Amber's Personal Finance Blog

Today’s student loan  balance is $32,111.59, of that $24.16 is interest accumulated since 9/11.

Today I’m paying $254.59, $24.16 will go towards the interest as of today; however,  I added an extra $12.04 which should cover the next few days of interest.

 Hopefully the new balance  will be $31,857 by time the payment post, which I'm anticipating Monday🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾. 

While paying today I noticed a box that read "don't push my payment forward though I have no payment due."  I've never seen that before, when I clicked on the link, nothing appeared. I'm assuming that when you make extra payments your original due date is pushed forward. This could be why my payment is showing due in November vs October, however there is no statement for October, strange. 

Well I know I’m going to drive myself nuts trying to keep up with the interest. So I’ve decided that every pay period, which is twice a month, I’ll just pay the interest, about $90, and when my payment is due, I'll just pay that. 

At the end of the month my side gig pays me, I’m unsure if this gig will continue, either way I’ll have an extra $500 to throw at the loan 

I really wished the pause would have continued however I understand that things needed to end. I also wish Congress would do something about this reverse amortization, interest is killing us. 

I am always amazed at the folks who are against student loan forgiveness, it's ridiculous that you make regular payments for 10+ years, based on income in many cases and your loan balloon's out of control, these very people have no problem with congress men and women having their PPP loans forgiven, or auto and airline industries being bailed out.

It’s shameful that these loans do not have the same standard consumer protections as other loans

Either way we have a right to our feelings. 

I received an unexpected check in the mail for $66, through it at my student loans. Every little bit helps. 

So I did the math, I'm averaging about $6 a day in interest on my student loans, that's $180 for the month. 

My monthly payment is $319, this is tentative, I haven't received the notice as to what my actual payment would be. If this is true, about $139 will go towards my principal a month. To stay a float and ahead of this thing I have to pay an extra $200, at least a month. 

I reworked my budget to pay $180 a month, $90 a pay check, since I'm paid semi-monthly. 

I still have my side hustle, so I'm budgeting my monthly payment and extra with my side hustle gig funds. 

Things are tight, but I think I can do it. 

I saw this article posted in a Facebook group and thought I would share, it sheds the light on student loan debt. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/10/student-loans-balance-increase/

Paid another $29.25 towards my student loans because I hate odd numbers. Next week I'll pay an extra $41. 

I wish I could drop more on this loan but for now I'll pay extra no matter how small, when I can. 

I’m so anxious about my student loans, why I don’t know. In the three year period when loans were on pause, I continued to pay, never missing a month and paid off two. 

Now that interest has resumed I’m freaking out. I have checked my balance, the interest rates daily and it’s given me pure anxiety. I pray I don’t end up with another inflated loan. 

It really sucks because once interest starts accruing it’s difficult to pay down the principal. I’m thankful that I was able to get my balance down, but I’m nervous it’s going to balloon out of control with the interest. 

I'm participating in a savings challenge, rather than saving the money I'm throwing it at my student loan, $41 was paid towards my loans today. 

It's just a little over the anticipated weekly interest incurred. November is my first official payment, I honestly thought it was October, either way I'll keep chipping away at it. 

Between September 1st and the 4th my student loan interest has accumulated $18.15 in interest. That’s about $4.53 a day, or about $135.00 month. I’m not sure if this is right since Monday was a holiday. It’s  ridiculous how the interest works on these loans, but here we are. 

I’m thankful for the three year freeze, and am thankful that I was able to pay off two loans, I can’t imagine much my loan would grow had I not done this. Not many people were able to take advantage of the freeze and pay towards their loan. 

I pray that I can get things under control. My goal is to pay the interest accrued at the end of each week, in attempt to make things manageable. I can’t think of any other way. 

Let me know if you have any ideas. 

Other non financial news, after three years I contracted COVID from an infected colleague who traveled while feeling not well. I feel much better but I'm still a little down. SMH

Anyone else here line dry their clothes? I was doing this and stopped, but decided to get back at it. I'm not sure how much I  would be saving on my electric bill by doing this though. 

I hung my clothes out to dry and they dried in about a hour. It probably was shorter than that, I was on a work call and forgot about them. 

For those of you who line dry your clothes, is it worth it? And how do you get the outdoor smell out of your clothes ? 

I had a few things come up so I couldn't make my semi-monthly payment of $160, towards the student loan. I paid only $100. 

This is one thing that freaks me out, what if I can't make the payment when things kick back up again. I pray all goes well. 

