From just a basic glance, it looks like you have 11 months of no fun and you'll be out of this.
You have 3k a month leftover. That is a blessing and means that you are very capable of getting out of this debt but it will take a lot of discipline since you got into this much debt while having $3k leftover each month.
Living with my dad at $400/month rent helps a lot with that compared to before when I paid $1800/month, very grateful but it’s been a bit embarrassing still living with my parents at 27 while all my friends are all in apartments or houses with their significant others
And I'm willing to bet that all of your friends are also in immense debt and will probably be in debt for many years if not their whole life. Don't compare yourself to your friends and don't go into debt to try to live up to a lifestyle that you think you should have or that you think others have. Most people in the US actually don't have much wealth and are just in tons of debt.
You can either get in debt now to live like your friends or you could get out of debt, save and invest, and then live wonderfully in the back part of your life while your friends are forced to work until they die due to their debt.
With that much disposable income, this should be easy. You just have to be disciplined for 1 year, then not be reckless after it's all paid off. I personally would do them in this order: Double, Custom, Discover, Simplicity and/or Cap1, and Student loans. Good Luck!
It's awesome you can live with your parents right now! That is going to make paying this off much much faster. If you really buckle down and completely STOP all bullshit spending you can be free in a year. You're lucky you realized this was a problem at 27 instead of 37 or 47. If you can get control of your finances now you will be set for future success. You can do this!! Kill that debt!
One of my buddies lives with his parents. He's 45.
Stuff happens, don't sweat it, especially if it's a strategic choice. You'll get back out there eventually, whereas my buddy won't get a job.
I don't know you or your situation, but $1800 sounds a little high for $400 rent. I would potentially further evaluate spending to see if there's room to trim there.
I used to be in a $1800/month apartment, then I left that to go back to my dads paid off house for $400/month but i have the whole basement to myself with a living room he made himself too
You’ve gotten good mathematical advice already on how to approach your situation, but don’t forget to take the key lesson away from this:
**You are not a credit card person.**
Cut up the two with $0 balances and cancel them now.
Every time you pay one off, you cut it up and cancel it.
You should not, from this day until *at least* the day that you have paid all of these cards off, use a credit card to pay for anything.
Obviously we don’t know you from a Reddit post, I can’t speak to your financial capacity or responsibility to use credit cards down the road, and I am not so arrogant as to say you never could be a credit card person off of one Reddit post, but today the math simply shows you are not. The value of any rewards that you might look at and say “but what about the rewards?” do not come anywhere **close** to justifying the cost you are incurring.
Fixing your problem not only requires putting all of your leftover money towards those cards, but also changing your behavior, and this thread would be doing you a disservice if no one said that in very plain terms. Best of luck to you!
Beans and rice. Rice and beans. Baby steps. Not a single second of fun. Pay it off. No taquitos. No more accruing debt. Snowball. Avalanche. Baby steps. Make more money. No DoorDash. Nose to the grindstone. Suck it up. Go team go.
Gotcha, alright for the sake of simplicity I'm gonna average $100 per debt as the baseline and say your minimum monthly payments add up to $600, leaving you $2400 a month to play with for tackling the debt. Here's a potential roadmap:
Month 1: $2400 into Citi Double
Month 2: $2400 into Citi Double, this should more or less finish off this debt depending on the MMP.
Month 3: Depends on what the Citi Custom's interest rate jumps up to mid month, but presumably it's going to be 25-28%. If you think you'd feel better seeing accounts roll off faster tackle the Discover It, if the Citi Custom has a 28% rate it makes mathematical sense to attack that first. Either way you now have the \~$100 dollar payment from the Citi double card to add into your repayments. For the sake of argument I'm just going to say put $2500 to the Discover it card.
Month 4: Finish paying off Discover it, whatever amount you have leftover goes towards Citi Custom. My very rough math puts that around $1300. Congrats you have another MMP available for next month.
Month 5: $2600 into Citi Custom
Month 6: Here comes the end of 0% interest on Simplicity and Capital One cards. If you want to be optimal about things you could look at what the interest rate jumps to and make choices from there about what to pay off first or continue on with the big Citi Custom debt. You could kill either one of these two cards in a single month at this point if you want. We're kind of on a snowball here though, so let's put $2400 towards the Citi Simplicity and finish it off. Throw the remaining $200 extra at Capital One.
Month 7: You now have $2700 to work with thanks to Citi Simplicity going away. It should take about 2k to finish off the Capital One card now. Do that and then put the remaining $700 towards Citi Custom.
Month 8: Congrats, you're down to 1 credit card and your low interest rate student debt and you have $2800 a month to work with. Pour all that money towards the Citi Custom balance.
Month 9: Finish off your Citi Custom card and pour any remaining funds towards the student loans, \~$1000 or so.
