calling all wise ladies...off topic

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-07-2004
calling all wise ladies...off topic
3
Thu, 03-25-2004 - 11:06am
Lovies...

I need your advice. I really want to get rid of this debt and it has come to my attention where I have 4 options on my first pay check towards this. I can a) pay a small amount on almost everything and pay off 2 very small ones, b) pay off 2 very small ones and 1 small one and a small amount on half of the others, 3) pay off one significant one and a small amount on half of the others, or 4)pay half on one significant one and a quarter of a large one and pay a small amount on half of the other ones.

Personally, I am leaning towards either 3 or 4 but I have decided that my decision making processes in this area are just not up where they need to be, so HELP!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-02-2003
Thu, 03-25-2004 - 11:11am
Are you talking about in addition to regular payments?

If so, I would do whatever you can to pay off the highest interest things first. :-)

In absence of a significant difference in interest rates, I would PROBABLY do number 3.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-07-2004
Thu, 03-25-2004 - 11:17am
Interest rates are about the same on the credit cards which are the ones with samll amounts to them. The 2 I was focusing on are amounts that are fixed. My credit card debt is nothing really roughly 1500 so I am not too concerned about that. But I have bigger fixed amount debt.

I can still put some money towards another big debt and pay for half the credit cards on this pay check and the other half on the last paycheck of the month. This is beyond hard...see this is why I need to get married. He can take care of the bills and just give me a set amount to stay with and I will be so happy.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 03-25-2004 - 11:24am
Here's what we did years ago when we were badly in debt: in addition to the regular payments, we scraped together our excess (about $50 a month) and put it on the one with the highest interest. The savings in the interest payments were worth the fact that it wasn't our smallest loan, and so it took a bit longer to pay off. Once it was paid off, we took that $50 a month PLUS what we had been paying for the minimum monthly payment on that card and put the whole amound (now over 100) on the next highest interest loan...and so on. I know it is tempting to pay off something small first so that you feel like you've made progress, but you really do have to look at the interest rates since that really adds on the total amount of money you end up paying back.