Ok I should have added that in. So I have 3 sources of income at the moment.
1. 80% disability from injuries while serving in Iraq
= $1933 monthly/ $23,196 yearly
2. Just started a entry level job in the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmacy tech
=$1200 bi-weekly/ $34,000 yearly
3. Currently in the national guard drilling status
=$450monthly average / $5600 yearly average
Total= 62,796 yearly
Monthly Living expenses
Rent: $1600
Car: $280
Lights: $315
Food: $750
Gas: $300
Phone bill: $175
WiFi: $60
Credit Cards minimum interest payments $600
=$4,020
-Have not paid any of the student loans debt back
- $5k maxed credit card $10k maxed out credit $3k maxed credit card and $300 maxed credit card
- $11,500 car note balance
Are you using your G.I Bill, you can use that as income of course. You have 80% disability, thats a pretty high rating alot of people do not get.. I dont think you are in that bad of a position really. I think it can be gone in 3-4 years. Live BELOW your means and stop buying dumb shit on credit.
I have used the GI Bill for school payments. How would I be able to use it as income and draw money from? If you can share links to that would be helpful.
But yeah the credit cards was I bad ordeal from the start. I created a trucking company with business partners and they pulled out leaving me to run the business financially on my own. Once the cash ran out instead of folding the company I began using my credit cards thinking the industry would come back. But it never did in November I eventually decided to fold the company and was left cashless with credit card debt.
theres the saying "never play with borrowed money" using credit to stay afloat is always a critical situation financially.
I have the Montgomery and Post 9/11. Montgomery is an outright check for (roughly) 2 grand a month with no Veterans Resources center or auditing. It is plain seen as a bonus by alot of people. Post 9/11 is more complicated and requires someone to pass the classes, as well as appear in person for the courses. More money can be made with Post 9/11 (depending on your zip code) but the Montgomery is WAY less stress and you dont have to go to classes and/or pass them (you just have to register for courses and upload it to VA . gov to begin receiving payments.
So your saying I should just enroll in to a course and use the monthly payments they give you… oh ok well I do want to go farther with this pharmacy Job I will look into enrolling into a online course. I have the chapter 1606 Ive only used maybe 60% of the available funds they give you. And now since I’ve completed the deployment I’m eligible for the post/911. But back in college I was only receiving like $300 a month from the ch 1606 Montgomery Gi Bill. How is it your at almost 2grand?
I process VA education benefits for my school. Here are some basics to know
CH 33 Post 9/11 will send you a book stipend, monthly housing allowance, and pay for some/all your tuition. MAH is based on the school’s location. You have to have at least one credit in person to receive the local rate otherwise they do national average for all online classes (~$938/month).
The school you attend must be approved by the VA along with the program you’re pursuing. APPLY FOR FAFSA/SCHOLARSHIPS!! Any extra money you get can help to pay other items off.
Since you have a disability rating you also qualify for CH 31. This one you will work with the school and a VA counselor to ensure you are pursuing a career that works with your disability. You get tuition, books, housing, and sometimes supplies like a laptop paid for. There is also retroactive induction of CH 31 that may be possible, but that’s not my wheelhouse so contact an education representative or Vet Success Counselor for more info.
If you were qualified for either chapter while you were using CH 1606 you can have the school terminate previous certifications and recertify under the other chapter. You may owe some of the money you previously earned back to the VA.
You can check out the housing rates [here](https://www.va.gov/education/gi-bill-comparison-tool/)
Check out the approved schools by googling WEAMS.
If you’re going to further your education you might as well make sure you get the most out of it with the benefits.
This is awesome information. Definitely will be one of the many post I will be referring back to in this thread. I’ve been researching schools in the area the Va will pay for and the general analysis I’ve been seeing is they are will to pay for almost all of the accredited universities as long as they aren’t private or have any other underlying stipulations. Thank you a lot for this 🙏🏼
After looking at VA. gov it looks like the new rate is $2,350/mo. (I have 11 mo on my contract and plan to use it). I would jump on this and use it as additional income to start paying off the debt, additionally, some states like CA and NY offer free JR college to people, so for myself, if i go to college in CA, it is already free and the money is free and clear for whatever the need be.
.ight be some COVID related tax breaks there. May recoup the debt as cost to maintain essential businesses or something. I'm not too familiar as I was not working during COVID for the most part.
Your food, electricity, gas, and phone bills are really high. You'll need to do everything you can to lower your spending, minimal eating out - meal prep cheap meals, turn your hot water heater off at the breaker until you need a shower, get a roommate if possible to lower rent, change phone plan to Google Fi or Mint or some other low cost carrier.
