Each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest has been lived already. So make the most thoughtful choices you can today that will lead to a better future.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Stop drifting and hoping a magic solution will appear. Instead, you can participate in rescuing yourself. Find peace by pursuing facts through trusted advisers and research rather than the blind trust of salespeople trying to sell you something by almost any means necessary.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Make decisions to deal with your debt with logic and facts, not assumptions, and worry about what other people will think. People who judge you will soon be forgotten. Nobody thinks about anyone that much.
Steve's Thought of the Day
The world is nothing but constant change. Your life is only a perception. Choose a way out of debt based on facts, not assumptions. Do what is best for your future because those that judge you will not feed you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Do you have a greater responsibility to repair your financial past or your financial present and future? Make good choices that allow you to tackle your debt and immediately start building your emergency fund and saving for retirement. Tomorrow will be here before you know it. Lost time is a sin.
Steve's Thought of the Day
There is no sense in wasting a perfectly good financial mistake. Instead, learn from it and do better moving forward. The past is gone. Turn and face the future now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Those who judge you for past financial mistakes are not your friends. So don't make choices about your future out of fear of what they may think. Instead, make choices based on truth, fact, and what is best for you moving forward from today.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Don't believe everything you think. Challenge your assumptions about getting out of debt. Do what is best for you, not others.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Is it less moral to file bankruptcy or to not take action that leaves you old, broke, hungry, and dependent on others?
Steve's Thought of the Day
If bankruptcy is so bad, why did our Founding Fathers specifically include it in the U.S. Constitution as protection for financial difficulties?
Stop listening to people that say bankruptcy is a last resort. It is neither first nor last. It is a tool like credit counseling, debt settlement, and others. For the best result, you need to use the right tool for the job.
Steve's Thought of the Day
People that tell you to avoid bankruptcy want to sell you something else are repeating something they heard or do not know what they are talking about. Get the facts and then make your own decision. Don't let an unskilled script-reading commissioned salesperson make life decisions for you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt problems are like fingerprints. No two are alike. A one-size-fits-all solution will give you a one-size-fits-all result. You deserve better.
Steve's Thought of the Day
You are not your debt. Your value, self-esteem, and existence should not be defined by the money troubles you may be facing right now. Debt problems are solved with proper action, not guilt, self-hatred, and disgust.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt is nothing more than math wrapped in emotion. The math is easy, the emotional part leads us to do impulsive things. Not the right thing.
Steve's Thought of the Day
What type of money personality do you have? It is important to know. Take my online test now and discover how you unconsciously deal with money, credit, and debt.
Steve's Thought of the Day
How much retirement savings are you willing to throw away by dealing with your old debt instead of preparing for your financial future? Find how much you will lose by making the wrong choice. Use my online debt repayment calculator now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Does it make more sense to ask for life-altering debt advice from an unskilled and untrained commissioned salesperson in a call center or an experienced debt coach like Damon Day that provides a customized solution for money troubles?
Steve's Thought of the Day
My Husband and I Have a Huge Amount of Debt. – Karen
My husband and I have incurred a huge amount of debt ($44,000) and desperately need assistance with identifying strategies to help us pay it off. We have enough money coming in to pay the bills each month, but we are getting nowhere near paying the debt down.
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How can you help us figure out how to pay this debt off within a reasonable amount of time?
Karen”
Dear Karen,
OK, we are going to have to take this in stages since I’ll need some additional information from you to best answer this. Just post your answers in the comments on this question and I’ll spot them there and reply.
From what you’ve shared so far I’m not certain what the interest rates or types of debt is.
Can you please provide me with some additional information on the debt?
How old are you and your husband now?
Are your currently able to save money each month to protect yourself in case of a financial emergency.
Thank you so much – you have given me a starting point as well as some ideas on what may work for us. I truly appreciate the time you have devoted to assist us in trying to find a workable solution!!
It has been such a pleasure corresponding with you and again – Many Thanks!! Karen
Don’t try it if you feel you are going to come up short at the end of the year though.
