Average interest paid by Americans on credit card debt is

[Raftergirl]

62. I charge every possible thing to my CC so I get miles. I pay it off every month. I also have a large amount of

disposable income coming in every month, and I have a cash stash that is usually somewhere between 30k and 50k, that I use to pay for big purchases that I cannot use my CC for or to pay off those big purchase. For example, we bought a whole house generator that was $11K, that I put on my CC. But when I remodeled my laundry room, my contractor only allowed $5k to be put on a CC, so the rest of the balance ($35k) came out of my cash stash. Same for when we redid our front entryway into house - $9k came out of my stash. I also paid for new fencing ($11k) in back yard from my stash. We usually have one of these big budget items every year or two, so I build my stash up during lulls.

Last month we had an unexpected emergency, half of our huge Russian Elm tree came crashing down. Tree was severely compromised. The town removed everything that was on the ground, even what was on our property (it fell across the whole street) but the rest we needed to get tree service to take down, remove, grind the stump and bring in topsoil. The trunk alone weighed 12,000 lbs. it was only $2300 and I put it on my CC, which I just paid off in full yesterday, without having to take money out of my stash.

I am going to turn the spot into a flower garden next summer. Can’t wait!