If y'all have this much in savings, buy some Spiders or something--or pay down your credit card balances. Savings accounts are useless.

i agree. i told my wife that we would not open a savings account until the credit card was completely paid off. makes no sense to have a savings while you are carrying debt.

now that our CC is paid off, i don't think the savings account is useless at all. we both have 401K's, so i really don't feel like tying up more money that we won't be able to touch for 30 years with an IRA or anything....

what is "Spiders"?

S&P Depository Receipts. Vanguard calls theirs "Vipers". It's like stock, but for the entire index. You get the diversification of a mutual fund without any of the fees or admin hassles. You can trade Spiders, etc. like you would any stock.

Description here.

With credit card debt, yeah, there's not much of a point in putting a lot into savings. That said, I'm a believer in keeping at least a month or two worth of expenses stashed away. And at least with ING or HSBC you're getting some kind of return. And it isn't tied up or at risk of losing value.

If it's rainy day money, there are better places to park it than a savings account. Treasuries will get you close to 5% RISK FREE, corporate bonds'll get you a couple points more. Bonds are liquid, so there's no issue getting your money out should you need it.

Grad school has made a debtor out of me as well...thank god for loan consolidations

http://www2.oprah.com/money/debtdiet/mo ... main.jhtml

You can check bank interest rates here:
http://www.money-rates.com/

You can check money market mutual fund yields here (click links under 'top retail funds'):
http://www.imoneynet.com/retailMMF.htm

this thread scares the shit out of me. i just thank the lord every day that i'm not in a position like this yet. after grad school, yeah...but for now i just cruise along. capitalism blows.

so........drum roll .......... the big 4-digit credit card balance is PAID OFF! sent an e-check friday. there's still a balance on the wife's card, but that's in the couple-hundreds and will be paid once the bill comes in. (at one point we were over 4 grand around late-july 2005.)

joy to the farking world!

so my music budget should face minor expansion. i'll probably allow myself 1 cd a month as opposed to 1 a season. and this also means i'll have the means to go to lolla this year.

seriously, that's great news - the rare "got myself out o' debt" success story. you should celebrate by buying something really expensive with your credit card...um, or maybe just a nice dinner out with the mrs.

seriously, congrats. nice work.

we celebrated our anniversary friday night. went to a fancy fondue place. was very tasty.

I've got to the stage now where I'm never going to be able to pay off my debts so I'm just going drift along until I max out all my borrowing avenues and then use my outdoorsman skills to live as a fugitive in the Trossachs.

Well done, Rockey. I am a financial retard, as evidenced by the fact that the only thing lower than my SAT score is my credit score. I envy your madd sk1llz.

i recently killed my high interest 3K debt
it took me over two years... and i probably only really bought 2 grand worth of stuff... and probably paid close to 10 for it all... didn't really make any progress on it until i started transferring the balances... what a waste

it feels good to not overdraw with every single rent check

now i just have about 20K of student loans ... and im hoping to go back to school to add to that pile

I wish I knew any other way to live.

Congrats. Doesn't sound like it was easy, but that's got to make it feel all the more satisfying.

No debt here, but I've got to do some restructuring; put some savings into liquid investments so the money's working harder.

I like this stuff, but it's still pretty mystifying and intimidating at the same time. Live and learn, I guess.

we actually used some home equity to pay off the credit cards. they really are the devil.

Where the fuck did you rack up 20k? I thought you worked and collected some decent scratch on unemployment.

Shit, I had $20k from undergrad. (Not knowing Cats' specifics, but) it's easy to do. Luckily I managed to get 3/4 of the grad degree for free, so I should walk outta here with maybe $11k in loan debt. Except this degree actually gets me a job.

ive racked up 75k in law school debt plus my wife has around 35 in grad school loans. AWESOME

i'm giving up sex, excercise, and happiness

$130K in school loans here---gotta love Sally May.

credit cards are the worst. got mine in college, and at one point had a cc balance of like $12K. unreal. today the balance is a measly $142 and i havent used it since june of last year. the only thing that is currently charged on it is a $20/month netflix bill.

Gold star for....................you.







Seriously, nice work.