Have $17K credit card debt. Should I stop IRA cont. ($100/mo.) to help pay off cards?

Age: 47 Sex: F; paying $400+ in credit payments (min. + finance charges + extra when I can). Income: $900 retirement plus $80-$500 a month substitute teacher (not a consistent amount). Applied for full time work. Jobs limited to $11/hr or less. College degree in admin not helping--jobs are for nurses and truck drivers. 2 pre-teen kids, 1 angry husband, 2 faithful dogs. Debt is 95% from trying to start online business which has no customers. Still under contract to 2 marketing companies plus $60 a month web site maint. fee. Can't get out of contracts until June 2007 so feel I must keep web site going in case their promises come true. Husband wants me to stop $100/month Roth IRA payments, children's education IRA payments ($50 each=$100/month), and get full time job. Moved last year and unable to sell old house so have double mortgage. Bank won't lend me money because of low collateral, husband won't let me use new truck or piece of land in Tenn. as collateral for loan.

Yes.

At 28 % interest for the credit card and 8 % return on the IRA you save $ 1.67 a month applying the $ 100 IRA contribution to your credit card.

Grab a job, any job, and apply all that payment to the credit card. Working full time at $ 11 an hour full time will have that $ 17,000 credit card debt gone in a year and quarter.

How much did you get paid for the last hour? Can you store up that last hour and use it when you find your $ 20 an hour job? How long do you think it will take to get a job at a rate you would think is acceptable? While you are figuring this all out the credit card company has claim to every cent you are getting.

You are spending $ 4,700 a year just to stay afloat. How many web sites can you start if you had an additional $ 4,700 a year?

cut the ira in half, try to atleast rent your old house out
to cover the morgage. try to atleast double the payments
on the credit cards or atleast call a credit counselor who
will work with the credit card companies to reduce your
payments and interest rate. this will stay on your record for
7 years, but it doesn't sound like your credit is perfect anyway.

drop the personal IRA contributions, it will have only a small effect on your monthly taxes. try not to touch the educatioal IRAs if at all possible. reduce contributions maybe but still keep them going. that will a) give you a little tax break and b) still help keep you on track to help your kids with college. you think the bills are bad now let your husband consider the monthly cost of having to cover teh shortfall of 2 children in college. You will save in the long run by keeping with the college funds now.

Apply to a 0% apr credit crd and do a balance transfer.

1. If you can't sell the old house why? At the right price every house sells.

Reduce the price, rent it out??, or move back and sell the new one.

2. Second $17,000? OH MY! I would reduce the IRA to $10 per month until the house situation gets better. I think you need to get a full time job. You certainly have some transferable skills.

3. And whomever sold you those $60 per month website fees is making money at your expense. You can move those to a $30 a year site.

4. Find some way to terminate the contracts with the "marketing companies". If you have no business then they aren't doing a very good job of marketing for you. Do they give you a monthly itemized list of what they have done when they ask for payment?

5. I wouldn't let you use a fully paid up item for collateral either.

With that much debt, I would get rid of both IRA's and the web fees. That's 260 a month you could devote to this debt and it would get this paid off in about 5 years if you add nothing more to the credit card. College can be done through grants and loans and the kids can work as well when they are in college and they'll be better off not just taking a free ride through.

And that double mortgage has to go, in fact that would solve your entire problem. I would sell that thing at whatever price you can get, reasonably speaking. Cut your losses with that 60 a month net fee, that's just throwing away money.

The other solution is keep things as they are with the IRA's and take an 11 per hour job full time. That's killing you not having regular income and you are too young to not be bringing in a regular paycheck. I would be an angry husband also, but you can fix this.

So your monthly income is around $1000. Here are some things you can do:
1) I would stop paying to your children's IRA account since you need to fix your own mess and your children will be fine on their own.
2) Depending on how many mutual funds you have in the IRA account, you may be able to put just $25/month to one fund (you should check the prospectus to find the minimum monthly investment plan).
3) You may be able to consolidate your debt to lower the overall monthly payment. Check out Primerica, they are very good at helping families getting out of debt.
4) If you have any insurance, you should look around to find a cheaper rate. You don't get any benefits by sticking with one company for a long time. If one company is offering a less expensive rate, then go with that company.
5) Create a budget worksheet to figure out where you can cut down your expenses.

Good luck!

Please read Dave Ramsey's book, ''financial peace''. Go to a used book store or go to abe.com for used books.

Your answer is there in steps.

Meanwhile, stop the EIRA and close the web site in June. If you need a web site, build one on the Yahoo small business site for a few bucks a month.

Good luck.