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financial problems, help?
Mr awesome possum 
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok so here's the deal (I know it happens all the time but) I have a pretty scrappy job pays 8/hr and I have a car that's a month late bills like a mother****er, and I have a ticket and my checks won't be able to cover it all...
My car payments are 250/biweekly, my ticket is 175 and due next Wednesday, and my phone and insurance is up as well (that's about 300 for both)..my checks are about 230/week... There's no way in hell... Is there?
My car payments are 250/biweekly, my ticket is 175 and due next Wednesday, and my phone and insurance is up as well (that's about 300 for both)..my checks are about 230/week... There's no way in hell... Is there?
Mr awesome possum on
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Get a (much) better job. Or another job. Try to have your car payment be way less than half your monthly income.
The first thing you need to do is call the court about your ticket and see if you can get an extension or payment plan set up so at least maybe you'll have a little more time on your side.
Second, start looking at getting rid of the car (what kind is it? curious for trade in value, etc, and how much longer do you have to make payments on it?)
Third, what kind of phone plan are you on, and how much is it a month?
Fourth, it's the holiday season, so look to see if there's some temp work you can find to help with the bills if you've got the bandwidth to work extra hours. A lot of retail shops are going to be hiring weekend staff for 8-16 hours a week from now through January.
2) A $500/month car payment at an $8/hr job is insanity. Find some way out from under that and make better decisions in the future.
3) I'm assuming your car insurance is already the bare minimum required by your state. If not, shop around for cheaper car insurance.
4) For this month, you're pretty much boned. You're going to be tempted to go to a payday/title loan place, but that's a bad idea unless it's the absolute last resort before default.
Call the court and ask about a payment plan. They want their money, and if you communicate with them, they tend to be patient about it. Usually they will let you do 40-50 a paycheck until you pay it off, just need to talk to them.
Crikey almighty, that car payment. You really need to do something about that.
Monthly Income ---- $230/week x 4 weeks in a month (sometimes 5, but this is worst case scenario) = $920
Monthly Expenses -- $300 (phone and insurance) + $500 (car) = $800
If that's all your expenses (no rent, electric bill, internet/tv, etc. etc.) then you have $120/month to live on and pay for any extra things that come along the way...like tickets. You consider gas and food and you don't have anything left...if you even have enough for that.
Don't get a loan...that won't solve anything, only temporarily fix the problem but you'll be in a worse situation down the road.
$500 dollars a month is a lot for a car. What do you have, a brand new luxury car? That also probably explains your high insurance. You sell that and get something more reasonable and you've cut your expenses considerably.
$300 dollars a month for a phone plan is also pretty ridiculous (if it's $300 for each, phone and insurance). I don't know what your plan is, but if it's just you, a reasonable plan would be around $100 or $120. Mine is unlimited text, 2GB data (because usually i'm using a wifi signal), and 450 minutes (because usually I'm using it at nights and weekends) and mine is about $100.
Actions to take:
1. You don't have to drop your phone service, but you can cut some features immediately to start saving on your phone bill. If you're under contract, drop it when you finish or find out what the early termination fee is and determine if it's worth it to do that and pay the fee.
2. Like amateurhour said, call the court and ask for an extension. As long as you do it before you due date, they are pretty considerate when it comes to that.
3. Start asking friends and family for help to get you by while you work on getting rid of your car and eliminating expenses. Some might help you out.
4. Get a new job, or find a second job
edit: Yeah, when you say that's about $300 for both...does that mean for each? or combined? I'm hoping it's $300 combined, otherwise your expenses are $1,100 and you're drowning
Get a tracker phone if you need to, yeesh.
I have to disagree. Making more money is not the issue, the fundamental problem at play here is that he is spending more than he is making. If the OP does not learn how to live within his means, he is doomed to repeat this pattern no matter how high a salary he gets in the future.
Am I talking out of my ass? No. I am the only income in a family of 3. If you split my paycheck in two -one half for me and the other for my wife- the OP and I make the same amount of money, that still leaves a third member of the family that we have to split our check with. If you divide it that way, I make less money than the OP. I'm not saying this to boast, I just want to state that I am a living testimony of how smart planing can take you a long way, regardless of income.
