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The New Waiting Game
I totally made the J backwards on purpose... I swear
The waiting game used to consist of me sitting around waiting for my next paycheck right after using up the last one. The new waiting game is a much better one to be playing. I’m winning this time, but it’s almost as stressful. One could say that I have an addiction. An addiction to paying down debt, that is. The goal of living off of the previous month’s money has resulted in me sitting on quite a tidy sum of money. Normally, this would be a good thing, but to a person trying to get out of debt, those are dollars that aren’t being put to work. They’re just sitting there, waiting for the calendar page to turn over, and nothing more.
It’s a similar feeling to having an emergency fund built up, but not quite on the dot. An emergency fund has a purpose, isn’t supposed to be touched, and you know this. This almost fully funded buffer, on the other hand, is meant to be spent. It’s begging to be put to work. Begging for the month to change. Or maybe it’s me begging for the month to change.
In any case, I haven’t met my debt payment quota for the month, as I budgeted only for minimum payments. This simple fact has been staring me in the face every night this month, and I want to do something about it, but I don’t know what. As I mentioned in that video that none of you saw, I’m currently a month or two ahead on Sallie Mae and LFCU, which are my two biggest payments (that allow me to pay ahead easily). I’m only $300 away from my monthly quota, and roughly the same away from a pretty good milestone in my journey out of debt. Again, LFCU is my highest interest rate, which makes the most mathematical sense, but we all know the debt snowball doesn’t work on math. The next on my snowball list, however, is going to be paid in full with one check, but also happens to be double what I need to do.
I know what I want to do, but in the back of my head I remember how much it sucks to live purely paycheck to paycheck, essentially planning to be broke right when each one comes in, and worry about spiraling in to that pit again.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I have an excuse for not watching the videos: I have decided to solely blog at work. So, that means I can’t watch videos. Is that good? No? Umm, lemme think of another one.
Whenever debt is involved, I think having an addiction to paying it off is not only healthy, but wise. This is one of the few situations in life where I wholeheartedly agree with the phrase: No Pain, No Gain!
I.N., what I meant by “the video that none of you saw” was the actual video I spent 2 hours working on for nothing, not the one I posted.
I know it is frustrating having that debt hang over your head.
You’ve got great goals, though, and I’m sure you will be debt free sooner than you think!