Drowning and could use some advice
Burner account as I am extremely embarrassed of my situation. I've had a severe gambling problem for the last 4-5 years and everything has come to a point as of May this year. Since May I have been actively going to GA meetings and can say my last bet was 5/4/26. I am always fighting the addiction but in my mind I have solved the "How did you get here and if you don't fix it it will just happen again question"
I have roughly $60,000 in unsecured debts. I have another $30,000 on a car of which is worth probably $24,000.
I plan on keeping my car payment current and potentially saying screw it to the rest of the debt with the intention to let it go past due a few months which will then give me some bargaining point of view to settle with them for less.
I've done endless research on national debt relief and achieve financial and after 2+ hour long calls with these guys I can't help but think man I can do this myself and save the 20-25% fee they charge.
My question is this: Am I undervaluing how good they are at negotiating vs their fee. Aka they would negotiate to say $25,000 total whereas I would only be able to do say $40,000 total in essence making their fee legitimate?
The debt is all a mix of credit cards, personal loans and unfortunately about $15,000 of it is some extreme predatory loans where I'm paying close to $1700 a month alone for them and they charge around $1400 a month in interest so all hope on those is lost.
I make $120K a year so I do feel I can throw around 3-4K a month at these debts once settlements start coming my way.
Kind of looking for advice from people who have done it themselves and people who have just used a company like NDR.
I am open to all suggestions but right now my monthly minimums around around $5000 a month and the interest and fees is close to $2700 a month and the math just isn't mathing anymore and its time to get off the hamster wheel even if it means trashing my credit.
Thanks to all who read this boring long post, appreciate you!!!