I am making a little less, but I like the new job. Sometimes it's not about the money but our peace. 

Inflation is definitely here, my grocery bill has skyrocketed. I use to budget $200 a month, now it's about $80 more s month. Thankfully me not driving into work helps, what I save in gas goes towards my food bill.

That's it for now.  

I’ve been sharing with others that the interest on student loans, and repayments are scheduled to start back up with interest accruing first in September, followed by the  first payment due in October. 

Though I can only worry about myself ( I haven’t stopped paying), I’m still anxious about this happening. I’m scared, anxious and  nervous and I don’t know why. Maybe because no one is talking about it. I’m in different financial groups, follow financial gurus and nothing.  It’s almost as if no one is expecting this to start, strange. 

 I recently paid $96 dollars to round things to an even number, I hate odd numbers on any of my debts, don’t  ask me why. 

In preparation for repayment , I signed up for auto pay which saves me a very small amount on interest. I have to remember not to make any payments next month (September).  The reason why is that my first payment of $318.68 is scheduled to hit on October 15th. Since I get paid bi-monthly, (for a while I would pay $160 a pay date for a total of $320 for the month), I want to make sure the funds are available when payments starts. 

 If I skip the September monthly payment that I normally make, the funds are surely to be available on the 15th of October. 

I can surely make extra payments, and I want to, I just need to figure out how much and when. I’ll be reviewing my budget. 

I'm praying for those in Maui, this is so heartbreaking 

This isn’t a post about finances but how I’m feeling. I looked in the mirror and I wanted to cry. I have put on so much weight. This is the most I’ve ever been. I’m so disgusted. 

My goal is to hit 10k a day, starting today and I did that. It was a struggle and I’m sore but I got it in. I also ordered a few healthy meals. I hope this works 

I can't believe how big I've gotten. 

Though eating out appears to be less expensive, in some cases, than eating in, I have managed to eat at home since August has started. 

I'm hoping to reduce my food bill this month. I shopped yesterday at Trader Joe's, which is far less than our local grocery store. 

Things have gotten so expensive. It's times like these that I really miss my dad, he grew all sorts of fruits and vegetables, I don't have a yard to do so. I think I'm going to look into a raised garden. 

Well on my way to visit my friend I felt water dropping in my foot. I’m two hours away from home. I pray this is not something serious. I’ll call the mechanic on Monday. 

wendy to check in at the hotel and my reservations were not made. It looks like I never hit saved. Thankfully we got a room. 

When it rains it pours 

I’m going to visit a friend who has cancer, as I mentioned before, fear often holds us back. It’s a two-hour drive and I’m fearful to take the ride alone so my ex is going. I’ve got to jump out on faith and just do things. 

I rented a room for one night, which cost $82. I could have stayed with my friend but she has cats and I can’t stand them. 

I was lucky to get a room at a reduced rate using a few points. Well my ex wanted to go early, and leave yesterday, I told him if he wanted to go early, he need to foot the bill for the room, which was 100+ dollars and I needed the money upfront if I was booking. 

Well as you can see we aren’t going early. One he doesn’t have the money, and two, I’m no longer footing the bill for anything he suggests or wants, nor am I  waiting for him to reimburse me as he always says. I was always booking the trip and he’ll give me the money back supposedly but it’s either I never see the money or he’s short when he pays me.

I foot the bill for a trip to NY a while back that he was supposed to pay me back which I never got. This is not happening to me again.  Nope. 

I bought my home a few years ago, and ever since I’ve started making payments, I always pay a little extra extra towards the principal. Sometimes it’s $10, $800, $60, it’s always something. I swear this was/is the best decision I’ve ever made financially. My goal is to have my mortgage paid off early, and I think it’s going to happen. 

When mortgage rates were low, I refinanced. I was nervous as hell to do so but I did. I did some research on why I should, spoke with two friends who are financially savvy, I think I also posted here. Either way I got some good advice, and understood why it would be beneficial to me yo do so. 

I ended up getting my rate down to 2.75% and reduced by $200 a month. The money saved from the refinance,  I used to help throw at my student loans. 

I’d shared with my sister to refinance her mortgage and shared why it would have been beneficial, she refused. Once before she’d done this and locked into a balloon mortgage and lost her home (2008). I told her she was wiser now and to ensure that the rate was fixed. She now regrets not doing so, especially with rate hikes in Florida’s homeowners insurance. That’s a different story. 

