Liz Pulliam Weston

Dear Liz: My fiance and I sell cars for a living and we work on commission only. We can never predict what our pay will be. The worse part is that if we do not sell a car, we run the risk of owing our employer money. We are both divorced and have bills from our previous marriages. Please let me know how we can simplify our bills. I am trying to pay off my debt, but as soon as I start gaining momentum I get stuck because my paycheck is lower than I had hoped. We do not find out what our pay will be until the day before payday.

Dear Liz: Citibank just sent us a letter saying that they have closed one of our credit card accounts due to nonuse. This is one of our oldest cards and it has a high limit. We have other credit cards, also with high limits, that we use regularly and pay off every month. Our FICO scores are excellent, above 750. Will Citibank's action affect our FICO score adversely?

Dear Liz: I'm 25, work full time at a job that pays about $25,000 a year and attend school at night. I have about $27,000 in student loans and other debt, but I'm already trying to save for retirement by each month putting $50 into a Roth IRA and $75 into a universal life insurance policy.

Dear Liz: What does the housing slump mean for all of those seniors who took out reverse mortgages? And what does it mean for their heirs? My mother is 78 and fortunately has not had to go down that path (yet). But many of her friends have. I just haven't seen anything on any adverse effects and wondered.

Dear Liz: I'm a 25-year-old mom of a 5-year-old, living with his father in a one-bedroom apartment. We split all expenses down the middle, which is fair. I work while Dad receives disability income. I'm about $4,000 in debt, which isn't a lot, but on my salary, I can't afford the payments the credit card companies want. The constant collection calls are really stressful. No one knows that I'm in money trouble and the secret is killing me. The stress is affecting my life on all levels. I can't seem to save any money. I feel like I'm drowning and have no idea where to turn for help. Liz, please if you can, could you give me any advice on how to tackle this so my life won't feel like such a wreck?

Dear Liz: My wife and I were bombarded with offers for special credit card rates. Now, for absolutely no reason on our part, our credit card issuer has notified us that the rates on our accounts are about to skyrocket from 1.99% and 3.99% to the prime rate plus 23.99%, or nearly 30%. The issuer also lowered our credit limit to equal our balance. I'm not aware of any derogatory information on our credit reports that could explain this change. We initially used the low rates for purchases on which we could have gotten a fixed-rate, conventional loan.

Dear Liz: I was working as an attorney in the fall of 2002 when I was diagnosed with HIV. After the initial shock wore off, I quit my job and went on a wild spending spree. I traveled, bought cars, gave expensive gifts to family members and secured a grave plot, among other purchases. I sold my house and most of my other possessions. When that money ran out, I got started on my credit cards. Now, almost six years later, I am still completely healthy, still unemployed and have $75,000 in credit card debt. I was miserable as an attorney and would prefer not to go back to that type of work. However, with the credit card debt and the $100,000 in student loans I still owe, I feel trapped because I will have to earn a high salary to pay my way out of this mess. Would Chapter 7 be a good option for me if I want to be able to take a lower-paying but potentially more personally rewarding job and still make ends meet?

Dear Liz: A few years ago I read that people who took Social Security payments early -- before their full retirement age -- could later opt to pay back their benefits and qualify for a higher payment based on their current age. I called Social Security and the person who answered the phone laughed, saying he had never heard of anyone paying back Social Security. Yet I saw this mentioned again on a financial show. Can you really start over with Social Security?

Dear Liz: I am trying to purchase another house and my credit is not so good. My FICO credit scores are all around 575. I am trying to correct this but don't know what to do to make a quick fix. I've been on time with my mortgage and credit card payments lately, but I have three cards with $500 limits that are all maxed out.

Dear Liz: I'm self-employed and have a Simplified Employee Pension account. Every year I borrow from an equity line to contribute the maximum to this account. My wife questions whether we are ahead by doing this. I say yes because we obviously save on the amount we pay in taxes and are paying only 5.25% on the equity line. We hope to pay off the loan in six months, plus we get to write off the interest. Is this a good plan?