Is my Budget smart for my situation and someone help with bettering my finances?
I’m 22 and honestly feeling really overwhelmed with my finances and life in general right now. I recently graduated and started my federal GS job, which I know is a blessing and a stable career path, but I still feel extremely behind compared to everyone else my age online. I’m current on all debts and have no collections or anything derogatory on my credit besides high utilization.
I make about 71k at my full-time federal job and also work part time around 20 hours a week making $17.95/hr. I’m in a ladder position, so if everything goes well I should eventually move up to a GS-13 and make well over 120k within the next 4 years, which is part of why I’m conflicted about what to do financially right now.
On paper it probably sounds like I should be doing fine, but I made a lot of irresponsible financial decisions when I was younger and now I feel trapped trying to fix them all at once.
Right now I have:
Around 10k in credit card debt
About 20k in personal loans (two 10k loans around 14% APR)
Around 27k in student loans (which my job will hopefully help cover through a 3-year SLRP contract)
A 48 month car lease that’s about $1,026/month
The car situation is honestly where a lot of this spiraled. It started with an expensive car that was in my sister’s name that I was tied to. That eventually turned into trading the car in and rolling negative equity into another vehicle in my own name. Then later I traded that car again into my current lease.
Part of the reason all of this happened is because my sister got pregnant and needed a different vehicle herself, but she couldn’t really move forward financially because I was still tied to her credit as a co-signer situation. Earlier this year (January 2026), I ended up taking out a personal loan partly to consolidate/clear credit card debt and partly to help with a down payment so I could finally separate the car situation from her credit and move everything fully into my own responsibility.
At the time I thought I was making the “adult” decision and fixing things, but now I honestly feel like I just buried myself deeper.
I still live at home, and while I’m grateful for that support, I honestly feel guilty because I’m not paying real rent and still don’t have meaningful savings yet. I contribute about $115 biweekly toward groceries because inflation has made everything expensive, but I still feel ashamed that I haven’t taken advantage of living at home better financially.
I really want to move out and live on my own soon, but right now it feels impossible with all these obligations hanging over me.
I recently started contributing to my TSP through work, but outside of that I basically have no real savings yet. On top of everything, I also deal with an autoimmune condition that drains me physically and mentally, and lately I just feel exhausted trying to keep up with everything. I’m not missing payments or anything, but mentally I feel like I’m drowning from the pressure and regret from past choices.
Part of me has considered bankruptcy just to reset and finally breathe, but another part of me feels like maybe I’m overreacting because I do have decent income potential long term. I spoke with one attorney in Maryland who said I qualify for Chapter 7 and quoted around $3k, while another attorney said filing right now could look like bad faith because of the recent personal loans.
Current budget:
Income:
Full-time federal job: about $1,792 biweekly
Part-time job: roughly $800 biweekly
(One thing to note: I didn’t check the “2 jobs” box on my W-4 because I was trying to maximize take-home pay to attack debt faster, so I know my withholding is probably low and my actual net should technically be less.)
Debts / expenses:
Car payment: $513 biweekly
Personal loan #1: $220 biweekly
Personal loan #2: $225 biweekly
Insurance: $174/month
Phone: $145/month
Affirm: $394/month until July (0% interest)
Groceries/household contribution: $115 biweekly
I also give myself around $660 biweekly for gas, food, random expenses, and general spending money. Out of that, I try to move about $105 into savings every paycheck, but if something comes up I usually end up pulling from it again. So I’m struggling to build a real emergency fund while also trying to aggressively pay down debt.
Everything left over after bills goes toward credit cards and debt.
I guess I’m posting because I want honest advice from people who maybe went through something similar in their early 20s. Did things eventually get better? Is this realistically recoverable without ruining my future financially? Are there any advice tips with my budget opposed from getting rid of my lease or anything extreme?
I know I made mistakes. I’ve already beaten myself up over them constantly, so I’d really appreciate constructive advice more than judgment.