Recovering from debt

amother

Yellow

Wed, Feb 03 2016, 5:43 pm

I'm 30 years-old, married with 3 young kids, and after years of underemployment, I'm finally working in my destined career. Despite working while in school, we don't have any savings, and we have probably 15-20,000 cumulative debts including credit cards and student loans, and borrowing from a family-based home equity loan--from being underemployed despite LOTS of hishtadlus and living mostly stingily. My current salary has room to grow, but right now it "just fits." DH is in his last year of yeshiva so he can be employable very soon, but he's involved in projects that do pad my earnings. Our dwelling is too small for our family, and we will need a replacement vehicle, a minivan at least. DH and I feel like we'll never get out of the hole. I feel a little bit better b/c I heard from my colleagues that when they graduated they had like 80,000 in student loans. Can someone else make me feel better about our situation? Will we ever recover?

amother

Indigo

Wed, Feb 03 2016, 7:02 pm

between my husband and I when we're done school well prob have 80k in student loans. I don't see why this is a big deal at all. we will be in a fine position to pay it back.even if not student loans do not effect your credit and they cannot seize your home, you pay back asyou can. we also have about 125kin mortgage and owe 8k on our auto loan. these are normal debts and as long as your making payments no need to obsess and worry. A few years younger than you.

amother

Fuchsia

Wed, Feb 03 2016, 9:56 pm

we're in our mid 40's and $100,000 in debt, $70,000 or so is student loans. we're not buying a home (luckily we're happy renting), and we don't plan to retire. Oh well. Instead of feeling suffocated by debt, I'm choosing to be thankful we've got a roof over our heads and food in our tummies without being on food stamps and such. We did, however, stop at 2 kids.

lfab

Thu, Feb 04 2016, 12:16 pm

My advice would be pay off the credit cards as fast as possible. Student loans are a "normal" debt. The interest rates are not usually that high and the loan companies will offer various repayment options. Credit cards, however, have outrageous interest. Pay those off first and then apply the money you were putting towards those debts towards your other debts (snowball effect). Continue trying to live as simply as possible in order to pay off debt as quickly as possible. Especially since you know that you have room to grow in your current job, and DH will be working soon if you can push off some of your expenses (ie. moving to a bigger place, new car) until your income improves you should be ok.