can I be debt free in a year?

argomatt

Hi everyone,
I hope it's ok to start a new diary on this board. I had tried one on the mortgage free board but I have realised that was a bit too optimistic for me, and I need to get rid of the unsecured debts first.
I don't have the exact figures with me at the moment but wanted to get started with the new diary to keep momentum, and I hope to post a statement of affairs with the details on tomorrow.
Matt

argomatt

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1800

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 540
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 85
Council tax............................. 65
Electricity............................. 33
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 17.6
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 28
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 16
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1081.72


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 115000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 115800


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 84500....(540)......4.09
Total secured & HP debts...... 84500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
M&S Credit Card................4500......110.......0
Student Loan...................2500......128.......0
Total unsecured debts..........7000......238.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,800
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,081.72
Available for debt repayments........... 718.28
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 238
Amount left after debt repayments....... 480.28

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 115,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -84,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,000
Net Assets.............................. 24,300

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Elena_Handcart

Hi argomatt,

Well done on looking to reduce your debt, I am sure you can do it.

I am having trouble working out your SOA though. The details seem very minimal. especially as your signature has 3 mortgage figures included. Could you give some more information on these?

It looks like Mortgage 1 is your home. But what are Mortgage 2 & 3 are they buy to lets? what is the equity situation on these? are there any charges payable with these? is there any income being made? do you have any tax liabilities on any 'rents' you are charging?

I guess I am asking - would it be worthwhile selling one of the properties associated with these mortgages, and releasing some funds to concentrate on mortgage 1 & 2?

Elena

argomatt

Hi Elena,
I'm sorry I haven't explained very welll. Things were getting quite complicated and I was confusing myself a lot of the time so I am trying to simplify my situation and make it clearer for me.
I have cancelled the internet and landline phone. I travel a lot for work so I have quite an expensive mobile phone contract with included Internet and cslls, so I just use that at home now too.
As far as the mortgage goes, I am in the process of moving and that's all getting a bit stressful, but I have not yet started mortgage 3, and after moving then the others will be repaid.
I expect the bills will be a bit higher once I have moved so I will try to do a new soa once I have got the new figures.
Matt

argomatt

Just been spending some time sorting through my big pile of documents, trying to get things organised ready to start attacking these debts, and discovered my tax coding notice.
This year I have been paying extra because I did work where no tax was taken the year before, so hopefully from next April I will have a bit more monthly income to put towards repayments, but exactly how much I don't know yet..

argomatt

Hi all. I hope you have had a good Christmas.
I have finally started to make some progress with the credit card debt.
I was paid £650 extra this month for some extra responsibilities I occasionally do during my normal working hours, so I transferred that to the credit card.
I also did a balance transfer so I have 15 months at 0%. There were longer transfers available but the fee was higher and I hope to have it all paid off within a year anyway.
I still have to update my signature with the full figures but I don't have the latest statement here with me.
Matt

argomatt

Hi,
It's been a long time since I posted on my diary, because it was my plan to clear all my unsecured debt before the end of the year, I have joined the challenge "Pay all your debts before Christmas 2014" and have been making my updates on there.

I just wanted to record a bit more detail to look back on over here.

At present my debts stand at:

Aqua credit card £50
M&S credit card £50
RBS credit card £3078.19 @ 0% for 15 months

All credit cards are put beyond use now, so the debts should only be able to go down!

Aqua and M&S cards will be paid off at the next billing cycle and then the accounts closed.

I had my tax code come through for next year, and all other things remaining the same, I expect my take home pay to go up by about £300, so if I add this amount into my snowball, then I should be able to get rid of the last remaining credit card before the end of the year :D

Potential obstacles coming up imminently include the MOT on my car next month, which is starting to show its age. I know that at least 2 new tyres will be required, and possibly 4, and who knows what else could need doing.

So at the moment things are looking hopeful but I can't be certain I will succeed!

argomatt

Tomorrow will be my final Aqua Card payment, then they will be closing the account! :D I stupidly didn't include this cards balance in my total to pay off this year, but it feels good to have one less direct debit going out, and money freed up to snowball the others too!

This means that the M&S card will be paid off completely next month, just leaving my RBS card to clear before the 0% period expires!