“Dear Steve, My Brother-in-Law is deeply in debt. He was laid off from work 6 years ago and hasn’t found a decent job since. He isn’t very smart when it comes to money and lived off his savings until it was all gone. He is now 60 years old, has several thousands of dollars on credit debt, owes thousands in ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, f I enter a debt management program will my 401K savings be safe from creditors or anyone forcing me to withdraw any funds to pay on my debts? Do I even have to tell anyone I have a 401K? Joan” The Answer Dear Joan, If you click here for credit counseling information and enter a debt management program ... Read More »

Blair “Dear Steve, Divcorced. Paying heavy child support. Behind on auto payments, can’t meet basic living expenses – facing bankruptcy. Tried debt consolidation, but the fees were high and it did not meet my needs. I have money in a 401k I need now. How can I cah out totally,as the IRS governs? Blair” The Answer   Dear Blair, Generally ... Read More »

Brandy “Dear Steve, I am 30 and my husband is 40.We have 27,000 in his 401k (we have lost almost 10,000). We dont have much as far as credit cards but we are drowing in a house payment, 2 Vehicle payments (1300 per month) and a payment on a rental property that we are unable to rent out. We owe ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I lost my job. I am 65 years old and have a401k for $17000.00. Should I cash in my 401K to pay off my house. Carol” The Answer   Dear Carol, My gut reaction would be not to. Here is why. Your 401K is designed to assist you in your older years. These days 65 is still middle ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Hi – I am a 50 yearld old man with a good income but I am in a financial pinch for sure. I have 2 kids in college right now – one is freshman and the other is a junior – both a tier 1 schools (not cheap). In 2009 I changed jobs – prior to that I ... Read More »

Jami “Dear Steve, I’m losing money in my 401k. I left my 401k in my ex-employers plan. I started at $73000.00 and now it is down to $47,500. I really want to get it out of there but I have no idea where to put it. Can you offer any ideas? Jami” The Answer   Dear Jami, I matters like ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I am 40 yrs old and have been working at the current corporation for about 10 years now. I have not participated in the 401K plan(they do not contribute or match at all). I feel like i am the only one there who doesnt. Now everyone probably have some decent money towards retirement and I have nothing at ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I currently have liquidated all my assets (savings, checking, CD’s) and have not tapped into my 401(k) yet. I am newly employed at a school district and make $32,275/year. I am now living paycheck to paycheck. My current debt is car loan of $10,943 at an interest rate of 5.5% and monthly payment of $552 – I am ... Read More »

Mona “Dear Steve, We just finished building our home (we were the contractors). Before we started we had very manageable debt and our credit scores were almost 800. We used a construction to permanent loan(5.5%) and credit cards to build our home. Now that we are finshed we have a $255,000 mortgage and owe $85,000 on credit cards. My husband ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, Was out of work for a while, and took a sizeable pay cut to take a job. Between my wife and I we are about 50K$ in CC debt. We make about 10,900K$ take home a month. Our expenses are about 5980$/month using your form. We need to refinance our mortgage to get the payments down (never late ... Read More »

Rik “Dear Steve, Hi Steve, you’re a good guy for helping so many people. We have $90,000 credit card debt all at %25, about 1/3 from unwise spending, the rest from medical bills, and taxes we couldn’t pay due to medical bills. I have been fighting minimum payments for years and years and can’t do it anymore. Our balances keep ... Read More »

Steve wrote me through the GetOutOfDebt.org site to ask his question below. You can too! “Dear Steve, I currently make $46,000.00 per year with no benefits. My wife’s income is $19,800.00 per year. Three years ago her income was $35,000.00 per year. We have racked up about $20,000.00 in credit card debt and have a car loan of which the ... Read More »

Dwight “Dear Steve, I am a software salesman to the car wash industry. With the slowdown of the economy I have taken an almost 50% decrease in pay ($100K down to $50K). It looks like my income this year will be in the $40K area. I have a family of 4 beautiful kids (all girls) and a wife who works ... Read More »

“Dear Steve, I’m frantic and don’t know where to turn. My husband of 20+ years informed me recently that he hasn’t been generating income through his business, so he has been taking out cash advances on credit cards, running up lines of credit on our home and other rental property, and depleted all his 401(k) accounts. He’s done all this ... Read More »