Meet Rudy
Age: 28
Salary: Net $6,000 a month, combined with wife
Employment: Commission-based
Savings and Investments:
N/A
Debt:
- Credit card #1: $0
- Credit card #2: $0
- Credit card #3: $0
- Credit card #4: $2,000
- Credit card #5: $4,000
- Credit card #6: $8,000
- Store card #1: $0
- 2 car loans totalling $27,800
- $22,000 combined student loans
Rudy’s main concerns, in his own words
My wife and I got married this past October. As we combined bank accounts, we realized we both had access to a lot of different credit cards. We are now working on “organizing” our financial life. Should we close the credit card accounts that we don’t use anymore? Keep them tucked away in a deep drawer for an emergency? Will it hurt out credit if we close these accounts given our debt:income ratio? We are in the process of closing on our very first house and becoming homeowners (definitely within the 25% housing budget). We have a couple of cards with “wedding debt” that we are working on paying them off – I have a habit of staring at the balance hoping it will change and go down every time I blink – so as a married couple we decided we would take the entire year of 2015 and get out of consumer credit card debt (we have student loans to tackle after that).
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Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning financial mind and a former comedian. He’s a USA TODAY columnist, author of ten books, and is the host of the popular radio show and podcast, The Pete the Planner Show. Pete is considered one of the foremost experts on financial wellness in the world, but he’s just as likely to talk your ear off about bass fishing.