February 2020 Check-In Thread

[Anonymous]

My plan is to continue gardening for awhile because my AAoA is still pretty new according to the CRA's 

[Anonymous]

I'm new to this form and just recently signed up for the 2020 challange. I'm currently reading over different credit repair strtategies (recommendations please) and looking over my credit reports. My goal is to get a plan together this month and start executing it as soon as I can. 

[Lucifer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm new to this form and just recently signed up for the 2020 challange. I'm currently reading over different credit repair strtategies (recommendations please) and looking over my credit reports. My goal is to get a plan together this month and start executing it as soon as I can. 

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Time and good financial habits are your friends....   If I can reach the 800's and have spotless credit, well, just about anybody can do it !!!

[Anonymous]

I'm pleased to report that I've made a modest bit of progress toward my goal to reduce utilization and increase savings. I picked up two side hustles - one of which will only last until June but will increase my monthly income to 150% while it lasts. Using the extra income, I have been able to make larger payments than usual toward my balances. That plus a few CLIs have collectively reduced my total utilization by 9%.

I've also started a small savings account, though my bank doesn't pay much interest and I need to select a better place to park my emergency fund. I've done a bit of preliminary research, but would welcome any suggestions you may have. 

Other than that, I plan to stick to my budget I've laid out for repayment and hopefully make more progress as the year continues. I've started using YNAB for budgeting, but I can't tell yet whether I like it or not. I'm still in the free trial phase so I can cancel it if it's not going to work for me.  If anyone has used YNAB and loves it, I'd be interested in your feedback.

[M_Smart007]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My plan is to continue gardening for awhile because my AAoA is still pretty new according to the CRA's 

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Hang in there @Anonymous 

[Anonymous]

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@M_Smart007 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

My plan is to continue gardening for awhile because my AAoA is still pretty new according to the CRA's 

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Hang in there @Anonymous 

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Thank you, M_Smart007! Sometimes I feel I'm hanging by a thread lol 

[Anonymous]

I have finally gotten my spending under control, reduced utilization from a disastrous 74% to 48%.

[Revelate]

Overdue update.  Shifted course wildly this month (life stuff) and as a result I am basically chucking my credit plan for this year out the window.

This year is now about financing and using my credit to help improve that.  I am not going to hit my goal scores this year even if I thought they were a bit of a reach given how flat my credit is these days... but anyway, new plan:

• Applied for a mortgage on a place in Houston and going to up and move my life
• Once that closes I am strongly considering refinancing my auto loan: I am way ahead but reduces payment in half and there are some fantastic rates available now if I can close fast enough to take advantage of them.
• Similar vein and timing I am planning to refinance the existing condo to also cut my payment in half (15 year fixed to 30 year).
• After that's all done I am going to go setup a couple of useful BT cards, presumably with NFCU if I get my mom's paperwork, and with DCU.

And after all that, I think, not positive, even though it'll all be secured debt at small interest rates and I am giving up the market arbitrage play and it is not smart for tax purposes, I may just go avalanche style on my debt.  Start with the PMI on new Houston mortgage (got to get to 78% LTV and then submit paperwork, BOFA makes this really as unfriendly as possible I am finding), and then probably just double or more up on the Cali mortgage.  

Not sure I could still be swayed by the up up and away nature of the market but I think I want to secure things for if we do have a downturn and even if I rationally know I could just sell the Cali place for somewhat below market and be *fine* I'm just not quite sanguine about having a big number hanging out on the debt side of my finances... some things I still think small on.  Basically I will keep maxing my 401k but everything I was dumping into a post-tax brokerage account I would redirect to paying off the mortgages... I don't know I have to really look at the tax implications after I am out of Cali as all that mortgage interest is deductible in my case.

Ah well, credit files are going to get beaten like a rented mule regardless this year but if you aren't using it you aren't trying.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

[Curious_George2]

I'm sorry that life threw you a curve or two, Rev. I hope everything works out OK. Your presence and contributions here are valued and appreciated.

My numbers are in for February, so here's how I'm doing on my goals for this year.

1.  Eliminate interest on revolving debt. Paid $157 in interest in February. That's an 83% reduction from my high-water mark in 12/2018, but the rate of improvement is unavoidably slowing. That's OK. I'm doing the right things and still on track to get to zero in 2020.

2. Pay all cards down to zero. Combined balance is $34,000. That's only $6,000 less than where I started the year, so I'm not shrinking this quite as quickly as I need to. Time to re-focus on getting keeping spending down. I can do this.

3. Apply for nothing other than one used car loan. This one depends on when we start the clock. Since I joined the challenge [checks notes] two days ago, I'm nailing it! A few days before that, I got a little carried away after a string of CLIs and other small victories and apped for a card I have no need for, Capital One QS. OK, there might have been some wine involved too... Anyway, that was dumb and my app was denied. To help myself recover from the ego sting, I focused on a FICO-based silver lining: it leaves me with an AoYRA of 8 months instead of 0. TLDR: Succeeding since joining the challenge.

[Cass2387]

This time last year I had no credit with my scores sitting in the mid 400s. I got my first secured card in July 2019. Today I'm averaging a 620 credit score and only looking forward from here. Good luck to all.