Yesterday I finalized my budget for March and made up my mind what to do with my tax refund. The plan is to use my tax refund to create an emergency fund and pay off 2 of my 3 credit cards. I will pay off the final credit card in March and leave my student loans in deferment while I begin snowballing my car loan. My car loan will be paid off in September 2009, 43 months early. My final debt goal will then be to pay off those 2 student loans. I am all set to begin this debt-busting battle. Right? Of course! I'm gung ho!
NOT!
Today I read yet another article that I thought would help me make the right decisions. Well, too much of a good thing is nonetheless too much. This article completely threw my game plan off.
The article said that yes I should pay my credit cards and car loan off before I even think about my student loan. (One point for me!) Next it went on to say that after I pay off my credit cards my next move should be to fully fund my Roth IRA. (Another point for m.... - wait, what?) Fund my Roth IRA before I pay off my car note???
STOP THE PRESSES! HALT THE BATTLE! WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?
Oh my goodness! I'll be 34 in 9 days - I don't have time for pit stops. What now? There is too much information out there and I'm officially mad about it. It's throwing my plan off. Do you know how long it took me to create this plan? Can you even imagine how many demons I had to fight just to start thinking about sitting down to start a budget?
Okay enough of my blustering.
Now I'm supposed to put $5,000 in my Roth before I start paying extra on my car. I can understand the argument, that I can't get this time back and time is very important in retirement savings. On the other hand how can I feel good about having $5,000 in a bank account when I still owe over $14k on my car note? Not to mention that now I have to redo my entire plan.
Oh well back to the drawing board.
No comments:
Post a Comment