At least for those of us who truly want to get out of debt.

I just received notice from my highest interest card that a substantial portion of the balance was just paid, thanks to successfully opening another card with a VERY LOW fixed rate for transfers. The high rate was 24%, the new rate for that portion of my debt is now under 3% (better than a personal or consolidation loan).

The only unfortunate part is that the new card posted the transfer on the closing date of my March billing cycle, so I have to make the first payment in April, instead of the planned extra amount to finish off the high rate card in April (maybe I’ll transfer the rest, since both cards have the same limit).

Regardless, I am psyched about the increased speed this presents.

Oh, by the way, I have an interview in half an hour (heading out the door now) and another interview tomorrow at 8 AM… Wish me luck!!!

Yesterday I posted a comment to Help a Reader: Calculating Loan Options over at Free Money Finance. In this comment, I mentioned a spreadsheet I have and that I was going to share it. First, though I have to defend the rate choice I made.

I don’t have a home and have yet to go through the whole loan process for one, so I don’t KNOW what goes into the closing costs. I chose a no closing cost mortgage rate because of my lack of detailed knowledge on the subject. Every portion of a percentage point costs more for the loan, so it’s always best to go for as low a rate as you can get (without risking a rate hike, such as with an ARM).

Now for the spreadsheet. I’ve uploaded it as both Excel and NeoOffice/Open Office spreadsheets, the Excel version should work, but the spreadsheet was created with NeoOffice.

Amortization Spreadsheet in NeoOffice/OpenOffice

Amortization Spreadsheet in Excel

I’ve actually modified these to a slightly easier to use format.  All you really have to do is enter your information in the top left corner and it will do the rest.  You can override the payment by just entering the actual payment in place of the calculated payment or, if a single payment is different, you can just enter it into the payment column for the correct payment.

This morning, one of my co-workers mentioned that our local CompUSA store is closing its doors in 4 days, with 70% off now.  I proceeded to tell him that I didn’t have the money, to which he responded that I should use my credit card.

The best part is my response to the credit card suggestion: “I am trying to get out of debt!  I will only use rewards cards for budgeted purchases, which will be paid off immediately.”

Thus I have this weird feeling of PROGRESS.