Want to clear debts and accumulate wealth

Soubrette

lifeonhold wrote: »

Sou,
No just 20k debts. After rent, bills, cc min payments/loan every month.....not much left. Just the rent and cc payments/loan every month total £1100. I take home £1850 a month and travel 30miles in the car to work every day.

Why not post a statement of affairs - there is a link at the top of the page somewhere - and people can come up with some ideas.

It's honestly going to be hard to earn more money if you're already working every hour you can and still maintaining a lot of contact time with your daughter.

Also are you still accumulating debt or is it static but it's hard to get it to go down due to minimum payments?

Sou

lifeonhold

Antispam - Look, not come on here for you to have a go at me. Congratulations for coping with your mortgage and raising your family on 16K.

lifeonhold

Sou - hard to get down due to min payments. I will do a statement. Thanks for good advice

helsee

life on hold...

i know exactly where you are coming from and i think we all have times where we feel the same! the key thing is to break your overall aim down into more realistic smaller ones....first step being to clear the debt. The most realistic solution is probably to cut outgoings, increase income and that will mean a second job of some sort.

get that soa done, you'll get some constructive feedback and sometimes an outsider looking at it sees things you dont!

have you any skills or abilities you could utilise to make any extra cash?

Nottoobadyet

Though I know people on here do much more for much less, I'm on an income like yours and would really, really struggle to make it with a child. If I needed to rent a two bedroom and keep up with minimum payments, Id be struggling too! So kuddos from here for doing all you have so far and working so hard to make life good for your daughter.

Look at what you have going for you so far - a job in possibly the most secure place in the market right now, which pays you enough to raise your daughter, even if its not enough to go crazy on. Now if you're willing to risk that, of course you could look for a higher paying private sector job in your field. I dont know what you do, but maybe you could swap to the corporate track for more cash, or even go it alone and do consulting, which can make you lots of money if you have a mind for marketing yourself and have the skills that are in demand. Again, without knowing what you do its hard to say.

I'd say hedge your bets though and maybe do some consulting on the side (if your contract allows it, some do), start a business that you can run from home or possibly pack off your 9 year old to the mines, shes nearly old enough

lifeonhold

This will make you chuckle.....I work for a public service trade union. I love my job but it will never make me rich!

jennyo

Do you have any skills which you could teach others? A way of earning some extra money, of course you would need to register as Self employed.

lifeonhold

Not really......how do you mean?

Buffythedebtslayer

can you teach music? give lessons in guitar or something? could you be a driving instructor(might cost?)? do odd jobs? walk dogs, babysit? - these are just random ideas btw. actually you can probably tell that just by looking at the list........

moving on!

I have the same sort of thoughts re surely there must be a quicker way, I came on here in 2007 with around £24000 worth of debts, this week I go under 9 grand which I am very pleased with. I could have paid more off I know, I am not consistent but it is a learning curve. I have done Avon, e bay not really managed either one well and I do have a second job which I love. I am going back to the dreaded e bay.

I think it is a case of trying everything and seeing what works for you. And truthfully realising that every penny does count.

all the best

Buffyx

Trinny

Hi There

I just wanted to wish you good luck in sorting out the finances.

As someone has already said - its a case of paying off the debt first, then its a combination of learning to live well and spend less.

( My partner earns just over 16k and we struggled with credit card debt for ages - it was a great day - when the debt finally cleared and we cut up the cards = we dont have a single credit card now)

For us - we had to learn to see life differently, i learnt to make stuff from scratch, we discovered price comparison sites, Non spend days, £2 savers clubs, the grocery challenge on OS - but most of all, we changed our outlook on what life is really about.

In the skint days - it was a walk along the pier and sharing an icecream. For us its not about getting rich, its about living well within your means

Trin