Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Take #4: Refi Mortgage and
credit line together. The only thing scarier than on open credit line
is the credit card. Don't roll the car into it. You may, (if you're
lucky) have the car for 10 years, why pay for it over 15 or 30. I'd
also sit down with a planner to help you identify more specific
strategies taylored to your situation.

Good luck!

What is your present mortgage rate and how many years left? Do you
have any savings or retirement plan?

In article <bLD2f.3167$vD4.154248[at]news20.bellglobal.com> ,
"Chucky" <y2chuck[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

I would suggest #3. You are going to get a better mortgage
if you don't do a cash-out re-fi. Since you pay for this puppy
over 15 to 30 years, you want to minimize the pain longterm.

That is a lot of personal debt. In my opinion, it is never a
good idea to (a) convert unsecured debt to secured debt, (b)
pay for a pizza over 30 years, or (c) put your house up as
collateral for past stupid spending.

The situation that seems obvious is that you have either a
really bad spending problem, or you have cars that are far
more expensive than what you can afford, or both. In fact,
consider that you ran up over $30K in debt with 2 incomes
and no kid, and now you want to live on one income with a
kid. It doesn't sound realistic unless you have had some
type of religious awakening.

What you have to do is make a deal here. The wife has to go
back to work until the $30K in credit card and car debt is
paid. Or you have to get a 2nd job. Either way, no party
until the past sins are paid off.

You might also want to consider selling the luxury cars and
buy something more reasonable. If the wife has to go back
to work until the 30K is paid off, you can bet that you will
see a lifestyle change and better spending habits around
your 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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Our mortgage is coming up in a few months and we are planning for a couple
scenarios:

1) sell house and move. Our balance is 138K and our townhouse is likely
worth 240K or so (realtor sent me a 12 month activity report of our complex
and that's what the same units are averaging)
2) put all our current debt including car loan into the new mortgage. So
we'd apply for a 170K mortgage or so to consolidate all our debt.
3) just renew the mortgage at 138K

Combined our income is 95K - 100K, we have a 6 month old baby and my wife
may not go back to work which will drop our income to 75K/year. Not
including the car loan (20K remaining at 1.9%), we have 20K of low interest
debt (line of credit at about 7%) so I was leaning towards option 2 just in
case my wife doesn't go back to work we can have a managable monthly payment
with all our debt consolidated plus still have equity in our home.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!