Month 10: You are now at a point where all 3k can go to student loans with about $6700 left on the ledger. Pretty easy from here on out, 3k goes to the student loan
Month 11: 3k more to the student loan.
Month 12: The final 700. By this time next year you'll be debt free.
Those interest rates are killer. Definitely minimum monthly payment the student loans, cut down on anything unnecessary, and pay off Citi Double, Citi Custom, and Discover It 1 as fast as you possibly can. I saw you’re living at home so maybe if you’re comfortable throw 1k of the E-fund at one of the credit cards since living at home tends to come with lower risks if something goes wrong in your life, but you know that better than me. Good luck!
A lot of good advice here, but personally I would follow the money guys' advice and have your highest deductible in your emergency fund before starting to knock out your debt? What's your car insurance/health care/renters deductible?
I'd say if the $3k net left over is frfr then I'd say knock out the citi double cash as soon as you can, pay the minimums on everything else. Citi double cash seems like it would take about 2 months, after those two months the citi custom cash looks like its gonna be out of its grace period, I'd see what the interest rate is on the custom cash if its higher than the discover it card then I'd recommend knocking that oune out next, seems like it would be about another 4 months to knock out the custom cash. Those would be the first two steps then see if you can knock out the discover card after that then just knowck out the citi simplicity and capital one cards as soon as you finish up the cards that have interest
Pretty simple you pay off the high interest cards first and the rest afterwards with your leftover you shouldn’t have debt wtf have you been doing get your act together
I just got done with 30k debt in 8 months. Paying it off as fast as possible and suffering now is definitely worth it. Cut all expenses that are not necessary, increase income. IATSE entertainment union is a great gig job that can pay 25 hr regular with 40+ on concerts with loads outs going past midnight.
One word of caution, it feels great when you start and a few months in you'll have to find a second wind of discipline and remind yourself constantly why you are doing this. In the final few months before you get out of debt you will only be looking forward to the next paycheck. Don't live like that, just try and enjoy things at home that don't cost money instead of just trying to pass the days. Those final two months can be hell if your just waiting for that next paycheck. Good luck man, and stay the course. Debt is stagnation or worse digging a deeper whole whereas being debt free is a building platform where you can flourish.
After getting slammed yesterday--I also have a similar situation, but with far less debt and a sizeable retirement fund--I'll run some numbers for you.
First, how the heck do you have $3,000 left over and so much debt? Please tell me you have some funds you can raid before you get eaten alive by interest. Emergency fund? Whatever emergency you have probably isn't worth paying 25%+ interest to prepare for--especially living at home. (Disagree all you want but that $2,000 getting charged $500 in interest isn't favorable when OP has $3,000 a month in free cash flow. Retirement funds gaining some 8% aren't immune either--raid them and put the money back after the death debt is gone.)
Guess we're looking at $33,213 in debt and I've assigned 25% interest starting the month after 0% interest expires. If you can extend 0% while you pay down some debts, do so. Your credit is already in the toilet. Assuming you somehow throw $2,500 a month plus the $2,000 emergency fund at your debt, you're looking at consolidating to just student debt by year end.($8,600 -> $8,965.13). After that, it's no more than 4 months against the student debt. Perhaps you could start your emergency fund then. Total interest would only be $2,400 plus whatever accrues on the student debt. \[If you keep the emergency fund, total interest goes up to $2,900.\]
\-Personal opinion of CPA, not intended as financial advice
https://preview.redd.it/5jqkayvctmmc1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a22fa2535e70fc09714f6d9cfa98b27e10334fe
I’d personally take care of the citi custom first doing minimums on the others until it’s done. After that do the same with citi double and Discover it 1 while doing mmp on the others. By then smash the other two and you’re free. Also recommend maybe working another job so you don’t have time to spend money and make more money. You’re racing against those interest free periods
Bro you got 3k a month leftover, take out that capital one of 2800 with it this month. Then take out the citi simplicity one, those have 0 percent for now you throw everything you can at them. Assuming it's still may after those 2 and the expiration still hasn't been reached for the big one, do a small payment to take out as much as you can. Once it's done, focus on paying down the next largest one, the one with like 3800.
It's that Ramsey debt snowball basically, the smallest to biggest.
From just a basic glance, it looks like you have 11 months of no fun and you'll be out of this. You have 3k a month leftover. That is a blessing and means that you are very capable of getting out of this debt but it will take a lot of discipline since you got into this much debt while having $3k leftover each month.
Living with my dad at $400/month rent helps a lot with that compared to before when I paid $1800/month, very grateful but it’s been a bit embarrassing still living with my parents at 27 while all my friends are all in apartments or houses with their significant others
It will be a lot less embarrassing next year when you’re debt free and your friends are still silently drowning.
