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Auto Loan Gone!

February 3rd, 2014 at 04:03 am

While all of my social network was posting and commenting on who the are going to bet on for the Super Bowl, we did something better, with guaranteed 'returns', used my "extra" paycheck and away it went, along with the auto loan!

The only debt we have is our Mortgage!

We officially own both vehicles:

2007 Honda Civic Si Sedan (PIF: 11/2011, 11 months early, on 60 month loan)
2010 Honda Civic LX Sedan (PIF: 2/2014, 22 months early, on 48 month loan)

Auto Loan Deteriorating!

January 25th, 2014 at 06:12 pm

The Auto Loan regular payment posted yesterday and bring it down to:

Regular Payment: $321.70
Amount to Interest: $6.12
Principle: $315.58
Total Remaining: $1,647.64

Loan Details:
2010 Honda Civic LX 4 Door Sedan
Loan Origination Date: 12/2011 $14,300
Loan Length: 48 Months

Currently at month 26 of loan, therefore, we are 22 months ahead!!

Will be paid off by month 30 (at most!), or 1.5 years (at least) early!

Mortgage and Auto Loan Get a Happy New Year!

January 1st, 2014 at 02:56 pm

Sent $115.00 extra to mortgage principal and $275 extra to auto loan principal!

Both 'thousand place' digits changed, even though it was intentional! Haha!

Sitting at:

Mortgage - $167,998.42
Auto Loan - $1,994.11

In addition, the 'ten thousand' digit changed on our total debt, which is just the two added together, also intentional, which is why I took advantage of this whole "unique" situation!

Total Debt - $169,992.53

Happy New Year!

2014 Goals

December 24th, 2013 at 06:01 pm

It's that time again; 2014 Goals!

Debt Service:

1. Auto Loan paid off by June 2014. This will actually happen by itself with regular payments, which will be 18 months early on our 48 month loan. Once it gets down below $1,000 I may reevaluate with a lump sum payoff. Right now, it costing us less than $6/ mo. in interest.

2. Mortgage principal only payments. Sending $50/ mo. additional principal only payments for 2014. I have automatic payments set-up from our savings account.

Retirement/ Savings:

1. ROTH IRA (ME), fund $50/ mo. I have automatic contributions set-up from our savings account.

2. ROTH IRA (DW), fund $50/ mo. I have automatic contributions set-up from our savings account.

3. Emergency Fund to $10,000.

Home Improvements:

1. Fence for rear yard. DIY project. $1,500-2,500 depending on materials used.

I made the goals a little more accessible this year. I had hoped to have the auto loan paid off six months ago, but other things came up and DW switched job to a much less stressful one, but at the expense of less wages.

Here's to 2014! Smile

Just a Quick Update

October 29th, 2013 at 02:20 pm

Our Auto Loan had a minor milestone of under the $3K mark! I did add $55 to principal only for that to happen. I get an "extra" paycheck extremely early in 2014, January to be exact, so a good chunk will most likely be going to the Auto Loan. Once it is down around $1300 is probably when a lump sum pay off will occur.

The Mortgage also had a minor milestone of under the $169K mark this month. Not much progress there at all besides regular payments. There is a home for sale a street over that is very similar in size and style to ours that is listed for $169K, so I will keep an eye on final sale price once and if it sells. I expect high $150's low $160's.

The reduction of Verizon services is already paying off, the first bill saw a savings of $61, so that works for me.

DW changed jobs, less hourly pay, less hours until January 1 and much less stress. After that, a raise and back to 30-35 hours instead of the current 25.5 hours. So the dept shovel has been reduced a bit, for the short term. However, the new job at the Dental office does provide opportunity for a monthly bonus of $500-$5,000, so in reality, the effective pay could be significantly more than her previous employer. There is also a yearly bonus on top. I just had to rework our budget schedule as she now gets paid weekly and not bi-weekly.

Extra to Auto Loan

September 13th, 2013 at 07:17 pm

DW got her Chase Sapphire Preferred card statement with the bonus points. Also sent in the auto insurance policy net difference with it, so, $700 total went to the auto loan.

$3,664.42 remaining.

$500 will be sent toward the end of the month when my other Chase CC sign-up bonus hits.

In addition, the regular September 2013 payment will put it under $3,000 by end of month!

