Ideas to pay off massive debt? Our appointment with a financial councilor was pointless. UPDATE... - Page 2

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

this is probably FAR from ideal, but where you live is insane for COL.

I was thinking the same thing. I live in Northeast Ohio and was floored when someone told us our house that was worth $80,00 would have been, like, $300,000 in SF. So obviously moving to Ohio isn't the answer but is moving or changing where you are an option? Could you move out past the suburbs or something to save?

[Chamomile Girl]

Originally Posted by Youngfrankenstein

I was thinking the same thing. I live in Northeast Ohio and was floored when someone told us our house that was worth $80,00 would have been, like, $300,000 in SF. So obviously moving to Ohio isn't the answer but is moving or changing where you are an option? Could you move out past the suburbs or something to save?

Thanks for all the ideas folks!

Specific to Youngfrankenstein though: My husband is a college professor. It took him four agonizing years to land his current tenure track job. The market for professors (especially in the humanities) is pretty much nonexistent right now. Sooooo moving is not an option any time soon. Hopefully never really, because the school he is at is awesome. There is noplace we could go that would still be in commuting distance that would cost less than where we are now. Lots of places that would cost more though LOL!

We are actually pretty lucky in regards to housing because we are in a university subsidized house and get a $600 monthly housing stipend. So we are only paying like $750 a month for a two bedroom house. In Silicon Valley this is...incredible. We should be paying like $2000. But this deal is only good until tenure. So another 5 years.

One reason we have so much CC debt is that this is the first year he has had a real, tenure-track job. As an adjunct instructor/grad student he had to live off his cards to a great extent. We both went to grad school in Los Angeles and had to sign a freaking contract that stated we would not seek employment outside our TA positions with the university (and they only paid us $1,100 to 1,300 a month). I ignored that contract and worked all through grad school. He felt this would be too much of a drain of his time so he used his credit cards instead. So all that CC debt is his really. On the plus side, he now has a PhD and a TT job, where I dropped out of the program disgruntled, with only a masters and went and got a teaching credential.

Selling a car is an option, but I am not willing to sell both because it would limit my job search too much.

ETA: You actually can't find houses in San Francisco proper for as low as $300,000. More likely to be around $700,000. In my neighborhood it would be a little bit lower...probably $500,000-$600,000. The house I am currently living in is a small 1920 2 bedroom bungalow...maybe 850 sq feet, with no garage and a tiny yard. It's listed on Zillow as being worth 470,000. This is another reason why owning a house is a real pipe dream.

[EdnaMarie]

Originally Posted by Chamomile Girl

Thank you for the concrete suggestion! Unfortunately they do not have a branch or affiliate near me .

I am in the San Francisco Bay Area if anyone knows of something like this that is local to me.

First, re: FD: What a UA. How dare he. As if you could end up in that much debt with such monied relatives. Not to mention, who does that?!?

Second, I know this is not ideal but here are some job ideas for you:

Babysitting- yes, it's irregular, yes, it's frustrating, no, you can't put it on your resume, and yes, it takes time from stuff you need to do, but if you can keep your head and stay calm, it's money. I don't do it, but then... we don't have debt. And I've thought about it, except that I'm really not good with kids, and I don't think it would be right, LOL.

Not much, but enough to put that much more into a credit card.

Secret shopping- look up BARE International. They pay via PayPal. It's very little, but I can make about $50/month with no noticeable time loss (I call while kids are napping). On good months, I make $100 or so. Again, pennies compared to your debt, but it's SOMETHING and very, very easy with a baby compared to anything else that requires leaving the house or using paper or whatever.

And finally... yes. SF is super expensive. Your DH just got a job there, but if you can live further, even for one year, and him come home on weekends and once a week and commute, anything to get OUT of renting in SF, you will save a ton. Or he could lengthen his daily commute. Live in a ghetto. Yes, you have to take the bus to get to the park, but at least you will be near WIC offices. You must cut costs somehow and housing is a huge drain.

Oh, and if you don't have WIC, see if you can apply. It's not for unemployed, it's for poor and underemployed. In many areas they give fruits and vegetables and other stuff that, say, your DH could eat so baby can have healthier snacks while you economize.

