Using a throwaway as this is so embarrassing. I thought I could crawl out of this hole alone but alas.
Long story short, my parents weren't great models for responsible spending. I left their home at 16, and have made it on my own every since. The day I turned 18 I applied for a credit card in my name and here we are 10 years later and I need help.
Some background: I am a full time student working on my masters (in counseling so no big bucks there) and I work full time at the university and I am a parent.
Current Salary: $33,000. After taxes, mandatory 401k 6%, and a loan payment withdrawn ($97 per paycheck), I make $1780 per month. I have $0 in savings, and $13 in my bank account right now.
Student Loans
I am currently a masters student. As of right now I have $70,000 in student loans, projecting to graduate in December 2019 with about $90,000. Averaging 6% interest. I have my undergraduate loans in repayment working on Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Those loans make up $15,000 of the current $70. The payment is income based and I currently pay $18 per month. I have made 20 of the 120 payments thus far. * Important to note: my masters program requires a 40 hour internship in our last semester. All internships are unpaid. I will have to leave my full-time salaried job in August and be unpaid until after graduation. It's fucking stupid and I am scared of losing this income.
Credit Cards (balance/max balance/minimum payment) APRs on these cards are 18-26%.
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Chase: $4,873 / $5,000 / $185
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Capital One: $7,504 / $8,000 / $200
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Wells Fargo: $2,762 / $5,500 / $100
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Citi: $566 / $2,000 / $28
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Lowe's: $0 / $6,900
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Kohl's: $0 / $1,500
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Discover: $0 / $2,000
(this Discover one is new. I applied for this one last month because it had a 0% APR offer for balance transfers)
Car Payment
I have $4,140 left to pay off my car. I pay $350 per month.
Personal loan from a previous consolidation loan that was awesome until I got married and had to have a dream honeymoon. Ug * $1,698 remaining on this. This is the balance mentioned previously that comes out of my paycheck every month. I pay $194 monthly on this.
Other monthlies: (this is my half of the cost)
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Rent: $450
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Internet: $25
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Car insurance: $115
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Utility bill: Ranges from $150 - $300 depending on the month. Last January the bill was $850 for that month ALONE. The A/C unit in the home I rent was not working properly. That was a very cold and expensive month.
My husband makes $35k yearly and pays his half of monthly bills listed here, and our cell phone bill ($100 per month) and child support at $500 per month. He has paid off his car, but received a DUI a few years back and pays almost $300 a month for car insurance. He also pays for our Hulu subscription. This is our only recurring payment "nicety"
I am freaking out today as I received a letter in the mail from a collection agency. Last year I had to have a surprise surgery and left with a $3,500 medical bill. The hospital did not have a way to set up automatic payments, and I forgot to pay since August. They sold my debt to the agency. To this date, I have only one missed payment, when I paid off my Lowe's credit card at an awkward time and was charged interest for the month after I paid the bill. It was something like $20 that I didn't know was still on the card and therefore didn't pay for a few months until I noticed it hit my credit score.
So, I will receive around $8,000 in student loans in the Spring. I planned to use these loans to pay off the Chase card ($4,800) and some on the Capital One card (probably $3,000) as they are the two cards with the highest interest and then transfer the remaining balances to:
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Discover (0% APR for transfers.. probably transfer $1800)
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Citi (10% APR.. will transfer $1500)
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and Wells Fargo (4.9% .. transferring $2,000)
But now with this medical debt in collections... I am not sure what to do. My husband says to ignore it for a while and let it roll in to collections, pay off what we can of the credit card debt and then start to try and inch our way out with the collections agency.
If our utility bill is on the lower side, I pay about $1,600 in bills every month, and bring home $1,780. The other $180 goes to gas and food. I try to throw any extra dollars I have towards the cards at the end of the month if I have any. My husband buys most of the other groceries and toiletries. We hardly ever go out for dinner for dinner or movies. Once a month or so we try to do something fun with the kids. We have them every other weekend and 2 nights during the week.
Basically, should I ignore the medical debt collectors and continue with my previous plan?
We are unable to sell his car and only have one car. We work in opposite directions and have inflexible hours. That was my first thought. I watch this sub quite a bit and I really thought I had a handle on things until I realized I didn't.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Happy to answer questions or expand on things.
Submitted December 30, 2018 at 11:09PM by poormoneymanagement http://bit.ly/2SoFXeF
