That was in addition to the $20,000 in credit card debt spread across four credit cards. Once Hudak forced herself to start paying down her credit card debt, she made a spreadsheet listing all of her outstanding balances, due dates, and interest rates - including $209,000 in student loans, and another $10,000 loan that she forgot about. Ignoring your balances and continuing the spending habits that led to credit card debt will only exacerbate a cycle of debt and overspending. Identifying what got you into debt in the first place can help you pin down what lifestyle changes to make so you don’t repeat the mistake in the future. Based on her own experience, Hudak recommends that you start by looking at all of your balances to see how much you owe in total. Once she forced herself to stop turning a blind eye toward her spending and credit card accounts, Hudak says facing the debt was the hardest part. Now, she’s working toward becoming completely (and permanently) debt-free, and sharing her advice for anyone just starting to pay down debt: Figure Out Your Total Debt Balance Though Hudak was able to pay down the $20,000 she owed from her time in college, the unexpected costs of a cross-country move set her back and left her with another $10,000 in new credit card debt.
“When I saw the total, that’s when it really hit me because before, all the smaller balances spread across different cards and different accounts that I wasn’t even checking frequently,” says Hudak. When she saw how much she owed, she knew it was time to get serious about paying it off. But when Hudak graduated, she finally took a detailed inventory of her total debt balance that she knew she had to pay back. She avoided looking at how much she was spending and relied on her credit cards to cover living expenses to finish college. When she did pay, she would sometimes pay less than the card’s minimum monthly payment - a practice which can quickly lead to high-interest debts and fees. The first time her credit card debt built up, the 25-year-old YouTube creator and Disney product manager from Oregon says she didn’t track her spending or pay attention to her balances each month. But she landed back in debt when her emergency fund wasn’t enough to cover the expense of a cross-country move. After graduation, she aggressively paid off her debt in less than a year.
She had four credit cards and $20,000 in credit card debt in the span of a year. Initially, she fell into credit card debt covering everyday expenses in college to make ends meet. For more information, see How We Make Money.Īnnika Hudak knows how easy it is accrue a load of credit card debt, and how hard it is to pay it off. Some links on this page - clearly marked - may take you to a partner website and may result in us earning a referral commission.
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