Serious Help!!! Financial Advice
 

Ok…I could possibly be the most financially immature person here.:banghead: All because I have the “I want it now” attitude. But, I have gotten to the point where I am sick to my stomach with my debt and realize I need my own place and need to spend a whole lot more wisely. So, I guess you can say I have grown really fast this past year and realized a lot of things. But, I need some SERIOUS help with decisions and guidance with my current situation. I know there are quite a few older members here so hopefully I get some good help. I am 23, going on 24. Taking night classes to finish my degree that has about 18 months left. I really want to move out and get my own house. BUT, with the amount of debt in credit cards I have, added to my recent rx8 purchase, I know that getting a loan for a house would be impossible.

I have 6 credit cards with the amounts varying from 9,000 to lowest at like 900. The two biggest are 9 and 8K, then a 3K, then two at 2K, then the 900. None are maxed out either which is good haha in a way I guess.

I got my rx-8 back in july. The total loan after everything was said and done was for 19,900 roughly. Payments 351 per month. 6 months later, prices

I BRING home 2400 per month. With the minimum payments being spread out so much it pretty much makes it impossible to put a good chunk of my pay towards one card.

My question is, how do I deal with this? I really would like to avoid selling my 8 as I have put around 14K into it not including installation. This is what has caused most of my situation. But, is selling the 8 the only option right now to help stop snowballing my debt and to start chipping away? I know I wont be getting anywhere near what I put into it, but I know there would be SOMEONE out there willing to pay a good price.

Or, do I keep the 8, work on the cards for about a year, (I really don’t want to live at home much longer than that), and then see where I’m at?

Or, is it possible to get a personal loan for say 20K to pay for this debt and just pay like 1000 dollars a month on that?

Thanks for any advice!!!! I need it as you can tell!

1. sell the car man. i know its not what you want to hear. you have more credit card debt than your car is worth. not a good thing.

2. I've never heard of anyone getting a personal loan over $5k.

with all due respect, you never should have bought it to begin with. i'm surprised you got the loan with all your debt to begin with. start there and work your way down.

Hate to agree,but sell the car and pay off all u can.Listen to Dave Ramsey(I have no financial interest in his company),Get rid of those cards they will be the ruin of you.Put 3 months of payments away for a rainy day and head from there,your still young get a 2nd job if u can't work ot.When I started out to buy my 1st house I worked 3 jobs had 2 mortgages-plus a personnel loan for the down payment.(I only had one income-still do now own a log home on 25 acres in Me.Your going to have to dig deep, but if u really want out of this mess u will do it.(I only bring home 3200 mth as a RN)My 1st house wasn't very fancy,but it got me equity and that's what u want to keep upgrading(unless u got rich parents or really nice relatives.I wish u the best of luck. Regards Hank

You might want to look into getting a loan , that all depends on your credit to . That way you'll be able to pay off your cards and just have one monthly payment on the loan. You don't have anything to loose , by shopping around .

If you can't get that loan your next move , would probably getting rid of the car, to pay the credit cards. No matter how you look at it , it is not a good situation . At lease you know theres a problem and your dealing with it . Thats a good start..................

Good Luck................

1) STOP putting money on credit cards. This step is key. Without this step, you will never get out of debt.

2) Pay off the smallest loans first (more than the minimum), then roll your payments from those loans into the bigger ones. If you can put $400 a month toward your smaller loans, you will pay the first one off in 3 months, a 2k off in ca. 5 months after that, and the second 2k off 4 months after that. So in one year you've taken out 3 credit cards. Keep rolling your payments and the 3k will be gone in another 5months. 1.5 years and you now have the big two. If you are putting $6-700/month toward the 8k, that will be paid off in roughly a year. And the 9k a year after that.

See how it works?

As to where to get the $400/month to start, there are a couple things you can do.

1) Sell/part out the car.
2) Cut other living expenses.

I will say that driving a Saturn Ion for 4 years helped turn around my financial situation. But if you have other things you can cut, you may not have to sell the car. Best of luck.

whatever you do, don't join a debt consolidation company. All they do is bill you $50/mo or so for the service of handing you one bill. Then they cut out checks for you in the background.

If you're able to get a better paying job, it might not be so bad, but from the sound of it, you're in over your head and it's not going to be easy to deal with unless you sell your car.

Thanks for all the replies..... I appreciate all the help. mmats69....I had little debt (maybe 3K) when I got the car.....after that it was down hill..... I wasn't thinking about moving out so I thought I had time to pay things off. But, things have changed.....and so did my balances! DAMNIT! Lesson learned I guess...

Again, thanks for the adivce.....looks like I will be putting up the car for sale once I get it back from the shop (GRRR and just getting the turbo installed)

Any ideas where best place to sell is besides autotrader? Is modifiedcartrader worth it? Will I get what I'm mlooking for on Ebay?

Agreed.

And you can absolutely get a personal loan for more than 5K...but you need very good income and credit, or you've gone to Lucky Luciano's Savings and Loan...

you need to get a good pair of scissors and cut up those credit cards! 6 sheesh! Then proceed to part out your rx-8 parts and return to stock. then sell the car. Take transit.
Google: "get out of debt". You need professional help.

you're going to get raped selling a FI rx-8. Parting it out is the only way to recover most of the mod money.

