Hello,
Recently found out my company is downsizing, but they were nice enough to keep me on until I can find another job. However, my hours have been cut from full time to 10 hours a week. So practically unemployed, but still have some income.
Thanks to your previous advice I had a $6k emergency fund in place. I also have a credit card with a $3k limit, and at the moment I have $2k cash on hand. My only debts are student loans, but I've already gone ahead and set up forbearance until I find a new job. I don't know how long it will take to find a new job, so I'm trying to figure out how to make what I have last as long as necessary.
The 10 hours/week is luckily just enough to cover my rent each month. But for everything else (food, gas, utilities) I figure that if I start paying them all with my credit card then I can kick that debt down the road until I find a new job.
I can keep my $2k cash on hand and use that to pay off the credit card if I get close to maxing it out, and then only start draining my emergency fund once the credit card is fully maxed out and I have no other means to pay it off. I will then pay off the card entirely, live off the remaining emergency fund, and then switch back to my credit card as a last line of hope. I estimate that I could spend $1k/month, and make my resources last for the next 11 months. (Assuming no additional emergency expenses occur.)
I try to avoid using my credit card as much as possible, so I don't know what all the risks are to trying to temporarily support myself using only a credit card. I don't know how fast the interest adds up or much it could hurt my credit score, even if it's only for a few months.
Should I play it safer and start draining my emergency fund immediately, and only switch to credit when I have no other choice?
Thanks.
Submitted April 02, 2017 at 02:01PM by Jaredlong http://ift.tt/2n1U6D0
