Thread: Debt Management
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Old 12-19-2008, 05:52 PM   #5 (permalink)
Martian
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Location: Canada
As has been said, it's impossible to provide specific advice for you. So, here's some general advice instead.

As a basic rule of thumb, debt is very rarely worth taking on. Those who find themselves chronically in debt do so because they have a habit of discounting the cost of borrowing. This is particularly pronounced when the repayment terms are such that they get a long reprieve. I don't know where it was so I can't cite it, but I recall reading a study wherein it was suggested that the farther away the repayment date is, the less likely the payments are to factor into someone's decision.

You say you have a plan for the credit card and LOC. I truly hope that plan is 'pay them off ASAP and keep them for emergency situations only.' Emergency situations being, you need to go to the hospital, not you need a new 40" plasma tv. The bottom line is that the longer you have a balance on those things, the more they'll cost you.

Ditching your lease for a new one is not worth it. You will very probably be heavily penalized, and may not see any difference in your monthly cashflow. There's no sense in that. Good, reliable transportation can be had for $5000; if we take that as given, a better option would be to wait out your lease and start saving your pennies and dimes so that you can buy yourself a nice used car when it's up. Alternatively, you can pay the residual and keep the car you have. Either way, you walk out of it with a car you own, and have one less payment to make each month.

If you need to take a small personal loan out to do this, by all means do so and pay it off as quickly as possible.

Leasing vehicles rarely works out in the consumer's favour, and in the current market the odds are stacked against you. Unless you need a new car (you drive 30 000 km/year and need the reliability, for example) there's no reason why you can't get by with a nice three or four year old Civic or Cavalier or (insert favourite econobox here). If you find that by November of 2009 you have enough cash in hand to pay for at least 50% of a newer and/or nicer vehicle, then congratulations! That vehicle is within your means and if you really have a burning desire to own it you may purchase it.

The mortgage isn't a terrible thing, since property is one of the few applications where taking on debt is always a good idea. In the immortal words of D'Mite, "buy some land, buy some land, fuck spinning rims!" However, you may want to speak with your banking officer and see about renegotiating into a fixed low rate to take advantage of market conditions.

And I guess that about sums up what I have to say. Look for ways to eliminate debt and increase longterm cash flow. Once your credit card and LOC are paid off, reallocating those monthly payments into a mutual fund, CD or similar financial product will really pay off in the long term. Alternatively, if you took on debt to purchase your car, use the payments to eliminate that as quickly as possible, and then start putting money aside for your next vehicle purchase.

Debt is a useful financial tool, but it's also a very dangerous one. Number one rule to financial success: don't spend money you don't have unless there's a clear long-term gain to be had.
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