Currently owe 50k++ in consumer debt

[truthseeker05]

@mamac1 Ahh ok thanks , my brain not braining sometimes

 

[mtbking30]

@jay1082 Bro honestly this is a wake up call but I feel for you and it happens. The first part is you need to get right about your spending. You might need to sell things and live more modestly. If everything went back to 0 magically, you would still end up in this situation again if you don't have a budget that leads to you saving in excess. This means you no longer can afford expensive dinners, going out and alcohol. These are not in the equation for you unfortunately.

The 2nd part is your debt, people here say consolidate and I agree. Find a way to get this under 5% APR or things are going to get worse quickly.

Last is your income, you need to get it clear that for the next 2-5 years you are in hustle mode and you cannot afford to earn less than 5-7k. That means side income, consulting, driving grab, whoring yourself whatever it takes to 1) make more money and 2) develop skills and experience that can get you increments or the career that you want.

You need a mindset change and a commitment to 10 hours a day to resolving these things and making progress. Any of your friends who are working on projects or doing anything interesting, you make sure you're there and being helpful and earning a place in these projects.

I have hope that you can get through this. Keep us posted what you're up to. We're all rooting for you bro

 

[hyojyang88]

@jay1082 The real question is how did you end up maxing out all the 5 cards knowing that your own income is only 3.7k a month. One card was enough two maybe max could be three at most but 5 cards….

 

[jakejacobson41]

@hyojyang88 Addiction makes you do stupid things.

 

[revtyl]

@jakejacobson41 Mega888

 

[chair]

@jay1082 go bank & consolidate all CC into 1 loan with multiple years to pay off. then cancel your CC.

find job with higher pay

 

[ryalschilders]

@jay1082 Been there bro, what i can advice is make a goal first. Your goal now is to clear out the bad debts which is all your credit cards. I can suggest the following:

1. Visit your nearest banks and look for the best interest for debt consolidation, some banks do offer 5.75% - 8.88% per annum. Discuss and work out the best installment plan you can afford monthly, maybe try 5-7 years 8.88% interest per annum. At least you can lower down monthly payment and also be discipline in monthly installment payment.
2. Once you got your installment and cc paid, cancel 4 of it and keep only 1 for emergency etc. Cash only transaction, youre so used to swiping your cc so you need to change that.
3. If you cannot get your loan approved, i suggest last choice is AKPK. They can help you clear all the debts and jumble it into a low interest loan but that is the last choice and you can only utilize it once in your lifetime.

Set your goal clear first bro and work on clearing the cc debts. I made it clear to myself that i wanna clear all my cc debts and thankfully i settled it all with debt consolidation and paid my last payment last year. You can do it bro!

 

[tich]

@ryalschilders @chaz22 listen to this guy. All other suggestion on this thread are helpful and aspirational but your focus should be developing a defensive finance plan. To expand on this point -

1. To give you a focused approach and to state the obvious which I haven't actually seen commented by anyone here yet is shifting your monthly cashflow position to a minimum of a breakeven or net positive scenario. Approach any next steps to settling your debt with this in mind. You can't pay your debts back if you aren't actually making any money - by being in a net negative you are only compounding the issue by eating your savings away and reducing your power to pay back your debts.
2. This may be difficult depending on your relationship with your parents but I would be honest and tell them about your scenario. This is a very bad position to be in and being so young your ability to earn in the future is hampered by a future lack of access to credit facilities. Because I don't know you and don't know the chances of a possible relapse, I can't recommend that you ask them for money but they should be aware of this issue to keep you accountable in the future. Consider asking them to relieve some of the burden on your shared living expenses e.g Food, Utilities, Rent. The rest you should take accountability for and not shift the liability onto them as this may encourage your own future negative financial behavior if you always have a 'bailout'.

I think with these two major points you are already going to see quite a substantial move towards being cash positive. Stay consistent, pragmatic and focused on finding other ways to chip away your debt.

p.s I wouldn't recommend starting any business or other sidequests to magically pay off your debt. 60% of SME's fail and 40% can't actually grow (https://ir.uitm.edu.my/43932/1/43932.pdf). This will just be a distraction from your main job which should be your priority to maintain or get higher paid jobs. Unsurprisingly the #1 barrier to growth or failure for businesses is financing which is already an issue for you.

I will recommend however if you have any other skills or low-effort/low-capital ideas i.e teaching, consulting etc that you pursue these instead as you don't have to invest anything other than your time.

Notes on expenses.

1. The biggest silent killer are accruing interest rates on unpaid cc debts. Your cc bill effectively doubles if you miss payments, and the accruing monthly interest stays substantial if you are not paying down your principal. I advise taking a read here : https://ringgitplus.com/en/blog/credit-cards/credit-card-tiered-interest-rates-explained.html
2. Your living expenses - Rent/Groceries/Insurance seem fairly normal, I don't think you can reduce much spending here.

You'll defs get there if you're consistent man, we're all rooting for you.

 

[zoar33]

@jay1082 Rent and utilities are too high.

Rent is understandable that you are renting the whole unit/house.

Utilities are just too high for a 3 persons. What sort of utilities are you having? Electric, water, internet and what else?

Edit: OP edited the description. It seems that 1200 is for utilities and rent

Everything seems reasonable. There is not much you can cut here.

The personal 150. I suggest that you put it into saving. You now don’t hv a luxury to spend money on yourself

The post paid with device which is 300 a month. Definitely a big mistake.

 

[rabbimike]

@zoar33 Probably air conditioner

 

[karynsartor]

@jay1082 OP, i can relate to your story. Got debt more than i can afford. AKPK is the only way. Thank god your debt is legal, not with alongs.

It will hurt your record, ego and everything. But then its a lesson for ourselves and our government is kind enough to offer AKPK.

Can reduce your cc installment significantly and can breathe few months. Then come back stronger

 

[patience17]

@jay1082 AKPK

 

[derekh]

@jay1082 Find a second income. After work or in the weekends.

 

[thomasik]

@jay1082 Akpk. They are very helpful in managing this.

 

[ggicollegeindia]

@jay1082 bro go to akpk, then work your way to clear the debt.

 

[stcimrgans01]

@jay1082 Work at night, weekend. Drive grab or something.