Seeking some friendly advice here. Over the past 3 years I was making about 90k/year on average. I work in oil and gas and got laid off a few months back. About me: I'm 28. No kids. No house. Dating a girl (she pays for her own stuff but I still take her out). Point of Stupidity #1: I saved some cash, but it always seemed like the cash I would save went straight to the IRS when the time came around. I wasn't saving enough. Being self employed, I had an accountant that was doing everything for me. I just sent her my invoices and she would tell me how much to pay and when. I still owe a lot to the IRS for 2009. Point of Stupidity #2: I dated some expensive women and spent way too much money on trips, etc. Now I did this while I had a great cash flow so it wasn't really hurting me. Point of Stupidity #3: I decided to buy an expensive car. This feels like a giant black hole. I've made so many payments and it's all gone to paying off interest. The car has 80k miles now and I still owe 22k on it. I love my car, but I could be happy with a junker if it meant not paying any more. Being out of work for a few months now, the payments keep going out and I will hopefully land a job next week and start ASAP. I haven't borrowed any money from anybody and I don't want to unless I absolutely have to. My bank account is the lowest it's been since I graduated from school and I can't go another month before I'm in the red. I only have 1 credit card with an outstanding balance and I don't have any past due amounts. I have 2 credit cards with zero balances. My credit stinks (embarrassingly low) and even though I've tried to make steps to repair it, something always comes up and knocks it back down. So far I've pretty much stopped eating out. I love to cook and it does save a lot of money. The girl I'm seeing wants me to move in with her for a little while (I don't think I'm ready for it). This sucks... If I land this job, 2 paychecks pretty much fix all my problems. Just trying not to freak out here. I know some of you guys have been through similar situations and got through it just fine. Any advice/words of encouragement will help. Feel free to flame, I was pretty dumb and know that when times are better I will definitely save and make sound investments.
You can always ask this guy how he made it! <a href="http://photobucket.com/images/screech" target="_blank"><img src="http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae262/HistoryTwistOfLime/Screech.jpg" border="0" alt="Screech Pictures, Images and Photos"/></a>
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm currently dealing with financial issues as well. I'm self employed and business has declined heavily this new year. I'm not sure I have any advice since I'm in the same boat, but keep your head up. There's people worse off than us, and hell, some people take their own lives over such situations. Good Luck with the job, and don't worry so much. Hard times are hitting a lot of us. "If you can make it through the night, there's a brighter day..."
You laid yourself off? Well, if you got laid off, you can get unemployment. Just use it for what it's meant for. Consider the free time a chance to redo your resume and look for another job. If you have a high interest rate on your car, you can refi it through your bank. Consider moving in with your gf for a few months but let her know it's not permanent. Find a hobby that doesn't involved spending a lot of money. Keep your faith up... my friend has been looking for a job for 2 years still. Her fault for getting a psychology degree.
File for unemployment. You paid taxes for it while you were working, take advantage of it. RE: IRS...in the future determine what tax bracket you will fall into and have your employer withhold accordingly. No reason for you to have an accountant doing this for you if you don't own a house or have kids...I would assume you will be taking a standard deduction. Other than that, hang in there and best of luck to you in your job search and XBL, you should really think about changing your sig...that kind of crap is uncalled for here
A little clarification... Technically self employed but did contract work for clients and/or brokerages.
Can't you find temp work or part time work until you land a similar position as to what you had before?
Apply for unemployment, ask parents for a loan (pay them back with interest in the future), live a cheaper lifestyle while you're unemployed, and MOST IMPORTANTLY save for rainy days when you start making money again...
Join the club man. I got married and went back to school full time only to be laid off from my job a couple months later. Now my wife's job situation is up in the air too. Fun times let me tell you.
Probably upside down on it. Selling it would only put him in a spot where he would still owe money to the bank and still would have to come out of pocket for another one.
