Help me learn how to get out of debt

Quick question

I am looking at the transfer thing for 2 of the credit cards ( other 2 are for stores) and one card is in my name and one is in my husbands. how can i get both of them on the transfe card?

Be careful with transfers and write off's. They effect your credit score really bad. You don't want to damage your credit any worse than it already is. Best bet call companies tell them your plan and pay off slowly.

Transfers don't affect your score badly, but write off's do. If you can get a lower interest offer, you can easily transfer the balances of either card to that card. If you do it online, it will walk you through it. My husband and I did this with a 0% APR deal, when we began paying down our debt, and it didn't hurt our credit any more than it does anytime you open a new card. (We have very good credit scores)

Now, if you transfer balances every few months, instead of paying them off, THAT can hurt your score.

Thank you everyone for great ideas. A lot of what was said I never thought about.

Hubby and I are pretty much selling EVERYTHING that we dont need ( food, kitchen appliances, and bed and clothes lol)

I have the best mother in law in the world who lets us stay at her home rent free and she even pays for our cell phone bills. ( she lives with her bf somewhere else)

I am applying to every job I can find and I am even going to make posters to hang around town for house keeping and babysitting or dog walking, etc.

I am going to somehow try to get rid of the car we owe 14k on ( I actually traded a car in to get this one because it has better gas mileage. The dealership promised me that the other car would be paid off and we wouldnt have to worry about it. I got a letter in the mail yesterday from the bank we had the loan with on the other car saying we missed a payment and it affected our credit score... can I take the new car back to the dealership and say Hey you breached the contract and didnt pay the other car off so heres your car back?)

And I am going to walk ( hey exercise!) to the library tomorrow to check out the david ramsey book and sit down at our desk and figure a strict budget to get this plan going!

I actually do not feel over whelmed now and I know we can do this!!

You guys are the best

So did you just buy this car in the last 60 days, being that the auto loan payoff didn't happens quick enough and you were late on a payment. I'm just trying to figure out how your $5000 upside down on a car, that it sounds like that you just bought?

I'm at work so I can't reply as fully as I would like, but this is a good place to start:

http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

I've been working the plan and listening to his podcast. Many, many people are getting out of debit using his plan (myself included). It does work.

YI wouldn't advise letting your car get repossesed. Your debt doesn't look too bad that you need to suffer too much.

So, as I said before, your credit card debt is not that much. If you could put it all on one card, that would give you one single payment of maybe 100, instead of four payments of whatever.

Second, if you can stand being without a car (a bike would help with your burns too!) Park one, turn in the tags and cancel your insurance. Keep up payments though to pay down that debt and you will eventually be able to reinstate it.

your medical bills and student loans would be my last concern. These will always be there forever and you can pick them up after you get a bit more financially secure.

I just have to add to this that if they don't keep the insurance on it and it gets damaged they could end up in a worse spot. Not using it is probably better though... no gas or upkeep for awhile. Or try to find someone that will buy it (take over the payments).

An important tip that people often don't take into account is that if you have a little bit extra each month (even if it is only $0.01) you will get out of debt quicker and pay less in interest by paying this toward the highest interest rate card/loan/contract that you have. I have a spread sheet where I've modeled it out and it shows that the average American family can save over $10,000 paying down the highest interest rate loan rather than the highest minimum payment or the lowest balance loan.

I have an MBA in Finance, I am a CFA Charterholder and I am an equity analyst for a bulge bracket bank. I will soon be doing a PhD in finance. Before my MBA I was a financial planner. I've always liked helping people through financial problems, what I didn't like as a financial planner was having to sell people specific projects when what I've always liked is simply giving financial advice. I still do it as a hobby when I find someone who is willing to really work their problems. Send me a private message with any additional details and I can help you get through your plan.

If you can I recommend you detail every single loan, credit and card with balance, available balance, minimum payment and effective annual interest rate (or what every rate your statement has with how it is calculated). If you haven't ever built a budget that would also be crucial. Record every single expense (even for chewing gum) to be aware of exactly how much you have coming in and how much you have going out. This seems laborious but is more effective than a broad "spend less" recommendation and it lets you know exactly how much you have to cut expenses and/or how much extra funds you have available to pay down debt (beyond minimum payments).

This is tough work, I've been a starving student with children and no job and let me tell you my finances haven't always been as good as they are. I've dug myself out of some pretty deep holes so I think I can offer something if needed.

Dave Ramsey is encouraging and popular but also mathematically unsound. There are class action lawsuits out against how his phony feel-good math. On the other hand, from a psychological perspective sometimes the feel good part is what people really need, and he does do a good job at that. Just because finance PhDs don't think his recommendations are THE BEST doesn't mean they can't be GOOD right?

Best of luck to you!

if you allow the car to be repo'd, They will auction it off for a very low amount, that amount is paid towards your loan. They will then come after you for the rest. I lived through this, I also thought that if they took the car back my problems were over, but you have a loan, which you must pay off. The auctioned car rarely covers the loan amount. So you got rid of the car, but not the debt.

Don't do that unless you have no other option available.

Financial Peace University. Google it. We have no debt other than the mortgage and will be getting rid of that in 5 more years by following the plan.

I love Gail! I suggest poking around her site to see what info you can get. She is Canadian so I'm not sure ALL will apply to you, but I can't see it being far off. She also has some worksheets you can fill out to help you get out of debt.

http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/get_out_of_debt.html

LOVE Dave Ramsey!!!!!!

Best quote ever:

"We buy things we dont need, with money we dont have, to impress people we dont like"

This...
http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/
Pay what you need to live first: rent, food, electricity/gas
Work on building an emergency fund. (can you sell anything? do you need 2 cars? garage sell, craigs list)
Work on a debt snowball
Once that is completed, then work on 3-6mo savings

You can do it. I know people who have... it is HARD, but can be done.

Good luck