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| Wed, 10-26-2005 - 12:46pm |
HI!
Been lurking here a few days, just reading and trying to not lose my sanity.
I'm Sandy, happily married with a "his, mine and ours" family. 15DD, 14SS, 12SS, and 2DS (almost 3). 12SS lives with his BM, the rest, live with us.
We're in credit card debt.... almost to the point of being over our heads.... our checking account isn't looking any better. We plan on cashing in my 401K from my former employer after the first of the year and hopefully getting almost completely out of debt(wish we could do it now!).
14SS recently moved in with us and we need a bigger house, we have enough "rooms" here, just not enough "space"....we're on top of each other. Our credit standing is accually pretty good, at least a lot better than when we purchased the home we're in now, so even thou we'll be getting a bigger home, we doubt the payments will be that much higher. At least, as long as we can keep our heads above water our credit is good.
I'm rambling here, I know, I'm just kinda feeling "lost". I quit my job about a year ago due to problems with the jerks I used to work for (i now have carpal tunnel) and we've slowly been getting into debt since. Money got tight... we'd charge what we needed.
From some of the posts I've read, we're not as bad in debt as some here, but it's scares the h3ll outta me! I've never been this far in debt before.
Ok, think I'm done...for now anyways.
I need any ideas/suggestions anyone has. I welcome them!
Thanks in advance,
Sandy

Welcome to the board.
Have you tried cutting some expenses? For instance, cable/satellite, phone, etc. I don't have much advice/suggestions. I'm sure others will post w/more help.
MYM
Welcome to the board. You will find lots of support and suggestions. You might even consider joining the snowflaking group.
I am what I like to call a frequesnt flyer. I join start going good with the credit card debt, fall off the wagon and the board, come back - an ugly cycle that I need to break.
First let me say that you should not compare your debt amount with others. Everyone makes different amounts of money and have different types of debts - I woudl not want you to give yourself a false sense of security (I hope I worded that right).
Second as the other post said you should look and see what you can cut back on. Personally, I have not cut back on many things, but if the time comes for me to need to do that, I have a list prepared of what goes first. Not fully knowing your financial situation and your debts, I really couldn't say that you need or have to cut things out.
As for cashing in your 401 plan. I amn sure there are others on this board who could provide you with the pros and cons of doing that. I did a few years ago borrow against my 401K but sadly I did not learn my lesson with using credit cards and found myself in more debt than before. Then we sold our rental unit and once again paid done our credit card debt, only again to build it back up again. It is an evil cycle.
I guess what I am saying is that is great that you want to use your 401K plan to help lower your credit card debt, but unless or actually I shoudl say until you learn to live your life without using your credit card(s) or can be disciplined enough to use and pay them off completely each month, you are only going to find yourself in credit card debt again and this time without your 401K money.