How long will it take me to clear 10k debt? - Page 2

You'll get to indulge soon enough. However, being foolish now will hinder your path to being financially secure. Wait a few years for the "luxuries" and pay off your debts now. You won't regret it.

A 4runner is essentially a Tacoma chassis with a different body, so you're burning money and fuel by going with the former. You're young with no kids so an SUV doesn't give you utility, but its your money.You're not in "bad" shape per se, but if you go about things the right way you can really set yourself up for the future.

Get the cheapest, most reliable car you can.

If your town is as shitty as you say, no one will think twice about you not having a luxury vehicle.

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Not in my experience. Partying has increased exponentially since graduating. Though I'm more responsible (don't black out as often, never get sick). I pray you are in a boring town or a boring person or you're in for a rude awakening.

That is a pretty expensive car. For two cars, one of which is an '09 and the other a gas guzzling 80s Wagoneer our total car expenses are under $700 (including crappy driving record and subprime car loan rate). $1,500 is a decent amount of disposable income though so you'll probably live if a decent car is important to you.

In the past couple of years my wife and I have paid off mid-$XX,000 of debt using Dave Ramsey's "Debt Snowball" technique (http://www.daveramsey.com/article/ge...nowball-plan/). Just got a few more payments on the '09 car and we'll be debt free.

1. Divert all your disposable $$ to debt payment, commit to getting everything paid off.
2. Have an accountability partner; tell someone you're paying off debt and keep them updated, have them keep you on track.
2. Pay off the smallest debt first, as fast as you can. Make minimum payments on the others. Not mathematically the most rational approach (which would attack the highest interest first) but psychologically motivating as you see debts disappear.
3. Once each debt is paid off, take the amount you were paying towards it and add it to the minimum payment for the next smallest debt. Still pay the minimum on all the others.
4. Repeat until you have $0 debt.

Recommend Ramsey's books and course for this stuff. It's all common sense, but it's well explained and provides systems to work from if you've never formally learned this stuff before.

Good luck

This is great advice. My wife and I got expensive cars because we could "afford" them. By "afford" them, we could easily make the payment on them with minimal savings. After two years of this, I finally realized it was crazy. We now have a 2001 Honda Civic for everyday driving to work (we work together) and a S-10 truck for bad weather, etc that we paid under 10k (for both) and will have both paid off within a year.

Trust me...you will regret the car in 12-18 months.

Isn't much debt at all, I'll probably have $30,000 after school. My sister holds $60,000 in student loan debt.

Dude it's 10K not 150K. Just live frugally for a couple months (not too much, you're moving into a new town you need to work on your social life and the negative on that is more than 12% interest in quality of life decrease) and pay the credit card quickly (give yourself 6-8 months). Then move on to your low interest debt at a much lower pace (say $300/month).

Yeah you're not too bad at all. The student loans aren't a huge deal, because the interest is quite low. Additionally, if you are applying for other credit based things, they won't hit you as negatively as standing credit card debt will. Those are less of a concern then the CC debt. The CC debt should be paid off as soon as possible. Save every last dime you have and send that right to the credit card company. Don't worry about saving until you aren't in debt. Fortunately 12% interest is quite low for a CC

Seriously. I'll be somewhere in the ballpark of $50,000 when all is said and done.

That's an expensive car payment. Sell that and buy something used, cheap and fuel efficient.

Run the numbers to see the total amount you'll be paying including interest once you've paid it all off. $10k credit card + $20k car loan will amount to well over $5k in interest.

Yep, my parents have a 1999 (?) Tacoma that is still running strong -- and with hard use on our farm. We are not the typical 4WD owner whose "truck" sees nothing but mall parking lots; it gets used hard. US special forces units also use the Tacoma in the big sandbox. You won't be unhappy with a Taco.

N.B.: If we had to do it over again we would have gotten the Tacoma with the extended cab. We got the one with the standard cab and it has zero cargo space inside the cab.

Depressing when I look at my $40k student debt.

Though somewhat less when I imagine where I'd be if I lived in the US.