Debt...
- Thread starter JHDK
- Start date
I had probably 6-7K in credit card debt and maybe the same in student loans when I got out of college. I had it all paid off in a few years after I cleaned up my spending habits. Ever since then I have carried no regular debt other than cars and now a house. I do carry the occasional credit card balance for a few months if I want to make a big purchase I don't want to fully pay for right now. This is ONLY done with a clear and REALISTIC plan to pay it off over no more than three months. I have only done that a few times in the past five years though, and each time I could have paid cash if I wanted to. Sometimes I'd rather float a big expense rather than tap savings. My wife had about 30K in debt when we got married. We made a budget and paid it off in about 11 months. that was after spending the previous 9 moths paying off our wedding (used a 0% credit card promo for that and didn't pay one cent in interest). Now all we have is our mortgage and a new car that will be paid off in a few years.
Credit cards are not good or bad, they are just a tool. Use them correctly and you will be fine, but use them incorrectly and you will be in a world of debt. And never, EVER, rely on them to live. Unless you are in an emergency situation, you should never NEED a credit card. I use my credit cards for everything except utility bills. I also pay them off every time I get paid. Last time I had my credit checked my score was over 820.
Credit cards are not good or bad, they are just a tool. Use them correctly and you will be fine, but use them incorrectly and you will be in a world of debt. And never, EVER, rely on them to live. Unless you are in an emergency situation, you should never NEED a credit card. I use my credit cards for everything except utility bills. I also pay them off every time I get paid. Last time I had my credit checked my score was over 820.
And the cheapest money you can borrow. If you have to carry debt, it's the student loans that one should pay off the slowest.
It takes forever to payoff! So the longer you pay your student loan the better the your credit score might be?
I used to have shitty credit but my score is 842 now. It would be higher but I haven't had a loan since I paid off my car and student loans in 2002. I only have one credit card but I pay it off every month. Ex kept the house so right now the only debt I have is buisiness expenses (mostly) on my credit card.
I didn't mean it that way, sorry. The interest rate is usually lower on student loans, and there aren't all of those fees like you get with credit cards. So if you have both credit card debt and a student loan, and you can't pay extra on both, pay as much as possible on the credit cards, and paying the minimum on the student loan will be much cheaper for you in the long run.
No problem Hectic, well for me it will probably be opposite after bankruptcy no more credit cards and nothing but car payment and student loans. But thanks for the info!
Last edited:
Are you positive you want to declare bankruptcy? It will completely destroy all your credit for at least 10 years. You'll never be able to buy a house and the interest on a auto loan will be extremely high, if you can even get one at all. Then after the 10 years you'll have to start from scratch building credit.
Yep I'm pretty sure, I have thought of it long and hard. It will effect me for 7 years or 10 years in some other areas. But I have worked in a dead end field with about $30k in debt that including a car. But I will be surrendering my old car and the good thing is I been pre-approved for a new loan already, I just need to finish paying off my attorney and get a case #. I plan on getting a cheap used car that in good condition. I did a lot of for research for applying for credit cards and home loans, I can get an secured card and in about 18 months as long I stay on top of my payments and it will turn into an unsecured credit card which can start rebuilding my credit score. The home loan yea high interest rates but their might be ways around it? But I can apply within 5 years of my bankruptcy. Plus I look forward to restarting my credit, I been wanting to restart part of my life. That why I went back to college to look into a whole new field, oh yea almost forgot to mention paying my college loan also helps rebuilds my credit score. So that is my plan and all I will have to pay in the future will be a phone bill, car payment and insurance, some utilities, college loan and just 1 secured credit card.
Last edited:
That does not make sense. Maintenance is low but you may have to get another car soon? My 2001 Nissan truck has 235,000 and if I would have had that mentality, I would have gotten another one 5 or so years ago. I think you really want want a new car and just making an excuse.
. Don't do it and avoid the car payment. Our only debt is the house. 12 more years and it is paid off. :flex:
Another thing I didn't mention, hate to admit it. But I believe Phoenix is like #2 in the country with foreclosures and I have seen tons of available houses in my area, so it doubtful but I could be able to get buy a house if I can get approve for a nice loan or something?
Have you checked into credit counselling? Helps you pay off your debts and avoids bankruptcy.
I, however.com, am hoping to acquire more debt to fix up my home and taking care of some debts
I, however.com, am hoping to acquire more debt to fix up my home and taking care of some debts
That does not make sense. Maintenance is low but you may have to get another car soon? My 2001 Nissan truck has 235,000 and if I would have had that mentality, I would have gotten another one 5 or so years ago. I think you really want want a new car and just making an excuse.
