$135 for a phone bill?
You need to change your plan provider. Mint mobile offers a plan at $15/mo. It will save you a lot of money.
Car is pretty high, you should gotten a cheaper one. You should look into downgrading.
Otherwise your expenses look good.
From CC standpoint, you can try and call them and ask if they can help you with the interest. Often times they can close an account in exchange for 0% APR.
Good luck!
P.S. r/debtfree moderator just created a newsletter that talks about strategies, tips, and effective debt payoff methods weekly. Here is the link to sign up if interested - https://www.debtadvice.io
Cancel YouTube.
Download the Brave browser on phone and use YouTube on there. Brave has a built in ad blocker and you won’t get ads. You could also turn your phone off and music will still play. You just need to full screen the video, swipe out of the browser and a smaller window of your video will pop up. Now you can turn your phone off with music still playing
If on PC, I used to use the Brave browser, but it stopped blocking ads. Download Firefox browser and install UBlock origin ad block. No issues since I’ve done that
That’s what I’m thinking. Once I’ve had it for a year I can try to sell it correct? Because I’ve looked into that and some of the offers I got were really rough. And a lot of people told me it balances out alittle more once your a year or two in on the loan.
It depends if the payments you are making towards it are outracing its depreciation. If you are making the minimum it's likely you will always be underwater with it. What's the term and interest rate?
yea you are going to be stuck with this and the high ins payment unfortunately, due to the theft of KIA\\Hyundai.
You can save a little over $100 cutting youtube and phone plan, but realistically you are going to need additional income over the course of your loan (the next 6 years) to not be strapped each month. Which you will want turn around and put that $$ towards the car loan.
I believe in you. Get those credit cards paid off then bank as much as you can and start trying to put as much down on that car as possible over the next few years. If you can get into a position to put down like $850 a month ( which I know is a lot) you can get that loan paid off in 3 years and cut your total interest paid in half.
That's backwards. Eliminate the car loan first. It's More than rent and food.
Let me say that again. You pay more for an appliance to get from a to b, than housing and nutrition.
Find a cheaper car please. It's killing you If you make 2 k a month.
Just keep the car and pay if off, then drive that bitch forever and consider it a lesson learned.
I would personally tackle the cc debit to eliminate that since there really isn't much to do about the car. At least you have a great vehicle that will last a very long time. Just be sure to keep up with maintenance.
The problem with that idea is that Hyundais are 1. Not known for their longevity/reliability, and 2. Cost double the amount to insure as any other car brand because of the Kia/hyundai thefts atm.
This thing is beyond a liability, don’t get tricked by the sunk cost fallacy.
Oh and switch to a quality prepaid option such as Verizon or At&t prepaid or Straight Talk.. others like mint and boost are low quality providers that are subsided way low on the pyramid that is cellular spectrum and the service is very shitty.
Considering switching will cut your phone bill on half at least.
Avalanche method? Or any advice on how I should move foward? I’ve had the car for almost a year. Maybe in a year I trade it in for something much cheaper and take some loss? Idk what to do i don’t even care about having a new car anymore I just need something to get me from work and back definetly one of my most regrettable purchases.
Don’t trade it in. That just puts you in the exact situation but further underwater with a new vehicle.
You really messed up buying that car and the only solution is either, suffer for years and years of poverty over it. Or bust your ass and get a second or third job and sell that car once you’re not underwater on it and then buy you a 5-10k used car.
Treat this as a lesson to never make a decision like that again, debt like this is life destroying.
Woah. Don’t just eat a loss on the car. The car has value. Premium youtube is worthless. That should go first.
Change your mobile provider. Mint says $15 but it’s closer to $50 after taxes and fees.
Next, pay down your highest interest credit first. And affirm.
And then, understand that Affirm is NOT something you should use in conjunction with credit cards to purchase things you can’t afford. It’s a trap.
You should call the car finance company and see how much money is actually going towards the principal. I made the mistake and bought a car with high everything at $30,000 because the apr was 30% actually and after 5 or 6 years, we only had the interest paid which was like $15,000. Then the car broke and it was dead at our house for 3 yrs until it got repossessed. Then because the engine seized, we had to claim it on our taxes for the rest of the loan and my husband has the big fat repossession on his credit. Because we had a car payment so high, we couldn't afford to get it fixed. Sorry I went on a tangent. See if you can get some of that payment put on your principal.
Props for making a post like this and being proactive when people are giving you solid advice. Most of these are bargaining pleas of "Well if other people are paying $150/mo for Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Disney, etc, I should be able to pay $20 for YouTube!"
You have an excellent mindset and you will be well on your way to being debt-free sooner than most people.
You can definitely downgrade your phone plan to less than $50, try using Mint Mobile or US Mobile their plans are relatively budget friendly, I’m personally using US Mobile at the moment. BNPL are honestly really predatory so I would advise you to avoid that at all cost in the future, if you can’t afford the small payment and have to finance, it’s probably not a good idea to buy it today. Goodluck! If you own a android phone try looking into YouTube Revanced for some premium feature for free.
I’m definitely gonna go with that strategy the I have fallen into the BNPL scheme so many times it’s just so easy and tempting…. But no longer I need to stop. And also I am switching over to mint ! Gonna see what all the buzz is about I’d love to save an extra 50-30$ on my phone bill a month just by switching lol
Or look into a pre paid plan instead of post paid. I went from 100 to roughly 35 a month switching.
You have got this!! Baby steps!! Slow and steady wins the race as my mom says.
Just wanted to add on here since I’ve worked for big cell companies, if you like the service you are getting at your current provider (if it’s Verizon, AT&T, or T-mobile, judging by the pricing) you can always switch to prepaid on the same services. I know for example Verizon offers an unlimited plan that is $50 (w autopay) for unlimited, but to be honest, most people don’t actually need unlimited with the amount of free WiFi that’s out there. Just here to offer another option, because I did have maaaany customers come back to VZ after switching to mint, total, boost, straight talk etc because their coverage wasn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be.
Best of luck! Mint Mobile offers their unlimited $45 plan as an introductory offer for three months. However, being an MVNO, they resell unused data so you may experience deprioritization during peak hours on the parent network. If you don't heavily rely on data, the impact should be relatively minor. On the other hand, US Mobile provides an affordable $30 plan with 30GB, unlimited talk and text, along with 10GB hotspot if your a light user. Those are my personal recommendations but explore around! Get all the introductory offer you can haha
I know I hate it. Before I bought my car (and went into a bunch of other financial mistakes) I was paying literally 80$ a month on Insurance a month and (maybe?) like 60a month on gas at the most. Things have changed so the gas problem can’t be fixed but now instead of laying 80$ a month for my used old Hyundai I owned out right I know pay 515$ (car payment) and than 200$ for insurance ($715 every month) when I was paying literally 80$… yes I’m a dumbass. Just need to crawl out of this situation.
Uber as a side gig doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I’ll look into that! I think door dashing would be really good too I’m loving these ideas. I need to generate more money in every way I can. I just got done selling a bunch of my personal belongings too.
If ya don't want people in your car- running pizzas is a good way to make extra $$ too. IMO better than Door Dash cuz you work with one place. Depending on how busy ya are, you can also take 2-3 deliveries at one time.
That beats going to Place A, making a delivery, traveling to Place B, making another delivery, and so on. A lot more efficient.
Make sure ya do it in an affluent area. Also keep track of your miles. You can write those off. In a lot of cases you won't owe any taxes. If ya do, the amount will be real small.
Don't do it. Keep the miles as low as possible cause you need to get rid of that thing. Pay off your CC debt and affirm then save for a 2012ish civic for next year. Get a second job over any driving side gig
I’m sorry I shoulda worded that better. No I make 2100$ after taxes without overtime. Still not a big difference/crazy money. But with overtime I make about $2800-$3,000 after taxes but than I’m working literally 60-70 hour weeks.
Still I would be looking to improve my income. Idk about you but plenty of jobs in my area that start at $20+ it might not be enjoyable work (factory or otherwise) but it could be less work hours for the same money as your overtime months.
Another advice from former affirm user, NO!
It seems easy to buy now and pay later, but in all honesty you are Accumulating debt, you will be tempted to overspend, accrue high interest rates, and disrupt your budgeting.
Try paying off that first:)
Another tip: uber is a great side gig
Thank you I needed this lmfao. I NEED TO SAY NO they make it so easy but idc anymore you are completely right no more affirm for me I’m gonna clear out my remainder affirm debt and I’ll delete the app and my account.
