Debt

[dancerjodi]

Jetgrrl sent me a great spreadsheet for looking at debt payments, interest, etc.

If I paid things at the rate I've been doing (which *is* over the minimum payment each month) I'd be done paying off my 2 credit cards in 2008. Over that time I would have paid $35,000 in just interest alone.

This doesn't include my student loans and car loans (student loan should be paid off in 3 more years if I stick to schedule, car loan in 2 more if I stick to schedule).

Whee fun.

We need to figure out something smarter than what we've been doing to get this debt down. We can afford the payments, but we're throwing so much money away. This doesn't also include the credit cards that Brian has, or his car loan (or our mortgage). Me thinks we need to do less toy buying (ahem, Brian) and less spending over the weekends).

Comments

[lsl.livejournal.com]

I have a good friend who successfully paid down a large (multiple tens of thousands of dollars) credit card debt in reasonably short time. He always took offers for new credit cards and shuffled the debt from card to card. Most new cards offer an interest free period (say 6 months) for balance transfers (or at least a very low rate). He would religiously transfer his debt to a new card and ended up paying ZERO interest for a few years while he paid off the balance.

If you have the discipline to keep track of the interest free periods and to transfer as soon as they run out, this approach can save you a lot of money on interest payments.

-L

cards

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"If you have the discipline to keep track of the interest free periods and to transfer as soon as they run out, this approach can save you a lot of money on interest payments."

I've done this in the past - given the credit debt we have on top of 2 car loans and a mortgage, I'm not sure how transferring to no interest cards would work (i.e. I'm not sure people would give us more cards).

Its definitely something to think of though. Thanks! :)