First step anyone in deep debt should take is obvious. Create a detailed and HONEST budget of what you owe and what you earn. What is your financial standing and cash flow.

If you have some postive cash flow after paying min balance due on your debts then you can take the Dave Ramsey “pay down” approach.
You basically pay minimum due on all debts, accept for the smallest debt, not the smallest interest rate, the smallest debt amount. When that debt is paid you target next smallest debt. You take all your positive cash flow and apply it to that debt. You do this for each debt, including your car and your home. Pay them all off.

In conjunction with this, yes, call and hound those creditors and ask for better interest rates and see if they have a debt relief option.

Problem worse than that? You can afford your minimum payments, but the interest rates are killing you, you’ll never be out of debt in the next 20 years and the creditors will not budge? Contact a credit counseling company. or learn more about them at creditcounseling101.com

Problem even worse? You have little income, cant afford your payments, you’re late, your credit cards are closed in default and creditors are calling. You have over $15,000 in credit card or medical debt? You could seek the help of a Credit Card Bailout program. See the official CreditCardBailout.com website. This is a negotiation process with your creditors that can significantly reduce your debts, IF your financial hardship qualifies.

No income, high debts, and your home is in danger? Contact a bankruptcy attorney in your state to help sort out your options.

As always, check with your local chamber of commerce, Attorney General and BBB to see if the company you hiring to help is licensed in your state. Best – Jacob.

Don’t worry about the typos… I’ve seen much worse (and made a few myself!)

Have you tried negotiating with your credit card company(s)? If you honestly can’t make your payments, then you may be able to get them to give you a break on the rate, or get them to forgive a portion of the amount.

Then you should try and get a 0% or some other low intro rate on balance transfers, transfer your remaining debt (or as much as you can) and pay it off before the interest resets.

I don’t know exactly how dire your cash flow situation is, but my wife and I paid off our credit card balance after transferring to a 0% intro rate card. It saved us thousands in interest.

Best of luck to you, and I hope things start to turn around soon for all our sakes…

We’re trying to live, not leave, on a single income.

NOW we’re trying to recover on a single income.

There are other badly constructed sentences and then the “victim” statement.

The truth is I’m embarrassed about looking for assistance but I don’t know how else to recover from this hole. We really want to move out of state, to a smaller home in the country and live off the land. We don’t mind living a simple life with a windmill for power and beating the bugs off our food supply for months before we can eat it. In fact, we’d prefer that right now. Our grandparents lived that way, and we figure we can too.

The fact is we need help to get there. Without some sort of assistance to get us out of debt and out of this house, we’ll never make it to that simpler life.