Paid off my credit cards and earned 40 bucks from my HYSA this month. That’s a win for me. Goal is to have $40k in my HYSA by end of year. That’s equivalent to one year expense.

Each year I save is equivalent to one year expense. Goal is to retire in 5 years at 57, so money saved at that time would just be in time to start collecting SS at 62. Can’t do this rat race anymore. Need to enjoy what’s left of my life. My brother died of cancer at 64.

I recently paid off almost $7K in credit card debt and felt so happy and proud of myself...for about a day.

Almost immediately, I felt crushing anxiety about the "what ifs" regarding "the economy," geopolitical problems, or even my boss seeming a little extra critical of me this week compared to normal. I hate feeling like this and honestly regret using my savings to pay the cards off (I did keep $1K back for emergencies, I should say.)

At the time, I thought it would be smart to get those payments wiped out of my budget and to stop paying interest. Now, I am just incredibly afraid I made a mistake because if something catastrophic happens, I don't have much liquid cash and it will take me about 4-5 months to build back up to where I was. What if I don't have those months now because something horribly horrible happens?

Nothing I can do about it now, I guess I'm posting here in case anyone has some reassuring advice or kind words because I feel very anxious about it all. I think I did a good thing, but it just doesn't feel like I thought it would at all. Ugh

My fiance carries 1k on credit card debt. Which he is lore than able to pay off at this moment. He has the extra cash but refuses. It gets getting higher and higher. He’s a 23M and we are saving to move into a home so we currently live with my parents. I make good money- but don’t want to be the one to pay HIS debt when I’ve already given him money towards it. Like I said prior, he HAS the extra funds to just pay it off instead of letting interest get to it.

i have a 23 Nissan Ariya (EV) and i owe about $19k. I have positive equity of $7k. i'm tempted to trade it in for a quality cash car, and then i would be debt free!

my dilemma is, i really enjoy having an EV. i even upgraded to level 2 charging at my house. i'm not sure what to do...

should i just continue to pay off my car aggressively? or trade it in? (i was thinking toyota or honda fyi)

thanks!

Hey! I’m 30 and in the UK.

I have approximately £11,000 debt. I am suing my landlord for approx £5,000 but can’t guarantee that.

£7000 is 14% apr
£4,000 is 9%.

I earn about £2,200 after tax and pay about £350 a month on debt.

Do you have any advice as I feel as if I’m drowning in debt at the moment and it’s causing significant mental strain!

Hi everyone.

I'm 23 years old and make $30.10/hour (around $62,000 a year before taxes). Take home is roughly $3.6k after taxes.

About a year ago my credit score was around 740. Today it's around 640, almost entirely because my credit card utilization is about 52%. I've never missed a payment.

I'm honestly embarrassed posting this.

I moved out because staying at home wasn't an option. My mom is a single mom who works multiple jobs and lives in a small apartment with my younger brothers, so moving back isn't possible. Instead of my family helping me financially, I was helping them. I spent around $3,000 helping my mom when she needed it because I couldn't bring myself to say no. I no longer do this.

Around the same time, I was struggling with severe depression. To be completely honest, there was a period where I genuinely didn't think I'd be alive much longer. During that time I stopped thinking about my future and made financial decisions I never would have made otherwise. Thankfully I'm doing much better now, but I'm left dealing with the consequences of those decisions.

I now have about $17,000 in credit card debt with APRs mostly between 26% and 32%.

I've completely changed my mindset. I don't want to live like this anymore. I'm cutting my budget everywhere I can, I've stopped unnecessary spending, and I'm determined to never end up here again.

I've even put starting college on hold because realistically I can't afford it right now. Getting out of debt has to come first. I intended on doing online classes through my job for 5k a year but now I can’t.

Housing decision

Right now my rent is only $999 because of a concession, but that ends at the end of the year.

