My husband and I have made some irresponsible decisions over the last three years, having purchased furniture for our new condo on credit, buying a car out of our budget, and having a mortgage that is also beyond our budget.  See, we are both mid-career PhD students now, he's gone part-time while he kept his full time job and I went back full-time.  We both commute to different cities (he commutes to DC and I commute to Baltimore).  We are living paycheck by paycheck barely and it's bringing us down. We need to get out of debt but where do we start? Who can we go to?  I have heard that some people in our situation sell everything and start anew with a more humble life. Is that the solution?  But how can we be sure that we can even sell our furniture etc at reasonable prices to pay off some of our debt?  Extremely worried and frustrated. Thanks.