Student Loan Debt....

[mysecretsins]

A greater part of my life post school I lived on my own... trying to make it by... defaulting on loans and still owe to certain people in my life.

I'm simply just another fellow gay boy learning life the hard way. Jumping into consequential decisions and putting myself in harms way at times... I clearly underestimated my time on this Earth. Just like everyone else in my age group, older and younger... I am up to my eyeballs in student loan debt, and personal loans from either family members or friends.

Just like anyone else.... I figured ignoring your problems would magically make them go away... I mean when you're working so hard every day to make sure there is enough money for your car payment, rent, bills... the money you have left over you like to think would be for yourself... WRONG! There is loans which have always been there (both school and personal), obamacare (the extra money from your paycheck just seems LUDACRIS when you don't need medical insurance... so forth...

Then you wonder what part can you ration out to eat with? Am I right? My point is not to sit here and complain because aside my financial difficulties... I live a pretty normal life.

I go to work... come home and enjoy the little I have to invest in me... I do live with my boss.. which helps with the financial situation a bit... It's still not enough. I know I can make things work with the salary I have... I'm not and never have been savvy with saving money.

I do need to work on myself... I hope some of you out there know what I mean... Sometimes what seems OBVIOUS to most people doesn't quite come obvious to us...

My plan? I'm trying to pay off my 19,000 in debt through gofundme. I plan on using all the money 100% to pay back my loans, and in the process in the future... Help out people who need the help just like myself...

I promise you my life isn't HARD and I'm not coming from a dark place... I'm your average fellow American trying to live a peaceful life so I can go back to school, make the money in a different field and be able to enjoy myself... with leisure.

There is a lot of my story...

I make 24,960 a year before taxes... I owe 15,000 in loans... for school, and owe 3500 in personal loans from family.



ahhhh I don't know what to do.

[disneysteve]

I make 24,960 a year before taxes

This is really your number one problem. You need to be spending every spare moment finding a real job with a living wage. 19K in debt would not be a big deal if you were earning decent money.

You mention student loans. What is your degree in? What are the prospects for finding a job in your field?

If you can give more info and list your debts with balances and interest rates and your monthly income and expenses, we might be able to at least help you better prioritize the money that you do have currently until you either get a second job or a better primary job.

[Jsteinkruger]

What I would suggest you do is make a plan for everything. Yes it sucks to be in debt,trust me I know. I have 84k in student loan debt, but this isn't about me. Start a plan out by listing your needed expenses like the following (I will use some of my expenses as an example):

Rent - $525
Utilities - $200 (I look at the highest bill I paid during the last year and base off that)
Fuel - $150
TV - $75
Internet - $35
Groceries - $200
Restaurant - $150
Loans - ?

Total Expense = $1335

I am gonna take a wild guess at your after tax pay
$24960*.15 = 3744
24960-3744 = 21216
21216/12 = 1768 / month

After the example expenses you would have approx $327 left over

Now comes big the problem, deciding which loans to pay. You have to pay your obligated loans which would be your institutional loans, but this does not mean you don't pay the personal loans that you have with family. Once you can start paying your monthly institutional loans then you can start paying your family when you have the extra money.

With such low income this is not a 1 solution fix, it may take 2+ and some of the things I list may already apply, but read it anyways and maybe you will think of something else that may apply more to your situation.
1st solution - cut your expenses - For Example the expenses I gave you, get rid of the TV subscription and use netflix that would save $65 / month. Limit the take out food - tell yourself you will only go out 2x a month and it will be a max of $25 this would save $100 / month. Groceries - only buy what you necessarily need, my wife and I can make it on $25-50/wk which means 1 person should be able to make it on less than that, say you can make it at $25/wk which saves $100 / month. Get a room mate - Saves $250 Total Savings = $515 / month

2nd Solution - get a second job - Unfortunately it sucks, but once you get out of debt you can start cutting back on the second job. Right now i calculate you are working 40 hrs per wk at approx $12/hr. Could you work an extra 16 hours on the weekend? At $8 an hr you would be bringing in an extra $5657 per year or $471 / month.

If you combine the two solutions together there would be an extra $986 / month.

Please make yourself a budget and see what you can do to reduce it and make a plan to pay the other debts. There is no reason not to try to make multiple steps and once you start paying down some debts you will start feeling happier about the situation. Try to find a solution that works for you. I wish you goodluck.

If you have more than one loan and you want to make extra payments, i just built a spreadsheet and would like some feedback and know if it helps. I believe if you go to my profile there should be a link there you can click to go to the spreadsheet.