Brief background: 31 years old, been in debt since I was 18 basically due to spending foolishly and living beyond my means. Towards the end of 2008 I started to get serious about getting out of debt but then I lost my job was unemployed for over 2 years. I recently started a new job back in April of this year. In 08 I had about $30000 in debt, now I am down to $10030. I own my car outright and live extremely cheap in a unit in my mothers 4 family home.
I'm currently in a spot where I don't know what to do and would like some feedback. Up until I was back to work I was living off of savings for about 6 months once the unemployment ran out. Once back to work I replenished some money that I had spent in savings and in June started going nuts towards knocking down my final debt.
June 1st I owed basically $15000 to Citibank at 5.9% juice. As of today I am just about to fall below $10,000. What I've been doing is cashing my paycheck and sending it off to Citibank as soon as I get home. No fun at all. Just slaving myself to pay Citibank. If I keep at it like I'm doing now I will be making my final payment to the devil sometime in June of next year. However I'm sitting on a large amount of savings which some may consider foolish while carrying debt. Time for some numbers.
Debt:
Citibank $10030 @5.9%
Savings:
$9500 @ 0.0%
After next week my debt and savings will be neck and neck. 2 weeks after that I should have about $1000 more in savings than I do in debt which is getting me thinking. Once I have the $1k surplus should I just payoff the damn credit card and declare myself debt free? Once paid off my monthly expenses will be $330!! I bring home about $2400 slaving away at work each month so It would be possible to spin up 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund in a month maybe a little more. and have some sort of peace of mind once again.
As far as I know we are booked solid for the next few months at work. So building an EF quick in case of emergency shouldn't be a problem. I seriously barely spend any money on myself these days aside from a calzone from the pizza shop every week. I'm just not sure if being debt free will feel better than having a large safety net in the bank.
So pay off the card and start 2012 debt free or sit on the cash and keep paying off the debt?
PS: I really really really hate my job. I also don't want to be a slave to debt much longer.
I'm currently in a spot where I don't know what to do and would like some feedback. Up until I was back to work I was living off of savings for about 6 months once the unemployment ran out. Once back to work I replenished some money that I had spent in savings and in June started going nuts towards knocking down my final debt.
June 1st I owed basically $15000 to Citibank at 5.9% juice. As of today I am just about to fall below $10,000. What I've been doing is cashing my paycheck and sending it off to Citibank as soon as I get home. No fun at all. Just slaving myself to pay Citibank. If I keep at it like I'm doing now I will be making my final payment to the devil sometime in June of next year. However I'm sitting on a large amount of savings which some may consider foolish while carrying debt. Time for some numbers.
Debt:
Citibank $10030 @5.9%
Savings:
$9500 @ 0.0%
After next week my debt and savings will be neck and neck. 2 weeks after that I should have about $1000 more in savings than I do in debt which is getting me thinking. Once I have the $1k surplus should I just payoff the damn credit card and declare myself debt free? Once paid off my monthly expenses will be $330!! I bring home about $2400 slaving away at work each month so It would be possible to spin up 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund in a month maybe a little more. and have some sort of peace of mind once again.
As far as I know we are booked solid for the next few months at work. So building an EF quick in case of emergency shouldn't be a problem. I seriously barely spend any money on myself these days aside from a calzone from the pizza shop every week. I'm just not sure if being debt free will feel better than having a large safety net in the bank.
So pay off the card and start 2012 debt free or sit on the cash and keep paying off the debt?
PS: I really really really hate my job. I also don't want to be a slave to debt much longer.
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