Forty-seven percent of you have credit card debt, and another 12 percent of you are almost finished paying off your balances — keep plugging away! It's common to lose momentum in becoming financially healthy once you are rid of debt; enjoy the feeling of having a huge weight lifted from your shoulders, but avoid the temptation to relax your rein on spending.
Hopefully you were able to put some money aside while paying off your credit cards, but when you're done with your debt, turn your main focus to saving and building an emergency fund. Replace the spot in your budget for debt repayment with deposits to your savings account. It will be satisfying to make those monthly transfers and watch your own account grow, rather than remitting your plus-interest payments to the credit card companies.
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when I was younger I would get into a little debt, pay it off and the "celebrate" by buying something expensive which would inevitably put me back in debt. How silly is that? Much better these days though. My husband and I are extremely proud that we've saved up 3 months worth of expenses and in this economy, I sleep better at night knowing its there!
1Instead of paying off debt, put the same amount you were paying for bills to work in a high yield savings account. The site http://www.smartypig.com helps you save up while earning a 3.9 APY, one of the highest in the market.
2I just paid a few hundred extra dollars to my CC's to bring the total down. It feels so good to see low numbers! I've still got another year and a half on my car, and we're buying a house in 2 weeks but I'm really building up my credit which is awesome.
3I've got to start a money market account now that I have a lot of money just sort of sitting in my checking account. We don't have any real debt, just our mortgage payment and our student loans. The rest of our expenditures are monthly things like groceries, cell phone bill, cable/internet, gas, etc. We try to sock away quite a bit for retirement, which is also important...what with Social Security being in the crapper, it's going to be very important for individuals to be saving for their own retirements.
4I am now debt free!!! I paid it all of last week. YAY!!!! Of course I just had major car problems - and a new bill that was very large. I plan to pay that right off though. After I deal with the bill I plan to start saving as much as a I can.
5Who wants to sit on a ton of cash? I always say cash has no value unless its intent on being spent. Become a venture capitalist, invest it, open up a restaurant, find a hobby, reward yourself for being so profitable.
6i will jump for joy as soon as i have paid off all my debt. i think that it will be really nice to take those payments and just put them into investments or savings or other smart places so i can hopefully not live out of a box when i get older.
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