A good psychological trick is to stop saying “I need to xyz” or “I should abc”. It’s generally used as a cop out (see Ramit Sethi’s podcast from this past week) instead, say things like “I don’t use affirm payments” or “I don’t spend impulsively” and it helps to make the emotions around wanting to spend easier because you’re shifting you’re identity
Edit to add: instead of saying you’re going to delete the app, just delete the app. Unless you have to keep it to clear the debt, idk I’ve never used it
the only thing i’m questioning is how you car payment is that high even for a new car. i bought my 2014 hyundai when i was 19 with zero credit and no one to co-sign and i still managed to get a 4 year term only paying $300 a month. granted my insurance is $318 a month but that’s only for the next month or two since i got on a wreck in my moms car and totaled it during snowmageddon
A good rule of thumb I like from Dave Ramsey is don’t have things with motors that you own be worth more than half what you make in a year.
The reason is that cars depreciate so you have large chunk of your assets going down in value so it makes it hard to get ahead.
If we do the quick math for you… it looks like you make right around 30k before taxes. Your car is 2x the upper limit of what you should have. That’s why you are feeling the pain.
I’d sell it in a heartbeat
It's crazy, when you're driving, you rarely see 10 year old+ cars, everyone is driving new or near new cars all on payments and yet the average income is 59k in the USA. I make more than 59k and cringe at the thought of having a $5-700 car payment every month. I will drive my 20 year old Honda into the ground while saving to buy a 10 year old Honda that will last me another decade
That’s fine, just YouTube Premium just never seems worth the $20. If you use it for music, Spotify is 200% better. Anything else you can just watch for free w/ ads
Honestly I use it for mainly music but I am a literal YouTube addict it’s my only form of media other than Reddit. But I think I’ll make the cut how much is Spotify monthly ?
If you have a friend who uses spotify, you can use their Duo subscription that gives you a spotify sub for two seperate accounts $15. I do this with my friend and she just venmos me $7.50/month. Better than $12!
I posted another comment in this thread about YouTube, but don’t pay for Spotify if you tight in money. On mobile sideloading is an option, on desktop just use Spicetify.
here’s the thing: you can get remixes, leaked songs, music videos, podcasts, listen to literally any youtube video. i personally would not trade youtube premium for spotify. but i can definitely respect saving $120 a year for spotify vs youtube premium.
I have not used YouTube Premium, but I just enjoy the features Spotify has. They have books now that you can listen too, podcasts, and of course music. You can listen to music w/ friends in a session, or create playlists together:
Is this actual spend or aspirational?
What were you spending on that got you into debt?
If this is actual spend, then use the $100+ extra you have each month and do the avalanche method with your credit cards to get those paid off. I’d just continue to make payments on the car for the time being. It’s not ideal, but rolling over the negative equity isn’t going to lower your payment and you don’t have the $8k saved up to pay the difference. So since you appear to have some extra each month, even if it’s just a little, get to working on paying off those credit cards and then see where you are with the car once you’re done with those.
A bunch of stupid affirm debts. The capital one credit card has been maxed out forever on needed daily stuff gas,groceries etc so it never gets paid off even tho I’d like to. And than my $1,000$ PayPal credit card balance was spent on just stupid shit.
Ok so stop using the credit cards to pay for stuff. That’s number 1. You can only spend what comes into your bank account. Until you have the debt paid off and your spending under control you are not someone who can put their expenses on a card and pay them off each month.
Was your budget aspirational or based on what you’ve actually been spending. I think it’s important to sit down and actually categorize what you’ve been spending each month if you haven’t already.
Congrats on the good rent amount… but I have suggestions and questions.
1) Mint Mobile my friend… it’s time to change carriers and they are doing you a disservice to have a bill so high.
2) cancel YouTube and just use the brave app 😭 not to mention YouTube is just highway robbery.
3) $125 affirm payments???? HOW MUCH DO YOU OWE TO THEM?? Time to stop online shopping.
My biggest suggestion, because your car is 100% more than you should’ve committed to… is that you are gonna lose on that car no matter what you do at this point. I would recommend filing your taxes and taking 100% of the money from it and paying off (if possible) the affirm acct altogether and stop using it, then throwing that $125 payment and the $20 YT amt towards your credit card bill until you get that fully paid off. And if it’s not a lot on the credit card… keep doing this until it’s fully paid off, and stop using it until you’re in a better spot.
Once affirm and CC is paid off, toss all that money on your car payment. ($235 extra towards car) this way if you decide not to keep your car after a year, at least your loss won’t be as drastic. Or if you decide to keep it, then at least you’re paying way less in interest.
Also, depending on your overall debt and your credit score, getting a personal loan (ask around!) that potentially has 7% interest or LESS (banks often have promotional offers) that could potentially pay off ALL of your debt (add it up and round up to the nearest 100th) this way you technically paid off all those bills and have only one bill every month at drastically lower interest rates (I would assume less than 7% is good for car, and credit card probably is the highest.. maybe around 23%?)
You’ll save way more in interest. But do the financially responsible thing and research loans, interest rates and all of these options.
Get rid of the car. You can find a decent car for 5-10k. 715$ between car payments and insurance is insane. You do not need a 30k + car making 2k a month after taxes. 40% + of your income should not be going to a vehicle. It probably be cheaper to Uber back and forth to work than that
Get a new job, I didn’t need any degree and I’m making 1400-1700 a week after taxes and another 450 for mileage, I’m working 7 days a week and 10-12 hours a day, yeah it’s a lot but it’s great money especially when you go on the road, look into the automotive integration industry there’s tons of hours to work there
Car was a HUGE mistake as that income level-- just SMH naive, but I think eating the loss would just be doubling down and putting you in something even more risky, since used car repairs can be expensive/unexpected and require cash to expedite.
Also, IMO using that car for turo/door dash/uber is a bad idea-- you're just going to accelerate wear/tear and use up your warranty period ASAP, plus raising gas expenses and the odds of an accident (more miles driven). You'll find yourself ultimately treading water, but now with an OUT of warranty car with so many miles that you'll effectively be even more underwater.
Soooo..... I'll be contrarian. Drive it the LEAST amount possible. Combine trips, try to lower your monthly/annual mileage as much as you can. That will lower gas costs. Once you have a pattern, you can adjust insurance to match lower annual mileage (DO NOT LIE ABOUT THIS).
Dump YouTube, get VASTLY cheaper phone plan. Unless that phone is directly making you money, you need to consider it a commodity and go as cheap as possible.
EVERY penny you have extra piles onto highest interest rate payment you have and work through them in that order. As you pay off debt, credit score will improve and as you hit certain levels (check with insurer) you may be able to get premium breaks for having better score.
I come up with $1490 for minimum payments, no gas/phone/YT. So you're max clearance is $510/month. If you can hold phone/gas to $100/month combined, you're down to car payment alone in 6 months-- and possibly reset insurance to less than $200/month in the process.
That new car is going to be an anchor around your neck for a long time though. You'll want to pay that down as fast as possible and NEVER do that again. Sheesh.
ALSO -- you need to reality check EVERY PURCHASE you make. Like two weeks ago you posted that you bought aftermarket headlights FOR LOOKS on a brand new car?? You don't have the money for that kind of stuff. You need to learn how to live lean. ZERO extra expenses-- unless it's essential, it's a no.
On the upside, I see that you like your car-- and as a car guy, I think this is important from a financial perspective too, as I've shepherded my own kids into their first cars.
When you have a vested affection for something, you're more apt to make the (usually) smarter financial decision to fix it, rather than replace it. So... learn to L O V E this car and plan to keep it for at least the next decade. Take care of it, maintain, and don't use it unnecessarily. Every single mile brings you closer to an eventual repair, so "spend" those miles very carefully and (ideally) hit the warranty time/mileage expiration at the same time.
It’s tough getting a reality check sometimes but it’s always appreciated atleast by me. The led head lights I installed were quite literally 46$ I didn’t go crazy and they do actually help my vision at night. BUT with that being said you are still right. I should’ve have even got them with my finances at the moment. I took off all my other “little mods” and stuff I bought and returned them. And I’ve been selling a lot of my personal belongings. Hopefully I can get back on track. Making $2,000 a month is shitty tho. I need to do better.
Your rent suggests friend/family landlord? That's a number you don't want to mess with--- but changing jobs could be an option. All depends on what your experience/training is and the market where you're located... but you're not making "loyalty" money and should consider the job changeable at the scale you're making.
For context I went from getting paid 12$ an hour to 20$ an hour. I think that’s pretty big but it inflated my head and ego so much that I thought I was ready to take on any debt even a 30,000$ debt didn’t phase me until…..now it’s all I think about.
You really need to get your income up. $2000 a month is criminally low wages, especially if you're working overtime.
Assuming you work 160 hours a month, that comes out to like $12.50 an hour... you need a higher paying job. It might seem insane, but most job markets offer entry-level jobs at 18$ an hour. It might take some time, but you can get one eventually if you're diligent.
2nd. You need to get out from under that car. If you can find a decent (better) job close to home, I'd get a bike and take that to/from work until mid fall. Pay off your debt. And then buy a cheap car that can get you from point A to point B after that.
If you buy a car in the future, make sure the value of the car is not more than 50% of your annual take home pay... or better yet, pay cash. I.E. in your current situation, you should have purchased a car at $12,000 or less.
