Hello!
Back story to myself, I’m 23, live in Oklahoma, rent a house, no children, and have all the various bills that come along with adulthood (phone, insurances, etc.)
As of last Thursday (Dec. 20th) I was in a car accident that totaled my car. This car loan was almost a $50k loan that I’ve been paying since I was 18, it currently is sitting at $16,xxx. I re-financed it about a year ago for a lower payment due to having some business troubles I was having at the time. Insurance is doing a payoff on the car, etc. etc. basically, to round it all off I’m not making out with any money, because the car was pretty heavily modified and I’m basically making it out of the situation even.
This situation is allowing me an almost $600 a month in free income, I have one other loan, and two credit cards, totaling about $20,xxx in total debt.
To top everything off, I recently entered a new career after failing to keep my business afloat. I will be making a $65,000 a year salary.
I have this breakdown of my pay and expenses based off of my FORMER employer/pay (this is a budget from about 2 years ago as I have not updated it with my new employment and pay, but bills and assets are all still roughly the same):
Current Bills:
First half of the month:
Groceries: $100 - anytime Internet: $55 - 1st Gas: $60 - 1st Insurance: $10 - 1st U.S Law Shield: $14 - 13th Chase Payment: $150 - 1st
Total: $389
1st check: $850
Leftover: $461
Second half of the month:
Groceries: $100 - anytime T-Mobile: $140 - 18th Electric: $150 - 15th Water: $80 - 15th PayPal: $70 -15th Loan payments: $345 - 15th Chase Payment: $150 - 15th (Forgotten) Misc: $50
Total: $845
2nd check w/commission: $1400
Monthly income total: $2250
Monthly bills: $1234
Remainder: $1016
(Rent is paid by my girlfriend while I pay for everything else that we have, that is why it’s not included; also excluding daily/weekly consumables - i.e gas, food, etc.)
I have a small stock portfolio that I would like to continue growing that is quite meager at the moment.
I am starting to contribute to a Roth IRA and will try to reach max contributions every year.
I currently have about $6000 in an emergency fund.
I suppose my questions here are, what should be paid first, how should I maximize efforts to have a solid secure financial future. Where did you mess up and how should I personally avoid those mistakes? Any helpful advice is welcome!
I tried to offer as much information as possible without delving into too much detail and personal information.
Please don’t berate me for the mistakes I made as an 18 year old, I understand and deal with the repercussions every day and am just thankful/fortunate enough to be able to handle them.
Thank you for making it this far, if you did! I will be working well into the evening, so it may be awhile before I have time to read/reply!
Submitted December 27, 2018 at 02:01PM by CWMontgomery1995 http://bit.ly/2SoyCM2
