Debt Craziness - Really Worried :(

NoCreditLifestyle

Hi all,

Thank you for all of your responses! I'll reply to each of you, and then explain what I have ended up doing (so far!)

19lottie82 - Good point, I can reduce my costs by getting a pay monthly sim, and sticking with the iPhone 4S. When my contract runs out I will assess the situation properly. Thank you for the advice.

ILW - A combination of late paying clients and inadequate business partners, when I couldn't pay myself I had to go back to my network and get work, which meant I couldn't further the business. Since then I have got a model in the back of my head which is 250 residual/month/client, hopefully I can get on this in my spare time...when I have some, if you read at the bottom what I'm doing right now, you'll see I have no spare time.

TakingControl - All fair points, I shall explain: I understand 40k is definitely pushing it for my age, but I do have a lot of experience. I'm basing that 40k on the fact that I got through the telephone interview with a particular company, which was 35-45k DOE, so you could argue they would give me the 35, which I would be happy with. BUT: I did have several employers wanting final stage interviews, so I'm sure I could have played them against each other to get the 40k I wanted. Living in the US I didn't attend school, and 4 days before I moved back to the UK, we had welfare officers knocking on the door. I worked for them 14-16, and had a work permit that I got from the town council..omg I forget what they call them in the US now? Anyway, the guy who owned the company was British and wanted somebody fresh, and yeah...took me in, trained me up and let me work. I generally am met with a similar or maybe slightly less level of skepticism as you've shown me, and I answer everything as honestly as humanly possible, and I usually come out trumps.

I will explain my current work/income below everyone elses responses. I will try and get more qualifications, that said, if you take a look at my C.V., another 12 months experience is definitely not a 'game changer.' Sorry if I come across over confident, or cocky, I spent 2 years in England working for companies that treated me like crap because of my age, when I had previously worked for companies that were great, and I learnt lots, got paid the same as everyone else etc. So I do have a bit of confidence, as you need to, with my age, otherwise people don't take you seriously or don't know what you're capable of (even if a 40yo senior tech with 18 years experience is better than me,) I still have to try! Thank you for your post!

DCFC79 - Yep, I make such bomb coffees they can't resist. In all seriousness... I also come up with a lot of ideas, ideas some of the companies I've worked for have used and profited from. I've saved mission critical sites and databases. That said, what would you think a developer would need to be worth 40k, as I presume you're an IT employer or in HR?

EmmaHerts - Thank you so much, yeah, it's really easy...I try and tell all my friends to go get office jobs doing domain admin or something instead of spending days grinding in the local pub or restaurant. I'll post below what I have ended up doing.

CKhalvashi - I do have experience, which is why I can get the salaries I expect, but yes, I would like to get my zend certification among a few others, I want to get into some of the ultra new tech that will be in production soon, and employers will be looking for, document based databases, more ruby/rails experience etc.

The next paragraph of your post is just detailing how difficult it would be for me to live in London on what your company would pay me, from the information in my first post. I understand it is super expensive, thanks for the info, and congratulations on your up-size-down-payment! :T

Thank you for your kind words at the bottom, and thank you for all the information, and cohesive response.

mildredalien - Thank you so much. I most definitely can't do anything, but I love my job and I love learning, so hopefully I will continue to learn and gain more experience, and in 10 years, I'll still be learning! I completely know what you mean, my mum tells me this all the time. I am very impatient (as I'm sure many of you can tell.) The SOA for each potential job/combination is a great suggestion, I'll definitely be doing this, I was doing it by pros and cons, but now the SOA can also be criteria! I really don't want to go to uni right now, I want finer things in life asap. My sister is at uni and is always skint/being propped up by mum (that said, I am right now.) But yeah, I would like a degree, whether thats doing night classes at some point, or going back to uni in a few years, we'll see.
Thanks again!

hadahardyear - Sorry I'm coming across as delusional. I'll admit, I haven't been in a great mental state, I most definitely don't think I'm above everyone else. My sister's friend has a blind son on her own, and I think she is the best mum/household runner I've ever met in my life. I'm also sorry I come across cocky and arrogant, I get this a lot and have tried to tone myself down. On a side point, I too know many people with PhDs, but if you have it in sports science, or media studies, you will struggle to find a job! You have to look at supply and demand, and as far as my job hunt told me, IT is in demand. I also now work 2 jobs. As much as I can see you really dislike how I've presented myself, thank you for what constructiveness I could eek out of your post.

ms_london - Thank you! I think I have come across as a bit rude and arrogant, so I can see where people like hadahardyear are coming from, but I am most definitely not seeing myself as above everyone. I'm just trying to be positive, negativity gets us nowhere!

I have spoken to all of my creditors, and explained to them I will be making full payments on 1st September.

Current Situation: I got offered my old job, for 18k, crap I know, and when I walked out they offered 22k, but it was literally instant hire, I walked in for a 'chat' and they said sit down lol...I'm also doing an extra 30 hours a week for the company that offered 28k. Basically, it's annoying, the 28k job said he couldn't guarantee the work, so I accept the 18k, crapping myself still...a week later, "you free for a 3 month minimum contract?" ...sigh. So I'm doing both of these and will be making good money to pay off my debts. In addition to this I will be freelancing to make extra money, basically working all hours of the day ideally.

My plan is to pay off all debt ASAP, it's hard to calculate as I don't know how often freelancing will come in, which will speed things up. I will be significantly reducing my spending, in order to save to move to London. I am very gracious of my mother, as she has just sold the house, and as a gift is paying for 6 months of my rent.

I think if I do this for 12 months, I can pay of all debt including HP in 4-5 months (dependent on freelance work) and have £5000 saved, with a car as an asset.

Thank you to everyone who helped me through that panic, as you can see at the top of post. I truly appreciate it, I will keep you posted.

