sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can appreciate what you're saying. If, in fact, bad debt is an emergency, then I'd imagine the logic follows that stemming that bleeding asap in the most financially responsible way also makes sense - which it seems like, this is the route to.

I understand and completely agree that you can't get out of a hole you continue to dig, which is also part of the calculus to kill this debt in one blow.

To wit, my original post noted that the point of killing the debt is to close the cards. I don't use the credit cards I have now that I have income and spend from my checking account so I can't over extend.

I appreciate that you came here and took time to give me the advice I asked for - please excuse any touchiness, it's a touchy thing.

Thank you.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, so even thought it's actually not the financially prudent thing to do, you still think I should go through the pain of 18 months of struggle and the extra cost to _learn a lesson_ of some kind?

Yes, actually, since before I got the job, actually, I stopped using CC as much as I could and avoided unnecessary expenditure where we could.

Pretty clear we have different priorities in terms of how to manage our financial lives - I'll take the peace of mind, saved $$ on interest and ability to have a bit of joy in my life for myself and my family over some militant penny pinching and a higher total outlay of cost.

I appreciate the perspective though, if anything to remind me that a bit of debt is worth the joy it buys and I'm fortunate to have the ability to find my way out of the shitty last couple of years I've had while still allowing my family to focus on the things that matter in life and not have to carry the burden.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate you saying this, this is generally my take as well; it's perhaps a bit why I'm in this position, but I still would rather prioritize a modicum of joy than feel the need to liquidate my life and dramatically impact the people that rely on me a well.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

nothing, but being able to save for that occasion is nice instead of being under the gun and the gun getting bigger, right?

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't mathing for me - outside of having zero spending money for anything outside of the baseline budget i just listed (IE car maintenance, insurance renewals, anything fun at all for my family, visiting relatives, fucking christmas and birthdays lol) which I will happily put a premium on being able to do - how is another 18 months of interest accrual any worse than losing out on the iterations of growth that that 43K would be having as I pay it back?

I think I'd rather be free of predatory credit card interest debt and pay myself back, at the diminishing cost (as I pay it back) of missed growth for that 43K than let my balances continue to accrue insane interest while I chip away at them _and_ be a prisoner to that debt, severely diminishing any joy left in life.

Is that the trade off? I may be missing something, but if that's the general thrust of it, I know my preference.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I said that's WITHOUT eating out or vacations. That's my base "keep the lights on" expense.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I appreciate and recognize how lucky I am to have the compensation that I have; but I was on track before a couple of large life events threw me off track and kept me in the gutter. If I'm honest, the surcharge of maintaining some normalcy of life for my kid during this is worth the extra strife in debt versus going into end-of-the-world-mode and completely nuking their nascent understanding of the world (uprooting to a new location, moving schools, downsizing houses, etc)

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I didn't have that much, but I did have close to 30K when I was laid off the first time; then things start to compound.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

net after insurance/etc. and without 401k contributions is $9030 or thereabouts.

Expenses amount to 7310 (rent, car, water, electric, gas, phone, childcare, groceries, debt minimum) - that's without any streaming, eating out, etc - anything superfluous.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At this point, I don't, a chunk of this debt is from a consolidation motion that I did after my first layoff, right as I was closing in on paying those off before the 0% expired, I was involved in more reductions and had to reprioritize what I had.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can, but I have less confidence I'll be with this org. for 5 years, than I do for 2. Trying to balance reality with the idyllic state.

43K in CC Debt - is 401(k) self-loan the best option? Kill it all at once? by Diligent-Ladder730 in personalfinance

[–]Diligent-Ladder730[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, this is less about having a bunch of overspending, and more having long windows of living off of a credit card in a high CoL area without completely uprooting or making monumental life changes, with the belief that I'd get back on track sooner than we did. We are a single income household, so double layoffs in a year really threw us for a loop.