Hello generous people of the world,
I am a 31 year old living in a small town in Vermont with my fiance. We rent a small home down the road from my parents house where I grew up. I am $10,989.70 in credit card debt, and therefore asking for donations toward paying off that amount. I have student loans as well from attending a state college here, but I won’t bring that into the equation. We pay $1,000/month to rent this little ranch home on 5 acres in my hometown, which is a huge blessing. My fiance has been shouldering the rent and bill payments for some time now.
I used to work full-time at a local custom cabinet maker shop in town. We had 1 month of furlough during the beginning of the pandemic, but were able to return to work because of the small size of our workforce and large working space. After losing 2 finger tips at the first knuckle, one in June of 2019 and one in October of 2020, my boss would no longer allow me to work with the big tools. I understand this as an employer who is carrying workers compensation insurance; my dad has a drywall business, so I grew up listening to the stress of it all. Regardless, this essentially eliminated all the work I took the job to learn how to do. My boss also had an anger issue, which made the working environment stressful and caused me to break down emotionally several times on the job, which had never happened before. I left the job in December of 2020. Leaving the job willingly meant I was ineligible for workers compensation.
A month or so later, laying awake at night unsure of what to do next and knowing I needed to earn, I thought maybe it was time to finally invest in becoming a real estate agent. I have friends in the field and I had considered it as an option for me many times before. Up until that point I had always managed my 2 credit cards and personal checking account very well. I had paid them on-time and in full, almost never getting late fees or interest charges. My mom taught me to never spend more than you actually have. I decided it was time to invest a little in my future.
Real Estate Sales seemed like the type of job I could make a lot of money at if I wanted to work hard, but also like something I could scale back on if I wanted to take up wood working again or spend time raising a family someday. I’m not great in a crowd, but I love connecting with individuals and helping people. I love homes and I love this state and area. I have a large family on my mom’s side and even more family on my dad’s side, both of which originated in our county, and a majority of whom remained here, so I considered my sphere of influence large as well. I asked my parents for the money to take the real estate sales course and within a few months I had my license and was set up to work in a local office.
I started working in the small local office in May of 2021, being told I would not make a lot of money my first or even second year, but that I could certainly make a decent living. I worked with many buyers over the summer and eventually sold my first house in October of 2021. Unfortunately, it was a mobile home, and only afforded me about $1500 in commission. All the while, I’ve drained my savings and accrued all the credit debt trying to help with bills, make my car payments, and contribute to rent payments.
My parents have been kind enough to help out some with rent payments, and even helped make some credit card payments in the beginning. However, my dads drywall business is now only him and only part-time, and my mom is a bookkeeper for an orthodontist office. They aren’t wealthy people, and with the wedding coming up in the fall, I stopped feeling like it was fair to ask them for more money. My fiance’s parents are immigrants from Brazil who work full-time jobs, at a soda company and as a house keeper/nanny, but are also not wealthy and send money back to their families in Brazil. My fiance works a full-time job at a local cidery, but as we all know, wages are not keeping up with inflation and they can’t support us both.
I’m still working with a lot of buyers, but like the rest of the country, Vermont is experiencing a very competitive buyers market with very few listings and the numbers going down every month. Rich folks from out of state are swooping in and putting in cash offers several 10’s of thousands of dollars over asking price and waiving contingencies. Young Vermont families just cannot compete with people who want a second home or a place to “AirBnB”. Without any business to speak of after almost a year, I decided it was time to figure out a side hustle.
I contacted a local artist who does earrings, bracelets, light switch/outlet covers, and ornaments from wood and suggested that I help with the finishing work. He agreed he could use the help, and I’ve started putting in about 8 hours a week sanding and putting finish on his product. This work affords me a little over $100 a week, which essentially pays for my monthly car payment and nothing else. I’ve also started watching one of my friends toddlers for 3 hours a week, which helps us buy groceries for the month. I would love to spend more time working for the wood worker, but can only do what he needs me for, and need to also spend time on my real estate business.
So, that’s where I’m at and why. You’ll see in the photos: my hand, my current balances for my bank account, my discover accounts (one is $3,000 that I transferred from my old AMEX because I was offered 18 months of no interest on balance transfers and I was trying to reduce my interest accrual), my AMEX account, and my car payment.
https://paypal.me/KMalzac?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US