(no subject)

[tanaise]

wow. I have now paid more on my school loans than I have left to pay. This month was apparently the critical month, judging from my loan balances.

I'm trying to decide I should jump back down to a lower payment so I have more money for paying off credit cards for a bit. I'm having cash flow issues at the moment, and what drives me crazy is I don't know why, since I didn't think I'd been spending more of it than usual. Oh, wait. Except for the $330 on eye doctor stuff this month. yeah, that would help. Why do I keep using my debit cards for the big things and the credit card for the little things? And in the long run, which is a healthier thing to do? Should I continue doing it that way?

Comments

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

From a practical standpoint, your student loans are probably being repaid at a lower interest rate than your credit cards. The financially wise thing to do is to pay off the higher interest stuff first, regardless of most other considerations. (Not all, but most.)

[froggie-spawn.livejournal.com]

Yes. Also, stop using your credit cards.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

can't! I have to, or else I run out of money and bounce checks. I did have my balance at essentially nothing on the card that was still being used to buy things (ie, I'd buy things but them pay them all off the next go round), but then stuff (italy) happened, and I got behind paying off things and off track on the payments as well, so we're hoping everything shapes up very soon now. On the plus side, my ongoing balance is down to about 2k right now, so I'm still doing well for myself, if not as well as I maybe should be. I suspect there may need to be budgeting and planning in my future.

Or, alternately, someone could just pay me more.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

I say clean out the credit cards because the interest rate is probably higher, and also because you can probably do that pretty soon, so it will be one less debt monkey on your back.

Money is eeville!

[hkneale.livejournal.com]

Student loans are an acceptable form of debt. Credit cards are not. Pay off the credit card as soon as possible because they have a way of sucking all your money from you.

If your current financial situation is due to a single event (Italy, did you say? woo hoo!) that prolly won't happen again any time soon, then drop your student loan down a bit and pay off the credit card and get back on your feet budget-wise. You can always up the loan repayments once you're financially stable.

Getting paid more helps too. (I'm trying to convince work to give me a few more hours. Dunno if it'll happen this financial year, but a few things are happening that I might be able to use for leverage.)