Paid $500 off my credit cards today.

It was minimum payments off two of the credit cards, and a bit extra off the third because that was over it’s limit and I still use that one for some small business expenses, I expect I’ll pay another $500 of the credit cards before Christmas but I’m not sure how much I’ll be charging up in the festive season.

Upcoming expenses include a long overdue car service, an interstate trip for a wedding, the usual christmas gift obligations and a hell of a lot of socialising.

The other purchase I seriously need to consider is a self inflating life jacket, I’ve just returned from sailing a very hard race, it was blowing an absolute gale. Though I never felt unsafe, you just had to look out on the water and realise that if anyone went overboard they would be stuffed. I had full wet weather gear on which would make me sink like a stone, there is standard life jackets on board that I could have worn, but they are bulky and impede my ability to help sail the boat. I’m looking at spending $3-400 but the piece of mind it would provide would overide the burden on my credit cards.

And if I do the math, spending $400 on the credit card it’s going to cost me about $6 a month in interest and that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.

And I know what your thinking, all those $6 a month on the credit cards add up, but I love sailing and I’m not going to give it up, so it seems like cheap insurance.

I know my credit cards have taken a hammering in the last couple of months, but at this point in time I don’t actually care, I am the happiest I have been in quite a long time. Life is great.

And I’ve heard some news in the last couple of days that makes me realise how precious life is, I have an Uncle, the father to three of my cousins, with an inoperable tumour, and another relative scheduled for for surgery before Christmas to remove a lump in her breast. At the end of the day I don’t care if I die with a billion dollars of debt, as long as I’ve enjoyed life to the best of my ability along the way.

Having said all that, once I make it through to the new year I’m going to sit down and assess my credit card situation, see how much I can consolidate into a personal loan (at lower interest) and put some effort into increasing my income. There is so many things I want to do that cost money, that I need to make some changes that satisfy two needs, the first and most important is to be able to afford to enjoy life, the second is to reduce my credit card debt, so I can afford to enjoy life more.