I just got a loan from my bank that consolidates almost everything I owed (cards, loans, etc) 120 payments. Five years and I will be debt free. It seems like a long time though. If I can I will make extra payments as well to shorten the time. Five years is daunting. What a mess! Mistakes of the past will drag me down for that long. Bugs me. But I feel good about starting to get myself out of this hole. And I will still have room to save a bit if I am careful. It will be such a relief to work for myself and not for interest charges.
Advice I have picked up along the way: use cash, do the Dave Ramsay thing and set up $1000 emergency fund first, try to save a little more even while paying down debt (even $10 a week). You can find it (it feels less hopeless). I set up an ING savings account and automatically transfer a bit each week. Sell anything you don’t need and use that money for an extra credit card payment. I have used Craigslist and have managed to declutter and make a bit of cash. Baby steps. Think small not big. Pay down a bit at a time. I get overwhelmed and paralyzed when I think if the whole, but I can find my way to making an extra $50-100 at a time. Read Suze Orman. Check out Oprah’s debt diet. Cook your own food. Eat out less. Get a library card. Find someone to carpool with. Save on gas. Phone the credit card company to reduce your interest rate. One simple 2 minute call got me 12.9% instead of 19.9%. Write down what you spend for a month. It makes you more thoughtful. Then make a budget and try to stick to it. Reflect on your relationship with money. I used to see money as dirty, corrupting, evil, all about greed and a distraction to more important things in life. Now I see it as a tool. Nothing more or less. And if I have enough, I can help myself and others. Period.
