Advice needed please.

Good question Silver! Its wise that you are concerned so early. You aren't waiting until you are in trouble with being really behind.

Someone will be along shortly to help you out! I just started a consolidation program, but I'm behind on payments and need to get that in order...where as you arent, but you just have too much debt.

Silver , I see that you have registered. That is a good first step. It is admirable that you have chosen to be proactive regarding your debt. If you click on the link to the right, you will recieve a free consultation, which will guide you in the right direction.
good luck, and please keep us up dated as to your progress

I have a few questions Silver...and welcome!

Are your student loans in deferral? Private or federal?

Are you still charging on the cards or just trying to pay off an exisitng balance?

I currently only have one small student loan at around 1200$ it is a federal loan. Since im still in school its in deferral. My girlfriend has a Private student loan at about 15K that we took out as we both had nowhere to live and she had only 5 months left in nursing school and my wages were not enough to get us a place to live and cover all of our expenses. That loan will start up in January for payments but she is planning on returning to school to get her bachelors and masters soon so it may not ever go into repayment.

We have only used our cards once in about the last 3 months and that was for some emergency dental work for my gf. Other then that we have been paying everything with cash and just trying to pay down our cards and get a handle on things. Thanks Kyle

Silver, I really admire what you are doing. Please do take advantage of our free consultation. you just may hear something that will be of help.

I too have been there....too much revolving debt but it was all in good standing.
Another loan is not what you want and to keep your credit in good standing since you arent late on payments, dont want to do debt consolidation to make the payments..

I can recommend 2 things and speaking from experience...I remember being in school, etc...boy was it tight.

It takes time...what can I say. You paying a bit extra every month helps more than you know. I sound just like a parent here, but draw yourselves up a budget and stick with it! It might take you 2-3 years but that is okay! And if GF is going back to school, buy a house when she is done.

You can also call one of our debt coaches at the phone number on the left margin of the screen here.

yeah recently we have completely changed our tunes on money and are working on a budget we have even done the journaling for expenses.We also went through all of our utility type bills and removed services and disconnected things that were not completely neccesary and actually saved about 200$ a month that way.

We are close to a NFCC office? I think thats what it was called. A friend told me i could go there and also get some debt advice. Have you guys heard of them and are they reputable? Now that i think about it the office was a CCCS but they are a part of NFCC, or something like that.

NFCC is the network tht has great CCC offices from what I hear...one of our other members here on this site is using them and I am also considering it myself.

You are very wise with your finances...I am impressed at the discipline you have with looking for other ways to cut expenses! :D


I hope it goes well with the CCC office and please do check back to let us know how its going.

35k is really not a terrible spot to be in and it sounds like you are on the right track to clear it up. The first thing you need to do is make a written budget for each month which you have done. If you really want out of this as quickly as possible then you need to give up anything that is non essential which it sounds like you did. When I cleaned up my debt the first time I did not have cable, cell phones or any other non essential monthly bill. I drove a cheap paid for car that I bought with cash so I did not have a car payment. I also worked a second job. It was tough but I cleaned up around 12k in debt in under a year which was all I had accept the house. The reason I said the first time is because I have inherited some debt through my wife and some mistakes she has made. She is working a second job now and I am staying with our child. We have about 15k left to pay down from 80k not including a car or the house. I agreed to a car payment since I did not want her driving a piece of junk but I am somewhat regretting it now. I hope to have this mess cleaned up again by the end of next year.

I would recommend that you list your debts from smallest to largest and put all your extra money to the smallest first. As you pay one off one debt work you way up the list by applying the entire extra to the next one on your list. I also agree that the house should wait until after you both are done with school and working full time.

Really an excellent post Dollars. It is a true testament of what can be done if you just set your mind to it.

Excellent advice from DollarsandSince! List them from smallest to largest as the small ones get paid off quickly that will be more to put towards the next largest and so on up the ladder. Also finding a third income stream would help alot. It doesn't have to be a killer second job. It could be something you enjoy like selling at local flea markets or or growing plants to sell. What are your hobbies? Very often a passion can become a small business.

Thanks guys. I waited tables at Pizza Hut when I got my second job. My wife is waiting tables this go around. I will tell you that it can be hard at times but its worth it. Fridays were my worst day because I got up at 6:30AM and did not get home until 1AM usually. My main job was a 1 hour commute and I had to be there at 8AM. I got off at 5PM and had to be at Pizza Hut by 6PM. They closed at midnight... The tips were decent. I made about $100 on a friday night.

Thank you all for the great advice! My girlfriend right now works 3 12 hour shifts a week starting next week she has decided to start working 4 12's, where she works if you work an extra day you get double time so she will be making about 60$ an hour that extra day. We only have one car between us so it makes it a bit difficult for me to get a extra job. As a dispatcher i already work between 4-5 days a week 12 hour shifts. With my girlfriend just working one day a week extra and if we only applied that money to our debt we could probably pay off half our debt in 6 months. We just discussed that extra day last night and i really didnt realize how much that one extra day will make. I will definetly keep you guys updated and i appreciate the help so much. Sorry im rambling on been up around 23 hours lol =) have a good one

kyle

Kyle, You and your girlfriend sound like you have good heads on your shoulders. It sounds like you have a fantastic plan and please do check back and let us know how its going.

Perhaps you can come back and help out here with advice for some of our other members. :)

Kyle, I wish that I at a young age had taken hold of our credit and finances! You are on the right track, and it can be done.

When I came here over a year and a half ago, I could see no way out of our debt. I did as was suggessted and started with my lowest balance first on my cc, made extra payments to it until I got it paid off. I then took that payment, added it to my next lowest balance cc and it got paid off sooner.I did this until I got out of debt. I also had some of my cc work with me when I explained that I was trying to get out of debt with them, and one lowered my interest and a couple of them dropped my interest so I could get it paid off sooner. Some people will say to pay the high interest ones off first, but I had to see some progress soon, or I get depressed and give up-it worked for me!I also got rid of a pay day loan- paid it off and some other smaller ones.

It takes some time and effort, but it can be done!!

Welcome to the Community :D KAren