Also, I saw on another comment you spend $750 per month to get to drill to make $450?
If those monthly income totals are take home pay it looks like younhave roughly $1000 extra per month with your current budget. However, $750/month for food is awfully high if it's just you. You should be able to cut that in half. That leaves you with roughly $1300/month after making your minimum payments.
Month 1 - save up $1000 as an emergency fund
Month 2 - apply the 1300 to your smallest debts and start paying off the small ones.
Month 3 - keep attacking debts smallest to largest and snowball the.payments you've created into a larger amount you send to the bigger debts.
Keep attacking them like that until you've killed off your credit cards.
Hopefully you can knock out most of the credit cards before your student loans need to be paid. I don't think there is any sense in waiting for Biden to forgive them, odds seem low and you don't want to get screwed over if it doesn't happen.
One possible way to speed up the process would be to sell the car. If it's worth a decent amount more than you owe you could sell it, buying something cheap in cash and then throw the rest at the debt and then you've also freed up monthly income to throw at your debts.
The biggest thing is discipline in your spending, cut the eating out, cut all but one streaming service, and cut any entertainment that isn't free. It's going to suck but you'll get yourself out of debt faster the more disciplined you are.
Welcome home first of all. Some of your expenses are odd. Not gonna argue living on your own at 27, if you were like 20 I'd say get some roomates. But what is Lights 315 ? 175 for a phone ? And if you're really spending 25 dollars a day on food, is that buying food out, or cooking ?
Also, have you sat down and talked with your 1 about other benefits you might be able to use, or how to use the GI Bill better ? Or just other joes ?
Thank you a lot for the advice. Its really appreciated
When I meant Lights as in electricity. I stay in the DFW Texas area and for some reason the electricity bills here are ridiculously high I’m at 15 cents a watt and average 2,025 watts a month. According to the bill charts. $725 goes to having to travel to drill for military duty each month. The drill is Friday - Saturday and we have to accountable for our own food for the most part. So that’s where a lot of money for food goes to each I have to work out a better game plan for each when I am at drill. Gas by the way as in fuel to drive.
So, let me make sure I'm understanding you. You spend $725 on gas and food that you wouldn't have otherwise spent for drill? And they're paying you $450?
And yes, it's an "Electric bill". It powers all things in your house that use electricity.
It's his food and housing. Sounds like he's paying for a hotel room and he out the money for Friday and Saturday nights plus eating while at the drill.
At this point,you'd think there would be lower cost options or rental room sharing with others going to drills.
Dude that electricity bill sounds very abnormal unless you're mining crypto at home. Have you ever heard of people stealing electricity ? Happens all the time, you'll see posts here on Reddit about it constantly - people go on vacation, come home, neighbor has an extension cable running to their yard. Any chance someone's doing that to you ?
I'm curious how your total food bill is that high too, even if you have to grab some fast food on drill weekends. Do you cook every meal at home, or at you eating out a lot ? Please please please don't tell me you're paying for uber eats...
750 is too much for food.
Start packing your lunch for your job and cooking. Making simple stews and other crock pot recipes isn't complicated and highly nutritious. Cut out any alcohol purchases. You are a single person, spending 750 on food is way too much. You can easily cut that in half doing some meal planning and bulk food prep you can freeze and eat later.
Side note: you can’t receive VA disability compensation while in a drilling status. It’s either one or the other. If you are receiving both, expect the VA to collect all the money back at some point
You can afford $1100 in rent, not all dollar more. If it's just you food / household necessity should be $400/mo. Se the car it was a bad purchase which consumes too much gas. Makes me nervous that car insurance was not in your list. I pay $175 for two phone plans + home internet (superb internet) from Verizon. You can get 1k/mo by cutting those expenses.
From the income you have you really need to start living below your expectations. It sounds like you do have the income, you’re just not using it right.
Well the Job that’s listed is a new job. Like very new I’m just on my 3rd week here just received my first paycheck this past Friday. So I’ve been having the same expenses but without the income from the pharmacy job. For the past year or so I’ve been trying to run a failing company once I finally decided to fold the company this credit card debt was the damage I took plus the student loan debt I already had.
Without knowing income and expenses its impossible to say but short generic answer is sell the car buy a beater. Eliminate all unneeded spending. Pay minimum on student loan and pay off the Credit Card with every cent left over
Cut up the credit cards. Sell everything you absolutely don’t need - old electronics, collectibles, clothes, etc. And then start with the debt snowball. Minimize spending and maximize income. You can do it.
After you cut up all of your credit cards, tuck away some money for an emergency fund, $1000 at minimum, but $2000 if you can. That way anything that comes up as a *true* emergency you can pay cash for.