While the interest rate on the other cards is low I’d rather you save up the case to pay the card off in full. While you are holding on to the cash it gives you more of a safety net.
Your situation is incredibly problematic because you are not doing well enough to really get ahead nor poor enough that bankruptcy is a logical solution.
The reason I suggest paying off the card with the $9K is because if your situation was to get really bad and bankruptcy became an option then the cash on hand would be a problem for you in bankruptcy. Might as well use it and try to dig out now.
If you are not tracking your spending now, start doing it with some online or offline tool. This will help to put some more found money in your pocket. You might want to look at the site of my friend Adam Baker at ManVsDebt.com for some really good money management tips to find missing cash in your budget.
My only concern is the adjustment of the withholdings. Because I am a contract employee and receive a 1099 at the end of the year, we allow maximum withholdings from my husband’s check to try to offset the difference. However, I am willing to try this. When you say we should save $6,000, are you thinking that we should apply this amount monthly to another card, or should we just save it in an account?
The safest play would be to adjust the withholdings and use the $9K to payoff the highest interest rate debt. That should free up enough cash to allow you to start saving $370 a month and if you start tracking where your cash is going then that awareness will probably free up another $130 a month.
This way you still have an emergency fund and you can save $6,000 in the next year. Alternatively you could cut back on monthly savings and let your husband participate in the 401(k) up to the maximum matching level. If he contributes in pre-tax income it can still result in extra cash in your pocket.
The balance of the card with the 15.55% is 9700 and the monthly payments are around 220.00/mo. I do not know what the 0% rate will be, but the balance on that account is 4600.00. The card with the lowest rate (4.74%) is 9164. as of today.
I sold a rental unit a few years ago and it is in an account (earning very little interest). I have been holding on to it “in case of a rainy day,” but am not opposed to using it. My thought would be to pay the highest balance, but honestly have no idea.
I am not sick of you asking questions at all – I truly appreciate your time in trying to help us to solve this. I feel like the more you know about our situation, the better you are able to direct us.
To answer your question, I do feel that I have a huge responsibility to take action so that I can make the future better for my family. However, depending on what you see as options, I think we can manage treading water for the next five years in an effort to clean up the mess if that seems to be the best option. And one more thing…I do have access to almost enough cash to pay one of the highest cards or loans off, but am very hesitant about using that just in case we do encounter an emergency. Do you think it would be wise to use it or would it help at all?
The reason I asked about the tax refund was to see if you could adjust the withholdings and put more money in your pocket each month instead of giving it to the government to hold. It sounds like you could do that and have an extra $150 a month to use.
The 401(k) issue is an important one. Even though you are still young, if the employer is willing to provide matching funds up to a certain contribution level then by not participating he is simply throwing away free money that someone wants to give him.
The $4K of savings is great but what concerns me is that if you had to use it you would probably not be able to refill the used amount easily. Things just sound really tight.
I asked about the previous consolidation loans to see if this was a repeating cycle and it does not seem to be. That’s good.
What makes this issue a bit tough is your interest rates on the debts are pretty good already and something like a LendingClub.com debt consolidation loan would not help at all. So absent any sort of “consolidation” as a tool to use the ultimate answer is going to come down to reducing expenses to give yourself more money for debt reduction, increase income or a combination of the both.
But even focusing on debt reduction you still need to have enough of a margin to save even $200-$300 a month to keep building that emergency fund. A $4K fund is good but it’s not good enough in the face of a 6 month loss of work.
Your situation is like a worst case scenario. You have enough to make the minimums but not enough to do more than tread water. You are in the banker sweet spot.
You’re probably sick of me asking questions but just one more. Do you feel you need to fix the past and keep treading water for the next five years or do you feel as if you have a greater responsibility to take action to make the future better from this point forward?
