Hello Queenie!

I found £10 in my coat pocket this morning, which made me think of money. Later, I spoke to a very nice man this morning on the National Debt Helpline as I wanted some financial advice. Here is the scenario I posed for him. I have a mortgage the size of Christendom, a personal loan, car finance and credit card debts; I am two months away from clearing credit card debts. I asked him which debt I should hit next? Car? Personal Loan? Mortgage? He reminded me of the theory of "good debt V. bad debt" as purported by Martin Lewis (UK version of Dave Ramsay/Suze Orman etc) and said that a mortgage makes my money work for me and any other debt is not good debt.

The advice I was given this morning is to keep 'snowballing' everything I can afford into personal loans until they have gone and THEN start paying back more money to my mortgage company. I was relieved that I am doing the right thing. I was also advised, as I have credit elsewhere, to close down the credit card accounts completely as that will make my credit score (FICO score) improve as I will have fewer creditors listed on my credit reference. I also asked whether I should have an emergency fund and how much I should make that. I was suprised by his response. He told me that I would always get credit from somewhere if I was really desperate and I should pay off debts first before saving anything at all.

Well Queenie and I are off to the bank to put back the money that I found and tuck her up safely and then I shall go online later and transfer the £10 to one of my creditors and in a blink of an eye our little tryst will be over !