"100% of people who do not save money do not have any!"--Dave Ramsey

[redpoint5]

Peace of mind isn't worth that much to me, especially when it adds up to so much. These days the CC companies are pretty good at stopping unauthorized charges due to the algorithms they are running. The hassle of an unauthorized charge is like 3 minutes on the phone and waiting 3 days for a new card.

I paid my wife's tuition on a CC because they offered no discount for paying cash. 2% of $10k is $200... four times per year. An extra $800 a year is peace of mind to me.

[Xist]

My Hondas are twenty years old. I do my own maintenance. I purchase inexpensive clothing infrequently and then wear it as long as I can. I cannot tell you the last time that I took a vacation, I just spend time with my family.



I can get points or whatever by using a credit card. The millennials on YouTube that I watch always say to never use debit, always credit. If someone steals your debit card number your money is tied up until it gets sorted out, but if they steal your credit card number, it is the bank's money.

I would rather just use my debit card than need to remember to make my payment.

Someone stole my checkbook and the bank said to just monitor my account. When something happened I let them know immediately and they arrested a woman. I do not have any idea what happened with the case, but they took care of my account. I have almost never had much money in my account, but it was only a minor inconvenience.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

I would rather just use my debit card than need to remember to make my payment.

First of all, this is the year 2000; you don't have to remember anything. Ask Google to remind you, or put a reminder in your calendar, or whatever you do to be reminded of important things.

Second, credit card payments are automatically drawn from my checking account for the full statement amount. No need to even remember to pay it. The whole thing is on autopilot, and I've never paid a dime in interest.

You've yet to disclose (perhaps you haven't even added it up yourself) your regular monthly expenses. Income might be a problem, but where money is spent is usually a bigger problem, especially when a single (no dependants) person in relatively good health doesn't have money. I've said it before, but I could work a minimum wage job and have an increasing amount in the bank each month (when I was single). I know "poor" single people that make $40k and have $250/mo rent. They claim to be good with money, but spending $100/mo on a cell phone plan isn't something a person with no money should be doing.

[Xist]

I find myself in unfamiliar territory. The balances in my checking and savings accounts continue to grow. I will soon need to decide what to do with it. I am not too fond of my Bank of America account, it pays 0.01% interest and has a minimum balance of $500. Navy Federal is twenty-five times as good, it pays 0.25% and the minimum balance is $20. I forget why I opened the account in the first place, but then they offered me a credit card with 0% APR for 12 months and 0 balance transfer fees. While vastly better than Bank of America, the interest is still negligible.

I started using the account when I got my second job and 100% of my negligible pay goes straight into it. I could earn at least 2% in a money market account or another savings account, or theoretically slightly more than 5% in a high-yield checking account, but I might earn $20 with it, after jumping through all kinds of hoops.

I am just making sure that I will have the funds available to pay taxes. I checked my student loans and they were below $5,300, at a little over 3%.

I actually have more than enough to pay them off, but Bank of America would fine me for falling below my minimum balance, and would I exclusively use my credit card until I am paid again?

I looked at my loans and I only had two left. The one with a higher interest rate was a little over $700, so I paid it off, and when that clears I will owe about $4,600.

If life cooperates I should be able to pay off my student loans within a month.

The bad news is that Navy Federal charged me interest. It was less than $3, one day's worth, but my payments were on-time. The 0% APR was not supposed to run out after four months!

If they do not square this away I will look for another 0% introductory card, ideally with zero balance transfer fees, but hopefully I will be able to pay off that debt within a year.

That just leaves my debt to society?

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by Xist

I am just making sure that I will have the funds available to pay taxes. I checked my student loans and they were below $5,300, at a little over 3%.

I actually have more than enough to pay them off, but Bank of America would fine me for falling below my minimum balance, and would I exclusively use my credit card until I am paid again?

I wouldn't drain your account to that point just to save a few bucks on interest. Wait another month or two before paying off the student loans and keep your emergency fund healthy (or whatever you want to call that savings account).

Have you looked into opening an account at a credit union? They usually have fewer/no fees and less BS like high minimums for savings accounts. Also look into USAA. I got a card from USAA with 0% APR for 18 months to help lessen the blow of replacing my Camry's hybrid battery.

Not using cards with rewards is silly. I "earn" a few hundred a year in rewards buying stuff I would buy anyway and paying it off every month. The only reason not to (besides not qualifying) is if the temptation of credit cards is too much.

[Fat Charlie]

I generally pay my CC every week. On payday, money gets dropped into my account, and at some point in the week I'll log in to my credit card and pay it. It's a lot safer to use than a debit card and I get points. I'm already buying the groceries, gas and whatnot. Might as well have some of that money redirected to helping me out with something else I was already going to do.

[Xist]

Silly is right up my alley!

Between Dave Ramsey and everyone else, everybody says that I am wrong! Sweet!

I have a credit card with USAA. I transferred my balance when the introductory rate ended.

[redpoint5]

How are USAA reward checking account rates? I wouldn't bother with rate chasing unless you're starting to amass a good amount of cash...just looked up USAA and it's a garbage rate; 0.01%. Highest rates are about 2.5% these days. That's disappointing as they usually have the best rates for borrowers.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to pay off debt first and shrink cash on hand, as a credit card can still bail you out if necessary, or friends/family. 3% interest is nothing though, so I wouldn't be in too big a hurry to pay that off.

[Xist]

When I got the credit card I kept looking at my student loans. I would pay $185 in interest over the next year. I could have paid off with my student loans and paid down my total debt by another $185, but that made my spider-sense tingle.

I think that focusing on 3% could be considered min-maxing, but while my income was flat, I did not know what else to do.

RedPoint wanted to go over the specifics of my finances. That sounds boring, but I will get to it.

[redpoint5]

I'm a problem solver by nature, perhaps because I'm terribly curious how things work.

Some people share their problems simply to be heard, and others share them to brainstorm a solution. I'm always assuming we need a solution, since that's the perfect compliment to a problem.

The video games I was most interested in were RTS: Warcraft II, Command & Conquer, tower defense games, etc. Optimizing resources is fun to me.

Xist- what games did/do you play?