Snake Debt

[Vasiliki]

Credit Card dept scares me. Why? Because my ex ran up all my credit cards when he left me, and due to some immigration policies, I couldn't fight him for the money to be repaid (Long story short: I sponsored him to come into the country, so it made me 'legally' responsible for his expensives for 4 years following his immigration. He left me at the 3.5 year mark, so technically my money was still 'supporting' him...) I ended up $7500 in debt because of that. And it took me two years to pay it off due to the killer interest. I actually had to open a line of credit based on my home equity (I had a mortgage by age 20) with a reduced interest rate, pay off the credit card and then pay off the LOC. By doing that it saved me $100 a month in interest, which was good.

Overall, credit cards still scare me. Debt scares me. I lowered all my 'credit' to the absolute minimum to avoid any problems in the future with credit card debt.

There is a time and place for it, and yes, it is how you build credit.

All I can tell you in hopes of helping you through this rough patch is designate a certain amount each paycheck towards your debt. A set number. Say, $150 each paycheck (so likely $300 a month). Only after I have that will I start putting money away for stuff I wish to pay for. So if I put $300 down on my credit in a month, does it make sense to spend $300? Not really. So I'll put the $300 away, look and see that I have $50 unassigned, and I'll put that into savings. Next month, maybe I'll have $150 left over. Suddenly I have $200 stashed away for my projects, and I'm still paying $300 down on my credit. Pays off your credit while switching over to using cash.

It's not fast to get out of debt. Heck, I was putting down $500 a month on my credit for a year and it barely made a dent. Scary, isn't it?

Do the best you can. Realize that it's okay to make mistakes and slip up with your money, as long as you're willing to admit it was a mistake and not let it derail your efforts to get your debt paid off.

Now, I'm 25, I'm one of two owners on a $500,000 house (that has only $150k remaining in payments) and have a savings account that is more than the debt my ex left me with.

It's a hard lesson, but it teaches you priorities. I see people my age that are $15k in debt on their credit cards. When I calculate it out how much their monthly payments need to be to touch their principle, they just bury their heads in the sand and refuse to admit that it's that bad.

So good for you for realizing it now, and being happy to work towards a positive outcome! You'll get there.