What would you do? (consumer debt related question)

[arakboss]

@arakboss , how is all of this going?

Not good.

 

[notazombie]

Sorry to hear that. Hope it's just a temporary setback.

 

[L84Cabo]

Keep in mind that when you sell most guns, you're usually doing so at a 20%-50% loss unless you've got some true collectibles that hold their value. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to take that kind of loss if you're going to be buying them back at some point...and particularly if it's only costing you 3% interest. If you were paying 20% like a lot of cards, that might be a different story.

Obviously if you've got guns that you don't care about, don't like, and won't be buying them back, then by all means...dump them and pay down the debt.

Beyond this, and as the debt represents about 20% of your annual income, I would try to figure out what I would have to do to cut back and get that debt paid off in a year. And then do it.

After the debt is paid off the next goal should be to amass $10K and keep it in some type of interest earning but fairly liquid form. This becomes your emergency fund. It's what you use to live on if you lose your job and can't work for a bit. Or if the engine goes out unexpectedly on your truck. It's so you don't have to use credit cards...ever.

 

[mahalo]

Do everything to pay the debt and then save again to buy new things