Ask:
I am interested in hearing from those of you who carry a lot of consumer debt (not your mortgage). By a lot, I mean debt that you can't pay off in the next six months. What is your attitude about it?
Answer:
I have 16,000 in credit cards and 11,000 on my car. I'm working my tail off to get the cc paid off. Just today I sent 1000 to citibank, I hve a binder with a spreadsheet for each debt and write in what I paid and when and how much. It's good to see how much you are paying and to see the progress. I don't know what is down the road and i don't want to be sattled with any additional bills. SO those are my 2 big ones. I've cut out stuff for the house to pay towards my Target and Kohl's but I've started to take 50.00 every pay from the hospital and put away for 1 my IRA and 2 for x-mas or gifts. I then take 100 a month from the house for my savings.
It's hard, but if I don't get it paid I will be forced to go back to work full time. I haven't charge anything within 2 months. The kids don't need alot of stuff and I don't. BUt was buying to make me feel good because I don't have the support that I need and it made me feell good at the time.
I'm saving the 100 for me for down the road if I'm on my own again. The last time was a surprise but this time I will be prepared and will able to do it and not feel like I rely on anyone else.
My goal is when I'm 30, 1 year 1 month to have the car and credit cards completely paid off and somewherea around 4,000 in the savings.
It's alot of hard work but I will do it and have been doing it. I have to take care of myself because if I don't put myself first no one else will!!
Answer:
WE actually don't have alot of CC debt, only (yah only ) about $3000, but we have student loans, and a car loan we are still paying on. Right now, I'm in saving/conservation mode. So I have a list of the most important bills, and cross them off as I pay them so I know they have been paid. HOuse, car, insurance, electricty, oil ect. I have a very strict food budget. I keep telling myself this is only temporary, as soon as our income tax refund comes in this year, and we get the car paid off in 3 years, things will be MUCH better.
WE were worse off, but 3 years ago, we took out a home equity loan to pay off the majority of the CCs we had that was close to about $15000. I do feel a bit better about our situation, but will feel much better when most of it is resolved.
I take on the attiutde that I don't need to ahead on everything, but if I can just stay current each month, that will reduce great amounts of stress I have
Answer:
We don't have any credit card debts or personal loans. We do have a vehicle payment that we will not have paid off for another 15 months (0% interest, though) and a payment to a store on an entertainment center that we will have paid off in 5 months (also 0% interest).
We used to have credit cards and it was impossible for me to use any self control. It was like I had ready money all the time, so when we refinanced our house last year, we paid off, cut up, and closed all the accounts. We have been without credit cards for a year, and it has been such a relief in a huge sense. On the other hand, when things get tough, we don't have a cushion, and that stresses me to a milder extent. I just know that since my first thought is still to use a credit card, it is not safe for me to get one in the near future.
Answer:
We don't have any debt either except our mortgage. We currently don't even have a car payment. Somehow though we manage to spend all our money each paycheck!!
Answer:
I have $800 on cc right now and that is due to a root canal last spring. It is making me a bit crazy. I am trying to master the fact that I am in control of my money and not the credit card company. I pay as much as I can each month and it is always more than the minimum and I try to make 2 pmts per month (regardless of the amounts) when I can. Every little bit counts
Answer:
We have been really bad at accumulating cc debt, but a few years ago after a huge drop in pay (layoff, new job, etc) we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class and have learned how to really budget - I can't believe how far our $$ stretches now!! We have made great progress on our cc bills, and we still have $$ for everything else. I still sometimes don't get how it is working, but it is!! I highly recommend this program. We should be debt free within 8 months.....I can't wait.
Answer:
Besides a mortgage, the only other debt we have is for my husband's student loans. When he graduated from graduate school 5 years ago with $60,000 in debt we were freaking out. Especially knowing that we could feasibly have kids out of graduate school themselves in 30 years!! After some discussions with financial planners, we concluded education was and is an investment in our financial future. We consolidated his loans, and pay a little extra on it each month so that we're on target to pay it off after less than 25 years.
Otherwise, we use a credit card to pay for EVERYTHING and pay the card off EVERY month. We have a rewards card through Fidelity Investments which converts a % of our purchases into $ into our money market account every quarter helping us save for retirement! Saving for retirement is a huge priority for us.
Answer:
We have about $1500 credit card debt, $10,000 car loan left and the mortgage.
I hate debt, cant sleep if I have too much, for me $2000 is too much. We have been pretty good about debt, we pay it off asap, then make more and pay it off again!
I cant stand having the car loan, I want to get that down asap, then work on the mortgage.
Answer:
We paid off about $40K in consumer debt (2 cars, student loans, and credit cards) in the first 3 years of our marriage on very little income--and have never gone that road again! We paid cash for graduate school and our current cars. Still have $29K on our mortgage, but we are paying extra every month, and have decided to make-do in this house rather than "moving up" to a bigger one--it's a good size, safe neighborhood. We don't dislike it enough to take on more debt! We have 2 preschoolers and we would rather have that extra money to save for college as well as for K-12 expenses and family trips and things like that!
My biggest tip is for careful credit card users--we have 2 credit cards with cash-back, so we use them for everything, and pay them off monthly. To keep spending under control, I treat credit card spending just like writing a check--every time I use the credit card, I write it in my checkbook and subtract it from the balance. Then when the statement comes due, I just verify each charge against my checkbook register, and pay the bill. This way, if we don't have the money in our account, we don't charge it!