Quote (Erodish @ Dec 15 2021 09:41am)
Please don't flame. This is a post requesting entry-level information and may come across as "Dumb"
Keep useless or troll responses to yourself, please. Funny jokes are acceptable.
I am hurting for money pretty badly. I have never touched crypto / Stocks / investments / etc
I will be using theoretical amounts of my income/debt to maybe help some of you visualize. Will be fake numbers, but the ratio of debt/wealth is correct.
I make 35k/year - Normal 8-5 Monday to Friday desk job
Am in Debt 13K~ ( 9k Consolidated Loan at 4.5% & 4k Credit Card at 29.9% )
I have no savings or cash - Living paycheque to paycheque
Monthly expenses are roughly 1500 ( Rent / Internet&Phone&Debt bills / Gas / Insurance / Food estimated ) - Car is fully paid off worth about 12k by the blue book, only pay monthly insurance and gas. Live in a small apartment for 700/month
Leaves me roughly a couple hundred bucks a month for everything else. Entertainment, shopping, fun etc.
I haven't bought myself any clothes for years, end up spending any extra money on food, or gym membership the odd case of beer or bottle of rum, and can't afford much else outside of this.
my debt amount has been sitting about the same for roughly 2 years now, and no matter what I try I can't seem to make it budge significantly.
If you have any advice for me that may seem reasonable or doable based on my situation I'd love to learn some. Would love to propose to my girlfriend soon but would like to do it when I'm in a position to be able to afford to live a little better than penny pinching...
Thanks in advance to anyone
Ok first thing would be dump everything that is an extra.
-dump internet use cell phone, or hotspot
-change phone plan to cheapest option - I use the straight talk from Walmart.
+If your not living with girl friend get a room mate
-Make a hard rule that anything your doing for fun, had better be free
-NO DRUGS OF ANY KIND THIS WOULD INCLUDE DRINKING (drugs are only for closers!!!)
+check your deductions on your paycheck, ONLY CONTRIBUTE TO A ROTH IRA and do not put money into the 401k. reason being you can pull the principle out of the roth at the end of the year if you had to and leave the gains.
+play around with your dependents your claiming don't give the irs a zero percent loan. Rough estimate would be make sure you yearly contribution is at least 10%, this would change at higher income of course and would need to be higher.
+GET A SIDE HUSSLE ON THE WEEKENDS
+If you physically go to work, make sure your co workers know you collect cans and recyclables - easy money and tax free!!!
+recycle at home too
-ride a bike to work or walk if possible
-Plan out what you are going to eat at home based on what is on sale.
-turn off all streaming services use only the free ones
-cancel gym membership - workout at home
-DO NOT GET PETS!!! at least for a long while
-Pay the credit card off asap at 29% interestThat would be my plan or was my plan when I was in your spot.