Since the economy is so bad should I hold off on paying off my CC debt?

[AccountAnalyzer]

Warning-- harsh words follow:

In earlier threads here, you have described spending $205 a month on cable TV while at the same time not paying your utility bills, yet hoping to build an emergency fund to several thousand dollars. Saving was your justification for not paying your bills. You described running up nearly $10,000 in credit card debit and walking away from it, waiting 7 or 8 years until someone would finally give you a new credit card. My impression is that you do not want to be a responsible man and pay for the things you take, you only want to use your cash to pay for things that you cannot get with credit ---credit whose responsibility for payment you are happy to walk away from. I think you prefer to walk away from your bills whenever possible. Even if we gave you "permission" here to put your earnings into that supposed emergency fund, I sincerely doubt that you would ever use the money to pay fully the bills you rack up. To you, isn't an emergency fund what you use to have a little fun, to go on dates, to buy DVDs and CDs? --as you described in previous threads. I wish simply telling you to grow up could make you do so.

Yes, the EF account is for unexpected Entertainment opportunities also so what is wrong with that?

[disneysteve]

A person just posted a similar thread and he was told to SAVE MONEY now and attack his CC debt later due to the ecomony. So why am I not being given the same advice?

I posted a response to you on the other thread but I'll post it here as well.

Your situation isn't similar at all. You have a $1,000 EF, a tiny amount of debt and the means to pay it off within 2 months without touching your savings at all.

That poster has $69,000 in debt, zero savings and only has $800/month free after paying his bills. It would take him more than 7 years to pay off his debts even if he put the full $800 toward them.

I'm not sure how you are seeing the two as similar.

[Seeker]

DisneySteve...

He's seeing the other posting as similar because he's not been entirely truthful about his current debt situation. In his past posting there's mention of 8K (maybe 10k) CC debt that he's not been contacted about in seven years.


AccountAnalyzer...

You are $790 in debt with American Express (in March you were $661 in debt with the same card). You pay interest charges to "hold this debt and not pay it off." You also pay $30 per year that you hold this American Express card. So at minimum you are paying $30 + monthly interest charges without even touching your balance.

You're 32 years old and still have not posted a budget; you allow "fun" to control your spending (if this "worry" can qualify as "fun"). You're worried about your job and the economy; you're worried about being able to use your AE card in the future...

American Express is still expecting earnings on their shares; all companies are going to be touched by the housing situation, but AE's situation is more dependant on people's financial habits than on the buying or selling of loans. AE likes you... they make more money on you than they risk.

The below link suggests that AE still expects a growth of 8-10% this year (this growth rate is lower than previous years, but still a growth):
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/american-express-says-credit-crunch/story.aspx?guid={19E5D27E-F206-4DA6-8EDE-53A09EAE9B13}
They are not going anywhere; they'll still be there to "help" take your money.

[iwebgo]

I think you should always thrive to be debt free. Keep it simple.

[rizzmo]

Yes, the EF account is for unexpected Entertainment opportunities also so what is wrong with that?

While it seems laborious to define an emergency fund (EF), as the connotative meaning of emergency especially given the overall context of this forum renders it self-explanatory, it seems called for in this instance.

Emergency - an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action

Fund - a sum of money or other resources whose principal or interest is set apart for a specific objective.

The literal definition does allow for some laterality in the terms functional use. Let us use an unforeseen invitation from a friend to go to a rock concert next week as our example. Taken in a strictly literal sense the example would qualify as an emergency thus lending credence to the use of the funds set aside for emergent events; however the connotative meaning of emergency is so overwhelming proliferated amongst the world’s population it would seem unfathomable that a person could misinterpret the words application as such. This senselessness is exacerbated when one fails to acknowledge the relentless assult of contextual clues surrounding the words usage.

So let us now create a manifest definition for emergency fund (EF) that is taking into account the totality of the concept.

Emergency Fund: a sum of money, whose principal is set apart, for the specific objective of paying for unforeseen events or circumstances that unabated, would bring financial hardship upon the owner(s) of said fund.

With this new clarity of meaning one can see events such as a sudden invitation to a rock concert would not qualify for use of the funds, nor would a shiny new iPod or the paradoxical needed vacation.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Rizzmo! Ha-ha-ha-ha!

[tripods68]

Rizzmo...that's classic posting LOL! Hahaha.

[cptacek]

While it seems laborious to define an emergency fund (EF), as the connotative meaning of emergency especially given the overall context of this forum renders it self-explanatory, it seems called for in this instance.

Emergency - an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action

Fund - a sum of money or other resources whose principal or interest is set apart for a specific objective.

The literal definition does allow for some laterality in the terms functional use. Let us use an unforeseen invitation from a friend to go to a rock concert next week as our example. Taken in a strictly literal sense the example would qualify as an emergency thus lending credence to the use of the funds set aside for emergent events; however the connotative meaning of emergency is so overwhelming proliferated amongst the world’s population it would seem unfathomable that a person could misinterpret the words application as such. This senselessness is exacerbated when one fails to acknowledge the relentless assult of contextual clues surrounding the words usage.

So let us now create a manifest definition for emergency fund (EF) that is taking into account the totality of the concept.

Emergency Fund: a sum of money, whose principal is set apart, for the specific objective of paying for unforeseen events or circumstances that unabated, would bring financial hardship upon the owner(s) of said fund.

With this new clarity of meaning one can see events such as a sudden invitation to a rock concert would not qualify for use of the funds, nor would a shiny new iPod or the paradoxical needed vacation.

Awesome