I think, from what I have read, you definitely have a great chance at getting all this taken care of. It will just take a little discipline and mental retraining to get out of that thought process that debt is a normal part of life and the American way. It may seem that way and many will cry out about credit ratings and all that, but I personally do not see debt as a normal part of life. Careful budgeting, fiscal responsibility and planning will do everything that debt will and cost less and not be a burden should there be an upset in the finances such as the changing of a job or as you mentioned, a hurricane.

This is a prime example of why you MUST pay yourself first, however much it is, pay yourself FIRST. That way when things happen that are unexpected or take longer to get through, you have a cash reserve that will help keep you from diverting from your debt elimination plan. The more debt to income ratio you have the harder it is to get through this but the sooner you start the better off you will be.

I too am glad you did not wait until your 50's to take this on. I think my original debt reduction plan had me out of debt around 2010 maybe 2011, I'll have to dig that one up again to be sure. But once we got started, a few months afterward, they re-evaluated my job and compared it to market standards and realize I was severely underpaid and so I got THE biggest raise since I started working anywhere. Nearly all of it has gone to our debt reduction and so has accelerated somewhat the process.

Once you find a workable budget that is solely focused on debt reduction, be disciplined enough to put any extra money you make into this process. It will just make it accelerate that much faster. When your wife starts to work, factor any of her student loans into this process and get them taken care of. If you can make it now without her income then you should be able to do so when she does start working, keep that in mind. So when she starts working, the majority of her income should also go to clearing debt and to putting money aside (paying yourself first) for savings and such.

Many people make the mistake of getting a bonus, raise or otherwise more income and do not adjust their plan to take into account that extra income and they blow it or waste or otherwise misuse it and start that path back down where they came from instead of using it to further their debt elimination.

Im not saying starve yourselves or sit at home and twiddle your thumbs all the time, I am saying take every penny you can comfortably do without and put it towards the plan. By all means treat yourself once in a while. When you clear a debt, go have a dinner out and celebrate or something like that. My wife and I call them freedom dates. Everyone we get to go on we know we are that much closer to being free.

Again, you are welcome to PM me or email me if you have any questions and such that you would rather not discuss on the forums.