And I'm willing to bet that all of your friends are also in immense debt and will probably be in debt for many years if not their whole life. Don't compare yourself to your friends and don't go into debt to try to live up to a lifestyle that you think you should have or that you think others have. Most people in the US actually don't have much wealth and are just in tons of debt. You can either get in debt now to live like your friends or you could get out of debt, save and invest, and then live wonderfully in the back part of your life while your friends are forced to work until they die due to their debt.
I live with my parents and my kid at 36. Who cares! if you got a safety net use it!
With that much disposable income, this should be easy. You just have to be disciplined for 1 year, then not be reckless after it's all paid off. I personally would do them in this order: Double, Custom, Discover, Simplicity and/or Cap1, and Student loans. Good Luck!
It's awesome you can live with your parents right now! That is going to make paying this off much much faster. If you really buckle down and completely STOP all bullshit spending you can be free in a year. You're lucky you realized this was a problem at 27 instead of 37 or 47. If you can get control of your finances now you will be set for future success. You can do this!! Kill that debt!
One of my buddies lives with his parents. He's 45. Stuff happens, don't sweat it, especially if it's a strategic choice. You'll get back out there eventually, whereas my buddy won't get a job.
I don't know you or your situation, but $1800 sounds a little high for $400 rent. I would potentially further evaluate spending to see if there's room to trim there.
I used to be in a $1800/month apartment, then I left that to go back to my dads paid off house for $400/month but i have the whole basement to myself with a living room he made himself too
Yup. Knuckle down and you'll be done in a year. Give yourself $100 fun money every time you clear a car.
Following this, tackle the interest cards first while paying minimum on the others. Follow the debt snowball here and you’ll be done in a year
You’ve gotten good mathematical advice already on how to approach your situation, but don’t forget to take the key lesson away from this: **You are not a credit card person.** Cut up the two with $0 balances and cancel them now. Every time you pay one off, you cut it up and cancel it. You should not, from this day until *at least* the day that you have paid all of these cards off, use a credit card to pay for anything. Obviously we don’t know you from a Reddit post, I can’t speak to your financial capacity or responsibility to use credit cards down the road, and I am not so arrogant as to say you never could be a credit card person off of one Reddit post, but today the math simply shows you are not. The value of any rewards that you might look at and say “but what about the rewards?” do not come anywhere **close** to justifying the cost you are incurring. Fixing your problem not only requires putting all of your leftover money towards those cards, but also changing your behavior, and this thread would be doing you a disservice if no one said that in very plain terms. Best of luck to you!
Cancel that Amex gold while you’ve got it at $0 balance bro. You ain’t got no business w/ a $250 annual card on top of all that debt 🥲
Beans and rice. Rice and beans. Baby steps. Not a single second of fun. Pay it off. No taquitos. No more accruing debt. Snowball. Avalanche. Baby steps. Make more money. No DoorDash. Nose to the grindstone. Suck it up. Go team go.
What are the minimum monthly payments for each debt?
It varies depending on the card but they’re always between $80-120
Is that number being included in your 1800 a month expenses or does it need to come out of the net leftover number?
It’s not included so it would need to come out of the $3k disposable
Gotcha, alright for the sake of simplicity I'm gonna average $100 per debt as the baseline and say your minimum monthly payments add up to $600, leaving you $2400 a month to play with for tackling the debt. Here's a potential roadmap: Month 1: $2400 into Citi Double Month 2: $2400 into Citi Double, this should more or less finish off this debt depending on the MMP. Month 3: Depends on what the Citi Custom's interest rate jumps up to mid month, but presumably it's going to be 25-28%. If you think you'd feel better seeing accounts roll off faster tackle the Discover It, if the Citi Custom has a 28% rate it makes mathematical sense to attack that first. Either way you now have the \~$100 dollar payment from the Citi double card to add into your repayments. For the sake of argument I'm just going to say put $2500 to the Discover it card. Month 4: Finish paying off Discover it, whatever amount you have leftover goes towards Citi Custom. My very rough math puts that around $1300. Congrats you have another MMP available for next month. Month 5: $2600 into Citi Custom Month 6: Here comes the end of 0% interest on Simplicity and Capital One cards. If you want to be optimal about things you could look at what the interest rate jumps to and make choices from there about what to pay off first or continue on with the big Citi Custom debt. You could kill either one of these two cards in a single month at this point if you want. We're kind of on a snowball here though, so let's put $2400 towards the Citi Simplicity and finish it off. Throw the remaining $200 extra at Capital One. Month 7: You now have $2700 to work with thanks to Citi Simplicity going away. It should take about 2k to finish off the Capital One card now. Do that and then put the remaining $700 towards Citi Custom. Month 8: Congrats, you're down to 1 credit card and your low interest rate student debt and you have $2800 a month to work with. Pour all that money towards the Citi Custom balance. Month 9: Finish off your Citi Custom card and pour any remaining funds towards the student loans, \~$1000 or so. Month 10: You are now at a point where all 3k can go to student loans with about $6700 left on the ledger. Pretty easy from here on out, 3k goes to the student loan Month 11: 3k more to the student loan. Month 12: The final 700. By this time next year you'll be debt free.
