My Grandfather was a man who lost his farm when he was in his early twenties. He had to borrow some money from his brother in law, and lived on apples off of his tree he had, all winter.......that is what he ate.
He had a rule in you never went into debt.
My other Grandfather who came to America with his family when he was 8 had another rule in if you did not have the money in your pocket, you did not buy it.
My dad was someone who liked to play the roll of success, but was a horrid person in dealing with money. He had all my work destroyed by bank loans which ate up our farm we were trying to buy. I learned about money the hard way, and it is money never comes easy to honest people and it always spends even easier as you never have enough as the world sets the prices, and you end up paying for it all.
There was a question about reverse mortgages or bankruptcy for someone in financial problems. Reverse mortgages are basically selling part of your home on a loan and bankruptcy is a restructuring of your debt.
The one reality in life is if you have a home paid for you, you do not mortgage it, as being in a home is a place they have to dynamite you out of to get your carcase out of it. There are realities in this in bankruptcy buys time and costs money.
Reverse mortgages provide a slow death financially.
Without knowing the details, there are but two realities in this. You either find a way to keep what you have by cutting back on "things" you are living with, as in cable, internet, cell phone etc... In numbers of cases that is going to be, 250 dollars per month or the reality of making the difference in a payment on debt.
Fix your own meals for work lunch, as you can eat 5 times longer on a sack lunch than something you buy.
Internet is available at the public library. My cell phone is that prepaid thing, and as I hate the phone, it is all I use and I do not have my ear glued to a phone the minute I leave the door. Cable.......I can not think of anything on television I miss.....most localities have enough broadcast television to be bothered by.
Do not do credit cards, as late payments eat you alive. Try always to if the debt is great, to do FmHA or FHA on a reduced loan rate to restructure if the restructuring fees are not going to add to the debt.
In sticking my nose in where not asked, but being informed of one of the children's difficulties, it is the reality of getting rid of the things you can live without in discipline. If it is too great of debt, then sometimes being foreclosed on and stopping the debt may be the answer. Interest though, or mortgages are robbery and are designed to be bad for you and good for some financier.
There are investment people in radio programs who offer advice. You could always email or phone them and at least get a bit more detailed advice for free on your situation.
I knew a couple in Ohio where the husband was making 50 grande a year and the wife as a dental assistant on part time was making 20 grande. It was a second marriage so child support was involved, but all the same they had an older home in Ohio at not over 50 thousands in mortgage and I kept telling them to pay that house off.
In the end, they divorced, she got 10 grande and the house was dumped, so after 10 years of payments they had absolutely nothing.
After you are in a mess, it is not the time to say, do not go into debt and manage your money.....that is after the problem is resolved. What requires doing is examining the debt, the outflow of necessities and then making certain the small holes first and then the big holes, as the small leaks do amount to a large portion of money being wasted.
I take no comfort in too many people being wiped out and under great financial difficulties in the Obama Super Depression. If gas was simply at 1.87 as it was under Bush43, people would have a huge 2500 dollars more to deal with than the oil barons having billions more.
It is what it is, and I still do not know if I will be in prison over Obamacare as I will not sign up for that no matter what........just like when the Ag department mandates my getting a premises ID and I just ignored that too from their threats as I will not be ordered to do things the regime has no business dictating to me on.
I hope that helps and I hope I do not get my ass in a sling for putting out some advice as no good deed usually goes unpunished in I take the heat for people and end up getting blamed for being satan.
agtG
