I am 30 years old, and I have accumulated around $30,000 in credit card debt. I will admit that it is partly due to ignorance about how credit cards work, but also largely because of hard times.
I’m currently working full time at a local walmart. Ive been working there for roughly 10 years, and I make around $30,000 a year. It’s a steady job, not the worst but not the greatest. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my life away for them but I guess that’s not really the point of this. The reason I am including this information is to try and show that I am trying.
I am married, we’ve been together for around 9 years. When we met, she had a fairly similar job. She hurt her back and shoulder during a job and wasn’t covered through her work for any reimbursement. Also she has other medical problems that make it hard for her to work. She’s been unemployed for roughly 5 years. She spends her time babysitting and doing odd craft jobs from time to time, but it doesn’t equate to any real salary. So between the 2 of us, I’m barely able to keep us afloat with just me working.
We live on her family’s farm, rent free. So that is a major plus, and I am thankful for that. In the beginning, my wife and I opted to try the tiny house thing, and we started to commit to that way of life. We bought a 12×30 building, built it up just enough to be livable. It’s a nice little house. We invested in solar power, but the system we use is only enough to power internet and tv. It can’t run anything over 800 watts or so. So that means no simple appliances like refrigerator, microwave, etc. To circumvent this problem, we invested in a generator. Which is helpful but gasoline can be expensive. We currently have no water access, no septic tank. Our driveway is a dirt/muddy mess depending on the weather. We have to park, and walk to our house. It floods occasionally, a few years ago our car sat in water overnight. I believe it damaged the transmission because we had issues with it since the flooding. We had to trade it in because of that.
I’m typing all of this in an attempt to paint a picture of our situation. Nobody we talk to or work with really understands how we really live. I’m embarrassed to even invite someone over. The whole purpose of pursuing living in a tiny house was to be debt free. We didn’t want to be tied to a mortgage for 50 years. But currently with everything going on, the credit cards piled up and it’s beginning to become unmanageable. My parents filed bankruptcy when they were my age and their credit has never recovered. They live better than we do now, but still, I want to avoid filing for bankruptcy. I’d afraid that will be the case if I can’t get this figured out this year.
So basically to sum this up; I was stupid for using credit cards too much. My credit is still good, like 670 at the time of writing this. So I have multiple cards but the biggest one has a limit of $25,000 and the balance is hovering around $23,000. My problem is the interest. The minimum payment is almost $500, and the interest adds another $300-400 each month. I am usually able to dump $1000 into it per month but we also have to use the card for food and other bills. So in the end, it’s basically 2 steps forward / 3 steps back.
It’s bad enough that I’m seeking assistance like this. And I’m aware that I probably won’t have any luck with me posting this. But it’s worth a shot. If anybody out there can find it in their heart to help us out, we would be very thankful. We try to be good people, at least I feel like we do. While it is my fault for my situation, it really pains me to put my wife through this. She has her own dreams and it’s always been my goal to help her achieve whatever I can. We are still young, but we’ve wasted a good 10 years of our lives dealing with financial issues, in one way or another. I feel like I’m smarter now, I know the dos and dont’s. I just haven’t found a way to fix it myself.
Realistically, anything would help. I’m not looking for someone to hand me thousands of dollars. While I wouldn’t turn it away, I’m not expecting that at all. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read my story, and thank you to anyone willing to help.
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