r/debtfree

Honestly I'm at my breaking point... I'm making 45k a year with a master's degree and just finished moving. Currently have around $6,100 in credit card debt at a 24.99% apy. I've drained my checking and savings trying to pay them off, have restricted all non-essential expenses, etc. I'm working full time and have two side jobs to try to make extra money.

I'm only able to pay partial payments towards my total bills (slightly above the monthly minimum) each month, but the interest that's gonna accrue on the balance would immediately outweigh that. Literally what do I do? Find a loan with a lower APY to avoid cc interest? Is that a dumb idea? Like I'm at a loss fr.

I did the math and in the past 30 days I have spent $580 between all my subscriptions and orders on DoorDash. So I just cancelled my $15 Amazon prime subscription, $14.95 Audible subscription, $10 DoorDash dash pass membership, and am going to write the damn letter to Planet Fitness to cancel that membership. I completely removed the DoorDash app from phone since I feel guilty whenever I do use it, and seeing the amount of money essentially thrown away on things I don’t need but just wanted is very eye opening. Here’s to a stronger month of debt pay off in July.

Hey everyone. Exhausted 27yr old single mom here. I went through a really rough divorce a few years ago. My ex was abusive and unfaithful. Out of fear and a need to get away from him I took on a bunch of debt to be able to leave safely with my toddler. Finally got the divorce and custody of my baby, but I’m left with about $19,000 in unsecured debt over about 5 credit cards and a personal loan. I also have a car loan, but I’m not as worried about that.

I feel like I’m drowning, and it’s continued to snowball as more things keep coming up - car repairs, medical expenses, etc. I had 0 debt before my ex and I hate having debt. I want to get out of it but it feels impossible. My credit is a 574 rn. I used to have an 800 credit score. It’s devastating really.

My parents never really taught me about handling debt or much about handling finances, investing, anything. I don’t have anyone to go to for advice. Can someone please tell me the best way to deal with this? The consolidation loans I’ve found aren’t much better than the cards as far as interest rates go, and I don’t think my credit is good enough for a balance transfer card. But it’s stressing me out trying to keep up with payments on all these cards and the loan. The snowball method isn’t really even making a dent because I keep getting hit with the interest.

I want to consolidate, pay off the credit cards & stop using them, and just have one payment every month. But I don’t know the best loans to get or even how to find one that will be lower interest than what I’m being offered on CK (28% interest rate).

Any advice on how to deal with this so I don’t have to be so stressed would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I've got roughly about 18k in debt, basically 9k on a credit card and some bad loans. I wish I had learned how to get my spending habits under control earlier, but I'm kind of at the end of my rope here. I've been trying to avoid settling on this debt because I'm already sitting at a 550 area credit score, I don't need to further hit rock bottom. My friends and I are currently looking into the possibility of going through a credit union to get a debt consolidation loan. Their scores are much better than mine, so my hope is to get something from the credit union, and pay off the bad loans. The only reason I don't want to settle is because I'm already 4 payments behind on card payments trying to just pay off these loans.

No, I'm not fishing for sympathy, I'm well aware this was my fault and I need to do better. I just want the loans paid off so I can put my own money towards paying off the card and feeling like maybe I did something good once in my life to pay this all off. When I'm debt free? I don't know. That's if I can ever get debt free.

https://preview.redd.it/l335ok6v3hbh1.png?width=619&format=png&auto=webp&s=f064d73f4c41860f66cfee4af371db64065ba847

I finally paid off all my school tuition loans. It took 9 years, and decided to get it together in the last 1.5 years and aggressively paid them off.

I feel like I can finally start building my wealth but have no idea where to start. I guess one step at a time though.

Hey everybody I’ve racked up about 30k in debt, everything is credit cards except one personal loan of 5k. I’ve been having late payments recently because I’m in between jobs and I’m really tempted to get a settlement loan of 30k with like a minimum payment of 550 a month at like 7% interest…Been getting all kinds of crappy offers like that in the mail and over the phone. I wont be paid my first check until the 17th of this month but my new job is salaried at 45k a year so I was wondering should I snowball my debt or take the loan? My credit score will definitely take more hits before I’m actually able to start snowballing it down but I feel like maybe if I take a big dumb personal loan it will hurt my credit more…I’m only 25 years old so I’m not too worried about it dipping I know I’ll have time and opportunity to bring it back up. Just curious what anyone who’s been in this position might recommend me to do!!

edit: I’m not looking for sympathy or advice on clearing the debt itself, I know what I need to do. I’m looking for advice on how to navigate life and maintain my mental wellbeing while having virtually no money left over.

I have around £20k debt (loans, credit cards and arrears with utility companies) with an absolutely tanked credit score. Debt consolidation loan is not an option for me. I also rent in the uk so any kind of insolvency or debt plan will probably prevent me from finding somewhere else to live if I needed to. I also have disposable income so I wouldn’t get accepted for anything like that anyway. I got into this situation through a mix of ADHD (diagnosed a couple months ago and now on medication), being very irresponsible and not being taught how to be financially-savvy by anyone.

After all my outgoings, including minimum debt repayments and food, without spending a penny more, leaves me with around £300. I have 2 jobs; one 9-5 and a self-employed side hustle which varies in earnings. Sometimes I have more than £300 left over. The interest on all my debts is really high. My longest loans final payment will be in 24 months. I have no savings at all.

