Full Speed Ahead...Turtle Speed

Have you ever read the book the Tortoise and the Hare? In this book the tortoise always wins. It is in our nature to want to run full speed ahead and finish first but with a financial journey it is just that...a journey; and, it is going to take longer to finish the race than we have in endurance for if we run at full speed the whole time. Finding a good pace is how we expect to finish the race…slow and steady. When we refer to the race we are not talking about Project Money but what we are really getting from Project Money. The race is later on in life when we have changed how we use our money and have taken what we are paying monthly in debts today to fund our tomorrow. When we are sitting on the beach enjoying the fruits of our labor. When we have paced ourselves so that our investments and money management skills allow us to come and go as we please. When we have an agenda all our own...not the bosses agenda or the creditors agenda!

Don has a great idea to consolidate our debt and get lower interest rates. One way to do this is to use the collateral in the car. This is a bit heart wrenching for us because we own that car free and clear. If feels good to drive it with NO PAYMENTS! We think it might even get better gas mileage since it isn't dragging around a payment book! That being said though using our car to reduce our interest helps us pay off this debt faster and we will have an amazing motivation to get that clear title back! However, that plan is on the back burner. See when you keep charging and borrowing your debt to income affects your FICO score...those little numbers that get you your interest rates, ability to rent and even get some jobs! Missing a payment can lower that score too and as much as we hate to admit it publicly...both of those things have affected our FICO score. But in just 3 short months Darek increased his score almost 18 points! Of course that is 1 point less than we need to get a decent interest loan on the car. At first this was a major bummer but we try to find the silver lining in everything.

The first credit card getting paid off is the one that has the highest interest...the same one we missed a payment on and our interest rate took a double digit hike! We have a special place for this card in our people we never want to do business with again, place. We want this card and this company out of our lives. That is a huge motivator. When we were planning to roll our debt using the car as collateral this card was going to go a way. Yippee...no more payments to them. That sounds awesome but spending the next 2 months paying them off and actually writing out those checks just solidifies our position to pay this stuff down. When we write the last check to this credit card it will be from the hard work and dedication we have put forth in our new money journey...not a consolidation but something we did! What an amazing feeling of accomplishment. We did it. We rolled up our sleeves, found a good pace, and got it done!

This week we are celebrating summer, paid in full!

Comments

[Rachel]

It is amazing what one missed payment can do to your FICA score - last year I totally forgot to make a payment (easy to do with paperless statement) and my FICA went down almost 58 points :(

Darcy at Summit told me that even having a high percentage of debt (to available credit card) can reduce the FICA score.

I love your comment "We think it might even get better gas mileage since it isn't dragging around a payment book!" That is so true :)