Someone tell me it will be okay 🥺
I feel like I just need to get this down and out there.
I am in about £60k of debt. I earn £80k a year but the vice I feel round my neck every single day is all consuming. I haven't missed a payment yet but I feel like it's a dark shadow that's coming. Every waking minute I think about it and I'm ashamed.
10 years ago I was debt free and earning half as much as I do now. A series of unfortunate events has just thrown me into the deep end and I just can't see a way out:
- my partner died in my arms at age 30 in 2017 due to a heart attack.
- covid hit me hard and I was out of a job.
- my new partner (now husband) also got laid off once in 2020 and 2022, the latter for 6 months, and I had to pay all the rent and bills myself for both of us.
- In 2021 we had to move unexpectedly and to an unfinished house for the first time, which meant we needed to buy furniture and all of the bits we needed. We tried to be frugal, but it added up.
- in 2022 my car finally was on its last legs so I took out a loan to buy one (about 7k)
- in 2022 I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, had a temporary stoma bag for a year, which was then reversed in 2023. For both surgeries I was out for 5 months and 3 months respectively and went down to government sick pay. By then the debt was racking up but I had to keep borrowing to pay my bills.
- I have developed panic disorder since all of these events and depression, which has made budgeting and managing money so much harder for me.
I just need to get some good news stories from people who have had this much debt and managed to climb out of it. I feel like my mental health is declining from this so badly.
Thank you