The first thing you need to do is take a good, hard look at your finances:
Play around with the number until you find a place in which you are no longer in the red every month.
When you do find a job with a better pay, keep your lifestyle at the same level (upgrade a bit, but don't go nuts). You've already learned to live with this amount of money. Save the difference. You'll find out later in life that having financial security will take out the stress from your life (and relationships).
I also recommend Suze Orman's books, specifically "The Guide to the Young, Fabulous, and Broke". I have a copy, PM me your address and I'll ship it to you.
Edit:
Could I ask you a couple of questions? Please answer them truthfully.
1. How much money do you make a month?
2. What kind of recurring expenses do you have?
Phone bill
Internet bill
Cable
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Car bill
Rent
Water bill
Electric Bill
Entertainment
Gasoline
3. What kind of one time expenses do you have? (traffic tickets and stuff)
4. How much debt do you have?
5. What kind of financial goal would you like to have?
In my case, I want to go on vacation every year. I save for this purpose.
If you get a cheaper car your insurance (provided you don't have a lapse or accidents) should drop under $100 a month for minimum state coverage, which is fine if you're just getting a beater to get you back and forth to work.
So that would theoretically drop about $150 from your outgoing funds right off the bat.
As far as the car goes, if you can get rid of it, do so. If your credit is still good enough to finance you can get a good used car to get you from A to B from somewhere between 3000 and 5000 (and I'm talking about something that will actually work, without needing immediate repair once you get it out of some dude off of craigslists driveway)
You can finance that, or worst case scenario you can do one of those title loan deals (they don't check credit, but they'll sure as hell take your car if you miss a payment, there's no "play catch up for a month" with them) It's really not the best option, but it might be the only one you have if you can't get your hands on the cash to just buy one outright.
Speaking of your car, how's your loan looking on it? Are you upside down on it?
It takes you three weeks of the month to pay off your car. Hell, that's not healthy for any single item to consume that much of your pay.
Yeah. I put it in my post because it's a pretty easy way to save $50/mo, but that car payment is absurd.
Yeah, this too.
Yes, the car is a problem and needs to be resolved, but that's not as easy as switching phone plans, lowering insurance, etc. Those are first steps that need to be taken.
It's HARD to get out of a car payment. It's just as hard (relatively) as getting out of an apartment lease or mortgage. You're going to have to find someone to buy it, not lose money (which is tough now), and have alternative transportation lined up all in the span of about a one month window to not take a huge hit or have to make extra payments.
Getting rid of the car without defaulting on it is going to be difficult.
badly
that is an absolutely insane car payment for someone of your means
frankly given your situation and depending on how predatory that car loan is (I am guessing the answer is "very") you should just consider defaulting
it's shitty but you have very few options
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I was in your boat, barely afloat living check to check, and every expense over like 200 was a catastrophic event. i'm still sitting in quite a bit of debt thanks to those days. do what you can to change your lifestyle ASAP!
Man, is there any financial transaction you haven't been screwed on? :P
To be fair, wife and I just bought a new Mazda 3 with a 0.9% APR and a 36-month term and have payments over $500/month.
Not that someone making $8/hr would ever be approved for that loan, but it is certainly possible to have a payment that high on non-luxury vehicles.
(You must have put almost nothing down to be paying 500 a month for a Mazda 3, even at 36-month term)
That said, if the OP's loan was like my loan there wasn't any kind of income verification. Just a credit check and a form - like a pre-2007 mortgage pretty much. I don't know the circumstances around OP's purchase, so I'm just going to leave it there.
I have a funny feeling that is not the OP's situation though, I really do...he could never even get approved for the loan you got at a reputable place.
2. Soon as the phone contract is up switch to a lower priced no-contract plan. My wife and I have iPhones with Virgin Mobile and pay $90.00 a month as opposed to $199.00 a month with ATT. They have decent Android phones for about $150.00 as well.
3. Contact the court regarding the ticket and explain your situation. Depending on what the charges are they may work out a payment plan with you.
