I got the Blue Cash Back Everyday AMEX in September before the start of the semester to make a little return on my beginning of the semester expenses. It came with a 0% APR intro bonus for 18 months and my first $10,000 limit. When I got the card my mind started to run with ideas of what kind of purchases I could make with this big limit and intro APR. Finally the opportunity presented itself with the Cubs in the playoffs.
After game 1 of the World Series I figured that if the series went to a Game 7 the tickets would be some of the most expensive tickets the world had ever seen (they were). So I broke out that big limit and purchased 4 tickets. The worst case scenario would be losing all the principal I had in the tickets and in that case I would have to pay $554 a month to avoid any interests charges. Not ideal but definitely manageable.
It was Tuesday November 1, 2016 and the Cubbies were up 7-0 in the top of the 3rd inning in Game 6 of the World Series. I was ecstatic because this meant the odds of a Game 7 were almost 100%. Before the game my tickets were valued at right around where I bought them at so I was expecting to see a large increase in the value of the tickets because Game 7 was going to be played.
I opened Stubhub to see what my tickets were valued at.. The price had been cut in half! Rumor has it the Indians released an extra 2,500 SRO tickets to capitalize on the ABSURD pricing in the secondary market.
After yelling every vulgar word I could think of at the Stubhub app I was left with a tough decision to make. Take a $4,000 loss and root against my favorite team or suck it up, take the boys, and deal with the almost $9,000 charge on my AMEX later.
I took the boys and waived goodbye to the small graduate school fund I had accumulated. I made a personal goal of paying off the tickets by April 1, 2017. My grad school fund was $3,300 and I was able to make $1,100 working an ironman shift bartending for Dad’s weekend so it left my balance at $4,464 or $892.80 a month for 5 months.
I wasn’t able to achieve my goal of being debt free by April 1st. But I completed my payments a month and a half later on the day I graduated college.
I had to deviate from my original plan but I still got there.