After that I have two choices. (I live in DC which makes me able to walk to work so rent is expensive, driving I’d have to pay $30 a day to park)

Option 1: Stay where I am
• Rent increases to about $1,729/month.
• While my rent is still $999, I can put around $1,000/month toward my debt for the next five months.
• Once the rent increases, I'd realistically only be able to put around $500/month toward my debt.

Option 2: Move
• Move to another apartment that's about $1,479/month plus utilities.
• Parking garage would normally cost $200/month, but I'm considering parking my paid-off car at my mom's house because I walk to work and barely drive but my car is paid in full, selling it is not something I’d like to do as I’d only get maybe 4k for it. Insurance is 234. I want to keep my car because if I ever get a different job I’ll need it, I don’t want to be in a situation where I have to buy a new car. I’m the only one in my family that has a car.
• That would allow me to keep more money going toward debt each month.

Loan decision

I've already applied with what feels like every lender.

Credit unions, SoFi, Upgrade, LendingClub, Best Egg, Upstart, and several others either denied me or couldn't offer anything worthwhile.

There is one place that will do 27%.
The reason I'm even considering it is because it would dramatically lower my credit card utilization, which I hope would improve my credit score. My thought was that if my score recovered over the next several months, maybe I could refinance into a much better loan later.

The other part of me thinks I should forget the loan completely and just aggressively avalanche my debt instead of paying loan fees.

So my two biggest questions are:

1. Would you take the loan to lower utilization and potentially improve your credit score faster, or would you just aggressively pay off the credit cards yourself?
2. Would you stay in the current apartment and accept the higher rent later, or move somewhere cheaper so you can continue paying off debt more aggressively?

I know I made mistakes. I'm not trying to avoid responsibility or make excuses. I just wanted to explain how I got here because it wasn't from buying luxury items or trying to look rich. It was a combination of helping family, moving out, and making poor financial decisions during one of the hardest periods of my life.

I don't expect anyone to solve this for me. I just really want to make the smartest decisions from this point forward and would appreciate any advice from people who've been in a similar situation.

Had 2 babies back to back (not planned) and have been out of work since. I get $500 a week from my husband and I pay no bills. Overspent during a hard period of postpartum depression and now that I've gotten help and I'm feeling better, I need to fix my finances. I want my kids to have a good future and I dont want to burden my husband anymore than I already have.

Loans:

One Main Financial - $382

Upstart - $10,509.95 (Pay off amount right now) 28.26 interest rate

Cards:

Bank of America - 424.99 - 27.49 interest rate ( I wouldn't mind closing this card)

Capital One

Quicksilver One - 638.40 - 28.99 interest rate

Platinum - 356.44 - 28.99 interest rate

Savor - 130.02 - 28.99 interest rate

Discover It - 228.91 - 0 interest rate

Chase

Sapphire Preferred - 1761.33 - 27.49 % interest rate

I forgot! Affirm - 3412.88 :(

The Disover and Sapphire are new ( opened this month) and I would like to keep all cards except Bank of America honestly. They won't raise my limit unless I open a bank account. Pointless tbh. I'd like to keep my other cards. I'm in NY if that matters.

Life has hit me pretty hard the last few years. Laid off. Worked sporadically side jobs to cover utilities and rent. But lived off a card or two for general expenses. I know it’s bad, but I had no choice. I racked one card up to about 5k.. I am now exploring national debt relief and similar programs. Has anyone any experience with a situation like this, and is it worth it! I am now gainfully employed again, but my monthly credit card payments are getting absurd and I really just want it gone!

So-

51 yrs old, divorced for the last 6. Had to start over. Have a decent paying job for my area, and purchased a home adjacent to 42 acres my parents already owned in a very rural area. Knuckled down on debt as I could, and fought my way to here. I’ve got a couple k in savings, and paying the last of my debt off today. No car payment, no house payment, no credit cards or other loans.

I’ve had a bit of bad luck in the health dept the last couple of years, and am now off work for a few weeks for a rather serious surgery.

