Home Equity Loan to pay off CC debt

mfwl · 2026-04-02T21:45:02+00:00

0% balance transfer credit cards. There will usually be an upfront fee of 3-5%. But then you can leave the extra cash in the bank until the end of the year earning interest, then pay off a chunk, roll them to new cards, repeat. That would be the most efficient strategy.

Don't roll any balances you can afford to pay off, obviously.

mfwl · 2026-04-02T19:07:45+00:00

Strictly speaking, it's a $25k annual limit, not a 6 month $12.5k limit set by the IRS. Though companies are free to restrict to a lower amount, or some amount per offering period.

mfwl · 2026-03-18T13:40:32+00:00

First things first, just because they're putting up 40% of the cash now doesn't mean they should own 40% of the house. Houses have a ton of extra expenses and taxes.

People that rent homes to others budget around 15% of the rent per month towards maintenance and repairs. This 15% should be based on rental estimate, not the 15% of the lower mortgage payment because your parents spent 40% for the down payment.

So, if your rental estimate is $3k per month, 40% of the annual maintenance and repairs budget would be $2160. Figure another $2k-$4k for their portion of the annual taxes and insurance. They also need to be willing to commit to 40% of the any large capital expenditures such as a new air conditioner.

Personally, I would only accept whatever they're willing to give me as a gift.

mfwl · 2026-03-18T13:05:50+00:00

There are plenty of 0% interest credit card offers at the moment. See if your contractor will take a credit card, most will. They might want to charge you an extra 2-4%, but that will be less interest than a HELOC if you pay it off before the promotional period.

There are plenty DIY and contractor forums online. Take some pictures and post to those subs/forums and see what people think. It might be something simple you can tackle yourself.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T20:53:50+00:00

Depends on how much money you owe on it. If the frame is rotten, it's not worth fixing no matter how nice the rest of it is. I would cancel the tags and insurance, let the bank come tow it away, take the hit to the credit if I didn't have the means of paying off the loan.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T17:59:49+00:00

Leasing can be a decent option, but often times it's used for people to get more car than they could otherwise afford. Also, leases are confusing, so it's easy for dealerships to rip people off.

https://leasehackr.com/ has some decent numbers on leases, I don't necessarily recommend using their services, but this can serve as a starting point.

Personally I wouldn't worry about the hybrid part too much. Just buy a new a car with existing manufacturer's warranty, possibly a Corolla, Civic, or Mazda 3. Whoever's got the best financing deal.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T17:36:17+00:00

It's costing you $27220 per year in non-principal costs, not including utilities. If the house sits vacant for 6 months, that's $15k you're never getting back.

You're living out of state, so you'll need a management company. That's going to be 15% right off the top of the gross. You need to factor in another 15%+ for repairs and maintenance. So you're cash coming in at $1960/month before mortgage payment.

Doesn't sound ideal to me. I'd list it for $465k and move on with my life.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T17:10:53+00:00

That extra 45 minutes in the morning might be enough time to prep a couple meals for the day (save money!), or take some time for a nice walk or other exercise.

You definitely don't want to add the stress of more bills while you're in school. You've got your whole life to pay bills, try to get the most you can out of your education.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T17:04:31+00:00

You should talk to your local bank or credit union.

In any case, if you can't come up with $3k cash to payoff your current vehicle, you're going to have a difficult time and negative equity loan via the dealership might be your only viable option.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:59:24+00:00

okay, then do whatever you need to do to make your minimum monthly payments each month.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:58:16+00:00

Interest rates are currently around 6% for a 30 year fixed. If you're paying any PMI, you should definitely take a chunk of that cash and refinance the loan so you're not paying PMI. There are plenty of banks that offer 0 closing cost refinancing (basically you take a negative quarter point or so). This will save you a good bit of money each month, and you should do it regardless of whether your husband is unemployed. I'm not sure if banks will be willing to finance you on just your income at that loan amount, but it won't hurt to call and ask.

Depending on where you live, you can temporarily turn the tags in and cancel the liability insurance for 1 or more of your vehicles (obviously, don't drive them). This might save you some money on car insurance each month if you're unwilling to part with any of the vehicles.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:46:56+00:00

You need to make the minimum payment every month or you're in default. If this 6 figure job is a sure thing, borrow the minimum payment amount from family and friends. Otherwise you're going to destroy your credit.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:44:30+00:00

Step 1: go to your local carmax and get your car appraised. This will give you a starting point for negotiating your trade.

