Blogging Away Debt

The Debt Blues, Credit Card Emergency Fund, Spending Autobiography, Diamonds and 30s Finance

Another Friday is here and it’s time for a round-up of a few articles that caught my eye this week:

DebtKid shares how he deals with the debt blues.

We’re In Debt is wondering what you were in a tough time financially. Would you use your credit card as an emergency fund?

CleverDude had an interesting article on writing your autobiography through spending. One of my goals in the next few months is to dig up some old credit card receipts and take a look at how we spent money.

If you have bought a diamond in the last 12 years, you may want to check out MyMoneyBlog’s post on diamond class action lawsuit. We only have a small diamond in my engagement ring, and I’m pretty sure I threw out the receipt already.

Lastly, David gives some personal finance advice for your 30s. It’s part of a project for a network that he belongs to, so make sure you scroll to the bottom of the article to read the other entries.

That’s it for this week.Â I’m looking forward to sticking my nose into our finances this weekend to pay some debt or beef up our savings account. So expect some updated numbers shortly 🙂

Are You Paying the Minimum Payment on Your Credit Cards?

by Tricia

Remember how I mentioned a little while ago that I landed a paid writing gig? Well, I used Prosper.com to help me consolidate our debt and not too long ago I was asked if I would like to contribute to their blog. Extra money is nice, and I like Prosper, so I said yes.

My first article was published today and it illustrates what can happen if you choose to pay a fixed payment to your credit cards versus only paying the minimum. It was sobering after looking at the graphs I made because for many years we used to only pay the minimum payment on our cards. I think if I saw the total amount we have paid in finance charges for the past 12 years I would go into shock. I’m sure it’s a lot.

Anyways, there are quite a few great bloggers writing over there, so you might want to check out the Prosper blog. While people-to-people lending is discussed quite a bit, there are also articles about general personal finance.