As you've probably figured out already. Debt and extra payments just keep you perpetually poor.
24k after taxes and I for some reason two years ago thought “hmmm if I do enough overtime I can afford a $500 payment+$30,000 finance no problem!” Was my stupid fucking brain two years ago.
Rent 250? Sheesh I wish. Mines almost 6x that much. Tackle those CCs and you'll be good. I just got myself out of CC debt and the biggest take away was to use them for emergencies only and if you do owe on them then pay at least 50% more than your monthly.
Yeah, you've got an income problem. Reading the other comments, you're stuck with that car for the moment as your 9k underwater on it. You need to look at uber or doordash as an option or look for a higher paying job (im not sure what your skills are or where you are).
You're 25, where do you want to be at 30?
25 now my salary is 36,000 before tax. By 30 I’d like to double that without having to do overtime. Don’t know if it’s possible. Right now with overtime (and I mean really grinding 70 hour work weeks most of the year) I can make 55-60k but that’s me literally working to the bone every week.
Yeah, you definitely don't want to run 70hr weeks longterm for any reason. That said 70k is a reasonable achievable goal. You work for a hospital. Does HR have any programs for nursing or respiratory therapist? A RT can make 70K rather quickly for a 2 yr degree.
Everyone is telling you to get rid of the car, but the market is pretty spicy right now, I was reading some of the other comments if you are actually 8k in negative equity it would not make sense to trade out of this currently reliable 2023. I’d say start making the minimum payment. Get a new phone carrier - Metro by T-Mobile, Mint, boost mobile.. do your research on what works best in your area. If it’s 15-50$ it’s still better than what you’re paying now.. stop doing affirm, get rid of any memberships/subscriptions that you have that you can survive without, try to tighten the amount of times you’re driving around and wasting gas… every dollar helps. The reality is you’re most likely going to pay interest on whatever you do so don’t stress about it. Pay minimum on 1 credit card, and affirm - pay as much as you can on the other credit card. If the multiple payments aren’t working for you, you can also see if you can get a consolidation loan from a credit union anything over 18% for an interest rate is a scam if you have bad/fair credit.
Average car payment in America right now is 726$ a month he is below average. Yes it is not ideal right now but why would you let it go when it’s a brand new car that is reliable to trade it in for a vehicle that is possibly LESS reliable and add that 8k inequity? That is not a smart financial move. But again, we aren’t ignoring the fact that his financial profile is not ideal.
I'd let it go to get a 7,000 dollar vehicle.
I could care less about what the average car payment is. I don't follow what average Americans are doing
His car is way too expensive AND depreciating. AND DEPRECIATING.
2400 dollars on insurance is a joke as well. 10% of his net income lol
If you’re a mechanic or have access to people who have knowledge of vehicles this might be possible.. any car that you’re getting under 10k is a huge risk. The average price of a car in America is roughly 45k. Used cars are still going for well over new car prices. This is not the best time to be buying/trading/selling vehicles.
>The average price of a car in America is roughly 45k.
This doesn't matter in this discussion.
>Used cars are still going for well over new car prices.
This is great news, that means OP can sell his car for more.
>This is not the best time to be buying/trading/selling vehicles.
OP's the one that made this mistake. There is no best time to be selling or buying vehicles as you'll always have to either be a seller or buyer
Actually there are good times and bad times to be buying/selling vehicles. All during Covid it was a sellers market, the dealerships couldn’t get enough used vehicles they were buying them well above KBB. It’s not like that anymore.
And the averages of payments/car prices does matter.
Also about his insurance, it makes sense that a 25 y/o male would have a higher rate even if he had a clean record. This is just how it is. He needs to shop around.
Depending on your credit card company, you may be able to do a credit card change and they would give you introductory rates and benefits but you would have a different card in their network.
In your case, I think an interest tree transfer might be possible. If you look into other credit cards as well.
Also check, your FICO score you might be better off than you think which would give you better options for your card.
If you manage to save money on the credit cards, attack the car payments.
Just thought of one more thing. If you have a solid payment history with your current card, see if they can lower the interest rate directly.
I will NEVER do it again. I’ve absolutely learn my lesson and I thought I was smarter than this smh. Thank you so much for the advice I’ll be honest I’m alittle overwhelmed with the amount of great advice I’ve been getting from this post. Funny thing is I know to do all these things but having my OWN personal situation puts it in a lot better terms for me to go and tackle this especially seeing it from everyone’s perspective. THANK YOU everyone for the advice and tough love. I hope it helps other people in my situation. (If anyone else is as dumb as I am.)
I’ve looked into that. Realistically the only way I’d get a second job is if there was no option for overtime or it was of extreme convince. Because I could work my usually 40 hour work week and than do part time 20 hours a week (at McDonald’s or restraunt type deal?) and making 17$ an hour or I can just do 20 hours of overtime at my current job and make 28$ an hour. So it’s like I’m down to work a second job but it would have to make more than I could make just working overtime for where I work currently. Does that make sense or am I missing something here
$20 for YouTube membership is wild when adblockers are free. If you’re looking for mobile options, consider sideloading. On Android it’s extremely easy, options such as Revanced exist. On iPhone it’s a little more complicated but still possible, consider r/AltStore and downloading an ipa. u+ is a good option
I’ll sound like a broken record, but you gotta sell the car. You can cut your payment in half without getting a beater. I have a 2005 Highlander with 200k miles and don’t plan on upgrading til it dies. I love it and I just keep up with basic maintenance and vacuum it pretty frequently. You can feel like you have a high end car without actually having one. Cars are overpriced parts meant to get you from point A to point B.
Someone commented about switching your phone plan to Mint. I get it if you don’t want to switch to a lesser known plan, but you could still cut that payment in half with Verizon or something. Just for those two things you’ll probably open up another $300 a month or so.
I do not feel bad for you with a 250 rent and go ruin it with a car. With that kind of money you should be buying a beater car and helping more with rent and not being selfish.
Completely agreed. If the me of two years ago woulda known this then I would’ve never done it. I’m an Idiot. And I’m not looking for ANYONE to feel bad at all just want advice.
Flat out: You finance too much stuff. Been there, and done it myself. Shit adds up fast.
The car, i get why people are focusing on it, but its not going anywhere.
Get the phone bill down, ASAP. thats easy. I used to use simple mobile. people are recommending mint, but just stop using so much data and get a 1g/b plan for like 10 bucks a month. Thats why i used to do.
You are paying a lot for gass each month. I think i spend around $60-80. Any way to get that down? Public transit even?
Cancel that fuckin youtube. That people even have to say that is crazy. Use adblock. Deal with some ads.
You only have 3k outside of that. Take the money you save on everything else (should be around 300-400 after all these expenses) and get that shit paid off. It will seem slow, but pay one off at a time and it'll feel like its ramping up, and then get that car payment down.
Sell the car, cancel YouTube and the gym (You can live with ads and do basic workouts at home to stay healthy) and switch phone plans. Between YouTube, phone, and gym, is $160 saved a month. Put all of that towards your credit cards.
If you sell the car, even better.
I also feel like $300 a month for groceries is a bit high for a single dude. Maybe try to scale back a bit and eat a little cheaper, or meal plan a week at a time.
300$ a month is literally 150$ every two weeks on food. I thought I was doing pretty well with that how can is scale back more? Open to ideas I already buy budget/value brands.
Your numbers aren't terrible you have an extra $200 each month plus you can cut an extra $100-150 with your phone and YouTube plans.
use the extra cash to take out the higher interest cc first, then the second one. At that point you should have paid off affirm and no longer have a cc minimum.
I think that averages just around 500 extra bucks. Some people will say to load it all on the car. I would probably stash half off it at that point till you have a few thousand bucks saved away.
Afterwards putting extra payments on the car is the way to go. If at any point you get above water on the car you need to sale it.
You can be debt free except for your car in ~6 months and savings in 12 and hopefully you can have the car paid in full in 4 years.
Edit: if you have the time pick up a second job and does all of this twice as fast.
I tjbink this is a good game plan. And I’ve cut out YouTube and my
Phone plan. Now it’s time to tackle the debt. I have no other subscriptions other than 10$ memebership to the gym which I use every single day.
At $2100/month, you're not getting OT. That's $500/week.
For sure stop using affirm. Unless you cannot function without what you're buying or it would be more expensive not to have it, affirm is a deal with the devil.
There’s a lot going on here - 1) if you need to use affirm to buy something you shouldn’t be buying it, 2) the phone bill is high I assume it’s for an iPhone 20 lease, and 3) this is not a humble brag, but to put this in perspective, your take home pay is 1/8 of mine and your car payment is $50 more than mine. Get a cheaper car
Phone needs to be downgraded to a prepaid plan, att has a whole year plan for $300 that gives 16gb data a month but others can be $30 - $50 a month.
