beating debt.

[Patient zer0]

im in a bit of financial mess. nothing I can't get myself out of just a large amount of consumer debt.

around 37,000
incl. student loan, credit card and a consolidation.

I live at home but want to buy my first house in sept of 09.

what's the best way to pay down my debt to a reasonable amout that I could be approved for a mortgage?

pay off higher interest first? and only make minimum payments for the lower ones?

I make roughly 85k gross annually if u need an income ammount.

[patsopinion]

i this market it seems like debt free would get you the best loan
according to my math you should have 33k per year avl to you to pay down/save
the best borrower has no debt, no lates, and about 15-25 percent or more down

[Patient zer0]

so my idea of having a home by sept is unatainable?

im trying to get a consolidation of the full amount and pay 3k a month towards it.

[patsopinion]

are you paying rent?
i dont understand why you have so much debt and yet you seem to make a pretty healthy pay check?

personally i would not want to move with debt if i didn't have to
houses have a lot of unforeseen expenses and in most cases mortgages are only half of your expenses
having less monthly bills from the past will put you in a more fiscally stable position going into the future

the market in january is much different that time of year because its not a common move/buy a house time and those left selling get pretty desperate

catch a deal in january compared to fighting with all the families moving around and buying shit in sept.

[angrymissy]

so my idea of having a home by sept is unatainable?

im trying to get a consolidation of the full amount and pay 3k a month towards it.

The lender will look at your debt to income ratio and factor that into how much you are approved for.

The student loan debt - I wouldn't worry about that right now. How much of that $35k is credit card debt? What is your monthly car payment? That's what they will majorly be looking at.

[Tenbatsuzen]

You need to have a goal of being under 10K in debt before you even consider looking at homes.

The student loan is not that bad, but you need to get the CC's and the consolidation down.

Missy is right about debt-to-income ratio.

I think, unless you go absolutely hog-wild in paying down debt, September 2009 is a long shot unless you're looking at a 200K home.

[Patient zer0]

thanks for all your help. ill go into this further when im at home and have my statements in front of me and I can give a solid snapshot of what I got goin.

[cougarjake13]

im in a bit of financial mess. nothing I can't get myself out of just a large amount of consumer debt.

around 37,000
incl. student loan, credit card and a consolidation.

I live at home but want to buy my first house in sept of 09.

what's the best way to pay down my debt to a reasonable amout that I could be approved for a mortgage?

pay off higher interest first? and only make minimum payments for the lower ones?

I make roughly 85k gross annually if u need an income ammount.


can you consolidate all 3 into one, thereby having only one loan and one interest ??

[patsopinion]

i know discover offers a card that offers 0 intrest for 16 months on all balance transfers

if your planning on paying it all off before that time period then paying the hole thing down becomes a lot easier if your not trying to push a boulder up a hill while doing it

[instrument]

Do you have a family?

Home ownership is over rated.

[Patient zer0]

yes I was thinking the exact same thing

?

[ToiletCrusher]

I had about 8700 in credit card debt in 2003-2004. I was able to work with the creditors and have some fees waived along with having them drop the interest if I agreed to make lump payments for a while. It was all said and done by year end 2005. Since then, I have too been thinking of buying a house.

My student loans continue to be deferred because I am going for a PhD. However, I was able to consolidate them into one account at a locked rate (2.67%). I have only 21,000 in student loans, not bad for 8 years of schooling. I plan to take my down payment (now up to 18,000) and use it to help me get a home equity line of credit along with my mortgage to use to pay off my remaining student loan debt and then refinance my mortgage to take over the home equity line. Luckily, many great homes are available here for between 100k and 150k.


Stay away from the consolidation companies. They buy up all your debt from the credit companies at a reduced rate then charge you a higher rate when you pay them off. Also, they actually have income restrictions and won't help you if you make too much money.

[Jujubees2]

I had about 8700 in credit card debt in 2003-2004. I was able to work with the creditors and have some fees waived along with having them drop the interest if I agreed to make lump payments for a while. It was all said and done by year end 2005. Since then, I have too been thinking of buying a house.

