# Advise?



## x+y (29 Feb 2008)

Age: 28
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 27

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 30,000
Annual gross income spouse:34,000

Type of employment: private sector

Expenditure pattern: In general are you spending more than you earn or are you saving? not saving, spending all income

Rough estimate of value of home 315,000
Mortgage on home 305,000
Mortgage provider: PTSB
Type of mortgage: fixed rate
Interest rate 5%

Other borrowings – 
car loans - None
credit union - 14,000 pay 75 a week
partner credit union - 6,000 - pay 70 a week
personal loan - 4000 

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? no
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? 2,300
partner credit card - 2,500

Savings and investments: 3000 Credit Union
Partner 3000 Credit Union

Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, both through work

Do you own any investment or other property? no

Ages of children: none

Life insurance: policy through work
Mortgage protection


*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? *
*basically, we are living week to week, finding difficulty in paying balance of credit cards and very little left for saving for future. want advice on how best to become more financially comfortable & curious if many others of our age are in similar situation?*


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## ClubMan (29 Feb 2008)

Use the €3K _CU _savings to reduce/clear your most expensive loans for a start?

Consider redirecting pension contributions to clearing your debt and only restart them when you are debt free?


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## x+y (29 Feb 2008)

as far as i know we arent able to access our CU savings as they are tied to our loan. Our pension contributions are through work, taking directly from our wages so dont have access to those either...


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## ClubMan (29 Feb 2008)

x+y said:


> as far as i know we arent able to access our CU savings as they are tied to our loan.


Are you sure? Some _CUs _have such rules but others don't. What are the details of each loan listed above - i.e. original amount, outstanding amount, term and rate? 


> Our pension contributions are through work, taking directly from our wages so dont have access to those either...


I don't mean the pension contributions made so far which are most likely inaccessible. I meant stopping pension contributions for the moment and redirecting the money to servicing your debts. In general it makes little sense to be saving while carrying debt. This may or may not apply to your pension savings depending on the details of your scheme, whether or not the employer matches contributions etc.


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## x+y (29 Feb 2008)

credit union loan has been topped up a few times over last few years, rate is 6%, again the timeframe for repayments has been extended. partners rate is 8% over 5 years i think.

partners pension is government so not sure if contributions can be redirected, with my own company pays portion, thinks its 2%


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## ClubMan (29 Feb 2008)

x+y said:


> credit union loan has been topped up a few times over last few years, rate is 6%, again the timeframe for repayments has been extended. partners rate is 8% over 5 years i think.


But what are the details of the other loans?


> partners pension is government so not sure if contributions can be redirected, with my own company pays portion, thinks its 2%


What is the minimum that you must contribute to get the employer 2% (or whatever it actually is)? You should check out the possibility of stopping or reducing both your pension contributions and using the money to reduce your debts. Of course you need to find out more details including the implications of doing this.


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## annR (4 Mar 2008)

My advice to you won't be anything that hasn't been said before.

It seems to me that 
1. you are living beyond your means and 
2. you must get rid of the cc debt.  The interest on that is costing you a fortune, *and mounting*.  Have you tried to calculate this interest?  

It may be an idea to get a lower interest loan to pay off the cc debt.  A temporary solution may be to move the balance to a 0% interest cc but eventually it will revert to probably an even higher interest level.  

Personally I would be more inclined to pay it no matter what, as a loan will not address point 1 above.  If it turns out that you cannot redirect your savings or pension towards this debt, you should plan to go through a period of serious belt tightening and find out the hard way how to get out of debt.  Don't buy *any* non essentials.  Every extra penny, put towards the cc debt. Don't buy any clothes/music, don't go out, don't get takeaways,economise on groceries, limit your phone calls, I mean really lay low for as long as it takes.   

I think that this will help you pay off the debt and also understand what kind of lifestyle you can afford in your situation which, if you budget, should stop you getting into debt again.  There are lots of tips about budgeting but I would really just put a lid on all spending to pay the cc bill first.  I guess that's a bit drastic but I'm one of those extreme people who would hate to have debts.  You may decide to do a budgeting exercise first and pay off the cc more gradually.


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## bigjoe_dub (6 Mar 2008)

for an easy way of saving try this. (i started this years back when I was paid buttons and it really helped.   I still do it now)

get 2 biggage tins (sma baby powder tin works for me) that you cannot see into. place all coins (i mean all, even €2) into this on a daily basis. Place 5 euro notes into the other. you will not miss the money.(coins anyway) the coin tin takes me about 5-6 months to fill. I usually get 600-800 euro from this. I use this for 1) car insurance and road tax around may and for xmas shopping in Dec.

the €5 note tin takes about 9 months to fill. I usally get a grand out of this. I use this as my waking around money for me hols.

try it for a while.  keep tins in the bottom of a wardrope out of site.


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## x+y (6 Mar 2008)

thanks for your replies. We have applied for 0% interest CC & we are making a big effort to pay off the credit card debt. Hope to have it cleared before the high interest rate kicks in & will then reduce the limit so this wont happen again!

we will try the saving method also, dont know if ill manage to save as much as previous poster but will give it a go!


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## Purple (6 Mar 2008)

Can you and your partner get a second job and/or work (more) overtime?
Can you rent out a room?

You need to increase your income and you have no children so delivering pizza or working an evening shift in a shop, pub or petrol station should be no big deal (you might enjoy it).


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## x+y (6 Mar 2008)

unfortunately neither of us have the option to work overtime in our jobs.  we would be open to working an extra job, something we will have to look into.


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