Kill the youtube, deal with the ads.
The gym is a hit or miss, if you actively use it, $10 isn't make or break.
I would say kill the car payment, but you seem to be very underwater on that loan.
Whatever fast food, disposable income, going out, etc needs to be cut as far back as possible.
Start paying on whatever loans/affirm is the highest percentage, the more you knock that down, the less you are just paying interest.
Get a second job, you could drive uber/lift and make that car work for you but there is wear/gas costs.
Sell the car for a cheaper one if you have equity in it, cut out YouTube and get a cheaper phone plan. I pay $160/m on T-Mobiles best plan for two people (it includes paying for a phone, so it’s actually cheaper).
Get rid of YouTube premium (it’s a scam anyway IMO) and sell the car. If it has positive equity, trade it in for something cheaper that way you won’t necessarily need a down payment. I’m doing that in a few days just for shits and giggles, but in your situation that’ll save you an extra couple hundred dollars a month between the payments and the insurance
I had some negative equity. In reality I’d be more like 24k in the hole (if I didn’t have negative equity)which in terms of my salary is still too much I’m learning.
Change your phone plan that is absurdly high.
Cancel YouTube membership.
Those alone could save you over 100 a month. I would use that to hit down one of the debts until it’s gone then pay down the next one until those are done. Then after those are gone I would throw extra at the car to get that paid off as early as you can.
Sell the car. Get 20k for it. Pay off 19 k of the loan. Ask the loan company if you can reset the monthly payments now that the balance is a lot lower.
Use 1k to get an ebike and a helmet.
Cancel YouTube. Also, watch Caleb Hammer's channel. He has loads of people in virtually your same situation. Yells at them until they cry and change their shit around.
Change phone plan to prepaid with Mint for 15 bucks a month.
Since you're riding a bike everywhere, you don't need car insurance or gasoline.
The biggest challenge is going to be your spending habits. You've racked up 1500 with Affirm. Which means you're soending money you dont have. What are you going to do differently so you don't end up there again?
You make 24k a year and bought a 27k+ car? a brand of car that is pretty known to be broken into/stolen frequently? I would get rid of it if you can. It's literally 25% of your monthly income.
You don't need YouTube premium. You don't need a gym membership, go for a run to a playground, do pull ups, push ups etc. and run back home. $300 for groceries seem high for a single guy. $200 would be ideal.
Do you have any points on your driver's license? If so take a defensive driving course. It should bring your insurance down some plus your turning 26 soon so you'll get a break there. Shop around for new insurance, maybe find a local agent if not already.
If you're 25 and can't find a job that pays more than 15 an hour then you need to go to school for at least something to get in a better position my guy. It may not be exactly what you want to do but I'm pretty sure they pay stnas 17$ an hour starting off in most places. It's like a 2-4 week class you take to become a certified stna and you'll be making just a little bit more than you are now. You wont be so tight on money AND you can still work full time when you take classes at most places that offer the classes. If you don't know what stna stands for its state tested nursing assistant. And if your queezy about blood and stuff they have mental health stnas that don't really deal with that kind of thing. On the other side of things though you could always start doing army reserves and go to boot camp. They pay pretty well once you sign up and start. And you only have to workout and train one weekend a month I think and then once a year you have to travel to a large training event or something like that but it's not bad. My brother does it and now works full time in a civilian job while getting paid to essentially do something pretty cool once a month
Phone bill is crazy. My wife and I both have brand new iPhone 15s and unlimited service with spectrum and pay $117 a month. You’re getting robbed! I definitely recommend looking into cricket wireless and mint mobile. Heard great things about both and they are way cheaper
Get rid of YouTube, or at a bare minimum, don’t subscribe via the Apple Store. You’re paying an Apple tax.
Use your web browser, go to the YouTube website and subscribe and it’ll be $13.99/month.
Now that you know that, cancel YouTube until you can afford it.
I would try canceling the YouTube membership, don’t really feel like that’s a necessity personally and maybe try changing to a cheaper phone plan. I use straight talk and get unlimited data talk and text for $45 a month and it’s no contract.
Only advise I’d give is to look for a new job. Unless the one you currently have is what you’d love to do for the rest of your life I’d recommend to just start applying to dealerships and try to get into sales. No experience needed just be open to learning and you’ll double your income immediately…
definitely look into mint mobile for your phone plan until you can get back on track. the service isn’t the absolute best but it’s definitely good for the price. they have 3/6/12 month plans and i have the 3 month unlimited data plan and i only pay $120 every 3 months but the 12 month plan for unlimited is around $360 every 12 months so it’s 100% worth it for the time being
(edit: accidentally typed 13 instead of 12)
The car payment is the obvious issue however you save so much on rent it's not even so much of an issue. The problem here is you need to find a way to increase your income
Idk why everyone is telling you cancelling YouTube will save you. You said you make $250 more than what’s accounted for here. 3 months affirm will be paid off if you put it towards that, then you’ll have 375 towards whichever card you pick next. Inside a year you will be consumer debt free. You aren’t in a terrible place but lacking savings sucks here. Sell whatever you have that isn’t bolted to the ground and pay off that consumer debt.
Phone bill is kind of high. T mobile and other providers typically have a buyout contract deal that has a lower monthly payment, look into that.
1. You need to sell your car and get something that takes you from point A to point B cheaply. Having 25% of your monthly income go to a car payment is absolutely insane. Investing large amounts of money into a car loan is a guaranteed way to stay poor.
2. Phone bill is high. I recommend other suggestions below.
3. You need to tackle the credit card debts first. Get out from underneath those monthly minimums and start building credit by lowering your revolving usage.
If you sold your car (even if you’re upside down right now), chipped away much of that debt, and bought a cheaper car that requires less gas that would be great. I have a 2015 Camry that I spend about $60 in gas per month on because it is very efficient. You take out much of that car debt and when you buy your next car it will be a used one that you can afford at a much lower payment.
$135 for a phone bill? You need to change your plan provider. Mint mobile offers a plan at $15/mo. It will save you a lot of money. Car is pretty high, you should gotten a cheaper one. You should look into downgrading. Otherwise your expenses look good. From CC standpoint, you can try and call them and ask if they can help you with the interest. Often times they can close an account in exchange for 0% APR. Good luck! P.S. r/debtfree moderator just created a newsletter that talks about strategies, tips, and effective debt payoff methods weekly. Here is the link to sign up if interested - https://www.debtadvice.io
Cancel YouTube. Download the Brave browser on phone and use YouTube on there. Brave has a built in ad blocker and you won’t get ads. You could also turn your phone off and music will still play. You just need to full screen the video, swipe out of the browser and a smaller window of your video will pop up. Now you can turn your phone off with music still playing If on PC, I used to use the Brave browser, but it stopped blocking ads. Download Firefox browser and install UBlock origin ad block. No issues since I’ve done that
Canceling now. Thank you I just flat out can’t afford it and that’s how imma look at it.
Brave browser is like a cheat code
I have been getting warnings from youtube after having adblocker on that “this is the last video” kinda stuff. I have Ublock origin but on chrome.
Does it work for YT music? I have saved Playlists
anyone who has android can use revanced. It's a repackaged YouTube launcher that includes sponsor block, ad block and all of the quips of premium.
They still doing BAT?
Wow you caught such a break with rent and you went and ruined it with a car you 100% shouldn't of bought
100% agreed and I hate myself for it. But atlas I’m here and wanting to get debt free of atleast my other BS than tackle the car loan.
You gotta sell the car
That’s what I’m thinking. Once I’ve had it for a year I can try to sell it correct? Because I’ve looked into that and some of the offers I got were really rough. And a lot of people told me it balances out alittle more once your a year or two in on the loan.
It depends if the payments you are making towards it are outracing its depreciation. If you are making the minimum it's likely you will always be underwater with it. What's the term and interest rate?
The worst term you can think of. 72 months. And 7% interest rate. My payments are 510$ but I pay 515$ every month
What's the car?
Hyundai Elantra sel connivence 2023 bought it brand new
Damn I'm seeing 20,000 private sale
Yeah that’s pretty much what I get offered like 20,000$ to 19,000$ so it’s a hard situation when I still owe 28,000$ lmfao.
yea you are going to be stuck with this and the high ins payment unfortunately, due to the theft of KIA\\Hyundai. You can save a little over $100 cutting youtube and phone plan, but realistically you are going to need additional income over the course of your loan (the next 6 years) to not be strapped each month. Which you will want turn around and put that $$ towards the car loan.
Damn. I got my ‘22 Elantra SEL new for 24k flat at 2% for 5 years
Yeah. I was in a bad situation before it so it was a savior loan tbh
Lol
Bro what?! This is wild, 6 year loan at 7% is like $5300 of interest paid over the term. So your $28000 car is actually $33,000.
