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First, know that you are not alone. There are others who are seniors in debt up to their eyeballs.
Second, i see about 4 choices for you,:
1) Dave Ramsey says to thise trying to get rid of debt "sell everything you can, untill the kids( in your case a pet?) Think they are to be sold next. Keep ONLY a bed, night stand alarm and lamp, a dresser, an easy chair, side table with lamp and couch. Keep a kitchen table, or sell it and get a card table and 4 chair set for around $50. Keep your computer and tv. Thats about all you need. Sell EVERYTHING ELSE, including your precious records and other collections, i dont care how much you treasure them or how much they cost you to accumulate, which do you care about? Them OR YOUR LIFE??? There is at least one Craigslist advertiser up here looking to buy vinyl records. List on CL and/or YouTube, look for CL ads buying stuff. Then buy a good 10 year old car with procceds, one that will last such as honda or Toyota. Sell your car for whatever you get or trade it in on the newer car. Get minimum car, like a Honda civic. Then pay down the smallest debt first to feel like you are accomplishing something. After you've sold off everything reevaluate your debt left. Live a minimalist type lifestyle. If you dont know what it is, look it up or watch YouTube videos on the subject.
2) As someone upstream noted, find a hovel to rent after youve sold your wares and reduced your belongings , find a cheaper place to live, even if its a dump. Get as close to work as cheaply as you can find, and maybe you can walk to work. If cheaper is outskirts to job, a good honda civic, Nissan sentra thats 10 years old wuill be a good gas sipper over your 21 yr old car. You need a car to get to work and doctors.
3) After you have sold and moved, if you still have unmanageable debt, contact a debt consolidation company such as Freedom Debt Relief ( thats one, there are others). They will immediately remder your cards useless so you cant get into more debt and negotiate settlements with the credit card companies. They will give you a ONE payment to pay off your debt through them. You get to approve the settlement each time, if you feel its too high, you can decline the offer and they will try to renegotiate a lower settlement. Dont think you are out of the woods then, as you may get a 1099-c charge off notice to pay taxes on the forgiven amount to the IRS. But it will ease your burden.
4) you can keep a $5k card or combo to keep SOME available credit BUT ONLY USE IT FOR EMERGENCIES!!! An emergency is a necessary car repair on the newer car you buy, or having no food. DO NOT PUT HEALTH CARE COSTS ON IT. Instead negotiate your payments or find out if your hospitals network has a Patient financial services plan. Here, my hospital allows a family of 4 to earn up to $95k and still qualify for a 25% discount on hospital services only. It also helps with prescription copays. Find out, apply and if qualified USE IT. ALSO IF YOU PAY something each month on a health care bill, they youll be ok.
5) find food Pantries in your area and go to them to get food. Also fibd out which churches in the areas have free community meals on which nights. You might find a spup kitchen open for each night of the week. Take advantage to reduce or eliminate your food costs. At one time when I was homeless I ate 4 nights at different churches in my area. The other 3 I had food pantry items. I also volunteered at my local close food pantry, whuch allowed me to take a few additional food items for each i volunteered as "payment " for my service. Consider volunteering in ypur free time.
6) save like mad for any reason, emergency fund ( so you DON'T have to use a credit card), for your retirement.
7) if the above all fails or still leaves you with insurmountable debt and you have not gone debt consolidation route, you may have to file bankruptcy. Itll cost you about $3k to file, and you can sace that by simply not paying your credit cards. Change your phone number and dont notify them, let the mail stack up on the cc bills, or move and leave no forwarding address, but keep ONE BILL from each so you stilk know which ones and balances to claim bankruptcy on. Its not exactly cheap to file bankruptcy, go to an attorney who specializes in bankruptcy.
Last, but not least NEVER CHARGE AGAIN. If you do, Do not charge what you know you can pay off that month. IF you DO need a cc, get a RELOADABLE visa or mc at Walmart . that way its PAID FOR IN ADVANCE.
Also, from now on, EVALUATE EVERY PURCHASE. Is it a want or a need? Ask: will this sustain my life? Is this necessary to live? Can i live without it? Is this purchase going to make me really happy? ( collections dont count!!!! If the answer is NO, DONT BUY IT.
Lastly, if you can work more, say delivering pizzas, do it for additional funds to pay debt, save or to live life.
