Funding...

buggerfly12

I am wondering what to do to help pay for our adoption. I was thinking we'd just get a loan when we sign on with an agency/facilitator, but since we have no way of knowing when we'll match, or how much money we'll need once we do, it isn't looking so great anymore. I am anticipating needing hopefully no more than $10K on top of what we have saved, but am not sure how to go about it. I have looked at several options on loans and lines of credit, and have a couple of options 6-6.5%. I have never even considered getting anything along the lines of a personal loan, so I don't really know if those rates are good. We have really good credit, BUT we're so young that it hardly matters at a lot of places. Can anyone share what kind of rates you are looking at, how you financed, etc..? BTW, any loan/line of credit will have to be unsecured. Also, when did you actually get the money? Did you just keep a loan on hand while waiting, or get it as soon as it was needed? I don't really know how long it would take to get one... TIA

SoSweet06

 We just started looking into loans as well, and I have to tell you...the news isn't good. We don't have equity (renters) and I was told by both of the banks that I use that unsecured loans are virtually impossible to get in the amount we need. And, even if we could get one, the interest rates will be 10%+. Since we're pursuing a waiting child, we can't just wait until we save up the money. So, we're probably going to have to use interest-free credit cards and hope that the tax credit helps us pay them off quickly enough.

boxermama24

We went to our credit union and got a $5k personal loan at 10% interest, I believe. They said we could have access to it within 24 hours of needing it, and we will remain qualified for 6 months. If the 6 month passes without using it, we are to bring in 2 new pay stubs to prove employment/income and that will suffice to be "re-qualified".

We are hoping not to need it and to continue saving, but we like knowing it's there and that we won't be turning down a situation that is a slightly more than we have in savings, but otherwise perfect.

We also arranged a $5k loan with an uncle and he has agreed that we can pay him back monthly (at whatever payment we are comfortable with) and then pay the remaining amount off when we get our tax return.

Ideally, we will not need the credit union loan since the interest is so high and the payment is around $200 a month.  We would rather use the family loan because of no interest and the flexible payment plan. So our goal is to have at least $25k in savings with access to the family loan making it at least $30k.

dragossoul84

We own our home out right so we took out a home equity line of credit. It was available to use it 24 hours of being approved. Its nice because we are able to use the revolving credit for twenty years so after we pay back the amount we can use that money to remodel our kitchen etc. It also lets us take what we need as we go for our classes we need a check for $4200 so then we take that much and so we only pay interest on that amount but we can pull up to 20,000

buggerfly12

Thanks for the responses. I guess the 6.5% is looking okay right now, huh? I'm seriously wondering whether it will be possible to pay off our car with our adoption savings, then take out close to the full $30K in a line of credit. That way will save us money on interest, and we would only pay what we actually use rather than the whole amount. Also, we may be able to use the car (if we pay it off first) to secure a line of credit, getting our interest rate even lower. Only drawback: we'll need someone to cosign (asked DH's mom last night, waiting on her answer... My great-uncle is next in line to ask), because there's no way any bank will hand two 22-yr-olds a $30K line of credit. The biggest issue if we go this way is a line of credit has an origination fee... But that would be made up for within a few months of not paying interest on our car. I know this isn't really a subject that's brought up much on this board, and I hope no one is bothered by it, but I know it helps me to see how others are going about with money.

silliestbunny

My 2cents... w/o knowing you personally...

You are young (22)... consider putting adoption off for another year and save like crazy!  Why go into debt at this point?  Is there a reason you want to start right now? 

If it were me (and I had the wisdom and experience that I do now), I'd put it off, pay off the car, and save the monehy so I was in a better financial house before starting the adoption process.

No offense meant.... just an opportunity to give a different perspective.  

PS-  FWIW, I am a Dave Ramsey fan... if you are interested in getting your financial house in order, listen in.  He really is motivating and gets you thinking differently about debt. 

silliestbunny

An ammendment to what I said...  it may have sounded to harsh.  I totally understand wanting to get on with it

If you want to move forward, you could probably get crazy and really save huge amounts of money while you waited.  We did!  Visit the Money Matters board on The Nest, listen to Dave Ramsey, check out library books, sell things, etc.... go crazy and save like crazy!  You'll be happy to start your new life with your new baby w/o the stress of lots fo debt

jennykg1477

We are attempting to raise the necessary moey through fundraising.  We do have some money saved up, but we would rather fundraise so that we can still be in a good financial place when our family grows.  We have just started so I can't tell you how well it is working.  Our first event will be a big garage sale in a couple of weeks.  We have asked friends and family to donate items for the garage sale that they want to get rid of.  People have really been very happy to donate items to us.  They get to clean out their houses and help us at the same time.  We will also probably try to do a restaurant night with a silent auction, a lunch at our church, some kind of game party, and perhaps another fundraising dinner.  We have friends who also fundraised and it seemed to work well for them.  I just thought I would throw that out there in case it was a funding option that you hadn't considered.