Hey everyone. Been lurking this subreddit for a little bit now and wanted to post my situation, in hopes that some of you can relate. Also, I’m open to criticism too because I acknowledge the fact that my financial situation is my own fault.
When I graduated high school at 18, I took two years off of college and worked odd jobs delivering pizzas, cooking pub food, and working at grocery stores. I then finally decided to go to college. I got my associates degree in criminal justice and quickly realized I didn’t want to work in that field.
Then I got into the restaurant business and have done that for the last ten years, on and off, but mostly full time. I have held a job at a large nationally known bank for three years but that was entry level and I got tired of making $12 an hour, so guess what I did? You guessed it. Back into restaurants. I am good at what I do (I work part time at a very nice fine dining restaurant).
Three months ago, I came across an opportunity to work as a life insurance agent for a big company. I passed the exam and just started. It’s 100% commission and I feel so overwhelmed because I’m still only working 3 days a week at the restaurant and struggling to build my business in the insurance industry. I know the ceiling is very high for this job and I’m trying to make the most out of it but I’m feeling discouraged.
The easy answer to my hardship is to buckle down and do whatever it takes to succeed in the insurance biz. But if you do a quick google search on this profession, it takes time to see any real money that can pay the bills. I’m already starting to feel like I want to call it quits because I’m working all day and not making any money. I’m thankful I have the profitable restaurant gig which enables me to scrape by for now
So in a nutshell, I’m 30 years old and have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck my entire life. I don’t make enough to save and unfortunately because of never being in good financial shape, I’ve racked up $15k in credit card debt. Luckily, my mom lent me $10k to pay off one of the cards and told me to “pay her back whenever.” So here I sit with all this debt, not a dime to my name (I have $800 but that’s going to rent in a few days), and I make about 2k per month.
My question is, how many other people live like this? I just feel so frustrated that I’ve never found my calling and made a career out of something. It kills me to not having any savings. Every vacation I’ve ever been on, I feel guilty. I stress myself out every single day fantasizing about just paying off my debt which totals at about $20k when you factor in my car.
Reddit, give it to me straight. How the heck do I get myself out of this situation. I’ve honestly considered trying law enforcement again because I could use my degree and work tons of overtime probably and eventually get the debt paid off. I just don’t know what I’m good at, besides serving at fine dining restaurants. I never knew what I wanted to do and here I am at 30 with nothing.
Submitted May 30, 2019 at 11:15AM by drowningindebt2189 http://bit.ly/2HMrmqB
