Ask any expert and the first thing they’ll tell you is that to begin paying off debt, you need to find out exactly how much you owe. A great way to do this is to get your free, annual credit report here (because I live in Spain at the moment, I can’t access this website so my numbers are not 100% accurate, but I’ve used information from each creditor’s website to get an idea and will update once I have access to my credit report). Anyone who has actually done this knows that it’s a lot easier said than done. It’s easy to lie to yourself and pretend your debt is less than it really is, but sadly, numbers don’t lie. Here comes the truth:
Student Loans
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THE Consolidation Loan: $19,081.28
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AES Loan: $24,325.31
Credit Cards
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Capital One: $5,000 (approximate)
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First Financial Bank: $7,849.31
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Bank of America: $1,983.54
Other Debt
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Auto Loan: $12,000 (approximate)
Grand Total: $70,239.44
Crap.
But at least now I know. Next step: working out a payoff plan to deal with this mess.
