A Wedding, a wife, a house oh my!!!

So im quickly approaching my wedding date in May and have been looking into buying a house. With the amount of money that we have been putting into the wedding it has pretty much drained most of our savings accounts. I was just wondering if it was better to pay off my fiancees debt or save the money for the house. What looks better to a bank/lender, having no debt or having no savings?

Maybe it's just me, but debt is my first priority. Basically you think about the interest rate you are getting charged versus the money you're making in savings. I bet you it's way higher interest for your debt.

Congratulations by the way. :)

Just what TMC said. Chances are your debt is costing you more in interest payments than your savings is accruing, so I'd say get that debt paid down first.

What kind of debt does she have? If we're talking past due credit cards/collections accounts, you absolutely want to wipe those out immediately to minimize the impact on your credit score. If you're just talking student loans, a car payment, or credit cards that aren't past due, just keep paying it down on time (pay more than the monthly minimum whenever possible) and hang on to your savings in case of emergencies.

Just what TMC said. Chances are your debt is costing you more in interest payments than your savings is accruing, so I'd say get that debt paid down first.

What kind of debt does she have? If we're talking past due credit cards/collections accounts, you absolutely want to wipe those out immediately to minimize the impact on your credit score. If you're just talking student loans, a car payment, or credit cards that aren't past due, just keep paying it down on time (pay more than the monthly minimum whenever possible) and hang on to your savings in case of emergencies.

Nothing past due. Just credit card debt. Someone told me it was better to have no debt then no savings. I was just checking to see if it was the correct advice

They are 100% right. My wife had a state retirement plan for one year from working at VT right after college. We ended up cashing that out to pay down some debt.

Now, I wouldn't recommend cashing out years of 401k to do that, but in this instance it just made more sense to make sure you have no debt.

Eliminating debt is always the top priority. Always.

Balance debt payment and savings. Its amazing how much 1000 dollars today where you reinvest all the dividends can be worth in 30 years. They say always to pay yourself first. Take a small amount of money off the top -- and put it into an IRA or into the stock market. My boss is great at giving me stocks that have a very consistent performance.

That said, it depends on the debt. Student Loans? Low interest car payment? Mortgage? -- do some saving. Credit cards? PAY PAY PAY!

Well paying of dept is fine but if its not out of line it should not hurt you too much. You cannot buy a home without a down payment so I would think saving for the down payment is also an issue. You may want to rent for the first year or so your married and get all your financies in line then think about buying a home. With that said I would also keep an eye on the market and if you see home values going back up buy before they go up too much.

Another good idea is to go to your banker and have them pull your credit and qualify you fo a loan. They then can make recommendations to help you when your ready to buy.

Well paying of dept is fine but if its not out of line it should not hurt you too much. You cannot buy a home without a down payment so I would think saving for the down payment is also an issue. You may want to rent for the first year or so your married and get all your financies in line then think about buying a home. With that said I would also keep an eye on the market and if you see home values going back up buy before they go up too much.

Another good idea is to go to your banker and have them pull your credit and qualify you fo a loan. They then can make recommendations to help you when your ready to buy.


You can get no down payment mortgages.

Your rate will be higher but you can do it.

https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/loans/mortgage/mortgage-rates.php

If you have no debit and or never paid down any debit that is going to hurt you as well in getting a mortgage. You need to build a credit history.