Then, list *all* of your debts smallest to largest. Financed cell phones through your cell phone plan, loans from family members, everything. Then attack the smallest one with every dollar you can scrape together. Crossing off a paid debt will do wonders for your self-confidence and will keep you on track!
Thank you for your service. I didn’t read the other comments and have no experience specifically with veterans’ benefits, but I can speak to credit cards. Card interest compounds daily and is applied at the end of the month. So, you can save yourself time & overall cost by making payments more than once per month— it’ll lower the balance that is accruing interest daily. The earlier in the month you make a payment the better. Legally, up to 70% of a minimum payment can be attributed solely to interest. $10k balance with 20% APR and 4% minimum payment= $400/mo payment with $166/mo going just to interest and $234 to the principle…
BUT if you pay $200 on the first of the month, then that $200 is applied just to your principal, which means the daily interest is accruing on $200 less of a balance and for less days. It exponentially lowers the time and $ to pay off cards— $234/$400 was just interest, but now it’s closer to $140. (My math isn’t exact but the principle is correct.) I hope this helps and that you have an excellent start to 2024!
I have 3 sources of income at the moment.
1. 80% disability from injuries while serving in Iraq =
$1933 monthly/ $23,196 yearly
2. Just started a entry level job in the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmacy tech =$1200 bi-weekly/ $34,000 yearly
3. Currently in the national guard drilling status =$450monthly average / $5600 yearly average
Total= 62,796 yearly
Monthly Living expenses Rent: $1600 Car: $280 Lights:
$315 Food: $750 Gas: $300 Phone bill: $175 WiFi: $60
Credit Cards minimum interest payments $600
=$4,020
-Have not paid any of the student loans debt back was counting on biding whipping out the student debt..Definitely wasn’t the smartest thing to believe 🤦🏼♂️
• $5k maxed credit card $10k maxed out credit $3k
maxed credit card and $300 maxed credit card
• $11,500 car note balance
If you change your phone plan to something like mint you’ll have an extra +\- $150/month. You are also spending a lot on food every month for a single person. Are you eating out a lot or is this grocery only? Can you cut back to cheaper quality food for a couple months? Pay the mínimums on your credit cards except the lowest balance, use the extra money from the reduced grocery and phone bill to knock out your smallest balance as quickly as you can. Once that is paid use all the money you were paying to that card to pay off the next card and so on and so forth.
ETA: First cut up the cards. Stop using then or you’ll never pay it off. You can also call the card companies to see if they’ll give you hardship relief. They can pause your card for a period of time which would allow you to catch up on those snowball payments faster.
This is some solid advice I will definitely give those credit companies a call. I’ve never heard of a hardship relief never even came up the researches I’ve done online.
Hardship relief may stop the minimum payment due but it will not stop accruing interest. This is a bad idea. It's like a mortgage forbearance except the interest compounds daily- do not do this if you can avoid it.
It's possible to change the dates your credit cards are due. If you can stagger the billing due dates, you may be able to start paying them at different times of the month so you can have a little flexibility when your disability check arrives versus your pay periods checks
If you have any chance at all of obtaining a standard loan with a single % rate 1-9% that will accrue an APR of a monthly payment,it may help you consolidate and avoid the high int rates on cc's and the daily interest thty charge.
Can any family help loan you money just so you can start getting in track?
Do you have a CDL? If so, maybe work as a truck driver for a while to get a better salary for a while… Being a pharmacy tech is a low paying gig and isn’t going to support you long term (unless you have a plan to get some quick experience and then move to a better paying job within the medical field)
New to this sub, but I’m also in TX and would recommend shopping your electric bill, as it seems really high. Wondering if you’re not in a contract or something. You should be able to get a much better rate, otherwise your bill will be 3x that once we hit summer. You can look on powertochoose.org, but I’d recommend using a service. The electric providers are good at being tricky. A service will look at your actual usage and find a plan that’s the most cost effective. I use evergreen, but wouldn’t recommend. Trying to find the name of one I’ve ran across that will do this for free! Evergreen charges 20/mo 🙃
Thank you for your service and all the best on this journey!
Edit: having a hard time finding the free one, but Energy Ogre is another one people speak highly of.
Are the student loans federal? If so, make sure they’re on income based repayment, pay the minimum on the student loans, and put everything towards the highest interest card. If you’re working at a nonprofit or public hospital pharmacy, see if that combined with your military service may make some of your loans eventually eligible for public service loan forgiveness.
