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Hoping for some advice.
I'm relatively young, in my mid-20s, but after being disowned in my teens and being very sick, I racked up quite a bit of credit card debt. It took me a long time to get my life on track after the unhappy youth I endured and I'm struggling to dig myself out of the financial ditch I'm in now. I feel hopeless because I am unable to save any money and every expense sinks me further into debt.
I make 30k a year living in New York City and count myself lucky to be employed at all. I have roughly 12k in credit card debt on five cards, about 1k remaining in medical bills (if Medicaid would get its act together the last of my medical debt would be wiped out, but I've been battling with them for months), as well at 120k in federal student loans.
After taxes, insurance, etc, I take home $1600 a month and it all disappears instantly into bills. After my rent, utilities, transportation, and credit card bills, I am left with nothing at the end of the month. And I haven't even started making payments on my student loans which I am continuously deferring. I don't even have enough to pay for groceries or toothpaste, let alone the little life problems that come up like your phone charger breaking for example. I wind up charging my day-to-day expenses to my cards anyway and the cycle continues. Every time I come upon a windfall of money, say my tax return, and use it to pay off a chunk of my debt, it all comes back the next time my computer breaks or my cats gets sick or anything else you can imagine.
I'm torn between trying to consolidate my debt or just applying for bankruptcy. My credit score right now is in the high 600s. It's not bad but it's dropping steadily. I have no real assets to speak of; the most valuable thing I own is my 3 year-old laptop. I feel that even debt consolidation will barely help because lowering my payments may help me have enough cash to get by every month, but still won't leave my any extra to make higher payments on my cards, leaving me in credit-card-repayment-hell for the next decade or longer. My only real concern about bankruptcy is that it may be hard for me to find someone who will rent to me, especially as I have no family who will stand guarantor for me.
I'm also going back to graduate school for my PhD in a few months-- fully funded, no more student loans for me-- and I will have a pretty meager, fixed income (around 25k I'd estimate). I don't see an opportunity for me to have anything to spare to keep paying these credit cards. They're ruining my life, affecting my relationship, making me stressed, unhappy, bitter and resentful. I understand that my student debt would remain unaffected, but I can handle paying that and as I am going the academia-route I expect my student loans to be wiped out after 10 years of non-profit employment as per federal student loan policy.
What would any of you advise I do?
I'm relatively young, in my mid-20s, but after being disowned in my teens and being very sick, I racked up quite a bit of credit card debt. It took me a long time to get my life on track after the unhappy youth I endured and I'm struggling to dig myself out of the financial ditch I'm in now. I feel hopeless because I am unable to save any money and every expense sinks me further into debt.
I make 30k a year living in New York City and count myself lucky to be employed at all. I have roughly 12k in credit card debt on five cards, about 1k remaining in medical bills (if Medicaid would get its act together the last of my medical debt would be wiped out, but I've been battling with them for months), as well at 120k in federal student loans.
After taxes, insurance, etc, I take home $1600 a month and it all disappears instantly into bills. After my rent, utilities, transportation, and credit card bills, I am left with nothing at the end of the month. And I haven't even started making payments on my student loans which I am continuously deferring. I don't even have enough to pay for groceries or toothpaste, let alone the little life problems that come up like your phone charger breaking for example. I wind up charging my day-to-day expenses to my cards anyway and the cycle continues. Every time I come upon a windfall of money, say my tax return, and use it to pay off a chunk of my debt, it all comes back the next time my computer breaks or my cats gets sick or anything else you can imagine.
I'm torn between trying to consolidate my debt or just applying for bankruptcy. My credit score right now is in the high 600s. It's not bad but it's dropping steadily. I have no real assets to speak of; the most valuable thing I own is my 3 year-old laptop. I feel that even debt consolidation will barely help because lowering my payments may help me have enough cash to get by every month, but still won't leave my any extra to make higher payments on my cards, leaving me in credit-card-repayment-hell for the next decade or longer. My only real concern about bankruptcy is that it may be hard for me to find someone who will rent to me, especially as I have no family who will stand guarantor for me.
I'm also going back to graduate school for my PhD in a few months-- fully funded, no more student loans for me-- and I will have a pretty meager, fixed income (around 25k I'd estimate). I don't see an opportunity for me to have anything to spare to keep paying these credit cards. They're ruining my life, affecting my relationship, making me stressed, unhappy, bitter and resentful. I understand that my student debt would remain unaffected, but I can handle paying that and as I am going the academia-route I expect my student loans to be wiped out after 10 years of non-profit employment as per federal student loan policy.
What would any of you advise I do?
Cut coupons, only buy store brand, cook from scratch and meal plan ahead of time. We used to be spending $700+ a month on groceries and cut it nearly in half. That would give you some extra money to establish an emergency fund or pay down that credit card debt.
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