we might not be paying down the principal by much. Maybe I'll bump that payment up to $100? An extra $25 won't hurt us. I'll try to remember to look tonight!

[katespade]

I don't really have anything new to add, but I agree with everyone else - I would focus on the car first, then the windows.

[estrellita]

I FINALLY remembered to look up the interest rate on the windows now that I deleted the numbers, lol. It's 4.99% so lower than I thought, which is good. So what's better - bump that payment up now? Later? Focus all extra money on one thing at a time? I like the idea of rounding payments up to an even amount (like we did with our window payment) and putting the extra towards one thing at a time. Is that a good plan?

[amaranth]

May 23, 2017 21:03:39 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I FINALLY remembered to look up the interest rate on the windows now that I deleted the numbers, lol. It's 4.99% so lower than I thought, which is good. So what's better - bump that payment up now? Later? Focus all extra money on one thing at a time? I like the idea of rounding payments up to an even amount (like we did with our window payment) and putting the extra towards one thing at a time. Is that a good plan?

How long is the window payment cycle? At $75 a month us interest it seems like you'll be hanging onto that debt for half the life of the windows.

[estrellita]

May 24, 2017 9:04:02 GMT -5 amaranth said:

May 23, 2017 21:03:39 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I FINALLY remembered to look up the interest rate on the windows now that I deleted the numbers, lol. It's 4.99% so lower than I thought, which is good. So what's better - bump that payment up now? Later? Focus all extra money on one thing at a time? I like the idea of rounding payments up to an even amount (like we did with our window payment) and putting the extra towards one thing at a time. Is that a good plan?

How long is the window payment cycle? At $75 a month us interest it seems like you'll be hanging onto that debt for half the life of the windows.

12 years. Lol. I very much want to pay it off long before then since we probably won't be in the house that long!

[estrellita]

May 24, 2017 9:29:04 GMT -5 ewall said:

I would still pay off the car first and throw all extra money at that. For the windows, you may oend up with some equity if you eventually sell the house, then you could chip away or pay off the windows.

I have no idea how all this works but that could work. I was thinking the payment was low enough to focus on other things for now, but easy enough to bump the payment up when we're able to. I still think I want to bump the payment up but maybe I'll wait until the car is paid off and I know we're good with 2 in daycare.