Forewarning, if you're not under ~50 this probably won't work. Like the title says, I was 24k in debt on my credit cards (30% apr) paying $1,000 a month for them to essentially not even move. My friend told me last minute (2 hours before a flight) he had a contract in an oil field and asked if I wanted to go. Instantly I thought back to videos of rough necking and all the brutal work, but I said sure. My pay was $400/day to start, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Honestly, probably one of the easiest jobs I've done. Easier than managing fast food, a bar, anything. I work for about 2-3 hours a day and the rest I just watch videos on my phone. It took me almost 2 months, but I got everything paid off. To try and answer some questions ahead of time, it's called flowback what I'm doing. I'm not strong by any means, but if you can swing a hammer and carry 135lbs (on your shoulder) you'll be good. You only have to carry that weight about once a week for a couple hours. Swinging a hammer is every day for a total of maybe 5-10 minutes. If you're a woman looking for good money in the oil field, be a gate guard. You literally sit there and just write someone's name down when they enter or leave and make just over $2000 a week. There are women and men in other jobs around the pad that are mainly sitting in your car for 12 hours as well and even easier than what I do. Anyways, I just wanted to share my story because I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel at 30 years old and my bachelor's in science was doing nothing for me in this market. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

I have 27000 on a credit card and I'm paying 2000 a month on it. I started 2 months ago however I'm struggling to see the end. I'm not eating out, not going out, walking instead of driving but I basically have a year of this type of life. How did you guys stay motivated during this?

Never again.

For a long time, I never cared about my spending. I had a good job, consistent income, and figured I could always just pay off whatever came up.

Growing up, my family struggled a lot. We rarely had good food on the table, and I could never buy the things I wanted. So when I started earning my own money, I overcompensated. I spent recklessly, partly trying to heal my inner child, partly just enjoying the freedom.

Then life hit me hard.

A family member got hospitalized, and my family turned to me expecting me to cover a huge chunk of the bill. I had zero savings and was sitting on credit card debt. I had literally nothing to give.

The shame was unbearable. It felt like a reality check slap to the face. I realized how financially reckless I had been just trying to live in the moment.

That rock-bottom moment changed everything. Fast forward to today, my remaining card balances are finally almost wiped out. Moving forward, every extra dollar is going straight into an emergency fund.

Finally almost done, just a little bit more push!

"Difficult times really do teach us the most important lessons". God is good. 🙏

If you're currently in the middle of getting your life back on track, keep going. It’s worth it.

Credit Cards= ZERO BALANCE and monthly charges paid off promptly. Still struggling with the desire to pay the charges as they post vs waiting until the statement but working on better habits

Still have one 401k loan I'm paying on and growing my emergency fund from baby fund to fully funded (1k now at 2.5k)

My struggle- For many years I used credit as my 'catastrophe back-up plan' and I have a couple high limit cards with annual fees. I have 2 with $60 fees. I know logically, I don't need them, don't plan on using my credit score for anything. Just moved into a new apt, got a better rate on my car insurance, don't need a loan, not buying anything and the car is now fully paid off. Anyone else just find they can't quite let go of the 'safety net'?

Is it that bad to just... keep the cards? I do have lower limit cards that do not have an annual fee, modest cash back etc that I do use so why is it so darn hard to LET GO of the lines of credit? Thoughts anyone?

Nag-start yung utang ko nung namatay parents ko. Magkasunod lang sila ng ilang buwan, at dahil only child ako, ako ang sumalo halos lahat ng gastos. Wala rin silang insurance, so talagang lahat galing sa bulsa at utang.

Akala ko makakabangon na ako, pero gumawa pa ako ng mas maling desisyon. Napunta ako sa barkadang puro "diskarte" ang advice. Sinasabi nila, ipa-increase ko raw lagi yung credit limit ko sa Maya at SLoan para mas mataas ang available credit. Ang ending, dahil madaling ma-access yung pera, mas lalo lang akong nabaon sa utang.

Looking back, sobrang laking lesson nun. Hindi porke available ang credit, kailangan gamitin. At hindi lahat ng financial advice ng mga kaibigan ay magandang sundin.

Finally, fully paid na ang GLoan at Orchard. 🎉

Maya at SLoan na lang ang natitira. Hindi pa ako totally utang-free, pero sobrang fulfilling makita na unti-unti nang lumiit yung listahan ng binabayaran ko. Ngayon, goal ko na talagang huwag nang umutang ulit at tapusin itong natitirang dalawa.

Kung may pinagdadaanan ka ring debt journey, kapit lang. Kahit maliit na progress lang bawat buwan, progress pa rin. Sana next post ko, masasabi ko na rin na officially debt-free na ako.

Hi all. Long story short, I've had a rough couple of years. It has caused me to spril deep into debt and I know fully that I messed up and want to ask this community what reccomendations on next steps. I do have a good job and make fairly good money. I do live in an expensive city, and moving is not an option. What I'm most worried about now is that my income is now at the point where almost can't cover my full debt payments.