My fingers hurt from typing.

killerpeaty

I can't help you with your debt, I think getting a job at all is great so well done. Would you consider taking courses? My boyfriend is taking CompTIA and something else courses so that he can swap careers into IT as his first choice has proved impossible for him to break into.

He got his courses on sale via reed but has seen courses else where, he has paid £1k for the three courses (but only 2 exams). Is that something you would possibly consider which might help you to get the job you want?

If you are absolutely set to work in London in the near future, please consider a house share, the rent is not only shared but all the bills and council tax.

spendaholic66

For someone claiming to be so intelligent you really are behaving a bit dim. You can't afford to move to London so forget it. Also, without sounding harsh, a 40k salary at your age and severe lack of qualifications is a pipe dream. The fact is, you are in debt. You have no income. You want to get in more debt to move to a city, which trust me isn't paved with gold. You have been offered a 28k job in the west country (which is good by anyone's standards) yet you feel it is beneath you. Hmmmmm, I really wouldn't hold out for a 40k job just yet.

NoCreditLifestyle

killerpeaty wrote: »

I can't help you with your debt, I think getting a job at all is great so well done. Would you consider taking courses? My boyfriend is taking CompTIA and something else courses so that he can swap careers into IT as his first choice has proved impossible for him to break into.

He got his courses on sale via reed but has seen courses else where, he has paid £1k for the three courses (but only 2 exams). Is that something you would possibly consider which might help you to get the job you want?

If you are absolutely set to work in London in the near future, please consider a house share, the rent is not only shared but all the bills and council tax.

Thanks for the advise, check out the update I left, education is definitely something I'm looking to get into... just think I need to get out of debt first. Thank you!

spendaholic66 wrote: »

For someone claiming to be so intelligent you really are behaving a bit dim. You can't afford to move to London so forget it. Also, without sounding harsh, a 40k salary at your age and severe lack of qualifications is a pipe dream. The fact is, you are in debt. You have no income. You want to get in more debt to move to a city, which trust me isn't paved with gold. You have been offered a 28k job in the west country (which is good by anyone's standards) yet you feel it is beneath you. Hmmmmm, I really wouldn't hold out for a 40k job just yet.

Also, check out my update, yeah I have behaved very foolishly, not gonna lie.

ellesbellesxxx

If you are 18 and being given 22k, I find that impressive. I did five years at Uni (Including a year in France and a year teacher training) and at the age of 23 I started my first teaching job at 20K!!! So sounds like you are onto a good thing!

TakingControl

NoCreditLifestyle wrote: »

TakingControl - All fair points, I shall explain: I understand 40k is definitely pushing it for my age, but I do have a lot of experience. I'm basing that 40k on the fact that I got through the telephone interview with a particular company, which was 35-45k DOE, so you could argue they would give me the 35, which I would be happy with. BUT: I did have several employers wanting final stage interviews, so I'm sure I could have played them against each other to get the 40k I wanted. Living in the US I didn't attend school, and 4 days before I moved back to the UK, we had welfare officers knocking on the door. I worked for them 14-16, and had a work permit that I got from the town council..omg I forget what they call them in the US now? Anyway, the guy who owned the company was British and wanted somebody fresh, and yeah...took me in, trained me up and let me work. I generally am met with a similar or maybe slightly less level of skepticism as you've shown me, and I answer everything as honestly as humanly possible, and I usually come out trumps.

The permit you are talking about is most likely a proof of age certificate which is normally granted to an employer to ensure they are legally employing under age workes especially around the 14-15 year of age mark. It is only granted if it does not interfere with school hours which based on your information, it obviously did and the employer, british or otherwise would have been penalised for.

PasturesNew

Take the £28k. A bird in the hand.....

Take the £28k and work hard to pay down that debt, to learn to live frugally/cleverly.... save and bank all your spare.

There's always next year. A year's no time at all ....

findingmyownway

So from your update it looks like you are now working full time for £22k, plus doing 30 hours in the £28k job? How does that work?

Time for a new SOA maybe...

VFR-Rider

An interesting thread... I read this now on the other side to you currently. 10 (and a smidge) years ago I was very much in a similar position (coincidentally I'm from Cornwall).
I also worked in IT, had the benefit of growing up in an IT environment and had experience far beyond my years. I was (and still am to some extent) incredibly impatient (and most would say arrogant), this resulted in forced changes in colleges etc. I was persuaded to go to university and was lucky that I could pretty much choose the one I wanted (I test very well so grades weren’t an issue; the experience made any entrance interviews a box-checking affair).

I worked through university (necessity) & got my degree, landed my first “adult” job the Monday after my final exam (again test very well so my grade was a certainty at this point). Wind the clock forward a few years and I’m comfortable financially (if money was a driver I would switch to contracting), am extensively travelled (through work) and have grown up an awful lot. It’s only now that I have meetings and my age is no longer brought up at some point, though I do still tend to be the youngest (or at least age/ seniority).

So the reason for all this drivel? Well there are a couple of options really.
Firstly as you have done, working is paramount, and is always the only proof that you can do as you say on the tin, so congratulations on the job!
Secondly, clear the debts and re-consider university, it can get you to London cheap (it’s how I ended up there) and as mentioned before, a lot of companies will bin a CV purely if it’s missing the qualification (a necessity for quicker selection).

Finally, if you are that good, you’ll get there (I’m already looking at retiring a good 15-20 years before most of the people I went to school with, would’ve been sooner but I’m pretty bad with money!). Impatience can be a tool, arrogance will be a wall.

Tellytuby

findingmyownway wrote: »

So from your update it looks like you are now working full time for £22k, plus doing 30 hours in the £28k job? How does that work?

Time for a new SOA maybe...

Some people do work full time and a part time job on top.