Folks, I have a serious money issue. I'm $10K in credit card debt, and its literally killing me. I cant eat, I cant sleep, and its the biggest stressor I have right now. I think about money constantly, and get so worked up I end up doing something dumb and go on a drinking binge or order comfort food on an overpriced delivery app and it makes everything worse. I have medical and student loan debt too, but Im less worried about those as theyre more manageable. Idk what to do about the credit cards though. I work full time over the summer and dont make enough to beat the interest rate. My school offers financial/credit counseling...but not during the summer and there's a long waitlist that opens in August. I have some savings that I stupidly let my mom control. All from when I was a kid, small inheritance, tax refunds over the years, and its also how I budget the portion of my loans for rent every month. Theres not much left in there now besides next months rent. Is there anyway to consolidate my credit cards and repair my credit score? In 2 months I dropped from the mid 700s to mid 600s. Im relying on the local food pantry and eat one meal a day, and splurge once or twice a week on a meal out and some fun downtown. Im also paying for 2 therapists, and a psychiatrist. If UGA didnt give me free prescription coverage Id be completely screwed. I feel like any of the advertised debt consolidation services I see advertised are scams. I applied for a private student loan to cover my cc debt and help with living expenses and was denied. Once school starts up again, Im forbidden to work my current job more than 20 hours per week...despite help wanted signs I cant get hired in retail or service jobs Ive applied to. And I dont have a car to do things like uber, doordash etc. Idk what to do anymore.
Focus on paying one card at a time down Make more money to pay that debt off. That means getting a better job and/or working more or getting a second job. It will be good for you because it will teach you work ethic and the value of your money. No one becomes wealthy working a single 9-5 job. This is the best job market in decades. No one should be incapable of attacking their debt.
Sorry to hear about your situation. Using a Debt Consolidation service will destroy your credit for many years, pretty much guarantee you will not get another loan for a long time, think bankruptcy equivalent. 10K seems like a huge mountain but its really not much in the scheme of things. I would speak with the CC company and see if you can work out a plan to stay current as folding that card will hurt for awhile but wont total your credit like Consolidation will. I wouldn't want to carry a bunch of money on CC at this stage with interest rates. Look at ways to downsize your expenses. Cell Phone? Go with Mint. cancel all subscription services (Its unbelievable how everything is a monthly SaaS fee now and it adds up) Cable forget about it, get roommates or rent a cheap room. Move back in with dear old mom. Get a side Hussle take a sales job. Biggest thing is take care of yourself, exercise cut back on the drinking and wallowing. Once you aren't a bundle of stress and doom gloom it will be easier to see your way out. You will look back on this and think what was I stressing some day in the future. Stay busy and off the couch.
Sounds like a second job is in order and trying to cut the extra expenses. Have to see what you really need VS what you just want. Listening to some of the Dave Ramsey stuff on youtube/podcast might get you motivated. There are plenty of stories of people in much worse situations getting out of it and becoming debt free. You also need to budget and try to stick to that budget. Apps like mint or personal capital could help (they link to your bank accounts to track spending). As mentioned before, the debt consolidation doesn't help much. Getting out of debt is just a math problem, and you have to learn to bring in more than you spend, and put that extra to the debt. Do you still use credit cards?
Lol I understand the value of money...Im not a 13 year old on their first job. The move may be to drop out of graduate school. Its incredibly expensive and preventing me from earning a salary that I could live comfortably on.
If solving this problem was easy, you would have done so. Take your credit cards, put them in glass, fill with water and put that in the freezer. Now you are cash only … except for true emergencies. Make a monthly budget. When you get paid, take the cash and place into envelopes for each of your monthly expenses. Like rent, electric bill, groceries etc. The money that does not go into envelopes is for your credit card debt. You need to pay the minimum on each card. If you have any money left, pay off the card with the highest interest rate. If you are still short money each month, you need to reduce your expenses. There might be some terribly hard choices that you have to make. But you have to make them. You must live within your means.