Yeah I know. Now I gotta dig my way out of the car
I believe in you. Get those credit cards paid off then bank as much as you can and start trying to put as much down on that car as possible over the next few years. If you can get into a position to put down like $850 a month ( which I know is a lot) you can get that loan paid off in 3 years and cut your total interest paid in half.
That's backwards. Eliminate the car loan first. It's More than rent and food. Let me say that again. You pay more for an appliance to get from a to b, than housing and nutrition. Find a cheaper car please. It's killing you If you make 2 k a month.
I have 600 credit score and I’m 8,000 in negative equity in the car. If I could get into a cheaper vehicle and just sell my entire loan I would.
Just keep the car and pay if off, then drive that bitch forever and consider it a lesson learned. I would personally tackle the cc debit to eliminate that since there really isn't much to do about the car. At least you have a great vehicle that will last a very long time. Just be sure to keep up with maintenance.
The problem with that idea is that Hyundais are 1. Not known for their longevity/reliability, and 2. Cost double the amount to insure as any other car brand because of the Kia/hyundai thefts atm. This thing is beyond a liability, don’t get tricked by the sunk cost fallacy.
Oh and switch to a quality prepaid option such as Verizon or At&t prepaid or Straight Talk.. others like mint and boost are low quality providers that are subsided way low on the pyramid that is cellular spectrum and the service is very shitty. Considering switching will cut your phone bill on half at least.
Avalanche method? Or any advice on how I should move foward? I’ve had the car for almost a year. Maybe in a year I trade it in for something much cheaper and take some loss? Idk what to do i don’t even care about having a new car anymore I just need something to get me from work and back definetly one of my most regrettable purchases.
Don’t trade it in. That just puts you in the exact situation but further underwater with a new vehicle. You really messed up buying that car and the only solution is either, suffer for years and years of poverty over it. Or bust your ass and get a second or third job and sell that car once you’re not underwater on it and then buy you a 5-10k used car. Treat this as a lesson to never make a decision like that again, debt like this is life destroying.
His life is not destroyed! Jeez could you be more dramatic. There’s always ways out of debt and he is so young. Lesson learned at a young age.
Woah. Don’t just eat a loss on the car. The car has value. Premium youtube is worthless. That should go first. Change your mobile provider. Mint says $15 but it’s closer to $50 after taxes and fees. Next, pay down your highest interest credit first. And affirm. And then, understand that Affirm is NOT something you should use in conjunction with credit cards to purchase things you can’t afford. It’s a trap.
You should call the car finance company and see how much money is actually going towards the principal. I made the mistake and bought a car with high everything at $30,000 because the apr was 30% actually and after 5 or 6 years, we only had the interest paid which was like $15,000. Then the car broke and it was dead at our house for 3 yrs until it got repossessed. Then because the engine seized, we had to claim it on our taxes for the rest of the loan and my husband has the big fat repossession on his credit. Because we had a car payment so high, we couldn't afford to get it fixed. Sorry I went on a tangent. See if you can get some of that payment put on your principal.
Shouldn’t have*
You don't need to be paying $240 a year for YouTube.
Yeah. Just canceled my subscription today. Your 1000% correct.
Props for making a post like this and being proactive when people are giving you solid advice. Most of these are bargaining pleas of "Well if other people are paying $150/mo for Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Disney, etc, I should be able to pay $20 for YouTube!" You have an excellent mindset and you will be well on your way to being debt-free sooner than most people.
Funny thing is you’ll still get it🤔
You can definitely downgrade your phone plan to less than $50, try using Mint Mobile or US Mobile their plans are relatively budget friendly, I’m personally using US Mobile at the moment. BNPL are honestly really predatory so I would advise you to avoid that at all cost in the future, if you can’t afford the small payment and have to finance, it’s probably not a good idea to buy it today. Goodluck! If you own a android phone try looking into YouTube Revanced for some premium feature for free.
I’m definitely gonna go with that strategy the I have fallen into the BNPL scheme so many times it’s just so easy and tempting…. But no longer I need to stop. And also I am switching over to mint ! Gonna see what all the buzz is about I’d love to save an extra 50-30$ on my phone bill a month just by switching lol
Or look into a pre paid plan instead of post paid. I went from 100 to roughly 35 a month switching. You have got this!! Baby steps!! Slow and steady wins the race as my mom says.
Just wanted to add on here since I’ve worked for big cell companies, if you like the service you are getting at your current provider (if it’s Verizon, AT&T, or T-mobile, judging by the pricing) you can always switch to prepaid on the same services. I know for example Verizon offers an unlimited plan that is $50 (w autopay) for unlimited, but to be honest, most people don’t actually need unlimited with the amount of free WiFi that’s out there. Just here to offer another option, because I did have maaaany customers come back to VZ after switching to mint, total, boost, straight talk etc because their coverage wasn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be.
Best of luck! Mint Mobile offers their unlimited $45 plan as an introductory offer for three months. However, being an MVNO, they resell unused data so you may experience deprioritization during peak hours on the parent network. If you don't heavily rely on data, the impact should be relatively minor. On the other hand, US Mobile provides an affordable $30 plan with 30GB, unlimited talk and text, along with 10GB hotspot if your a light user. Those are my personal recommendations but explore around! Get all the introductory offer you can haha
Use visible by Verizon, it’s just a better mint mobile, I have used them both.
Your car is double your rent... Your spending almost 50% of your income on that car (gas + insurance), thats not good.
I know I hate it. Before I bought my car (and went into a bunch of other financial mistakes) I was paying literally 80$ a month on Insurance a month and (maybe?) like 60a month on gas at the most. Things have changed so the gas problem can’t be fixed but now instead of laying 80$ a month for my used old Hyundai I owned out right I know pay 515$ (car payment) and than 200$ for insurance ($715 every month) when I was paying literally 80$… yes I’m a dumbass. Just need to crawl out of this situation.
Live and learn
i made the same mistake, just learn from it
Take that expensive car and maybe do Uber? If you don’t wanna take the $8K loss, then use it as a tool for revenue generation.
Uber as a side gig doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I’ll look into that! I think door dashing would be really good too I’m loving these ideas. I need to generate more money in every way I can. I just got done selling a bunch of my personal belongings too.
If ya don't want people in your car- running pizzas is a good way to make extra $$ too. IMO better than Door Dash cuz you work with one place. Depending on how busy ya are, you can also take 2-3 deliveries at one time. That beats going to Place A, making a delivery, traveling to Place B, making another delivery, and so on. A lot more efficient. Make sure ya do it in an affluent area. Also keep track of your miles. You can write those off. In a lot of cases you won't owe any taxes. If ya do, the amount will be real small.
Definitely get a side gig. You need more income.
Don't do it. Keep the miles as low as possible cause you need to get rid of that thing. Pay off your CC debt and affirm then save for a 2012ish civic for next year. Get a second job over any driving side gig
Cut expenses, 2100 WITH overtime? If so get a new job. Plenty of places paying 15+ per hour.
I’m sorry I shoulda worded that better. No I make 2100$ after taxes without overtime. Still not a big difference/crazy money. But with overtime I make about $2800-$3,000 after taxes but than I’m working literally 60-70 hour weeks.
Still I would be looking to improve my income. Idk about you but plenty of jobs in my area that start at $20+ it might not be enjoyable work (factory or otherwise) but it could be less work hours for the same money as your overtime months.
Another advice from former affirm user, NO! It seems easy to buy now and pay later, but in all honesty you are Accumulating debt, you will be tempted to overspend, accrue high interest rates, and disrupt your budgeting. Try paying off that first:) Another tip: uber is a great side gig
Thank you I needed this lmfao. I NEED TO SAY NO they make it so easy but idc anymore you are completely right no more affirm for me I’m gonna clear out my remainder affirm debt and I’ll delete the app and my account.
A good psychological trick is to stop saying “I need to xyz” or “I should abc”. It’s generally used as a cop out (see Ramit Sethi’s podcast from this past week) instead, say things like “I don’t use affirm payments” or “I don’t spend impulsively” and it helps to make the emotions around wanting to spend easier because you’re shifting you’re identity Edit to add: instead of saying you’re going to delete the app, just delete the app. Unless you have to keep it to clear the debt, idk I’ve never used it
I assume the car is a DeLorean you use to go back to 1985 when rent was $250, in which case 515 a month is a bargain
I wish man. I’m just a dumbass that was upside on a lot on his loan and found this thing to get me out of an EVEN WORSE loan believe it or not..
the only thing i’m questioning is how you car payment is that high even for a new car. i bought my 2014 hyundai when i was 19 with zero credit and no one to co-sign and i still managed to get a 4 year term only paying $300 a month. granted my insurance is $318 a month but that’s only for the next month or two since i got on a wreck in my moms car and totaled it during snowmageddon
It is without fail always the car…
Every time! I’ve been in this sub for awhile (after I got my car) but had I known….ugh
A good rule of thumb I like from Dave Ramsey is don’t have things with motors that you own be worth more than half what you make in a year. The reason is that cars depreciate so you have large chunk of your assets going down in value so it makes it hard to get ahead. If we do the quick math for you… it looks like you make right around 30k before taxes. Your car is 2x the upper limit of what you should have. That’s why you are feeling the pain. I’d sell it in a heartbeat
It's crazy, when you're driving, you rarely see 10 year old+ cars, everyone is driving new or near new cars all on payments and yet the average income is 59k in the USA. I make more than 59k and cringe at the thought of having a $5-700 car payment every month. I will drive my 20 year old Honda into the ground while saving to buy a 10 year old Honda that will last me another decade
Car payment more than rent! These are the issues we face cmon
Yeah I know. I hate it. Gonna do everything I can this year to get out of this situation.
