How in H.E. Double hockey sticks do you ever get ahead?! - I (30F) am just frustrated. I don’t understand how to even begin to move forward and get ahead. Money is the worst!!
I am at a big adult job now and make 65k which is the most I ... See More have ever made. It’s awesome and I love my job it does keep me busy but overall it’s great with good people. Every month I pay 3k to bills (rent, child care, utilities) this leaves me with $400-$500 every paycheck, which is the 15th and 30th of every month. I know it seems like a lot but it’s not.
I have a husband (41M) who is graveyard and doesn’t make much but gets paid weekly maybe $450-$550 a week and a toddler (4M) who takes a lot of time and money obviously. Car payment is auto take out $288 and second one I try n pay $350 so we aren’t paying $680 all at once. I’ve had to take out a payday loan and it’s been eating at me. Credit cards are maxed out for gas and food and it’s hard to pay them and not use them.

I feel like I’m drowning. We barley have $15-$20 in our account after everything. I guess my question is, does it ever get better? What am I doing wrong to have it so near death every month? What in the world can I do to do better?

I was thinking of a second job but then I would never be with my kid or even sleep. I feel so torn I think I just need some personal advice on how to make it work.

Thanks 😊

I'm thinking of taking out a personal loan to pay for 15k debt. - Currently I have 11k in CC debt and 3k in auto loans. At 29% APR for my CCs I think it would be smart to take out a loan to pay it all off.

According to Credit ... See More KARMA I have great approval rates for a loan for 15k at 9%APR. My credit is around 740 and currently employed.

So my question is if it's a good idea to take out a personal loan? I know this community encourages people to consider consolidating your debt with a 0 APR CC first before taking out a loan.

My employer hasn’t been paying me for the last 3 months - My employer didn’t pay my salaries for 3 months and finally terminated my employment. They let go of everyone in the company and said they have stopped all operations. Now they are pursuing investments, and they claim they ... See More will pay my salaries once they secure investment.

Should I take any action? If so, what should I do?

The startup is in Europe and I have been working remotely from outside of Europe.

My father entered my social security and information into a scam website - My father fell for a scam and also deleted the site link for the scam in his browser history.

The social security office is closed as of now for the weekend and I am quite unsure where ... See More to go.

I see that there is a credit protectors or stuff online but I am not quite sure about the effectiveness of these. I will also be getting student loans soon for college and I can’t risk anything right now.

Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

Child Support office has been reporting late payments IN ERROR on my credit history for years - TLDR: child support office is erroneously ruining my credit without my knowledge. How can I repair my credit?

I've been applying for mortgages recently and was told, to my surprise, my county's child support ... See More office has been reporting almost half my payments as late, in error, for more than 5 years.

The entire time I've had this support order I've been employed full time and the payments have been taken out of my checks automatically.

Even more surprisingly, there are payments being reported as 'over 90 days late' from April of 2023... less than 90 days ago.

I called my caseworker, who was unsurprised and stated they deal with this almost every day. She stated it is due to my being paid biweekly instead of twice per month. Being paid biweekly creates "a mismatch within their system" which causes a late payment to be triggered since the payment is due before I get paid. Which make sense, being paid biweekly means my first check of the month can be as late as the 13th of the month, and I am almost never paid on the 1st or 15th.

Anyone who has child support in this county and is paid biweekly has this happening to them without their knowledge.

My case worker said she can ask her supervisor to issue a "credit suppression". When I asked her to explain what that is, she said on the 22nd of every month they issue a report out to the credit agencies and a credit suppression would stop that report. It seems a suppression would prevent the problem from getting worse... but wouldn't fix the real problem which is the strike against my credit report and continual reports of late payments.

How do I fix this? Should I move forward with the suppression? My credit score is still about 750, but that doesn't matter because when lenders look at me in-depth, this strike comes up as a huge risk factor. Should I contact a lawyer about this?

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My wife has been receiving mystery packages? - My wife has recently started receiving a number of mystery packages in the mail. Started with a random box from Talbots for some pricey boots, then another pair of shoes arrived from the same store. The packages were addressed to her, but ... See More she didn't order them, shoes aren't even close to her size and she's never shopped there before so she's not even sure how they would have her address. Recently a $700 coat arrived at our doorstep with the same scenario, but it had no receipt and isn’t a brand that Talbots sells.





We immediately checked all recent transactions on her Credit Cards and accounts and nothing was out of the ordinary. We pulled her credit report from all 3 bureaus and nothing was opened under her name. We called Talbots and they said there were actually 6 packages in the order total (only received the two), and they gave her the phone number and email address and last four digits of the card and none of the info matched hers, but the address for shipping was hers. Her last name is extremely unique and it’s doubtful there was a data issue.





Anyone have any ideas of what might be going on?

Stepson in Deep Debt - My 45 year old stepson called the other night asking for help. He is now $60k+ in credit card debt, mostly from being out of work during the pandemic and not living within his means. He is now back at work, making ok money, but ... See More he is drowning in minimum cc payments. His ask to us was to cosign on a consolidation loan. We refused, because he has really never handled money well (we gifted him some money during the pandemic as he had a horrible record of paying back any loan we have ever given him). We are retired and afraid of being responsible for the consolidation payment if something should happen to him.