Neither of the personal loans were from debt consolidation, and one will be paid off in 21 months. My husband has an option to contribute to his 401K, but has not done so in the past year due to obvious reasons. We do not count on having a big income tax refund due to the nature of my job (contract); however, in the past we have received a couple thousand dollars. I don’t think it is safe to count on getting a refund, though.
Were either of the personal loans for a previous debt consolidation?
Do either of you contribute to a 401(k) or such at work with your current income and is there such a matching contribution plan that you could participate in if you don’t now?
Do you typically get a big tax refund back each year and if so approximately how much do you anticipate coming up next year?
Debts include 5 credit cards totaling $28,596.00 and 2 personal loans totaling 13,800.00. One card has an interest rate of 15.55; one has a 4.74; one has 0 until Nov.2011; and one has 7.0. The other one has 0 until Jan. 2011. My husband is 39 and I am 40. We do have a small amount of savings that we could tap into in case of an emergency (around $4,000.00). However, at this point, we are unable to save anything after everything is paid. I think that our employment situation is stable at this time, but I’m sure that could change at any time.
Debts include 5 credit cards totaling $28,596.00 and 2 personal loans totaling 13,800.00. One card has an interest rate of 15.55; one has a 4.74; one has 0 until Nov.2011; and one has 7.0. The other one has 0 until Jan. 2011. My husband is 39 and I am 40. We do have a small amount of savings that we could tap into in case of an emergency (around $4,000.00). However, at this point, we are unable to save anything after everything is paid. I think that our employment situation is stable at this time, but I’m sure that could change at any time.
Were either of the personal loans for a previous debt consolidation?
Do either of you contribute to a 401(k) or such at work with your current income and is there such a matching contribution plan that you could participate in if you don’t now?
Do you typically get a big tax refund back each year and if so approximately how much do you anticipate coming up next year?
Neither of the personal loans were from debt consolidation, and one will be paid off in 21 months. My husband has an option to contribute to his 401K, but has not done so in the past year due to obvious reasons. We do not count on having a big income tax refund due to the nature of my job (contract); however, in the past we have received a couple thousand dollars. I don’t think it is safe to count on getting a refund, though.
The reason I asked about the tax refund was to see if you could adjust the withholdings and put more money in your pocket each month instead of giving it to the government to hold. It sounds like you could do that and have an extra $150 a month to use.
The 401(k) issue is an important one. Even though you are still young, if the employer is willing to provide matching funds up to a certain contribution level then by not participating he is simply throwing away free money that someone wants to give him.
The $4K of savings is great but what concerns me is that if you had to use it you would probably not be able to refill the used amount easily. Things just sound really tight.
I asked about the previous consolidation loans to see if this was a repeating cycle and it does not seem to be. That’s good.
What makes this issue a bit tough is your interest rates on the debts are pretty good already and something like a LendingClub.com debt consolidation loan would not help at all. So absent any sort of “consolidation” as a tool to use the ultimate answer is going to come down to reducing expenses to give yourself more money for debt reduction, increase income or a combination of the both.
But even focusing on debt reduction you still need to have enough of a margin to save even $200-$300 a month to keep building that emergency fund. A $4K fund is good but it’s not good enough in the face of a 6 month loss of work.
Your situation is like a worst case scenario. You have enough to make the minimums but not enough to do more than tread water. You are in the banker sweet spot.
You’re probably sick of me asking questions but just one more. Do you feel you need to fix the past and keep treading water for the next five years or do you feel as if you have a greater responsibility to take action to make the future better from this point forward?
I am not sick of you asking questions at all – I truly appreciate your time in trying to help us to solve this. I feel like the more you know about our situation, the better you are able to direct us.
To answer your question, I do feel that I have a huge responsibility to take action so that I can make the future better for my family. However, depending on what you see as options, I think we can manage treading water for the next five years in an effort to clean up the mess if that seems to be the best option. And one more thing…I do have access to almost enough cash to pay one of the highest cards or loans off, but am very hesitant about using that just in case we do encounter an emergency. Do you think it would be wise to use it or would it help at all?
