Derek

Also a note about consolidating debt on in a mortgage:

“Consolidating debts into your mortgage, or another secured loan is (again, in my personal option) an even worse idea. Secured debt means that if you default on payments you’ll lose your home. Not only that, but your mortgage will generally be on a much longer term, so although the interest rate may be less, in the long run you’ll be paying far more.

For example, according to the figures you’ve just entered, you currently owe $30,000.00. If you consolidated that into your mortgage at, say 5.5% over 25 years, you’d end up paying $25,267.87 in interest. By snowballing correctly, you’d pay $4,247.00″

link: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

The easy on-line option is Google Docs:
http://docs.google.com/

If you don’t want the “on-line version” then check out Open Office, the freeware, open source competitor to MS Office:
http://www.openoffice.org/
In particular you’ll want the Calc program which should look quite familiar (screenshot here).

Never question or second guess debt reduction — especially credit card debt!

You have about 4 months to come up with your ‘08 ‘tax-owed’ money. Even then, you may be able to pay that on installments, but still cheaper than a CC (assuming an average CC rate).

As I have not been making income tax deductions throughout the year (yes it was foolish, I know), I will have that to deal with as well.

I have split my income with my assistant so that both of us have earned roughly $50,000.

Currently I have roughly $20,000 in debt and with roughly $70,000 of room for RRSP.

My mortgage is roughly $210000 with a home value of $425,000.

As I have $18,000 coming into my pocket over the next couple of days, I am looking for some options from readers as to how I should proceed. Pay off dedt, do Sm in some fashion, RRSP’s???

I am completely ignorant of the financial aspect of things and my advisor is not a hands on type of guy and is going to be replaced.

Looking for genuine input.

Thanks

DAvid

The moral of the story here is that, if I, a university student, can pay off $6,000 and invest an additional $2,000 all while making less than $12.50 an hour, in a year, its possible to stretch your money further.

To build upon Gates well-put observations, I highly doubt that those youngsters who do get into ‘money problems’ do so because they do not understand how to calculate the APR they will pay; they spend poorly or make bad decisions because they do not understand who they are or why they are engaging in such harmful behavior.

I would also surmise that anyone educated in Shakespeare will have a surprisingly strong interest in personal finance as well, given that so many of his characters are motivated by wealth – Iago, Richard III, Macbeth.

I’m not suggesting that teaching personal finance isn’t a great idea (of course it is) but that there is value in learning both.

As to the rest of your post – ie “Nor, do I remember being asked to quote a sonnet during my mortgage application” is true and a fair point, but the problem is that the same logic can be used to dismiss most of the high school experience. In my own mortgage application, I wasn’t asked to use the quadratic equation, list the Newtonian laws, speak Spanish, or run laps – so by your logic then algebra, physics, other languages, or physical education have no bearing or use in the real world either as long as you can own a home with borrowed money.

Of course, there may be some conflicting data here. In my experience, the ability to manage money shares many attributes with the ability to manage one’s health, relationships and careers. (Yes there are some exceptions).

In the case of a relationship breakdown, money is often a prominent factor, but it’s typically just the most visible end result of the relationship damaging decisions. Spending money to cover unhappiness, shared delusions of an unaffordable lifestyle, financial “cheating”, these are all relationship issues that manifest themselves as money issues.

There is no chance of you convincing me that learning Shakespeare will actually benefit the average individual more than being educated about personal financial management.

I have yet to see a study listing the top 10 reasons for relationship breakdown that listed lack of knowledge when it came to the Bard. Financial issues? Usually in the top 5.

Nor, do I remember being asked to quote a sonnet during my mortgage application. My credit score? Absolutely. For my wife and I, because we are good at managing money, owning a house with borrowed money, has been a very good thing for us.

I am considering rolling all of my (and my wife’s) debt into my mortgage when it comes up for renewal. We have approximately $30K in credit card and LOC debt. Would you recommend this as a strategy for reducing debt?

Don’t worry, we’ll be structuring ourselves so we don’t use our cards anymore for useless purchases…

RE: “Why aren’t these things taught, nay drilled into, teenagers? Which ultimately will benefit them more – reviewing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or money management?”

While I understand the sentiment (but not why it has to be one or the other), some 400 years after he lived, Shakespeare will still benefit them more.

Solid Financial and life advice from Hamlet:

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

I’ve been following your site for awhile, and I have become quite appreciative of the information — it’s inspiring! The only debt I currently have is a mortgage (and a HELOC for the Smith Maneuver). But when my husband and I met, he had a bit of credit card debt, and thousands more in student loans.

First, we threw money at the credit card debt, ASAP. He also bought a different car, instead of a gas-guzzling truck) which helped significantly. Then, we secured a home line of credit to include all of his student loans (property value had more than doubled at the time).

Not really rocket science, but it was an extremely stress relieving thing for him, as there was no way to consolidate his loans previously. It was tiring to ensure each lender was paid their piddly amount (and frustrating knowing how little the debts were being paid down!). To make matters worse, he missed out on any student loan relief because every year he went to school, the government lending body changed making it appear to each one that his loans were not significant.

As a student (university for 9 years!!) I found that also trying to time my shopping with my credit card rollover date was helpful. For example, I might wait a day to purchase groceries and the bill wouldn’t be due for perhaps another month versus the next week … when I knew I wouldn’t have the money. This helped to keep me from ever paying interest on the card. Timing is everything.

The key is to be diligent about paying down debt, and to spend the time and energy learning what things really cost.

The 2.9% deal information can be found here: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=618353&page=1