re: Say you were to "give up" and go with debt consolidation?

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One car is paid off and the second only has a year

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But you're concerned about the >$50k in debt, just not "that" concerned right?

You're not moving very fast on the snowball because you keep borrowing money, IMHO.

Either you have a lot of equity in your vehicles or a little. If it's a lot, you're unwilling to make sacrifices to make progress. In my opinion, without a change of mindset (and it doesn't have to be forever, mind you - just until you're out of debt) - you can consolidate and work the snowball until the cows come home, in 36 to 60 months you'll be right back in the same situation.

It's about priorities and mindset. Do what you want. You don't seem to be in too bad a shape. But borrowing money (consolidation) is never the answer to borrowing money. The answer to borrowing money (if that is a problem, some folks make money off borrowed money) is to stop borrowing and pay it back.

It's a relatively simple mathematical process.

I would not use a HELOC or personal loan backed by collateral to pay off unsecured credit cards

How long have you been doing the Dave Ramsey thing?

Keep the course, pick up the pace, read his book again and figure out something else you can do, it will take sacrifices (and that may mean selling your nice cars for not so nice cars)set up a budget , review it , where can you redirect some more money to the credit cards, eating out, entertainment, cell phone bills, cable TV, I have no idea what you are already doing but look again see if there is any additional tweaking

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Ace Midnight

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This.

I would sell everything that you have that you don't need, and I mean everything.

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FIFY

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Okay - you've been been quite contrite in this thread and I think we've all tried to help. Let's go back to square 1 - you're working the snowball. You're not borrowing any more money, but you're:

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wasting money

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How does your budget look? Have you cut to the bone?

A big part of the snowball is being a fascist about spending, and putting every penny in and out on the budget. That usually allows a freeing up of money that will get put directly on the snowball before it ever gets a chance to escape on shite you don't need.

I mean, you've got cars. I get it. You need a car to go back and forth to work. Do you need a $30k car though? And if so, does that mean you're willing to cut movies down to 3 or 4 times a year (if that), eating out maybe 1 time per month and cutting way back on crap like cellphones, cable, and all that jazz? $5 lattes every day? Brownbagging instead of eating out for lunch at work.

There are a lot of things you probably could be doing that you aren't. You're either willfully or negligently going slowly on the snowball and want to use this to justify more debt?

I would verify your budget is tight and lean, then re-evaluate your snowball plan (smallest balances to largest - that's the deal), and realize that borrowing money is what got you this mountain of debt in the first place. Moving that mountain of debt to another place isn't going to make it smaller and could, in fact, make it larger.

Or worse, fool you into thinking it isn't there and doubling on you.

Good luck with it.

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Um first off you sell all your crap you are in debt for. Sell your cars, how many people don't have $20k in cars?

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I have a 6 figure income and have one car that might be worth about 4K dollars.

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How many toys does everyone have? Boats, RV, kayak, Bikes, etc. Who can't sell extra stuff for $5-10k? Almost everyone.

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Guess I'm just the strangest person ever since I only have a bike.

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I'm not saying $50k is not a lot of debt, it is. It is a lot of money. But most people that are that in debt also have a ton of crap they can sell off or sell to stop their payments to get out of debt.

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The type of things that you're mentioning, even if bought on credit were probably not bought with credit cards if I had to guess.

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If you've got two $20k vehicles, unload them both and buy 2 $7500-10000 vehicles. Then you can kick $20k off of the $50k debt and still have cars that are safe and above the constant maintence threshold.

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I know this is the MT where most everyone is wealthy and makes good decisions, but how common is it to have a paid off car (assuming a four year loan which sadly is actually kind of fast for most people today) that still at least four years in has a resale value of 20K?

My vehicles were purchased in 2005 and 2009. Both are paid off. I paid 18K for the one in 2005 (new) and 14K for the one in 2009 (used).

You would have to buy new cars costing north of 30K (at least) to still have a 20K value four years in. I'm starting to think about long-term replaement of my cars, and the idea of paying north of 30K for a car makes me absolutely sick!

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how common is it to have a paid off car (assuming a four year loan which sadly is actually kind of fast for most people today) that still at least four years in has a resale value of 20K?

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Not very common I don't think. Wife and I are pretty responsible with our money, and at no point in our 15 year marriage have we been close to having that much equity in our 2 vehicles, including times when both were paid off.

We've never bought a brand new car though.

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a short review of your recent post history and looks like you were considering buying guitars, cases, pistols, and just got back from a vacation, If you are serious about getting rid of your debt you have to stop the bleeding first!

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It's clear from his last post that he knows this. My recommendation with the OP is to have a "Come to Jesus" meeting on the budget. You can't be hermits forever, but set it at something reasonable and LIVE WITH IT. The envelope system works. Use and envelope for the "wants" fund. If you don't need it to:

1. Keep the lights on

2. Keep food in the fridge/pantry

3. Keep a vehicle to go back and forth to work

4. Keep a roof over your head,

then it's a "want" - budget the "wants" - if that's $150 a month, $300 - $500 whatever - when that envelope is empty - it's empty until next month.


Are you paying cash for everything or a debit/credit card?