Okay, some people have problems with alcoholism, drugs, relationship, and all kinds of other things. My problem is with the dreaded credit card debt. I have always had a balance on my Visa credit card and with a 9.9% fixed rate, I figured that I would eventually get the thing paid off. But, I grew complacent and then lazy and just never attacked the thing with any aggression. Then, about 3 months ago, I made the decision to go back into collecting comic books, primarily X-Men and Daredevil. Now, these books, especially the X-Men books, have done really well in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, the key books in this series are not cheap. But I have almost all of those important ones like X-Men #1, Daredevil #1, Giant-Size X-Men #1, Incredible Hulk #181 (first wolverine), etc. But at the same time, my balance climbed to 7860!! I finally realized that I have a problem and that I need to be more disciplined and not spend any more on this blasted thing. I have worked out a plan where I will pay the payment + $250 bucks each month and doing this, along with some other deposits that will come in every year like tuition reimbursement checks and possibly income tax refund checks (but I may use that for other things), will get it paid off within 2 years. Thank God, that I am living in a house that has no rent or mortgage payment. But invariably, when you make a committment to spending your money wisely, what happens? You get something unexpected to happen. As most people know here, I love music and I can't even remember the last time I listened to the radio. Yet, as I left work Friday afternoon, my ****ing CD player in my car (the factory installed one) just died! I couldn't believe it! I called a place and they said it would be about $315 bucks to put in a new one. Meanwhile, as I mull over what to do, I have listened to the radio and as I was afraid of, been getting incredibly dumb songs in my head like this Linkin Park song (I guess it is their new one, hell I know). Plus, you have the mornings when radio thinks for some insane reason, no one wants to listen to music but instead to a bunch of assclowns acting like they are still in junior high school. Now, I do have a tape player in my car, but of course, I don't have many tapes. The few tapes I do have include such gems as Belinda Carlisle's Greatest Hits and the one that I listened to for most of my drive to work this morning...."Toto's Greatest Hits". So, anyway this thread has two purposes: 1) Credit card debt is a serious problem and one that requires discipline (something that I HOPE I have found...also, if I hear one more person say "First thing I would do is get some scissors and cut that thing up...," I am going to find a way to jump inside my computer like Tron and beat the stuffing out of whoever says that! 2) Should I get a CD player for my car or not?
Do you ever get offers to transfer your balance with 0% interest for a limited time. I know some people who do that all the time with several different cards. The downside is twofold. 1. They keep applying for credit which may lower their credit score. 2. They aren't disciplined enough to pay off the balance during the interim. Manny, there is no excuse for an employed person living at home to have that type of debt, short of a medical emergency. Don't punish yourself by not getting your CD player and then become frustrated. If it's really important, do it but then start sacrificing something else (like no Comics for 6 months) or pack a sandwich for a month to pay for it. It's all about prioritzing wants and needs.
Sounds to me like the problem is with comic books and not the CD player. Comic books seem like a reccuring expense while the CD player is something you just replace once.
Ugh, credit card debt. I know a little something about that.... My CC debt got so bad when I was in my "quit my job every 6 months" phase, I finally cut them up and signed up for Consumer Credit Counseling Services. They deducted an amount out of my checking account every month and sent payments to all my CC companies. They only charged $30 a month to do it. Long story short, I finally got a job that I don't hate and I was able to pay all my cards off sooner than I was scheduled. Now, I have 1 credit card that I pay off every month and I'm trying to rebuild my credit. I don't know how bad your credit situation is, but if it's real bad I would recommend CCCS. Let me know if you need a link. As far as your CD player, I do sports talk in the car. Houston FM radio blows and I'm not in the car long enough to get into a CD. Oh yeah: She's still hot.
www.daveramsey.com This guy has a great system for getting you finances in order. My wife & I have have bee following this method for a while now & have eliminated ALL debt from our lives except our home mortgage (we are working on that one). You would be suprised how easy it is once you get going at it. Also when you don't have any payments it is suprising how much money you actually have left after you get paid.
Why don't you call up Visa, or whoever, and ask them to put a very low balance on your credit card. That should at least help you be disciplined. As for the CD player. Wait a couple of months until you are really onto your plan, then reward youself by getting it - but you have to start on the road back to fiscal responsibility before you can go make a useful, yet not 100% necessary purchase. My advice would be to start listening to sports radio.
