Re: Towing the Line was: Chi
By: Shawn Highfield to Carol Shenkenberger on Sat Jul 20 2024 07:52 am
Hi Carol,
In a message to Ruth Haffly you wrote:
On credit cards, I carry often a small balance but under 1,000.
Right now it's higher but just covered a roofing job and am miway on
a chimney fix. It's about 3k and going up to 4k. I'll bleed it off pre fast.
I never carried a balance, but when covid hit and I wasn't working for a while that stopped. Balance on various cards is so high now they will
never be paid off. We don't use them anymore, just chip away at the payments and hope for the best. <shrug>
* SeM. 2.26 * Tag line thievery's fun ...On to the next Geraldo!
Best way is never pay the minimum but toss all you can at highest interest one.
That's in general the way it works. There are variations if you have 4 or more cards and one has a small balance so pay it off first. Now at 3 cards, it's easier to access. Generally, select the next one at highest rate and toss the money in and what you added before to the 4th one you no longer have.
Cancel cards that are paid off if they were small high apr ones. Maintain minimum payment plus 10$ each. The plus 10$ comes straight off the principal.
It takes a while but keep the 2 'best cards' and cancel the other 2 if you had 4.
Now, if you have only 2, it's best to pay off the one charging you the highest rate unless the other one is a small balance, easy to handle in a few months.
I dug out of 50K debt. I did it by working my ass off in Japan at sea. Took 2.5 years but I was getting a lot of extra pay between sea pay and being an E8 in Japan.
Scratch cooking was a lot of it. Just the act of making my own bread with a really cheap bread machine saved 18$ a month in Japan costs. That went with other savings, card by card until paid off.
You can do it but don't have the influx of money I had then. It will take longer but it's not hopeless.
xxcarol
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