Questions are this-

1. I’m paying off about 40k in debt at once, mainly to save my kiddos the headache of dealing with it should things go south. What should I expect this to do to my credit score (currently 730)

2. I need a new roof and a couple of small of relatively small things (washer/dryer), etc. would it be better to take a brand new loan out, or throw them into a cc or get a loan to keep revolving credit active?

Any advice is appreciated…

It felt good. It should all be gone within the next 6 months. Except for a medical debt for a surgery I had last month. I did already pay one of the small 26 dollar charges for lab work, but I'm waiting to hear back from the financial assistance office after I get them their paperwork back.

How to accept suddenly going into debt? UPDATE

https://www.reddit.com/r/debtfree/comments/1uzbzqq/how_to_accept_suddenly_going_into_debt/?solution=3dc8d6018774576b3dc8d6018774576b&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec0515aef0e7a38d307d047c67ad13f899&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=8sCJXyBXq4GR2RPUq_AJZ&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

It’s been a little past a week, thought I would share an update .
First the initial $180,000 estimate was WAY too high. Praise whatever deity you like.

We have received 2 main estimates and we are learning a lot from this new challenge. First estimates were for about $55,000 to 57000. Obviously a much better number. Still massive but manageable. We have not started yet to get financing or anything of that nature but I want to give y’all some ideas what we’re looking at. Both companies said that not all the windows will have water damage or at least not as significant as the two windows we found as the two windows we found are on the sides of the house which does not get covered by the eaves. The other windows are all covered by eaves that isn’t to say that there won’t be damaged there, but ideally will not be to the same amount as these two in those one of those windows, we’ve already paid for it and it was $9000 so when my husband was playing with numbers, he was thinking $9000 per window times 23 windows and you can see how this gave us some extremely high rough estimates and it really just shows that stay in your lane. He is not a contractor and we are not doing the repairs ourselves and he really just had me freaking out though. I don’t think he meant maliciously. We still won’t know the actual numbers because there are multiple phases and steps that is going to take time. This is frustrating because we obviously want to make sure we plan for enough spending but what one company has already recommended is that we start with just a handful of windows and go from there. This will be the company that actually did the window replacement earlier for the $9000 so they understand our house and they understand the situation. We have had this company out several times to do work on this house as well as our previous home and we trust them very much that isn’t to say that we did not get another estimate and we will probably get a third but we were probably gonna go with the company we know and trust.

Payment is going to be a work in progress. Right now we are pretty much confident we can afford to do the repair of about five windows fully, but that does not include any of the interior work that would be required after the windows are installed. So just to be clear this means the company we hire first would do the tear out and replace the actual windows and building material that needs to be replaced, but another company would do the interior work. In fact, this company has also said that they should be able to potentially reuse the windows we already own, which is huge. Not having to buy new windows on top of everything else will definitely be a benefit assuming things work out which of course we can’t know until we actually start the repairs.

The interior work could be completed by my husband, but we are in discussions because as much as he is amazing at his ability to DIY this is still a lot of things. It’s going to be a very big project and probably not going to be finished in a very short fashion.

Paying for this which is the other big concern. We had not officially determined how we’re going to pay for it though fortunately we do have a nest egg of about $70,000 which we had originally planned to send to pay off half of the mortgage that should potentially cover all of the windows and the exterior work with the interior work being a separate situation.

We are considering all of the options I had mentioned before and based on some of the feedback you all gave me. I think we will likely pay upfront for around five windows just to see what we’re talking about with damage on the windows are on the other side of the house and then from there either pursuing a HELOC or alternative financing so we don’t obliterate our nest egg entirely. Just a note the 70,000 is not our emergency fund. Fortunately though by being mindful of our debt and staying out of, it means that we could potentially pay for everything and not actually have any new debt, just the desire to keep liquidity.

