Their Story

It is disheartening to see someone close to you drown in debt. More often than not, they succumb to it not because they are not aware of the repercussions but because they think they’ll be able to easily get out of it. This same situation happened to a family friend who five years ago bought a home with one of those no money down mortgage deals. Little did we know that before they even got a home, they were already up to their neck in credit card debts. Why they bought a home was a totally unnerving decision. But because they were able to swing around and get a home for zero down they went ahead anyway. Three months after the housewarming and they were finally settled, the whole mess started to unravel and before we knew it, they were going from one relative to the next borrowing money to cover for the monthly mortgage which was a whooping $4,300 a month. And the credit card debts? Debt consolidation through Bills.com was the solution. Declaring bankruptcy was never an option because they had a home and they didn’t want to lose it. Because of this move: debt consolidation, they were able to lower the monthly payments on their large credit card debts and cut their interest rates and concentrated on raising money for their monthly mortgage.

As any bad financial decision as you would expect, they eventually gave up the house two years later, as the monthly mortgage was just too much for them to handle. Besides the fact that it was a zero down deal, we later learned it was also one of those adjustable rate, interest only mortgage.

Lesson of their story? Don’t bite more than you can chew. Live within your means and weigh in every decision that you make especially when it comes to financial commitments. Taking out a mortgage that they cannot afford was the biggest blunder of all. Add to that the fact, that they already had a huge amount of credit card debt before they even got a mortgage. Living responsibly means living within ones means.