Seeking Genuine Financial Advice

[Reighn9]

I am looking for advice that works from a reliable source, whether it be an individual, a professionial, but so far from these same sources the advice I've gotten consists of "win the lottery", "go to a different bank", get a balance transfer card.  I've had a little money a couple of times to pay down balances and asked an advisor for help with a request to put some on my car loan so I could refinance.  She had me pay off several lower balances, and pay down balances on several cards not looking at the APR and not leaving any money for the car loan. The end result was 3 closed accounts and 4 which dropped the credit line.

Background:  For the past 3 years I have endured multiple hardships from weather, theft of property, property damage, scams (mostly friends), fraud, medical bills, attorney threats & harrassment, and other emergercies.  In this time I have had no late payments, but I do have high balances and utlization.  I can't get a loan, balance transfer or credit line increase because of the high balances. Every time pay down an account enough to drop the utilization a good amount, the company drops the credit line pushing the utization back up into the 90% range.  Some cards have given me increases based only on my merit with their company.  Most companies lie to me when I call and ask for the reasons for the decrease.  I have previously tried to make more than the minimum payments but now I'm having trouble keeping up with all the APR increases.  Also, higher payments don't make a difference to anyone except as way to drop the credit line.  I have talked to several credit analysts who hadn't  even noticed I regularly made more than the minimum payment.  I was recently offered a balance transfer on an account, but it has a low limit, and it came with an APR,  so I called the company and the rep told me to apply for another one of their balance transfer cards, and I should be approved.  We had discussed my situation and she looked at my account standing before telling me this.  Well, I was declined for high balances.

I  don't want debt consolidation or settlement.  I want a way to get some extra money and make it work to pay my bills without closing accounts or lowering lines of credit.  My fico 8 scores are 679 690 681 (the 681 just dropped from 690 due to an Inquiry when I asked for CL restoration. The 690 dropped from 693) The other fico score models are lower.   Score before I started having problems was 750 range. Score reasons are Balances too high compared to limits, Too many cards with balances, Balances too high on revolving accounts, and the 4th one varies between Too many Inquiries and Loan balances too high.    I  have nothing derogatory on my reports an until recently all the inquiries were auto related.  I haven't stopped having emergencies or people lying to me when I seek help.  

Sorry this is so long.  Believe me I left out a lot.

[Anonymous]

Please list all credit/loan accounts, balances and limits.  APR's would probably help as well, along with income level  Without these, it's pretty difficult for members to give advice.  

[Anonymous]

If you want real advice it’s going to be harsh but you’ll free yourself of financial anxiety in 6-12 months. Happy to offer some free guidance if you can accept some difficult ideas.

[Reighn9]

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@Anonymous wrote:
If you want real advice it’s going to be harsh but you’ll free yourself of financial anxiety in 6-12 months. Happy to offer some free guidance if you can accept some difficult ideas.

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I just read and replied to your post "what to pay down first".  I'm already not spending money on anything not needed for basic living expenses.  I would like to hear advice that works.  I really need a way to aquire some money to lower some of my higher payments and to refinance my auto loan.  It's a very bad loan.

[Anonymous]

You can always get a second job for added income.
Sell things you dont need.
Cancel cable/netflix/hulu
Lower your cell phone bill
Move to a cheaper place.
Sell the car if you can and get one for cash from a mechanic.
Dont eat out.
If you smoke quit smoking
If your goal is to save as much as you can you have to look at every penny you spend and think of it as want vs need.
If you really want people helping you on here you have to be more open and share income level, total debt, and so on

[Anonymous]

Yep all of those things are doable.  If you have a guest room, toss it on airbnb if you can, or find a roommate.

If you have cable and broadband, cancel both -- this can total $3000 a year easily, and back in December I found a guy on Facebook who promised me his oath that he cut his spending as much as possible but I found out he was spending $3900 a year on cable, internet, netflix, hulu, prime, etc.  $3900!

Have you done your reverse budget for all of 2017?  If not, start there!  Start with January 2017, print it all out, make a folder, write the bad number on the folder, then move on to February.  

[Reighn9]

You can always get a second job for added income. Disabled Veteran, but you know I have tried this and found some part-time seasonal jobs, but most of the time I'm told "you are too old and too disabled".
Sell things you dont need. I'm not against that, but I put in the ad and the items don't sell, or they get stolen from the yard. I couldn't sell an air conditioner in Texas in the summer. I had several calls but no one came by.
Cancel cable/netflix/hulu My cable includes internet, home phone, and security. It doesn't include extra channels, premium channels, netflix or hulu. I don't have separate accounts for either of those. The internet is used for school,banking,and business.
Lower your cell phone bill I have a landline
Move to a cheaper place. I own my home with no mortgage. I just need to work on the electric bill.
Sell the car if you can and get one for cash from a mechanic. Probably can't sell it. Paid cash for most of them before. This was an emergency purchase.
Dont eat out. Only eat out when the stove orefriferator breaks or when the power went out and I lost all the food in the freezers.
If you smoke quit smoking I don't but others in my household do.
If your goal is to save as much as you can you have to look at every penny you spend and think of it as want vs need.
If you really want people helping you on here you have to be more open and share income level, total debt, and so on
Income is about $4600 monthly, household size 6 includes 2 chidren 4 disabled. I person lost wages of $2800 monthly due to injury. Other income lost non-custodial parent quit job stopped support. Other income loss rental property trashed by tenant and left in possesion of a vagrant. I had to continue paying utilities for him, and finally condemned. Total debt is between $126000 & $150000, I'm not really sure because it keeps changing with each emergency that comes up.

[Reighn9]

I'll look at the reverse budget.  I try to only spend points on Amazon.  Works pretty well. Need the internet for school, banking, and business. Too many people live here already.  Had actual roommates before-didn't work. Have already canceled magazine subscriptions.  I do have home warranties on plumbing and sewer lines I don't know about. I have used the services before for plumbing and sewer repair and it does save money on service calls.  Most of my purchases have been replacements for something that broke.  I'll let you know what I find in a reverse budget.

[Anonymous]

The reverse budget sucks to do the first time, but now I do the previous month every 15th and it takes me literally 15 minutes to do an entire month!  So make it a habit on the 15th or so of each month (or second weekend, whatever) to go back 1 month and knock it out.  It's a life saver looking forward.

Do any of the disabled people who live with you collect any disability?  If so, can they share some of the burden of living in the home?

With $150,000 in debt, it's going to take more than a second job and cutting bills to get there.  In fact, with $150k, I would file BK.  I've never filed BK, people ask me about it all the time, and I tell them BK makes sense if debt exceeds income by 200%.  So if you make less than $75,000 a year household, BK is an option.

[Anonymous]

First of all thank you for your service.

If you can drive you can always try uber/ lyft.
If you dont mind me asking how old are you?
If you find yourself financing other people's smoking habits then stop. I used to be a smoker until i realized it ended up costing me $10-$15 a day! California is a expensive that way.

$4600 monthly with no mortgage is a good amount of money. Look into reverse budget like ABCD suggested. Look at your grocery list and take out things you can live without for example sodas, candy, chips.