| The new automatic student loan snowball payment coinciding with my bi-weekly paycheck paid off nicely in November -- that is a month in which we ended up getting 3 checks in one month (June was the other month); as a result, over $3,600 went onto the loans with no extra effort or thought on my part. This is clearly the way to go. I'll be done with them within the next 12 months which is a great feeling!
I'm considering not going out of town to join the family for Christmas in FL, but maybe that's me taking this whole debt payoff thing to far...You only live once right?? We'll see. With the automatic snowball payments I have no wiggle room in the budget. I'd likely have to suspend it for at least one of the pay periods in December to travel and get gifts, I really don't want to suspend it even for a month as I am making progress and hate to stop even for one pay period. Guess I'm Type A like that. The other thing is I really need to add some extra income starting in 2011. Even an extra $500 a month would help a lot. Still looking for viable opportunities. Losing the OT from my previous job was a big loss, but I'm positive I'll find an alternative.
There is short sale 4 houses down, selling a comparable property for $133,000. Sickening really. Despite reports that home prices are going up in Washington DC, I happen to know that is crap. Zillow says I'm now down to $240K, going lower every month. I believe the tide of foreclosures across this city has yet to hit full crest. 2011 should be very interesting on the RE front. Personally, I'd love to just be able to refinance at today's lower rates, but being so underwater (through no fault of my own I might add!!!), makes this not possible which is very unfortunate.
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Home value is updated monthly from Zillow.com/Zestimate
(Purchase price was $370K in August 2006).
Other Mortgage = HELOC/2nd Mortgage
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