My wife and I know we are in financial trouble now. We can’t keep making payments on our debt. We have hit the limit. I am tired of the tricky credit card transfers and hoping to come into a windfall from a lotto winning.
So we made an appointment to see a debt counseling service. Cost: $40. At first, we thought we were going to get pre-bankruptcy counseling. There is a requirement for that. You must do that within 180 days of filing.
After our first discussions, we realized we might be able to wait for filing bankruptcy. Maybe we can do some negotiating, or consolidation, some kind of payment plan. Besides, there seems to be a need for the payments to creditors to be late before one can even negotiate, before they would file suit against you.
So after looking over our paperwork, all of our lists of creditors, expenses, income, we get a wakeup. This is what we do to pay off our debts:
- If we keep paying like we have been (which we can’t afford anymore):
$3710/mo payments for 60 years - With a debt management plan:
$3963/mo for 5.2 years.
So clearly, if I had an extra $4000/mo, I would do plan B. But my current net pay is only $2147, and paying for our first mortgage, utilities, insurance, vehicles, etc. is about $4000. So we are really, really in trouble.
I need about $6000 more take-home pay per month.
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