Hit $10,000 in emergency savings and realized I was wrong about credit cards

I always thought carrying a balance was just normal life, like how everyone has a car payment. But after I hit $10,000 in my emergency fund last month, I finally saw how much I was paying in interest on my cards - over $200 a month just for the privilege of owing money. I paid off the $3,800 balance I had and now only use the card for groceries and gas, paying it off weekly. Has anyone else had a similar wake-up call about their spending habits after hitting a savings milestone?

2 comments

2 Comments

tarar271d ago

Jumped into the same boat last year and felt like an absolute clown when I realized my "normal" was just me burning cash. I was paying $180 a month on a store card for a couch I didn't even like anymore. Now I look at that paid-off balance and think about all the pizza and bad movies I could have bought instead. The whole "debt is just a bill" thing is a trap, and I fell for it hook line and sinker. At least we woke up before the interest ate our entire paycheck.

king.stella1d ago

And the $200 in savings each month (that's $2,400 a year!) really adds up way faster than you'd think. It's wild how debt just feels like a normal bill until you actually see the numbers.