Sorry if this is in the wrong spot but new here

[dilbuck]

Alright here is what I have been going through. I want to say upfront that I am not proud of the way I have handled my finances. I've ignored payments, ignored phone calls, and overall have not handled anything well up to this point. A large portion of my debt is entirely my fault. Now with that out of the way... here goes.

I am 26 years old. I am about 15k in debt. Six of that is in student loans which I have been able to push payments back due to underemployment. I owe another 6k to my old school because I was unable to pay for tuition and housing. I owe 2k due to medical bills. The other 1k comes from an old credit card bill. Right now I only work part-time at 8.50 an hour about 20 hours a week. I have no savings as I have to live from paycheck to paycheck. I recently was hired as a manager which would be full-time at $11 an hour. I'm not sure if this job is going to go through however due to my debt that I owe. I'm not sure what to do or where to start, I just know that I need to get responsible and start taking care of this. Would it be better for me to save up and file for bankruptcy or somehow try to budget my way through this? Should I go to an attorney and find out what they think? Sorry for my confusion on all of this. I just don't know where to begin.




Sorry I should have put this in the general. If someone could move it that would be great.

[LSUTiger32]

Alright here is what I have been going through. I want to say upfront that I am not proud of the way I have handled my finances. I've ignored payments, ignored phone calls, and overall have not handled anything well up to this point. A large portion of my debt is entirely my fault. Now with that out of the way... here goes.

I am 26 years old. I am about 15k in debt. Six of that is in student loans which I have been able to push payments back due to underemployment. I owe another 6k to my old school because I was unable to pay for tuition and housing. I owe 2k due to medical bills. The other 1k comes from an old credit card bill. Right now I only work part-time at 8.50 an hour about 20 hours a week. I have no savings as I have to live from paycheck to paycheck. I recently was hired as a manager which would be full-time at $11 an hour. I'm not sure if this job is going to go through however due to my debt that I owe. I'm not sure what to do or where to start, I just know that I need to get responsible and start taking care of this. Would it be better for me to save up and file for bankruptcy or somehow try to budget my way through this? Should I go to an attorney and find out what they think? Sorry for my confusion on all of this. I just don't know where to begin.

Sorry I should have put this in the general. If someone could move it that would be great.

Hey man, first step is realizing there is a problem so congrats! My opinion is that you do NOT file BK on $15K. The school loans are not bankruptable so really you would be filing on a few thousand dollars. What you need to do is concentrate on finding a career. Not that there is anything wrong with working for $11 an hour, because you NEED an income. However, you have to figure out what you want to be when you grow up and where that is going to take you. You don't want to make that for long.

Right now, pay for your essentials. Food, then utilities, then rent/housing and finally transporation. Other than that, everyone else can wait. You are going to ding your credit, but nothing close to what BK does. I think you can work your way through it!

[dilbuck]

Hey man, first step is realizing there is a problem so congrats! My opinion is that you do NOT file BK on $15K. The school loans are not bankruptable so really you would be filing on a few thousand dollars. What you need to do is concentrate on finding a career. Not that there is anything wrong with working for $11 an hour, because you NEED an income. However, you have to figure out what you want to be when you grow up and where that is going to take you. You don't want to make that for long.

Right now, pay for your essentials. Food, then utilities, then rent/housing and finally transporation. Other than that, everyone else can wait. You are going to ding your credit, but nothing close to what BK does. I think you can work your way through it!

Thanks! With the $11 an hour if I still get it I think I can get those other bills to settle and work from there. I know the student loans I will be paying for awhile but that only will run me about $135 a month. Right now I am living rent free with family so I just give them money for food and stuff. I should be able to save about $500 a paycheck so that would be 1k towards outstanding bills every month. I just might get out of this yet.

[JackBondLove]

I would recommend that you start saving some of your pay in a retirement account like a 401K or an IRA. The way if you would ever get to a point at which bankruptcy would be a viable option, you could completely shield that money in those accounts. I would also pay down the student loans as fast as possible as they would not be dischargeable in bankruptcy. I would try talking to the credit card to see if you could pay a reduced amount.

[meateater]

Hi dilbuck,
Recognizing you need to deal with things is a good first step (took me forever to get there myself). I think you need more information to determine if you can get out of this without bankruptcy (my guess is that you probably can). I recommend you go to the library and get the dave ramsey total money makeover book (or equivalent) - it has lots of good tips on budgeting, getting out of debt, etc. The book will at least give you a road map and how-to tips as to how to get out of debt.

But, Ramsey is very anti-bankruptcy, ignore that part. If you need to file, you need to file, don't spend years trying to dig out of a too deep hole. I filed bankruptcy myself, but now follow many of ramseys tips. When I filed, I was in too deep to get out, but if I had found ramsey a few years before that, I might have been able to turn it around (and not now be facing fear of employment issues due to BK).

Good Luck!