This website is excellent. While the author and her husband attend church, mention is rare and only in passing. Sound advice.

[frugalwoods.com]

Ramsey is ok in an overly simplistic way. Very few financial experts think he's great. Personally I love my credit cards. I eat out for free from cc points 3-4/mo, cashed in points for a $300 Lowe's gift card...and haven't paid a dime of interest since a year after my divorce.

Set a budget and stick to it. I ate on <$1/day for 2.5 years in college, a few years ago someone challenged me to do that again and it took $1.20/day. It's a BORING, annoying, healthy diet. You'll likely lose weight and tone up and start to dislike eating after a few months then it'll just be routine and you'll love watching the debt fall. It also takes shopping at different grocery stores and a deep freeze helps but isn't essential. I wouldn't recommend eating like that for long but for a year or three it's a great thing if you have short term goals.

Once you pay off the debt, I HIGHLY recommend getting a Roth IRA, it's not the absolute best investment but it's extremely good for people who don't want to spend 10-20/week studying the market and planning 5-10 years out.

I set a "zero" limit for my checking account. Start with whatever you can; even if it's just $100, and never go below that. You can creep it up as you save. I also add money to savings every month, even if it's just $25, anything is better than nothing. My credit card is from my bank so when I sign in, I can see everything. I buy most everything with my credit card because it accumulates points (I use them for travel, but this card has several options for points), HOWEVER, because it's linked to my account, every couple of days, I can transfer money to the credit card from my checking so it never carries a balance or charges me interest. I also overpay any debt I have. I've been debt free for several years, but just got a new car. I always pay more than the minimum amount for the payments and am hoping to pay it off in 3 years.

I would say just limit how much you spend, take care of the bills first or most of them, with credit cards it best to always pay the balance down, if you can't send them what you can. I seen a post here about investments one of the easier ways to. Invest is 401 type retirement accounts. But there are many ways to invest not just the world trade money markets, personally if i ever got to be well off financially i would invest in Silver, gold,platinum, palladium. Hope this helps out

Just ignore the religious crap. He gives good advice.

The financial and religious sides have a lot in common, but they are not confused, especially when it comes to debt and other parts of this system. I've been reading a lot of books about how the credit and financial systems work. The Important thing is to analyze everything before taking credit and getting a debt. These are already the consequences, but everything must be analyzed starting from the causes. I before taking a loan do a consultation at [yhdistalaina.com]. This way I know very well the conditions of the banks and it is convenient for me to make a loan

Why are you against his religious perspective? If you ignore this, you will see what he says, and if you apply it in practice, it will work 100%. My advice is for you to get rid of debt as soon as possible because debt pulls you down to save money. In addition to this, you cannot invest if you have debts. I have many debts, and I still try and work hard to get rid of them. But for this, I had to take an additional credit from [yhdistalaina.com]. My purpose was to negotiate old debts into a single new debt. Now I'm more attentive to plan my money, and in a year I would be free.

My only advise is to not get a divorce.
If that means not getting married then so be it.
If however you can avoid divorce and you are married you get financial benefits not afforded singles.
I don't believe it's fair to have state sponsored marriage incentives like that, but if your situation lets you then take advantage of it.

Pay down your highest interest debts first these are usually credit cards. Get those below 5% and keep them there while paying extra on other loans. Right now keep in mind that interest rates on home loans are extremely low and refinancing with cash out to pay off other debts might be a good option for you if your credit is good. I just put new dual pane windows in my home and the loan was 8.99% so I am refinancing my home to pay off that loan and will be getting a reduced rate on my home of 2.99% which will leave me paying about $10 more a month on my house payment and eliminating the extra almost $300 a month for the window loan. Using your common sense and paying debts down rather than making minimum payments is the best way to eliminate debt or at the least keep it under control.

I looked at several of the comments given to to you, and most of them are correct. I have a tool in my arsenal that I'm using right now. If you get a credit card with certain banks, they will give you 15 months with no interest for a balance transfer. Usually a 2-3 percent transfer fee, but that beats paying huge interest. Just be prepared to make big enough payments to get rid of the principal in 15 months.

This might sound stupid but have you ever done or seen somebody that knows more than you pick up a yard sale item for $1 dollar and auction it on eBay for thousands?
Now keep that thought.
Here's what I want you to do.
Place this ad (don't change it) in your local paper once a week for four weeks. The free paper at the gas station with all the classified ads is best for this. Do not use craigslist. Ads might cost $40.

FREE House Demolition. Call Kassandra at (your number)

When people call ask them two things.
1 do you have a demolition permit
If so
2 can you send me some pictures

When you see a house that looks pretty nice ask if you can go see it. Walk through it. If you like it then buy the salvage rights for 90 days for $1.

Now auction it on eBay as a "must be moved" house. No reserve.

Open a PayPal link to receive auction proceeds.

For any decent looking house you should get about $25,000.00 and up.

if you have any other questions ask me in The American Dream group so I don't have to keep repeating myself.
Thanks,
Tom

What kinds of debt?

As a follow up question- I have a 401k from a former job that I haven't touched in years (I know, I know, I know...). I've been at my new job for almost a year now, so I'm finally looking into my different options regarding a 401k.

Suggestions on whether I should roll over my 401k to this company or move it into an IRA... or???

I appreciate everyone's feedback here. Y'all are great. Thank you.