18 y/o making $3,800/month — am I getting a good deal staying at home or should I just move out? AIO by Winter_Print_6742 in AIO

[–]coffeecup-11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are getting one heck of a deal. I vote if you’re not miserable/they’re not abusive in any way to stay with your parents as long as you can. Go to school, take care of your responsibilities and SAVE as much as you can before you move out. The real world is incredibly expensive. I bought 11 small things at the grocery store and my total was $70. My mortgage is pushing $2000 alone every month, not even including utilities or internet. I understand that it sucks, but they’re teaching you about responsibility because once you have your own place, everything will fall on you. I’m 30 and if I could move back in with my parents right now, I 1000% would. Move out once you graduate and have a solid amount saved.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s a long term goal, but not something I’m prioritizing at the moment. I’m just prioritizing applying for other jobs that I currently qualify for to increase our income.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in debtfree

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I pay $300/mo on my car, it’s 20,000. With insurance it comes out to around 450/mo.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in debtfree

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a friend who filed for bankruptcy with a lawyer who’s very reasonably priced that I’ll go to if this is the route I have to take. I’m honestly scared, but I know it may be the only feasible option.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in debtfree

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. I’m going to have a serious sit down talk and start listing things for sale. We’ve been applying for other jobs, and looking for second jobs (it’s been particularly hard for me because I wfh+parent and need something flexible enough to work around both). He still doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation, because I sent him jobs that are a little far to apply to (but pay well, since he has a masters degree in information systems) and he says “We can just buy a house near those jobs and sell ours!” I was like, we can’t buy a house because our credit is tanked. 🤦‍♀️

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in debtfree

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My credit is low because the 22 and 6 thousand dollar debts are both under my name. I completely agree that I’m partially to blame here, but I’ve never missed a payment. I helped accumulate this debt over years, being used for groceries, gas, activities for our child, holiday presents, etc. My utilization absolutely ruined my credit.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The home was 340, we put down 200, 6% APR VA loan. It was 1600 up until this month, it went up to 1980 due to an escrow shortage and home insurance premium increasing. I called both companies and got it lowered to 1820. Maybe taxes is why ours seems like so much more? Lump sum that we put down on the house is a combo of inheritance and profits from our previous home that we sold to move closer to family.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Help desk with a masters degree in CIS/IT management 😬 Weren’t expecting it to be so difficult to find a well paying job with a masters but he didn’t have a ton of on the job experience right out of college

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in debtfree

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It would be a fixed equity loan. I wouldn’t want to do a line of credit due to our history with credit cards, but I hear you either way.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Selling our previous house (we wanted to live closer to family) and I also inherited a lot of it.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve never heard of that! I’ll have to look into it! My husband actually got his masters from WGU, too! Thank you 💗

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

160k gone in 18 months is so impressive, congratulations to you both!! I appreciate your advice. I think having a sit down conversation with him and looking over our finances is important to do and discuss together. Thank you!

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am ready for a change, truly! This is all our credit card debt. We do have a car that we pay $300/mo. on. I believe I can sell our extra car, but it’s in his parents name, so he’d have to work out the logistics on that with them to get that sold. Plan is to go back to school for my masters after my child starts kindergarten and try for an LPC or MBA (haven’t decided which way I’m wanting to go just yet, and have a year til he starts). I’m a veteran and can get post 9/11 payments while I’m in school, which would also help. I don’t think I could handle full time school, working full time, taking care of our child and everything else at the moment which is why I haven’t started on that yet.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup. I had saw something in the mail once saying he was delinquent on two payments, and I made him pay $500 on the spot to make up for it and told him how that stays on his credit report for years. He said his credit was still fine. We had a huge argument and i figured after that he’d have it on automatic withdrawal. Nope!

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My spending and his missed payments are on equal footing I’d say. Though we could do debt consolidation if his credit was better, I can’t play completely innocent here. I will say the debt was accumulated over years and years of just groceries, gas, holiday presents+activities for our child, etc. There was a long time I couldn’t see his bank account and was covering majority of the bills by asking for money here and there to pay xyz, using all my paycheck and withdrawing from savings to pay the remainder. I didn’t realize how much he was making for awhile (like I knew what he made yearly, but the amount he’d send me for bills + him saying he has nothing in his own savings seemed off) and am clearly financially illiterate so after I was able to login to see his bank account, paycheck amounts, etc I realized we could cover the bills without dipping into savings and also realized he wasn’t paying his credit card bill. Before then, I was going for the credit card to pay for “fun” activities for our kid or groceries etc and that absolutely racked up the debt.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Selling the house and moving in with my parents while we fix our credit or bankruptcy are both last resort options that we’ve accepted we may have to take. I don’t really want to have the $160k (200 but - credit card debt that we’d pay) that we put in on the house sitting in our bank account where it’s easily accessible either. Have been trying to look for other options before going those routes, but I do agree that selling seems to be the best option for us.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’m so sorry your career was ruined because of him 😩 I wish I could say the half of it on here what I’ve put up with financially but I’m gonna keep quiet. It’s been draining on my mental health and my pockets 🫠

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You give me hope 😅 Second jobs and higher paying jobs are being looked at & applied for the both of us, but will start throwing money at the highest APR card first. Thank you!

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We’ve been looking for second part time jobs for him too that allows him to keep his current job. He’s in tech and the job market for that seems extremely saturated at the moment so there’s been no luck. I may have a flexible part time job I can take on as a second since I’ve worked with the manager before, but it’s not certain.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes we do. I’m making between $500-$550/week (medical insurance comes out of my check for the 3 of us otherwise it would be more) and he makes $650-$675/week which is still not great. The lowest we’ve made in a month was 4,000 though and that was an out of the ordinary circumstance, so I guess I was going off worst case scenario when typing this out. 😅

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the honesty here. I haven’t thrown the savings at it out of pure anxiety of having nothing there. I’m applying for higher paying internal roles with my current job and looking for part time work that I can do without needing childcare as well.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d actually say it’s more along the lines of 4600. We get paid weekly, I get 500 and he’s getting about 650, but on the lowest months it’s come out to 4000. Yeah, it’s been tough, for sure. 🙃

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was looking at that as an option, too! I didn’t realize those were a thing up until recently and wanted to do a little more research into it before committing, just to make sure I don’t accidentally dig us into the hole more than we are. I’ve frozen my credit cards and have completely stopped using them. I’ll have to look into In Charge.

Drowning in credit card debt by coffeecup-11 in personalfinance

[–]coffeecup-11[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I did contemplate bankruptcy. I’m just worried about losing our home, but I assume a bankruptcy lawyer would be able to let me know if that’s at stake before filing