Couple weighed down by debt gets a small inheritance. An expert gives advice on how to manage it

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mariza and Geffrey Gordon are among a handful of participants selected to work one-on-one with a financial expert for CNN’s Savings Challenge. This story was originally featured in the Savings Challenge newsletter, which you can sign up for here .

The last time CNN checked in with Mariza and Geffrey Gordon, the Milwaukee-based couple weighed down by debt who hoped to build an emergency fund and stop living paycheck to paycheck, they’d just gotten disappointing news.

They’d been told because of their credit scores, they didn’t qualify for a balance transfer card, which would have given them up to 21 months to pay off their nearly $40,000 in credit card debt interest free. Nor did they qualify for a personal loan at a lower rate to pay off what they owe. And the terms they were offered on a debt management plan just weren’t feasible for them.

Maansi Srivastava/CNN

A month later, though, the couple’s circumstances had changed: They received a modest inheritance from a relative – a big chunk of which they used to pay off their credit card debts. That freed up the roughly $1,400 a month they had been spending to make their minimum required payments.

While that has been a huge weight off their shoulders, it didn’t erase their need to rethink how they manage money so that they no longer just get by.

Nor did it erase the fact that Mariza’s two months of severance from her former job were about to run out. With her upcoming unemployment benefits, their monthly household income would be about $2,000 lower than it was when she was working. Plus, she still had to arrange for health insurance coverage, since they’d missed a deadline to add her to her husband’s employer plan.

When the couple shared news of their inheritance with Tiffany Aliche, the financial educator they’ve been working with, she advised them to come up with a plan before doing anything. But they emailed her soon after to say they used a large piece of it to clear their credit card debts.

While that wasn’t a bad decision, Tiffany said, she would have preferred they’d first taken a beat to consider how much money to set aside to cover them until Mariza finds a new job.

Tiffany said she might have suggested only paying off half their credit card debt, thereby improving their credit scores enough to qualify for a 0% interest balance transfer card, and then letting the rest of their money earn 4% in an online high-yield savings account until their financial circumstances stabilize.

CNN Photo Illustration/Photograph by Tinnetta Putney (formerly Bell)

Nevertheless, Tiffany said, “They were excited about doing the responsible thing. They did what they thought was right.”

But now she wants to work with them to interrupt their money patterns and have them think more holistically about their full financial picture . “I’m trying to reframe for them. Let’s disrupt your pattern and come up with a new [one] that can work for you,” she said.

While the couple left Tiffany with the impression that they’d already spent some of their remaining inheritance to help both Mariza’s sons buy cars and to make some home improvements, in fact, they’d only given one son $5,000 already. They put the remainder of their inheritance in a high-yield savings account, they told CNN.

And, Geffrey added, he is going to aim to save 20% of his paycheck every month. He said he already set up direct deposits into two new high-yield savings accounts, one of which had a 4% annual percentage yield.

What’s next: We’ll follow up with Mariza and Geffrey in a few weeks. But next week, Jeff Kizer learns about the debt pay-down strategy that may get him to a comfortable retirement at age 75.

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编者按：玛丽扎和杰弗里·戈登夫妇是少数几位被选中参加CNN“储蓄挑战”活动，并与理财专家进行一对一辅导的参与者之一。本文最初刊登于“储蓄挑战”新闻简报，您可以在这里注册订阅。

CNN 上次联系到居住在密尔沃基、负债累累的马里扎和杰弗里·戈登夫妇时，他们刚刚收到令人失望的消息。这对夫妇希望建立应急基金，摆脱月光族的生活。

他们被告知，由于信用评分的原因，他们不符合申请余额转移信用卡的条件，而这种信用卡可以让他们有长达21个月的时间免息偿还近4万美元的信用卡债务。他们也不符合申请低利率个人贷款的条件来偿还欠款。此外，他们所获得的债务管理计划条款对他们来说也根本行不通。

曼西·斯里瓦斯塔瓦/CNN

然而，一个月后，这对夫妇的境况发生了变化：他们从一位亲戚那里继承了一笔数额不大的遗产——其中很大一部分被用来偿还信用卡债务。这让他们省下了每月大约1400美元的最低还款额。

虽然这让他们如释重负，但这并没有消除他们重新思考如何管理金钱的需要，这样他们就不能再仅仅勉强维持生计了。

但这并不能掩盖玛丽莎即将失去两个月遣散费的事实。加上她即将领取的失业救济金，他们家的月收入将比她工作时减少约2000美元。此外，她还得自己安排医疗保险，因为他们错过了把她加入丈夫雇主医疗保险计划的截止日期。

这对夫妇把继承遗产的消息告诉了他们一直合作的理财顾问蒂芙尼·阿利奇，阿利奇建议他们先制定一个计划再做决定。但他​​们很快就发邮件告诉她，他们用其中很大一部分来偿还信用卡债务。

蒂芙尼说，虽然这并不是一个糟糕的决定，但她更希望他们能先冷静下来，考虑一下应该预留多少钱来维持生活，直到玛丽莎找到新工作为止。

蒂芙尼说，她可能会建议他们只偿还一半的信用卡债务，从而提高他们的信用评分，使他们有资格获得 0% 利率的余额转移信用卡，然后让剩下的钱在网上高收益储蓄账户中赚取 4% 的利息，直到他们的财务状况稳定下来。

CNN图片插图/摄影：Tinnetta Putney（原名Bell）

蒂芙尼说：“不过，他们很高兴能做自己认为负责任的事。他们做了他们认为正确的事。”

但现在她想帮助他们打破原有的金钱模式，让他们更全面地看待自己的财务状况。“我正在尝试为他们重新构建思维框架。让我们打破你们原有的模式，找到一种适合你们的新模式，”她说。

这对夫妇给蒂芙尼留下的印象是，他们已经用剩余遗产的一部分帮助玛丽莎的两个儿子买了车并进行了一些房屋修缮，但实际上，他们只给了其中一个儿子5000美元。他们告诉CNN，他们把剩下的遗产存入了一个高收益储蓄账户。

杰弗里补充说，他计划每月将工资的20%存起来。他说他已经设置了两个新的高收益储蓄账户的直接存款，其中一个账户的年收益率为4%。

接下来：几周后我们会继续关注玛丽莎和杰弗里的近况。但下周，杰夫·凯泽将了解到一种偿还债务的策略，该策略或许能让他75岁时安享晚年。

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