Saturday, June 27, 2009

Debt Tracking


I've been actively tracking progress on our credit card debt for over two years, since February 2007. At that time, we had $41,755 in personal credit card debt, plus an additional $4738 in business debt (that business has since "failed", and we have assumed that debt).

Two years and three months later, the total credit card debt is down to $33,203. In over two years of this, we've only paid off about $13k! But I guess, to be fair, we've also charged a LOT during that same time frame (as evidenced by several distinct spikes in the chart!).
  • The first spike was when we assumed the bad business debt, in January 2008.
  • The big spike, in July 2008, was when we spent roughly $7000 for some electronics.
  • There are a few smaller spikes, for the purchase of new computers and for a couple of vacations.
During the first seven months of tracking, the total debt didn't really change - despite making monthly minimum payments of nearly $1000/mo! We were paying off only about $200/mo in principal, a rate that would have taken us almost 20 years to pay the credit cards off.

4 comments:

  1. Your absolutely on your way to paying that off way before 20 years, good job!... I'm happy to have found your blog... I'll be dropping by often!

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  2. What a great way to visualize your progress! Is this an Excel chart? Keep up the good work!

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  3. I use Excel to track our monthly progress, and keep a running tab of the outstanding balance on each card. I actually have a few separate graphs, so it's really easy to see when something changes (like a balance transfer from one card to another).

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  4. I used Excel to track when we were paying off out CC debt about 10 years ago. It is a wonderful too to help you see that you ARE making progress.

    I think you are doing very well!

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