Welcome to the Roaring 20’s!
Today is a big money day for me. I woke up this morning and immediately checked my bank balance. You know, as I do. I was stunned to see 4 deposits: my paycheck, my bonus, my federal tax refund, and my state tax refund. Whoa!!! I was expecting my paycheck and bonus, but not my tax refunds.
First, what witchcraft is going on at the IRS? I filed my taxes last weekend. I got BOTH state and federal refunds today, 6 days after I filed! Six days?! I’ve never seen the IRS process anything so fast.
Oh yes, Surprise Cat. They did! And in 6 days.
My refund ended up being almost the same as last year. I think I got back about $170-something less than last year. I’m not complaining at all given that a number of people are getting back far less than they expected or even unexpectedly owing money.
Now that I’m officially a Fat Cat for all of the next 15 minutes. Here’s what I’m doing and planning to do with the funds:
Paycheck (minus living allowance): $1,730
All of my paycheck (minus my food/living allowance) went to my Evil Student Loan payment. Booo!! Hiss!!
- Evil Student Loan $1,730
Remaining funds: $0. Whelp, that didn’t last long! 😦
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Bonus: $6,650
Someone play the Hallelujah Chorus! Hallelujah! I’ve used $124 dollars of this money to send toward my Evil Student Loan. I’ve also used $1000 to pay off my credit card debt accrued since the beginning of the year. Ugh. I don’t know how this has happened. I’m keeping $526 in my bill-paying checking account to cover annual charges for the year.
- Evil Student Loan $124
- Credit Card Payment $1000
- Checking acct $526
- Opportunity fund $5,000
Remaining funds: $5,000. This remaining money, I’m going to keep in cash in my Opportunity Fund.
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Tax Refunds: $2,743
I am already planning my yearly international vacation. As in buying tickets, planning. Yeah, I guess I should start calling it ‘yearly’ now. This is what makes all this working worthwhile. Yes, travel. Yes, soon. The destination will be Europe this year. I’m earmarking this money to spend on travel and fun.
- Travel and Fun $2,743
Remaining funds: $?. This money will dwindle to zero, likely sooner rather than later this year.
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On Track
I’m on track to be debt-free about a year from now! This assumes, no unexpected major expenses this year. As we know, real life is all about the unexpected… So, we’ll see.
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Chooo Chooo!
Train 1920s
This marks the end of the line for the time travel debt payoff train. Once I get down to 19k, I’ll shift to a glorious Top 20 countdown. It’s been a good (albeit bumpy) ride. Looking forward to the next, and final, debt payoff phase.
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“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW Archives)
Double Debt Single Woman 
YES! Keep pressing on like a locomotive! lol You are almost there, I’m anxious to see what route you will take this blog once your debt is gone.
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I will! I’m making progress even though the speed feels so slooowwwww. As for what happens after the debt… That’s a good question. 🙂
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You lucky duck! I filed on 2/1 and got rejected due to some change in the self employed tax law something or other. Boo hiss indeed!!
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My taxes are super simple: one W-2, no property, no complicated investments, no children, no businesses, etc. That accounts for the quick processing, I’m sure. But I’ve never seen it process THAT fast.
A rejected filing can’t be fun. Re-filing is like having to relive the un-fun. 😦 You’ve earned a reward for trooping through it.
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I have essentially the same situation that you are in tax wise, and I filed on 2/1 and received my refunds in six days too. I guess there are benefits to having a super simple return!
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Well, I don’t mind the speedy turnaround. 🙂
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Congratulations! Keep that train rolling! I’m glad you’re not depriving yourself of life experiences, like that trip to Europe. I just returned from there a couple of weeks ago – my first time – and it was magnificent!
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Yes. I’m looking forward to it!
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Awesome! That 5K to the opportunity fund is boss! And look at that debt go down! Yass!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Woo hoo! The 20’s! You did it. So glad Europe is on the radar.
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So am I, Isabella! Ha! 🙂
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This is just the Bee’s Knees! lol What joy! So proud of you and I am glad I found your blog and have been lucky enough to witness your journey. As always, you are a total inspiration, and I look forward to the next post! You’re almost there!!!!
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Thank you for such kind words, Eri. 🙂
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Love you’ve made it to the 20s with some cash to spare. So happy for you this is getting near the end.
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Thanks, AW. 🙂
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Congrats!!! So happy for you! You are an inspiration and so glad you take care of the now (Europe) and the future (debt payoff)!
