Three years ago, we were nearly debt-free with a healthy savings.
We can’t seem to get our heads above water. Last year, in September, I left my job of 6 1/2 years for a job closer to home w/ better benefits, and a $14,000/yr pay increase.
During my two week notice period at my old job, my husband was fired and then was unemployed for 2 months. He took a job that paid $9/hr less than what he was making so essentially what happened is despite my pay increase, our finances ended up being the same as they were before I took this job.
He cashed out his 401k because we were struggling really bad financially when he lost his job. The job he was fired from (& was a loyal employee for 6 years) disputed his unemployment claim so the unemployment battle lasted as long as he was unemployed so we gave up once he found a job.
Come January, we decided to file bankruptcy. We hired an attorney and started paying towards the retainer. At the advice of our attorney, we stopped paying our debt but then my husband was let go from his job due to budget cuts. Now he is unemployed again, and we aren’t financially able to continue paying the retainer to file bankruptcy. We would have started the process this week but I have creditors calling all the time and was really looking forward to the attorney getting that taken care of. I’m afraid of what happens if we don’t file.
On top of that, when I started filing our taxes, it says we owe $4500. How do we possibly owe that much money when we have 3 kids, daycare, and student loans?
2022 felt like a really shitty year and I was really looking forward to 2023, only for it to shit on us and laugh in our faces.
Three years ago, we only had my student loans (private) and a car loan. Covid happened, our daughter needed two surgeries, our youngest son got into legal trouble, my husband didn’t have health insurance, my health insurance + kids insurance was shitty therefore expensive, inflation, job loss, etc. Three years ago, we had a healthy savings account, now we only have like $150 saved and are living paycheck to paycheck.
I’m just feeling really discouraged right now. I’m 37, my husband is 43. I feel like we should have our shit together and we’re failing.
Submitted March 14, 2023 at 03:44AM by lolabologna https://ift.tt/0CTUfPV
