Hi all,
This morning I got laid off from my job. I used to make $75,000.00 a year as a Mechanical Engineer for a mid size oil service company.
I signed an " At- will" employment contract, basically they gave me no reason as why I was laid off...I think it was not performance related, just a poor relationship with my direct supervisor. Every other manager was happy with my work. I had to block mysupervisor on LinkedIn, as she would look at my profile every week...and she followed me to my car once, yelled at me and asked why I was leaving, I had only gone to get my glasses from my car. Enough about that.
I'm a single female, living in Houston, TX. My family is in another country, and some relatives in the Austin TX area.
When I started last year in July, I decided to not contribute to retirement at this company as I wanted to get out of debt. I started with $92K in debt. I've paid off 2 credit cards, one student loan and most of my car.
I've managed to decrease my rent, my interest rates on my debt, and my car insurance. My rent went $1,320 to $917 starting April 2018, moved closer to work, saved time and gas.
Car insurance went from $250 to $180...once I moved my rate was gonna increase so I negotiated better rates elsewhere. I reduced the rate on one of my credit cards from 25% to 18%, still high but lower than before. I felt like I was doing the right things, and I just got fired and have little to no back up plans. I also stopped saving entirely, every extra cent was going either to school, or towards debt.
I used to make $4,690.00 a month, after taxes and deductions.
I cashed out the retirement money I had from a previous employer to pay off my credit card debt. Paid a hefty penalty when I did my taxes. So far, I've reached out to my network, updated my LinkedIn profile, started looking at jobs and saving the ones I have the skills and experience for, I will apply later today. I will file for unemployment also, and get some medical insurance, not COBRA.
I plan on doing UBER to make some money until I find another high paying job. The city I live in, you can make around $500 to $1500 just working weekends. Full time....I hope to make more than that.
Below are my my monthly expenses and debt
Current accounts
Checking: $20.00, last paycheck tomorrow ($2,340)
Savings: $0
Retirement: $0
Crypto: $2,500, bought in early, have not bought more since March 2018.
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $917.00
Insurance: $180.00
Car payment: $446.00 @ 1.9% with a credit union,
Gas: $50.00
Groceries: $75.00
Utilities: $45.00
Phone: $70.00
Debt
Sofi: 252.00
Marcus: $170
Student Loans: $70
Discover: $160
AMEX: $220
Below are my debts:
Loans, Sofi: $8,829.00, @ 12%,
Loan, Marcus by Goldman Sachs: $5,673.57 @ 12%
Car loan: $10,966, @ 1.9%, 24 payments remaining...I've been paying more to it
Credit Card 1, Discover: $8,258.00 @ 0% until October 2018
Credit Card 2, AMEX: $11,418.00 @ 18%
Student loans through Navient
$1609.31 @ 5.6%, I was gonna pay it off this month :-(
$ 3,938.09 @ 4.5 %
$3,824.79 @ 3.4%
$$2,807.55 @ 3.4%
Last year I had over $40K in credit cards, I paid 2 off and cancelled them. I've gotten my spending under control. I just need to know best path forward, and any other advice regarding how to approach employment and my debt.
Nobody every taught me about money, and once I learned about investing and debt, I decided to get out of debt.
In 5 years, I don't want debt, I want freedom to chose who I work for, and multiple sources of income.
Any advice is appreciated.
Submitted May 29, 2018 at 05:43PM by ArraTonks https://ift.tt/2LF8jhS