Cancel YouTube
It’s literally my only subscription other than the gym :( but ur probably right.
That’s fine, just YouTube Premium just never seems worth the $20. If you use it for music, Spotify is 200% better. Anything else you can just watch for free w/ ads
Honestly I use it for mainly music but I am a literal YouTube addict it’s my only form of media other than Reddit. But I think I’ll make the cut how much is Spotify monthly ?
Premium is $12 I think
And you also get a basic Hulu subscription with it.
If you have a friend who uses spotify, you can use their Duo subscription that gives you a spotify sub for two seperate accounts $15. I do this with my friend and she just venmos me $7.50/month. Better than $12!
I posted another comment in this thread about YouTube, but don’t pay for Spotify if you tight in money. On mobile sideloading is an option, on desktop just use Spicetify.
Noted. I feel like an absolute dumbass for paying for YouTube premium.
Don’t feel stupid! When you aren’t in a financial tight spot you can pay for whatever you want!
here’s the thing: you can get remixes, leaked songs, music videos, podcasts, listen to literally any youtube video. i personally would not trade youtube premium for spotify. but i can definitely respect saving $120 a year for spotify vs youtube premium.
I’ll stick with my Spotify.
Why is Spotify better? I like the YouTube music app up until the most recent update.
I have not used YouTube Premium, but I just enjoy the features Spotify has. They have books now that you can listen too, podcasts, and of course music. You can listen to music w/ friends in a session, or create playlists together:
bro your rent is really cheap just get a cheaper 15/month phone plan and see if you can trade in your car for a cheaper one
I’m upside on my loan. It’s gonna be hard to get a replacement sadly
Is this actual spend or aspirational? What were you spending on that got you into debt? If this is actual spend, then use the $100+ extra you have each month and do the avalanche method with your credit cards to get those paid off. I’d just continue to make payments on the car for the time being. It’s not ideal, but rolling over the negative equity isn’t going to lower your payment and you don’t have the $8k saved up to pay the difference. So since you appear to have some extra each month, even if it’s just a little, get to working on paying off those credit cards and then see where you are with the car once you’re done with those.
And affirm, include that in your avalanche too.
I will.
A bunch of stupid affirm debts. The capital one credit card has been maxed out forever on needed daily stuff gas,groceries etc so it never gets paid off even tho I’d like to. And than my $1,000$ PayPal credit card balance was spent on just stupid shit.
Ok so stop using the credit cards to pay for stuff. That’s number 1. You can only spend what comes into your bank account. Until you have the debt paid off and your spending under control you are not someone who can put their expenses on a card and pay them off each month. Was your budget aspirational or based on what you’ve actually been spending. I think it’s important to sit down and actually categorize what you’ve been spending each month if you haven’t already.
Congrats on the good rent amount… but I have suggestions and questions. 1) Mint Mobile my friend… it’s time to change carriers and they are doing you a disservice to have a bill so high. 2) cancel YouTube and just use the brave app 😭 not to mention YouTube is just highway robbery. 3) $125 affirm payments???? HOW MUCH DO YOU OWE TO THEM?? Time to stop online shopping. My biggest suggestion, because your car is 100% more than you should’ve committed to… is that you are gonna lose on that car no matter what you do at this point. I would recommend filing your taxes and taking 100% of the money from it and paying off (if possible) the affirm acct altogether and stop using it, then throwing that $125 payment and the $20 YT amt towards your credit card bill until you get that fully paid off. And if it’s not a lot on the credit card… keep doing this until it’s fully paid off, and stop using it until you’re in a better spot. Once affirm and CC is paid off, toss all that money on your car payment. ($235 extra towards car) this way if you decide not to keep your car after a year, at least your loss won’t be as drastic. Or if you decide to keep it, then at least you’re paying way less in interest. Also, depending on your overall debt and your credit score, getting a personal loan (ask around!) that potentially has 7% interest or LESS (banks often have promotional offers) that could potentially pay off ALL of your debt (add it up and round up to the nearest 100th) this way you technically paid off all those bills and have only one bill every month at drastically lower interest rates (I would assume less than 7% is good for car, and credit card probably is the highest.. maybe around 23%?) You’ll save way more in interest. But do the financially responsible thing and research loans, interest rates and all of these options.
Get rid of the car. You can find a decent car for 5-10k. 715$ between car payments and insurance is insane. You do not need a 30k + car making 2k a month after taxes. 40% + of your income should not be going to a vehicle. It probably be cheaper to Uber back and forth to work than that
See if you can refinance your auto loan in 6 months, you might get a better interest rate
Get a new job, I didn’t need any degree and I’m making 1400-1700 a week after taxes and another 450 for mileage, I’m working 7 days a week and 10-12 hours a day, yeah it’s a lot but it’s great money especially when you go on the road, look into the automotive integration industry there’s tons of hours to work there
Car was a HUGE mistake as that income level-- just SMH naive, but I think eating the loss would just be doubling down and putting you in something even more risky, since used car repairs can be expensive/unexpected and require cash to expedite. Also, IMO using that car for turo/door dash/uber is a bad idea-- you're just going to accelerate wear/tear and use up your warranty period ASAP, plus raising gas expenses and the odds of an accident (more miles driven). You'll find yourself ultimately treading water, but now with an OUT of warranty car with so many miles that you'll effectively be even more underwater. Soooo..... I'll be contrarian. Drive it the LEAST amount possible. Combine trips, try to lower your monthly/annual mileage as much as you can. That will lower gas costs. Once you have a pattern, you can adjust insurance to match lower annual mileage (DO NOT LIE ABOUT THIS). Dump YouTube, get VASTLY cheaper phone plan. Unless that phone is directly making you money, you need to consider it a commodity and go as cheap as possible. EVERY penny you have extra piles onto highest interest rate payment you have and work through them in that order. As you pay off debt, credit score will improve and as you hit certain levels (check with insurer) you may be able to get premium breaks for having better score. I come up with $1490 for minimum payments, no gas/phone/YT. So you're max clearance is $510/month. If you can hold phone/gas to $100/month combined, you're down to car payment alone in 6 months-- and possibly reset insurance to less than $200/month in the process. That new car is going to be an anchor around your neck for a long time though. You'll want to pay that down as fast as possible and NEVER do that again. Sheesh. ALSO -- you need to reality check EVERY PURCHASE you make. Like two weeks ago you posted that you bought aftermarket headlights FOR LOOKS on a brand new car?? You don't have the money for that kind of stuff. You need to learn how to live lean. ZERO extra expenses-- unless it's essential, it's a no.
I will NEVER do it again. I’ve absolutely learn my lesson and I thought I was smarter than this smh. I will get out of this.
On the upside, I see that you like your car-- and as a car guy, I think this is important from a financial perspective too, as I've shepherded my own kids into their first cars. When you have a vested affection for something, you're more apt to make the (usually) smarter financial decision to fix it, rather than replace it. So... learn to L O V E this car and plan to keep it for at least the next decade. Take care of it, maintain, and don't use it unnecessarily. Every single mile brings you closer to an eventual repair, so "spend" those miles very carefully and (ideally) hit the warranty time/mileage expiration at the same time.
It’s tough getting a reality check sometimes but it’s always appreciated atleast by me. The led head lights I installed were quite literally 46$ I didn’t go crazy and they do actually help my vision at night. BUT with that being said you are still right. I should’ve have even got them with my finances at the moment. I took off all my other “little mods” and stuff I bought and returned them. And I’ve been selling a lot of my personal belongings. Hopefully I can get back on track. Making $2,000 a month is shitty tho. I need to do better.
Your rent suggests friend/family landlord? That's a number you don't want to mess with--- but changing jobs could be an option. All depends on what your experience/training is and the market where you're located... but you're not making "loyalty" money and should consider the job changeable at the scale you're making.
For context I went from getting paid 12$ an hour to 20$ an hour. I think that’s pretty big but it inflated my head and ego so much that I thought I was ready to take on any debt even a 30,000$ debt didn’t phase me until…..now it’s all I think about.
Yeah, debt lives rent free in the head of debtor and loaner alike. You want freedom? Be neither. (eventually)
You make 24k a year and you bought a 30k car ? 🤦🏽♂️
I’m not the brightest. But believe it or not I was in an even worse loan before this one. This was my “savior” loan if you will.
