I need some financial advice.

I’m $45,000 deep in credit cards debt and $25,000 left in student loan. After budgeting for the month with little to no shopping or outings, and paying the minimum due, I can only save $1000. I don’t know how to get out these much debt due to the high accruing interest and low credit scores.

It feels like my only way out is to use my retirement funds but I want to a avoid touching it. Please has anyone experienced this and survived? What did you do?

If you’re willing to take a credit score hit (will affect you for 2-3+ yrs), call your credit card company and negotiate your owed amount. The more you can pay up front lump sum, the less you can negotiate it for. Then cut up all credit cards (they will do this for you) and start living within your means. For reference, I did this with my now husband who had terrible credit and owed $20k in credit card bills). I negotiated it down to $15k, closed all of the accounts and did 3 payments of $5k over 3 months.

I also was able to do balance transfers that allowed me to have 0% interest anywhere from 12-24 months across 3 cards

Honestly? You need to have a minimal E fund. Stop contributing to your retirement and payoff as much as you can on the biggest credit card. As long as you don’t create more debt, you’ll pay it off and set up good habits

I was over 30k in CCs a year ago and now I’m down to only 5k. I got a second job waitressing on the weekends and it’s tiring but 100% worth it. I’m so close to the finish line on my debt and it feels amazing. I’d also try to minimize expenses but there is only so many you can cut. It’s easier to generate more income. It’s difficult, but not impossible and you can totally do it!

Trust me, atop saving and throw everything at that CC debt first, then your student loans. What ever your saving isnt worth it if you’re in aggressive interest incurring debt

Stop saving. If you don't have a few thousand in liquid cash savings then save 2-3k.

After that, start throwing all your attention at your debt. There is no point in saving if you are racking up all this high interest debt. Tackle the CCs first then your student loans. If you are single w/ no dependents you should be able to clear this up in 18 months max if you are dedicated and have a decent salary based on the title I see you posting with.

Best of luck, this will require loads of discipline. But the longer you push this off the more it'll hurt later.

You need to pay off the CC debt immediately. Stop contributing to savings or retirement. Hold some cash for emergencies, everything else should be going into that debt.

You can also look at any options to transfer it to a card that offers a 0% intro interest rate to reduce the interest payments while you pay it down. This doesn’t mean keep racking up debt, because that will blow up in your face.

Pay off the highest rate cards first.

Disagree with most of the advice here. If you only have $1k in your budget with minimal discretionary spending then your budget is broken.
You need to make major lifestyle change. Can you move house or change jobs / take a 2nd job / sell your car?
Post more details on your income / expenses if you want better advice.

Serious question. How do people get like this? I come from the bottom of the bottom... Had 50k saved up by the time I was 22, after having paid my way through college. And I'm no boomer...I'm 25. No guidance from parents either. They were undocumented immigrants. Serious question, not at all meant to degrade anyone

Do whatever it takes. Do not touch your retirement account or you will incur Taxes and potential penalties.
I had 3 jobs for a long stint to stay out of Debt.

The Harder the Battle the Sweeter the Victory!

Thank you all so much!! I was feeling so suffocated because I thought I couldn’t pay such an amount off. I’ve been doing well to avoid spending my money carelessly but I definitely need another job because my expenses are around 65% of my monthly pay.

Aside from getting a new job, are there any tips on how anyone has been able to discipline themselves to not spend money and stay focused?

As everyone else on here said, prioritize all extra cash on paying off the highest APR card first. Then work your way down the list of cards to pay off.
- Stop saving for retirement for now to put cash towards debt.
- Consider what options you have on deferring your student loan debt for now.
If you are still receiving any 0% credit card transfer offers. Use this to transfer your highest APR balance to this 0% offer. Once you do this, the card that now has a zero balance will probably send you an additional 0% transfer offer, do it again with another high APR balance.
The transfers do cost you a one time transaction fee but this is usually way less than the amount of interest you will pay by leaving the balance on interest bearing account.

As some said, negotiating with the CC companies to lower APR is a good idea.
If you can't dig out, consider Consumer Credit Counseling which will help you get it all taken care of but which will also crater your credit score while you are working in their program.
Bankruptcy as a last resort will crater your credit for many years, but could be the answer to get a fresh start and peace of mind depending on how deep you pile is.

You need to stop the bleed on the high credit apr cards and as well as a lifestyle adjustment.. if you have decent credit I would recommend you debt consolidate immediately into a personal fixed rate loan or open a credit card with a zero interest period that allows transfers and put your savings and retirement on pause until you get out of this hole. Getting a second job is also a great idea.

Everyone is right - stop saving. The only saving you should consider is the minimum for your 401k to get the match. Forget just about every other savings in the meantime

Put all your savings into paying off the credit cards and stop contributing to your 401k until you are debt free. As mentioned by someone else, a second job would help greatly. I had two jobs my first 4 years out of college along with going to grad school, it certainly is possible. Worst case is to borrow against your 401k, you will have to pay it back in a timely manner to avoid serious penalties.

If you were able to set $1000 aside at the end of the month, I'd say you are set for a solid debt payoff journey. 100% do not touch your retirement for paying off debt.

The two approaches to credit card debt that most people like are the avalanche method and the snowball method. The avalanche method has you pay highest interest off first and makes the most sense when you do the math. The snowball method works great for people who get discouraged easily, because it has you paying the smallest debts off first so you can taste a couple wins early on.

Also, you don't have to do only one of these methods. You can start with snowball, get some confidence that you CAN pay stuff off, then start attacking the highest interest.

An extra $1000 a month can have a significant impact on your debt if you actually stick with it and keep the grind up. Just understand it's a long grind, and it took me three years to climb out of a hole that was similar.

Look into velocity banking it’s a quick way to pay off debt and increase your cash flow. Search for vantastic on YouTube.

Get a personal line of credit if you can to speed up the process.

I’m planning my debt payoff already so that when I start another job I’m ready to go.

First, focus on paying off the higher interest rate accounts. Just pay as much as you can anytime you can. Don’t wait for the end of the month to make payment to those CCs. Once all has been paid off, you can save more since you don’t pay interest anymore

You need to consume less, and earn more. Not easy, but that’s the math. Refer to Charlie Munger on this matter.

Aside from that, you need 3 months expenses in an emergency fund, then start cutting that debt balance pronto. The snowball is rolling….kick it in the ass before it gets away from you.

Pay highest interest rates first, principal payments instead of savings. Look for a credit card balance offers out there …credit unions have lowest interest rates FYI