Miscalculated

I'm glad I slept on it last night and reran the numbers. It made me realize that I miscalculated; the loan payments were biweekly, not monthly, so we can't afford it, and the savings wouldn't be that substantial anyway. I'm back to the drawing board.

My husband and I had a huge argument about budgeting and finances this evening. It ended with me telling him that I just wanted us to be on the same page when it comes to money, because no matter how much I try to pay off debt, it's not going to happen unless we both are willing to change our spending habits. That has led to me deciding tonight that I need to write out my plan to get us out of debt and to lay it out to him so he knows EXACTLY what my plans are and we can BOTH stick to these plans, instead of spending impulsively.

That said, I need to figure out exactly what my plan is.

More Thinking

Tonight I've started thinking that maybe I'll take a loan out of my 401(k) to pay off the consolidation loan and one of my student loans. I'm trying to think through the tax ramifications of paying off a student loan early, and really, all of the ramifications of a 401(k) loan. The loan would not be that much, as I have not saved much for retirement, but it would be enough combined with my savings account and tax return to pay off my consolidation loan (10.49% interest rate) and my student loan (5%). By paying off the two and paying back the 401(k), I would save $70 a month, or $630 between next month and the end of the year. Again, this is money that I could put directly towards other debt. So I'd miss out on about $100 worth of tax deduction, but I'd pay $630 less in interest, so I think it's worth it. I just want to make sure I have my numbers right before I request the 401(k) loan because I'd hate to take out the loan to pay off these debts only to not have enough to pay off the two debts I'm planning to pay off and still be making the same number of loan payments.

I can not believe how much time I spend thinking about money. It is 1:30 on a Saturday morning, and I'm sitting here thinking about how best to pay off my credit card debt. I can not imagine how much of my life I'm going to get back once these debts are paid off. Maybe then I'll start spending all of my spare time thinking about how to save money instead.

I finally filed my tax return, so that's a step in the right direction as far as actually accumulating the money that is needed to pay this debt off. I have got to remember what I feel right now next time I want to take out a boatload of debt. Yeah.