the first.

dos

the first.

July 2016

Debt Check – 13%

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In 2013, I enrolled in American University for grad school. During my tenure, I had accumulated about $24,000 in student loans because I wanted to be done by 2015. MISTAKE # 1. My job was perfectly fine with paying for the program in full if I conceded to finishing in four years instead of two. But, I just HAD to finish in two years because _________. Yea I still don’t know why.

The Break Down:

~ 5,000 in revolving credit card debt (luckily my credit score got me a promo rate of 0% interest for this).

~19,000 in pure Sallie Mae student loans (blech!).

First up: the 5,000 revolving credit. I’m pretty sure that this was originally about $11,000 but I’m not going back to verify. All I know was that at the beginning of 2016, this was the remaining balance. I basically played hot potato with these credit card companies for about a year and a half before I got rid of this one. Started with Company A with their promo rate… then did a balance transfer to Company B and made sure to compensate for that balance transfer fee by only choosing cards with a “cash bonus” for signing up. Then after that promo rate was done, I went back to Company A and repeated the process.

I’ll give you an example. (WARNING…. math problem.)

Company A: 0% Interest on balance transfers and purchases for 21 months.

Consumer: Pssft! DONE AND DONE. Proceed to rack up charges on this card. 21 months later…. Holy crap…. I am NOT trying to pay 25% interest on this card… Balance transfer!

Company B: 0% Interest for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers. PLUS $150 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. (but read that fine print…. “the balance transfer fee is either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.”)

So just follow me here…. Car insurance is pretty much obligatory if you own a car. Prepaying it doesn’t penalize you in anyway. So if you prepaid exactly $500 of your car insurance using Company B’s new card. Boom. There’s your $150 cash bonus. So how much can you transfer over and “offset” that cash bonus with? In other words, what is the magic transferred amount that has a $150 balance transfer fee attached? The answer…. $5,000.

Why? Because 5,000 x 3% (transfer fee) = 150.

So now Company A is “paid off” because you transferred the money from there once that promotional rate ended. And technically you DIDN’T pay the balance transfer fee because the cash bonus covered that. Now the 0% Interest clock starts all over with Company B.

Rinse….Repeat…

Folks, don’t do this. Just don’t. This skill level is NOT for your average consumer. Hell, I BARELY got out unscathed.

So I can’t begin to tell you how AMAZING it felt to pay off this debt FOR GOOD.

It felt like I took on the Credit Card Companies and WON. Like finding $25 in the dryer when you don’t get paid for another WEEK! Like realizing it’s 5:00p.m. on a Friday. And most of all, like I could eat whatever I wanted and still have an unbelievable physique (Teyana Taylor…I’m looking at YOU).

Yea… All that. So stick with me ya’ll. Hold me accountable. Live vicariously through me if you want too.