Thread: Trying to do the right thing...need advice. - Forums powered by WWWThreads

I was unaware of the list and will investigate it. A good chunk of what you list we have naturally always done. We both always take our lunch to work (maybe eat out once a month), no cable, work pays for cell phone and internet, energy usage is well below "average" for our are per the utility companies (part of our remodel was increasing insulation and more energy efficient appliances/furnace/AC/water heater/etc). We have very few...

> > > have not used a credit card in over 2 years, have not increased our debt in over 2 years.

In reply to: The underlying issue (and why I am trying to free up monthly income) is that my wife wants to go back to school to enter the medical field. In reply to: Please let me know how you would view education as a red flag to financial responsibility. She would like to go back to school to get a degree to increase income. We are not looking at loans for education...we are looking for ways to maneuver our debts in a way to make this...

In reply to: On top of that, we have the "typical" American credit card debt (spread out over 4 cards), Where do you get that this is "typical"? I would beg to differ. I wouldn't dream of charging anything that I can't pay in full once the bill arrives. I would like to believe that this is "typical". As far as your home - we used to own a 100+ year old home. We did all the work ourselves. It was done in...

The biggest problem with shifting debt is that you are not really paying it off. Just delaying it. How long will the term be for this personal loan for the $15K of credit card debt? Lowering the payment might help your cash flow but that doesn't mean the debt gets paid off faster. Even if you get a lower interest rate, you could still be paying out a lot more in interest if you plan on stretching this loan out for 4 or 5 years. While it...

I agree with the others about the debt. You have proved in the past that you were not disciplined in the past even though you had good intentions. I know that things have changed and your views on money have changed but I think it's dangerous for you to get a personal loan for all of this debt. What happens if you roll this debt into a loan and then the AC in the house breaks. It would be really really easy to put that cost on a CC and...

It is not clear that you would qualify for the 140K part of your plan. You may be sunk from day one. However, I would suggest that is a blessing in disguise. You have 45K in unsecured loans and 9K in education loans. (I consider those a bit different) That is the monster you need to kill. Best I can tell is your plan for getting rid of the debt is to increase your debt and reduce your income by sending your wife to school. I would snowball...

What about the savings list @ the beginning of the "Dump Your Debt" Section? Have you looked @ it? Can you and your family make sacrifices? Give Up Cable completely, minimum or no home phone. Do you children have cell phones? Can you use internet @ work, school o r public library? Radical changes in eating (diet). Can you find ways to decrease your overall energy usage and home? If your and your family can go absolutely bare bones,...

That is one way of doing it, but how much is the consolidation going to cost you? Seems to me you're just adding more debt! Here's a good way for you and anyone else to get out of debt. First, total up all your debt. Don't worry about what interest you are paying on that debt. Do a THOROUGH analysis of your expenses and income. From that, you will come up with your "disposable" income. Then, allow for entertainment...

I don't think your plan is unreasonable. As you have presented it, you wife has the opportunity to go school basically tuition free to be trained in a job that has the potential to earn more income. You need a method to increase free cash flow due to temporary income loss. If consolidating your unsecured debt allows you to do that, I would go for it. This plan has more risk (possibly of increasing debt if not disciplined), but also...