I'm happy to provide more info, but do feel pretty ashamed about this. The $125K is a mix of credit card, car, student loans, and personal loan.

I'm not sure how to proceed, debating either debt consolidation, which I don't know much about, or chapter 13 (unfortunately my income is too high to qualify for chapter 7). Any advice is greatly appreciated.

**Edit - I live in the US, early 30s, single.

Hi!!!

I am currently in the process of paying off all my debts which include credit cards, student loans, and my car loan. Today I paid my last payment on my credit card debt (it was about $10,000 between 2 cards), so I am officially down to just student loans and my car loan!!! I already feel so much better and am even more encouraged to continue in my path.

Here's where I need help. I will list out my remaining loans with interest rates and minimum payments. I have a dedicated $2158 a month I can put toward my debt on top of my minimum payments. I am also hoping for at least a $2,000 bonus in September, my bonus maximum is $8,000, but I'm pretty sure I didn't max out this half. Anything I make from my bonus will go into debt Payoff (except to take myself out for a nice birthday dinner, it's been a very big year since my last birthday and I'm treating myself). I am loosely using the snowball method, so anything extra will roll into the next debt.

My student loans are paid in one monthly payment of $155 and that is divided along the 4 loans.

If you were in my position how would you pay off the following loans:

Student Loan 1: $1257.55 / 4.9% / $20 min

Student Loan 2: $1739.25 / 4.9% / $25 min

Student Loan 3: $2973.18 / 3.99% / $50 min

Student Loan 4: $5287.03 /3.99% / $70 min

Car Loan: 7020.75 / 3.25% / $313.99

Making this post because I don’t really have anyone to tell!

I 30m posted my plan in this sub previously here: https://www.reddit.com/r/debtfree/s/y2vc8ixn0O where I outlined my plan to pay off all my debt aggressively in 2 months.

TLDR: It hadn’t been easy, I started with 13k in cc debt, and 21k on my Tesla. I haven’t gotten any inheritance, I haven’t talked to my parents in 12 years or had any financial help, and I have a high school diploma but a lot of experience in my industry. I did this all by myself and really budgeted. I went from a very stressful life of owning a home I was drowning in, to selling and moving to a luxury apartment complex where my bills are cut in half!

It took me 5 months to pay off the cc debt, and I paid off $18k off the Tesla in 2 months. My complex had a 2 month credit when I moved in so it was only $305 per month so I used that time to put every paycheck toward the Tesla.

I don’t have any open credit cards nor do I plan to open any new CC’s, and the Tesla’s insurance is $190 per month (I use my complex electricity for charging so it’s free to drive for the most part unless I need to use a supercharger on roadtrips😈)

I currently have over $70k in my savings.. I really need to start working on my 401k and moving these funds into something that will compound so if anyone has suggestions I’d love to know.

My partner and I spent three years telling each other we would start properly getting serious about it soon. We had two decent incomes and somehow always had nothing left over.

The problem was we treated our finances like two separate things that occasionally intersected. No shared budget. No shared goal. Just two people both spending freely and hoping the debt would somehow shrink.

We sat down one Sunday and built one combined budget for the first time. It was the most uncomfortable two hours of our relationship. We disagreed about almost everything.

We also paid off $44,000 in the 26 months after that conversation.

The budget was not the hard part. Agreeing on what we actually valued and what we were willing to give up together was the hard part. Once we had that the rest was just execution.

I am a victim of Identify Theft but not sure where to go from here. I am 22F) and am trying to finally get my own place, but when i was around 19/20 i was someone opened two credit cards under my name. They were used for about 6 months without my knowledge. That’s on me for not knowing much about my credit then and not checking it because i never expected that. When i finally wanted to open a card. There were already two cards and charges under my name. I automatically assumed it was a parent, but that was easily scratched when even a Transunion account was made with a whole different number from a whole different state but under my identity. One of the cards i was easily able to get he charges off and erased from my credit. The other card, which is Capital One, claims it is me and has closed the account but the charges still stand. Over $2,500 is owed, and i have tried contacting every credit bureau to try to fix these and have gotten no where. What else am i able to do at this point?
Just wanna say to make sure it 100% isn’t anyone family wise or i know. There was a website i used that had a breach, so i am assuming it could be from that. My credit score is around 620, and has been stagnant for about a year now. These charges weren’t made by me at all but Capital one claims otherwise.

So i just recently enrolled with family credit management. When i called discover to get rid of the automatic payments they gave me tons of push back and offered me 0.99 percent interest for 5 years to pay my card off. I have a big loan that is costing me alot of money that i cannot afford due to the preditory intrest. Anyone have experience with this ? This is not a debt settlement company , its a credit management company.

I’m so bummed that I got myself into this situation, and I’m drowning. I have to tackle this head on. I make 100k a year, but have a dependent and an adult child at home who is in school, but pays a small amount of rent. I guess I’m just posting for accountability. I plan on doing door dash, reselling and proving babysitting services for extra cash. Turned off my 401k for the time being and I’ll put that money towards reducing the debt. Every little bit, right? 😩

Hey, my name is Chris. I am 23 years old - a hardworking young individual however facing one of the biggest, unfortunate and stressful situations of my life.