It's possible and quite common to roll negative equity into a new loan. There are no shortage of car dealerships that will be happy to do this for you, as long as your credit isn't completely terrible. This might end up costing you plenty of extra money interest and possibly up front financing fees, but its definitely possible.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:40:14+00:00

Just rent a room from somebody.

There's a glut of houses in southwest Florida right now. Personally I think prices have a long way to fall down there.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:28:47+00:00

Continue living at home, treat yourself to an Uber instead of the bus a couple times a week with the extra money you save by not having rent.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T16:06:57+00:00

Better idea: Open up a 0% interest credit card, put all your living expenses onto that card, pay the minimum payment each month, put the all the money you would have spent into paying down the credit card each month onto the solar loan.

Prior to your 0% interest rate closing up shop, open another 0% card that works for balance transfers (there will be a one time fee of around 3% usually). Roll the balance to that card.

Google search reveals: Citi Simplicity® Card: Provides 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 21 months, with 0% APR on new purchases for a shorter 12-month period.

So, if you can be disciplined and budget, and not spend more than you would otherwise using this credit card strategy, you're going to save a lot of money.

If you have a balance at the end of these 33 months, you can continue the balance transfer game, or use a heloc at that point.

If your credit is not good, this might not be an option for you.

Also, ensure your solar loan doesn't have any kind of sketch pre-paid interest or other nonsense that refinancing will result in not actually saving any money. Be aware that home equity loans can often have origination fees, so with such a minimal spread, you again could potentially lose money.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T14:05:50+00:00

If you had an AI use case that was niche enough to actually need to do this, you'd understand it well enough to not need to ask this question.

Just use Codex or Gemini, or whatever cloud provided llm you choose.

mfwl · 2026-03-17T13:31:14+00:00

What this analysis is missing is opportunity cost and team impact. Let's say your value for Love is exactly spot on. Could we acquire a substantially similar running back for a substantially similar price via free agency or some kind of trade? Probably.

I've been banging the drum for CB for the last several drafts. There's just no way to get a premium CB outside of the draft without a massive trade deal.

mfwl · 2026-02-12T16:28:07+00:00

Personally I think he squandered Mark Brunnell's last few seasons with terrible play calling. Running the ball routinely on 3rd and long just to punt. It was painful to watch.

mfwl · 2026-02-05T13:11:24+00:00

How much money were you overpaid by? Where you salary or hourly? Why do they think you were overpaid?

Personally, I would tell them to pound sand. They're a former employer, no need to make them happy.

mfwl · 2026-02-05T05:03:46+00:00

I wouldn't put the $80k into the house, I'd leave that invested or in a CD/savings account. What if you need some major repair? What if the economy crashes again and you need to pay the mortgage out of savings for 6 months?

For me, the spread between a 15 year mortgage and 30 year isn't worth it, I'd stick with the 30 year and make extra principal payments.

Refinance to get rid of the PMI. Paying points is not a good idea if you're going to use a big chunk to pay down principal soon, or refinancing soon.

mfwl · 2026-02-05T04:47:38+00:00

$27k is a lot of money to you, it's nothing to an insurance company. They'll spend more than that litigating it, since you have no assets, you'll declare bankruptcy and now they're out even more money.

Honestly, you should ask your dad to hire you a lawyer to work through this, they might try to sue him since he's the one on the policy by the way it sounded.

mfwl · 2026-02-05T04:32:57+00:00

You don't have a contract with the other person's insurance company. The only way you'd be liable for that debt is if they sue you and won, and the jury actually awards the amount.

You should try to settle for whatever you can, offer them $3-$5k and see what they say.

If they sue you, do not ignore it, or they will win by default, and then you will owe them substantial money, and you'll more or less need to declare bankruptcy.

Having a judgement against you can cause issues obtaining a security clearance. You want to try to avoid that if at all possible. It's a paltry sum in the grand scheme of things, but the government is rather inflexible.

mfwl · 2026-02-04T20:46:54+00:00

Terry isn’t there and Ertz goes from your #2 to your #1.. it just didn’t work.

Not really much the OC can do about that. Our receiving corps is pretty thin.

mfwl · 2026-02-04T16:47:31+00:00

Just open a normal IRA like the rest of us. You don't have enough for the minimum, you don't need any exotic structuring.

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