The Biggest Retirement Risks and How to Prepare for Them

When Jill Caponera was 25, she moved from New York to Los Angeles. That’s when the money trouble began.

“The cost of moving and everything that goes along with a move are kind of how my financial pitfalls started,” Caponera says. “I was looking for work for quite a few months, and once I found work, I wasn’t being completely responsible with my credit card.”

Before she knew it, she had $5,000 in credit-card debt, and her credit score had plummeted to 600. “It seemed like out of nowhere it snowballed out of control,” she says. “It made me really stressed out and worried about how long it was going to take me to pay off this debt.”

But now, five years later, Caponera, now a senior PR manager with Promocodes.com, has $20,000 with a credit score of 805. She’s planning to start mortgage shopping soon, and has been told she’s “highly qualified.”

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You’re in a pinch and in desperate need of money. You’ve already asked family members for help, but nobody can assist you. You’ve heard of a personal loan before, but is taking one out a good idea?

In short, it depends on your particular financial situation. If you’ve racked up high-interest credit card debt, for example, and you can take out a personal loan with a lower interest rate to consolidate and pay off that debt, a personal loan might be right for you. But if you have other assets you can borrow against that will have lower interest rates — such as a 401(k) loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC) — you might want to consider pursuing those lines of credit instead of a personal loan.

Here’s everything you need to know about when a personal loan might be worthwhile, and when you might want to look elsewhere.

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