Income last year:
$45k as a teacher in CO (including $600 a month in child support). My ex still owes me $6k in back child support. I have no savings. I have a small amount in a retirement/pension account.
Total debt: $109k
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$75k student loans (undergrad plus nearly ten years of interest on PAYE and one semester of law school, which I dropped when I found out I was pregnant). My payments (before the pandemic) were ~$200 a month, so I’d be paying forever.
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$15k medical debt. Since I was in grad school in another state, I moved home to be near family to give birth. My insurance failed to mention I still needed to get referrals in their state (over the phone, seriously?) for care, so they denied my childbirth expenses (emergency C-section, two days in hospital, and two months of physical therapy and therapy for PPD/PPA). I imagine it’s been sent to collections. I tried setting up payment plans but couldn’t afford the lowest offers (it’s dozens of accounts).
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$10k credit card debt. I had two months of unpaid maternity leave. This was how I paid the bills during that time (and last year, I was unemployed for two months because my childcare fell through, so some of it is from then). I think I probably owe like $400 in minimum payments every month. My credit score is currently at 550.
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$9k car loan. $200 a month.
Additional Monthly Expenses:
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Modest 2br apartment: $1600
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Auto/renter’s insurance: $180
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Internet: $80
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Cell: $70
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Food: $400+/-
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Electric: $100+/-
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Gas: variable
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Childcare: Last year I had a friend who only charged $600. This year the lowest I’ve found is twice that.
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Misc: I don’t go out. I have Disney+, Spotify, and Amazon. I get most of my daughter’s clothes second-hand (friends or Buy Nothing groups) or gifts from family. I follow the four gift rule for her birthday and Christmas, and generally avoid buying things she doesn’t need otherwise.
Total monthly payments due, not including medical debt and misc expenses: $4430.
Other info:
I moved to Denver last month because I got a six-figure scholarship to attend law school. It would cover most of tuition, but I’d have to cover cost of living. I’m a veteran, so I’m waiting to see if I qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, but if I don’t get that, then it’d be virtually impossible. I’d be able to get a separate loan for childcare costs (and I would apply for childcare assistance and WIC/food stamps to reduce those costs). So my total monthly payments would be closer to $3000, which checks out with the amount of loans + child support I’ll have each month. But my dad told me not to count child support because there’s the chance it could stop coming if my ex is shady about things. So with that in mind, I could only do it if I get the additional aid from the GI Bill. He thinks I should do it, but then again I grew up in poverty for a reason (he’s not great with money either).
Law school is something I’ve wanted for a long time, and I thought my scholarship made it possible. I want to be a lawyer. I like studying Constitutional Law especially. I’ve been told I’d be a good fit for public defense, but many of those positions aren’t exactly paid well (though there are exceptions). I thought it was my ticket to escape poverty, but I’m realizing it’s a pretty big gamble since I’d end up with a total of like $250k in debt (including what I already have). I’d also have to somehow get caught up on my debt (including the medical debt) or risk not being accepted to take the bar.
So I have two other options:
1.) Defer a year and continue teaching.
2.) Just go back to teaching forever.
My teacher salary in Denver would be $55k… but with the increase in childcare, I’d still be barely making it. I’d probably take home about $3,900 after taxes and insurance, so I’d still be stuck relying on unreliable child support in order to cover all of my debts. Without that I’d have to like… sell plasma or something. I don’t think I’d qualify for welfare at that salary.
Questions:
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What path would you advise? Attend law school if I get the GI Bill, defer for a year to pay off some debt, or abandon law school altogether?
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If I don’t go to law school, can I escape poverty with a teacher’s salary? I tried finding another job last year, but I only had one interview as a manager at a mattress store, and I didn’t get it. Switching careers is hard for teachers unless you go back to school.
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Should I consider bankruptcy?
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Should I consider grad school for something else to increase my income? If so, what? I thought about library science, but it would only increase my pay by a few thousand a year. I don’t want to do school admin. Counseling, maybe. But again, I don’t think they make much more than teachers.
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If I don’t go to law school, would I be crazy to consider buying a home within the next year or two? Denver has an Affordable Housing program, which I qualify for except that I’d need $3k in savings. My dad offered to give me that money (he won’t just give me money to pay off debt, but he’ll do that because he says it’s a good investment). They have nice, updated 2-3 bedroom homes for WAY under market value—average homes go for like $500k, but I saw a really nice one in a good neighborhood for $260k. My mortgage would be way less than what I pay in rent. I feel like this might be another way I could finally escape poverty. If I wanted to do that, I’d have to avoid bankruptcy, right?
Edit: I will never understand why people immediately downvote someone desperately asking for advice.
Submitted July 03, 2022 at 01:03AM by badatthis1234 https://ift.tt/7yFSxNr
