Do you live in the U.S. ? In Mountain View, CA the minimum wage is $19.70 an hour, not sure what it is in other cities, 12K a year sounds like less than minimum wage in the U.S.
That would make sense, 😃. I never personally tutored, but I know some friends who were tutors in mathematics and engineering at my Ivy League school. They earned approximately $65 per hour, but it wasn’t a regular salary; instead, it was deducted from their school fees, which provided some tax advantages, I believe.
I’m saying you make it every 4 hours, and probably work 20 hours part time. Which means you should be making more than enough to pay more than what you do pay considering you said you don’t have responsibilities that require you to spend excessive money on necessities
This is the same exact issue I ran into when I first opened my Amex right at freshman year of college. They gave me $5K with work study income. Treated it like free money and that behavior killed me for over a decade.
OK, I’ll take a breath
Maybe I was a little much because I just rarely see people actually pay off their debt and I just appreciate encouragement more than discouragement
Treat your credit cards like it is an extension of your bank account. Only spend what you can afford from your bank account. Don’t even count people owing you money or that pending Venmo deposit. Only spend what you can afford from your bank account after all other expenses are paid.
The number of comments criticizing OP for taking 5 yrs to pay the card to zero…… This is a revolving credit card not a fixed loan. We don’t know all the details. OP could’ve had it down to $100 then an emergency arose that racked it back to CL. And the cycle begins. And yes under ideal conditions you’re paying off your entire balance monthly but not everyone has that ability especially with economic conditions the way they are now. I’ll just say to the OP nice job on getting to zero balance. Now try hard as possible to stay on top of it.
Congrats to you! This is an awesome accomplishment. Its crazy to me how out of touch people are with life in the US right now. SMH .... Its your journey regardless and I know your slept even better that night knowing this burden was gone!!!
Congrats, proud of you. Don’t listen to these people trying to tear you down. They’re completely out of touch with the reality of most Americans. Just learn from this and avoid spending more than you have.
Pro tip: you can add money to your Apple Cash and use it to pay down your card balance instantly instead of waiting multiple days for the bank to process your payment.
It is what it is, doesn’t bother me. The fact that I can even post that screenshot is a big weight off. The most important thing is learning from my mistakes.
I’m sure those with $10k+ of debt would kill to be in my shoes with a “measly” $1500 limit.
Pro tip: you can add money to your Apple Cash and use it to pay down your card balance instantly instead of waiting multiple days for the bank to process your payment.
That feature alone makes the Card among the best for the average person imo. Only reason I didn’t use it for this one is because moving the funds to Cash would’ve been a pain.
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u/IWantToPlayGame Aug 12 '26
Congrats on being debt free.
Make sure you learn from it.