I agree with staying away from the debt consolidation systems, they will screw you if you even fall off just slightly!

selling whole or part of your car here will help you some. But with the economy as it is at the moment people are kind of holding back a bit, so think of that when pricing your ride. If it were me (and it has been so many times) I would start with parting out the car to pay down your bills as mentioned earlier. Picking up a second job while in school can suck but its better to do it know while you can. I assume you aren't paying rent right now (I could be wrong) so putting as much as you can on your cards won't hurt as much as it would if you were paying rent.

Hey, while I didn't have th same level of debt, I lived your same story about 14 years ago.

What did I learn? Not a damn thing. I got the personal loan to consolidate all of my payments. I was able to pay off the loan and the car in about 3 years. However, in that time I just incurred more debt.

Either you want to be out of debt or you don't.

It would be really hard to part out the kit....I mean I didn't put it in, it was installed professionally, reason being I dont know what Im doing. Or, do I have the shop take everything they've done and un install and pay for the "un-installation"? Plus, all the gauges I've put in the car are kind of hard to take out and cover up. ::sigh:: wish things could be so much more simpler....... thanks for the advice again everyone.....

We could probably put it back to stock fairly easy. There are people close by that are willing to help. Just don't do anything to drastic too quickly. Come to the dyno day this weekend and we can talk about what can be done to get some of the money back out of the mods. Don't go and pay a shop any more money to work on the car. If the car runs don't have them tune it.

mateo gave you some great advice.

Part out your mods, you'll probably get 40-60% of what you paid for them but it's a start. Get the turbo uninstalled, sell it at a fire sale price, and that should put 3-4K in your pocket to help out with some of that revolving debt.

definitely part out the car. there might be someone in the chicago area that could help you take things off if you give them a good deal on something they want, or give it to them for free in exchange for their service.

easy things to come off
af short shifter
exhaust
sway bars
bhr radiator
coilovers
rims

i hope you have all the original parts. selling all of these things might net you like.. $2k? as mateo said, use it to pay off all the smaller debts.

it may be easier if you just leave the turbo in your car and keep it. but all the supporting mods that are 100% necessary (like an exhaust or coilovers) can come off.

you can, of course, put a for sale sign up and a thread in the for sale section. but do NOT sell it to a low baller. i'd take selling it as a last resort sort of thing and only at a price that is really fair to you. you need the money, do not let people lowball you because they PM'd you right away. wait a few days and someone with a decent head on their shoulders will come up.

u r living beyond your means. deal with it.

^^^ very well thought out and constructive post. Thank you for your grand contribution to this thread MTL

The hardest part will be that once you have a goal set is sticking to it. There is no point in reclaiming your life and making gains on your debt if you will simply repeat the behavior down the road. It isn't about how much you make its about how much you save. Good luck with everything.

Wow thats a little crazy. I have much less on my credit cards, I dont have to pay mortage, and I make almost twice what you make and I'm still practically broke. I cant imagine how you are able to make all your payments. I'm 23 and i finished school in December, have a good job but still live at home with my parents.
My advice is to part out the car, then sell it, and contiue living at home until all is payed off. I vowed to do so, even with my college loans. Finish school find a damn good job and then move out. I am looking to buy a house as well, but will not do so until I have nothing to worry about. With my progress it will still take me more then two years. Part of the reason is of course I am working on a graduate degree and an MBA, and still my work covers around 60-70% of that.
Hope to meet you at the dyno day, maybe I can buy off the Esmeril kit off of you :spank: jk

Something that helped me...

1) Cut all unneeded monthly bills down. (Read do you have cable? Go to basic cable or cancel). CCs pay minimum amount only to begin.

2) Organize all must pay off bills by least owed to most.

3) Pay off the smallest bill.

4) Repeat.

By paying off the smallest, as you can, it will motivate you that this is possible to do. Once the smallest bill is paid off you now will have a few more dollars available each month. Once you pay off several small bills over the next few months it will allow you to tackle more heft payoffs.

I forget the book I took this advise from but it worked for me.

Paying off your car is probably not an option at this point as you are most likely upside down.

Also anything in stock, bonds, etc cash out. Take the hit and move on. use the cash for above. Never go in to debt to save (To an extent).

I apologize if this has been covered, I did not read every sub post.

Take care,

Brian

kinda why I made this thread d-bag...I am dealing with the stress and problems this (yes self-induced but never thought it would get this bad) has caused everyday. Why bash on someons's life when they are taking steps to put it back together.

It is self-centered assholes like you that should play in traffic. Either post something constructive and helpful or get a life and leave people who actually want to help others post something of value. Ok....I'm done with him now....thanks again to the others who have posted...

Tdiddy.....we'll talk this weekend at the meet.

first of all,t he biggest priority for you should be getting your credit cards paid off as the interest in some of your big ones are not nice... You probably can keep the car, but you need to part out your mods so you get cash and can pay it back.. sux that you will have used 40% of the money for no mods... Anyways, that should be your goal, not getting a house.. why even thing about a mortgage on 2400 a month? I dont know the market there, but you can move out later an into an apartment.. no need to pony up for a house with mortgage, inurance, added utility and maybe even association fees... your salary would not support that one bit...

again, just focus on the credit cards and you will end of getting out it if you work at it. you defintely dont want to ruin your credit and spend more years repairing it.

sorry to hear about your misfortune man. a lot of good advice has been given here. hopefully you won't have to sell your car. good luck

All the advise on parting out your car is dead on. One more important thing is if your parents are willing to keep you in their home, STAY. I lived at home till I was 26. I was making good money and working on my MBA. Once that was done and I had lots saved up, I then moved out. Downside is you better find a girl that has her own place, hotels are expensive :) Once your financialy ready take the plunge and buy a home.