I highly recommend you look into Dave Ramsey's class or books. He is excellent at teaching folks how to get radical to eliminate debt.

If your income has been cut in half because of divorce, then you need to do what the PP said and create a brand new budget using YNAB or Mint, or something similar. You have to adjust your spending to the income you now have, while also creating a plan to pay off the debt. I'd also suggest you sit down with a friend who is good with money and get their input on how to structure your budget.

I think the TSP loan is a terrible idea, and I would not do a HELOC unless you can really trust yourself to stick to a budget that would allow you to pay it off -- otherwise you run the risk of losing your house. Running to another loan when you already have debt is not the answer. Learning to live within your means is.

You have a new normal now, and so you need to adjust your spending to meet it, and that includes your housing costs, car, etc., not just the little expenses.

Is getting a second job on the side, or doing some consulting work a possibility?

Anonymous wrote:GS14 step 8. Should I take a TSP loan or suspend contributions?

Debt: $46k in CC. TSP loan can cover 75 percent. My contributions are $12000 a year. If I kill my contributions I also lose the agencies 4 percent.

I am already cutting back on everything else.

TIA

Fed Bill!

Sorry about your divorce. I would contribute 5% to TSP and continue to do that to get the match (it's 5%) and also the tax deduction. If I calculate it right, you are currently contributing about 9%, so you could cut back to 5% and have some extra income. Put that toward your CC debt.

I would put all my budget, accounts etc. into either YNAB (You Need a Budget) or mint.com or some other financial tracking software. You'll see pretty quick where your money is going. Look at everything going out and try to figure out how to cut each bill. If you can cut your phone bill by $20, your insurance by $25, cut groceries by $100, etc., you can put that toward the highest % credit card. Or the one with the smallest amount. You can also call each one and ask them to lower the % on the account.

This is all to say that you should work within your take home and not borrow from TSP. Terrible idea! And don't borrow from your HELOC either or you'll lose your house. I agree about trying to get a roommate-- you can easily get $800 a month. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the help. It appears that many of you didn't factor in the fact that I just got divorced and had another income.

The house and car cannot be sold right now. The cell will be changed. One kid is in college and portion of support is the healthcare.

I factored it in. I asked for a more complete budget: take-home, food, utilities, gas etc. Hard to advise you on what to do and where to cut without that information.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the help. It appears that many of you didn't factor in the fact that I just got divorced and had another income.

The house and car cannot be sold right now. The cell will be changed. One kid is in college and portion of support is the healthcare.

How does that have anything to do with you $47k in cc!?!?

Sounds like you have the BCBS Standard Family Plan. Dont see a problem there.

What are you paying in gas? Whats your commute?

Anonymous wrote:2400 Mort and expenses.
450 student loan (last year)
900 Car and insurance (yeah I know)
1300 in CC payments (46k on three cards)
90 iPhone (my only Internet)
Health ins 400 (I need plan with extended Ben)

Kids are grown, no deductions.

Taxes kill me..

Take home equity loan and pay off your credit cards and stop use them. You can also get tax deduction from it too. Besides this, your $900 per month for your car is too much. Why worry your $90 phone bill. This is small potato compare to the interest you paid to you $46K credit cards.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the help. It appears that many of you didn't factor in the fact that I just got divorced and had another income.

.

people didn't factor in the fact that you just got divorced because you never mentioned how recent it was. if a 900/mo car payment was doable on a 300k hhi, how did you rack up so much cc debt? or did that debt build up just since you've been divorced?

also recommend against tsp loan. do you have cable? cut that. where do you grocery shop? cut out whole foods, buy store brand, buy brands on sale. use transit subsidy to get to work.

People are more apt to critique others on here with HHIs but similiar money problems.

I got stuck with 37k credit card debt with income about 50k a year.I'm almost done paying it, transferred the last card to 0% once credit rebounded. You seem far from even stopping going into deeper debt...Might be that you are going to have to suffer 'til that car is paid off and then start paying your debt.
Don't take any funny loans from anywhere, looks like you like to spend more than necessary.

Ask your Ex to help with the car payment until you can sell it?

Thanks for all the help. It appears that many of you didn't factor in the fact that I just got divorced and had another income.

The house and car cannot be sold right now. The cell will be changed. One kid is in college and portion of support is the healthcare.

What are the causes of the cc debt? Your housing costs and car costs indicate to me that you may have a spending problem. If so, this is going to be a major lifestyle change for you. By grown children, does that mean they are out of college and living by themselves?