I do agree that you should defer student loans as long as possible. IF you can, go into the office and speak to them, explain the situation, explain your plan, and ask what they can do for you in terms of deferment without penalties.

I'm sorry. It sounds like you ran up a lot of debt in college thinking you'd get professional jobs and then the economy hit.

(Um, ETA I started writing before you posted, so obviously, yeah, comment about moving null and void. So happy you have good rent. However, secret shopping is still a fair option. With one kid, if you can get a lot of commissions, like one per day, that would be enough to save $150 toward a card, at least.)

[fruitful womb]

nm

[beansmama]

Originally Posted by Chamomile Girl

Thanks for all the ideas folks!

Specific to Youngfrankenstein though: My husband is a college professor. It took him four agonizing years to land his current tenure track job. The market for professors (especially in the humanities) is pretty much nonexistent right now. Sooooo moving is not an option any time soon. Hopefully never really, because the school he is at is awesome. There is noplace we could go that would still be in commuting distance that would cost less than where we are now. Lots of places that would cost more though LOL!

We are actually pretty lucky in regards to housing because we are in a university subsidized house and get a $600 monthly housing stipend. So we are only paying like $750 a month for a two bedroom house. In Silicon Valley this is...incredible. We should be paying like $2000. But this deal is only good until tenure. So another 5 years.

One reason we have so much CC debt is that this is the first year he has had a real, tenure-track job. As an adjunct instructor/grad student he had to live off his cards to a great extent. We both went to grad school in Los Angeles and had to sign a freaking contract that stated we would not seek employment outside our TA positions with the university (and they only paid us $1,100 to 1,300 a month). I ignored that contract and worked all through grad school. He felt this would be too much of a drain of his time so he used his credit cards instead. So all that CC debt is his really. On the plus side, he now has a PhD and a TT job, where I dropped out of the program disgruntled, with only a masters and went and got a teaching credential.

Selling a car is an option, but I am not willing to sell both because it would limit my job search too much.

ETA: You actually can't find houses in San Francisco proper for as low as $300,000. More likely to be around $700,000. In my neighborhood it would be a little bit lower...probably $500,000-$600,000. The house I am currently living in is a small 1920 2 bedroom bungalow...maybe 850 sq feet, with no garage and a tiny yard. It's listed on Zillow as being worth 470,000. This is another reason why owning a house is a real pipe dream.

That IS awesome rent for the bay area! WOW. So my whole "move" comment is pretty much null and void, but I'm gonna say it anyway, haha!

Once the tenure is up and you don't get that housing, you COULD look at moving an hour or so outside the city. I know the commute would SUCK, but a lot of people do it. My bestie's mom used to commute from Modesto to Oakland 5+ times a week for work...it does happen

Also - that's pretty much what I was thinking about the housing costs! 300,000 would be *cheap* in San Fransisco. My grandparents have a okay house in a working class neighborhood in Redwood City and *that* is worth more than $500k. Insane, really.

[mamaofprincesses]

If you ever get balance transfer offers, you might run the numbers and see if it's worth doing. Years ago, I ran up a little credit card debt (like $1,000, but it seemed like a lot to me then) amd I transferred it. It was one of those 0% interest for six months kind of deals. Read the fine print carefully, and it might save you a little.

[redvlagrl]

I totally understand your position. DH is also a college prof and got a TT position - I know you have to go where the job is.

I agree with others that you should definitely consider selling one or both cars (if you get a job you can buy a beater or get public transit). Could your DH bike to work?

Could you take an evening job while DH watches the kids? What about over the summer? You could work.

Anything will help if you don't have to pay childcare. You might have to get a job that isn't in your field or commensurate with your level of education.

You could also look into being a corporate trainer (I have a friend who is a trianed teacher who does this).

[Chamomile Girl]

Update

Well we are starting to get our ducks in a row. Calling one of my cards a couple of days ago really got my booty in gear.

