Money Traps You Should Never Give In To
When trying to work your way out of debt, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel can seem impossible. Feeling like the debt is endless is a typical feeling, and because of it, many people are quick to look for extreme options to put cash back in their pockets. However, most of these options can actually leave you in a worse financial position than you were in before. A few major money traps to avoid include:
Taking Out a 401(k) Loan
Even those with the best of intentions rarely pay a 401(k) loan back after taking one out. Even if you feel like you are maxing out for 401(k) each year, that doesn’t mean you should ever remove money from your retirement account. By taking out a 401(k) loan to put extra cash back in your pocket or to pay down debt, you directly compromise your retirement. Instead of taking out a 401(k) loan for extra spending money, first look to your finances to see where you just may be overspending on frivolous items.
Refinancing Your Mortgage
There are very few circumstances under which refinancing your mortgage is actually beneficial – one of which being when you consolidate an equity loan with your mortgage, and another being when interest rates are truly lower than your original rate. So unless you have two loans to refinance in to one or interest rates are at least one percent or more lower than your current interest rate, do not refinance.
Otherwise, if you choose to refinance, the closing costs and the interest that you’ll wind up paying on interest could wind up costing you more than you’ll actually save each month on your monthly mortgage payment.
Entering a Credit Consolidation Program
In order to save on the interest paid to credit card companies and to reduce overall monthly payments, many card holders with high debt choose to enter a credit consolidation program. However, these programs are rarely effective, and can wind up costing a credit card holder more because of hidden fees or simply not lowering monthly payments.
Instead of entering a credit card consolidation program, contact your credit card companies and ask for lower monthly payments or interest rates. Because these creditors are interested in getting paid more than anything, they are generally willing to work with you to ensure that they are repaid in full.
While it is never easy to repay debt or to do so quickly, it can definitely be done. Just like the IRS is willing to forgive or work with you on due from past taxes, creditors and others in which you are indebted to are generally willing to work with you so that you don’t have to enter into a money trap and are still able to pay them back easily. So before you give in to a money trap, consider your other options, and above all, consider your current spending habits. You may find that there are still a few ways in which you can cut back.
Great tips, particularly the credit consolidation. In fact, using some of these companies can actually hurt your credit score as well, so they are usually not a great option for anyone.
Really, refinancing? We refinanced 3x from 5.75% to 4.75% in the end, which cut our payment by 25%.
We’re still paying the same amount, so our mortgage will be paid off a lot sooner.
Good tips — but I have to say that a credit consolidation company can be helpful. I enrolled in a plan five years ago and they helped me reduce my interest rates substantially. The fee I paid was less than the interest. I paid my debt off earlier than expected. Although my credit did take a hit that was happening anyways due to high payments. There are good companies but before choosing this option, I definitely advise knowing the pros and cons first and researching the company. I found a good one and worked out.
Credit consolidation can be helpful, but only if the people don’t go out and take more debt. Then, it’s pointless! I think it’s a great idea to talk down interest rates.
I agree – unfortunately at the time I was in a program, I went back to school and accrued more school loans – now I am in pay off mentality but need a better job.
We did the 401k loan…years ago! It was awful, because my husband then switched jobs and we got hit with a huge penalty. Awful! We were thinking “we’re so young…who cares about our retirement?” since we were early 20′s, but the truth is; even if he hadn’t swithed jobs, it’s not a good deal. Live and learn?
About the refi; I do think that there’s a right time and a wrong time, and that you have to make sure that you’ve built up enough equity before considering. If you can shrink your term and your interest rate, like we did, I think it can be a great deal. We recently went from 2 loans down to 1, went from 30 years to 15, and lowered our interest rate from 5.85% to 5%.
Those refi changes were big deals! Every one of those changes should save you a ton of money. And I’ve been down the 401K loan then switched jobs path. Penalty and taxes are not fun.
We’re refinancing our house right now. But we’re dropping our interest rate from 5.25% to 3.89%, and getting rid of Private Mortgage Insurance. It’s definitely a smart decision.
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[...] presents Money Traps You Should Never Give In To posted at Yes, I am Cheap, saying, When trying to work your way out of debt, seeing the light at [...]
[...] from Yes, I am Cheap presents Money Traps You Should Never Give In To. When trying to work your way out of debt, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel can seem [...]