The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about a young couple that has a combined $100,000 in debt and is struggling to get out from under it.
Austin and Sarah Carne, ages 33 and 29, live in Reno, Nev., and have three young children. He's a medical supply sales rep making between $60,000 and $65,000 a year, and she's a stay-at-home mom who works part-time as an independent cosmetics consultant making $300 to $400 a month.
They owe $25,400 in credit-card debt, about $60,000 in student loans, and $22,000 for a car loan, according to WSJ. To try to pay it down, they moved in with their parents, sold their $200,000 house for a $26,000 profit, and started paying down credit-card debt with the profits.
Here are some of the additional steps a financial advisor suggested to WSJ:
- Immediately put $18,000 of the home profits toward their credit-card debt
- Cut up or hide the credit cards and learn to live within their means
- Swap their car for a less expensive model
- Make the minimum payments on their student loans