What ideas should we give him to dig out of this debt? He rents and his rent is reasonable for a high cost area, he and his ex girlfriend share a child and they need to both remain in the same town. Car is paid off. We have suggested a second job to him, but is bankruptcy really the best option?

We are just so sad for his situation.

My employer has been depositing my paychecks into an account that is not mine. - I started a job in February. I gave them my account information for direct deposit. From then on, I’d receive an email showing me the paystub. Because of that, I assumed the money was going ... See More into my account.

Recently my bank contacted me to tell me that my account is overdrawn. I went to the bank to figure out what was happening. They went through all of my records and found that NONE of my paychecks were going to my account.

So as it stands, I’m owed nearly $12k. I’ve told my employer who verified that the money was going into a different account. All he said was he was going to look into it. This was over a week ago and he’s been avoiding me. What can I do?

Edit: I didn’t notice what was going on earlier because I don’t use it often at all. My wife makes most of the money, and there are only 2 bills coming out of that account. I will be watching my financials like a hawk from now on. This is in the US.

Is $400/mo too much of a car payment for me? - I am currently taking home ~$1200 every other week after taxes and 12% into my Roth 401k. My rent + utilities comes out to $1000-$1050 per month. No kids. No other loans or large recurring expenses besides normal food/gas/etc. ... See More 33/M. Insurance would be $130/mo.

I've been riding out an old 99 Mercury beater car. The engine gave out and the cost to repair far exceeds the value of the car. I wanted to get something that was nicer for once. The most I've ever spent on a car was $6000.

It's this a bad idea? I used to be a mechanic (no access to a lift and limited tools now) so routine maintenance and minor repairs I can take care of.

Edit: actual biweekly take home pay is $1322. The amount financed is $16000 (after the down payment) @7% APR over 48 months

My mom wants me to take out a personal loan for her - So I’m 25 years old and earlier this week my mom asked if I could take out a $6000 personal loan in my name that would be given to her to help her out with her bills ... See More as she’s fallen very much behind. She even said she might lose her house from not being able to pay her bills.

Truthfully, I don’t feel comfortable. I’ve racked up around 7K in credit card debt due to my dumb, younger self and now I’ve been trying to slowly pay it off. My credit score is even 640. On top of that, I have about $36K in student loans that I have to start making payments on soon.

I guess I’m worried about the “what if”. What if I take out this loan and sure, she starts paying it back monthly but then we enter a time where she can’t and it falls on me? I seriously can’t afford another bill like that right now. Also, the whole general idea that, if a bank won’t trust her and approve her for her own loan, doesn’t that mean I shouldn’t trust her either? Doesn’t this just add to the problem by giving her another bill once she’s caught up of her past bills? I’m also worried about how it’ll affect my credit score that I’m trying so hard to bring back up by paying back the credit card debt I’ve accumulated. But the whole dilemma is, she’s my mom and needs help and I could possibly help her in this.

I think I already know I should stick to my boundary and say no, but I guess I just need some advice/reiteration of how this clearly isn’t a good idea? I’m torn.

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UPDATE

Thank you all for each and every one of your comments. You have no idea how much this helped me in feeling more secure in my decision to tell my mom that I am unable to do this for her. I actually went ahead and sent her a text about this now since that’s all I’m mentally able to do. There is so much more to this situation which is why it makes it so complicated and had me feel so torn, but I’m sticking to creating this boundary with her for the sake of myself. Thank you all once again. I appreciate it so much.

My mortgage lender failed to pay my property tax out of escrow by the deadline... can I request that they pay the 18% interest I'm being charged since it was their mistake? - Basically the title. I'm sending a notice of error today, but I wasn't sure if I could ... See More also request that THEY pay the interest I accrued because it was their mistake, not mine.

Any help would be fantastic! Thanks!

Am I Missing Out by Venmoing rent payment - I am going to be renting a house with two other people. The discussed plan is for two of us to pay our third to the other and him pay the rent. They are both trustworthy steadily employed guys so no ... See More concern on that end.

My question is, am I missing out on any benefits by not being the one to officially pay rent. Will paying through venmo still be able to be viewed as a rent payment history or are there any credit score benefits I could miss out on?

And if that’s the case, what is a better method to rent payment in this scenario?

$27k saved up don't know how to invest or what to do with it - I'm 19 and have saved up 27k dollars and I'm looking for some advice on what I could invest some of the money on. My expenses are only around $500 a month as my parents ... See More dont want me to move out and pay 1k+ for rent. Income is $1k a month on a part time job plus extra income on side hustles ranging from an extra $2000-10000 a month and only $3k in debt from an atv i financed to help my credit. What is a good way to safely invest that isn't too risky.

Looking to start Roth IRA - I am 20 and am looking to start a Roth IRA on Vanguard. My question is should I be putting my money into ETFs or Mutual Funds?

What's the gross annual salary required to take home $10k per month in the US? - I'm not from the US but i'm asking out of curiosity. (I tried multiple calculators but they asks a lot of things I have no idea about since I don't live in the US)