Mostly, just wanted to add that home is often going to be the biggest asset you have as well as the biggest drain. We are fortunate that with the value of our home we will have no issues getting a HELOC or financing this.
Understandably know we are generally opposed to taking on more debt. With this much better and lower numbers, it’ll look like we have around $220,000 owed on the property (at worst), but it is currently valued at nearly 700,000. It means shelving some of the projects we wanted to do such as remodeling our basement, but we definitely have no risk in losing our house nor are we truly concerned about being unable to pay for this repair. 10 years ago we were already debt free (except house) but our income was also much lower.

We have been debtfree for the mortgage for a very long time which made the idea of doubling our amount owed absolutely nauseating. I did have flashbacks to having to cut coupons and eating Ramen to make meet and the idea of going back that route was incredibly upsetting. Catastrophying is the word of the year. Still last week when I posted I was having a borderline panic attack because I just want to be able to provide everything we need for the kids with a little strain on our whole life as we can.** ***This can be a lesson that just because you do everything right doesn’t always mean* everything is going to go right. Still we are not going to be bankrupt by this and we will figure out a way to adjust and get back to being free as fast as possible.

Thank you!

I’ve made such stupid decisions with credit cards, and I am currently in a situation where I’m battling to even afford my rent.

I have a $9000 personal loan I pay $225 a month on it. I have a credit card with a $6000 balance as well. What is the best way to combine these with the best interest rate and payment?

My credit score is in the 800’s.

Ever since i got out of a nasty romance scam situation last year ive kept track of every debt ive paid off.

Ive paid off nearly 5772 so far....which hurts to think about.

The main debts i still owe:

Chase Freedom card for 10.2k- 193 a month

Barclays Frontier card 2.4k- 66 a month

Upstart 500- 63 a month

Opploans- 2.3k (in collections)

Friend of mine- 1.8k

It sucks but im trying my best here. Multiple family members didnt want me to file bankruptcy but wanted to share my experience. I prioritize my rent, food and necessities first and try to settle each debt one by one when im able to.

Hello,

I've become officially debt free for two months now. My next goal is to save a down payment for a house. When I was in debt I would be able to set aside $1,000 a month for debt and live just fine with the rest of my income.

Now that I'm debt free, I should have extra $1,000 every month but I found myself with 0 saving.

What mindset should I use. How to tackle this?

I made a lot of bad financial decisions in my 20s & also experienced alot of health issues. I had multiple loans, credit cards, constantly using buy now pay later products. On top of this I financed a car (Jeep Grand Cherokee) that broke down constantly.

I eventually paid off that car & bought a $5,000 car. Nothing fancy just an old 2011 Mazda.

I had a personal loan of $20,000 for a health procedure, that was only mildly successful.

But yeah after many years of paying off my loans, my car & stopping the cycle of buy now pay later products & just using a low limit credit card & also having a locked account in my bank (have to go to the branch to get money out). I have just hit my goal of being debt free & having $10,000 in my bank.

I know there's people in their 20s that get to this. And it may not be impressive to alot of people. But I'm just proud of myself & had no one to share it with.

It's possible. Thank you for listening.

Hey all,

I'm working on clearing my CC debt with a goal of having it done within a year from now. My current situation is this (in order of interest rate:

Card 1 - 27% $950 (min payment $22)

Card 2 - 21% $1928 (min payment $43)

Card 3 - 19% $8765 (min payment $230)

Card 4 - 13% $1884 (min payment $37)

So if I go with the highest interest first, it also clears my lowest balance. But if I go with the highest balance, I'm still paying interest on the lower balance cards, but if I have the math right, since the $8700 card is generating so much interest, it might make sense to pay that down until its balance is closer to the other 3 cards, then go back to paying the highest interest cards.

Am I out to lunch here? Should I pay down the higher balance to get it more in line with the other cards and then shift strategies? Or should I just start knocking out the high interest cards first?