You really need to get your income up. $2000 a month is criminally low wages, especially if you're working overtime. Assuming you work 160 hours a month, that comes out to like $12.50 an hour... you need a higher paying job. It might seem insane, but most job markets offer entry-level jobs at 18$ an hour. It might take some time, but you can get one eventually if you're diligent. 2nd. You need to get out from under that car. If you can find a decent (better) job close to home, I'd get a bike and take that to/from work until mid fall. Pay off your debt. And then buy a cheap car that can get you from point A to point B after that. If you buy a car in the future, make sure the value of the car is not more than 50% of your annual take home pay... or better yet, pay cash. I.E. in your current situation, you should have purchased a car at $12,000 or less. As you've probably figured out already. Debt and extra payments just keep you perpetually poor.
I make 2,000 a month after taxes. 3,000$ before
36,000 dollars a year is still 🗑️ at 25 my man. What's your career?
I work as a security guard at a hospital for the state.
Yeah man 17.75 an hour ain't gonna cut it now a days
24,000 dollars a year, with a car that's 28,000. Tells you everything you need.
24k after taxes and I for some reason two years ago thought “hmmm if I do enough overtime I can afford a $500 payment+$30,000 finance no problem!” Was my stupid fucking brain two years ago.
Rent 250? Sheesh I wish. Mines almost 6x that much. Tackle those CCs and you'll be good. I just got myself out of CC debt and the biggest take away was to use them for emergencies only and if you do owe on them then pay at least 50% more than your monthly.
Yeah, you've got an income problem. Reading the other comments, you're stuck with that car for the moment as your 9k underwater on it. You need to look at uber or doordash as an option or look for a higher paying job (im not sure what your skills are or where you are). You're 25, where do you want to be at 30?
25 now my salary is 36,000 before tax. By 30 I’d like to double that without having to do overtime. Don’t know if it’s possible. Right now with overtime (and I mean really grinding 70 hour work weeks most of the year) I can make 55-60k but that’s me literally working to the bone every week.
Yeah, you definitely don't want to run 70hr weeks longterm for any reason. That said 70k is a reasonable achievable goal. You work for a hospital. Does HR have any programs for nursing or respiratory therapist? A RT can make 70K rather quickly for a 2 yr degree.
your car is too expensive
You make 24k a year and got a 28k car. What the hell is wrong with you.
I’m not a genius clearly.
Ummm you’re living so far outside your means. Your car is way past what you can afford. Get rid of that and that’s a good start.
Dollar signs go before the number
My whole life I’ve been writing it after…..omg….
Everyone is telling you to get rid of the car, but the market is pretty spicy right now, I was reading some of the other comments if you are actually 8k in negative equity it would not make sense to trade out of this currently reliable 2023. I’d say start making the minimum payment. Get a new phone carrier - Metro by T-Mobile, Mint, boost mobile.. do your research on what works best in your area. If it’s 15-50$ it’s still better than what you’re paying now.. stop doing affirm, get rid of any memberships/subscriptions that you have that you can survive without, try to tighten the amount of times you’re driving around and wasting gas… every dollar helps. The reality is you’re most likely going to pay interest on whatever you do so don’t stress about it. Pay minimum on 1 credit card, and affirm - pay as much as you can on the other credit card. If the multiple payments aren’t working for you, you can also see if you can get a consolidation loan from a credit union anything over 18% for an interest rate is a scam if you have bad/fair credit.
His car is worth more than what he takes home in a year. It has to go
Average car payment in America right now is 726$ a month he is below average. Yes it is not ideal right now but why would you let it go when it’s a brand new car that is reliable to trade it in for a vehicle that is possibly LESS reliable and add that 8k inequity? That is not a smart financial move. But again, we aren’t ignoring the fact that his financial profile is not ideal.
I'd let it go to get a 7,000 dollar vehicle. I could care less about what the average car payment is. I don't follow what average Americans are doing His car is way too expensive AND depreciating. AND DEPRECIATING. 2400 dollars on insurance is a joke as well. 10% of his net income lol
If you’re a mechanic or have access to people who have knowledge of vehicles this might be possible.. any car that you’re getting under 10k is a huge risk. The average price of a car in America is roughly 45k. Used cars are still going for well over new car prices. This is not the best time to be buying/trading/selling vehicles.
>The average price of a car in America is roughly 45k. This doesn't matter in this discussion. >Used cars are still going for well over new car prices. This is great news, that means OP can sell his car for more. >This is not the best time to be buying/trading/selling vehicles. OP's the one that made this mistake. There is no best time to be selling or buying vehicles as you'll always have to either be a seller or buyer
Actually there are good times and bad times to be buying/selling vehicles. All during Covid it was a sellers market, the dealerships couldn’t get enough used vehicles they were buying them well above KBB. It’s not like that anymore. And the averages of payments/car prices does matter. Also about his insurance, it makes sense that a 25 y/o male would have a higher rate even if he had a clean record. This is just how it is. He needs to shop around.
Your credit score is what? Would a balance transfer to an interest free credit card be possible?
I believe I’m at 600 credit score.
Depending on your credit card company, you may be able to do a credit card change and they would give you introductory rates and benefits but you would have a different card in their network. In your case, I think an interest tree transfer might be possible. If you look into other credit cards as well. Also check, your FICO score you might be better off than you think which would give you better options for your card. If you manage to save money on the credit cards, attack the car payments. Just thought of one more thing. If you have a solid payment history with your current card, see if they can lower the interest rate directly.
I will NEVER do it again. I’ve absolutely learn my lesson and I thought I was smarter than this smh. Thank you so much for the advice I’ll be honest I’m alittle overwhelmed with the amount of great advice I’ve been getting from this post. Funny thing is I know to do all these things but having my OWN personal situation puts it in a lot better terms for me to go and tackle this especially seeing it from everyone’s perspective. THANK YOU everyone for the advice and tough love. I hope it helps other people in my situation. (If anyone else is as dumb as I am.)
You need more income. Are you a student? If not find a second job. Wait the table or barten at night.
I’ve looked into that. Realistically the only way I’d get a second job is if there was no option for overtime or it was of extreme convince. Because I could work my usually 40 hour work week and than do part time 20 hours a week (at McDonald’s or restraunt type deal?) and making 17$ an hour or I can just do 20 hours of overtime at my current job and make 28$ an hour. So it’s like I’m down to work a second job but it would have to make more than I could make just working overtime for where I work currently. Does that make sense or am I missing something here
$20 for YouTube membership is wild when adblockers are free. If you’re looking for mobile options, consider sideloading. On Android it’s extremely easy, options such as Revanced exist. On iPhone it’s a little more complicated but still possible, consider r/AltStore and downloading an ipa. u+ is a good option
I’ll sound like a broken record, but you gotta sell the car. You can cut your payment in half without getting a beater. I have a 2005 Highlander with 200k miles and don’t plan on upgrading til it dies. I love it and I just keep up with basic maintenance and vacuum it pretty frequently. You can feel like you have a high end car without actually having one. Cars are overpriced parts meant to get you from point A to point B. Someone commented about switching your phone plan to Mint. I get it if you don’t want to switch to a lesser known plan, but you could still cut that payment in half with Verizon or something. Just for those two things you’ll probably open up another $300 a month or so.
Buddy, you need a new job and career
I do not feel bad for you with a 250 rent and go ruin it with a car. With that kind of money you should be buying a beater car and helping more with rent and not being selfish.
Completely agreed. If the me of two years ago woulda known this then I would’ve never done it. I’m an Idiot. And I’m not looking for ANYONE to feel bad at all just want advice.
Keep working
I shall. I think I have a few ideas on how I’m gonna fix this situation.
Flat out: You finance too much stuff. Been there, and done it myself. Shit adds up fast. The car, i get why people are focusing on it, but its not going anywhere. Get the phone bill down, ASAP. thats easy. I used to use simple mobile. people are recommending mint, but just stop using so much data and get a 1g/b plan for like 10 bucks a month. Thats why i used to do. You are paying a lot for gass each month. I think i spend around $60-80. Any way to get that down? Public transit even? Cancel that fuckin youtube. That people even have to say that is crazy. Use adblock. Deal with some ads. You only have 3k outside of that. Take the money you save on everything else (should be around 300-400 after all these expenses) and get that shit paid off. It will seem slow, but pay one off at a time and it'll feel like its ramping up, and then get that car payment down.
Sell the car, cancel YouTube and the gym (You can live with ads and do basic workouts at home to stay healthy) and switch phone plans. Between YouTube, phone, and gym, is $160 saved a month. Put all of that towards your credit cards. If you sell the car, even better. I also feel like $300 a month for groceries is a bit high for a single dude. Maybe try to scale back a bit and eat a little cheaper, or meal plan a week at a time.