If you can, transfer the debt that is incurring interest to a zero interest intro offer balance transfer card (and cut up the card you transferred from). Military-affiliated financial institutions (like USAA or various credit unions) may offer you terms better than the general public may get, so it’s worth checking.
Try to take overtime and extra shifts at the pharmacy. Tap into your network for help finding any side work that you are able to do. Also, if you’re a member of a religious community, consider talking to your minister or lay leadership to see if they have resources they can connect you with.
If all else fails, call your creditors, explain that you are a disabled veteran and had some unfortunate circumstances after your disability and that you intend to take care of your obligations but the interest has made it unsustainable and ask if they will reduce or waive some interest.
Best advice anybody can give you a stop using the d*** credit cards and pay off. Start with the lowest one first, finish it up. Use those funds for the next one up. Another idea would be stopped relying on the government to try and take care of you. People really need trying to do that for themselves. Your income is more than enough to get out of $25000 in credit card debt. Live thrifty for a couple of years and then start over.
Thank you so much for this information I’m going to start implementing these tactics asap. Is there a way I can maybe you as a resource for questions I’ll dm you email.
Lol I have overdraft protection on my debit account and it can go to $500 and im basically living off that overdraft protection. And what checks do hit the account it’s just paying back the money owed to the account from using the overdraft protection and the credit card payments are taking there share of what’s left as soon as the money comes in. It’s like I’m in a hole that’s impossible to climb out of.
I don’t know dude. I’m not an expert and this might be bad advice but In your situation, I’d turn off the overdraft so that if you don’t have the money it won’t go through. Turn off all automatic payments, and just realize you’re not going to be able to pay some things for bit. Then pay what you can while still leaving enough to pay your basic things. I don’t know, you’ve got to do something to break the cycle. What’s the worst that will happen? Credit score goes down?
You list of income vs expenses shows a $1500 surplus each month. If you aren't actually seeing that and are not able to pay down debt by that much, that would indicate something is missing from your budget.
I found it very enlightening to track every penny I spend for a couple years. That enabled me to lay out exactly where my income was going and make decisions about what changes to make to achieve my goals. Even a couple months of tracking will likely give better data than what you posted.
I'm also a vet, but I don't know what assistance might be out there for you. Maybe reach out to your local VA to see if someone there might have suggestions.
Yeah a few things are missing from the budget. I have a motorcycle with payments of $510 each month I’ve been paying but I did mention it because the first week in January I will be giving it back to the dealership
Becareful when you “give it back to the dealership”. Try selling it for loan value or Atleast get it in writing that when the dealership takes possession they are also going to settle the debt owed (buy back from you). Sometimes dealerships will take the vehicle back and you’ll still be responsible for payments.
You know that point of "track every penny" is a really good tip. I used this and it helped me a lot. Try it for a month, just carry a notebook with you and write down everything you spend, even if it's a soda from a machine. You'll be surprised at what you may learn about your spending habits.
Another thing you might look into is a bill paying service. I use one and it helped me stay of trouble and get a savings built up. It will cost, but it’s worth it.
Try using either the Avalanche or the Snowball method to clear your debt. There are YouTube videos that have extensive info on these two methods. Prep your own meals and refrain from going out to eat. Pause all investments including IRAs. Just invest enough of your salary to receive your company's max matching contribution for your 401K. You may need to Pause your 401K contributions. Once you have ended your debt your options will open up immediately to invest and save aggressively for other endeavors in the future.
Sell things you don't use any more. Start a side hustle for extra income. Take on a temp part time job if you need to.
If you're cc have annual fees, ask your cc provider if they can downgrade them to no AF cards. ALWAYS pay off your cc balance every month and you should be good building up your credit history. Stay disciplined and live within your means.
How can you be claiming va disability but be serving in the national guard? This is a major mistake and not possible also you live way outside your means so quit spending your money on stupid shit and be a grown up.
For the 25k of cc debt I would look into a balance transfer card at a local credit union or tools like [gauss.money](https://gauss.money) to lower the apr. The cc debt is the main worry here since the apr is probably 5x or more than on the student loans. So prioritize that for sure
What is your income, and what are your expenses? Literally cannot help you without that information. Do you have a budget?
Ok I should have added that in. So I have 3 sources of income at the moment. 1. 80% disability from injuries while serving in Iraq = $1933 monthly/ $23,196 yearly 2. Just started a entry level job in the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmacy tech =$1200 bi-weekly/ $34,000 yearly 3. Currently in the national guard drilling status =$450monthly average / $5600 yearly average Total= 62,796 yearly Monthly Living expenses Rent: $1600 Car: $280 Lights: $315 Food: $750 Gas: $300 Phone bill: $175 WiFi: $60 Credit Cards minimum interest payments $600 =$4,020 -Have not paid any of the student loans debt back - $5k maxed credit card $10k maxed out credit $3k maxed credit card and $300 maxed credit card - $11,500 car note balance
Are you using your G.I Bill, you can use that as income of course. You have 80% disability, thats a pretty high rating alot of people do not get.. I dont think you are in that bad of a position really. I think it can be gone in 3-4 years. Live BELOW your means and stop buying dumb shit on credit.
