Let’s Try This Again: I’m Out of Credit Card Debt for the Second Time

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Double Debt Single Woman

Thanks to getting an annual bonus for 2015 that finally hit my account (yay!) and a paycheck, I have paid off the last $200 of my credit card debt and have started savings funds!

I suppose I am now officially ‘Single Debt Single Woman’! 🙂 Woot!

“It’s Deja-vu all over again…”

Last year (2015) this time, around the end of February / early March, I had just paid off over $30,000 of credit card debt. I celebrated and was happy to be reaching large debt milestones. I even had about $2,000 in savings at the time. Things were looking up. Next on the horizon was my student loan debt. Just days after writing those posts, I ended up in the emergency room, and several expensive doctors visits, diagnostic tests, and one major surgery later, I ended up losing all of 2015 to paying off the incurred medical expenses.

Well, here I am again at the end of February (2016) with my credit card debt freshly paid off and a bit of money in savings. I had been looking forward to an uneventful 2016, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m now I’m dealing with stress and uncertainty at work and home this year. It may be superstition, but Read More

BlogLines: “…and I have nothing to show for it.”

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Double Debt Single Woman

This is the first post of my BlogLines series where I share quotes that I’ve collected from other blogs that resonate with me around a topic or a ‘line’. This week’s theme… “and I have nothing to show for it”.

I’d like to share some of the experiences of other writers as it helps us to know that we aren’t alone. Go check out these blogs and their authors. Read More

2015 Financial Goals for Double Debt Single Woman + FS-DAIR

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Double Debt Single Woman

Happy New Year!

It is that time of year again. I unveil my 2015 financial goals. Before I do, I’ll look back at my recent yearly goals.

2014 Goals:

Pay off remaining $22,770 balance in credit card debt
Open and contribute to 401k up to point of employer match when eligible

2014 Outcome: [partial success]

Paid off $16,780 in credit card debt [remaining balance: -$5,990]
Paid $8,720 in student loan interest [0.o -Yeah, this is insane.]
Opened and contributed to retirement funds [+$6,578 (including employer match)]

In the footer and sidebar, I have added a tracker for my retirement and other savings to help me have a fuller picture of my finances.

2015 Goals:

Pay off remaining credit card debt of $5,990
Reach $20,000 in retirement savings
Reduce student loan debt to $108,000
Save $6,000 in savings (Yes, my lack of an emergency fund is scary.)
Pay cash for an international trip – $??

My student loan goal doesn’t look like much of a drop, but you have to remember that the first $750 that I pay each month is just going to interest, not principal. So it will take nearly $15k in payments to get from $113k to $108k.

Undoubtedly, I have some more thinking to do to figure out how to prioritize all of these goals. Save for retirement or pay down debt?

Will a noble samurai rescue me from my quandry? Enter FS-DAIR

Financial Samurai has posted a formula for determining how to prioritize debt repayment vs. retirement funding. His FS-DAIR (Financial Samurai Debt and Investment Ratio), looks like the tool I’ve been hoping to find for a while now. How does it work? This chart lays it all out in a clear format.


Source and Image Credit: FinancialSamurai.com

Basically, any debt that you have carrying 10% or higher in interest, should be paid off post-haste, at the expense of any investing (beyond the 401k employer match). Once your debts have interest rates at 9% and below, things get interesting. Read Sam’s FS-DAIR post for examples of how this works. For instance, Sam uses the following as an example for someone deciding how much to put toward student loans vs 401k.


Source: FinancialSamurai.com

My student loan debt is made up of many separate loans with different fixed interest rates. I will need to run the numbers to see how this would shape my plan of attack. I’ll do a follow-up post on this in the not too distant future. Thanks, Sam for lending me a sword to use in my battle!

Net Worth – Double Debt Single Woman – January 2015

As my debt drops in 2015, I’ll be tracking my Net Worth. My first goal will be to see it drop down into the 5-digit zone. Soon you will also be able to track it here @Rockstar Finance. I will be pretty low on the ranked list, but I will be gunning for higher and higher slots. Watch out Finance Phoenix and Feisty Finance!