u/baraboo00

Hello everyone, I’ll try to keep it short but it is kind of a long story.

TLDR: I was young trying to figure out my life, accrued a lot of debt, make good money now but struggling to overcome it & not sure what to do.

Just want to start this off by saying I have done minimal research regarding which type of bankruptcy would be best for me, and I have not spoken to any kind of lawyer or someone who can truly steer me in a direction, just looking for opinions here.

Lately I’ve been heavily considering bankruptcy as the debt I’ve accrued since I was 18 is starting to pile up and im trying to buy a house sooner than later and at this point I don’t think I’ll be able to for several years without starting all over. As it currently sits I have about $80k in debt this includes credit cards, student loans, a camper, my fiancé’s ring & my vehicle. The obvious answer here would be to sell the camper & sell my vehicle. I am currently upside down on both of them and don’t have the cash to make up the difference to sell them. I have about 10k in student loans which I’m not very worried about because it’s only $125 a month and I know those can’t be discharged anyways. The big hitters are the credit cards & the engagement ring. All in all they add up to about $1000 a month in payments & the interest rates are so high they basically don’t move. I think one of my discovers has a pay off date of like 40 years from now just paying the minimum (not joking). I also am the main source of income for myself & my fiance. She does work full time but she has also a car to pay for & some other things (not going to get into her situation she is much better off than I am although she makes much less.) she makes roughly $30k/yr. the upside to this is that now after many years I do make pretty good money (roughly $150k/yr) so if you were in my shoes what would you do? Would you just try & really tighten your belt & pay things off? Or would you rip the bandaid off & seriously look into filing? I would love to just try & pay it all off but I think it will take longer than just filing and starting over. I’m about to turn 30 in April & I want to start getting my life on track and have a house & get married soon, but I can’t do that with this debt looming over me. Any advice helps please.

What would be your opinion on purchasing one of these amazing machines with a salvage/rebuilt title? Barring any serious frame/engine/transmission damage. I’m looking to purchase one of these amazing cars hopefully by the end of this year and with the way prices are I’ve considered buying one that needs some work. I do not plan to ever sell it as it’s been my dream car since I was a kid. With that being said, how much value loss would I expect to see? I’m hoping I can pass down this car to a future child or family member of mine some day and want it to at least be something worth holding onto. I’m not too worried about making repairs, just not looking to do major engine/chassis repair if I don’t have to. Do any of you have rebuilt title gtr’s? Any regrets or things you’d have done differently? Any input or suggestion is welcomed. Happy Labor Day!

Need to rant a little. What’s your opinion on 3 man crews? I personally think it’s complete bullshit. Also found out today that 4 of the other JLs are dragging at the end of this week. Due to constant pushing from the company. Hired onto a company this week doing distro and first thing they tell me when I get there is it’s a 3 man crew, my fault for not asking when I took the call I guess. Anyway, they got us doing a full reconduct with 1 bucket and 1 digger and a pickup truck. On top of that it’s 12s no lunch no break at all. And I maybe saw the foreman for about 2 hours today. The best part of this whole thing is during their orientation they preached having a designated observer, now how is there supposed to be an observer when our foreman is nowhere to be found and the apprentice is making up material/getting stuff ready for the next pole. And also, how is the apprentice supposed to get any air time to get better? Can’t put him up there by himself or we’re not supposed to anyway. Sorry for going on and on but these fucking contractors want to push push with as little as possible and wonder why people get hurt and drag up. So what’s your take?

Anyone know what’s up with these Thayer calls out of local 71? Hall is basically useless when asked about it besides “they have a ton of work” but anyone who knows better knows that calls have been there since before summer started obviously something’s wrong with them or they’re shit calls or something. Pay is decent on them so wondering if anyone has some info about them 🤷‍♂️

First off I’d like to say I’ve not traveled much this is actually only the 2nd call I’ve ever taken outside of my local. Got a call yesterday for a job and they sent me referral last night to be filled out and sent back today. So I filled it out & sent it back over so I could be there to onboard Monday morning. Buddy of mine calls me today & says the local he’s working out of has like 20+ open calls for the area he’s in and we’d be able to stay together & save some money and the hours are a little better where he’s at. Now I’m a newer JL (topped out Jan 2025) and I don’t want to make a bad name for myself and screw people over. I want to add that the local I took this call out of is a very small local with rarely any travelers and there was no other JLs on the books so I dont see it as taking the call from someone else because there was nobody else to begin with. So if it were you guys would you go to the call you committed to and really give it a good shot and only leave for a good reason? Or would you just call & tell them you don’t want it anymore? Torn between doing the “right” thing and committing to the call I took or chasin the money with one of my buddies. Thanks.

Anyone in here work for alliant energy specifically in Wisconsin? Thinking about switching to a union power company from the union contractor life. Really just wanna know the good the bad etc. you can message me if you’d like instead of commenting if you don’t want to. Thanks

So I’m traveling outside my local for the first time, trying to experience some other locals & work practices etc. found a spot that we like that’s close to some family and this midwestern state happens to have 2 outside locals. Signed both book 2’s & waiting for a call like anyone would. Finally hear back from one of the locals and get a GF’s number, cool. Called the guy twice (once a day for 2 days) left a message no answer. No big deal. Call the hall again just to let them know like hey this company whatever isn’t answering just letting you know. Well, been 3 days since I’ve heard from anyone at the hall and also called them twice (once a day) and left a message. Cool. Call the other hall in the state same thing sets me up with a call get GF’s number he actually answers and says calls filled sorry. No problem. Call the hall back get another call from another company and yet again cannot get ahold of anyone at this other company. Is there this much fucking around all over? I assumed the process was pretty cut & dry. If you’re gonna put a call out, maybe answer the phone. Or call back or something lol. At this point it might be easier to just go back to my local & say fuck it. Anyone else dealt with this? What locals are good to work book 2 out of?