so im about to receive $30k

[jeff84]

only debt is the house and I owe a bank 1200 bucks and a credit card 700. other than that I am debt free.
I plan on doing the best I can with the money. I also plan on taking 2000 and putting it in a brokerage account and seeing what I can manage trading day to day in the stock market. and yess I have the self control to only put that initial 2k in and live with the results. I'm not going to reup if I loose it all.

[jeff84]

Dec 1, 2016 11:10:54 GMT -5 liftit said:

The personal finance subreddit has a lot of great advice: www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/

As someone that daily deals with mortgage lending and mortgage law, I can say with pretty decent certainty that if you just modified your mortgage loan and they tacked on the extra years, they probably also recapitalized your missed payments and interest. Most lenders aren't going to give you a refi because you're probably under water on the home. Putting money towards it may help you get to the point where you can refi or sell, but there are trade-offs.

So instead, focus on other debts. The top two things that a financial adviser will tell you is to try to put 6 months worth of bills (mortgage, insurance, cell phone, utilities, etc) in a savings account and don't touch it. That's for emergencies only (you get laid off, need to go on disability, emergency surgery). The other thing to do is pay off any high interest debt. If you have any credit cards or personal loans with a higher than 10% interest, pay it off.

When you pay off the debt and have your 6 month stockpile, then start focusing on other things. Put the money you want for a car and truck in something like a Vanguard index fund and make some money off of it until you can drive again. Vanguard is a nice company because their fees are ridiculously low and they regularly outperform the big fancy mutual funds managed by people making 9 figures a year. On average, they get around 8.5% on return a year. Put in 6 grand, wait 3 years for your license to come back, and you'd have about 7,500 sitting there.

MY own opinion is to clear up other debts and allow what income you have to go towards saving and bettering your life. It may make that mortgage payment more manageable for you. It also give you a bit more financial freedom to look for that better job or get the cert that lets you get that better job.

what exactly do you mean by recapitalized missed payments?  the house appraised for 105k in 2011.  according to my statements I owe 101k.  the original loan was for 99,5k

[jeff84]

as I sit if I make the payment as they are laid out I will be 77 years old before I own my home. to me that is not acceptable and I want to change it

[tortoise2]

trading day to day in the stock market

Might also research real estate crowdfunding.

[Deleted]

Rich get richer. Never spend money to something you know nothing about.

[pinkscoot]

I had the opportunity to downsize and buy my current house outright and still go back to school. It was the best thing I have ever done financially. Its hard to not get a mortgage to pay of some things but I have resisted.

[FrankenMech]

If you have a poor job with low income and a bad credit history then a new loan/refinance is probably out of the question, so is a smaller house with a mortgage on it. Putting money towards the mortgage will earn you 4.25% on your money but it will be tied up in the mortgage and will not pay off for a long time. You will still have to make payments every month.

I had a similar situation with $24k. I put 10K on the mortgage but I only had 5 years to go so it cut a couple years off the payoff. The rest bought a 50cc scoot and got me through until I could retire. Unfortunately I am so sick it really hasn't done much for me.

See a financial advisor that is not trying to sell 'investment opportunities'. Your bank may know someone.

[humanshield]

It takes money to make money they say.

Nothing grows cash like buying low and selling high.

Find something you KNOW you can sell, but it at a low price, then sell it and grow that 30K into 60K

[Cincikid]

(Working on it)