PERSONAL FINANCE | ADVICE Jamie Feldman, 35, lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently paying off nearly $20,000 in credit-card debt. She's also the co-host of the "Debt Heads" podcast. After being laid of fduring the COVID-19 pandemic, she maxed out a credit card while spending to keep up with her social life.
"It was a lot of social commitments," Feldman explains. "A lot of weddings, a lot of expensive dinners in New York with friends who were making more money than me, a lot of inability to say no to things even if I couldn't afford them or didn't want to do them." She thought of her debt as something she would deal with later — until later came, and she was in over her head in interest charges and minimum payments.
Feldman made a decision to stop shopping and dining out for one month to see how it affected her budget. "Unsurprisingly, it made a huge difference," she says. "It was the first time I was really looking at my finances and seeing where my money was going, what I was spending it on and what I was bringing in.
" Feldman isn't the only one who's swiped a credit card to keep up with the Joneses. According to a recent Bankrate survey, more than 2 in 5 (44%) credit-card holders carry a balance from month to month. And 38% of people say they would go into debt for a fun purchase — such as travel, dining out or live entertainment — this year, according to Bankrate's Discretionary Spending Survey.
If you're maxing out your budgets on "wants," not "needs," it mi.