Friday, October 18, 2013

Fiscal Friday: Two Steps Forward. Two Steps Back

When I was writing the title to this post, I couldn't help but think of this guy:


Picture courtesy of www.ugo.com


While I was on maternity leave, I used my sick and vacation time to continue receiving a paycheck. After some calculations, I determined I only needed to pay myself around 60% of what I normally made to pay the bills. It was during this time that I landed my current role, which paid more than my old job. So when I returned to work, the increase was not only the difference in salary between the old and new job, but I was used to only 60% of my old salary.

J started a new job as well and we committed to not get used to the increases. Instead, we would pour it all into debts: credit cards and car payments. We paid our cars off and paid off a large amount of debt. Things were progressing better than I anticipated!

That's when things took a turn. While we were in Asheville, J's car went kaput. His car was around 8 years old. The money we would have had to pay in for repairs just didn't make sense financially. Long story short, we got a new car. Eight months of blissful (aka zero car payment) had ended.

It is a setback for sure. However, I am positive we will continue our progress. We just have to stay on task.

It's Fiscal Friday and I'd love to hear if you've ever experience a setback in your road to #fiscalresponsibility! Join in the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #fiscalresponsibility on Twitter.


6 comments:

  1. MC Skat Kat!! Love.

    I was in the same situation in August of last year. I had my car paid off for a little over a year when the motor locked down. Like yours, making the repairs didn't make sense financially, and so now I'm saddled with a car payment again. My goal is to get it paid off as quickly as possible. I hate writing that check every month!

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  2. Good for y'all for paying off debt, though! Even though this is a step back, you guys are well on your way to getting better with all of this! :) \
    ]

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  3. We have a handful of payments left on my car and I'm so nervous something is going to happen. Several years ago J got rear ended and his paid off car was totaled. Boo.

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  4. just wanted to say I have been loving this series. so refreshing to hear someone admit they have debt! gasp!

    Jason's car is paid off and we just paid off the kia. we will end up having to buy him something else soon because he's over 120000 miles and he drives 2 hours a day. I hope it will drive as long as possible! we drive our cars until they give out.

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    1. Thanks for reading! Debt is easier to deal with when you have friends cheering you on to pay it off!

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  5. We're still trying to pay off law school debt, so I can sympathize. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything stays working right now until we get those taken care of! Good for you for being fiscally responsible though - xoxo - Natalie

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