I only have 2 debts – my car and my student loan. (I know it is quite un-American of me to not have credit card debt but that kind of thing gets me in trouble so I don’t do it.) One of the problems side benefits of dating an MBA is that you have conversations about your cash flow and plans made for debt reduction.
I know that as things wind down with my divorce that my cash flow will increase. I really wouldn’t have believed it in the first days of the separation when I was worried about how I was going to survive financially but several things have happened so that now I have more money than I ever had when I was married. If I try to figure out exactly where the money he made was going it makes my head hurt and I know that what’s done is done. Now I have 1/3 the income but more cash on hand because I don’t spend as freely as he did. My cash flow is increasing in other ways too.
The car insurance was in my name. I just canceled the joint policy and got insurance just for me. I save $100 a month. Since I’m used to that money being spent anyway I’m adding that amount to my car payment. That should pay off my car 1-2 years earlier.
When I move I won’t have the huge utility bills that this house has so I can use that money to pay down more debt (and to pay to board the horses).
If you would have told me last September that not only would I not be in financial trouble but that I’d be paying down my debts and working on my retirement account I’d have thought you were crazy.
