So long story short I've been really irresponsible for the past year or so and I'm just now realizing how badly I've backed myself into a corner. I've finished both undergrad and grad school and have a decent job making $50 K a year now - almost four years with my company working various jobs to keep going up the pay ladder. My current CC debt however is ~20k.
I was never lucky enough to have a savings or anything as a kid aside from a few small accounts here and there, but I used those up during college when I had no steady job. I still live at home which I am trying to avoid but can't seem to get out of this. Current monthly bills;
Private school loans: 650 Government school loans: 300 Car payment: 330 Insurance: 100
That's it as far as things I absolutely have to pay for, total is about $1100. I'm making $1500 or so per pay, so essentially it whipes out almost am entire half months work - I know, I paid too much for college. I've seen my credit score drop from 770 or so to about 710, which still isn't bad but I don't want it to continue dropping.
What should I do? The kicker is this: between my own contribution and employee match I have about 15k in my 401k (Roth IRA). I know there is a decent penalty for taking it out early and that saving now is the best time to do so, but would it make sense or is it even possible to do this? I feel it's the only way I can currently combat this debt as even if I got 12k after the penalty I would be able to manage the last portion and it wouldn't be constantly hanging over me.
I feel awful about myself as I'm not a dumb person, I've just had some issues I'm dealing with. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Thanks guys.
Edit: typos on mobile
Submitted January 31, 2019 at 05:12AM by throwawayhelp221 http://bit.ly/2Bai8kc
