almost 30, no savings, 70k in debt , & overwhelmed
I’m turning 30 in less than 2 months, and my life has fell apart in less than a year. i’m like 70k in debt including loans. I alsoi haven’t been in school a year.
it started with me taking a leave of absence after i had some crazy things happen to me, now i make around 40k a year but i owe 20k in credit cards , still owe 18k on my car and 18k in loans.
i’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. i gave up my apartment and now things are worse . my minimums were almost 1k a month for the credit cards alone.
i do not own any property or anything i just messed up and don’t know what to do cause i’m drowning in debt & living with family to save money but would eventually like to get my own place but can’t even afford unit with a roommate right now.
Netizen’s comments
I was in a similar scenario and at 32 was when reality slapped me in the face.
For me my strategy was two fold. Decrease spending and increase income. Those will be the two factors that will determine how much time it takes for you to climb out of this.
If you are only able to decrease spending without increasing income, it’ll take more time. Calculate exactly how much time it’ll take you, because this won’t happen overnight. Knowing how many months or years you’ll be dealing with this is much more comforting then just staring at a number like $70k.
Now that you know how much time it’ll take you, if you could find ways to increase income, and throw every last one of those dollars at your debt, calculate how much time that takes off your original calculation. This was huge for my motivation.
I had to make a ton of sacrifices. I worked two jobs, 7 days a week. My hours were about 14/day. I actually lost friends because they were upset that I wasn’t around, but I figured if I had friends who got that upset at me for trying to better my own life, I’m probably better off without them.
Luckily my GF was supportive about me spending so much time working, so I know I have a keeper.
It was exhausting and left me both with both physical and mental pain. But in about 1.5 years, I was able to become debt free.
You can do it, but how badly do you want it? I wish you luck on your journey. It’s a tough one. Your silver lining is that you have family who took you in. That’s a huge decrease in monthly spending right there.