For like 2 years I was doing the Dave Ramsey thing, throwing extra cash at my smallest debt first. But I had a $4,200 credit card at 23% and a $1,800 car loan at 4%. Kept paying extra on the car loan and it felt good crossing it off. Then my sister ran the numbers for me last month and showed I paid $600 more in interest by not hitting that credit card first. I switched to the avalanche method and put an extra $300 toward the high interest card. Has anyone else made this math mistake and felt stupid after?
I always pay my card in full every month (you know, the only way) but I noticed late fees kept sneaking in when my payment date fell on a weekend. Turns out, my bank processes payments on the next business day unless you schedule it specifically as a 'weekend payment' in their system. I set up a recurring payment 2 days before the due date last November and haven't had a single late fee since. Has anyone else run into this hidden setting with their bank?
Ngl, my 15 year old Kenmore fridge just gave out last Wednesday. I woke up to warm milk and a puddle on the floor. Had to drop $450 on a used one off Facebook Marketplace to replace it before the meat spoiled, which totally wrecked my debt snowball payment for this month. Anyone else have an unexpected expense throw off their whole payoff timeline?
I paid off $4,200 in credit card debt last year using the snowball method but my friend did $5,600 with avalanche in the same time. He says math wins every time but I needed those small wins to stay motivated. Which method do you think is better for someone starting with $15,000 in debt?
I was dropping off a package last week at some fancy apartment complex in Austin, and the guy tipped me $5 cash. On my way back to the truck I started doing the math on what I actually keep after my minimum payments. Between my Visa balance of $3,400 and my store card for $1,200, I'm sending out almost $200 a month in interest alone. That's basically two full shifts of driving just to pay the banks for nothing. Has anyone else ever sat down and figured out what percentage of their paycheck goes to interest?
I was doing the snowball method for like 8 months and barely made a dent. My highest rate card was at 23% APR with a $2,800 balance. I finally sat down and ran the numbers last month and realized the avalanche method would save me about $340 in interest over the next year. So I switched all extra payments to that high rate card first. Paid it off completely in 6 weeks by picking up extra shifts at my warehouse job. Has anyone else tried both methods and found one clearly works faster for them?