We're 76, Retired, and $57,000 In Debt

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I'm trying to figure out how to get some money in my savings or in a savings anywhere. We make $102,000 a year. Okay. And I have $57,000 in debt. Okay. I have $175 in savings and that's it. All right. Are you, are you working and your husband? No, we're both retired. I'm 73 and he's 76. Okay. But you make $102,000. Is that from pensions or? Yeah, he has, he's retired military. He has a disability and his pension and full security and I have full security. Okay. So is that $102,000 going to be for the foreseeable future? Yes. Okay. Until we get our next pay raise. And when... Is it like a cost of living adjustment? Is that what the pay raise is? Yes. Okay. Okay. Yes. So it'll just slowly go up to meet inflation basically, but it's not like you're getting a true raise where you're going to have a ton of extra margin necessarily. No. Okay. So what kind of debts to 57? Lay it out for us. I have $14,000 in credit card debt and I have $32,000 on a travel trailer that I really don't want. And then I got $16,000 on a personal loan. Okay. And that's everything. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's everything. I do have a, I have a truck that I'm Okay. Um, so at least truck. Okay. Um, for the $32,000 trailer, have you, I'm assuming you've looked to sell it because you said you don't really want it. How much could you get for it? Yeah. Um, but I don't know if we were, if, if we're, what do you call it again? Underneath, you know? Oh, underwater on it. Okay. But is it worth 30K or is it worth 10K? Because there's a big difference. It's worth 30. It's only two years old. Okay. So you might be able to get out unscathed or maybe you put in a thousand bucks to get out of this, but that gets rid of over half your debt. That's amazing. What's the payment on that? Um, $387 a month. Okay. And what, what's the $14,000 in credit card debt? How did that happen? Well, it shows you how smart we are. We refinanced our house, Wow. So we never actually fixed the behavior underneath. No. We just played a little shell game and we're back to where we are. Well, are you guys ready to change? Cause that part we have, that's the root of all of this. Yeah. He says he wants to be debt free. So I'm glad I, so don't pull me in. Let's put the money where the mouth is there. Cause you guys have a great income. If you called in and you were both working, making a hundred grand and had 50 to pay off, I'd go, great. We can solve this thing within six months. Yeah. Sell the trailer, live on nothing and throw it all at the debt. You guys are done. And then you have all this margin for the rest of your life to build wealth with. Yeah. How old are you guys? Wanda? 73 and 76. 73 and 76. Okay. Um, there's a shorter life expectancy here. No, I don't think we'll make it 30 years. I mean, you made it this far. I mean, we're going to go, we're going to go positive. You know, you never, you never know. Life expectancy is not really, it doesn't reflect reality because you've got people who died super young, people who died super old. So the fact that you made it into your seventies and you guys are in decent health, it sounds like. Yeah. Okay. So Wanda, here's what, here's what we're going to have you do. George, tell me if you agree with my, with my assessment. Number one, Wanda, we're going to cut up the credit cards. Okay. Okay. You have to stop. As of right now, I put a stop on them. Great. But cut them up. Cut them up and close the account. Do you, do you have one near you right now? No. That's unfortunate. My husband has, my husband has his and mine are in a, in a lock box somewhere. Okay. Perfect. So tonight though, Wanda, promise me and George that you guys are going to sit down at the table. You're going to take all those out and you're going to look and you should be mad at them, Wanda. They've not helped you. They've not helped you. They're horrible. They're, it's terrible. They're terrible. And so you should want to just demolish them. And if you do it in a creative way, just DM me and George and let us know. But yeah, get rid of the credit cards. That's the first thing. Okay. Number two, I want you guys to do a written budget and I want to figure out how much money you can get out every single month that's extra. Okay. So you're, you guys, what you bring home every month, what can we, if we don't go out to eat, whatever we do month to month, how much money can we get back? And it would be fun just to add to it that if you sold this trailer and you got an extra 300 bucks, right? Add that in. So it's like, could you get up to a thousand dollars? Could you get to 1500? What does that look like for you all? And I want you to find that margin because I want you to get this. I think you said you have $175 in savings. I want you to get that up to a thousand dollars. And I want you to do that fast one. I want you to look around and see if there's stuff you can sell, how you can get that. And I would say, I don't know, George, what, two months? I mean, you should be able to do this in less than 30 days based on your numbers. And that's, so that's, all right, we got to add 250 a week to this thing. What can I sell this week? How can I cut our budget to create that much margin so that we can get to a little bit of safety? Because when's the last time you guys had a thousand dollars to your name and kept it for a while? Quite a while ago when we were actually debt free. Yep. Yep. So, yep. So that's going to be your first step one though, okay, is that. And then I want you to keep that momentum of that 250 a week or more, whatever you can find to start throwing at this debt. And if you, if you can sell the trailer, then you guys will have $30,000 of consumer debt. Okay. So if you have a thousand dollars a month, obviously it's going to take you, you know, a little over a year. If you have. If you do 1500 a month, it'll take you 20 months. 200. So less than two years, you guys can be debt free. And if you could do more, I mean, you guys are bringing home how much every month? What ends up in your bank account? 85. Okay. So think about that. 8,500 bucks. Could you live off of half of that to cover just your basic bills and your minimum debt payments? Most likely we have before. Okay. So now we're talking 4,200 going at this thing. If you used half for living, the other half for debt, you're done in six months, seven months. Okay. So we're not talking sacrifice forever. We're talking about six months of sacrifice and then six months to build up an emergency fund. That's good, George. I was way less aggressive. I was like, as you tend to be. A thousand dollars a month, Wanda, we can do this. Week. George just found you 4,000, right? Because you told me you can live off half of your income if you guys got serious about this. I mean, and then you guys are in retirement making 102 a year. It's great. Yeah. And if you guys wanted to do some extra savings on the side, which I think you should, you should be on that debt, get an emergent, get a fully funded emergency fund, but you just kind of keep that lifestyle going for a bit. And if you could do this in six months, you can get that emergency fund in five months. Yeah. You'll get there in no time. Do you guys have a mortgage? Yeah. Okay. What's left on that? We just refinanced in last May. So, 350. 350 left. Okay. Well, you guys will be in good shape to keep affording that mortgage and even throw extra at it and invest once you knock out these consumer debts. So right now, let's start to really build for this future ahead of us. Let's imagine two years from now, you guys are completely debt-free with the emergency fund, investing for the future, paying off the house early, and no stress in the house. And I'll say, Wanda, the future is now for you all. You know what I mean? It starts today. It starts today, but it has to happen now. I mean, it really does. For you guys to not have stress about this. I mean, you guys are in your seventies. It feels chaotic financially. You've made some bad mistakes, repeated those bad mistakes, but this honestly is the moment that you both look at each other and say, okay, we're going to have to do something different because the credit cards aren't helping us. The personal loans aren't helping us. What are we going to do? We deserve a better life. Yeah. So do the opposite. Yes. Where you're living on less than you make, you're getting out of debt. You're staying out of debt. You have cash in the bank for an emergency fund. And it's all so doable, Wanda. It really is. So you guys had some hard work in your lives to create that 102. And so we want that to go as far as possible for you. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.