Having trouble finding a job, not sure I can pay credit card minimums

[ServoMiff]

Originally Posted by FIREin2016

And when August comes around, that $10 an hour job will have brought in thousands, while a $80K jobs may not even have appeared.

Many jobs can be completed rather than couch surfing. You cannot network at odd hours, but you can drive for Uber and Lyft.

Those jobs will not bring in thousands unless you work all night overnight and in a major city which would have demand every night in the graveyard hours.

There's a mental and physical trade off - there is such a US-based mentality that ANY money is good money, and that working your arse off is the only respectable way - this is 1000% false. If a guy is going to lose his house in August if he can't replace his unemployment money and then some to pay all the bills, then a Uber or Lyft job is an awful idea, because:

1) You immediately become ineligible for unemployment and lose that income and if you don't report it, are committing fraud which will bite you if they catch it during tax time since Uber/Lyft sends a 1099 for the amount you make over $600.
2) In my case, I'm getting nearly $2k a month in unemployment - you gonna say that I am going to make significantly more than that driving Uber/Lyft and/or working at McDonalds and Walmart than I would with unemployment and being mentally and physically more capable of finding a $60-80k job which would solve my crisis pretty quickly?

There is a difference between sitting on your rear end all day and hustling all day during work hours and taking a mental break at night. Unemployment is one of the toughest mental things Americans have to deal with outside of going to prison. I think I read that over 60% of people unemployed over 3 months have some sort of issues with depression.

Also, you have to have a pretty new car to even qualify for Uber/Lyft and have an extra insurance rider which costs more that protects you if you get in an accident without a rider in your car while the app is on.

This type of mentality in the US is what keeps most lower and middle class workers down.

Selling off the assets you can afford to part with is not a bad idea if you really want a little extra cash, but don't risk your unemployment by taking a job that actually pays equal or worse than unemployment.

[skeddy]

best time in decades to be looking for a job, if you can't find one, it's on you.

[blktoptrvl]

Originally Posted by spendomart

My unemployment pays my living expenses but very little of my credit card and loan debt, and I can technically pay the minimums by pulling from retirement each month, but if I don't find a job by mid-August then I'll likely have to leave my home and default on all debt.

I heard from a financial advisor during a podcast to contact the banks beforehand to try to reduce or suspend the minimum payments, but after contacting one bank, they asked if I could or couldn't make the next payment, and when I said the answer is not just yes or no, they said to call another department. That department asked me for a minimum amount I could afford, but when I said I wasn't sure or just $1 (which may be true), she said she has to input a number to know what programs are available. When I just asked what programs are available and I probably need the minimum number allowable, she just said she needs a number... so effectively I'm playing a blindfolded dart-balloon game.

Can someone who's dealt with this (personally or professionally) please offer some advice? I'm not sure what the financial advisor meant and I've had trouble finding a good local financial advisor due to the complexity of the kind of person I'm supposed to talk to and their cost and location and availability, so I'm just going to start here.

PS: Please spare me any criticism, shaming, or righteous soapboxing. It's not helpful at this point at all.

Originally Posted by MrRational

Lower your job sights.

Get in somewhere and THEN work back up to the level you believe you deserve.
But under no circumstances do you dip into retirement accts

OP: To add to this...

If you do have to take a job that is for you - underemployment or out of your field entirely, you will also have to do some more extra work to maintain and expand your core (desired job) training skills.

The fact that you have not been able to find any job in your field means that the competition is beating you and you have to increase your skill levels to succeed in the competition. Unfortunately that mean more work for you. Good luck.