Getting out of your Verizon contract is hard. Figuring out the company your student loan debt got sold to is hard. For some reason getting a credit card is mad easy. When you sign up for a bank account banks just straight up give you a credit card. In college Credit Card companies gave away credit cards with a turkey sub. Seriously, that happened at K&D Deli in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2007. Sign up for a credit card, get a free sandwich. Then use that credit card to buy more seemingly free sandwiches. It's so easy to do. Americans love swiping. Credit card companies and Tinder both know this.
We were able to easily rack up over $10,000 in credit card debt without blinking an eye. It was so fun, and so easy and we're not alone. Based on an analysis of Federal Reserve statistics the average household owes $7,087 on their cards. A recent post on Nerd Wallet breaks it down way better than we ever could. For a while there we were above average, but as of today we are back to our rightful place: BELOW AVERAGE!
After our tax return came in we followed our own advice and plopped it right down on the Citi Card. That return combined with some extra cash we had floating around made it possible to pay off the last of our credit card debt for good. We can now say that we are credit card debt free. There's still that little thing about student loans, but we're trying not to think about those yet.
Okay, now we're ready to think about those. Next up in the snowball is last of Keri's student loan which is sitting pretty at $7,575 (which is less than the original amount of debt we had in credit cards alone).
If you want our advice, stay clear of credit cards. It's simple advice, but we wish someone would have told us. Sure you need to build your credit or whatever. And yes, they are great in an emergency but emergencies don't happen all the time but you know what does? Flash sales, Amazon Prime, new restaurant openings, Starbucks runs, 1/2 off all vinyl sales at Newbury Comics, iPhone updates, first dates, seconds dates, third dates, anniversaries, "I'm sorry" flowers, road trips, movies, winter boots, summer sandals, Netlfix subscriptions and your normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill depression purchases.
Credit is easy. Paying it off is hard. Especially when you have a mountain of other debt behind these dumb purchases. Use cash. You know why? Because cash is king and cash rules everything around me. Cream. Get the money. Dollar dollar bill y'all.