[Josh Johnson – Ambassador]

Going into the new year it was a goal of mine to consolidate debt and work to pay off my credit cards one at a time. I’m down to three with balances, two of which are my travel cards which I use every month to book travel from flights to hotels and cars so their balances will always be coming and going. The third though.. one that I’ve been attempting to pay off for years now because I got myself in a little over my head when I made that initial jump into self employed life. I’ve been carrying a balance on that one for far too long now, and I know it’s definitely impacting my credit score!

Working hard on picking up extra clients and jobs though in order to get enough revenue in to pay off credit cards and focus on using them wisely in the future, to book travel and gets points/miles, and starting to feel so much better as I see a light at the end of the tunnel! Anybody else struggle with this? I know I can’t be the only one.

[Sum180 Lead Coach]

You are far from the only one, Josh. Congratulations on this effort! Like many other Sum180 users, you will be amazed at how much money you will save even in the short run by paying off your credit cards. Double and triple up on payments if you can. The key is also what happens next.: 1) go down to two credit cards and keep a zero balance every month; and 2) start socking the amounts you previously were using to pay the old cards in a separate savings account that totals 3-4 months of your monthly expenses. With that cushion, you’ll be able to avoid putting surprise expenses on credit cards in the future. Half the country keeps no balances on their credit cards so you can join that club from here on out.