Holy Crudknuckles, I’m in Debt!
Hi! I’m Cate, I’m in debt, and I’m going to be writing about it here on Queercents.
I’m a recent college grad working in a non-profit job. After graduating, I had no student loans, but about $5000 in credit card debt.
A LOT of people are in credit card debt. The average American has $9000 in consumer debt. I’m going to guess that the average Queercents reader has less than that, because if you’re paying enough attention to your money to read blogs about it, you stand a better chance of having a handle on your financial situation.
Everyone who’s in credit card debt has an shocked moment when they realize that they are in serious debt. That’s the moment that you decide you need to take serious steps to pay it back, even if you don’t know how to do that.
In my case, my moment was back in September when I stared at my credit card balance, realizing I had maxed out my card. Me, of all people! That was not how I’d been raised. How often had my mother told me to pay off my credit card bill in full every month? I was angry at myself.
I know this sounds stupid, but for the first time, I realized that the $5000 was in actual, human dollars that I would really have to pay back. Somehow I just hadn’t thought of it like that before. It was time for action! Too bad I didn’t know what action to take.
So, I’ve spent the last couple of months planning and starting to implement my plan for paying down my debt. You’ll hear more about that in the coming weeks. The next few months I’m going to be writing, here on Queercents, about how we get into debt, how we get out of it, and what actually works to stay out of debt permanently.
Please take this piece of advice if you, like me, are in debt: don’t panic. Don’t be ashamed. You are well equipped to pay off your debt! It’s not as daunting as it seems in that first panic-stricken moment.
Have you paid off debt before? Are you in a sticky situation now? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments on what works and what doesn’t in your financial life.
Photo credit: stock.xchng.
Welcome to Queercents, Cate. I’m impressed that you graduated without any student loan debt.
I maxed out my credit card my first year of being an undergrad. I only had an $800 limit, but it took forever to pay that off because I was only making the minimum payment. When I finally paid that card off, I cut it up and I haven’t had a credit card since. I have a debit card for purchases that you just can’t avoid using a card for (like hotels, airplane tickets, etc.), but for me it’s cash only. It’s the only way I can manage my budget. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it the best thing for me.
Good luck paying off your cards. I’m interested to hear about your progress.
I am really a happy man today. I was in huge debts I was planning to apply for bankruptcy. After discussing this with many of my friends. I felt that filing for bankruptcy is a complicated process. I had to pay my 25 k debt (courtesy 4 credit cards). I learnt about debt consolidation and started to research on it. I came across bills.com. They accumulated the money in an account, and then negotiated a settlement amount. I have been in the program for about a year and a half. They have paid off two cards and now two to go.
Glad to have you as part of the team, Cate! I’m really looking forward to hearing about your journey out of debt. It is always so refreshing to hear someone talk honestly about debt; people can be so ashamed of it, and only by educating each other through communities like this one can we successfully change our financial lives. So thanks!
Am I in debt? Boy howdy! Not counting mortgages, my family of three is $112,853 in debt at this moment. (Yes, I track it to the dollar.) With mortgages, $411,044. But we’re $34,000 less in debt than we were at the beginning of the year, so at least I’m making progress. Good for you for catching it now! Wish I’d done this years ago.
I got out of debt by creating a spreadsheet of all my debts, figuring out how much I could pay in all, and then trying different configurations. Many articles still claim that you should pay off higher-interest credit cards first, but in reality, it doesn’t work well. It works best to pay off your smallest debt first, then add that to the amount of the next smallest debt, and so on until they’re all paid off. In that scenario, you need to make sure you’re saving so that you won’t be tempted to use the cards again. I was debt-free (including no mortgage) until I went on disability for a couple of years and had some enormous medical bills. Now I’m working two jobs, 60 hours a week, and I’m ready to start paying off the debt again. If we’re in a depression, I could lose either or both of my jobs, so I’ll feel a lot better when the debt is gone.