Right now I’m paying the loans 1k/month but I feel I’m paying a lot in interest
Moved into a new house and went crazy with upgrades. Should I take a TSP loan to knock out all $18k credit card debt?
byu/Pilot_Nerd inMilitaryFinance
Posted by Pilot_Nerd
6 Comments
You ARE paying a lot in interest.
Ideally you should have saved for a while instead of dumping that on the credit cards. The TSP loan will get you out of the interest (you’ll pay it to yourself sort of) but you’ll miss out on any appreciation of the funds in your TSP for that amount. It could be nothing. It could be more than the credit card interest.
Either way try not to repeat what got you in this spot.
Obviously you know how bad of a financial decision this was, so I won’t get into that. Pretty big hole to dig out of.
What do the rest of your financials look like? Savings, investment accounts, etc.? I assume your budget is already bare bones so you’re throwing every spare penny at this?
Can you get a HELOC on the house? Like do you have equity in the house?
This will not be a popular post, but I got a second job and paid off 60k of credit card debt. I would take leave from Navy multiple times per month and go work and worked Saturdays every week. It became depressing after awhile working so much, but paid off all my debt. Just a option for you, just a option for you. We budgeted every penny and lived very frugally for a while, but it was worth it as now we have so much left over every month to put towards savings.
Are you in the Army? Look into [AER](https://www.armyemergencyrelief.org/). Not sure if other services have something similar. Won’t cover it all, but may be a partial solution.
Look on Google maps to see if you have a local plasma donation center and you should donate regularly for $$$.
Go get a free budget done at the relief society for your branch of service and take their recommendations.
OP, please Educate yourself on the concept of Trying On a Payment right now so you don’t get in over your head again.
Consider renting out rooms to single service members.
Start looking on the buy sell pages on fb for people asking for help doing manual labor or airport rides and put tgat money on the debt.
Eat at the chowhall and keep a giant box if granolabars/energy bars in your cat and at work so you don’t have Any excuses to buy convenience foods.