Thank you, Karen
Karen,
Where would this cash come from and when you say the “highest” card. Do you mean highest interest rate or balance?
Steve
I sold a rental unit a few years ago and it is in an account (earning very little interest). I have been holding on to it “in case of a rainy day,” but am not opposed to using it. My thought would be to pay the highest balance, but honestly have no idea.
Karen,
How much cash is in that account?
Steve
Approximately 9G (certainly not enough to get us out of this debt). Can it help?
Interesting. Hum, what is the balance of the card at 15.55% and do you know what the 0% card is going to rest to and what’s the balance on that one.
Steve
The balance of the card with the 15.55% is 9700 and the monthly payments are around 220.00/mo. I do not know what the 0% rate will be, but the balance on that account is 4600.00. The card with the lowest rate (4.74%) is 9164. as of today.
Hi Steve, I was just wondering if you have any advice for us in an effort to get us out of this situation.
Thank you, Karen
Thanks for the nudge. I missed the last answer.
The safest play would be to adjust the withholdings and use the $9K to payoff the highest interest rate debt. That should free up enough cash to allow you to start saving $370 a month and if you start tracking where your cash is going then that awareness will probably free up another $130 a month.
This way you still have an emergency fund and you can save $6,000 in the next year. Alternatively you could cut back on monthly savings and let your husband participate in the 401(k) up to the maximum matching level. If he contributes in pre-tax income it can still result in extra cash in your pocket.
What do you think about that approach?
Steve
My only concern is the adjustment of the withholdings. Because I am a contract employee and receive a 1099 at the end of the year, we allow maximum withholdings from my husband’s check to try to offset the difference. However, I am willing to try this. When you say we should save $6,000, are you thinking that we should apply this amount monthly to another card, or should we just save it in an account?
Karen,
Don’t try it if you feel you are going to come up short at the end of the year though.
While the interest rate on the other cards is low I’d rather you save up the case to pay the card off in full. While you are holding on to the cash it gives you more of a safety net.
Your situation is incredibly problematic because you are not doing well enough to really get ahead nor poor enough that bankruptcy is a logical solution.
The reason I suggest paying off the card with the $9K is because if your situation was to get really bad and bankruptcy became an option then the cash on hand would be a problem for you in bankruptcy. Might as well use it and try to dig out now.
If you are not tracking your spending now, start doing it with some online or offline tool. This will help to put some more found money in your pocket. You might want to look at the site of my friend Adam Baker at ManVsDebt.com for some really good money management tips to find missing cash in your budget.
Thank you so much – you have given me a starting point as well as some ideas on what may work for us. I truly appreciate the time you have devoted to assist us in trying to find a workable solution!!
It has been such a pleasure corresponding with you and again – Many Thanks!! Karen
Karen,
You are very welcome.
Steve
Hey everyone just wanted to share my story about this settlement company that saved me from a financial burden that I thought would never go away. I was currently in debt 50,000 grand and I stumbled upon this company that was BBB, USOBA and TASC certified look it up if you do not know what these stand for but every debt settlement company should be certified by these company’s . I applied on-line to settle my debts and within minutes I had filled out all the settlement forms and submitted them right on there website. When filling out the form, it will ask you how much debt do you want to settle and how quick do you want it paid off, it will then tell you what you will pay monthly ,what you will be saving and what your settlement will be, I only paid 40 cents for every dollar that I was in debt. I received a call stating that I had been approved for the program and they then asked me if I had any questions on how the program works. You will also receive a welcome package in the mail if you qualify for the settlement program with all the important docs and information you need, they work with professional negotiators and everyone is given a password and login to keep track of the funds that are drafted from you monthly through the settlement company. What’s great is that if you need some of the money in that account for an emergency you can withdraw it whenever you need to there are a lot of company’s that don’t offer this. So if you are looking to settle debt ,try applying for the program there. If you are interested you can go to http://www.publicdebtsolutions.com and apply for the program, fill out there debt settlement application, submit it online and be on your way to financial freedom. Good Luck!
