Yodobashi

iTrader: (5)

Just make it your number one priority and knock that **** out. Don't blow money on car parts or electronics or anything until you have it zapped. You need to figure out how you got in there in the first place. Obviously you spent more than you were bringing in. So time to make a budget and stick to it and possibly make some lifestyle changes.

I suggest calling your credit cards and telling them you want to cancel the accounts one by one. They will want to keep you as a customer and will often be willing to give you a temporary low interest rate (including 0 in many cases) for a year or so. When they ask your reason for dumping the card, just tell them you got an offer in the mail for a 0% APR for the next year on a new card. They will match it or come close. Or in some cases they will just ask you what it would take to keep you as a customer at which point you can make an offer.

Taking out a personal loan or doing balance transfers can make sense but if you aren't committed to no longer using CC's and you revert to your old ways, you will end up in an even bigger hole. It can also make the task seem more daunting when you have some really big sum that is months/years away as opposed to a bunch of little chunks than can be knocked out quick. Kinda like when you have a really big task to do and you get overwhelmed - say like remodeling an entire home. It's much easier and less daunting if you just go room by room and as you knock each one out, it gives you the feeling of getting some traction and taking control and will motivate you even more to keep going.

Personally, if it were me I would just go ape**** and start selling stuff, working overtime, or whatever it takes to knock them out

By the way, once you get started - don't stop there. Don't get sucked into the mentality you will always have car payments. Once you clean up your cc debt, knock out car payments -- they are just as bad (just with a lower APR). I can tell you from first hand experience that your mentality will change when you don't have debt

purekoryo

iTrader: (1)

I have a 2005 srt-4 with only 11k miles. I am 25, a mech. engineer, making about $65k a year, and even then, I am trying to sell my neon (trying to get my priorities straight). If you are as young as I am, right now is the time to fully invest in something that is an asset NOT a liability, so that you can see your money grow and not have to constantly rely on your pay checks to pay your bills, even worse, a car payment. I would be paitent and wait until you have no debt and invest in something that would actually pay for the car itself, that way you basically get the car for free with not a lot of work in investing.
btw, I have opted to drive a modded 1990 MX6 GT instead as my daily driver (still quick, 200whp & 270wtrq) and a 1996 sentra with BB SR20DET as a weekend warrior, both of these cars paid in cash ($1,200 for the mx6 and $2,900 for the sentra). Although, the car is not a beemer or a jag like some of the engineers I work with drive, I am still willing to make a small *** sacrafice of not looking good in a car to get my priorities straight and be wealthy enough to have one of my investments pay for ALL of my expenses...that way if something happens, I will still be able to survive without work.
As a lot of these guys stated, if you have any type of debt, it is not worth it to invest more money in something that will actually depreciate in value and you probably will be selling the car before it is paid off. Think of it this way....would you spend $400-$500/month and an extra $150-$200/month for insurance, total of about $550-$700/month to rent a car for a few years?

EvoG8r

iTrader: (31)

I owe $10,400 on my Evo and I have negligible credit card debit, but I've owned my Evo for over 3 years and I used to have lot's of credit card debt.

Short Plan for crasher.
I would stay with a cheap car until you knock out most of your CC debt. Do a budget, figure out what you are spending your money on every month. Avoid eating/drinking out, that was a huge monthly expense for me when I was doing this. Lock away your credit cards so you don't put more money on them. I would devote as much as possible on each check to CC debt.
After you pay of your credit cards, create an automatic allotment to a money market with a mutual fund company (makes it harder to withdraw money unless you actually need it). You should devote at least 10% to savings. Don't forget to put a little away for retirement too!

Fun fact: The savings rate in this country is -0.05%.

