June Update

It has definitely been an interesting couple weeks to say the least. The good news is that my wife was able to start working part time again to bring in some extra money. That, and we're going to be able to pay off one of our credit cards this month. The BAD news is that the added expense of lunches and gas for her to go to work we have to eat until she gets paid. I'm on a bi-monthly pay cycle, so we have been in an interesting funk waiting on paychecks to come, while being in the middle of extra expense.

With the amount of hours she will be able to pick up, we could theoretically pay off the Van in about 4-6 months if we can push all her money onto it. Again, there is the extra expense of gas for her to commute and lunch (whether she buys it or takes it), but I think we can make a pretty good dent into things.

I did, however, manage to reduce our monthly outlay by about $100 so far. I canceled my Rhapsody service, and re-negotiated terms on an unsecured loan I have. I'm going to be forcing that excess into the snowball to get it rolling. All I need is to get some traction and this is going to take off.

I also got something interesting in the mail today from Chase. They are trying to get me to refinance my 2nd mortgage. I've got multiple accounts with them, so the rate is going to be about half what I have now, and thus the payment will be about half (freeing up more money for the snowball). The only problem is that my current 2nd has a pre-payment penalty if it is paid off in less than 5 years. I've technically got 4 years left on that loan, so I would essentially be borrowing money to help pay off other debt -- which is never a good idea. I'm sure the percentage is fairly low (still need to look it up), but combined with the $44,000 loan, that could add up to be quite a bit. I still need to do the math on it, but if the savings in monthly outlay could pay the penalty in under a year, I may go that route to free up the cash to help the snowball. After I get just one of these larger loans paid off, I'm really going to make headway.

I'm looking into some other ideas on how to generate some extra income as well, so maybe I'll hash some of those out on here later, but for now I'm off to get some much needed sleep.

Until next time... :)