Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights aren’t Brooklyn anymore. 
As you have said, this may work better emotionally (and for building debt-avoidance habits in the long-term) for someone who has a problem with getting into debt. What Otto and Dangerosa are saying is that it is fact more economical to use every cent to pay off the debt. If an emergency arises, sure, you may have to temporarily add to that debt because you have no cash, but you are still financially better off doing this than saving up for it beforehand. So both sides are correct in different ways.
The vast majority of Americans do not pay off their credit cards in full on a monthly basis or keep them only for “emergencies.” I would submit that someone who racks up $100,000 in credit card debt falls into this category.
YMMV. I was much more responsible with credit cards than my husband, but I’ll be damned if I’ll ever use one again.
Jesus. Did I not say I WASN’T looking at Craigslist?
I know SF pretty well; my best friend has lived in the area for ten years, I’ve been all over town, I have customers there. I’m looking at listings for decent apartments RIGHT NOW for $1600-$1800. They’re not huge places, but they’re quite serviceable.
Everyone already knows about Brooklyn.
Probably the best thing you can do to avoid credit card debt is to transfer your balance to a 0% interest for one year promotional card. That’s what I did a few years back when I was laid off. I still had to watch my spending, but I wanted to have as much cash as possible until I found a new job.
Also, get Quicken and Microsoft Money. It helps to know where you spend your money.
My friend is really good with money, and uses a credit card which gives him money back (Discovery? It’s been a number of years since we had that discussion, and I don’t know if they still do this). He’s really good with money, though, and keeps track of every purchase in Quicken.
Me, I used to no keep track of my purchases, so I would never use cards. I would use cash, which is easy in Japan with ATMs everywhere, and with my bank I wouldn’t be charged an ATM fee.
While I didn’t pay that much attention to what I was spending on, each time I withdrew cash I knew how much money I had left, and could adjust accordingly.
Now that it’s two of us, we’re tracking our spending, saving and investments as well.
Brooklyn is a big place, and even in the expensive areas it’s still a good 30% less than Manhattan. Brooklyn and Park Slope are close to Manhattan prices as is DUMBO. Even Williamsburg is still cheaper than the East Village. I pay $ 2450 a month in Bed-Stuy, takes about half an hour to Union Square or 20 minutes to Broadway Nassau. My place however, is about 2000 square feet. This neighborhood is developing at a mind-boggling rate. Sunset Park is probably the closest place to the city that hasn’t fully developed yet. Bed-Stuy is just after it. Right now is the time to move to either place if you’re afraid to be a pioneer but still want to save some cash. Ridgewood Queens is less than half an hour to Union Square and is pretty nice. Astoria and Long Island City ahve gotten expensive, but Forest Hill ain’t too bad. Jackson Heights is one of the coolest neighborhoods in the entire city. Roosevelt Avenue is the most diverse street there is. It’s not too expensive.
You know where people who have no money live when they live in big expensive cities? Shitholes. Living in a “nice neighborhood” is no longer something she can afford. There are few neighborhoods in SF where it is genuinely unsafe to live- maybe the deep Tenderloin, swathes of South San Francisco, and really sketchy parts of the Mission. Other than that you’ll want to put bars up, might see some homeless people now and then, and might not want to walk home alone drunk at four AM, but you will be generally safe. Yeah, you might catch a whiff of urine now and then. Welcome to the life of someone who is not rolling in dough! Living in the best part of town is not some sort of right!
You can have two out of three- a nice neighborhood, cheap rent, or a short commute. Since she’s got to find cheap rent, she’s gotta figure out what she’s going to sacrifice. Hundreds of millions of people- the 93% of American households making less than 100K a year- do it every day.
Fastest way to get the limit in your cards raised:
- spend an amount close to the limit,
- stop at the ATM on the way home from the store and transfer the full payment,
- receive a letter from the credit company multiplying your limit by three.
Or at least it seemed to be, when I was in the US. Note that I didn’t pay a cent of interest at any time, since the debt had existed for hours.
My apologies, I did not check to see if anyone gave you this link: Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom
It rang a bell because of this phrase:
I don’t know any more about than what the reviews say - but it gets 4 1/2 stars. I hope it helps.
Do you have an update for us on this?
The best solution? She needs to live like she’s only making $50k and then put every bit of the remainder into paying off the credit cards. Do that for a couple years + and she should be good.
Move to the East bay and take BART to work… it could cut the rent in half.
Yes but buying all your stuff every two years due to the break-ins gets expensive after a while.
Hey, you’re just as funny as all those people who said “Don’t get shot he he he” when I moved to Oakland!