That said, if I drop out or go part time...ill have wasted a year and wont be able to make career moves to make more money down the line. And please dont tell me to learn to code (I already can) or to drop out of grad school and become a welder or ask why I dont become a doctor, lawyer, or accountant. My goal is to make enough to live. I no its sacrilege but I dont want to be one of those people who work an office job plus 3 side hustles. I can take on a second job over the summer...but as I said I do also go to school full time when it starts up in August
Yeah, Im going to have to belt tighten and basically reduce non-essentials to zero. The main issue is that if I drop out and get a job, I have to move. And that costs money. Ive backed myself into a corner; and thats my own fault for not budgeting properly. I used to budget just fine, but man...switching from full time work to full time school in a poorer area has been rough
My wife dropped out of law school and she had something like 60k in student loan debt by the end of it. Now she hated law school so this was good for her mental health but we both agreed that limiting the amount of student loan debt was also a huge benefit of dropping out We paid off that 60k in something like four years. Fortunately we had two incomes but we lived very frugal lives for a few years to pay that off. Her entire paycheck and part of my paycheck would go towards paying off that debt every month. Now you need to ask yourself, if you dropped out of school, what could you do for full time work? If you aren't in school, you can potentially work full time again which would give you more income to pay down your other debt (in addition to not accruing student loan debt).
Honestly? Id be working an admin job. Im in a highly competitive field where a Masters is essential. Luckily, the $$$ increase from the Masters is enough to cover my loans easily if I go private or can get forgiven if I work for the govt. I also picked a much cheaper school with great networking and have a few career trajectories I can go if need be. The student loans are not my concern. My credit card debt (the latter due to my own carelessness) is what really scares me. Im also meeting with financial aid tonorrow to discuss options etc and if I play my cards right I should be able to get an assistantship or at least in state tuition...in which case Id be in the clear. But yeah, really just wanted inout about debt consokidation. I think working two or three jobs (plus my unpaid internship) this summer wont just get me more money, its going to help me not spend money. Im just pissed I let it get this bad. I was raised better.
Ill also say I am applying to full time jobs that pay well and/or align with my careee goals. But I dont want to drop out without an offer in hand. The last time I tried to do that, I ended up taking a paycut working retail and unable to get back into my old salary range. It is still super competitive to get a job despite the prevailing narrative...and min wage is still $7.25 here.
Congratulations. Acknowledging you have a problem is a very important first step. BTW the steps I mentioned above are what a reputable credit counselor would give .. in broad strokes.
If you think age is correlated to understanding economics, you....you don't understand the value of money. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I would evaluate the value of grad school. What does it get you financially short and long term? You're on to the root of it; your time is your ultimate currency.
There is a lifeguard shortage. Could be a decent summer side gig. Consolidate it yourself. Get a new CC with no interest until summer 2023. Balance transfer and pay 800 a month until paid. Might be hard with your new credit score but idk
Fair lol. Sorry, its been a rough day. Short tern is a struggle. Long term its worth sucking it up versus going part time or free. The opportunity cost of doubling my degree length in lost years of income is gonna hurt. Really just need to tighten the belt and get a second job. I think bartending or bar backing woulf be good. Easy money during game day.
Do NOT do debt consolidation. You are basically paying a company to stop paying on your debts and ruin your credit. How old are you? Are you married? If you're single with no kids, now is the time to take care of this debt. All you have to do is live like you're a broke college student and throw everything else at the debt. 10K in credit card debt is not that much. You should be able to pay that off in less than a year. What would you do if you found out from a doctor that you had 1 year to live unless you got life-saving surgery and that surgery cost $10K cash up front? You would find a way to make that happen. That's how you need to think about this. I would do what No Worries said in his first post - only variation would be I would pay off the lowest balance first instead of the lowest interest rate. Get on a budget and stick to it. Google Every Dollar. it's free and much better than Mint IMO. What kind of car do you drive? How much is the payment?
No car, single, no kids. I take free public transit everywhere. I canceled my streaming services as well and dont travel anymore either. I rarely buy new clothes and use store brands. As much as its going to suck Im going to have to...well suck it up for lack of a better term. Just frustrating to be 28, and see kids younger than me living really well in luxury apartments or watching my peers buy houses and go on trips to Morocco. I know that sounds childish and petty...but it doesnt help my depression or self esteem to be living a worse lifeatyle than I did at 19 then have my (now-ex) berate me for not buying her things. Never in my life did I expect this is how Id live at 28. I never wanted to be ultra rich, but I thought for sure Id be doing a lot better off.
I actuslly also have been putting off a few surgical procedures. Nothing major but I need a new endoscopy, Im supposed to buy a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea...Im paying my medical debt off slowly and paying a good chunk of my pay for therapy and a psych to keep me alive (and thats with good insurance). More than anything Im just embarrassed. No grown adult should be in this situation. What kind of person am I if I cant take care of myself or provide for others?