How the hell do I survive, cope and manage? I already know that my only real option is to just not buy anything at all until the debts are paid. Cut back on anything non-essential. Plough every spare penny into my debts. I was kind of on track with it, but it just seems that unexpected costs are flying at me left, right and centre, so any disposable income ends up going on car repairs or vet bills, etc.

Has anyone else been in a situation where they pretty much had no disposable income and just had to live like a pauper for a few years? How did you do it without being chronically depressed? Any tips to make it less soul-crushing?

I had signed up for a payment plan for a upcoming concert but realized I got screwed over and am overpaying for this concert ticket. I tried to cancel before the payment plan started but they won’t let me cancel or get a refund. I took my card off the account so I can’t get charged. Will I get sued or in big trouble if I don’t make payments on the tickets. Ticket was about about $260

I unfortunately had a very serious psychotic episode which resulted in me losing my job. I was unemployed for a long time as well but have recently recovered and am working again. I spent a lot of money while I was sick. $5k for trashing a hotel because I thought people were trying to burn the hotel down. $5k for towing charges because I kept running out of gas and getting stuck driving in places I shouldn't have been. $8k deductible for involuntary hospitalizations. $4k for an attorney because I got arrested for trespassing while I was sick. Stuff like that.

Age: 40

Salary: $149k

Monthly Take Home Pay: $8500

CC Debt: $70k

Mortgage: $4650

Car Payment: $600

I live alone

No kids

I haven't looked into it yet but I'm contemplating contacting a bankruptcy attorney soon to see if that is an option for me. Moving isn't a great option as I bought my house April of 2022 and the house is maybe worth a little more than what I owe. So I would owe the bank a check if I sold, if you account for realtor fees. I guess I could consider a short sale. I do know the house isn't helping my situation. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

I have a remote hybrid job that if I plan around is very manageable and easy to do. Currently 15k in the hole. With my first biweekly checks from my morning job and the night shift checks I’ll be debt free in 2 months. I’m not looking forward to genuinely not sleeping like a human (not sleeping at all really) and not being able to go out at all or live in society for two months. But the feeling of debt feels like I can’t even live my life anyways so whatever.

I start my second job within two weeks my head keeps playing scenarios about how awful this two months are going to be but genuinely cannot afford to drag this for months or years like some people.

Exactly that, I paid off $29,000 in under one year. I worked three jobs and I continue to drive a 2009 Hyundai Elantra, stick shift. I love that car though, 145k and I’ll run it till I can’t.

I’m a single mom with a full-time 17-year-old daughter and shared custody of her two siblings (dad is challenging, no child support). I bought her a car, paid off some legal debt (custody study), and consumer debt over the last year, but I’m so discouraged because I’m staring at all these upcoming expenses (a car for me, college, I need savings!!) and I just feel like I didn’t get ahead.

Anyone else arrive at a place of incredible accomplishment and just feel like they didn’t get anywhere??

Got into lots of debt making my last house a home.

Sold it last week. Funds are all cleared and now so are all my debts plus a nice bit left over as a safety net.

Hello! To open this up, I am a long-time lurker and first time poster here. For the past year, I have privately pursued my debt free goals learning from the experiences shared here.

Recently, I got a new job taking me from $80K to $120K (annually), allowing me to accelerate the achievements of my goals!

My strategy to this point: I moved everything I could to 0% interest cards, shoved all the cards into a closet, and have targeted putting $1K towards debt monthly (on top of minimums). I also started with an avalanche approach focusing on cards with interest first during the past year.

Today, my remaining CC debt is on 0% interest with months / years till the promotions expire. Additionally my savings is currently at $1K, I have not held more than that for the past year and plan on next building a 6-month emergency fund as my next goal.

My question to the community:

Which of the two (or neither) approaches should I move forward with?

• (A) - Continue current pace of CC payoff with increased contributions
  • Potential CC payoff in 3 to 4 months (assuming consistency and no unexpected events)
• (B) - Given 0% interest and promotional timelines: Switch to paying monthly minimums on cards paying off cards as promo expirations approaches in favor of building E-Funds early with incremental income
  • Potential E-Funds achievement in 7 months, then pay off remaining balances in 2 to 3 months

Breakout of pending balances and rough monthly spend

Regarding the car - I recently priced out a trade down to something cheaper, but unfortunately the negative equity on a trade in made it not make sense. I am looking into doing a private sale where I could potentially break even on the remaining loan and then hopefully find something cheaper that I could maybe buy outright helping with the plans above.

Also acknowledging that the variable spend portion is a rough estimate "catch all" bucket aggregating gas, grocery, and discretionary. I am not always the most disciplined person with months higher and months lower, but I am confident in that number as an average.

Appreciate any advice or recommendations on this!

I’ve paid off about 7k in debt so far this year! my question is, I would only be left with 2 loans and a hospital bill if I pulled out 7k from my 401k, (I would be able to pay off 2 credit cards, freeze the accounts, and snowball on my loans) …. with the tax penalty, is it worth it? because 2 loans & the ER bill feels so much more manageable than 2 loans, 2 credit cards, and an ER bill…