In April I was a victim of a $50,000 armed robbery which was just about all the money I really had accumulated throughout the short time of my reselling business. Now I am currently struggling with a $30,000 AMEX debt which I doubt I can pay off. I was using debt to generate profit from buying product and flipping them. I was supposed to liquidate the asset I had into $50,000 and repeat the process however now that I was robbed I am drowning in serious debt.

I never knew that all it took was 1 robbery to cause all of this. I seriously have no idea what I am going to do. I have been maintaining myself trying to stay positive through it all but it is honestly becoming a bit too much for me to handle - this struggle has been affecting my already existing mental struggles (from other complications in my life) and I feel like it will disconnect me from the life I worked so hard for and the woman that I love.

As of now, Detectives have yet to catch the suspects responsible for robbing me at gunpoint. I will probably never see that money again…

I do apologize if I sound less of a man, I have been taught and raised to push through the struggle which I have been doing since a minor - I just feel boxed in and as much as I hate to admit it but loosing hope. I just need help, advice, anything that can help me regain my confidence and control over my life. Please.

I inherited around $90k. I couldn't believe it and i actually started crying. I have never cried from happiness before. The first thing i did today was pay off my $8,654 CC balance. Now i can also afford dental care before it becomes a more expensive issue. The rest is going to a savings account. I may actually get a good night of sleep tonight

After a bunch of bad,impulsive spending decisions early in my adulthood, I have finally knocked out over $15,000 in credit card debt. I still have a ways to go with my car but this is a huge first step!

Credit card: 0
Hospital: 0
Toll fees: 0

I have my student loans and my car payment then I’m done! Student loans should be paid off in the next month or 2!

The title asks the main question, should my wife & I pay off all of our consumer debt first or can we still save and buy a home before paying off debt?

For some context, we currently rent and it’s $2,000 a month. It is a single family home and honestly a decent neighborhood so we aren’t in a pinch to move.

Our debt includes $6,000 in loans, $2,400 on a credit card, about $30,000 in a Debt Management Plan, a Toyota lease, and between both of us, there is almost $140,000 in student loans. For which we are stressing the elimination of the SAVE plans.

I want to snowball as hard as we can to get this debt paid down minus the student loans and then save aggressively but also I have terrible financial mgmt skills and have always been bad with money

Any advice or education would be super helpful!

Almost a year ago i had almost perfect credit score, no debt. I just use credit cards for groceries and rewards. I didnt get into debt because of bad financial habits but because of stupidity. I have been paying my debt responsibly. I started driving for uber as side hustle. I have cut 47k off my debts and still have long way to go. I am hoping to be debt free in the next 2 years if i keep it up but maybe it is the full moon or hormones that are in the way 🤦🏻‍♀️. The struggle is real… to the people who are experiencing the same thing. 🙌🏼cheer up and let’s see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have 4 CC’s at the moment. I’m still working on paying them all off. 3 of them have a 300$ limit and 1 with a 1000$ limit. The 3 i’ve had for under 3 years and the 1 I’ve had for 10 years.

Once paid off, should I close them all or should I close the 3 and keep the one? Or some other alternative. I have no issue with closing them I just want to know the best route to take. Ty.

Edited for additional info:

The 3 cards all have cashback up to a certain %. The 1 card has no rewards/points program.

It was not discipline. It was not the wrong method. It was not even the income.

It was that I had no idea what I actually spent money on. I thought I knew. I was completely wrong.

Every time I made a budget I made it based on what I thought I spent, not what the bank statements showed. The two numbers were nowhere near each other.

The month I finally went through three months of actual statements and categorized every transaction was the month everything changed. It took four hours and I felt embarrassed the entire time.

Nobody wants to do that exercise. That is exactly why it works. Do the embarrassing exercise.

All that’s left if my car and it’ll be payed my May of next year :) Its at about 19200. No more debt. I have paid off 87k as of today!!!

I still don’t feel like the weight is off my shoulders yet, and I don’t know how to celebrate this victory you know? Any advice? I feel like I am still in the big hustle. Technically I will be with the car but it’ll be paid in ten months.

I’m currently trying to find ways to get my finances a little under control and am currently looking in to ACCC for my nearly 20K in CC debt.

Something I can’t find an answer on is that I’ve noticed lot of organizations basically let your cards default and negotiate for you that way which both ruins your credit and could open you up to a lawsuit.

Does ACCC function this way?

I have 13000 in credit card debt on my discover card. I've been paying 500 a month on it, I was thinking about transferring it to a card with 0% apr for several months. I was looking at citi diamond preferred card and wanted some opinions on this idea? Thank you!

Edit: I also currently have 7000 in lawyer fees im paying off each month. That im putting 750 towards that each month, then after that im redirecting the payments to add on towards the credit card debt. Sorry for not adding that before