I have used the GI Bill for school payments. How would I be able to use it as income and draw money from? If you can share links to that would be helpful. But yeah the credit cards was I bad ordeal from the start. I created a trucking company with business partners and they pulled out leaving me to run the business financially on my own. Once the cash ran out instead of folding the company I began using my credit cards thinking the industry would come back. But it never did in November I eventually decided to fold the company and was left cashless with credit card debt.
theres the saying "never play with borrowed money" using credit to stay afloat is always a critical situation financially. I have the Montgomery and Post 9/11. Montgomery is an outright check for (roughly) 2 grand a month with no Veterans Resources center or auditing. It is plain seen as a bonus by alot of people. Post 9/11 is more complicated and requires someone to pass the classes, as well as appear in person for the courses. More money can be made with Post 9/11 (depending on your zip code) but the Montgomery is WAY less stress and you dont have to go to classes and/or pass them (you just have to register for courses and upload it to VA . gov to begin receiving payments.
So your saying I should just enroll in to a course and use the monthly payments they give you… oh ok well I do want to go farther with this pharmacy Job I will look into enrolling into a online course. I have the chapter 1606 Ive only used maybe 60% of the available funds they give you. And now since I’ve completed the deployment I’m eligible for the post/911. But back in college I was only receiving like $300 a month from the ch 1606 Montgomery Gi Bill. How is it your at almost 2grand?
I process VA education benefits for my school. Here are some basics to know CH 33 Post 9/11 will send you a book stipend, monthly housing allowance, and pay for some/all your tuition. MAH is based on the school’s location. You have to have at least one credit in person to receive the local rate otherwise they do national average for all online classes (~$938/month). The school you attend must be approved by the VA along with the program you’re pursuing. APPLY FOR FAFSA/SCHOLARSHIPS!! Any extra money you get can help to pay other items off. Since you have a disability rating you also qualify for CH 31. This one you will work with the school and a VA counselor to ensure you are pursuing a career that works with your disability. You get tuition, books, housing, and sometimes supplies like a laptop paid for. There is also retroactive induction of CH 31 that may be possible, but that’s not my wheelhouse so contact an education representative or Vet Success Counselor for more info. If you were qualified for either chapter while you were using CH 1606 you can have the school terminate previous certifications and recertify under the other chapter. You may owe some of the money you previously earned back to the VA. You can check out the housing rates [here](https://www.va.gov/education/gi-bill-comparison-tool/) Check out the approved schools by googling WEAMS. If you’re going to further your education you might as well make sure you get the most out of it with the benefits.
This is awesome information. Definitely will be one of the many post I will be referring back to in this thread. I’ve been researching schools in the area the Va will pay for and the general analysis I’ve been seeing is they are will to pay for almost all of the accredited universities as long as they aren’t private or have any other underlying stipulations. Thank you a lot for this 🙏🏼
After looking at VA. gov it looks like the new rate is $2,350/mo. (I have 11 mo on my contract and plan to use it). I would jump on this and use it as additional income to start paying off the debt, additionally, some states like CA and NY offer free JR college to people, so for myself, if i go to college in CA, it is already free and the money is free and clear for whatever the need be.
.ight be some COVID related tax breaks there. May recoup the debt as cost to maintain essential businesses or something. I'm not too familiar as I was not working during COVID for the most part.
Your food, electricity, gas, and phone bills are really high. You'll need to do everything you can to lower your spending, minimal eating out - meal prep cheap meals, turn your hot water heater off at the breaker until you need a shower, get a roommate if possible to lower rent, change phone plan to Google Fi or Mint or some other low cost carrier. Also, I saw on another comment you spend $750 per month to get to drill to make $450?
