#credit-card-debt

#credit-card-debt

To judge the burden of overuse of the plastic cards powering your wallet, the number of days of work required to pay off common outstanding credit card debts was calculated. This math says that a typical Californian card balance is equivalent to eight days' worth of the average wage. That ties Connecticut for the fourth-lowest burden among the states. Californians' credit card debt is also below the median 9.9-day burden across 50 states. Only New York (6.3 days), Massachusetts (6.8), and Washington state (7.9) were better.

You're not in a terrible position, with one small caveat: You should have something of an emergency fund, or you may end up dependent on others if something unexpected happens. This doesn't have to be anything extraordinary. Most Americans would have trouble covering a surprise $1,000 expense if they had to, and it sounds like you're not in that boat. A month's worth of expenses would be a minimum, and three months' would be ideal.

We have several credit cards, and one thought was that we could pay the largest one off and ask that credit card company for a balance transfer offer, to bring the balances on some of the other cards over. Is that still a thing? Our credit ratings aren't great, so applying for new cards is not an option. Is this a stupid idea?

People can feel a lot of shame about being in credit card debt. They think it means they're bad with money. That it's something to avoid, or a burden they can never pay off. But for financial educator Rita-Soledad Fernandez Paulino, founder of Wealth Para Todos, we should simply see debt for what it is. "It's just what we use when we don't have access to cash reserves." And unfortunately, our assumptions and emotions around debt can prevent us from managing our money with confidence,

I want a divorce, but I am broke! Pretty much literally. I just have a bunch of credit card debt that my entire paycheck goes to, and a small savings that we're currently depleting for marriage counseling. I would gladly just give all that cash to my partner for first and last on a separate apartment. We don't share any of our debt, except for the condo and a car,