The expenses never seem to end. But neither does my determination to lower my credit card balance and eventually make it
disappear completely (balance of ZERO dollars!)
It has been a big struggle to keep our-myself and my wife-credit card balance under control. Just when you thought you have made some progress, comes a wedding or an emergency and you end up putting some or all of the expenses on the credit card. But the more unexpected expenses I get, which raise our balance back up, the more determined I get to bring it back down. It is easy to get discouraged when you are fighting what seems to be a losing battle at time, but it is important to stay focused and resolved.
In other words, instead of taking one step forward and two backward, I want to reverse that and take at least two steps forward and one backward.
Beside being determined and focused, it is also important to have a clear plan and timeline on how to lower or eliminate your credit card debt. Simply wanting to is not enough, especially not when your balance is in the thousands. My own balance, at least when compared to others, is not that big. It is currently sitting at around $3,600. But I don’t like to compare myself to others and give myself a false sense of hope. Just because my friend or cousin has a $20,000 credit card balance doesn’t mean I should feel good about myself for having only $3600 in credit card debt. Such comparisons may be helpful in making some broad generalizations but shouldn’t be used to judge how your situation is. It also works the other way. No need to compare your $20,000 credit card debt to someone else who only has $3,500 in debt or any other amount that is much smaller. It will just make you feel discouraged.
As long as you have a plan, a timeline and a strong determination to win, you should be able to win the battle against your credit card.
And last but not least, I noticed we have developed a pattern that is not very helpful in paying off our credit card balance. Basically, we are more worried about how much room we have left in our CC than what the balance is. In other words, as long as the available credit is enough to get us by or help us make that important purchase, then that all that matters, regardless of how big our balance is. This is a very dangerous way of thinking about your credit card.