I’ll try to keep this brief…
I’m 26, in Radiology School 36 Hrs/week, 24 Hrs/week at Work. I make $650/month after taxes, health/dental insurance, student loans & my ROTH are taken out.
I owe 12k for my car (227/month) and 88k in student loans from my first degree. (Stupidity)
I’ve had 9 credit cards since I was 18. All paid and cancelled besides 1. Which I owe 2600 on. I use that card for gas and food sometimes because my bills are $550/month with around $75-100 remaining each month.
I donate plasma twice a week to make around $250-350/month for my tuition. (6k total, VERY cheap for a great program/career) I have been getting grants to help with that too. IF I do get a grant for that payment period, I put the $ I saved for tuition on my credit card.
I feel misguided by my parents (maybe self victimizing). They are both struggling (divorced/remarried) however BOTH spend what they do not have and barely live paycheck to paycheck. They both make decent money too ($45/hour and $24/hour)
My mom put bills in my name, didn’t pay my medical bills which ended up in Collections (taken care of now) and she also took “care” of my student loan for me when I went to college for BASKETBALL, not studies.
I was sued two months ago because of a medical bill from 7 years ago was not paid. She pretended to be me and said I could not make my court date because I was out of state. She isn’t a stupid person. She is a Nurse Practitioner. My dad doesn’t have health insurance or a retirement. I worry about him getting older. He’s who I live with currently.
I am trying to move past the debt I acquired when I was younger and not fall into the same cycle that they are STILL in.
I do not have extra to save towards anything until I finish school (May 2019) and I pay my bills every month. I guess what my question is, how do I begin to prepare myself for my soon to be career/income?? What kind of plan can I be following physically and mentally?
My next couple years are looking like this in my head…
1.Keep bills paid. 2.Graduate May 2019 3.Stay living at my dads for 1-1.5 years after graduation.
During this time… 4.Keep bills paid. 5.Save $1000 for Emergency Fund 6.Pay off credit card used during school. (2-4k)
Im living off of $9k/year right now (If I can live off of $10k-15k for 1-1.5 years after getting a job, I can be saving $35k-$40k/year) Assuming ill be making Indiana average pay for Radiology Tech ($55k)
7.Reseach homes to buy, having a down payment. 8.This seems to be where I could begin to think about baby step 2 (Dave Ramsy) with snowballing my student loans and whatever remaining balance I have on my car.
Am I on the right track? I feel obsessed with this. Am I OVER planning, especially since I am not in a place to begin yet?
I know we can’t plan for everything, but I’d like the chance to learn to be prepared. I'm afraid to live like what I've seen in my household. That excuse has taken over me too. I have been wrapped up in their struggle (my own fault), so besides the finiancial planning I am working on kicking my fear to the curb on this "adult world" I'm in now.
Thanks in advance.
PS: This is the first reddit post for me!
Submitted November 15, 2017 at 08:17AM by green_flour-25 http://ift.tt/2zZPG5o