I can’t help but wonder how fear hold so many of us back, myself included. 

Once I get these student loans gone, I’m going to throw that amount at my mortgage. I can’t wait to do so. I honestly think I’ll be debt free including my mortgage in 10 years. I’ll see. 

today I'll make my September mortgage payment (I like to pay early), for now I’m going to continue to add extra to mortgage, I’m averaging about $60 a month. 

One of my goals for 2023 was to knock out 1/3 of my student loans. I am way benhind on this goal, I've paid just over $2,000. This really ticks me off. I've had so many expenses come up, I can only think that had I not had these this thing would be gone. 

Nothing like crunching the numbers for a reality check. Starting September I'll throw about $1000 a month to it, that's about $4,000 by the end of year. I'm estimating that it will take me two years to pay this thing off. 

Fingers crossed 

I'm not saying I'm perfect, Lord knows when it came to finances I made some mistakes; however I'm taking those mistakes and learning from it. 

I was chatting with my ex, thank God he no longer lives with me, and he was telling me how hard he was hustling to come up with $700 to fix a roof. $700!

 I don't know why but I felt so bad for him. All I can think was that you are 51 years old, in a job that is high risk that can cause you to stop working in a split  second and you're struggling to come up with $700. It's really sad. 

he always have the nerve to say "I've never been in this position."

I had to remind him that he's always in that position and that when he gets a check he needs to put something aside. 

Poor guy, he's got a big heart, but what he's doing, taking on caring for his mom 100% without preparing for his future, is a huge mistake. 

I’m still crunching the numbers but I can say dining out was my second largest expense for July, first was home repairs. 

I’ve committed to eating out less this month. With the exception of visiting a friend who was diagnosed with an illness, and a planned vacation the end of the month, I do not plan on eating out. I’ll post the numbers early next week. 

I’ve screwed up badly, I have no idea where my mind is. First I write a check for the fence on the wrong account which bounced, costing me $25. Next I use my CC to pay for the fence since the check was written on the wrong account, then paid the CC bill from the wrong account, causing an overdraft 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄. I’ll call Bank of America to make sure I’m signed up for overdraft protection. I never signed up because I never overdraft. First time for everything. 

I’ve got to slow down. I don’t know why I always feel rushed. This behavior has cost me.

Physical news. My blood pressure is slightly elevated, the company I work for reimbursed me for walking pad (treadmill), and I’ve been working to get this thing down. I’ve been exercising daily; however, I need to change my eating habits. 

I’m slowly but surely getting my feet wet with investing. I’ve opened an IRA, not much, however, I contribute monthly so that I have funds to invest with. 

I only purchase stocks of those organizations that I’m loyal to, some pay dividends some don’t.  I can honestly say, that they’re (stocks) doing pretty good, even in these times. I am happy because I  feel like I made some good choices. I still have a lot to learn though. 

My best performing stocks is Walmart and Costco, my worst, Nike. Nike was also my first ever purchase. However, for the most part I’ve seen a positive gain over all. Sometimes I can kick myself because I hadn’t purchased more, especially of the Costco stock. 

I’m proud of myself for stepping out. I am way behind the eight ball and I’m looking forward to getting this student loan down, so that I’ll have more funds to invest. 

I’ve decided that for every $5k paid off on the student loan I’m going to increase my 401(k) contribution by 1%. I should have the loan at $30k by December. It sucks that the student loan interest is starting back up. For me it means I have to decrease my IRA contribution temporarily and throw the funds at the student loans. 

I’m not going to lie, it would have been a huge help had the loan forgiveness went through. I’m glad I kept paying when the interest rates were frozen. I wish I could get another year, lol but oh well. 

For me the ability to throw $2k or $5 at a time on my loan felt great. Now I have a payment of $319, I’m readjusting my budget so that I’m ready. I hope others are as well. 

Student loan payment kicks back up in October. I wish I was in a position to be much more aggressive with paying things off but hey, I got this thing down to just over $32,0000 when I was close to 90k, so I’m happy with that. I’ve been throwing extra when ever I can, sometimes the amount is as little as $8, by doing this for the month of July I paid $584 towards my student loans. 

My fence is falling apart so I had to get a replacement, HOA requires it. I was able to pay cash (half down) to get the job started. I also took the money out of my money market account and paid off my shutters and kitchen. It stung, to take $8k out but it’s better than paying interest on a CC, and I still have enough saved to cover my expenses for about 6-8 months. 

