Looking for advice or input!

**faw42077** · 12-30-2007, 02:17 PM

Ok, here is our situation. We are trying to save to purchase a car. My goal is to try to save around $5000. We have a personal loan that I would like to pay off as soon as possible that we owe $535 on, and we have a credit card that we owe $486 on that we would like to pay off soon also. We also have some medical bills around $1800 that I am making monthly payments of $50 on.

What I am looking for advice on is how would you go about trying to pay off the debt but also save for the car.

Need to save: $5000 for car
Need to pay :

$535 on loan
$486 on cc
$1800 on mb( not looking to pay this off just pay on it to get bal. down)

what we have left over at the end of the month is $ 550

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

**Drgnfly423** · 12-30-2007, 02:54 PM

Well...I would have to ask if you need to buy a car ASAP or if this is for a future purchase?

If it is not an emergency I would pay the minimum on the MB, minimum on the loan, and pay the rest to the CC. You can have the CC and the loan knocked out in 2 months! If the interest on the MB doesn't bother you to pay, I would save for the car with the extra money. Otherwise, I would pay off that loan before I saved for the car. For me the feeling of being debt free was priceless after years of paying month-to-month. Hope this helps!

**starsapphire** · 12-30-2007, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by Drgnfly423

Well...I would have to ask if you need to buy a car ASAP or if this is for a future purchase?

If it is not an emergency I would pay the minimum on the MB, minimum on the loan, and pay the rest to the CC. You can have the CC and the loan knocked out in 2 months! If the interest on the MB doesn't bother you to pay, I would save for the car with the extra money. Otherwise, I would pay off that loan before I saved for the car. For me the feeling of being debt free was priceless after years of paying month-to-month. Hope this helps!

I'll second Drgnfly's advice. Get er done, knock out the CC and loan in 2 months, then you'll be able to concentrate on the car fund. And throw a little extra money at the MB if/when you can.

**Buckeye5** · 12-30-2007, 04:56 PM

I would like to say that I agree with the other posts..Wipe out that debt first if possible.Also, could sell anything that would allow you to get the small debts paid off?

**PrairieRose** · 12-30-2007, 06:48 PM

I'd start with the smallest, highest interest debt and pay what I could comfortably afford to extra towards it, knock it out, snowball what you've been paying on it onto the next smallest, highest interest and so on and so forth. You'll have it all knocked out really quick and can start using that snowball payment to save for the new car.

**faw42077** · 12-30-2007, 07:46 PM

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Drgnfly- the need to purchase a car isn't dire at the moment, but would defintely like to purchase one if possible before the end of 2008.
I have a truck that I will use to take the kids back and forth to school( a mile from our house) but we aren't sure how long it will last, it is on it's last leg