Back in July I wrote a post titled “Paying Off Debt And Saving Money Can Be Done At The Same Time“, which talked about how by making weekly or biweekly payments to your credit card can ease the burden of making those minimum payments you may have found yourself with. This is part of what I wrote:
The other day I got the following question from a reader:
“My husband and I are selling our house and will be netting a profit of $52,000. We are building a $300,000 house and were wondering if we should pay off a Tahoe for $12,000 so we can get rid of a $600 payment or should we put all $52,000 into the new house. I guess I’m asking what the pros and cons would be. Thanks”
My instant response was to pay off the car and put the rest of the money towards the house, and this was for several reasons:
There’s no point re-inventing the wheel. If you’re looking for ways to improve your finances, you might not have to look further than the next desk, the next house, or the next social event. Your neighbors / co-workers / friends might have the answers you’re looking for. Remember: no matter how good / bad you are with money, there’s always someone else who’s much better / worse. What ““ and how ““ can you learn from them?
Fact: we all have money
I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if you are carrying debt around that you are paying interest on, you can, with some discipline, get out of debt faster by transferring any and all balances to a 0% interest card. This is partially how we got out of debt, by transferring money around to 0% interest cards. That way, your payments are all going right towards the principal, so the debt pile goes down that much quicker over time. If you can score a 6, 12 or 15 month 0% interest balance transfer offer, that can go a long way to helping you get out of debt! So in order to maybe help you out, I have assembled some 0% interest balance transfer offers here…but a word to the wise: if you go this route, transfer the balances and then lock up your credit cards. The worst thing you could do is transfer all your stuff over and then rack up more debt! The first card on the list has the longest 0% interest time – 15 months.
I have been reading a lot of posts at financial websites lately about the trouble people are having paying off their credit card debt while trying to save a little extra money for themselves. First of all, anyone doing their best to pay off credit card should be commended, as we all need to be free of this “bad” debt and get ourselves some “good” debt. (For some reason that still makes me cringe, but I suppose there are good reasons to have debt, such as owning a house or going to school.) It is hard work to pay off years worth of charging up those cards, and even though it seems insurmountable, it is in fact possible to both pay off the debt and save some money at the same time. One of the biggest concerns about getting out of debt is how to come up with that giant minimum payment due and then trying to add an extra couple dollars to that as well. You know, that dreaded white envelope that shows up once a month, that you carefully put on the desk only to be opened later when you have taken your medicine, put on safety goggles and pulled up a comfortable chair that you will not fall out of. Sometimes it might say this:
