Seeking advice and opinions on current strategies
Hello! To open this up, I am a long-time lurker and first time poster here. For the past year, I have privately pursued my debt free goals learning from the experiences shared here.
Recently, I got a new job taking me from $80K to $120K (annually), allowing me to accelerate the achievements of my goals!
My strategy to this point: I moved everything I could to 0% interest cards, shoved all the cards into a closet, and have targeted putting $1K towards debt monthly (on top of minimums). I also started with an avalanche approach focusing on cards with interest first during the past year.
Today, my remaining CC debt is on 0% interest with months / years till the promotions expire. Additionally my savings is currently at $1K, I have not held more than that for the past year and plan on next building a 6-month emergency fund as my next goal.
My question to the community:
Which of the two (or neither) approaches should I move forward with?
- (A) - Continue current pace of CC payoff with increased contributions
- Potential CC payoff in 3 to 4 months (assuming consistency and no unexpected events)
- (B) - Given 0% interest and promotional timelines: Switch to paying monthly minimums on cards paying off cards as promo expirations approaches in favor of building E-Funds early with incremental income
- Potential E-Funds achievement in 7 months, then pay off remaining balances in 2 to 3 months
Breakout of pending balances and rough monthly spend
Regarding the car - I recently priced out a trade down to something cheaper, but unfortunately the negative equity on a trade in made it not make sense. I am looking into doing a private sale where I could potentially break even on the remaining loan and then hopefully find something cheaper that I could maybe buy outright helping with the plans above.
Also acknowledging that the variable spend portion is a rough estimate "catch all" bucket aggregating gas, grocery, and discretionary. I am not always the most disciplined person with months higher and months lower, but I am confident in that number as an average.
Appreciate any advice or recommendations on this!