We have said that we paid off $20,000 debt in 5 years on an average income of $22,000 per year. Here is an accounting of the debt (over and above our regular bills) and the payments that we made to eliminate the debt. If you’d like to know how we paid it off, here is our debt reduction story.
Debts
$3,000 -Mike’s credit card debt when we married
$2500- Cost of moving to Texas
$2500- Cost of moving to Idaho
$2085- New transmission for our car
$500- Cost of repairing cracked head on the car
(These two repairs occurred when we were in Colorado (1200 miles from home) and needed the car to get home.)
$2500- Purchase 1991 Buick
$7,200- Out of pocket medical bills from the birth of our daughter.
Total debt incurred $20,285.00
Income for years 1995 through 1999
1995- $19,382.00
1996-$17,530.00
1997-$19,646.00
1998-25,444.00
1999-$26,509.00
Total Average income over 5 years $21,702.00
Debt Payments
Monthly
1995- $100 month – $1200/ year
1996- $100 month- $1200/year
1997- $100 month= $1200/year
1998-$300/ month=$3600
1999- $300/ month= $3600
Total- $10, 800.00
Extra
$1,000.00- gift when BJ was born
$1,200.00- gift when Elly was born
$3,000.00- cashed in for Mike’s retirement
$700.00 sold Geo Metro
$601.00-1996 income tax return
$1830.00- 1997 income tax return
$688.00-1998 income tax return
$2359.00-1999 income tax return
Total- $11,378.00
Total Debt Payments- $22,178.00 (includes interest)
photo by: Alan Cleaver
Slow Cooked Ham Recipe
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