Yeah, exactly.
You are correct. But a cell phone is an absolute luxury. A car is necessary if you live somewhere where public transportation is either nonexistent or unreliable. He can realistically go without a cell phone.
The crazy phone plan has to go. Same with the crazy expensive car. Either he's on a super short term loan or bought a car way out of his price range. Either way the advice is the same.
Listen to the good advice these people are giving you OP. You can royally fuck yourself in the long term if you don't get these things under control while they are still somewhat manageable.
Ok i think ive answered most except this and maybe it will help people see where I'm standing....
I just received my 4th check (effectively about a month) my paystub said 1078 YTD;
2. Phone is about 110
Insurance is 178
Car 500
I had to move back in with my parents and I pay 120 for rent
I use about 40 per week on gas which is about 160 per month
No breakfast
5 for lunch a day
Really for entertainment me and my gf try to go out once a week or something, nothing special though. Maybe Chili's.
No Dinner either really except I guess if my parents offer me something.
3. Just the traffic ticket; I dont think i have any other one time expenses..
4. I owe about 4000 on the car
5. I honestly just wanna have money to be able to have my own place. Vacations and other things like that don't interest me (or they do but i just know its not gonna happen right now so I don't even consider that to be an option.)
So for financial goals I'd say just to have an amount over 500 in my bank account at all times.
I just turned 19 if that makes any sort of difference.
I'm scared to ask, but what are the terms on that car loan? Getting a $500/month payment on $5000 of principle ($7K cost - $2K down) requires some kind of insane interest rate over any term longer than a year...
and so when it comes to prioritizing I should....
1. Call the court and ask about a payment plan
2. Sell/Trade or do something to the car.. The reason it's so high is because of the buy here pay here type of lot i got it from. (Wouldn't've even gone with that but i really had no choice.)
3. Perhaps get a cheaper phone plan.
There's always other options. You certainly didn't need a $7,000 car. And why would you call a court about making payments? What kind of plan are you paying $110 a month for? My iPhone with unlimited texting and data is only $90.
The car situation could be difficult to get out of. You gotta cut the non-essentials. Phone, eating out for lunch each day, etc...Any way to cut back on the fuel expenditure? Or is that necessary for traveling to work? Is there any type of bus system where you live or is it feasible to walk to any of the places you need or want to go?
Well the way it was supposed to work was that i was supposed to pay off the remaining amount of money within a year. They wanted me to pay it off within one year of me purchasing the car. There was no interest just 5000 in 10 months was the way it was supposed to work out.
I just got a ticket for running a stop sign (stupid i know) and I have a T-Mobile and it's generally around 108 so i just rounded to 110, but its nothing special. HTC Sensation just unlimited texting I think.
I tried to but i doubt it'll get me anywhere, and i honestly never thought of just PB&J that'll definitely help out my situation, I'll probably do that today or maybe take everything to my job and store it in the fridge.
On the fuel expenditure its necessary for work, I dont travel anywhere else as of right now, and no buses I live in a town of around 20k people. So it's decent but no buses here.
Okay you have to pay off this ticket. You can do a few things
1) Call the court. As someone who has owed and someone who later became friends with processors...ask for help. Honestly they don't want to put out a warrant for your arrest. If you ask for mercy then they will give it to you. I (and friends) have been in situation where all I could pay was 15 a week until it was paid off and the court went for it. Showing that you want to pay it off will almost always get your mercy.
2) Ask your parents. It frikkin sucks but hey it's their fault you're in the world in the first place. Tell em to put their money where their sexing has gotten them. I know it sucks to ask your parents but if you have half way decent parents they'd rather pay the ticket than have you end up with a warrant
3) Start a fundraiser. If you have any kind of following, people will pitch in a dollar or two to help. I've had friends raise thousands in days because they had a few hundred followers on a variety social media and when we're not being douches...the internet cares a lot.
4) Don't pay it. Skirt the law ( I did for a VERY long time). Pay it off later. This situation is made easier if you don't drive though. If you drive then it won't take them long to run your plates and find you. I do not suggest this option especially for your ticket price.
