End of July 2021 (4/6)
Hey friends! It's the end of the fourth month of my debt payoff journey and I've made some good progress towards my goal! First, let's start off with my calendar for the month, where I broke down all of the money I spent in July.
Of the total money I spent in July ($4,799), over 54% went to paying down my credit card debt. Given that I had to pay $1,498 on the principal to meet my goal, that's a sign that I hit my goals for the month.
For the month of July, I brought in $3,906 and spent $4,799. This income includes some money that I got from my grandmother for mowing her lawn and about $1,000 I received after cashing in some of my EE savings bonds, in addition to my normal income and my roommate reimbursing me for his half of the house costs. Unfortunately, due to some medical issues, I wasn't able to donate plasma as I had hoped to do last month.
My cash savings did decrease again, due to me needing to pull from my savings accounts to make my monthly payments. However, my holdings overall increased slightly. This is mostly due to my retirement savings and my stocks increasing in value once again, as well as increasing my investment in my MyConstant account.
I brought my debt from $85,389 to $83,864, decreasing my total by $1525, exceeding my goal of $1,498. That means that in order to pay my remaining debt in the 56 months I have left in my 5 year goal, I still need to pay $1,498 per month on my principal amount.
With my remaining debt, making my minimum payments will decrease my principal by $397. This means I'll need to pay an additional $1,101 on my principal balances. My plan for this month, then, is to decrease my Chase balance by at least $1200. If my Chase balance is $1500 or lower by the end of July, then I will have met my goal for the month!
This month will again be hard to meet my goal, but I do have a couple plans to help me reach my goal. In addition to the things I've started doing last month, I'm going to be donating plasma to help pay for my other bills so that I can dedicate more of my money to paying off my dept.
I'll be once again working hard to meet my payoff goal, but in the meantime, I'm planning on updating with my experience and thoughts following my first couple times donating plasma around 8/10.
Thanks everybody for hanging out! Jayme