If anyone has the time to read thru this and offer experienced advice and guidance I would greatly appreciate it. It's a bit of a read, but as I close in on 30, I've realized I need to get a bit more serious about my financial situation. I've been aware if my shortcomings in this area for a while, but finally feel motivated to actually do something about it. I've done a fair bit of reading, mostly here on Reddit, over the last week or so. And have started to make a list of bills, and other expenses to get a firmer grasp on where my money is going every month. Looking for ways to cut back. But I'd love to get some feedback from you guys and gals as work to get my money in order.
I work full time, 40 hours a week in the trades. I make $21.50 an hour. I'm not in love with my job. I dicked around with dead end jobs for too long. Never finding a passion, or a career I enjoy. But I work for a good company, and would be hard pressed to walk into another job for $21.50 right now with my measly HS diploma and overall lack of job skills. I'm here, and until I figure something else out, or decide this is where I need to be, I'm going with it for the moment. Figuring this out needs to be a bigger priority for me, but I've yet to really pursue anything different the last three years.
I also Door Dash 20-25 hours a week ontop of my full-time job, and have been for the past 10 weeks or so. And plan on continuing doing so for the foreseeable future. I make ~$4-500 a week doing this, minus taxes and gas. It's been a God send of a side hustle to try and keep putting money in savings the last few months as I've moved and taken on more expenses.
So between the two jobs, conservatively, I'm taking home ~$4,200 after taxes a month working 60-65 hour weeks.
I currently have $26,000 in savings.
My current debt includes... $7,500 auto loan ($252 a month for the next three years or so. Financed for 6 years @ 5.4%)
$1,900 in money I owe to the IRS, which I am waiting on the bill for. Plan to take care of this ASAP obv.
$1,800 in three different collection accounts
$500 I'm going to have to pay in taxes for the current year here in a couple weeks.
And about $600 in CC debt. Which I don't really count too much as I just haven't paid it off fully this month yet. Which I do, in full, every month before any interest kicks in. I actually just got it this year, as I was lead to believe I needed one for my credit. I am disciplined enough with it to not run up huge debt with it. And currently use is for dang near every purchase from bills to groceries to get credit for cash back. Is this advisable, or should I ditch the card?
So. 26K in the bank. About $12,500 in various debts. $4,200 or so in net monthly take home, and about $2,400 in monthly expenses in bills alone (rent, child support, utilities, internet, etc.) I haven't factored in food, gas, and misc. expenses just yet, but with $1,800 left over for that I should be able to have a good ability to save/utilize better every month.
I've reached out to the money guy that handles retirement/investments for my employer, and am hoping to, sometime this week, get a 401K going as my employer matches 3%. And potentially, as I've read about here, put another 12% toward a Roth IRA and start putting some money aside for retirement.
I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Hopeful, but fairly clueless as could use some help! Thank you for your time.
Submitted February 07, 2021 at 11:08PM by Financial-Loss9629 https://ift.tt/3p3eazL