Now on to the car. I work in auto finance. I don't know where you are located in the states but with a 1000 a month income, you can probably trade in your car and get a lower payment even with 0 dollars down (though they'd probably ask to get a differed down payment of about $500). You can make your term nice and long and if you get back on your feet then you can trade in and go for something nicer. It sucks to give up the car but don't let your investment go to waste. Trade it in at a proper lot that deals with actual banks like Ally, Capital One, Americredit, Santander, Etc. let them find you the best place because I assume you need a car to get around.
If you don't need a car to get around and you can take the bus (no matter how shitty the walk/time is) take the frikkin bus. Just take this time to read and chill. Taking the bus will solve a lot of problems. I've spend 6 hours a day on a bus to get to/from work. It sucks but remember it won't last for long.
5 dollars a day seems like a little but if you can buy groceries then pack a lunch. You can save a minimum of $2 a day and up to $4 a day (from microwave meals to packing a few sandwiches and chips). It's time to give up the 5 dollar a deal meals because you can't afford them. I make a wee bit (read a lot) more than you these days and even I don't spend that much every day (and I'm a big money waster from way back).
Keep the phone if it's your only internet. If it isn't then drop the phone (unless you're under contact then drop it only if you're okay with it taking a hit to your credit and go prepaid phone). Taking a hit to your credit isn't the worst thing in the world. You can always pay it off later....
I don't care about money either but eventually it comes in handy to do a few things in life so if you can find a better job then do that. You don't have to settle down and commit to a long term scary adult job if you don't want...just something with a few more bucks. If that isn't an option then you have to cut corners everywhere possible. That includes going out to dinner at chillis. Learn to love cooking at home. Also ask your parents for rent relief.
And that's all I got for you. Best of luck.
edit: looks like I was typing while you posted. sucks for no bus. so look at the trade in options.
edit 2: So I read your other posts. You have worked at a Call Center in Texas before right? Why not get another one of those again? Texas (especially the Dallas area) has LOADS of those jobs available. Those were my bread and butter for many years and the pay typically starts around 13 these days. If you are polite and give good interview then there's a few options available for you. No reason at all to stay in the shitty job you're at now.
$108/month with T-Mobile for a single line should get you unlimited everything, which you don't need (and, honestly, can't afford anymore). You still have a ways to go on your contract, but you may want to consider calling their CS line and seeing if they can get you on a cheaper rate plan that fits your usage patterns better (look up your monthly usage on my.t-mobile.com and figure out what you really need). Be honest with them and explain your financial situation, and they'll do what they can - they would rather get less money than no money. Even if they can't switch your plan, they might "magically" find a $10/month discount for you. Also, if your employer is a fairly large company, ask if there are any corporate discounts - you might be able to save 15%.
1. First call is to the court and ask for an extension or payment plan. Like others said, this shouldn't be an issue and they court will help. You need to be proactive about it though, call now and don't wait until it's due
2. Call T-Mobile and ask more about plans. I'm unfamiliar with T-Mobile, so I don't know if they do contracts and have promotion prices on things, but see if you are eligible for something that might give you a discount. If not, see about dropping the plan and getting a pre paid phone or go with verizon, at&t, or sprint. $108 dollars monthly is pretty crazy now. Unlimited txt is the standard, see how much data you use and go with something around what you use. You could probably get something around 60-90 bucks if you did some research.
3. Understanding your details of the loan, I wouldn't say get rid of it now. Try talking to your parents. Your 19, recently had a shitty thing happen job-wise, and I don't know your relationship with your parents but they let you move back in with them so they obviously care. See if you could set something up with them to help pay your car off for the next 8 months and then work on paying your parents back. Show them you are saving as much money as possible, being more financially responsible by things like not going out for lunch everyday and you're trying to cut expenses so you can handle it on your own. Hopefully they'll be sympathetic and help you out.
Your insurance is a little high, but that's because your still 19. Nothing you could really do about it. You could get a cheaper car but I really don't think it would lower your rates that much because insurance companies don't drivers until they're 25.