Hi Personal Finance,
I recently became responsible for my grandparents' finances due to my grandfather's illness and my grandmother's lack of technological or financial knowledge. My grandfather has been far too generous to the family and spent well outside his means over the years. Their finances are a complete and total mess. I am trying to help give advice to clean up what I can, but it is overwhelming. This is in Louisiana, a joint debt and property state.
Below are all estimations of the debts within ~tens of dollars and the interest:
Store Card #1: $6,000 @ 27% APR (Over the credit limit by 20%)
Store Card #2: $600 @ 29% APR
Store Card #3: $3,050 @ 28% APR
Store Card #4: $1,000 @ 27% APR
Store Card #5: $1,000 @ 26% APR
Credit Line #1: $10,500 @ 27% APR
Credit Line #2: $3,000 @ 20% APR
Credit Line #3: $1,200 @ 0% APR first 12 months
IRS: $1,000 @ 5% APR
Personal Loan: $6,600 @ 12% APR
Total Credit Debt: $33,950
Immediate Expenses:
Home Loan: $142000 @ 4.5% APR (~$1000 monthly payment)
Car Loan: 30000 @ 2% APR (~$585 monthly payment)
~$1500 monthly misc. expenses (energy, water, phone bills, internet, insurances, etc.)
Total Immediate: ~$3100
They make ~$7,000/month in retirement net income. When my grandfather passes, I am unsure which funds will be available to my grandmother. She makes ~$800/month from Social Security. I know she will get a part of his VA benefits, Pension, and Social Security. I expect my grandfather will likely pass by Christmas. We are unsure what the life insurance payout will be or if there for sure is one. We have been told he may have 2 life insurance policies, but my grandmother has not gotten all the information on that yet. His funeral will be mostly paid for by the VA.
Without making them eat "pork and beans," I have cut a few unnecessary monthly expenses and I am helping them trim as I see fit. I have been more or less "snowballing" the debt on the higher interest, lower balance credit lines. So far, I have helped them pay off 4 cards in full over the last 2 months and this is the mess that's left. They also have one small property which is in the process of being valued to sell as soon as possible. It's a little ~1 acre camp (not much, but it will help).
My plan right now is to pay off Store Card #5, #2, and #4 next month and go from there. I am trying to make them pay somewhere around $2000-2500 extra in payments on debt each month, as that is what they have left after what I would consider immediate expenses (mortgage, car, groceries, utilities, insurance, etc...) I am trying to do as much damage to the debt as possible before he passes and there is not as much income. Does anyone have any advice or see something I don't? Should I work on paying off Store Card #1 first since it's over the credit limit?
Thank you!
Edit: Had wrong interest rate on a few things and it has been fixed.
Submitted October 20, 2019 at 07:06PM by gpthroaweigh https://ift.tt/2Btr4kr