My student loans continue to be deferred because I am going for a PhD. However, I was able to consolidate them into one account at a locked rate (2.67%). I have only 21,000 in student loans, not bad for 8 years of schooling. I plan to take my down payment (now up to 18,000) and use it to help me get a home equity line of credit along with my mortgage to use to pay off my remaining student loan debt and then refinance my mortgage to take over the home equity line. Luckily, many great homes are available here for between 100k and 150k.


Stay away from the consolidation companies. They buy up all your debt from the credit companies at a reduced rate then charge you a higher rate when you pay them off. Also, they actually have income restrictions and won't help you if you make too much money.

Why would you pay off your student loan debt with a higher interest home equity loan?

[patsopinion]

My student loans continue to be deferred because I am going for a PhD. However, I was able to consolidate them into one account at a locked rate (2.67%). I have only 21,000 in student loans, not bad for 8 years of schooling. I plan to take my down payment (now up to 18,000) and use it to help me get a home equity line of credit along with my mortgage to use to pay off my remaining student loan debt and then refinance my mortgage to take over the home equity line. Luckily, many great homes are available here for between 100k and 150k.


they prob wont let you do that any more
just pay off the debt first and then start the house savings
your trying to do it the 2005 way
and that didnt work out so well

concentrate on being debt free and with a down payment before attempting
most neighborhoods, now especially, will have very good houses open in the rental sector, and with all of the other costs associated with the buying a house, it is far cheaper to rent per month, and then have a good mutual fund portfolio, which, if you buy into the market now, would way out earn the intrest on your debt, or a home investment with not a lot down (paying more intrest because your borrowing more money)


take money-invest in mutual funds(ones that have large holdings in wells fargo are best)- pay off loan monthly- rent home- wait till you have at least 35% down before borrowing for a home

[ToiletCrusher]

Why would you pay off your student loan debt with a higher interest home equity loan?

My intent is to refinance my mortgage and take over the home equity line after I use the home equity line to pay off the student loans. It is planned to avoid 300/mo payments for schooling and a mortgage payment concurrently (between 750 and 1000 a month). I can take the hit of 2% interest hike to avoid multiple large monthly payments.


Suddenly this has become about me. It was just insight for Dirty Sanchez. I am fully aware of what I am doing. I appreciate the additional input but just put my debt history as an idea of what could be done.

And, yes 2005 is long gone and things have changed a bit which may complicate things a bit. Luckily, I have friends and family who work financial type jobs helping me with this new endeavor.

[patsopinion]

My intent is to refinance my mortgage and take over the home equity line after I use the home equity line to pay off the student loans. It is planned to avoid 300/mo payments for schooling and a mortgage payment concurrently (between 750 and 1000 a month). I can take the hit of 2% interest hike to avoid multiple large monthly payments.

yea
why pay shit now when i have the money and its responsible when i can just finance it into my home

you, my friend, have learned absolutely nothing from the past 12 months have you?

[ToiletCrusher]

yea
why pay shit now when i have the money and its responsible when i can just finance it into my home

you, my friend, have learned absolutely nothing from the past 12 months have you?

It's tough to pay off my loans when I'm still a student and only make 25k a year right now. I knew the risk when I decided to go for the highest degree and not work between. Plus, while paying off my loans, I still have to pay rent and a car payment along with other bills.

I got lucky by getting my tuition paid for while finishing up by doing research work for some professors. So, that stipend is what I use to pay bills and save money.

[SouthSideJohnny]

Best source of info for debt reduction, in my opinion, is Total Money Makeover (http://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Financial-Fitness/dp/0785289089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231282580&sr=1-1).

I was slightly turned off when I first saw the book since there were a number of references to religion and tithing. Once I actually read the book, I was impressed with the structure of his debt reduction plan. My wife and I are doing the plan now, but we have a HUGE amount of debt (mostly grad school loans and a mortgage on my office building) so it will take us a while before we're totally debt free.

Good luck buddy!

[epo]

Why would you pay off your student loan debt with a higher interest home equity loan?

Lower interest, plus the benefit of the tax deduction makes the student loan not worth paying off early unless that's all you have left.