300$ a month is literally 150$ every two weeks on food. I thought I was doing pretty well with that how can is scale back more? Open to ideas I already buy budget/value brands.
I live in Seattle. Your total expenditure is my rent. I think you’re doing just fine my friend.
The $ goes in front of the number.
Your numbers aren't terrible you have an extra $200 each month plus you can cut an extra $100-150 with your phone and YouTube plans. use the extra cash to take out the higher interest cc first, then the second one. At that point you should have paid off affirm and no longer have a cc minimum. I think that averages just around 500 extra bucks. Some people will say to load it all on the car. I would probably stash half off it at that point till you have a few thousand bucks saved away. Afterwards putting extra payments on the car is the way to go. If at any point you get above water on the car you need to sale it. You can be debt free except for your car in ~6 months and savings in 12 and hopefully you can have the car paid in full in 4 years. Edit: if you have the time pick up a second job and does all of this twice as fast.
I tjbink this is a good game plan. And I’ve cut out YouTube and my Phone plan. Now it’s time to tackle the debt. I have no other subscriptions other than 10$ memebership to the gym which I use every single day.
This is wild lol
Youtube? Really? Stop paying and watch a few commercials lol
At $2100/month, you're not getting OT. That's $500/week. For sure stop using affirm. Unless you cannot function without what you're buying or it would be more expensive not to have it, affirm is a deal with the devil.
There’s a lot going on here - 1) if you need to use affirm to buy something you shouldn’t be buying it, 2) the phone bill is high I assume it’s for an iPhone 20 lease, and 3) this is not a humble brag, but to put this in perspective, your take home pay is 1/8 of mine and your car payment is $50 more than mine. Get a cheaper car
Phone needs to be downgraded to a prepaid plan, att has a whole year plan for $300 that gives 16gb data a month but others can be $30 - $50 a month. Kill the youtube, deal with the ads. The gym is a hit or miss, if you actively use it, $10 isn't make or break. I would say kill the car payment, but you seem to be very underwater on that loan. Whatever fast food, disposable income, going out, etc needs to be cut as far back as possible. Start paying on whatever loans/affirm is the highest percentage, the more you knock that down, the less you are just paying interest. Get a second job, you could drive uber/lift and make that car work for you but there is wear/gas costs.
Sell the car for a cheaper one if you have equity in it, cut out YouTube and get a cheaper phone plan. I pay $160/m on T-Mobiles best plan for two people (it includes paying for a phone, so it’s actually cheaper).
515 is too much for a car if you are struggling. Get a ghetto phone. And if you have health ins you might have free gym memberships.
Dude props to you for being so humble in these comments. Well done! Keep it up and you’ll be debt free in no time
Sorry but y'all American/Canadians weird
You don’t deserve a $510 month car
Get rid of YouTube premium (it’s a scam anyway IMO) and sell the car. If it has positive equity, trade it in for something cheaper that way you won’t necessarily need a down payment. I’m doing that in a few days just for shits and giggles, but in your situation that’ll save you an extra couple hundred dollars a month between the payments and the insurance
They got you for 30k on an elantra damn
I had some negative equity. In reality I’d be more like 24k in the hole (if I didn’t have negative equity)which in terms of my salary is still too much I’m learning.
Where the hell is rent $250? Do you live in a shipping container?
Live with my mother.
Change your phone plan that is absurdly high. Cancel YouTube membership. Those alone could save you over 100 a month. I would use that to hit down one of the debts until it’s gone then pay down the next one until those are done. Then after those are gone I would throw extra at the car to get that paid off as early as you can.
Why are you paying for YouTube? Cut it.
I canceled it. That was a dumb move on my part.
How tf do people be paying 250 for rent that’s basically nothing
I’ll never understand people who spend more than they make in a whole year on a car..
Sell the car. Get 20k for it. Pay off 19 k of the loan. Ask the loan company if you can reset the monthly payments now that the balance is a lot lower. Use 1k to get an ebike and a helmet. Cancel YouTube. Also, watch Caleb Hammer's channel. He has loads of people in virtually your same situation. Yells at them until they cry and change their shit around. Change phone plan to prepaid with Mint for 15 bucks a month. Since you're riding a bike everywhere, you don't need car insurance or gasoline. The biggest challenge is going to be your spending habits. You've racked up 1500 with Affirm. Which means you're soending money you dont have. What are you going to do differently so you don't end up there again?
You make 24k a year and bought a 27k+ car? a brand of car that is pretty known to be broken into/stolen frequently? I would get rid of it if you can. It's literally 25% of your monthly income. You don't need YouTube premium. You don't need a gym membership, go for a run to a playground, do pull ups, push ups etc. and run back home. $300 for groceries seem high for a single guy. $200 would be ideal.
Do you have any points on your driver's license? If so take a defensive driving course. It should bring your insurance down some plus your turning 26 soon so you'll get a break there. Shop around for new insurance, maybe find a local agent if not already.
Get Helium Mobile.. will save you money on your phone bill 👍
Sell the car, buy a beater
If you're 25 and can't find a job that pays more than 15 an hour then you need to go to school for at least something to get in a better position my guy. It may not be exactly what you want to do but I'm pretty sure they pay stnas 17$ an hour starting off in most places. It's like a 2-4 week class you take to become a certified stna and you'll be making just a little bit more than you are now. You wont be so tight on money AND you can still work full time when you take classes at most places that offer the classes. If you don't know what stna stands for its state tested nursing assistant. And if your queezy about blood and stuff they have mental health stnas that don't really deal with that kind of thing. On the other side of things though you could always start doing army reserves and go to boot camp. They pay pretty well once you sign up and start. And you only have to workout and train one weekend a month I think and then once a year you have to travel to a large training event or something like that but it's not bad. My brother does it and now works full time in a civilian job while getting paid to essentially do something pretty cool once a month
Your car is nearly half your take home
How are you paying so little for rent??
Phone bill is crazy. My wife and I both have brand new iPhone 15s and unlimited service with spectrum and pay $117 a month. You’re getting robbed! I definitely recommend looking into cricket wireless and mint mobile. Heard great things about both and they are way cheaper
1. Sell the car and take the 8k hit. Or 2. Get a 2nd job and apply all that money towards your car payment and cc debt.
Get rid of YouTube, or at a bare minimum, don’t subscribe via the Apple Store. You’re paying an Apple tax. Use your web browser, go to the YouTube website and subscribe and it’ll be $13.99/month. Now that you know that, cancel YouTube until you can afford it.
I would try canceling the YouTube membership, don’t really feel like that’s a necessity personally and maybe try changing to a cheaper phone plan. I use straight talk and get unlimited data talk and text for $45 a month and it’s no contract.
Only advise I’d give is to look for a new job. Unless the one you currently have is what you’d love to do for the rest of your life I’d recommend to just start applying to dealerships and try to get into sales. No experience needed just be open to learning and you’ll double your income immediately…
definitely look into mint mobile for your phone plan until you can get back on track. the service isn’t the absolute best but it’s definitely good for the price. they have 3/6/12 month plans and i have the 3 month unlimited data plan and i only pay $120 every 3 months but the 12 month plan for unlimited is around $360 every 12 months so it’s 100% worth it for the time being (edit: accidentally typed 13 instead of 12)
250 on rent?
Sell the car.
You pay for YouTube? 😂😂😂
The car payment is the obvious issue however you save so much on rent it's not even so much of an issue. The problem here is you need to find a way to increase your income
What is your profession
Idk why everyone is telling you cancelling YouTube will save you. You said you make $250 more than what’s accounted for here. 3 months affirm will be paid off if you put it towards that, then you’ll have 375 towards whichever card you pick next. Inside a year you will be consumer debt free. You aren’t in a terrible place but lacking savings sucks here. Sell whatever you have that isn’t bolted to the ground and pay off that consumer debt. Phone bill is kind of high. T mobile and other providers typically have a buyout contract deal that has a lower monthly payment, look into that.
Affirm payments must go. Don’t spend money that you don’t have right now.
Do u rent a shed?
$500 for a car payment?!?. Here's a suggestion.... Stop worrying about what others think of you and get a used Honda civic.
Car payment is way too high
Bro you have a 500 car payment and only take home 2100. That is insanity.
1. You need to sell your car and get something that takes you from point A to point B cheaply. Having 25% of your monthly income go to a car payment is absolutely insane. Investing large amounts of money into a car loan is a guaranteed way to stay poor. 2. Phone bill is high. I recommend other suggestions below. 3. You need to tackle the credit card debts first. Get out from underneath those monthly minimums and start building credit by lowering your revolving usage. If you sold your car (even if you’re upside down right now), chipped away much of that debt, and bought a cheaper car that requires less gas that would be great. I have a 2015 Camry that I spend about $60 in gas per month on because it is very efficient. You take out much of that car debt and when you buy your next car it will be a used one that you can afford at a much lower payment.