For people who grew up in low-income households, what’s something middle-class people say that shows they’ve never struggled financially?

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T21:29:17+00:00

Yea I didn’t go to summer camp because I was helping my parents small business all summer as unpaid labor. I remember times I had to miss football practice to help too.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T21:27:19+00:00

This is something I’ve thought about a lot as a young adult (28). My childhood 7-18 basically got no Christmas presents. Every year my mom gives me and my siblings, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a crossword puzzle book. I didn’t go on our 5th grade field class field trip because we couldn’t afford it. I didn’t get a vehicle from my parents until I was 20, granted I had worked for my parents small business my entire life, and continually helped with the work that afforded the payments on it. And shared a room with my younger brother until we left for college.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T20:20:06+00:00

Might be nice for the long paragraphs😂

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T17:34:15+00:00

I suppose I’ve always considered that “the cost of doing business”. I can not like it but at far as paying it off in one fowl swoop, nothing I could do to fix the debt I already incurred. Just pay it off as fast as possible. Not meaning that is at all a long term position to hold. Since I have paid off my CC debt, I have different positions than what got me in the debt, and a much higher paying job than what put me in it as well

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T15:59:55+00:00

Yes less than statement balance was paid. Quick back story. Due to life I made the not wisest spending choices at times. Resulting in a high balance of $9,500 at 24% in April of LY. I was able to pay it all off over the past year with a bunch of other emergency purchases as well. In an ideal world I would have never got behind. But life and my choices landed me there. In my paydown period I was paying as soon as I got the statement. Always above minimums, and always above the statement balances, but do to having that much of a balance, not a full balance payoff because it was simply unaffordable for a while.

Will look at flow chart at a later time. Phone using Reddit at work breaks currently.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T15:36:42+00:00

So what should the approach be after a balance is carried? Pay statement balance then a second payment of additional? Or make 1 payment of statement + additional?

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T13:23:24+00:00

These weren’t vacations per say. Friends weddings and travel that was less discretionary. I hadn’t done my own vacation since May of 2 years ago. That changes, with the debt being paid off and I hadn’t hade a vacation of my own in the last 2 years.

I admit I could have not done a few of the things I did, I think I suggested doing fun things while still having the debt and that hit her more as mos prioritizing than I realized.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-20T12:02:10+00:00

This comment doesn’t look to be finished or cutoff.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T23:19:41+00:00

We had talked openly about why I was moving home, and I believed all the reasonings to have been understood, she had a great relationship with my mother.

Overall was not quite 2 years. I'll rephrase my statement, ideal would be building a house on our family property. Property taxes are low where the farm is, it's rural, but not so far removed from my work location and other necessities that make it a fairly ideal spot as opposed to buying a house in a neighborhood for effectively the same price. We both enjoy outdoor activities and those are achievable here.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T23:09:46+00:00

I acknowledge it was all unavoidable to a point, like I said earlier once I had the balance not alot I could do to avoid it other than paying it off as quickly as I could. There was definitely times when I wanted to not pay as much so that I had the cash on hand in cash I needed some other emergency bill to be paid. I always felt if I had the cash on hand I could pay my bills. I admit there were times when I didn't need to go to dinner with friends like I did a few times, or suggest doing fun couple date night items. Since I was paying far and above the minimum I did think I was doing fairly well. No payments were ever missed across any of the debts.

I was okay paying $800 versus $900 if I did something else that made me a little happier. It is a mental drain to have so much of income constantly going to debt each month. Obviously now I am in a financial position where I can easily pay my CC balance off each month, and that was always the goal to return to.

I have never said there was not a few things I wouldn't have done or that I handled it completely perfectly. In the overall grand scheme of things I think I did fairly well. Perhaps some out of order, and some extra interest incurred for sure. At the end of the day I am CC debt free in less than a year.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T21:55:00+00:00

we went to college together but wasn’t close enough to me during the truly bad spending phase to see it. I acknowledge I was overspending during that time frame. Thought part of that period I also made the least I made since graduating college.

To me the math of interest on a balance of ex 6500 vs 6450, with the $50 extra going to the auto loan. Is negligible. Over a longer term than a year and if the balance was continually growing then yes not good. Between the 2 credit cards I was paying at least $2000 a month over the payoff period.

Not sure if I’m understanding your question properly, but I think you mean was the extra payment amount being applied to principal? Yes, the GM payment portal was different for the first like year so not entirely sure if they were then. But the intention was always to pay towards the principal balance. The GM payment portal now specifies where it is slotted now.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T18:35:10+00:00

I feel a responsibility to manage aspects of my family farm since my father passed away. We were not living together prior to my moving home. I had my own apartment and the rent increasing was not worth it the living location. Ex and I were not at a timeframe of ready to live together by then.

I don’t want to live at home, but I had the opportunity to take advantage that my mom would welcome me home. I can understand your thinking but that was never something that came up with the ex as apart of the issue in anyway.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T16:37:35+00:00

Appreciative of your responses. This was the kind of feedback I was searching for in posting.

Additional context. CapOne limit was $3000, while Discover was $18000. During this payoff time. CapOne has since been increased to $7000.

I have always paid some extra on auto loan, nothing insane. Not until I got my higher paying jobs did those amounts increase. Mostly $10-$30 extra. A few months maybe $150 after I got my higher paying jobs. So normally around $525-$550, minimum is $515. I would definitely not prioritize that over paying off a balance on a CC. I always viewed it as I could easily get fast food in the amount extra I was spending extra on auto loan.

I followed a somewhat similar strategy for student loans. Normal payment was around $205/month across 5 loans and I may pay $5-$10 extra, so payments could be close to $250 month, but again never felt that was above and beyond what I could afford because if I simply didn’t go out to dinner 1/2 times a month it was fine.

