brought to you by the every dollar app start budgeting for free today I'm calling because I'm 30 years old I live in Philadelphia and I've been unemployed since last okay so no here what happened I know the job market right now really sucks um yes it's exhausting to even speak about it so right now currently I am in debt of $77,957 and this includes student loans personal loans credit cards and car loans and I really don't know what direction to go into because I don't have any money to pay back the debt because I am unemployed so I wanted to see do you guys think I should file for a bankrupting or should I strategize like a payment plan once I get on the point again to start paying off my debt yeah I would say the latter I mean $77,000 is not big I mean I think you can get out of this it's gonna take for sure some time and life is gonna probably look different for a bit while you climb out of this but I would not if you had $700,000 or something we were talking then that probably would be a different story but $77,000 you can do this like you can we see it every day this is a number that is manageable I know it feels probably so overwhelming to you and especially since you haven't been earning an income it feels like I'm completely underwater but just hear us on this side say we talk to people every day that have more that have six figures and they're doing it okay so I do want to give you hope that you can you can do this I think my biggest concern is the income side and so what's been yeah has there not been anything that you found since you said last August it's been almost a year I mean even you know like target Walmart I mean any retail anything possible so I'm in the legal support field so my rules have been like a paralegal and legal assistance okay I was more told trying to get back into that bill because it will bring in like a great income where I can't get back to my future yeah how many make it all my previous position I was making 55 okay and how many how many paralegal gigs have you tried to get in the last year ballpark oh goodness I've been on several interviews and I've been ghosted by a lot of recruiters I want to say maybe since January so now I've been on maybe like seven or eight interviews that's the feed-in I'm sorry what were you making 55 55 okay so here's a question for you in the last three seconds while you were talking I went on my computer and I typed in virtual paralegal and I saw all kinds of sites have you looked into doing virtual paralegal work I'm not necessarily I don't really I don't know if I don't trust those like type of ads so I haven't really looked at them believe it this isn't an ad this isn't an ad I pulled up this is this is an actual company that supplies virtual paralegals for people who need them it came to me immediately that when you've got a virtual opportunity like that the barrier for entry might be a little bit less I don't know I don't know what's going on in your interviews I will tell you that I hear stories every day of people that have been ghosted and I'm sorry about that but but I'm telling you there are no more well I I've holding out for that paralegal job I'm gonna give you some tough love here hopefully in a non tough way you need to be working at Walmart or Target or or driving or doing something your target is $20 an hour $25 an hour if you got to do some manufacturing you are doing whatever it takes is that below the professional level you've been on the past yes is it beneath you no that is dignified work you know men and women all over Philadelphia that do that work it is not beneath you but right now to Rachel's point you can actually dig out of this but I believe you can make the equivalent of $55,000 an hour with a good job like I just described even if it's an hourly rate and then a second job you're gonna have to work your way out of this and I believe you actually can and Rachel can walk you through what you would do on the snowball side of things if you're not familiar with it but I'm telling you right now there is no reason someone as sharp as you are is not working for one year other than the fact that you've been defeated and you've been rejected and that's really really hard and it's and it stinks and let me also say this the research from psychology studies show that losing a job being laid off or fired is the same emotional impact of losing a loved one so I want to acknowledge to you that it's okay for you to be down because that's normal but you're 12 months into this and you're calling us saying should I bankrupt myself the answer is no so I want to bring in Rachel here but I but I I want to tell you Leah you've got to get serious about doing any job right now and then look at maybe that virtual paralegal and some things like that to get to get maybe a little bit more momentum. Oh yeah yeah and I think I think the I think the the hard reality that you're gonna face like anybody in a situation like this is that in order to get a different result you have to change 180 everything that you've been doing so the leaning on debt leaning on credit cards leaning on just this idea that you know I hope I get a job and I'm gonna try but if I don't I'm just gonna keep trying while not doing something else like it's it's gonna be a 180 to the point. Oh yeah that you know I want you to call us a year from now I'm like people are accusing me that I'm a workaholic right I've been I have 30 jobs and I'm working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
I'm exhausted and all of it because to get out of this debt we are there's gonna it's gonna be tough like it's gonna be long hours a lot of different things you may piecemeal you know a retail job here Uber eats there you know maybe you're maybe you're you maybe a tutor someone that's that's trying to be a paralegal to on the side for four hours right here I mean like anything you can do to piecemeal while you hopefully lands a $55,000 job somewhere and then while you're doing that you're still probably gonna work part-time somewhere else again just to climb out of this debt so the way we the way we help people get out of debt is like it is it is vengeance like you are you are everything is going towards this every amount of energy time and if you do that for a short amount of time if you put that much work and that much focus and that much intensity this 77,000 is gonna be cleaned up I mean it will it'll be cleaned up in 24 months if you just say you know what I'm doing this I'm living on nothing I'm working hard and I'm gonna be focused so what I want you to do is I want you to write out all of your debts separately so if you have credit cards write them up in five separate debts personal loans write those out your car loan and I want you to list them out smallest amount to large amount regardless of the interest rates I want you to pay minimum payments on everything okay with this job that you're gonna be getting you I want you to stay current on all of your bills from the debt and your your food shelter utilities transportation making sure all that's covered and I want you to pay off that small step first so if it's a $2,000 credit card that's your number one goal we're going after that get a thousand dollar emergency funds before you do all this but a cold online Christian's gonna pick up and I want to give you financial piece university this is our our seven lesson course that really is gonna be a nine lesson course it's gonna be able to walk you through how to really start this process and to get you on the right page like I believe you can do this I really do I think your life's gonna look different find out such a good thing it's gonna bring dignity back to you Leah you're doing great girl create your free every dollar budget today the simplest way of budget for your life