Why I can give an opinion...
(1) I was in the situation when I graduated college and got out of it.
(2) Me and my wife have worked for T Rowe Price for several years giving assistance to investors.
(3) Currently, I work in army finance and I deal with this issue with Soldiers frequently.

filter

iTrader: (1)

if you make 65k a year and our complaining about owning an srt-4. 1 you must be in debt 2 dont know how to spend your money right.

i make 52k a year only 1 credit card. has about $800 balance due to me rebuilding my credit. i have an evo 9. im married and have a house payment and thinking about buying an sti for the wife. and we still live very comfortably and putting money away for retirment. and im 28.

we just dont do other thing like go out and get drunk every weekend. we dont smoke or drink so we have extra money to throw around.

so i dont see how you cant afford an srt-4 making 65k a year.

Jasil

iTrader: (22)

Used more like 45-50K Viper and we will soon be renting out this house and buying another, so that will be more debt....Yippee!!

EVOIXMR8916

iTrader: (8)

mother fer.....damn you better be makin 100k+ a year if you can afford all those payments.....

andyktlee

iTrader: (8)

$300 a month of the Evo and roughly $55 left on all my credit card balances combined. Roughly have about $15K left on the Evo and no other debt.

crasher

thanks for the quick tips....

im going to do some numbers with a friend from the dealership if he cant get me a car payment of 350-400 and drop the evo down to 25k out the door, ill have to skip, ive calculated my expenses with a estimated guess of a car payment 500 insurance 180, credit card bills 600, other stuff 250, and i still have 800 left a month, but if i pay off my credit card bills, that there is an evo payment a month. fortunately i do side jobs other than work so it looks like 2,000 will be comming my way shortly, providing that job falls through, if that happens that will take me out of the slum quickly.

no, but your absoulutely right, going out to eat is EXPENSIVE. those 5-6-7 dllr charges every day sure do add up, i try not to do it but my jobs makes me have to do it, since im never in one location.

andyktlee

iTrader: (8)

Pack a sack lunch! I do that and I can afford to eat 3 meals a day at some restaurant. Not the smarter use of my money though.

nhsean69

iTrader: (21)

Ive got about $2500 on my 2 credit cards, which is less then 10% of the balance's on them. Nothing car related, id never charge performance parts, Its all house related, hell $1400 of it was a damn TV!! LOL

gsrboi80

iTrader: (38)

I got a couple grand in CC debt. nothing to extreme I know a lady that has close to 40k in CC debt on like 10 cards. I dont put anything car related on them either unless I pay it as soon as the bill comes in. ie. ordering over the internet. My CC debt is mostly vacation related. Lift tickets get expensive .

spdracerut

iTrader: (2)

All depends on where you live..... where I live, rent for a 2bed/2bath apartment goes for $2500 a month. Houses go for $1.5+million. I'm making over 60k but I don't have a ton to put away for savings.

evolution_racer

iTrader: (2)

This thread is funny. Having credit card debt is not bad if you're serious about building good credit. It's ideal to carry up to 1/3 your credit limit on a card at all times and pay it off every month. This is espcially important for younger people with unestablished credit history. As you get older and develop a better history, carrying balances becomes less important. If you can manage your debt well and keep it under control, it's better than showing no debt at all.

Between my four cards I carry about $5k in debt. I don't own a home right now, have two car loans and my score right now is still in the upper 700's which is decent for a 23 year old.

**I edited the part about not paying it off every month because once I read it back to myself the context of it was wrong. If you have 0% credit cards promo's for the first year or 6 months, it is good to carry a small balance as long as you're not paying interest.**

19psi

iTrader: (6)

haha...this is a silly thread.

Bought my car new 5-06.
So far I've used about $2700 on credit cards, but it's gonna get paid off in about a month.
I usually pay off my credit cards the following month.

Buying parts for your car on credit cards will get you into bad debt real quick.
Not a smart move if you ask me...but I am sure all of you knew that already.
Been there and done that. I am never going to do it again.

spdracerut

iTrader: (2)

I'll disagree with that. I have only carried a balance for a total of 2 months out of 9 years; I've always paid it off every month. My credit rating a year ago was 760. Have you calculated how much money you've paid in interest? I'd rather have that money in my pocket.