u/TonyXanza

Need advice as I'm in a good and bad situation.

The Bad: I am roughly $20k in Debt via CC debt. I have debt mainly from living overseas with my wife having to extend payments, process hospital bills from early miscarriage, moving three times due to dangers and flooding issues, etc. Also for buying a generator, and at time excess spending when I was craving fast food, but mainly because I did not get my guaranteed contract job as I was initially offered when I moved abroad.

The Good: I have the best wife ever. She has helped me to navigate this, going over numbers, crunching plans to cut costs for living and reduce future bills. My wife is SAHW by our mutual agreement, but she always offers to help out as needed (again, awesome wifey.) The other good news is, I am moving back to the US in October to start over and rebuild from my debt. I do have a decent retirement account but I want to avoid further tax implications as I already drained my brokerage of $20k to live off of both before and after the contract job failed.

I hold an MBA, but now have no car or apartment to stay at, and my credit score dropped 751 to 643. Any advice on what immediate plans I can do to aggressively pay off debt in a year or two? Wife will be living abroad as we await her I-130 visa to clear, and thanks to her planning, we found a cheap all-inclusive AirBnb for her to stay at abroad so I can pay that easily. Thx.

*Quick Note, if this isn't allowed, sorry in advance and I will delete/repost in accordance to community guideline/moderator notes*

Hi all! I've been using UpWork since late 2025 with the expectation of it generating three to four-figures across a month/yearly basis. I've realized this IS possible, but I'm struggling to find my footing to do so.

In addition to holding an MBA, I have experience in Junior-Level Data Analytics, the Potential to do Virtual Assistant work, and can provide Canva design work/email marketing services (or pretty much anything with a quick training session.)

What are some tactics/techniques that those of you with $400+/mo income employed to get to that point in a realistic timeline, and what should I be investing into to branch out into the field more? I am also part of an UpWork Agency and they have solved my Credit needs, but I just need to find the long-term projects and a better way to sell myself to others.

Thank you!