Lessons in Personal Finance - 2nd job

[CreditTara16]

Hello All,

I have been lurking forever (posted a few times) and I have gained a wealth of knowledge. With that knowledge I have maintained score between 700 and 770 (my highest).  I also gained some pretty sweet credit cards with some pretty awesome limits (AMEX 10,000, Disco 15,000, NFCU 17,500, etc., etc.). Unfortunately, several exotic vacations and other unnecessary spending in the last few years has resulted in $16,000 worth of CC debt. I was living the dream and now reality has hit! So the first thing I did was consolidate the debt with a personal loan from LightStream at 11% (NFCU approved a loan at almost 18%  ☹) and I got second job. So according to my budget I will have it paid off by Dec 2019.

Working 70 hrs a week = me learning a lesson on how IMPORTANT debt management is! Knowledge means nothing when it not used!  I cut every card with the exception of one lower tier card that I will only use for emergencies. In the future I hope to use cc cards for everyday purchases and PIF monthly and take advantage of rewards.

[AllZero]

Congratulations on your success! December is right around the corner.

[PutThatMoneyOnTheTable]

Congrats on your realization of things going wrong and working hard to fix it. Kudos to you

I work part time jobs before christmas to accomodate my extravagant spending sprees.

[LakeLife]

Way to be responsible for your debt, and agreed that December will be here in no time.  

[CivalV]

Thank you for sharing. I did the same thing years ago. I was in college eating out excessively. I used only one cc everyday for a year and paid only the minimum.. just eating out cost me $$$$ to pay back because I was careless and not managing my spending. Now I honestly use my debit card for most purchases and my store cards every few weeks only to keep them open 😩

[JoeLuvsHisCredit]

Congratulations on your success!