Karen,
You are very welcome.
Steve
Thank you so much – you have given me a starting point as well as some ideas on what may work for us. I truly appreciate the time you have devoted to assist us in trying to find a workable solution!!
It has been such a pleasure corresponding with you and again –
Many Thanks!!
Karen
Karen,
Don’t try it if you feel you are going to come up short at the end of the year though.
While the interest rate on the other cards is low I’d rather you save up the case to pay the card off in full. While you are holding on to the cash it gives you more of a safety net.
Your situation is incredibly problematic because you are not doing well enough to really get ahead nor poor enough that bankruptcy is a logical solution.
The reason I suggest paying off the card with the $9K is because if your situation was to get really bad and bankruptcy became an option then the cash on hand would be a problem for you in bankruptcy. Might as well use it and try to dig out now.
If you are not tracking your spending now, start doing it with some online or offline tool. This will help to put some more found money in your pocket. You might want to look at the site of my friend Adam Baker at ManVsDebt.com for some really good money management tips to find missing cash in your budget.
My only concern is the adjustment of the withholdings. Because I am a contract employee and receive a 1099 at the end of the year, we allow maximum withholdings from my husband’s check to try to offset the difference. However, I am willing to try this. When you say we should save $6,000, are you thinking that we should apply this amount monthly to another card, or should we just save it in an account?
Thanks for the nudge. I missed the last answer.
The safest play would be to adjust the withholdings and use the $9K to payoff the highest interest rate debt. That should free up enough cash to allow you to start saving $370 a month and if you start tracking where your cash is going then that awareness will probably free up another $130 a month.
This way you still have an emergency fund and you can save $6,000 in the next year. Alternatively you could cut back on monthly savings and let your husband participate in the 401(k) up to the maximum matching level. If he contributes in pre-tax income it can still result in extra cash in your pocket.
What do you think about that approach?
Steve
Hi Steve,
I was just wondering if you have any advice for us in an effort to get us out of this situation.
Thank you,
Karen
The balance of the card with the 15.55% is 9700 and the monthly payments are around 220.00/mo. I do not know what the 0% rate will be, but the balance on that account is 4600.00. The card with the lowest rate (4.74%) is 9164. as of today.
Interesting. Hum, what is the balance of the card at 15.55% and do you know what the 0% card is going to rest to and what’s the balance on that one.
Steve
Approximately 9G (certainly not enough to get us out of this debt). Can it help?
Karen,
How much cash is in that account?
Steve
I sold a rental unit a few years ago and it is in an account (earning very little interest). I have been holding on to it “in case of a rainy day,” but am not opposed to using it. My thought would be to pay the highest balance, but honestly have no idea.
Karen,
Where would this cash come from and when you say the “highest” card. Do you mean highest interest rate or balance?
Steve
I am not sick of you asking questions at all – I truly appreciate your time in trying to help us to solve this. I feel like the more you know about our situation, the better you are able to direct us.
To answer your question, I do feel that I have a huge responsibility to take action so that I can make the future better for my family. However, depending on what you see as options, I think we can manage treading water for the next five years in an effort to clean up the mess if that seems to be the best option. And one more thing…I do have access to almost enough cash to pay one of the highest cards or loans off, but am very hesitant about using that just in case we do encounter an emergency. Do you think it would be wise to use it or would it help at all?
Thank you,
Karen
Karen,
The reason I asked about the tax refund was to see if you could adjust the withholdings and put more money in your pocket each month instead of giving it to the government to hold. It sounds like you could do that and have an extra $150 a month to use.
The 401(k) issue is an important one. Even though you are still young, if the employer is willing to provide matching funds up to a certain contribution level then by not participating he is simply throwing away free money that someone wants to give him.
The $4K of savings is great but what concerns me is that if you had to use it you would probably not be able to refill the used amount easily. Things just sound really tight.
