what to do?

guest64485 · Mar 4, 2009

Bills with the highest interest rate should be your first priority, which, I'm guessing is the credit cards. Pay the minimum on everything else and dump money into that credit card to relieve yourself of that terrible interest rate. Do not pay ahead on anything else until that credit card is resolved. Cut back as much as you can on non-needed expenses like cable until that credit card debt is gone. I still use my bunny ears. Your goal should be to get to a point where you can pay off your credit card in full every month so you aren't paying that horribly high interest rate, as that is a lot of money down the drain. If you have money in your savings, use that to get rid of cc debt. It does not help your situation to be making 1.5% interest in your savings but pay 20% on your cc interest fees. Also, see if you can get some refinancing on your home to reduce the interest rate. Stop contributing to your 401K until the credit card debt is taken care of. Even if that money miraculously gets you 10% return, that still doesn't compare to the 20% penalty from the credit card. Everything else pales in comparison to the amount of money that can be hemorrhaged due to credit card fees.

I'd say hold off on the roof as long as you can, unless doing so would cause structural damage to your house from water leaks/etc.

sunray12 · Mar 4, 2009

I'm kind of in a dilemma. I've been an LPN for about a year and a half and I've worked in a local jail 32 hours a week and work every other Saturday in a nursing home. I also had a factory job very part-time (maybe 6-8 hours a week), but recently lost it due to not being able to work more there. Now for the problem: I had deferred my students loans for 6 months to try to get caught up on bills. Guess what? They are now due again and I still can't afford to pay the bigger one (appr. $235/month) and I only paid down my credit cards by about $300 during that time and still owe quite a bit with min. payments at least as much as my loan. I really need at least 1 more day of work a week. It looks like it will be at least another year until I can get full-time at the jail as they can't afford to give me the hours now. I tried to pick up hours at the nursing home, but that is infrequent as I can only work certain days. Any ideas what I can do? I thought about deferring my loan again, but if you do that and don't pay much on it (int. is like $175/m), then the payment will go up 5-10/m when you resume payments. My home equity is almost maxed out and I don't want to use the credit cards anymore. I also need to find some money to replace my roof that went bad this winter. Insurance is paying a good chunk of it, but not all.
Currently, I'm trying to find a PRN position, but know it will be hard to find one that will work around the 1-2 days a week I can work. I'm also looking for a FT position, but don't really want to work in a nursing home as hospitals rarely hire LPN's FT around here. I also thought about going back to school to get my RN as I could put my loans on forbearance I believe, but then I would have to borrow more money to go until the jail "hopefully" reimburses for the classes after they are completed, but they won't pay for book or gas and I really don't want to go through the whole clinical thing again. Plus it would take a good 2 years by the time you get on the list and take the couple or prereq's I have left. I know it would be easier if I hooked up with a lady I've been dating for a couple months, but its still too early for that and she lives a good 45 min. drive away, so that is'nt easy either and she has kids to think of too. As a last resort I thought of getting a part-time job at a fast food restaurant or deliver pizza like I did when I was getting my accounting degree. I just think its pretty bad that I have 2 associates degrees, an LPN license and you still may have to go work for min. wage to try to break even. Anyway, any advice?

1) If you need a FT job and the nursing home is the place that you can get a FT job then take a FT job in a nursing home. It doesn't have to be forever but it's a stepping stone.

2) Go back to school and get your RN. And if you can find a LPN to BSN even better.

If you have an employer who will pay for this or help you pay for your education that's great but don't make your future contingent on your employer. It's all up to you. Meaning - if you have to pay out of pocket and work as you go then do it. Use student loans if you can and look for financial aid - you never know what grants and scholarships your school might have. If you go back to school your loans can stay in deferment until you can afford to pay them.

Jaybird310 · Mar 4, 2009

I don't know exactly how much credit card debt you have but have you tried calling the credit card company and seeing about getting your interest rate reduced? This could lower your payments and help you out. I personally don't carry much credit card debt after watching my parent aquired mountains of it I swore I'd never do that to myself. But I know of several people who have called and worked things out with the credit card companies, and all it took was just a phone call. The only company I know of that has been unwilling to work with anyone I know is Bank of America. I do recommend going back to school for your RN that will benefit you both financially and with job security. You can look into grants and programs that pay for your schooling. A lot of hospitals also offer tuition reimbursment for RN. Some will even pay for your schooling if you work for them while in school and agree to work for them when finished. I don't recommend that though unless you are absolutely certain things in your life will not be changing. I'm doing that to pay for my grad school. A decision I made when the only person I had to think about was myself, now I'm engaged with a baby on the way. Now as much as we'd like to move back home once I'm done with school, I'm tied to where I am for the next five years unless I want to pay back the hospital and pay them back quickly.

Medsport, LPN · Mar 4, 2009

Thanks for the replies. I never thought of calling the credit card companies to lower rates as I did'nt think they would do it. I usually just transfer them over to a card with a lower rate, but now they all have the 3% fee so its not a good deal on a high balance. Most of my rates are'nt that bad, but some of them are starting to go up when the "promotion" ends. I would be nice to have them all on 1 or 2 cards instead of around 10 or ss as that eats up money for postage too. I alos thought about refinancing, but I got a decent FHA rate on my house when I got it and my home equity loan is only 4.5% right now. Also they usually charge like 3-4k in fees and I don't want to start over as I've been here 11 years. Plus I've been thinking of trying to sell it for awhile, but like I said, the roof needs replaced and a couple ceilings need fixed and paint throughout the house to make it saleable to get at least what I owe and my 2nd mortgage paid off hopefully. That would really help out, but then I would have to find another reasonably priced house, but maybe something smaller with cheaper utilities. btw, I was doing some research and found some hospitals in Cincinnati that has a Transition into Professional Nursing Program that sounds great I think. It says if you have a BSN, ADN or diploma, you can work as a PCA (whatever that is) and get paid an RN salary until you pass the boards. I'm hoping that means an LPN would qualify and it says "recent graduate" and I got my license the end of July, 2007, but I still consider myself a new nurse as I've only been working as one for a little over a year. I don't know, guess I'll have to call to find out. If it is legit, it would be difficult though as I would need to pass the nursing exit exam on first attempt and two letters of recommendation senior nursing instructors. I'm not sure what the exit exam is either. Plus the hospital is about a 4 hour drive so I would have to try to sell my house sooner than later. I'm just getting so tired about worring about bills all the time. I mean thats one of the reasons I went back to school so I could have a dependable job and would'nt have to worry about bill as much. I just did'nt know I would have to borrow so much to do it and get in this hole...

Jaybird310 · Mar 5, 2009

It sounds like the program you're talking about requires that you're in school to aquire an RN or an advanced nursing degree. I'm not sure but being that it has requirements on testing and getting recomendations from nursing instructors.

I'd stop transferring balances from card to card, my parents played the balance tranfer trap for years and it never did them any good. You could also look into 'cash out' refinancing to pay down your bills. But like you said refinancing has it's downfalls and your equity is almost used up so I'm not sure if that would even be an option for you. Keep your head up though.