Our only debt is the house. 12 more years and it is paid off. :flex:
LOL. Maintenance has been pretty low, but it's just starting to pick up a bit. I don't want to start dragging it to the shop all the time.
An old boss of mine had a thing he would always tell people.
"Buy the cheapest car that you can that will be reliable. Pay cash for it. Then make the payments to yourself every month that you would be paying to a bank for a car loan. After a few years, you can buy a new car off the lot for cash and never pay interest." Then you were supposed to start the process all over again.
I was always too broke out of school, or too lazy after I started to make a few bucks.
After 13 years, this one doesn't owe me anything. But I really do love not having a payment right now.
I was dealing with a credit counseling company for about 3 years and still had another 1 1/2 years left, but being unemployed for about a year. I had a car payment, insurance, utilities and other expensive was more then collecting state unemployment that doesn't pay enough. I was starting to get behind on my car payments, I was trying everything I can to sell my car or have a dealership take the car, but unfortunately I would been in a heavy upside down loan. Then I couldn't afford my credit counseling payments anymore that when bankruptcy came in.
Four years ago, I had up to 24,000 in credit card debt but I paid it all off and owe nothing now. In the end, I don't know what I have to show for it. I don't own a house. I don't have a fancy car. I have no smart phone or I pad. The biggest tv we have is "32. I can't remember what I spent that money on.
Wolf--do me a favor and get a second opinion on bankruptcy. It's not something to be done lightly. You're young, just out of school--the last thing you need is to wreck your credit for 10 years. You may find yourself with a wife and kids soon and need that credit.
I figured out a lot of my debt was Indian food. There were some really nice meals I spent 10 years paying for, with compound interest.
We have 2 years of debt on my house, then it is paid off.
We have 2 years of car payments on the wife's car, the payments on it are pretty small, as we put down a big down payment.
My car is paid off, and even though I drive 110miles/day, I am hopeful I can get at least another 5 years out of it.
We do have some credit card debt, they changed our rate from 10% to 18% and I think we mis-judged how much that hurt us, we are fixing that though.
We have 2 years of car payments on the wife's car, the payments on it are pretty small, as we put down a big down payment.
My car is paid off, and even though I drive 110miles/day, I am hopeful I can get at least another 5 years out of it.
We do have some credit card debt, they changed our rate from 10% to 18% and I think we mis-judged how much that hurt us, we are fixing that though.
hyson, I see what you are talking about. But I been racking debt for about a few years now. My iPod and iPhone are couple years old and probably were paid with a credit card, but my iPad was paid in debit. But some of the debt was helping my family out, my parents are in their 70's and had some medical issues. So, I helped bail them out by using some of my credit cards. They wanted to pay me back, but their my parents. I didn't want to take their money, because they put an roof over my head and raised me right.
Trust me I have, credit counseling was the way I was going to avoid bankruptcy. But I owe way more then I earn and my car payments were killing me, I was paying over $400 a month. I wanted to reduce my payments and everything, but nothing was working for me.
I'm in my early 30's and I had a crappy teen years to my mid 20's. My life change all the time and it kept getting worse and worse every year. In the past couple of years I been trying to change my life around and bring back some of the good days, so unfortunately I have to go this route. I already paid my attorneys couple thousand of dollars and still owe a few hundred more and next month my bankruptcy begins when it all paid up.
But I do understand what you are talking about Casual, I do appreciate your opinion and everybody else who has posted in this thread! I would love to get married, but most states don't accept that kind of marriage and I probably don't plan on having any kids. So I believe the only person who need my credit will be me. So I hope it makes sense what I typed here.
Trust me I have, credit counseling was the way I was going to avoid bankruptcy. But I owe way more then I earn and my car payments were killing me, I was paying over $400 a month. I wanted to reduce my payments and everything, but nothing was working for me.
I'm in my early 30's and I had a crappy teen years to my mid 20's. My life change all the time and it kept getting worse and worse every year. In the past couple of years I been trying to change my life around and bring back some of the good days, so unfortunately I have to go this route. I already paid my attorneys couple thousand of dollars and still owe a few hundred more and next month my bankruptcy begins when it all paid up.
But I do understand what you are talking about Casual, I do appreciate your opinion and everybody else who has posted in this thread! I would love to get married, but most states don't accept that kind of marriage and I probably don't plan on having any kids. So I believe the only person who need my credit will be me. So I hope it makes sense what I typed here.
Last edited: