Just married, & in debt. How to wipe out debt?
I have been married a month now. We bought our 1st home (a 2 bd/1ba fixer-upper which btw turned out adorable) about 2 months before we got married. We remodeled a little, but put about $2500 on our visa. Throw in a few wedding expenses, a honeymoon, furniture, & previous debt which comes to a grand total of about $13,000+/-. IS this a lot of debt for our age (24 & 25)?? Between the both of us, we make about $52K a year. I have great credit, but does anyone have a good method of paying down our debt quickly?? Never made a late payment in my life! We are not strapped for cash & don’t live payday to payday… Just want to get out of debt so that we can buy my hubby a new truck.
I have 4 credit cards that I owe on: 1st = $6000, 2nd = $4100, 3rd = $2300 (furniture cad with 0% interest until Feb ‘08), 4th = $600. We also have 2 savings accounts that total about $1,500. Don’t know if I should apply that to one of my cards or keep it for a nest egg.
Pay more than the minimum and keep paying. If you have several credit cards, or payments to make, pay off the smallest first and when done with that one, apply that payment to the next largest, and so on.
eventually you will have everything paid off and then put that money into SAVINGS! and get a nest egg and emergency fund going
So you want to get out of debt so you can get right back in it with a new truck……that makes no sense…and you probably could have choosen to make better, cheaper decisions on your house furn. and wedding expenses.
Sounds like you have a head on your shoulders so it shouldn’t be that hard. But he best advice I can give is create a monthly budget and stick to it.
Give both of you a set amount for spending money, take it out in cash and once it’s gone you can’t do any luxury spending until the next paycheck. That includes trips to Starbucks, movies, restaurants, etc…
$13,000 isn’t that much but you don’t want to waste your money on interest. Set a goal for getting the credit cards paid off and see what you can give each month to it. Maybe you can swing $300 a month for it. I don’t know. Good luck.
Quit using the credit cards! Cut out all the extra’s and put every dime you can on the payments. How else are you going to pay it off? Look for a credit card offering no interest for transfered balances for 6 months or more and transfer your balance to that card. That will save you some in interest. Good Luck!
You sound fine!! Thats more then normal! People your age usually h ave 100,000 in student loans!! Dont stresss it!! Enjoy your new married life!!
Ok, the thing is there is no real trick or anything like that.
All you can do is pay more than the minimum. That way it will bring your balance down faster and you will pay less interest.
Pay the max you can towards it each month and just pay it down quickly.
Kudos to you for trying to fix this before it gets worse. People fail to realize how important credit is.
First of all, $13,000 between the two of you is not too bad to be fretted over. Make paying off your debt your priority.
If this is on multiple credit cards, start by paying of the loan/debt with the lowest APR, and once it’s paid off, tackle the next lowest. You can do it. In the mean time, do not make any new purchases that will require a credit card.
In other words, no cash, no buy!
I’m doing it, and you can too. Good luck!
Make up a monthly budget and stick to it. Start paying as much extra on your credit cards as possible and you will be out of debt in no time and your credit scores will go up from the great pay history.
After you get most of the debt paid off, you should have no problem being approved for your new truck.
You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders.
Good luck.
I know your situation a little too well. You and your husband should sit down together and create a budget that shows how much you have coming in and how much you are spending. This should be a snapshot of your spending habbits. If you see that you are not ending up with unspent money at the end of your week/month, you should evaluate how you are spending your money. If you need to cut some of your spending, some suggestions are to cut down on eating out and entertainment. You may also reevaluate some of your monthly bills. Maybe you are buying more cell phone minutes than you actually use or do you have subscription services you can live without. Where ever you make your cuts, apply your savings to your debt. The longer it takes for your debt to be paid, the more you will pay overall, so put your debt as a priority expense.
keep paying your bills on time and don’t use your credit cards till u get wherer u want to be..
There is a christian talk channel on sirius radio. I wish I could remember the guy who has a show that encourages families how to get out of debt.
I do know that he stresses either selling or cutting way back on lets say cable, cell phones and other gadgets until the debt is gone. There has to be something you can do to either cut out an expense and apply that money to the credit debt, or work an extra day and do the same. Also write down every penny you spend for a month and see where you are spending. I know you can do it. The essentials are a home, food, elect. and water. After that is where you can begin to cut back. Good luck!
First of all dont buy the hubby a new truck, for obvious reasons of more debt. that new truck will never make you any money…only invest in things that will make you money. I know its hard. you just got married. you will have a lot of unforseen expenses coming up. Pay yourself first, (save money) then began to pay your credit card bills with every bit of money you have left over…. there is no other way…
OK, first thing, stop using your cards.
Second thing, Save up a few hundred bucks in case you hit an emergency - washing machine packs in, that sort of thing - so you don’t have to put anything on the cards.
Third - make a budget and work out how much you can put to your debts every month. Call that figure X.
Fourth - make a list of your debts with the account with the highest/worst interest rate on top and going down.
Pay minimums on all the debts except the one at the top, at which you throw all the rest of X. Keep doing that until the first card is paid off.
Then move onto the second card but DO NOT DROP THE AMOUNT OF X. Pay minimums to all the card except the new top one and so on and so.
This is called “the snowball method” because as the cards/debts get paid off, the amount available to the next card down gets bigger and bigger. It ensures you pay the debts methodically and in a manner which ensures you pay as little interest as possible.
When all the debts are paid off, start putting X in a savings account you can use to pay for the new truck. Once you do that, not only do you end up with either the full amount or a decent down payment but you also get used to budgeting for a substantial payment every month, except now X is the truck payment.
If you are caught in the credit card debt trap, approach a debt consolidation company for help, instead of paying high rate of interest to your card issuer. Most of the debt consolidation companies provide loans to help you tide over the credit card debts. These loans are known as credit card debt consolidation loan. The advantage of this loan is that you are charged a low rate of interest. The difference between the interest charged on the credit card and the interest on the credit card debt consolidation loan is substantial, saving you quite a big sum of money.
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