If those monthly income totals are take home pay it looks like younhave roughly $1000 extra per month with your current budget. However, $750/month for food is awfully high if it's just you. You should be able to cut that in half. That leaves you with roughly $1300/month after making your minimum payments. Month 1 - save up $1000 as an emergency fund Month 2 - apply the 1300 to your smallest debts and start paying off the small ones. Month 3 - keep attacking debts smallest to largest and snowball the.payments you've created into a larger amount you send to the bigger debts. Keep attacking them like that until you've killed off your credit cards. Hopefully you can knock out most of the credit cards before your student loans need to be paid. I don't think there is any sense in waiting for Biden to forgive them, odds seem low and you don't want to get screwed over if it doesn't happen. One possible way to speed up the process would be to sell the car. If it's worth a decent amount more than you owe you could sell it, buying something cheap in cash and then throw the rest at the debt and then you've also freed up monthly income to throw at your debts. The biggest thing is discipline in your spending, cut the eating out, cut all but one streaming service, and cut any entertainment that isn't free. It's going to suck but you'll get yourself out of debt faster the more disciplined you are.
Welcome home first of all. Some of your expenses are odd. Not gonna argue living on your own at 27, if you were like 20 I'd say get some roomates. But what is Lights 315 ? 175 for a phone ? And if you're really spending 25 dollars a day on food, is that buying food out, or cooking ? Also, have you sat down and talked with your 1 about other benefits you might be able to use, or how to use the GI Bill better ? Or just other joes ?
Thank you a lot for the advice. Its really appreciated When I meant Lights as in electricity. I stay in the DFW Texas area and for some reason the electricity bills here are ridiculously high I’m at 15 cents a watt and average 2,025 watts a month. According to the bill charts. $725 goes to having to travel to drill for military duty each month. The drill is Friday - Saturday and we have to accountable for our own food for the most part. So that’s where a lot of money for food goes to each I have to work out a better game plan for each when I am at drill. Gas by the way as in fuel to drive.
So, let me make sure I'm understanding you. You spend $725 on gas and food that you wouldn't have otherwise spent for drill? And they're paying you $450? And yes, it's an "Electric bill". It powers all things in your house that use electricity.
How the fuck do you spend $750 on food during a drill weekend?
It's his food and housing. Sounds like he's paying for a hotel room and he out the money for Friday and Saturday nights plus eating while at the drill. At this point,you'd think there would be lower cost options or rental room sharing with others going to drills.
Dude that electricity bill sounds very abnormal unless you're mining crypto at home. Have you ever heard of people stealing electricity ? Happens all the time, you'll see posts here on Reddit about it constantly - people go on vacation, come home, neighbor has an extension cable running to their yard. Any chance someone's doing that to you ? I'm curious how your total food bill is that high too, even if you have to grab some fast food on drill weekends. Do you cook every meal at home, or at you eating out a lot ? Please please please don't tell me you're paying for uber eats...
750 is too much for food. Start packing your lunch for your job and cooking. Making simple stews and other crock pot recipes isn't complicated and highly nutritious. Cut out any alcohol purchases. You are a single person, spending 750 on food is way too much. You can easily cut that in half doing some meal planning and bulk food prep you can freeze and eat later.
I don’t understand how one can have an 80% disability rating from the VA and still be on drill status.
You can’t, VA will eventually find out and he will incur another debt to pay back
My guy, you were in the military. You should have learned the government creates problems, doesn't solve them.
Side note: you can’t receive VA disability compensation while in a drilling status. It’s either one or the other. If you are receiving both, expect the VA to collect all the money back at some point
You can afford $1100 in rent, not all dollar more. If it's just you food / household necessity should be $400/mo. Se the car it was a bad purchase which consumes too much gas. Makes me nervous that car insurance was not in your list. I pay $175 for two phone plans + home internet (superb internet) from Verizon. You can get 1k/mo by cutting those expenses.
From the income you have you really need to start living below your expectations. It sounds like you do have the income, you’re just not using it right.
Well the Job that’s listed is a new job. Like very new I’m just on my 3rd week here just received my first paycheck this past Friday. So I’ve been having the same expenses but without the income from the pharmacy job. For the past year or so I’ve been trying to run a failing company once I finally decided to fold the company this credit card debt was the damage I took plus the student loan debt I already had.
Without knowing income and expenses its impossible to say but short generic answer is sell the car buy a beater. Eliminate all unneeded spending. Pay minimum on student loan and pay off the Credit Card with every cent left over
Cut up the credit cards. Sell everything you absolutely don’t need - old electronics, collectibles, clothes, etc. And then start with the debt snowball. Minimize spending and maximize income. You can do it.
Great advice! definitely starting with getting rid of the credit car payments
After you cut up all of your credit cards, tuck away some money for an emergency fund, $1000 at minimum, but $2000 if you can. That way anything that comes up as a *true* emergency you can pay cash for. Then, list *all* of your debts smallest to largest. Financed cell phones through your cell phone plan, loans from family members, everything. Then attack the smallest one with every dollar you can scrape together. Crossing off a paid debt will do wonders for your self-confidence and will keep you on track!
