In article <jQvvb.818$7%4.429[at]nwrdny03.gnilink.net> , mark
<mark2741[at]verizon.net> wrote:

- quote -

You don't give all the details, so I am going to have to make
some assumptions. I'll assume that your student loans are very
low interest, perhaps in the 3% range. It doesn't make sense to
re-fi them at a higher rate, so I'd leave them as-is and pay them
off on schedule.

The credit card bill is normally the one you want to re-fi since
they are usually at 10% to 20%. But you have only a trivial amount
of debt here, so simply pay it off and avoid the interest fees.
Just get rid of it and don't worry about it any longer.

Your H/E loan of $2600 is also a trivial amount. You should be
able to knock that one off in a month or two if you put your mind
to it.

What remains are the car loans. I really hate to see people turn
a short term debt into a long term debt. Put another way, it is
dumb to pay for an item that lasts 4 years with a 15 or 30 year
mortgage. What you end up doing here depends on the interest rates.
If they are a high rate, say above 6% or so, then use the H/E loan,
and work like crazy to pay it off before you go into your next
home. If the rates are zero or low, then you are better off to
leave the loans as-is, but still work like crazy to pay them off
early.

When getting your next mortgage, debt is debt. It doesn't matter
where the debt is, it still counts against your ability to borrow.
Your best bet is to pay it off. That means maybe going without
for now, and working extra hard to pay it off. But that will put
you in a far better financial position later on, and perhaps get
you a better loan on your next house.

-john-

--
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John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
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Here is my breakdown:

HELOC $2600 (no time limit, $50 per month minimum payment)
Credit Card $210 ($10 per month minimum payment)
Spouse's Student Loan $8700 (years to go...$144 pr/mo)
My Student Loan $9944 (years to go...$111 pr/mo)
Car #1 Loan $10,200 (4.5 years to go, $201 pr/mo)
Car #2 Loan $11,400 (2.5 years to go, $277 pr/mo)

Total debt:
Total monthly payments for all of the above debt is $733.

I have Approximately $50,000 in equity in my home, and was wondering the
following:

Should I increase my HELOC maximum amount to $40,000 and then consolidate
all current debt by paying it off with the low interest HELOC? I would like
to sell my current home and buy a bigger home within 4 years, so I don't
think this makes sense to consolidate because I would lose all of my equity
for the new home. Thoughts?