Living in Apartment With Bills. Getting Married Soon and Just Got Big Inheritance. – Keith

“Dear Jon,

I’m 31 years old, living in a rental apartment. I’m single but thinking about proposing in next 6 months. I just got my auto loan in August $20K with no money down and a low interest rate from my credit union.

Had a bankruptcy in 2001(Medical Bills)
Potential engagement coming

How do I use this inheritance to improve my credit score want to but a house in next year and my score is low 600s.

I just inherited about $50,000. I want to do right by that family member. I have about $15K in student loans, $15K on my auto loan (2010 vehicle) I wanted to know if its best to pay ALL of my student loans right now and then maybe double up on auto payments. Whats a good course of action? Should I be trying to buy a home with this as downpayment?

Keith”

Keith,

I can understand your wanting to be responsible with the money you have inherited and while I can provide some advice here, I also have a few questions. Also, anytime you ask for advice on how to spend money or what debts to pay off, there are many different ‘schools’ on this and a lot of different approaches.

First off, are you able to service/pay all the bills and debts you have now?

Do you earn enough to pay for the car, student loan repayments, and all your usual bills, rent, insurances, utilities, food, etc, comfortably?

Are you struggling at all?

Are you saving any money at all? How much in savings?

Whose paying for the wedding? How much will your contribution to the wedding be, or what will it cost you (ring, honeymoon, etc)?

Buying the car with the credit score you mentioned at a low interest rate and no money down, sounds fine, what is the interest rate?

And the rate on the student loans?

I ask all this as by paying these loans and reviewing your credit report for errors and updating any old accounts, you may be able to increase your credit score; which is going to be required to purchase a house and get a good rate on a mortgage.

Also, speaking to a mortgage lender and getting their perspective on this and finding out what you may qualify for mortgage wise is a good place to start.

It may be that the debts you have are not going to hinder you getting a mortgage or reduce what you qualify for, and you may need the inheritance as a down payment due to a low credit score or the market conditions just demanding a decent down payment.

Another option, depending on your income, may be to save the inheritance and look at accelerating payments to the accounts you have.

Get back to me regarding my questions and let’s look at this in more detail. Also, others here may have some advice as well.

Regards,

Jon

Jon Emge is an experienced UK debt advisor who has helped thousands and thousands of people in the UK to deal with problem debt. Jon specialises in finding good solutions for problem debt using a variety of UK specific techniques.

If you have a question you’d like to ask about how to get out of UK debt, just use the online form. I’m happy to help you for free.