Well, I have decided it is time to face up to some harsh realities. Doug and I both need to get healthy in both body and finances. We are seriously over our head in debt and things need to change drastically for our family to become successful.
Without doing an exact accounting our family is somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 in debt. Yup. Ouch. I think that deserves a double ouch.
So why are we so far in debt? Doug went to school for roughly 3.5 years on student loans and then as things didn't quite work out for many reasons- the loans didn't get put into a deferred state and have since defaulted. And since they are currently in default- we can't do much except pay with astronomical interest rates until after 6-9 months they are eligible to be re-written into a consolidation loan.
In addition to that, we ran up some consumer bad debt living in Moscow due to bad economy and bad decisions. Oddly enough it is relatively easy to ignore bills when you just don't have the money to pay them. The bad side of that is that eventually you have to pay them or people start getting ugly to you. People are being ugly.
We want to take care of our debts. Right now some of the student loan places are going to garnish Doug's pay and seize any income tax return that comes our way. Plus if we live really tight- and I mean the budget screaming in protest each month- we could very possibly put around $600 towards debt each month. That will put us at about a 5.5 year pay period until we are out of debt free and clear- a bit less if we actually stick to the budget as close as we can because of the Income Tax returns being nabbed. Also we are planning on Nora going to some sort of preschool/daycare during May/June/July/August so I can get a full time job and work. If I can make an additional $1000 a month that would really help a lot too!
So by my calculations if we can pay $600 a month plus a $2000 return and $4000 earned over the summer... then that would drop our total pay off to only 3.5 years.
Over the years the stress has really taken it's toll on our bodies. We have gained weight and lost energy. Starting Monday morning I will be returning to the gym. I am going to work out a plan and go every day to the gym from 5 to 7 or 8 (until my workout is done and give myself some cool down time).
Our house needs to get clean and stay organized and I need to have another great semester at school.