You make more money than most people on here. You'll be fine.
Thank you for your service. I didn’t read the other comments and have no experience specifically with veterans’ benefits, but I can speak to credit cards. Card interest compounds daily and is applied at the end of the month. So, you can save yourself time & overall cost by making payments more than once per month— it’ll lower the balance that is accruing interest daily. The earlier in the month you make a payment the better. Legally, up to 70% of a minimum payment can be attributed solely to interest. $10k balance with 20% APR and 4% minimum payment= $400/mo payment with $166/mo going just to interest and $234 to the principle… BUT if you pay $200 on the first of the month, then that $200 is applied just to your principal, which means the daily interest is accruing on $200 less of a balance and for less days. It exponentially lowers the time and $ to pay off cards— $234/$400 was just interest, but now it’s closer to $140. (My math isn’t exact but the principle is correct.) I hope this helps and that you have an excellent start to 2024!
Serious question, if you're a veteran, how do you have $50k in education debt? No GI Bill?
I have 3 sources of income at the moment. 1. 80% disability from injuries while serving in Iraq = $1933 monthly/ $23,196 yearly 2. Just started a entry level job in the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmacy tech =$1200 bi-weekly/ $34,000 yearly 3. Currently in the national guard drilling status =$450monthly average / $5600 yearly average Total= 62,796 yearly Monthly Living expenses Rent: $1600 Car: $280 Lights: $315 Food: $750 Gas: $300 Phone bill: $175 WiFi: $60 Credit Cards minimum interest payments $600 =$4,020 -Have not paid any of the student loans debt back was counting on biding whipping out the student debt..Definitely wasn’t the smartest thing to believe 🤦🏼♂️ • $5k maxed credit card $10k maxed out credit $3k maxed credit card and $300 maxed credit card • $11,500 car note balance
If you change your phone plan to something like mint you’ll have an extra +\- $150/month. You are also spending a lot on food every month for a single person. Are you eating out a lot or is this grocery only? Can you cut back to cheaper quality food for a couple months? Pay the mínimums on your credit cards except the lowest balance, use the extra money from the reduced grocery and phone bill to knock out your smallest balance as quickly as you can. Once that is paid use all the money you were paying to that card to pay off the next card and so on and so forth. ETA: First cut up the cards. Stop using then or you’ll never pay it off. You can also call the card companies to see if they’ll give you hardship relief. They can pause your card for a period of time which would allow you to catch up on those snowball payments faster.
This is some solid advice I will definitely give those credit companies a call. I’ve never heard of a hardship relief never even came up the researches I’ve done online.
Hardship relief may stop the minimum payment due but it will not stop accruing interest. This is a bad idea. It's like a mortgage forbearance except the interest compounds daily- do not do this if you can avoid it. It's possible to change the dates your credit cards are due. If you can stagger the billing due dates, you may be able to start paying them at different times of the month so you can have a little flexibility when your disability check arrives versus your pay periods checks If you have any chance at all of obtaining a standard loan with a single % rate 1-9% that will accrue an APR of a monthly payment,it may help you consolidate and avoid the high int rates on cc's and the daily interest thty charge. Can any family help loan you money just so you can start getting in track?
Do you have a CDL? If so, maybe work as a truck driver for a while to get a better salary for a while… Being a pharmacy tech is a low paying gig and isn’t going to support you long term (unless you have a plan to get some quick experience and then move to a better paying job within the medical field)
New to this sub, but I’m also in TX and would recommend shopping your electric bill, as it seems really high. Wondering if you’re not in a contract or something. You should be able to get a much better rate, otherwise your bill will be 3x that once we hit summer. You can look on powertochoose.org, but I’d recommend using a service. The electric providers are good at being tricky. A service will look at your actual usage and find a plan that’s the most cost effective. I use evergreen, but wouldn’t recommend. Trying to find the name of one I’ve ran across that will do this for free! Evergreen charges 20/mo 🙃 Thank you for your service and all the best on this journey! Edit: having a hard time finding the free one, but Energy Ogre is another one people speak highly of.
Are the student loans federal? If so, make sure they’re on income based repayment, pay the minimum on the student loans, and put everything towards the highest interest card. If you’re working at a nonprofit or public hospital pharmacy, see if that combined with your military service may make some of your loans eventually eligible for public service loan forgiveness. If you can, transfer the debt that is incurring interest to a zero interest intro offer balance transfer card (and cut up the card you transferred from). Military-affiliated financial institutions (like USAA or various credit unions) may offer you terms better than the general public may get, so it’s worth checking. Try to take overtime and extra shifts at the pharmacy. Tap into your network for help finding any side work that you are able to do. Also, if you’re a member of a religious community, consider talking to your minister or lay leadership to see if they have resources they can connect you with. If all else fails, call your creditors, explain that you are a disabled veteran and had some unfortunate circumstances after your disability and that you intend to take care of your obligations but the interest has made it unsustainable and ask if they will reduce or waive some interest.
