Hey all,
I'll spare you the details, but for the better part of ten years, I've been dealing with some serious health issues that impeded my ability to work and take care of my finances. Thankfully, I'm better now, but I lost my 20s to this illness and while I'm so happy that I have my life back, I don't really, because I fell into so much debt during this process.
I have a credit rating of 590-620 (depending on which source I check) and the following debt:
-Personal Loan, $18,000, $200/month min, 0% interest
-Credit Card #1, $10,800, $225/month min, 12% interest
-Credit Card #2, $6,200, $120/month min, 19% interest
-Credit Card #3, $3,600, $100/month min, 23% interest
-Credit Card #4, $750, $30/month min, 26% interest
-Credit Card #5, $720, $30/month min, 23% interest
-Two student loans totaling $8,500 at 6.8% interest (in deferment)
-Two student loans totaling $6,000 at 3.4% interest (in deferment)
-Two student loans totaling $2,700 at 4.3% interest (in deferment)
On the one hand, I'm so happy to be healthy and to be ready and willing to work to get my life back. On the other hand, I'm super overwhelmed by this debt, and how much money I'm pouring into it - money I'd obviously rather be saving for a house or anything else, really. I don't really make enough, even from a second job, to be making more than $100-200 more than my minimum payments every month, and once my student loans comes out of deferment it's just going to get worse. I live a very Spartan existence, I live with roommates to keep my costs down, I don't spend much money on anything, but it's still hard. Short of moving to a cheaper city or getting a different job, what are some things I could be doing to get myself out of this hole? Is debt consolidation something I should look into?
Submitted February 11, 2020 at 07:52PM by bettermeproject19 https://ift.tt/2Sm16J0
