Standard Staples
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
- Messages
- 104
Welcome to the forums. Starting a post on here probably puts you on a road that is ahead of 90% of the population... using the information everyone on here provides will put you ahead of 99%.
Here's my thoughts:
1) It sounds like things are very separated in your household. Is there a reason for this? Does your wife object to pooling everything (assets and debts)? If not, I'd sit down with her and have a full blown financial conversation. You need to see where BOTH of you are spending your money so you can evaluate where all the leaks truly are.
2) Regarding the debts, what are the interest rates? The school debt is probably 4-6%, but the credit card debt could be as high as 30%. I agree with everyone else about the cash reserves, but you two need to prioritize and figure out where the biggest bang for your buck is, in terms of debt pay down.
3) Someone else already asked this, but the child care situation is very important. Do you have family that can help? Is one of you planning to stay at home? I personally pay out a small fortune in daycare, but both of our jobs far exceed the daycare payout, so it works. If you are considering daycare, you need to start interviewing and gathering cost estimates.
4) Unless you are driving a car that is TRULY unsafe (i.e., no airbags, significant mechanical/electrical problems, etc.), buying a new vehicle would be a tremendous mistake at this stage. Again, you HAVE to prioritize.
5) I'll actually take the car issue one step further. What's the possibility of dropping to one vehicle? I don't know the value of your vehicles, but if you could unload one for $6K, half your wife's debt is GONE. If one of you plans to stay home with the baby, maybe this could work.
Ultimately, what I'm getting at is that you've made a wise first step, in coming to these forums to gather information. But now you need to take a step back, and the two of you need to treat this as a financial EMERGENCY. Cut all nonsense spending. Teas, drive-ins, dinners out, whatever you "blow" needs to stop. You have 99K pretax income, 1K/month in rent and no car payments. You could build a tremendous cash cushion over the next 3 months AND pay off your debt. Get a laser focus on every dollar coming in.
You have an amazing reason to focus in on this... your daughter. How would it feel to have no debt and $30K+ in the bank the day she is born? Wouldn't that be amazing? Let that be your motivation. I'm not trying to be harsh, but when you say you may lose your job, your wife has debt, and you still want to buy a new vehicle, it doesn't seem like you are taking this quite as seriously as you need to.
I hope you continue using these forums, and I genuinely wish you the best of luck.
Here's my thoughts:
1) It sounds like things are very separated in your household. Is there a reason for this? Does your wife object to pooling everything (assets and debts)? If not, I'd sit down with her and have a full blown financial conversation. You need to see where BOTH of you are spending your money so you can evaluate where all the leaks truly are.
2) Regarding the debts, what are the interest rates? The school debt is probably 4-6%, but the credit card debt could be as high as 30%. I agree with everyone else about the cash reserves, but you two need to prioritize and figure out where the biggest bang for your buck is, in terms of debt pay down.
3) Someone else already asked this, but the child care situation is very important. Do you have family that can help? Is one of you planning to stay at home? I personally pay out a small fortune in daycare, but both of our jobs far exceed the daycare payout, so it works. If you are considering daycare, you need to start interviewing and gathering cost estimates.
4) Unless you are driving a car that is TRULY unsafe (i.e., no airbags, significant mechanical/electrical problems, etc.), buying a new vehicle would be a tremendous mistake at this stage. Again, you HAVE to prioritize.
5) I'll actually take the car issue one step further. What's the possibility of dropping to one vehicle? I don't know the value of your vehicles, but if you could unload one for $6K, half your wife's debt is GONE. If one of you plans to stay home with the baby, maybe this could work.
Ultimately, what I'm getting at is that you've made a wise first step, in coming to these forums to gather information. But now you need to take a step back, and the two of you need to treat this as a financial EMERGENCY. Cut all nonsense spending. Teas, drive-ins, dinners out, whatever you "blow" needs to stop. You have 99K pretax income, 1K/month in rent and no car payments. You could build a tremendous cash cushion over the next 3 months AND pay off your debt. Get a laser focus on every dollar coming in.
You have an amazing reason to focus in on this... your daughter. How would it feel to have no debt and $30K+ in the bank the day she is born? Wouldn't that be amazing? Let that be your motivation. I'm not trying to be harsh, but when you say you may lose your job, your wife has debt, and you still want to buy a new vehicle, it doesn't seem like you are taking this quite as seriously as you need to.
I hope you continue using these forums, and I genuinely wish you the best of luck.