I speak from a variety of experience. Ive neen homeless, and now i own a home. Ive been in debt and while on welfare could not pay so the debts were charged off. Ive been in debt once and although we have some home improvement debt, its definitely manageable. Even when my OH (other half) income was cut this summer. Just couldn't add to savings then first time in our relationship. When we got together i was just out of homelessness, and my OH just out of bankruptcy.
Finally, best of luck in sorting it all out and getting back on your feet.
You currently lease ? Sell your crap and downsize to a place you want to be the rest of your life cause once your Credit goes completely bad you'll have trouble leasing again.
Good advice.
Or, perhaps, sell ALL your crap, move to San Diego (mild weather) and live among tens of thousands of homeless people in a tent on the sidewalk. See if the credit card companies can find you.
it really depends on what these bad decisions are and how many were made . the end result can be financial suicide with no way back. sure we all make or made bad decisions at some points since most of us don't fall in to success , we fail in to success . but when these decisions are fatal that is a whole different ball game .
it really depends on what these bad decisions are and how many were made . the end result can be financial suicide with no way back. sure we all make or made bad decisions at some points since most of us don't fall in to success , we fail in to success . but when these decisions are fatal that is a whole different ball game .
So I guess we have to define what "recovery" is. I do know people who went bankrupt and lost everything. One friend who sunk everything into a failed restaurant. Was it a disaster? Sure, was it fatal? No. Is he going to be a millionaire? No. Is he going to be living underneath a bridge? No.
So what is fatal? Op declares bankruptcy, ok will he repeat his habits?? That's his decision but sorry I'm not buying this mantra that because he's in this situation NOW that in 5 years he'll be destitute and repeat these mistakes. That's a myth
Op personally in your situation I would declare bankruptcy, work until FRA. DON'T charge another thing and get your budget, cash flow under control
The dumb decisions I made in my 20s (first husband anyone) I most definitely never did again
The OP says he racked up $92,000 in credit card debt and is now 63 years old and takes home $55,000 a year.
He didn't disclose how he got to that point, so we can't analyze what happened. But that is certainly a large amount of credit card debt for somebody at retirement age.
That's his decision but sorry I'm not buying this mantra that because he's in this situation NOW that in 5 years he'll be destitute and repeat these mistakes. That's a myth
That's not a myth. People are who they are. The OP could become cognizant of his own limitations and make changes, but the truth is most people "revert to the mean". I understand that you are saying that there always exceptions but the quote you jumped all over "not likely to change" left open that possibility. Given the OP's explanation of how he got here and his lack of tackling the challenge (hasn't sold his collection, lives alone with $1200 rent) to the extent his current situation dictates a "not likely to change" prediction is more accurate than you give it credit for. Is it an overly blunt comment, perhaps, but its also possible that part of the reason OP is in the situation he is in is because those around him have soft-shoed him and either accepted his excuses or at least not challenged him on it. More often than not, these instances are not created from a single poor decision (or life event) back in 1986, but moreso a long line of either bad decisions or at least long term ignoring of a situation. Again this is blunt, but I think the posts made on this board are not just a discussion between the poster and the OP but also to all who read and to that extent this is an opportunity to be a cautionary tale for others to take their futures seriously and not just live day to day. That opportunity is lost when people don't speak bluntly. This isn't to mean that this should all come at the expense of the OP, they have been giving a lot of very sound advice and encouragement and I hope he finds his way through this. He's still working so at a minimum there's an opportunity to make a bad situation less bad.
I'm wondering if that $3200 in SS at age 70 is correct, given that the OP is earning $55K. Unless he was a high earner in the earlier part of his career, I don't think that's correct. I topped out near $100K, with many years in the $80 - $90k range, and my report says $3100 in SS at age 70.
Any SS experts on here think that a $55K wage (assuming that's a career high) will not result in a $3200 SS payment, even at the delayed age of 70?
I'm wondering if that $3200 in SS at age 70 is correct, given that the OP is earning $55K. Unless he was a high earner in the earlier part of his career, I don't think that's correct. I topped out near $100K, with many years in the $80 - $90k range, and my report says $3100 in SS at age 70.
Any SS experts on here think that a $55K wage (assuming that's a career high) will not result in a $3200 SS payment, even at the delayed age of 70?
I was suspect of that stated SS amount as well. The OP must have made a lot more earlier on, spent wildly, and now is only making $55k but left with the debt.
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