Posted on May 28, 2009 1:58 AM
Last year... I sat down and got honest with where I was. The meant, finding out not just my debt, but my rates. I then made a plan for how to pay that off. Suzie's idea of paying the highest rate first makes sense. however... in my case, I had made arrangements with credit card companies to lower my rate and put me on a payment plan. She didn't mention anything about this strategy... perhaps because it affects your fico score.
For myself, despite my HUGE debt to earnings ratio, and embarassing FICO score... I somehow refinanced to a 5.0% and am on a schedule that is a 3 year plan to paying off my credit card debt. As a divorced mom who gets little in the way of child support, it is the best I could do. Suzie does not seem to mention the TIME COMMITMENT involved in paying off debt. It would have been nice to hear "Hey, saving enough for 8 months of salary may take you 10 years..."
This is what I have a hard time with. I have a good stable job. I am lucky. Even with this, my need to get honest, pay off the debt, requires a mind set (How True) that is difficult to commit to. I have been doing this for a year now, and can say that I don't see anything that is going to get in my way of keeping to the plan. It is, however, depressing to feel how deep this hole is, and I am not even as bad off as others.
So, here it is....my debt in credit cards is about $17,000
I owe more on my house than it is worth, but am managing my payments (In fact, cut $300 a month with the refi)
If I keep the faith, by 2012 my credit card debt will be zeroed out and I then plan to deal with my mortgage payments to pay my loan off with bi-weekly payments. Man, where is the JOY in life??? I have a boy who is going to be college age in 7 years. We have about $14,00 in his college account. This year, I had to say... that I couldn't afford to keep putting money in his account, I had to pay off the debt. Suzie talking about the parent loan gave me some hope. It is still, one month at a time.. who is with me?
Steph