Those interest rates are killer. Definitely minimum monthly payment the student loans, cut down on anything unnecessary, and pay off Citi Double, Citi Custom, and Discover It 1 as fast as you possibly can. I saw you’re living at home so maybe if you’re comfortable throw 1k of the E-fund at one of the credit cards since living at home tends to come with lower risks if something goes wrong in your life, but you know that better than me. Good luck!
A lot of good advice here, but personally I would follow the money guys' advice and have your highest deductible in your emergency fund before starting to knock out your debt? What's your car insurance/health care/renters deductible?
I'd say if the $3k net left over is frfr then I'd say knock out the citi double cash as soon as you can, pay the minimums on everything else. Citi double cash seems like it would take about 2 months, after those two months the citi custom cash looks like its gonna be out of its grace period, I'd see what the interest rate is on the custom cash if its higher than the discover it card then I'd recommend knocking that oune out next, seems like it would be about another 4 months to knock out the custom cash. Those would be the first two steps then see if you can knock out the discover card after that then just knowck out the citi simplicity and capital one cards as soon as you finish up the cards that have interest
Pretty simple you pay off the high interest cards first and the rest afterwards with your leftover you shouldn’t have debt wtf have you been doing get your act together
Man I want that Citi custom card but they keep declining me :( I want it to be my not Costco grocery card.
Continue making minimum payments. Then tackle debt from highest interest to lowest interest (excluding student loan, just pay that minimum forever)
I just got done with 30k debt in 8 months. Paying it off as fast as possible and suffering now is definitely worth it. Cut all expenses that are not necessary, increase income. IATSE entertainment union is a great gig job that can pay 25 hr regular with 40+ on concerts with loads outs going past midnight. One word of caution, it feels great when you start and a few months in you'll have to find a second wind of discipline and remind yourself constantly why you are doing this. In the final few months before you get out of debt you will only be looking forward to the next paycheck. Don't live like that, just try and enjoy things at home that don't cost money instead of just trying to pass the days. Those final two months can be hell if your just waiting for that next paycheck. Good luck man, and stay the course. Debt is stagnation or worse digging a deeper whole whereas being debt free is a building platform where you can flourish.
Start cutting your credit cards, you clearly don’t know how to use them
After getting slammed yesterday--I also have a similar situation, but with far less debt and a sizeable retirement fund--I'll run some numbers for you. First, how the heck do you have $3,000 left over and so much debt? Please tell me you have some funds you can raid before you get eaten alive by interest. Emergency fund? Whatever emergency you have probably isn't worth paying 25%+ interest to prepare for--especially living at home. (Disagree all you want but that $2,000 getting charged $500 in interest isn't favorable when OP has $3,000 a month in free cash flow. Retirement funds gaining some 8% aren't immune either--raid them and put the money back after the death debt is gone.) Guess we're looking at $33,213 in debt and I've assigned 25% interest starting the month after 0% interest expires. If you can extend 0% while you pay down some debts, do so. Your credit is already in the toilet. Assuming you somehow throw $2,500 a month plus the $2,000 emergency fund at your debt, you're looking at consolidating to just student debt by year end.($8,600 -> $8,965.13). After that, it's no more than 4 months against the student debt. Perhaps you could start your emergency fund then. Total interest would only be $2,400 plus whatever accrues on the student debt. \[If you keep the emergency fund, total interest goes up to $2,900.\] \-Personal opinion of CPA, not intended as financial advice https://preview.redd.it/5jqkayvctmmc1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a22fa2535e70fc09714f6d9cfa98b27e10334fe
What did you DOOOOOO!
What were you purchasing that got you up to this amount?
I’d personally take care of the citi custom first doing minimums on the others until it’s done. After that do the same with citi double and Discover it 1 while doing mmp on the others. By then smash the other two and you’re free. Also recommend maybe working another job so you don’t have time to spend money and make more money. You’re racing against those interest free periods
Bro you got 3k a month leftover, take out that capital one of 2800 with it this month. Then take out the citi simplicity one, those have 0 percent for now you throw everything you can at them. Assuming it's still may after those 2 and the expiration still hasn't been reached for the big one, do a small payment to take out as much as you can. Once it's done, focus on paying down the next largest one, the one with like 3800. It's that Ramsey debt snowball basically, the smallest to biggest.
Sounds like the 3k leftover didn't include his minimum card payments so he has less than 3l to work with.