Getting Impatient with the Auto Loan

July 8th, 2013 at 05:54 pm

The auto loan is at an amount that we could just pay off immediately if we wanted. I am tired of waiting for each months payment, but retiring the loan now would leave our EF way too low, but still tempting. Next month is 3 pay periods for us which means an extra ~$2,000 to savings on top of our normal amount. My plan is to bring loan under $4K after August regular payment and additional $400 to principle. We also want to increase our EF to $10K by December 2013. I don't think we can have both and the auto loan is only costing us $14 a month in interest. Of course that gets less with each payment, but I just want to be done with it! At that point we would only have the mortgage!

Auto Loan Under $5K!

June 24th, 2013 at 04:11 pm

The auto loan this morning was at about $5,150.00, but I couldn't stand to see it that close to being under $5,000 so (as I already had planned), I transferred an additional $175.00 to the principle and brought the balance down to $4,979.69!

So, in June, two 'milestones' were reached:

1. Mortgage Under $170,000

2. Auto Loan Under $5,000

In other news...

I got into my vehicle this morning and while on my way to work I noticed my clutch pedal having a lot of free play in it, as if there was no hydraulic pressure. I limped it to work, checked the clutch fluid reservoir and the reservoir was empty. I checked and I hope it is just a loose fitting where the clutch line connects to the clutch master cylinder (I can't see that connection unless a few parts are removed [these cab-forward designs on all these new cars make it so difficult to see parts of such), as the other end of the line connecting to the clutch slave cylinder is dry. Inside under the clutch pedal is dry, which hopefully rules out my brand new clutch master cylinder I had installed a few months ago along with the clutch. I put some fluid in it and attempted to pump it a few times and I noticed some fluid that is running down the line and dripping on the ground. I hope it is just a simple clutch line being loose, but it is at the side I can't get to myself. I have an appointment on Wednesday to bring it to the shop, but we may drop it off tonight as I don't want to really to push it.

I will say, I love my 2007 Honda Civic Si Sedan, but they just don't make them like they use to in the 1980's and 1990's. Bummer.

Just a Wacky Wednesday Update

June 5th, 2013 at 04:43 pm

Our central air was installed last Friday and works great. It is nice to have the whole house cool and dehumidified rather than just the immediate room as with a window air conditioner.

Speaking of the window air conditioner, we listed it on Craigslist and sold it last night for $175. I will deposit that tonight and put that toward the principal on the car loan so that it will be below $5K after regular payment hits June 24. I will be sure to blog that milestone separate as well! Haha!

DW bday is June 26, so she asked for a Fitbit One, so they were on sale for $10 off. We purchased at Best Buy and they guy asked if we were using a Best Buy credit card. We said we didn't have one, and asked if we wanted to sign up. I asked if there was any incentive and it was $20 off current purchase if approved. So after we were approved, we walked out spending $75 after tax on a $99 purchase before tax! Plus, we didn't need to use that card to pay for it! Now, just another card with a ridiculous amount of credit for a retail store I need to cancel. Haha!

Speaking of credit cards, the remaining $2,000 balance of the central air was able to be charged to my Chase Freedom card. We will have no problems paying that before it is due by July 12 or so. I will use my existing $65 in rewards as a statement credit so only really $1,935 will really be due!

I need to renew my NYS drivers license by June 14 as it expires this year, which is $80.50. Again, no issue paying that, but those little things like that tick me off sometimes!


Mortgage Almost Under $170K!

May 2nd, 2013 at 12:58 am

It looks like the mortgage will be under $170K next payment on June 1, 2013! I can't wait to see that $169,xxx number.

Too bad we are underwater by a good $40K though.

I am going to try to have auto loan under $5K by June 24, 2013.

Auto Loan Under $6,000!

April 24th, 2013 at 11:09 pm

Our auto loan is now under $6,000!

It is sitting at (as my side bar reflects), $5,765.37!

Loan Originated December 2011 for $14,300...59% paid in 16 months! Hope to have it gone by late Summer or before December 2013.

Auto Repairs, Tuition = Costly First Quarter 2013

March 19th, 2013 at 06:31 pm

Been a couple months so I will give an update on this around here!

DW is getting NYS Certified for the job she has been doing for the previous two years. After the course, she will be able to sit for the exam and get her full certification without being a trainee for two years as she has the experience. All that ran us $2100 and we cash flowed that.

My 2007 Honda Civic Si 4 Door Sedan, after 6 years of ownership, finally needed repairs. The suspension components were wearing out costing me $600 in parts and installed them myself. Brakes were changed, $300 in parts and had DWs grandfather's auto body shop to the work as it was cold outside for me to do them, $185. The major one is scheduled for clutch work. I sourced my own parts as dealership costs are ridiculous, all parts sourced were $860 and a shop to do the work at $75/hr x8 hours is $600. So $2545 in repairs we also cash flowed.