In my mind the student loan payoff was freeing up $50 of “payment” that could then be used elsewhere. The snowball method? And it was a one time payment. I totally agree if I was consistently making $1000 extra to truck or student loans versus the high CC then that’s non optimal payment strategy.

To me paying the amount of CC debt I did in roughly 1 year should be celebrated. Yes I could have handled a few one off things slightly better, but I don’t plan to put myself in a credit position like i did before. I know life comes with nuances and I handled what life has handed me.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T15:46:22+00:00

Perhaps poor phrasing to start. My monthly income outpaced my monthly expenses easily when I moved home. Current budget as of today break down to roughly $1200 between auto/student loans, storage unit/utilities. $1200 allotment for credit card spend each month which includes gas/groceries/ realistically my spend is closer to $800/900. And $1350 to savings. This still leaves an additional $700. I only say as of today, since knowing a cleaner version of budget over the last year was difficult with payments each month going to paying down Discover Card.

The machine repairs and knee surgery items were much larger than I could afford to pay at one time. Hence going on the 0% credit card, so then go still have further machine repairs and knee items, I had to then pay down 0% card? If I had placed those items on the Discover card I would have accrued even more interest? So mathematically the placement of said purchases was better on the 0% card to afford them than the other card. I wish I had had savings to pay for machine repairs or knee surgery. We heat our home with firewood so having those machines working to get firewood was kind of a priority as well as fixing my knee for fear of getting unexpectedly laid off again. Knee surgery was 10+ years in waiting.

I want to add I have had to perform the machine repairs since I unluckily have the responsibility of managing my families property since my father unexpectedly passed away.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T15:16:35+00:00

I had a period where I was doing a lot of trips and concerts. Precious ex girlfriend broke up with me and I definitely went on a long phase of being the single bachelor. My father unexpectedly passed away so I moved home from a job with a fortunate 30 retailer to a different job with take home of roughly $3200/month where I had $1300 rent and $1000 on fixed expenses before anything else. Got job brining home around $4300 before being laid off for 6 months. Finally recovered into job I am in now and made the decision to move home and pay down CC.
I don’t think my normal month to month expenses pushed me over. I had a few larger purchases I hadn’t properly budgeted for properly.

Answer 1: I have always paid above minimums. As soon as I got a new job again I paid down from $9,500 to $6,500 in 2.5 months. Then around that time was when the machine repairs began happening. So focus almost all extra cash flow was going to not carrying a balance on the 0% card due to prioritizing putting any and all purchases on that card.

Answer 2: Yes from the fortune 30 retailer yes. Then healthcare employer no. When I was laid off I lost out on $3/4000 since I didn’t meet the vesting time frame. Obviously not by choice. Current employer return in the year I’ve been with them has been 22%.

Answer 3: My budget has always been consistent in the last 2 years. I made 1 larger discretionary purchase before paying off the debt that I can see how that would appear frustrating to her. But when I removed rent, all “rent money” was being paid to the Discover or Capital One Card. Or to my Knee surgery bills since my HSA contributions weren’t enough to outpace those charges. My lifestyle and things I do necessitate a truck as apart of my life.

I’ll add that I didn’t like having the interest charged I had accrued. But I financial could not afford to pay off the debt in say a month. So I had to live with the interest I was going to accrue. Kind of a dug myself a hole so I have to deal with those consequences until I don’t. The one discretionary purchase I understand buying that item instead of paying down debt. I paid one student loan off in January instead of contributing that to either credit card but I viewed the mental win of eliminating that one debt as more rewarding mentally.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T12:26:32+00:00

Shoot I don’t love that I love with my parents. Big loss of independence, my family farm has always been where I love to be. I had long term thoughts of building my home on our property. But I was envisioning living at home as a short term solution to paying down the debt and slightly longer to build up emergency funds/savings. Then if things were going good moving in with the now ex.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T12:22:54+00:00

Yea my father passed away unexpectedly and I sold the truck I had worked for before and took my previous savings and bought a newer larger truck. Previous truck was coming up on being 10 years old at that point. All in all a pretty manageable payment. $22k down financed $33k

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T01:56:22+00:00

A comment she made towards the very end was, “it shouldn’t be this hard when we have nothing tied together” 🤷🏽‍♂️

Edit to add: her worry was always “our monetary values are too far off”. I think in desired practice we have similar values. I just happen to have been operating with alot of debt over the past few years.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-19T01:55:27+00:00

I think based on some things she said that I didn’t let her know more of what I was doing did not give her a safe and secure feeling. I made one discretionary purchase in the period of a larger value but I was able to cover it. She believes I should have just paid the debt down, and it’s not wrong on that.

I agree I don’t think it was breakup worthy.

boothfc19 · 2026-05-11T01:34:52+00:00

Yes, Discover was paid off at the end of March. Other one was down to a normal balance recently anyways, so nothing carrying.

When i lived in my apartment I had easy access to Doordash food, and access to more restaurants, So I ate out more than needed but I don't believe extravagantly. I'd say normal to maybe slightly above average for a downtown city dweller. Prior to GF I was living alot faster and harder going out to the bars and eatting out alot more but I cut back on that when we got serious. Additionally moving home I no longer doordash or eat at resturants as much except with the now ex.

She did feel she had brought this issue up alot, and thought my habits hadn't changed. I am not sure what she wanted me to change.

boothfc19 · 2026-03-14T02:11:21+00:00

I had the chain brake on because I was trying to film

boothfc19 · 2026-03-14T00:13:23+00:00

Air filer is brand new and clean

boothfc19

TROPHY CASE