I need help

[time2bfree]

I am so glad I found this place. I've been doing a lot of research and following some of these posts before opening this thread. I need some guidance as what to do as I am ashamed to go my parents with my issues. I am currently 24 years old and graduated in Computer Networking but struggling to find a job in this field at the moment. I am currently sitting in a decent job making $17.15/hr + 8hrs of overtime per check. My take home is usually $1100-1200 every two weeks but always find myself not having enough cash at the end of the pay period.

My Expenses/Debts:
Car: $384/month
Gas: $30/week
Food: varies $40/week~
Car Insurance: $40/month
Phone: $130 (Mine + GF's)/month
Chase CC: $660 min $25/month
Bill Me Later: $2,000 min $25/month
MasterCard: $3,500 min $130/month
Best Buy: $2,000 (0% for 3 years had to buy a laptop for school) min $29/month
School: $12,500 min $80/month

Currently I have not built up a savings but I am planning on it after I tackle most of this debt because I still live at home with my mom for the time being as my father passed away and we have a big house and feel bad if I leave her alone. However my problem is that I just want this debt to be gone as fast as possible and I feel that I am being too aggressive as Im falling short of cash before the end of the pay period. I started paying down my smallest debts and working towards the larger ones. Someone shine some light on what I should do.

[cardtrick]

To give you a straight answer, you might have a spending problem. A $2000 laptop for school? Sounds expensive. Same with the car payment.

What I would do:

Sell the laptop and buy something for under $500, if you can get most of your money back. I'm guessing it's a 15 inch Mac with retina display. If so, you should be able to get back a lot.

Sell the car and get something used and cheap.

Pay off the loans starting with the highest interest rate first.

You have time on your side. If you start saving early on, you won't have to worry about money in the future. Maybe, pick up a part-time job to pay off the loans sooner?

Programming jobs pay much better. Is there a way you can get into programming at your current job?

[sblatner]

Your minimum expenses are less than $1k per month. Where are you spending the extra money?

[bjl584]

You have a spending problem. Your income is decent, but your car payment is too high for your income and you have several credit card debts and loans that are severely eating into your money. You need to look into selling the car if possible and starting to clean up the CC debt. Do you still use the cards? If so, stop.

[Augustine]

I just want this debt to be gone as fast as possible

Until you come up with a concrete systematic plan on how to pay off your debt while at the same time reducing your expenditure, your debt problem will not go away so easily.

You also don't have to wait to pay off all your debt before you start saving money.

Put a cap on your spending and start saving small amounts of money.

I also think $2,000 is quite a lot of money to be spending on a laptop even if you are paying it off over a period of 3 years.

[TheKayla]

So sorry to hear about your father, it's very nice that youre living with your mom to help get through it, and perhaps you can see living with her as an added opportunity with living expenses to get things under control.

First of all, I wouldn't be too ashamed to go to your mom to tell her you're falling behind. Trust me, many people in their 20's or younger do it especially. The most important thing is that youre ready to get back on track. Don't give her any obligation to help pay down your debts, but she may be willing to be supportive in other areas by perhaps helping out with food/living costs while you get caught up.

I agree with everyone else here though, you have a definite spending problem. Why are you paying for your GF's phone as well? Is it a special circumstance?

Then you have each one of these, which is simply just living beyond your means and paying for things with cash you don't have:

Chase CC: $660 min $25/month
Bill Me Later: $2,000 min $25/month
MasterCard: $3,500 min $130/month
Best Buy: $2,000 (0% for 3 years had to buy a laptop for school) min $29/month

Several of your other expenses seem high too considering you need to be paying all of these other debts. Can you cut your food bill by some, are you driving to more than work -- can you cut back on driving to save on gas? Can you downgrade your car?

First, get your spending under control and start living within your means. Start living more frugally for other areas as well. Find out the real difference between wants and needs, and focus on your debts for now. In the future, save up for and budget accordingly for your wants.

I'd save up $1000 first (you should have more ideally) but that should be fine until you get some of those CC debts paid off. After you get spending under control and living more frugally, re-evaluate. If you still feel like you're running to low on extra funds, focus on the smaller balances of your debts first to free up those payments. If you feel as though you can make progress otherwise, then focus on the highest balance/interest rate and get them knocked out.

Of course, you probably know what to do mathematically. Your biggest problem is more psychological/habitual at this point. Focus the vast majority of your energy on improving your spending habits and learning new tricks to save money, that will be your best bet.

[kyoko]

Your minimum expenses are less than $1k per month. Where are you spending the extra money?

I am also wondering... It is very good that you live with your mom and help her out but also be able to minimize your living expenses, which is a win-win situation. You make about $1100-1200 every other week, which is about $2200-2400 (I am assuming it is Net) and your expenses are $1123... almost half of your paycheck ($1100-1200) is not accounted for. Where are they going?

If you can eliminate spending on that half, I would first pay off $600 Chase credit card and save $500. If you can split the cell phone with your girlfriend, it's almost $90 reducing your expenses. I don't know if you pay your mom for the rent or she lets you live for free, but this seems to be the best time to really attack your debt and put into savings, so I encourage you to do whatever it takes.

[Jennifer_PA]

it is good that you have been tracking down all your expenses because it is the first step to pay off all your debts. Since you have already recognized that you have spending problem then it gives you hint to the solution and that is to lesson your expenses on particular things. Also, you might as well consider asking advices from financial analysts because they could give you expert methods for you to save yourself from whatever situation you are in right now.