conversation: User (soupahdoopah): "I grew up in a financially illiterate household and learned the hard way about how NOT to utilize credit cards. \n\nMy monthly income comes to approximately $4k (after taxes, ESPP, 401k, etc).\n\nMy core monthly expenses are my mortgage and utilities ($1.3k), car insurance ($230), cell phone ($50), groceries ($200), student loans ($350)\n\nThe only accomplishment I can claim is bringing my student loan debt down from $34k in 2013 to ~$25k currently. But I hate myself for essentially filling that difference in with CC debt. \n\nI've got 2 credit cards and they're killing me and my credit. One is at approximately $7.5k (16%) and the other is at $8k (20%). I throw roughly $800 at the larger interest rate one per month and $500 at the other. \n\nRight now the balance on the $8k should really be $5k, since I've resently put $3k on it for work (waiting on the reimbursement).\n\nIf you just did the math, you probably see that I don't have much wiggle room between monthly income versus expenditure. You're right, I don't. I end up shuffling things around to break even. \n\nGuys, I know I'm an idiot. I've got a good job and a good salary. I don't want to be at the mercy of credit card stress. Please, any guidance you guys have would help me tremendously.\n\nI grew up in a financially illiterate household. I'm the first person in my family to ever make as much as I do now and I do not want to follow in my parents' footsteps by snowballing into credit card debt any more than I have already."
  Self: "Throwing $1,650 at debt isn't anything to sneeze at. \n\nYou could look and see if your bank offers personal loans so you can consolidate your debt with a lower interest rate, but you're throwing $1,300 every month at what is $12,500 of debt. You're doing the best thing possible and you'll get there eventually, you just have to keep working at it."
  