Debt - how did you fall into debt?

amother

Midnight

Fri, Mar 31 2023, 5:32 pm

amother Azure wrote:

What do u mean it’s easy to understand. Lucky you that you can’t understand this. We put tuition, gas, food, diapers, toilet paper etc Dentist, copays, deductibles on the credit card and couldn’t pay it off every month and now with the interest we are 20,000 in credit card debts. We pay a few hundred a month and will take years to pay it off

Yup.

amother

Midnight

Fri, Mar 31 2023, 5:33 pm

amother Dodgerblue wrote:

saphire there's a difference between not earning enough to cover your expected costs like mortgage and G-d forbid getting diagnosed for cancer and all of a sudden needing to pay all this money out of pocket.

What's the difference is one shameful and the other not? Both are exactly preordained from Hashem.

amother

Brass

Fri, Mar 31 2023, 5:41 pm

DH lost his job right before we had to move apartments which the expenses for moving were already going to be cutting into our emergency fund. What should've lasted 3 months only lasted 6 weeks and it took my husband nearly 4 months to find a normal stable job again that covered expenses. Now we're slowly paying 8k of cc debt back down. Hopefully our tax return will kill most of it

amother

Butterscotch

Fri, Mar 31 2023, 5:46 pm

Special ed school wanting $128,000 tuition for 2020-2021 school year before DOE reimbursed the $128,000 tuition from 2019-2020 school year. Completely drained savings and still couldn't come up with the money but thought we can build back savings with upcoming paychecks. Special ed school was closed most of the year due to covid exposure so I had to keep missing work.

amother

Narcissus

Sat, Apr 01 2023, 3:57 pm

Tuition. Literally the only reason.

My HS son decided to drop out of school at the end of the year and while he doesn't know this, I'm grateful he's doing it. That's a 15k bill we won't be getting next year. I'm also grateful to the kind soul that offered him a terrific job so he can pay his own way through college (his chosen career path requires nothing more than a GED and an associates degree. All other training will be paid for by whatever firm hires him. Can't say more or I will give myself away).

amother

Vermilion

Sat, Apr 01 2023, 4:18 pm

Tuition.

More going out than coming in.

We too had a kid who left school and being honest I understand that last poster. We saved a fortune of money the next year. Sad as that is to admit.

amother

Calendula

Sat, Apr 01 2023, 6:12 pm

Huge structural damage to our house due to neighbor's extension which they refused to pay.
Followed by a lawsuit (called by them after beis din paskened they have to pay) where they could afford the big lawyers and we couldn't.
Followed by lies, manipulation and threats.
Total: we had to pay to fix up the damage to our house plus the costs of the lawsuit.
Followed by my husband losing his job due to him not being able to concentrate because of the pressure.
Followed by massive therapy bills to get back on track.

I still have no idea what we could have done differently.

amother

Heather

Wed, May 17 2023, 10:17 pm

amother Calendula wrote:

I’m crying for you. I have my fair share of landlord and neighbor issues and it affected me greatly but your story is majorly upsetting (I was going to write unbelievable but I believe you). I hope hashem sends you bracha and peace.

amother

Clear

Wed, May 17 2023, 11:06 pm

Since covid my husband has been having employment issues. He gets hired, brings the company to a good point, they decide they can't afford him, let him go...rinse and repeat. This didn't happen once or twice. More like 4-5 times in the last 3.5 years. He is not doing anything wrong. They like his work. The economy isn't great and they can't afford to keep him. Months without his income at a time is drowning us. We are nit big spenders. We have a low mortgage and drive older cars. But between tuition for 5 kids and food costs going up....it all adds up very quickly.

beacon ridge

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 5:56 am

Funny enough, it was a mix of both for me. I'd just graduated from college when I lost my job in the 2020 crisis. Despite my best efforts to be frugal, the bills started rolling in faster than I could handle - I broke into my savings and eventually fell into debt.
I spent much time learning about personal finance, making smarter choices, and throwing every spare dime at the debt. It's not an easy journey, every dollar counts and requires constant discipline.
My saving grace has been this spam removed who helped me manage my financial mess and provided guidance on preventing future debt. Vigilant spending and regular financial check-ups are essential, I can assure you of that.

Last edited by beacon ridge on Thu, Sep 14 2023, 4:18 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Anemone

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 6:16 am

Medical debt, medical issues and not being able to work.
We were living month to month before we went into debt and then a year of no income everything spiraled

amother

Midnight

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 7:03 am

amother Azure wrote:

This

Sewsew_mom

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 7:59 am

Husband had a gambling addiction and took all our savings and all his credit cards and drained everything.
And during that time also cried that he couldn't pay tuition (I wasn't aware)
So at this point while things got better on that end (thank you hashem!) the finances are sadly getting worse.
Honestly we need a miracle at this point. Which God can do.
I pray for the day.

Hashem should bless you all with peace of mind and parnassah beshefa that you can be on the giving end and not receiving!

Bnei Berak 10

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 8:55 am

amother Fern wrote:

Bh not personal experience, but in the US, th number one cause of personal bankruptcy is medical bills.

This makes me so so angry. It's not human.

amother

Maize

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 9:08 am

We bought a house with a mortgage that we really weren’t ready for. It was a big jump from our rent. We got the through the first year without a problem because we had thought it through and we really thought we could pay it so we had the money the first year. But the second year, keeping up became extremely hard and too many expenses went on a credit card. After the second year, we cut credit cards and haven’t accumulated any more debt. We are nearly paid down, but it took more than 10 years.

amother

Peru

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 9:14 am

We’ve been in and out of debt over the years from what Expensive formulas That were medically necessary. Expensive nutritional drinks. Lots of medical bills. Expensive dental work When you’re in so much pain you can’t ignore it anymore. We own a house but when the market was very low for most it would have been a fixer-upper but we just live in it without fixing it. So my mortgage is less than most people’s rent. Now a big expense is high school. We both work hard have a lot of money saving tips but all that does is make it that we could pay our bills and not end up and debt here and there. Right now everything is so expensive this is crazy ridiculous and so hard.

amother

Oleander

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 9:54 am

amother OP wrote:

I’m curious.
Not talking mortgage and car payments.
Was it irresponsibility or a crazy life circumstance?

Medical bills

amother

Darkblue

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 10:02 am

amother Vermilion wrote:

Tuition.

More going out than coming in.

We too had a kid who left school and being honest I understand that last poster. We saved a fortune of money the next year. Sad as that is to admit.

Same x2 (two step-kids dropped out of HS).

I would love to have more kids (I have three) but can’t afford to have more. I’m in 5k of debt from making a small simcha (2k), car repair, and emergency home repair. It’s hard enough to sleep as it is.