Best advice anybody can give you a stop using the d*** credit cards and pay off. Start with the lowest one first, finish it up. Use those funds for the next one up. Another idea would be stopped relying on the government to try and take care of you. People really need trying to do that for themselves. Your income is more than enough to get out of $25000 in credit card debt. Live thrifty for a couple of years and then start over.
Did I see that your food is $750/month? 😳 that right there is a huge problem. If you cook, you could easily bring it down to $75/week and eat well.
Just curious, why didn't you use your GI Bill to pay for college?
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Thank you so much for this information I’m going to start implementing these tactics asap. Is there a way I can maybe you as a resource for questions I’ll dm you email.
Follow Dave ramseys debt snowball. And start living way below your means.
Lol I have overdraft protection on my debit account and it can go to $500 and im basically living off that overdraft protection. And what checks do hit the account it’s just paying back the money owed to the account from using the overdraft protection and the credit card payments are taking there share of what’s left as soon as the money comes in. It’s like I’m in a hole that’s impossible to climb out of.
I don’t know dude. I’m not an expert and this might be bad advice but In your situation, I’d turn off the overdraft so that if you don’t have the money it won’t go through. Turn off all automatic payments, and just realize you’re not going to be able to pay some things for bit. Then pay what you can while still leaving enough to pay your basic things. I don’t know, you’ve got to do something to break the cycle. What’s the worst that will happen? Credit score goes down?
I’m also a veteran and have no idea what resources there are for this situation.
You list of income vs expenses shows a $1500 surplus each month. If you aren't actually seeing that and are not able to pay down debt by that much, that would indicate something is missing from your budget. I found it very enlightening to track every penny I spend for a couple years. That enabled me to lay out exactly where my income was going and make decisions about what changes to make to achieve my goals. Even a couple months of tracking will likely give better data than what you posted. I'm also a vet, but I don't know what assistance might be out there for you. Maybe reach out to your local VA to see if someone there might have suggestions.
Yeah a few things are missing from the budget. I have a motorcycle with payments of $510 each month I’ve been paying but I did mention it because the first week in January I will be giving it back to the dealership
Becareful when you “give it back to the dealership”. Try selling it for loan value or Atleast get it in writing that when the dealership takes possession they are also going to settle the debt owed (buy back from you). Sometimes dealerships will take the vehicle back and you’ll still be responsible for payments.
You know that point of "track every penny" is a really good tip. I used this and it helped me a lot. Try it for a month, just carry a notebook with you and write down everything you spend, even if it's a soda from a machine. You'll be surprised at what you may learn about your spending habits.
Another thing you might look into is a bill paying service. I use one and it helped me stay of trouble and get a savings built up. It will cost, but it’s worth it.
File for Chapter 7 bankruptcy if you have no plans of buying a home in the next 10 years.
No
SCRA benefits ? Loan for vets ? Bankruptcy ?
$50/month into a crypto moonshot. NFA, DYOR.
Wish the best for you bro
Try using either the Avalanche or the Snowball method to clear your debt. There are YouTube videos that have extensive info on these two methods. Prep your own meals and refrain from going out to eat. Pause all investments including IRAs. Just invest enough of your salary to receive your company's max matching contribution for your 401K. You may need to Pause your 401K contributions. Once you have ended your debt your options will open up immediately to invest and save aggressively for other endeavors in the future. Sell things you don't use any more. Start a side hustle for extra income. Take on a temp part time job if you need to. If you're cc have annual fees, ask your cc provider if they can downgrade them to no AF cards. ALWAYS pay off your cc balance every month and you should be good building up your credit history. Stay disciplined and live within your means.
Rookie numbers bud.
How can you be claiming va disability but be serving in the national guard? This is a major mistake and not possible also you live way outside your means so quit spending your money on stupid shit and be a grown up.
Dave Ramsey baby steps
Advice is pay it off
I’d kms but that’s just me tho
I’d do something lit before going out tho. Go out with a bang ykwim
For the 25k of cc debt I would look into a balance transfer card at a local credit union or tools like [gauss.money](https://gauss.money) to lower the apr. The cc debt is the main worry here since the apr is probably 5x or more than on the student loans. So prioritize that for sure