Here is what happened: I have a card that has about $1,100 charged on it with a $1,400 limit. I have never been late or missed a payment...in fact I have never had a problem with this card at all. Yet I noticed that for some reason the APR was 30%(!!) so I called to get it lowered. They refused to do anything about the high APR all the while acknowledging that my account was completely clean. Apparently they hiked up the rates last December, right before the federal regulatory legislation went into effect. The gist of it is that they did it because they could. Because they are interested in fleecing people, and could care less about their customers account situation.

Luckily for me my DH taught a summer class so we would have some extra money to throw at debt, so as of a week from now that card will be gone baby gone! But I am still furious about it.

Anyways...We decided to do the debt snowball.

First we went to the credit union to see if we could get a loan to pay off some of the CC debt. We were able to pay of the other 30%APR card using the 5% loan we received (we used my car as collateral). By just making the same payment we were sending to the CC (and getting no place with) we will have that debt paid off in 21 months.

Then we deferred our student loans. This frees up $500 extra a month to put toward CC debt.

It looks like by using the money from our student loan payments coupled with the eventual snowball effect as we pay off other accounts we can have all but one of our cards paid off in a year . I would never believe this if I had not mapped it out on a spreadsheet...but its true. And obviously there will still be the Credit Union loan to pay off for another 9 months after that...but wow! And this is, with the exception of $1,800 of summer teaching money, all being done with money we were already paying out for bills! It seems like such a shell game. I'm so excited to see that it might work!

So thank you all again for your wonderful suggestions! We'll see how this goes. Maybe I'll be able to update you again in a year or so.

[straighthaircurly]

One thing to consider in regards to the credit card debt...open a bank account at your local credit union. Then talk with them about consolidating your credit cards into a CC through the credit union. They are usually available at a lower rate and they are easier to work with than the big national banks.


Oops just read your update and sounds like you are already on top of it. Congrats!

[lmonter]

Awesome!

And just so you know, once you have your plan on paper a la spreadsheet and all, things may just happen to help it go along quicker. When we were doing the snowball, hubby got extra pay for after-hours work and an unexpected bonus and something else. The majority of that money went to debt (or we planned for something like a new chainsaw for hubby or something). It was pretty cool, really.

[Climbergirl]

Chamomile,

I used to live in that area, you have awesome rent

If you want to reduce your spending, try going to the farmer's market at Vallco (in cupertino), it has the cheapest out of them (avoid Campbell and Mountain View as they are the opposite). Also, shop at the Asian markets for things like cereal, noodles, etc. Their prices are SO MUCH cheaper. Veggies and fruit go bad quickly, so be aware, the prices make it worth it. 99 Ranch was were we went a lot.

There is a HMN chapter in San Jose and I know those ladies have a lot of frugal stuff going on, they just had a meeting about it. But I think one mom does groceries (all organic) for four of them for about $100/wk (if not less). They do a lot of bulk orders.

Good luck! We moved from that area because we could not figure out how we would be able to have 2 kids and buy a house on what we were making. Granted, we have a fair amount of debt which we are working on, but still it did seem crazy. Although, I seriously MISS the weather!!!!

[EdnaMarie]

Wow, I am really happy for you! That's awesome!

[Juvysen]

How cool is that??

[gabbyraja]

If you have a masters degree (I think I read that you do), you might try applying to teach a few college classes in the evening. I have only a bachelor's, but I have experience in a very rare area of technology and was able to pick up a class or 2 at a college each semester, about an hour away. It's harder to get them to let you teach online classes, but it's ALWAYS worth trying.

One thing to really think about with DR's debt snowball is having at least a bare minimum emergency fund in place before paying down debt. He says just when you can't afford it Murphy hits (anything bad, like your car needs a new engine, etc) and you are back using those credit cards to get out of trouble. $1000 is his bare minimum, then when your debts are paid you go to 6 months of living expenses.

[The Duchess]

Here are a couple of teaching jobs with the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco http://www.sfdcs.org/dcs/teacher_jobs they haven't been posted long so I would keep checking the site as it's a big archdiocese with many schools. Sometimes the pay is less than public schools but the community support is very strong and the parents usually fund raise to top up salaries and give cash bonuses at Christmas etc.

Edited to add agency that recruits teaches for private schools http://www.calwesteducators.com/

And more resources for job hunting
http://www.baprivateschools.com/employment.htm#BAsummer