Hi everyone, update 6 months now into the future from the original post. Here's what I did so far. I paid off my Home Depot and Amex and Chevron credit cards to 0, though Amex creeps up all the time, however I never let it get above $500. Then I paid an attorney to negotiate a settlement on the judgement, and although both me and the attorney think we didnt do as well as we should have, I did manage to reduce the judgement by $10,000. I paid off the remaining amount of $7500 and had to work hard to get the offender (junk debt buyer that sued me for that judgement) to release me and the lien on my home. Then I paid off the entire second mortgage on my primary home. With all those debts gone, I went to work refinancing the 1st mortgage, but could only get a 4.85% 30 year, not that great but much better than the 7% 40 year I was paying. My new payment is $615, my only debt now. It was $685 before, plus the second mortgage was $720 and rising with rising interest rates, plus all the credit card payments so I cut my expenses more than in half. I still managed to save out a few thousand for investing and emergencies like the giant pine tree I have to remove for $2000 because it's cracking my foundation - but at least I can pay for the work. Now Im sitting on a few investment dollars and 3 very small incomes, enough to survive but not thrive. Yet. Still trying to get the energy up to do another fixer, the goal now is to pay off that first mortgage asap. It was at $90,000, which is half of the value of my home. I already made some extra principle payments, and it's down to $88,000 after just 3 months. I think Im out of the woods, but not going anywhere yet. Just a few fixers should knock that out, but Im having trouble getting off the bench.
