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A lot of times, when we make a major purchase like a home or a car, we have the present in mind rather
than the future. In other words, when we first bought those kinds of high-priced items, we may have had
a steady job, which produced a stable income, and so there was no concern about whether or not we could
meet our monthly mortgage or car note.

But then life happens and we may lose our job or incur other expenses like a new addition to the family.
Suddenly, what once seemed like a fairly easy financial expense is now burdensome. If you feel this way as
it relates to your mortgage and you would like to explore some options on what to do when your monthly
payments seem like they have gotten out of control, here are a few tips that may help relieve the financial
pressure and internal stress.

Speak with your lender. It may feel a bit intimidating, but it’s far better to let your mortgage lender
know about your situation as soon as possible than to let your mortgage payments lapse. Oftentimes, your
lender has ways to help you that you may have not considered such as a modification (where they may
agree to lower your interest rates) or a forbearance (where you may be able to temporarily stop making
loan payments until you can get into a better financial state). Or, if you have good credit (high 700s), you
may be able to get your bank fees reduced or eliminated altogether.

Shorten your mortgage. This one may seem like a bit of stretch because you may be thinking, “If the
mortgage is too high, the last thing that I want to do is make my mortgage shorter.” But, the benefit here
is that if you go from, say, a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage, look at all of the interest that you have eliminated? Just something to think about. You can also check this out to see more information on loans.

Seek out a professional. There’s a Proverb that states that there is wisdom in seeking out wise counsel.
This applies in knowing where to go to get good advice about your mortgage and mortgage rates. If you
have a federally-guaranteed loan such as an FHA loan, don’t hesitate to contact HUD (the Housing and
Urban Development) office to set up an appointment to review some of your options.

Consider a short sale. The only more extreme route to go than this is filing for bankruptcy (which
we’ll discuss in just a moment), but if your payments have lapsed so much that you’re on the brink of
foreclosure, a short sale is an option that you can discuss with your bank. It’s basically rushing to sell your
home, which means you probably won’t get anything close to what the home is worth, but you should at
least be able to cover all of the past payments that you owe. Plus, it keeps a foreclosure from going onto
your credit report.

File for bankruptcy. Filing for bankruptcy is definitely an “If all else fails” option. But, if all else does,
this is one way to possibly not have to pay back all of your past debt. Of course, your credit will suffer for
years to come. So, again, you really should use this as a last resort and also do some thorough research
on if it makes more sense to file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 (both have certain repayment stipulations,
so make sure to review the fine print on both). You definitely don’t want to exchange one problem for an
even bigger one by not knowing all that comes with filing for bankruptcy, so choose wisely.