Finanical situation (debt)

[Jeo123]

Originally Posted by Chicago87

$29,300 in CC debt and another $4,000 in high interest loans... Plus a $19,000 car note...

The first thing that came to mind is that you are living way above your means, but the job less lost explains things a little.

Where do you live that requires you to live in a $1,500/month apartment?

What kind of car are you financing?

Cut cable and get Netflix for$8 a month or even just get rabbit ears for free over the air TV.

Why is your light bill $100 a month?

I'd assume the OP is living in an electric based apartment and that's an average(notice how there's no budget for something like natural gas/oil/other heat). When my heat was electric, I had to budget $150 on average for my apartment. Reality was that it swung from about $50 in the summer to $250 in the winter.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by Lacerta

Ouch. An emergency fund when you have current debt at rates that high, is just silly. Put every penny you can afford into paying off those 14%+ rates as fast as you can. When you are down to just the car at 4% left, THEN build your emergency fund up to at least 6 months worth of expenses.

I feel your pain. I've almost been there. My husband lost his job and was out of work for a year with no unemployment. We did have emergency funds and I was still working, but even so, we were down to the point we had spent almost all of them and were considering starting to charge expenses on our credit cards when he found a new job.

Oh and if your "loan" happens to be a student loan, look into the possibility of getting it deferred for a few months. Interest will still accrue at 14%, but you can put the minimum payment into getting rid of the 16-18% loans that much faster. Every bit helps.

Problem is, some CC companies will actually reduce credit limits as you pay it down. Usually not, but I know it's happened to people. It's good to have a small emergency fund to protect against "unreborrowable" repayment of CC debt. But it needn't be more than $1000 (i.e. a Dave Ramsey "baby" emergency fund).

If the OP has more than $1000 in available credit on two cards from different banks, this risk is virtually nil and you can probably get by with no emergency fund except for a $100 "checking account padding". (Bills on autopay need to be covered of course.)

But the important thing is the behavior has to change. It is clear that getting out of this mess is not being treated as a high priority for the OP. If the OP was really serious about it, the rent would be cut to $600 by renting a room, and the car would be replaced with a beater or even a bike.