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I got a few comments in yesterday’s post that I wanted to reply to, and I figured I would clarify the point that I made for all of my readers.  In particular I wanted to apply to this portion of this comment, which I thought was insightful and well reasoned (I hope the commenter doesn’t mind): “Well, at least it [financial education] might give people a fighting chance against all of the bad info they get from parents, friends and the media. After all, educating teens about safe sex won’t prevent all pregnancies or diseases because teens will do what they do. But does that mean we decide it isn’t worth it to teach the facts? I would not have been able to claim shear ignorance had I gotten pregnant at 16, but I sure as hell could claim ignorance when I took every cent they would give me in student loans, as I had been taught absolutely nothing about finance.”

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I’m frustrated.  I’ve made $1791.00 in payments on my Private Student Loan, and I’ve only reduced the payoff balance by $1321.23.  The interest monster ate $469.77! All these payments were made between September 1 and October 9, so it isn’t like we are talking years here.  So, it only took that little demon a little over one month to eat all this money!  And this is for a 7% loan of about $25K.  The interest monster is really gorging over at Sallie Mae where I have $76,617.19 in various loans ranging from 6.8% - 7.5% fixed.  Over at Sallie, this little bugger has eaten $956.63 since May! (more…)

I wrote a post here discussing whether I should take a balance transfer or not.  I ultimately did apply for a Citi Upromise Platinum Select Card and got approved for a $7000 line of credit.  I requested a balance transfer check for $6850 of that which allowed DF to pay off 2 of his cards and pay the bulk of what he needed to get the tax deduction for his student loan interest (his loans are in deferment until his cards get paid off, but he needs to pay $2500 in interest annually to get the $2500 tax deduction). (more…)

I haven’t written too much about this, because I’m trying not to pay attention/ get frustrated.  I just don’t understand how this could happen.  Were there no regulations in place?  How did the underwriters of these loans and insurance policies not see the coming disaster?  How did all these educated, wealthy, supposedly intelligent people miss the warning signs that the U.S. was approaching the brink of economic disaster?  And what does this mean for me? (more…)

Dave Ramsey places a lot of emphasis on the Debt Snowball, or paying off smaller debts first so that you keep up your morale.  Obviously, since Dave Ramsey is a financial God to many, I’ve heard a lot about this.  I can’t quite wrap my head around the idea of paying more interest then necessary.  Plus, if you have one large financial burden (like $100K+ in student loans) then this wouldn’t help you in making progress because there are no smaller debts.  So, I’ve been considering how I want to set my goals as far as debt payoff. (more…)

After a frustrating three days of endless phone calls, our financial life is a lot closer to being in order!  I got my credit line raised on the Citi Upromise card I just opened, and so I requested my balance transfer check.  I requested $6850 out of the $7000 available on the card, just so I wouldn’t max it out completely.  This should allow us to consolidate 3 out of 4 of Fiance’s cards onto one, so we can pay that off.  I also filled out the paper work to consolidate all 10 of my different student loans (thats a LOT of loans!). (more…)

I began yesterday morning with the intention of applying for this balance transfer card.  I liked that it was 0% interest for 12 months, and I really liked that there was no balance transfer fee.  We’ve been kicking around the idea of doing a balance transfer for almost a year.  I was worried about what it would do to my FICO score (applying for new credit, and then maxing out the available credit is never good!).  However, I checked my credit score and it was 783, and so we decided that even if it went down a few points it would be worth it because of the money we are going to save in interest.  Plus, with the economy the way it is, it looks like it may be almost a year before we buy a house, so I’ll have time to get this card paid off by then. (more…)

I have a really good credit score right now (somewhere upwards of 750).  This is extremely important to me, because I really want to qualify for a good mortgage rate, and well, just because.  I know that several factors affect how my FICO score is calculated (for example, the credit bureau takes into account the number of inquiries, my payment history, my debt to credit ratio, and how my debt compares to my income).   (more…)

Yesterday someone broke a window on our car while it was parked in a secure parking garage.  They stole a GPS System, and left a ton of shattered glass in its place.  We need to have two cars (there is no public transportation to speak of here, and I need to get to my part time job and Fiance to his full time one).  So, I got on the phone last night to try to find someone to fix our shattered window.   (more…)

Yesterday, I got ANOTHER letter from ANOTHER lender, urging me to consolidate my loans, lower my payments, and stretch out my payments over the next 35 years!  It seems I get these letters an average of once a week.  Now, I know that they are trying to help, because student loan payments are not manageable for many when they first graduate.  But some of these programs seem to be urging me to think along the same lines as the mortgage loan brokers who only want me to consider my monthly payments without an eye on the long term consequences.   (more…)