Credit Cards

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Diddy
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by Diddy »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
Arthur Dent wrote:If you are making minimum payments on everything, the financially optimal choice is to put any extra payments only on the highest APR card -- the individual balances are irrelevant. That said, in terms of psychological and logistical benefits, it's certainly nice to completely eliminate a debt.
Thanks, that makes sense. As a completely useless exercise at this point, how would you prove that? It was part laziness on my part and part incompetency as to why I never figured it out. Common sense is what I always fell back on, the principle is still accruing interest regardless of what chunk is paid off...
From what I can remember it had something to do with how the min payments are figured.

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lukethedrifter
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by lukethedrifter »

Diddy wrote:
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
Arthur Dent wrote:If you are making minimum payments on everything, the financially optimal choice is to put any extra payments only on the highest APR card -- the individual balances are irrelevant. That said, in terms of psychological and logistical benefits, it's certainly nice to completely eliminate a debt.
Thanks, that makes sense. As a completely useless exercise at this point, how would you prove that? It was part laziness on my part and part incompetency as to why I never figured it out. Common sense is what I always fell back on, the principle is still accruing interest regardless of what chunk is paid off...
From what I can remember it had something to do with how the min payments are figured.

Maybe I'm being a simpleton but it has to do with which pile of money owed is costing you the most interest (aka the money you pay that doesn't decrease the overall pile of money you owe).

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Right, paying higher interest rate loans off first is a no brainer.

Diddy
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by Diddy »

Made it another year without using the credit cards. Never have bought any of the Dave Ramsey stuff but I have listened to his pod casts and it’s pretty motivational just knowing that there are others out there fighting the same fight, and winning. Thought we were going to have to use the cards for my uncles funeral in Indianapolis but an anonymous person had already paid for our hotel room when I went to check out. We were able to pay off two cards this year and after splurging a little on the kids Christmas we’ll get back to paying them down this month. We will get the next one paid off this year and I’m cautiously optimistic we will be able to pay off both the remaining credit cards and be out of credit card debt in the next year.

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Re: Credit Cards

Post by Michael »

Congratulations, Diddy! Those are huge milestones!

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by cardinalkarp »

I just paid off my one credit card last month which I had racked up REALLY high.....and I can't believe (well, actually I can) how much that has reduced the stress in my life.

Not being in credit card debt is a GIANT weight off my shoulders. I had been buried in it for so long that it felt like I was never going to be able to dig out, but with a little bit of help, some strict budgeting, and some well needed discipline, 2018 is looking to be a MUCH better year than 2017.

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lukethedrifter
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by lukethedrifter »

I’m getting ready to put a trip to Hawaii on mine. Thinking i can have a good bit of it paid down by the time go.

Diddy
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Re: Credit Cards

Post by Diddy »

cardinalkarp wrote:I just paid off my one credit card last month which I had racked up REALLY high.....and I can't believe (well, actually I can) how much that has reduced the stress in my life.

Not being in credit card debt is a GIANT weight off my shoulders. I had been buried in it for so long that it felt like I was never going to be able to dig out, but with a little bit of help, some strict budgeting, and some well needed discipline, 2018 is looking to be a MUCH better year than 2017.
Being able to stop deciding which bills got paid that month and which didn’t was a huge relief. We had the electric turned off on us once and were supposed to get our vehicle repossessed at one point. Initially getting past that point was a huge stress relief. That point was probably 6 months after we’d made the decision to quit using the cards. It was a rough transition. My wife wants to buy a new house when we get the cards paid off. Right now there are 6 of us living in a 1200 sq ft house and it’s getting smaller everyday. I’d really like to wait another year and pay off a vehicle also before we do that but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We adopted a family through the church for Christmas. It was something we have talked about doing before but didn’t think we could afford to do it. Feel like there are a lot of things like that that we have talked about doing that the debt has prevented us from doing that I hope to do more of moving forward.

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Re: Credit Cards

Post by Freed Roger »

Diddy wrote:
cardinalkarp wrote:I just paid off my one credit card last month which I had racked up REALLY high.....and I can't believe (well, actually I can) how much that has reduced the stress in my life.

Not being in credit card debt is a GIANT weight off my shoulders. I had been buried in it for so long that it felt like I was never going to be able to dig out, but with a little bit of help, some strict budgeting, and some well needed discipline, 2018 is looking to be a MUCH better year than 2017.
Being able to stop deciding which bills got paid that month and which didn’t was a huge relief. We had the electric turned off on us once and were supposed to get our vehicle repossessed at one point. Initially getting past that point was a huge stress relief. That point was probably 6 months after we’d made the decision to quit using the cards. It was a rough transition. My wife wants to buy a new house when we get the cards paid off. Right now there are 6 of us living in a 1200 sq ft house and it’s getting smaller everyday. I’d really like to wait another year and pay off a vehicle also before we do that but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We adopted a family through the church for Christmas. It was something we have talked about doing before but didn’t think we could afford to do it. Feel like there are a lot of things like that that we have talked about doing that the debt has prevented us from doing that I hope to do more of moving forward.
Congrats guys. That's a big deal. That last part, Diddy -helping others is admirable of you. It is one of the things I like about getting the debts and overhead down- being able to help others more. I'll have to admit though, the more self-centered aspects - stress relief etc, are what motivate me most.

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Re: Credit Cards

Post by cardsfantx »

Diddy wrote:We adopted a family through the church for Christmas. It was something we have talked about doing before but didn’t think we could afford to do it. Feel like there are a lot of things like that that we have talked about doing that the debt has prevented us from doing that I hope to do more of moving forward.
This is something my wife always does...we've been blessed and she'll give an amount to church for anyone that comes and ask the church/pastor for help randomly...and our church takes lists from families in our community on things they want/need for the holiday, and she'll always grab one or 2.

I'll admit, when she talks about it, the selfish part of me looks at what we can do with the money ourselves, but then i see the lists/details and it breaks my heart...you don't realize just how good you have it till you see these lists/what they want (or need i should say for christmas)

one had a laundry basket...a damn laundry basket was what their family needed.

bedding, diapers, milk, formula, clothes for little kids sizes...hardly a mention of toys. and when it is, is just a small/generic thing like a baby doll/toy.

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