Swimming in Debt at Age 25!!

I really understand your anxiety. It's embarrassing to admit, but my husband and I are going through a similar situation and we're in our early 50's! The first step is to sit down with your husband and discuss your finances and the budget. The post recommending Dave Ramsey is really accurate. We haven't gone that route, but I've heard really good things about him. At this point, we're getting involved with a debt settlement company, but I'd love some info/experiences about those if anyone has some to share. I have heard both negative and positive experiences about Consumer Credit Counselling, with the main problem that they don't always set up a realistic budget. Good luck. You have a lot of company with this lousy economy, but you're young and this situation can be a real life lesson. I wish had learned a LOT earlier than now.

You will be OK. I promise. When I was 25, I had $60K in student loans, $25K on credit cards, and a $20K car loan. I could barely make the minimum payments, pay rent, and buy groceries. I decided to educate myself. I read books on personal finance, paying off debt, investing, etc, and found out that I really enjoyed it. You may be surprised too. Anyway, I buckled down, rode the bus for a while, brown-bagged my lunches for years, shopped at consignment stores, and did eveything I could to pay off my debt. When I met my husband and found out he was almost as bad as me, I put him on the same program. Now, at age 38, we have no debt other than a low fixed-rate mortgage and we have managed to save $600k.

So you CAN do it. You'll just have to sacrifice for a few years. Live as cheaply as possible, save money everywhere you can, and don't buy things that you don't absolutely need. It's hard at first but your self-esteem will sky-rocket when you start to see results.

My husband were high in debt in our 20's. I heard an information show one night on paying off debt. I wrote out a list of all our debts and made a chart to keep track of them and how much we owed. I went from the smallest amount to the largest. I would pay anything, even if it was only $10 to the large ones (other than like keeping up car payments and house payment, which we always paid the neccessary amount). I knew that the little payments were not what I was supposed to pay, but it kept people off our backs. I would put the extra money to the smallest debt and get it paid off fast. This gave me a feeling of success and power that this could be done. I added the money I would be paying on the first paid off debt to the second and got that paid off fast...which lead to more feeling of control and success. I continued like this down the line. I would send birthday money in, any extra money we came across and we just lived with neccessities...no cable, no cell phones, no internet... Any money saved went to debt. By our late 20's, we were free of debt. Yes, things would come up and slow us down, but sometimes we soared through it. Credit cards I only paid enough to not get hit with higher finance charges and we always did the credit card dance (switching to 0 finance charges for any transfer amounts). Good luck to you...debt sucks!

L., I was sorry to see that no one had posted anything yet about your debt question. While I do not have direct experience, I would start by talking to your husband about your family budget. Make sure you both agree that you have a debt problem. Then, I would contact a non-profit consumer credit counseling group. They are professionals who can look at your debt/income and help you make some choices. Maybe check on one of the local news websites to see if they have a consumer page or recommend certain agencies. With the economy in the tank, many news stations are doing reports about folks in foreclosure/high debt. You are smart to think about your finances at a young age. It's hard to start out with a young family. Good luck!

I hear you! I like what the first reponder said about paying the smallest first! Have you heard of Dave Ramsey? He has a class called financial peace university, you can go on his web sight and find a place to take it. My husband and I struggled with this issue for years and Dave's plan works. It IS NOT easy, there is NO debt consolodation( please, don't borrow any more money!) Go to Dave's web sight, there is some good info there. He also has several books that you can read as well! You CAN totally get out of debt! It may take some cutting back and living a less glamorous life for a short time but it is SO worth it! We OWN everyting we have, I can't tell you much better that feels than having the newest what ever!
We have learned to pay cash for everything, live below our means and plan plan plan. You guys are so young it would be so great to do this now, you and your husband will make more $, and you will be giving your kids such a great gift! SO please. look at the websight, it really changed our lives!