I am in therapy now and getting better but I have a massive amount of debt that I racked up the last decade when struggling with mental illness/PTSD. I am married but I offered to take on all the debt payments since it is my doing and my husbands job covers all our other expenses and there's usually not much or anything left after he's done paying bills. I am also the caretaker of the children due to his long hours Mon-Fri. I work a remote job every moment I can but it only pays 14.00 an hour. I've tried to get a better paying job but I don't have a bachelor's degree and most things that are offered to me would not cover the cost of childcare I'd have to pay just to work the job. I've applied to many remote positions that pay more than I am currently making but so far nothing has come of it the last year.
Here is my Debt:
15K personal loan with husband (was 20K I have paid 5k at 13% interest. I opened this 2 years ago to pay off the high interest credit card) 360.00 a month minimum
17K Credit card debt - Joint with husband. One card 23% interest rate. 400 monthly MINIMUM - I cannot pay more than the minimum currently.
1K Venmo Credit Card- 20% interest. 50.00 minimum payments. Been paying this around 2 years now with no change in the balance. I haven't used this one in 2 years.
1K Care Credit Card from dental work- 40 dollars minimum payment.
Here are things I've considered after doing research:
**We own our home. Sell the house and use the equity (around 200k) to pay off all the high interest debt and personal loan. If we do this and use the rest of the equity to make a 20% down payment. our mortgage will go up about 1000-1500 dollars a month but it would likely result in a better house and then the high interest credit rates are gone.
The downside to this: finding an actual home in our area for our budget. I have had struggled to find anything remotely close so far without going way out of budget. We can't change location because my husbands job is here and it is the best job he could possibly have with his background. Trying to also be sensitive to my kids having roots here.
** Sell the house and use the equity to pay all debts. Rent.
Downside: Rent here starts at 1600k-2k a month for apartments which is higher than our current mortgage and none of the benefits of building equity.
** Non-Profit Debt Repayment Plan. I reached out to them and already got a quote. They can't do anything about the loan so the 360 payment would remain but they can consolidate the remaining debt to 0% interest with a payment of around 350 a month for everything. That would be 710 in payments I'm still making monthly.
Downside: my husbands credit takes a hit. Mine is already not great - mid-high 600's I think but my husbands is currently 780. Also, the credit card we have goes away which I think is good but I've been told having the line of credit open is useful for the income to debt ratio (?) don't know how true that is though.
Additionally, if any emergency happened we would have no way to pay for it because the only credit card would be gone. We have no family on either side to help us with anything financially so we are on our own.
** Get a second and/or third job and try to just pay it down the best I can
Downside: I have a high school diploma and most jobs that respond to me offer even less than the 14.00 an hour I'm paying now. I've looking into coding boot camps but they cost many thousands and my brother who works in tech advised against doing that.
So those are things I've considered. Bankruptcy is not an option at this point. If it were just me, I would but there are other people to consider.
Any advice is appreciated. I have been beating myself up for the last year or so but I'm tired of wallowing and I want to do something about it.
I wish I had gone to therapy years ago when I was first assaulted because now that I have been in therapy, I really see how the trauma and how I was raised made for a perfect storm once I got my first credit card and they just kept upping the available credit. I'm ashamed and I don't even have anything to show what I spent money on. It's just pathetic.
original posted by PossibleMusic1575 to r/personalfinance on Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:59:04 GMT.