Need help sorting out my financial mess before college

B

BrokeMom

Guest
Age: 24
Spouse’s/Partner's age: -

Annual gross income from employment or profession: €29000
Annual gross income of spouse: -

Monthly take-home pay: €2000

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed.
Employee

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn


Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc

Car Loan: €9068 (€244 per month, wont be finished until January 2015)


Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? No
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? €1200


Savings and investments:

Credit Union: €1030
RaboDirect: €160 (€20 going into this every week for annual expenses e.g. car tax/insurance, car service, Xmas etc)


Do you have a pension scheme? Yes. Only contributing €20 a week.

Do you own any investment or other property? No

Ages of children: 4

Life insurance: None

Others: (per month)

Creche: 370
Groceries: 200
Petrol: 120
Savings: 360 (€70 a week into credit union and €20 into Rabodirect for annual expenses)
Rent: 240 (living with parents)
Work lunches: 50

Entertainment: 150 (this includes clothing, hair cuts, dance classes, days out with little one)
Car loan: 244

Total: 1734

Which leaves me with about €260 to pay off credit card.


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?

I am hoping to start a college course this September when my daughter starts primary school. My income will drop significantly and I want to be prepared for when this happens. I want to try to increase my savings now so I have something to rely on. When I give up work this September I could be waiting months for financial assistance so this is really worrying me. I am not sure whether to try and get rid of my car loan as fast as I can or to just keep paying it until 2015. This could be the biggest burden if I start college as it is €244 a month. I may only be on €300 if I start the course. Downgrading the car is not an option as I have a 4 year old daughter and I need a reliable car.

If anyone can give me any pointers as to what they would do in my position. Just trying to get spending in check and look towards paying off my debts as soon as I can while also having funds to help me get by for the first few months.

At the moment I am concentrating on clearing the credit card. Should I just take out a loan to clear it? The interest is only €20 per month and I plan to have it paid in approx 13 weeks so I am not certain about taking out a loan to clear it. Also DO NOT want to touch my savings of €1000 in the Credit Union if I can. I hope to be able to get a loan from them if I need to during the college years so its important to me that I keep a good bit of my savings in there.
 
I have to say I am honestly curious to know what financial assistance you get for giving up a paying job to go back to college. I'd love to back and finish my degree.
 
Well you've knocked on the head the two items that would stand out to anyone wishing to advise you - the car and the savings.

I'm going to go against your wishes and tell you to sell your car and buy a much cheaper mazda, honda, toyota that will be reliable and give you an extra 5-7k to play with (if not more).

Use your savings to pay off your credit card - then start saving again.

With regard to stuff that you want to hear - start bringing sandwiches into work, what are your public transport options?

Could you share your parents car as you live at home? Will they be in a position to let you live rent-free when you go to college? What will your income during college be? Can you get a part-time job during college?

Do you get any maintenance from the child's father? If not, why not?
 
Hi,

yes, pay off CC asap, but I wouldn't bother taking out a loan to clear it.
for just two months stop saving 70e pw in CU, this is actually 600e over 2 months and you have the other 260e each month, so 600 + 260 + 260 = 1120. Thats the CC just about cleared, another week or so is all you need to get it to zero.

You can then resume saving 70e pw in the CU and you can also save the 260e a month also.

In August you could have about 4k or so in CU then.

You presumably can't do without the car so you will have to keep up the 244e a month repayments til 2015.

You might have to suspend paying into your pension during your course as even 20e a week to find will be hard. You won't be a taxpayer in 2013 so there wouldn't be tax relief on your pension contributions.

Don't forget your monthly child benefit is more income you have.

you may get a small tax refund in early 2013 for 2012 as you will only be working 8 months.
 
To be honest I would question giving up any job in this environment, especially one that pays reasonably well, to go back to college. Are you taking a career break or something? which might make some sense.
 
Without giving a life lesson here, I am also questionning why is there a need to give up your employment? Life is full of surprises and I don't think you have sufficient savings to be able to afford not working. Could you not look at doing a part time course? I don't know what you are planning to study but there are many accredited courses (in every field you can think of!) that offer part time courses. Working part time would be better than not working at all or you could look at courses that run on one or two evenings a week? Even if you pay a baby sitter 40/50 euro for each baby sitting, you would still have a job.

Do you have a loan or a hire purchase agreement on the car? I also agree with the fact that you shoudl suspend your pension contributions for a while and concentrate on clearing up the credit card as soon as possible.
 
Could you not do your degree in the evenings? It's generally 2 nights a week. Also how often do you get your hair cut, nights out etc? Could you cut back on this a bit? Keep an eye out for hairdressers seeking models? You should also keep an eye on boardsdeals and groupon, livingsocial etc, they always have deals on these type of thing. Try look for free stuff to do with the little one also.
 
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