What about your Credit Cards & Loan Payments?
If you pay your credit card off each month and are not carrying a balance, you would have accounted for all the expenses on your credit card. These would have been included in your fixed and variable expenses above as you examined your credit card statements. Do not include the actual credit card payment anywhere, that would be a duplication of dollars being spent.
If you are carrying a balance from one month to another on your credit card(s), you have accounted for the type of expenses that you are putting on the credit card in the fixed and variable expenses in the previous posts. For the balance that you are carrying forward and need to pay off, you need to include in your spreadsheet the minimum payment for each of those credit cards that you are carrying a balance on.
For the moment, include only the minimum payment even if you are paying more; this may be adjusted later if it is one of the choices that you make for your disposable income. This payment needs to be factored in until the balance is paid off. It is a commitment of future income that you need to include as we create your spending plan.
Other Debt payments:
Loan payments are not expenses, they are liabilities that you need to pay. As we develop your spending plan, we are going to start planning for those expenses to work towards not incurring additional debt. Like with the credit cards, we are going to need to consider that future income needs to be allocated to get those “old expenses” paid off.
In this next section of your spreadsheet, note all existing loan payments. Include mortgages and home equity loan payments. Reflect car loans, student loans and other personal loans. Factor in RV, boat, ATV, vacation homes and timeshare loans. Note any and all loan payments that you are making on a monthly basis.
If you have taken out a loan against your 401(k), you should include that payment here. If you have taken a loan out against your life insurance or a margin loan against an investment account, you should include the payments in this section.
Total the debt payments including the minimum payment required to pay off any credit card carryover balances. You may find it helpful to also make note of the remaining balance on any debts and the current interest rate you are paying. Next time, we will start putting it all together.