Manny, I had the same problem as you when I was in my early 20s. Paying the minimum payment and transfering balances to new cards was never the answer for me though. I just had to sacrafice my lifestyle and get the damn thing paid off. I would only get a new card (with a free interest period) as a last resort (i.e. interest is about to be calculated and added). Also, getting a new card might no be easy since your debt is so high. If you are approved for another card with a free interest period, I would be suprised if the available balance would be high enough to absorb the balance on your other card. Paying $250 a mo. is going to take you 3-4 years to payoff and thats if you don't charge anything else during that time. If I were you, I would close down that account (so you are not tempted to charge anything else for a while) and work out a plan with the bank to pay it off (monthly payments). Its worth it to sacrafice and pay as much as possible till its paid off. For the last 4 years, I am proud to say I have not paid a dime of an interest to any credit card company. I never charge something that I can't payoff in 30 days.
credit card debt BAD any smart business plan has to start with eliminating all credit card debt, IMHO. I would sell as many sports cards and comic books necessary until I had the debt paid off. Then I would use only cash to buy new ones. Some assets cannot be bought on credit and make money. I suspect these items belong in that group. If you buy such as asset on credit, a race begins at that moment of purchase between the expected increase in the value of the asset over time v. the cost of carrying the debt. It's very difficult for appreciation to exceed debt carry if the interest rate exceeds the rate of inflation, which it certainly does here. this is a personal preference, but one which works for me: pay them off every month or don't use them.
I will offer no advice on CC debt ( mainly cause I dont get them) but I can offer you up a cheap alternative to the new CD player. You have a tape deck, get a discman with a car adapter. the new discmans have good shock protection so they dont skip and they are cheap...I think you should be able to get one with the car adapter(goes in the tape deck) for under 50 bucks. just wanted to add, I dont mean as a permanent solution...use this until you get paid down a bit..then go get ya a nice 6 disc changer for the car.
Manny: It's probably not as dire as you think. I think you once posted that you had a decent job, and here you note you pay no rent. Put what you should be paying in rent ($800/mo?) towards the debt, and continue with your current living arrangements for a year. REIT gave you the best advice. It's not the one time items -- its the monthly spending that's getting you down. Write down everything you spend for a month and you might be surprised at how much you waste at Taco Bell and the like. Brown bag it for a while. Go bike riding instead of to the movies. Slow down on the comics and music collecting. Free concerts? You likely lived on next to nothing in college, so you should be able to get by on less now that you're working. And about the cd player. I agree with Jay's plan. Give it a month. It will be your reminder to be more frugal. After a month go ahead and replace it as your reward. Also, I can't help but notice that your debt run up happened at the same time your daily post count began lagging. More cc.net time. It's free and, it's good for you. (stay away from the college football threads ). Oh.. and President Bush and Trader J thank you for supporting the economy in these difficult times.
So you paid somebody $30 a month to pay your bills for you? Why didn't you just write the check yourself. No wonder you were in debt.
bnb - lol, about my lagging ppd average and the debt rising. You along with many others have some good advice and points. Friendly - it wouldn't make much sense for me to sell the comics at a loss because I would still have some debt (although not as much as I had before) which leads to the question of why in the hell did I buy them in the first place? And I beg to differ on the returns...I had posted about a month ago the returns that some of these books were getting in an 8 year period - as they were about 15 to 20%. I am just gonna have to be very disciplined about not using the card anymore and making sure that I still pay the extra each month on it. If I can't, then it will be time to seek out a credit counseling service. I feel very confident that I can do this, but I am not confident at all that I could go 2 years without a CD player in my car.
Sell your comic collection to pay off your debt. I have been debt free for years, and I can say it is liberating. DD
See if you can get a bank loan to pay off your credit card debt. The intrest rate should be a lot lower than the credit card. Then ditch your credit card and get a debit card. That way you can't spend what you don't have.
This is easier said than done. The only way to get the street value for your books is go to a comic book convention, get a table, and sell away. WRT credit card debt, I would suggest either destroying the cards (and not replacing them) or removing them from your wallet. When you get paid, take the cash you need until the next paycheck. The remaining portion of your paycheck will go for debt relieve. If you are concerned that cash sitting in your checking account is too tempting, write a check to your credit card cos right after you make the deposit. You may want to get a detail idea of where your money is going. I suggest carry around a pad and pen and write down everytime you spend money. Do this for one or two weeks. Afterwards, you will see where you money is going, which I will tell you now will likely surprise you (like the amount of money you spend on eating out). Knowing exactly where your money is going will give you choices (like eating in versus out, renting a movies versus going to the theater, etc). Good luck!!!