I asked about the previous consolidation loans to see if this was a repeating cycle and it does not seem to be. That’s good.
What makes this issue a bit tough is your interest rates on the debts are pretty good already and something like a LendingClub.com debt consolidation loan would not help at all. So absent any sort of “consolidation” as a tool to use the ultimate answer is going to come down to reducing expenses to give yourself more money for debt reduction, increase income or a combination of the both.
But even focusing on debt reduction you still need to have enough of a margin to save even $200-$300 a month to keep building that emergency fund. A $4K fund is good but it’s not good enough in the face of a 6 month loss of work.
Your situation is like a worst case scenario. You have enough to make the minimums but not enough to do more than tread water. You are in the banker sweet spot.
You’re probably sick of me asking questions but just one more. Do you feel you need to fix the past and keep treading water for the next five years or do you feel as if you have a greater responsibility to take action to make the future better from this point forward?
Steve
Neither of the personal loans were from debt consolidation, and one will be paid off in 21 months. My husband has an option to contribute to his 401K, but has not done so in the past year due to obvious reasons. We do not count on having a big income tax refund due to the nature of my job (contract); however, in the past we have received a couple thousand dollars. I don’t think it is safe to count on getting a refund, though.
Karen,
We are getting closer.
Were either of the personal loans for a previous debt consolidation?
Do either of you contribute to a 401(k) or such at work with your current income and is there such a matching contribution plan that you could participate in if you don’t now?
Do you typically get a big tax refund back each year and if so approximately how much do you anticipate coming up next year?
Steve
Debts include 5 credit cards totaling $28,596.00 and 2 personal loans totaling 13,800.00. One card has an interest rate of 15.55; one has a 4.74; one has 0 until Nov.2011; and one has 7.0. The other one has 0 until Jan. 2011.
My husband is 39 and I am 40.
We do have a small amount of savings that we could tap into in case of an emergency (around $4,000.00). However, at this point, we are unable to save anything after everything is paid.
I think that our employment situation is stable at this time, but I’m sure that could change at any time.
Debts include 5 credit cards totaling $28,596.00 and 2 personal loans totaling 13,800.00. One card has an interest rate of 15.55; one has a 4.74; one has 0 until Nov.2011; and one has 7.0. The other one has 0 until Jan. 2011.
My husband is 39 and I am 40.
We do have a small amount of savings that we could tap into in case of an emergency (around $4,000.00). However, at this point, we are unable to save anything after everything is paid.
I think that our employment situation is stable at this time, but I’m sure that could change at any time.
Karen,
We are getting closer.
Were either of the personal loans for a previous debt consolidation?
Do either of you contribute to a 401(k) or such at work with your current income and is there such a matching contribution plan that you could participate in if you don’t now?
Do you typically get a big tax refund back each year and if so approximately how much do you anticipate coming up next year?
Steve
Neither of the personal loans were from debt consolidation, and one will be paid off in 21 months. My husband has an option to contribute to his 401K, but has not done so in the past year due to obvious reasons. We do not count on having a big income tax refund due to the nature of my job (contract); however, in the past we have received a couple thousand dollars. I don’t think it is safe to count on getting a refund, though.
Karen,
The reason I asked about the tax refund was to see if you could adjust the withholdings and put more money in your pocket each month instead of giving it to the government to hold. It sounds like you could do that and have an extra $150 a month to use.
The 401(k) issue is an important one. Even though you are still young, if the employer is willing to provide matching funds up to a certain contribution level then by not participating he is simply throwing away free money that someone wants to give him.
The $4K of savings is great but what concerns me is that if you had to use it you would probably not be able to refill the used amount easily. Things just sound really tight.
I asked about the previous consolidation loans to see if this was a repeating cycle and it does not seem to be. That’s good.
What makes this issue a bit tough is your interest rates on the debts are pretty good already and something like a LendingClub.com debt consolidation loan would not help at all. So absent any sort of “consolidation” as a tool to use the ultimate answer is going to come down to reducing expenses to give yourself more money for debt reduction, increase income or a combination of the both.
