# Need advice for money makeover



## ger2003 (23 Feb 2012)

Hello all, would greatly appreciate any advice re below.  My wife just started work again in January on 3 day week.  For the last couple of years were living on mainly just my income and childrens allowance

Age: 43
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 40

Annual gross income from employment or profession: 35000
Annual gross income of spouse: 12000 

Monthly take-home pay 3200 combined

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed  .  We are both in private sector  industry

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or  .  A - spending more
(b) saving?

Rough estimate of value of home 140000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 175000.  €920
What interest rate are you paying? 2% 

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc
Credit card €8000 (maxed) . €220
Credit Union €9000- €280
Loan to a relative €5000 - paying back €200 per month 12 months left.
H.P €350 (7 months left)

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? no
If not, what is the balance on your credit card? 8000

Savings and investments:have 3000 in credit union 

Do you have a pension scheme? yes - have two - 1 is from previous employer

Do you own any investment or other property? no

Ages of children: 4 children 10 to 18

Life insurance: yes - only for 36k


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

A lot of our debt was accrued due to a bad house move to what is now a ghost estate so we cut our losses and got out of there.
I have never missed payments on anything but in the last couple of years i tended to use the credit card to pay for clothes, doctors, occasional night out.  The credit card is now maxd.  I would like to get a loan so that i could reduce the interest I am paying.  I am worried as an overtime ban has seriously reduced what I can earn.  I cycle to work.  My wife drives to work in 9 year old Peugeot.  We dont smoke and rarely go out.  Now that my wife is earning again but i still need to reduce outgoings.


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## dmos87 (26 Feb 2012)

In order to give you the best advice, you'll need to outline your household outgoings - electricity bills, gas bills, food, sky, internet, etc. 

Once we have a clearer idea of the true outgoings we can assist better.


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## Bronte (27 Feb 2012)

You have gotton into a bad habit with the credit card.  Presumably you are paying the min and it's not hitting the balance.  Can you cut up the card as a first step.  You could try negotiating with them to reduce the interest rate or to write off some of it.  

Any chance you could move to a zero rate credit card, some of them still do this?

For those who cannot manage their credit cards there are not prepay credit cards available, going forward this might be a better idea for you.

You need to get some savings together to pay for unforseen events such as doctors visits and nights out.

Don't see how you are going to get a loan based on what you've posted.

As previous poster stated until you post up all your outgoings we cannot advice on savings, and you'll have to make some cuts to get back on track.  

Well done on getting out of the ghost estate and on your wife getting a job.  Any chance one of you could do an extra job for a year or so?

Any chance your relative would forgo the 200 for a year to let you get the credit card debt down?

Talk to the credit union about offsetting your savings against the loan.


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## Slim (27 Feb 2012)

Bronte said:


> ...
> Any chance your relative would forgo the 200 for a year to let you get the credit card debt down?
> 
> Talk to the credit union about offsetting your savings against the loan.


 
All good advice. I would suggest that in 12 months, you will free up €550 pm. At that stage you will be able to start paying down CC debt. Perhaps you could then talk to the credit union about an increased loan to pay off CC.

All this presumes you do not overspend significantly in the meantime.


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