Posted on January 26, 2009 at 7:50 am  Everyone on here who has heavy credit card debt knows the burden.  And by heavy I mean between $10,000 and $20,000 dollars. You make the required monthly minimum payment and it only makes a dent in the principle and the rest goes to interest. Plus it’s going to take years to pay off the credit card. In the meantime the credit card issuer is making a profit off you each month while you carry the monthly the burden of the debt. And the monthly payment is squeezing your household budget because you have other things to pay for like a mortgage, car payment, utilities etc. And you could be using that monthly payment elsewhere - for instance you could be investing it or saving that money for a planned vacation, your children’s education or for buying useful things for you and your family. I constantly put off buying things I need for my house because the money I could be spending on my house or family- is going to the credit card company instead. I’m growing tired of the debt and know I could be doing much better financially and feeling a whole lot better, if that debt was erased tomorrow. And I want to take control of my life and my financial future. So I am considering pulling money out of my IRA to pay off the credit card debt. Yes I am aware of the penalties and yes I know the “experts” say don’t do it. But the “experts” are not living my life day to day. And if I was suddenly unemployed tomorrow, I would rather have no debts to deal with as opposed to having the debt while trying looking for work and trying to live on unemployment. And the money spent on that previous monthly credit card debt can now be used towards investment and I still have time to recover from the loss the of the IRA money. So would you sacrifice an investment such as an IRA or mutual fund or money market to pay of your credit card?   To me it comes down to personal choice, not what the experts think.

Posted on January 26, 2009 at 11:04 am James,Could you explain what debt reversal is?  Please elaborate.Thanks

Posted on January 26, 2009 at 9:47 pm I recently made this difficult decision. I had $1500 sitting in a fairly nice interest bearing account (3.5%). I had a credit card with a $2100 balance and a 14% interest rate. I kept getting this gut-wrenching feeling because, although my savings account made me feel like I had a little bit of a cushion, I knew I was losing money every day to the credit card company. So, I pulled the money out of savings and threw it all at the credit card. Now I only have a couple hundred dollars left until it's totally paid off. The way I look at it is, I can now take the monthly payments that were going toward that credit card and put that into savings. This time, I will be gaining money!Nevertheless, I think it's a personal and difficult decision where one needs to take in all aspects of one's current and future expenses before pulling money out of savings or investments in order to pay off debt.

Posted on January 27, 2009 at 12:52 pm debt reversal is a concept you may wish to investigate before you pull any $$$ out of  your IRA or other retirement/investment accounts. Simply put the term debt reversal into a search engine and voila, you'll be taken to several sites that do a good job in explaining it. If this doesn't work for you, you may want to try a real strict budgeting approach. That is better than depleting a retirement account, at least in my opinion.

Posted on March 28, 2009 at 1:07 pm Gone off my head can't be understadable

Posted on March 28, 2009 at 2:05 pm I have been managing to pay the minimum every month. And whenever I can manage a bit extra, I prompty pay the credit card to bring it down. Back in my home country I have made some investments but with the markets down, I am in too much of a loss to sell them. Will wait and watch and if i get even hte cost price I will sell it to oay off more of the credit card.

Posted on March 29, 2009 at 3:50 am If the investment is going to pay all the debts and I'll be free from any credit cards debts, I will go for it. But if it's going to give me a relief for some time only, then I'll never touch it and keep paying every month the minimum. I totally understand you and I feel the same. As feeling that you are out of debt is the ultimate happiness.

Posted on March 29, 2009 at 4:34 am The interest you have to pay on a credit card will always be much higher than you can earn in interest from an investment, unless you take advantage of a 0% balance transer offer to transfer your debt to another credit card. It is always better to try and clear a debt before investing, but sometimes it is necessary to keep some money saved for emergencies and for future use. Then you should try to pay off more than just the minimum each month and keep your money safe in a secure investment.

Posted on March 29, 2009 at 1:11 pm of course i will sarcifice a part of my money earned to pay a credit card because i need it it's necesserity

Posted on March 29, 2009 at 6:48 pm now i want to start my business on a website ! there i present my staff and other people buy from there! it is a easy way to invest money on internet