I feel like everything with the house is falling apart all at once. I had to replace my water heater, refrigerator, cabinets, and now the fence. 

I also decided to do something fun for myself once a quarter. I know I should throw at debt; however, I need these breaks. Good thing is, I’m able to pay cash. 

So basically I’m just bracing my self for the student loan payments to start back up. 

I crunched the numbers and I realized with every pay check I’m saving about 45% of my income.

Though most of the savings go towards future expenses (e.g. mortgage, HOA, Christmas fund, vacation fund) I’m still saving.

I remember when there was a time when saving wasn’t an option for me. 

Though I beat myself up regularly, I'm my worst critic, I need to remind myself of where I've come from. It's been a long short journey. It felt as though I'd never see the day where my debts were low and cash was saved, yet it feels like I just started this journey. 

One of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to my finances continuing on the right track. I get sidelined easily. 

I noticed when I’m not blogging, reading, watching, or listening about finances I accumulate debt. Shamefully I used my Home Depot, and BoA credit card to get some much-needed repairs for the house, and used my house savings. I do believe that I added more to the BoA CC, matter of fact I know I did. So I did the thing took the money from my long-term savings, $8000, and paid the card off.  

I also decided to start back blogging, reading, and basically staying engaged with my finances. I haven’t quite figured out my triggers. 

I am glad that I aggressively paid down my student loans,  I’m still paying on them not as aggressively, my salary slightly reduced but I’m back at it, paying just over $300 a month. 

I'll update my sidebar later. 

Back for now. 

I was out for a work conference all all the ladies carried, Gucci, YSL, Fendi or Louis Vuitton handbags. I'll admit I felt ashamed, out of place. I hate feeling like this. 

I said a little prayer and asked God to take the need/want of having what others have away from me. It's hard. 

I'm so happy to hear that the Supreme Court has allowed the $6 billion student loan debt settlement. There's still another case pending but this is good news. 

I've been privileged enough to knock my debt down from $80k+ to just over $30k during the freeze on interest. I also consolidated my loan. I'll continue to pay and if I'm granted a forgiveness, I'll be thankful and if I don't I'll still be thankful because over the last two and a half years I accumulated no interest. 

I don't know why people have a problem with this loan forgiveness but hey. I still think that the student loan debt guarantee needs to done with. Lenders would be more cautious with lending if this wasn't the case. 

I haven't updated my sidebar but will do so over the weekend. 

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a Happy Easter!

Whew, this has been a pretty productive week. 

I’ve managed to knock everything off of my to-do list. 

Today I received my final payment from my former employer. I was able to save some funds for my car, sinking funds, and EF. 

I also added $500 to the credit cards and $100 to the student loan. In addition, I get an extra 300+ dollars to use towards what I want from my employer every quarter, a nice little perk, so I’ll be adding that toward my student loans. 

This week I feel as though I'm making progress 

I’m happy because though I’m nervous about my role, things are still coming together. My official training kicks off next week, wish me luck. 

I just got word that an employee with my old company was terminated today. The executive director and another director were not going to stop until they terminated this employee. I shared my concerns with my regional manager who did nothing. While there I pushed back on this because it was indeed retaliatory in nature. 

I wish I could tell the employee what I know. 

The primary reason I left was due to this mess.  

Working in HR is tough. There are some cut throat managers out there, and often as HR professionals we advocate for the employee however the final decision is the manager’s even when we don’t agree. 

Sadly, I’d love to see more legislation on bullying and harassment in the workplace, it sucks because this can be touchy; however, situation such as this makes me really want to push towards it. Sad just sad 

We 

It’s been months since I actually looked at my spending, needless to say , it was out of control. Primarily my spending was on things for the house. 

Since quitting that toxic job that made me too exhausted to do anything, tonight I was able to catch up on balancing my accounts and entering receipts. I still have a few more accounts to reconcile but at least I’m in a much better place than I was a few weeks ago. 

I also updated my planner, so that I’m on a work schedule, working from home can go sideways if you don’t stick to a schedule. 

It feels good to be getting back on track. 

Lastly, I had the opportunity to meet up with a few friends this weekend, we haven’t seen each other in 20 years. Though it was sort of planned but not planned, meaning I didn’t budget for it but knew about it, just learned two weeks ago about the meetup, I’m glad I went. I only ended up paying for my lodging and gas. 

oops I failed to mention, last month was my SA anniversary. I've been blogging on this site now for 17 years