Is taking a loan to pay off credit card debt a good or bad idea ?

Dear Dave: I make $48,000 a year, and I have $35,000 in credit card debt. I owe $25,000 on my home, and I was thinking about taking out a loan against my house to pay off the credit cards. Is this a good idea? — Mike

Dear Mike: I would never advise anything like this, unless it’s to avoid bankruptcy. Here’s the problem with that kind of plan. Most people who do that kind of thing don’t change their financial habits. In fact, they end up with a new mortgage and new credit card debt somewhere down the line.

You need to start building a track record of paying off debt. Cut up the credit cards, slash your spending, and start living on a tight, written, monthly budget. Prove to yourself that you’re not going to take out a mortgage and turn around and run up a bunch of new credit cards.

I want to see you not take on any new debt and reduce that $35,000 credit card bill dramatically over the next six months. If you can knock out half of it in a year, you can take care of the other half in another year or less. Then, you wouldn’t need a second mortgage!

Should one invest in Solar Panels for home ?

Dear Dave: I’m debt-free except for my home, and I’m considering having solar panels installed on the roof of the house. It would cost about $27,000. I have $80,000 in savings, but the company doing the installation will finance it all for just one percent interest. It’s almost like free money. My electric bills average around $310 a month, and I thought this would be a good way to save money in the long run. What do you think? — Michael

Dear Michael: If you have to finance the project, my answer is no. My guess is the break-even analysis you’re trying to give me is the sales pitch your solar panel company gave you. That’s how they sell solar panels, but it doesn’t justify going into debt.

You told me you have around $80,000 in savings right now. Why not just write a check? Let me ask you a question. What if you could borrow $10 million at one percent interest and put it in the stock market? Would you do that? Of course, not. It would be way too risky, right? Basically, we’re talking about the same kind of thing. I made you feel the risk by scaling things up in my scenario. You’re not feeling the risk right now because we’re talking about $27,000 instead of millions.

This move wouldn’t bankrupt you, but wealthy people don’t do the kind of thing you’re talking about. Either pull the money out of your savings account and buy the panels, or don’t buy them at all!

Whole Life Insurance can be bad if you borrow against it

Dear Dave: I have a whole life insurance policy with zero cash value due to loans I took out per the advice of my agent. I finally realized this wasn’t a smart move, as I now owe premiums plus interest every year. Am I still on the hook for the policy loans if I forfeit the policy to buy term insurance? — Tanner

Dear Tanner: No, you are not. Get your term insurance in place first, then when you cancel the policy; your cash value will offset your loans.

They won’t lend you more than your cash value. It’s seldom that they will lend you 100 percent of cash value, so you might actually have a cash value that is above your loan amount. If they have lent you the full amount of your cash value, it’ll be an exact break even, and just canceling the policy means you cancel the interest and cancel the premiums.

It was bad advice to buy the policy, and even dumber advice to clean the whole thing out and sit there paying interest to borrow your own money and pay a premium to keep the loan open.

I recommend 10 to 12 times your income on a 15- or 20-year level term policy. During that 15 or 20 years, of course, you should be getting out of debt and building wealth so that you have a big pile of money and no need for life insurance. — Dave

Pay off student debt while working towards self employment

Dear Dave: I have student loans in deferment from earning a degree in hospitality management. My career goal is to own a mobile food vending company, so I’m putting most of the money I make from eBay and ride-hailing services — around $1,000 a month — aside in savings for that. Should I forego my business idea for the time being, and knock out the student loan debt instead? — Nicholas

Dear Nicholas: You should put this business idea on hold for now, unless you can start it for less than $1,000. The first thing you need to do is go out, and get a real job. I know you have this dream of being self-employed, but right now you’re not doing so well as an entrepreneur.

With a hospitality degree, you can make $30,000 to $50,000 a year within the industry, clean up your mess, and build out the eBay thing on the side. Just think about how quickly you could save up money for a jump into the food truck or mobile food business, then.

Pay your way through it, Nicholas. Don’t sit around scraping by on the kind of money you’re making now and call that winning. You have a real economic engine at your fingertips, because you have the knowledge from the degree you earned. And it’s a valuable degree. If you go in there and bust it, you can escalate yourself upward through that industry in a hurry.

While you’re doing that, you can clean up all your student loans and save up money for your food truck. Boom — you’re self-employed and you learned a lot of stuff you can use in your new business. Go make some real money, then follow your dream, man. — Dave