Hershey RV Show

What a fun time this weekend! Paul and I went to the RV Show in Hershey, PA.  Quite the education we had. Was fun going through the many different styles of trailers and RVs. Interesting how when your reasons change what you look for in something changes as well. While it will be a while before we can seriously consider buying something, we went through them with a critical eye geared to fulltiming. That discounted many immediately. IF we where to purchase something today we would probably go for the Coleman CTU297RE or the Autumn Ridge 315RKS or there was a Puma We saw that I don't have the number for. Anyway it would definitely be a one bedroom, probably rear lounge. As we get closer to that possibility we would have to look into construction a bit more. It's so much fun to dream!!!!

Also went to to seminars, one on FullTiming and one on working on the road. Both very well done and informative. For me as I have been researching this for a long time most of it was reinforcement of what I have learned, for Paul I think it gave him a better understanding of it all. At least it didn't discourage him anyway!!

Interesting tidbit we learned from Bob Marx: FullTiming, was each person should carry a different credit card from the other. This was should something happen to compromise one of the cards and the account needs to be changed you still have one to work with!! Certainly makes a lot of sense.

Also finally got to Cabelas . What a store!!! it's more of a destination. If you are into hunting, fishing, camping, cabining, etc. you could go crazy! Not cheap but must be good stuff because it's one of the biggest names. Rather proud of us, spent two hours wondering around and bought nothing but lunch!

Again really fun weekend!

Credit Report

So to continue my plan to closed a number of my credit cards I thought it prudent to first get a copy of my Credit Report, so I could see just what I had opened. Wow does everyone have a credit report 37 pages long???? The good thing is all accounts are in good standing, no negative reports at all; I knew that but it's good to see on paper. Now I have to go though this and cross off those already closed, then I can start closing others that I don't use.  I will again request a copy some time the beginning of next year to be sure those that I close are indeed closed, and  will continue to close accounts and requests reports. You can get one free each year from the big three Credit Report Companies. annualcreditreport.com will get you access. Since I can get one from each each year, this will give me hopefully an accurate standing.

I also have been taking advantage of a couple of offers for No Interest For A Year. Switching around my balances to get the best bang for my buck. Have decided which to get paid off first and hopefully this all will work out.  With all we all ready have scheduled I will have to wait until next year to stop spending so much! LOL

Credit Cards

Another part Financial Planning will involve the getting rid of Credit Cards. I plan on slowly closing accounts until I am down to one or two, probably two. I will concentrate first on the store cards, I only use them occasionally and absolutely refuse to keep a balance on them as their Interest Rate is ridiculous!  Which to keep and which to delete of the major cards will depend again on Interest Rates and also perks. None of my cards have Annual Fees because that has never made sense to me. Feel I at least did something right!

So now to make a list of all my cards!

Financial Planning

Financial Planning is a very important part in being able to pursue our dreams, regardless of what they may be. To be able to afford FullTiming or fulfill other dreams one of the important things to do is pay off all debts. And I have to admit we carry more than we should. Now there are many varying ways of accomplishing this, here are two I have come across the most. This pertains to credit card and loan debt. Mortgage debt would be a whole other story but fortunately that’s not a debt we have.

 

1) The first way is to gather together all loan/credit card amounts and minimum monthly payments. Next you need to figure out how much you can afford to put towards paying things down each month, You then substrate the minimum payments for all but the smallest debt from this amount. You pay the minimums on all higher balances and to the smallest debt you pay the remainder as well as any “found” monies each month. Doing this enables you to pay off the small amount quicker. The important part of this is when that debt is paid off you then take the full amount of what you paid each month plus the minimum payment amount of the next smallest loan/credit card and proceed to pay off that one. You continue to do this until all is paid off.

   The positive to this is quicker gratification of seeing a debt go away.

 

2) The second way is again gather all amounts and minimum monthly payments but now you also need to find the Annual Interest Rate of each. You apply the higher payment amount to the loan/credit card with the highest Interest Rate and proceed to pay each off in order of Interest Amount. If two happen to have the same Interest Rate you start with the highest balance due. Again as each is paid off snowballing the amount paid to the next.

  The positive of this method is paying less interest in the long run.

 

Both make sense, the biggest obstacle for me is paying only the minimum amount due on the others, that goes so against how I usually do things. 

 

***Very Important no matter which way is chosen:

 Remember to pay each one each month as you certainly don’t want any late fees added! Be honest with how much you can afford to put towards paying debt off.

Continue to snowball amounts as each is paid off (Remember your goals)

Be sure to apply “found” money to paying off debts as a way to get rid of them sooner!

And Stop Adding To Debt with unnecessary spending! (hmm define unnecessary spending!!!)