To the op: Sorry to hear about your situation. Here are some things that you could do (if you haven't done already) that can help free some more money up for you: 1) Definitely try to file for unemployment 2) Look at changing the deductibles on your car insurance 3) Get rid of your lan line on your phone 4) Get rid of cable (if possible) 5) Do all of your grocery shopping at discount places (i.e. NOT Kroger) Now you may have done all of these things (except for #1), but those were things we did when we lost money due to layoffs, etc. Just be glad that you are single with no kids and little debt - it could be a lot worse, let me tell you.
On the car, I would look to see what insurance is running a month on it. Expensive car = high insurance a lot of the times, so even if you owe more on the car than it's worth, it may help you in the long run to trade it in for a cheaper car. On the plus side, you do have some things that put you in a better situation than most people. Good job on keeping the credit cards fairly low. Not having to support kids with a big mortgage payment right now is also a good thing. This sounds stupid, but try to lower how much money you have flowing out the door. Try to reduce or eliminate your recurring costs (cable, try to get a lower insurance payment, etc) until you get a steady paycheck back. Basically you should have the lifestyle of a poor college kid right now while times are rough. That $90K salary is not near as big as it sounds if you're a self employed guy. You have to pay double the FICA & Soc Sec tax as a "normal employee" would have. You also have to pay your own health insurance if you have any.
You need a lifestyle change. Even if you had that job again, it sounds like you spent everything. Probably should have been thinking about a regular car in the beginning and thinking about saving for taxes accordingly before you lost your job. Next time you'll know.
I applaud you for acknowledging your mistakes. Unless you're rich, expensive cars are probably the worst thing anyone can spend money on other than maybe boats. It really sounds like you need to get rid of the car. Can you sell it for more than the 22k you owe? If so, I would do that and buy a used Honda or something for under $10k...will probably save you a fortune once you factor in better gas mileage, lower insurance, lower maintenance costs, etc.
You say you have bad credit but have three CC's and only one with a balance. Have you tried to refinance your car through a Credit Union? You could certainly lower your payments if you're still liking the car and plan on keeping it. Hang in there. One of my buddies with a Masters was unemployed for over a year, had to move in with his parents but just now found a great job, one better than what he had before. Keep your head up!
He sounds like a landman.......no unemployment for him. If you are a landman buddy, hang in there. Things are picking up.
Sell whatever you can on ebay. This may sound like a joke, but if you are really "tight" for money, this is serious. Bundle old DVDs together, any old magazines you might have, etc. and sell them on ebay. If you are lucky you can pull a couple hundred dollars out of that. Call your car insurance provider and see if they can tweak your plan (deductible, rental car coverage, etc.) to try to lower your rate. If you have internet at home with ATT, call them and ask them to drop you down to the lowest grade DSL. This can save you anywhere between $5-$20 extra a month. Call your sat/cable provider and cut to the basic package. Drop your landline if you can, if you can't, lower it to the fixed call plan where you pay like $6 a month or something but can only make a handful of outgoing calls. Call your credit card company with a balance and see if you can renegotiate your interest rate. If you've been a good cardholder you might be able to save some interest points which will lower the minimum payment. Try to refinance your auto loan. Even with average credit you can use someone like Capital One. If money is really tight for you, it's not about lowering your interest rate as much as lowering the payment, even it means adding extra time to the loan. This will buy you time to get your income back up. Just commit to yourself that once the income is back you will get that loan off your shoulders ASAP. Don't go out to eat. Use this as an opportunity to implement a lifestyle change and start fixing food at home. It's not the best, but your money goes a long way when you aren't paying marked up rates for food. Eat broccoli with cheese and maybe chicken for some dinners, 3 times a week. Low cost meal. All of these are small things that can help you reduce your monthly expenses by a pretty fair amount. It can really help get you through tough economic times. If you are writer, a way to make a little extra cash is About.com(I think it's them?) You can write articles for them and make a little extra money. Contact the census division down here as well. They are looking for people to do all sorts of work at all sorts of hours. The money isn't amazing, but it's something. Hope something in this post helps you!
