Be honest - How many of you pay your complete credit card balance off each month?

[Anonymous]

Always pay it off in full every month. Never carried a balance in my life, never will. I put nearly everything on my card for rewards points and pay it off completely each month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems that this is a bragging thread. Only one person claims to NOT pay off their cards in full every month? I call shenanigans.

We do our best not to have to use credit cards, but it sometimes happens. Like 2 emergency vet visits in one month that we couldn't just cover out of cash flow. Shit happens.

I pay as much as we can monthly, but sometimes unexpected expenses come up that are not budgeted for that you can't just say "we just can't afford it and won't pay it" (imagine telling the vet or the car repair shop that you aren't going to pay - HA!) and not everyone has emergency funds that cover such things.

Yes, unexpected expenses come up, and that is why I have a "Life Happens" fund. That's what you are missing. It's around $5K or so and it's there for big things that "happen" like a new HVAC system, or a big vet bill, or car repair, or anything that I know will happen eventually. And I sometimes dip into it if my credit card bill that month is a little high (because 99% of the time, if my credit card bill is higher than normal, it's because I've had a "life happens" expense that month). But I always make sure there is about 5K there for those "unexpected" expenses.

I think this is a key attitude that's critical to good financial management: These aren't "unexpected" expenses -- they are inevitable. So because they will happen eventually, I always make sure to have money to cover them.

And my emergency fund is separate -- that's for dire situations like being jobless. I try to keep 6-8 months of living expenses in that fund.