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Thanks, Cathy! 🙂
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I can’t stress enough how impressive it is that you have paid off so much debt. I’m very happy for you an I really appreciate you sharing your journey with the rest of us.
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Thanks, Scott!
You know, writing this blog is like therapy for me. It’s good to have a place to vent, and celebrate! Thanks for reading! 🙂
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Very well done with getting down to the 20’s, I remember you being on over $100,000 and suddenly it’s down to this. I hope you will transform your blog into something else when this remainder is paid off. Maybe LASS- Large Assets Single Solvent.
Paul, London.
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LASS – Ha! There’s an idea!
Thanks, Paul. Yeah, I’ve got some thinking to do. I can’t wait to be done with this debt.
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Can I just say how inspirational I find your blog?? I found it about two weeks ago and have read every entry! I am a 38 year old married mom of a 3 year old (this month) and between hubby and I we have about $50,000 in debt not including our house and car. When I met my husband, his student loans were in collection but are now paid off. I had debt from covering bills and expenses while my ex went to school (obviously not my ex at the time, lol). Since then, between boughts of unemployment for my husband and a maternity leave, we have more debt. Last year, I began to feel the debt fatigue and felt like it was never going to go away (hubby lost his job unexpectedly and his new job does not pay as much so less is going to debt). However, you give me a renewed sense of hope! While I cannot cut back as far as you (koodos to you for being able to do it!), you are showing me that the techniques and ideas I have will work! Just maybe not as fast. I realize that, living in Canada, I am very fortunate to have free healthcare which covers a lot of the things which have set you back cost wise (surgery, tests, etc) but we each carry 2 life insurance plans so as not to leave our daughter with nothing should anything happen to us (our first ones were bought when we were young and don’t have near the coverage we would like but are cheap enough that they won’t break us to keep). Thank you for giving me some wind in my sails to keep going! While I am very much going to try to trim some areas of our budget back further (takeout is a big issue!), I am glad that I am not alone!! THANK YOU!!
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Thanks, Stubborn Mama! Welcome!
I’m so glad this little blog of mine is helping and inspiring people to fight their own debt monsters. I know the feeling when you just get tired of running and hiding from it and need to just face it and attack. I also know what debt fatigue feels like. Omg, do I know.
Keep going! Sometimes you may need to take breaks, but always get back up again.
You’re very welcome. 🙂
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This year, I made a concrete goal! To reduce our consumer debt by 5%. At the end of January, I had already taken it down 1.9%! Now, that being said, it has fluctuated through the month so there was some gain in there but, bottom line, at the end of the month, I had paid off whatever we incrued that month AND 1.9% (small victories!). Up here we do not do our income tax till March/April depending on when we get all our paperwork so my windfall won’t come till then. Haha. Then, like you, I’ll feel like a fat cat for a couple minutes and then watch it disappear. but…money I never really had so money I won’t really miss (in theory, lol).
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Awesome as always! And while I’m glad you put a bunch of money in savings, I kind of hope you don’t spend it on opportunities, but just hang on to it. It’ll be useful if you do get laid off (hopefully not!) and since you’re not sure exactly how to get the whole rest of the debt paid off this calendar year….having $5000 in savings that you could use to pay the last of it off in December couldn’t hurt 🙂
Isn’t it fun to see your net worth go up by that much in a single day????? If it was me I would have spent at least 48 hours just logging into Mint every ten minutes to look at the chart 🙂
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Ha ha. Who says I didn’t log in to see my numbers multiple times that day? Ahem. lol
I don’t have any specific plans for my Opportunity Fund right now, other than to keep it as cash-on-hand and help stay out of credit card debt throughout the year.
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Way to go!!! Freedom is so close!! That is amazing that all that money came in at once!
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Yeah, I know. The same thing happened last year, just by chance. Ha. Yeah, I got to feel like a fat cat for literally a minute imagining what it must feel like to see that much money in one paycheck on a regular basis. Sigh.
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Woohoo! In the twenties, a vacation coming up and cash to spare! I love Paul’s Lass idea by the way. 🙂
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Yeah, I know! Good things ahead. I really needed the change in mood instead of stressing out about things.
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You are getting so close! It is fun to be an internet cheerleader for you!!!
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Thank you! It’s fun having internet cheerleaders. LOL 🙂
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