I'm completely in debt and know I'll never get out of it. What can I do?
I get a variation of this question a lot. All I can say is that very few situations are truly impossible! I'm not saying that it's going to be easy or fun, but you can dig yourself out of debt! There are a lot of resources out there to help you and a LOT of people who were in the very same situation that you're in right now who got out! Be encouraged- a lot more is possible than you think if you're willing to make the necessary sacrifices.
Why worry about money so much? You're young and have lots of time!Exactly! We want to get the boring money stuff out of our way early so we can enjoy a debt free life as soon as possible. We were inspired by this book, which showed us that we can choose money or time. We want to choose time as much as possible. We only live once, and we want to spend as little of that time chained to an employer. Nobody says "I wish I'd worked more" on their deathbed. By making these choices now, we will have a lot more choice in the future.
Why are you trying to pay your house off early? You get tax benefits if you have a mortgage.Tax benefits are nice, but we've actually never gotten them! The standard deduction has always been more for us to this point. Even if we got tax benefits, the money we'll save in interest will blow that out of the water. Even if it cost us money, we really prefer to own the house. Think of what you could do if you only had taxes and insurance to pay, no mortgage. We would prefer to spend that money elsewhere!
We currently contribute the maximum matched amount to my husband's 401 K. We contribute monthly to the Roth IRA that I got when I was 18. (Thanks to my father for insisting!) We think that having the retirement that we are currently going towards *and* owning our house outright is a better decision for us. Tax benefits are not going to help us keep us out of foreclosure if a job is lost.
Shouldn't you be putting all that extra money into retirement?
Do you work outside the home?I work from home teaching online classes for a local college. I also do other small side jobs as they come up, and I am currently (very) slowly working towards opening a small home based business.
We do not currently have children, but I try to plan my working life around the possibility that I may someday have them. Before we married, we decided that, should we have children, I would be a stay at home mom. Even if we never have children, I still plan to pursue home based working options.
Do you have children? Do you want to be a stay at home mom?
Why do you rent out your basement?We had a lot of empty space and a friend who needed a place to live. It's worked out well for us. The rent has helped us reach our debt repayment goals without being too much of a hassle. I'd rather have an income producing housemate than a basement full of junk! :)
Do you make money on this blog?I do make a small amount of income, and welcome any increase to that income! When I started this blog in 2006, I had no idea that you could make money blogging! The trickles of money that this blog bring in are just a bonus to doing things that I love- saving money and writing! :)
Have a question for Catherine? Add it to the comments or e-mail her at Frugal.Homemaker.Plus @ gmail . com (remove spaces!).