But even focusing on debt reduction you still need to have enough of a margin to save even $200-$300 a month to keep building that emergency fund. A $4K fund is good but it’s not good enough in the face of a 6 month loss of work.
Your situation is like a worst case scenario. You have enough to make the minimums but not enough to do more than tread water. You are in the banker sweet spot.
You’re probably sick of me asking questions but just one more. Do you feel you need to fix the past and keep treading water for the next five years or do you feel as if you have a greater responsibility to take action to make the future better from this point forward?
Steve
I am not sick of you asking questions at all – I truly appreciate your time in trying to help us to solve this. I feel like the more you know about our situation, the better you are able to direct us.
To answer your question, I do feel that I have a huge responsibility to take action so that I can make the future better for my family. However, depending on what you see as options, I think we can manage treading water for the next five years in an effort to clean up the mess if that seems to be the best option. And one more thing…I do have access to almost enough cash to pay one of the highest cards or loans off, but am very hesitant about using that just in case we do encounter an emergency. Do you think it would be wise to use it or would it help at all?
Thank you,
Karen
Karen,
Where would this cash come from and when you say the “highest” card. Do you mean highest interest rate or balance?
Steve
I sold a rental unit a few years ago and it is in an account (earning very little interest). I have been holding on to it “in case of a rainy day,” but am not opposed to using it. My thought would be to pay the highest balance, but honestly have no idea.
Karen,
How much cash is in that account?
Steve
Approximately 9G (certainly not enough to get us out of this debt). Can it help?
Interesting. Hum, what is the balance of the card at 15.55% and do you know what the 0% card is going to rest to and what’s the balance on that one.
Steve
The balance of the card with the 15.55% is 9700 and the monthly payments are around 220.00/mo. I do not know what the 0% rate will be, but the balance on that account is 4600.00. The card with the lowest rate (4.74%) is 9164. as of today.
Hi Steve,
I was just wondering if you have any advice for us in an effort to get us out of this situation.
Thank you,
Karen
Thanks for the nudge. I missed the last answer.
The safest play would be to adjust the withholdings and use the $9K to payoff the highest interest rate debt. That should free up enough cash to allow you to start saving $370 a month and if you start tracking where your cash is going then that awareness will probably free up another $130 a month.
This way you still have an emergency fund and you can save $6,000 in the next year. Alternatively you could cut back on monthly savings and let your husband participate in the 401(k) up to the maximum matching level. If he contributes in pre-tax income it can still result in extra cash in your pocket.
What do you think about that approach?
Steve
My only concern is the adjustment of the withholdings. Because I am a contract employee and receive a 1099 at the end of the year, we allow maximum withholdings from my husband’s check to try to offset the difference. However, I am willing to try this. When you say we should save $6,000, are you thinking that we should apply this amount monthly to another card, or should we just save it in an account?
Karen,
Don’t try it if you feel you are going to come up short at the end of the year though.
While the interest rate on the other cards is low I’d rather you save up the case to pay the card off in full. While you are holding on to the cash it gives you more of a safety net.
Your situation is incredibly problematic because you are not doing well enough to really get ahead nor poor enough that bankruptcy is a logical solution.
The reason I suggest paying off the card with the $9K is because if your situation was to get really bad and bankruptcy became an option then the cash on hand would be a problem for you in bankruptcy. Might as well use it and try to dig out now.
If you are not tracking your spending now, start doing it with some online or offline tool. This will help to put some more found money in your pocket. You might want to look at the site of my friend Adam Baker at ManVsDebt.com for some really good money management tips to find missing cash in your budget.
Thank you so much – you have given me a starting point as well as some ideas on what may work for us. I truly appreciate the time you have devoted to assist us in trying to find a workable solution!!
It has been such a pleasure corresponding with you and again –
Many Thanks!!
Karen
Karen,
You are very welcome.
Steve
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