The IRS, also apparently wants money this year, Haha, so $1146 is set to be debited from our account April 1. I was messing with my W4 all year and DW also made about 15k more than previous year. I adjusted myself back to claiming zero allowances on both fed and state for 2013. We always set DW to zero for both, so no changes needed there.

If it wasn't for all that, DWs Auto loan would have pretty much been paid off! At least we didn't touch our EF!

Auto Loan Going Down

December 12th, 2012 at 03:51 pm

12/12/2012: Today we made a principal only payment of $600 to the Auto Loan.

12/12/2012: After work I will cash a check for $58 we received from Allstate and apply that to the Auto Loan.

12/21/2012: Pay day and will send another $200.

12/24/2012: Normal payment due which will bring balance to approximately, $6,875!!

Recap:
12/21/2011: $14,300 (Total Amount Financed)
12/24/2012: $6,875 (Remaining)

Total Paid in 2012: $7,425.
Total Percent Paid: 52% (In 12 months!!)

Expected spend, but wasn't sure when...

December 4th, 2012 at 01:59 am

So this weekend I put the snow tire and rim set-up on my car and retired the summer tires and rim set-up for the winter. Back when I had the vehicle inspected in September it was mentioned that I was in need of brakes really soon. Well here it is December and when I made the switch, I had a look at my brakes, yup, extremely low in the front. So I logged on my favorite Honda site, (car enthusiast at heart beneath the frugalness), and ordered up some front and rear brake pads and rotors. The original Honda set finally wore out after 5 years, 3 months and 75K miles! I got some upgraded brakes for $269 for front and rear pads and rotors. The distributer is out of Connecticut and the parts should be here in NY tomorrow according to UPS tracking. I will be installing them some time this month with a friend. I called Honda and their billable book time for all 4 corners brake pads and rotors is 3 hours at probably around $95-$120 an hour. Excellent savings. I do a lot of my own repairs.

I may actually make my goal for 2012 for having auto loan at 50% paid off in 12 months AND $6,000 in th EF by floating my CC statements. Cheating?! Maybe, maybe not. Haha. I got the bill today and the statement balance was about $1,320 less than total charged. Obviously the various items overlapped the billing cycle. The next bill won't be due until end of Jan. 2013, allowing another month of savings etc.

November 2012 Update

November 26th, 2012 at 05:48 pm

So November 24 the auto loan hit and was at about $8,080. I could not stand to see it that close to being under $8K, so I transferred an additional $115 to bring it to about $7,965! Even with December interest it will not be above $8K ever again! So 44% paid off in 11 months!

Last post I wanted to be 50% paid in 12 months, but may be at 48%. We also wanted $6K in the EF by December 31. We can't have both though.

We have $600 budgeted for Christmas spending this year. We are on budget so far on that.

We did rescue a dog three weeks ago, our first dog at that. We have a cat we adopted 2 years ago as well. The dog is a 2.5 year old Pomeranian mix. She came spayed, micro chipped, up-to-date on shots. The donation was $250 and spend about $250 on supplies etc. That we did not budget for, main reason we can't have both $6 in EF and 50% auto loan payoff in 12 months. She is a cutie though.

The Phase 4 of 5 windows are installed and look great! Just the basement left for some time in 2013.

Only random (hopefully) expenses remaining this year is NYS auto inspection for $21 on my wife's car and NYS registration renewal on my car for about $120.

I expect the cc bill to be about $4K from all the above, so when I get it, funds will be transferred to pay it in full.

Auto Loan...Again

December 15th, 2011 at 11:06 pm

Well, just figures that we pay my 2007 Honda Civic Si Sedan off November 2011, a year early on a 5 year note the wife's car becomes a hassle with repairs needed.

We picked up a 2010 Honda Civic LX Sedan with 22K miles for $14,300. We paid cash for the taxes, licensing fees etc, so we just financed the price of the car, $14,300 for 4 years @ 3.49%. The payment is $321.xx/ mo. We could have done 3 year loan, but figured the lower payment would be nice incase something happened with positive cash flow. I already have a pre-payment plan of 18-24 months payoff my tossing an additional $300/ mo. toward the principal.

We also decided to sell the old car privately and hopefully get about $500 more then what the dealer wanted for trade.

I had to adjust the monthly budget to reflect the car loan and additional in auto insurance. Even with the extra $300 to the car and $600 to the mortgage a month we still have $800+ positive cash flow to savings.