Current Events > Americans have saddled themselves with credit card debt, many falling behind.

(+) Yeah! (+)

learned what cos and sin mean in high school.

Take out another credit card to pay the debt on the first.

I transferred my existing balance to a new card with balance transfer about a year ago. in 6 months that one starts charging interest, so 3-4 months from now I'll sign up for a new card and transfer my balance to that one. hopefully I'll have it all paid off before that one starts charging interest

I transferred my existing balance to a new card with balance transfer about a year ago. in 6 months that one starts charging interest, so 3-4 months from now I'll sign up for a new card and transfer my balance to that one. hopefully I'll have it all paid off before that one starts charging interest

Atta boy.

I transferred my existing balance to a new card with balance transfer about a year ago. in 6 months that one starts charging interest, so 3-4 months from now I'll sign up for a new card and transfer my balance to that one. hopefully I'll have it all paid off before that one starts charging interest

Ive been chaining 0% APR balance transfers for like four years now lol

Shit just keeps coming up whenever I get close to finally paying it off

People are stupid and set up for failure. Dunno how to do their taxes or budget but learned what cos and sin mean in high school.

most students didn't actually learn even this

Why can't you learn both?

sin cos and tan take like 5 minutes to learn

The whole "didnt learn how to do their taxes in high school" argument is dumb as fuck. All the free to use tax services hold your hand the whole time. Non issue.

my high school didn't even teach you how to balance a check book(people used those back then) unless you took it as an elective.

I'm sure there are tons of schools where it wasn't even an option

What all do you even need to learn? Dont spend money you dont have, pay off your credit card every month. Thats all you need to know. No amount of Home Ec classes can fix stupid

yeah but sometimes life hits like a ton of bricks and you don't have a realistic choice in spending money "you don't have".

Like when I took on a loan to consolidate my credit cards and to have a nice emergency fund at the same time. A loan I would have easily been able to pay off. However, a week later my car died and I wound up having to get a new car. And shortly after that my mom wound up in an out of state hospital and I wound up paying for over an additional weeks worth of a hotel room due to uncertainty of when she'd be released.

So in a less than 30 day span, I went from just $12K in debt to over $60K in debt. While, yes, I could have made more frugally minded decisions (buying a used car outright vs financing new), I had other life factors and considerations influencing my decision.

Not all (credit card) debt people find themselves in is a result of stupidity. Life hits, and life can hit brutally hard. People get caught up in situations where they can't just up and leave because the going got a little rough.

Home Ec was a joke course even back when.

Do people need a course to tell them that it's ideal to spend less than they get in income?

I went from just $12K in debt to over $60K in debt

Yeah, but how is a course going to help that?

Do people need a course to tell them that it's ideal to spend less than they get in income?

Never understood the love for credit cards. For emergencies when you can't afford it and only luxuries when you can afford them. Or online purchases for security and immediately paying it off after.

well my credit cards give me cash back. my debit card charges me money to get my own money out of the wrong ATM

You don't need a dedicated course for teaching finances when you can just point out the power of compound interest in a math class. All of the issues I've heard here, other than unforeseen expenses, are just issues of math. Even for unforeseen expenses, you can teach probabilities and keeping a good buffer for that.

Home Ec was a joke course even back when.

People are stupid and set up for failure. Dunno how to do their taxes or budget but learned what cos and sin mean in high school.

when you can just point out the power of compound interest in a math class

If you're not fortunate enough to live in a area where cost of living is cheap or you can make actual decent money, then no amount of knowledge is going to save you from a rigged hand you've been dealt.

Like...seriously this is making Biden and the whole democracy party look out of touch when they are not even really taking this as a issue and acting like only the rich matter..

Well I'm just kidding a little bit and I sympathize with people who fall into any sort of predatory lending schemes.