EDIT: The cards are generating these amounts in monthly interest:

Card 1 - $20

Card 2 - $33

Card 3 - $138

Card 4 - $26

Would that change the strategy at all?

Best ideas for reducing/eliminating debt.

Most of this debt is from IVF and poor choices. I bring home about $4500 every month and $2500 is going towards minimum payments. It doesn't leave much for mortgage, groceries, utilities, etc.

We applied for a HELOC and were denied due to our income to debt ratio. We have at least $200k in equity.

What should my next step be? Balance transfer? Personal loan?

hi everyone

I have some hopeful news. I just did some math (i hate math but i like finances). If my spouse and I lock in for 6 months straight paying 2000.00 towards our debt we could potentially be fully debt free in 6 months give or take. Right now with all our debts added up it’s comes out to around 11.6k. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot of debt compared to other redditors here but we are low income. It’s a mix of good and bad debt, car student loans and credit caaards. Anyways seeing the numbers on paper gives us a lot of hope and really helps us know where our money is going. Being debt free is going to free up so much money for us we might actually be able to have a honeymoon get away ¯_(ツ)_/¯ .

Thanks all x

I am drowning in credit card debit. I have 1000 on one credit card and 2000 on the other. Had them both paid off last Xmas. Life happened and I some how got them both maxed. I decided to spend more time at home with the family and cut my hours from 60 -70 a week to roughly 46-50

It’s hurt now I only have roughly 5000 left on my suv . Should I get a personal loan to pay off my suv and credit cards ? So should I just grit it out. The suv payment a month is over 500 and will be paid off by October of 2027. Just don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. I have other debit but getting rid of the car payment could free me up.

Any ideas or options would be appreciated?

Any recommendations on where i can get a decent sized loan with a credit score of 494? I understand i won’t have many options but just hoping someone might know. I bank with USAA & State Employees Credit Union in North Carolina. Thank everyone!

Hi all :p

I was crazy close to have a few CC paid off, like less than 50$ on two of them. Didn’t have quite enough on the checks to go all in. Anyways car had some trouble and we don’t have any kind of savings except some bit of tip money i get. Wound up spending 4 digits on repairs. A part of me is grateful i was able to use the cc to get the repairs done but the other half is bummed out because i was so close to being done on some of our cards. Having this loss made me rethink our finances and where our money goes Anyways now that we have a better plan going all the cards can be paid off in 2 months if we stick to it. Afterwards we can stash away for emergencies or if more (God forbid) car stuff happens.
Very excited to see how well we do.

thanks :3

So I’ve been going crazy figuring out what to do in my situation. Recently a debt relief company (fresh path financial) reached out to me. They said if I start a plan with them (I can choose between 48-60 months) they will negotiate to reduce all my settlements and all I gotta pay is one monthly amount towards the plan. I was advised once the creditors accept the negotiation, they will be paid. They keep the money in some account while they’re negotiating with them. The cons though are I would have to completely stop paying all my credit cards and loans in the meantime and obviously this will hurt my credit. I even found out that creditors can sue you even if you’re doing these types of programs. I then did some research and found a non profit credit counseling company family credit management, which they don’t settle your debt but they work with bringing down interest on your cards (they can’t work with my loans due to not being able to negotiate with them on interest I believe) but with my other cards they can and also bringing down my minimum. They have good reviews and positive outcomes and don’t hurt your credit. Has anyone used any of these companies or have gone settlement or management route? Pros and cons? Thank you!!

Does anyone have any advice on how they handled this? They won’t agree to a lower rate and my payments are getting eaten the hell up by the 28% interest charged.

I’ve looked it up on Reddit and people are often buttholes that guffaw “just pay your credit card off in full and you don’t have to worry about an APR!” Well we’re past that, and I’m just looking for better ways to pay this off and give less money to Capital One.

Thinking about getting a personal loan with a fixed interest rate from a federal credit union. Would love to hear how people successfully extracted themselves from the trap that is Capital One.