The Grind... Have to appreciate it! What would you Do?

[ThaDude]

Hello Fico Fam

I am finding this forum after already starting this journey.. this grind. Give you some backstory! Start of the last 2017 I got a $500 secured card from NFCU as my journey began. Things were looking up and up... April of last year I believe I applied for another NFCU CC and got a 10k Rewards card. For the majority of the year all I did was pay small collections that remained and awaited for 2018 where some closed accts from 2006 were to fall off. Fast forward to late november I lost my well paying job.  So I utilize my 401k and a little unemployment to get by.  I literally barely touched the reward card, like 4 pct utility. Then as I am in the job hunt the regular bills you know the rent (it was $1100) and student loans ($400) were starting to kick my tail! So I am apping real hard trying to get something. I eventually had no cash just credit left.... i asked my parents and friends for a little help.. no dice! Happens!  So I utilize my trump card (no pun). Paid some rent, utilities etc.  I eventually 8 months after losing my high paying job landed a good position not nearly the same pay but it was wait for it! More rewarding lol ( Still grinding for that higher paycheck!)
Now I currently am sitting at 674 experian and 645 transunion fico scores. (pulled from experian subscriiption site... just left them and moving my talents over here to myfico)... .my equifax is a flat 600 because I still have Navient student loans left on that credit file ( EQ sent letter stating these to be removed 12/18).The problem is I overspent while I was unemployed. Secured card is maxed out at $480/$500, and Rewards $9840/$10000.

I did develop some bad habits over that spring. Honestly the shining light came from my Wife (we got married on 8/18). She said " I am proud of you for always looking after us, you are going back for you MBA and working and a fulltime husband now) Its like a light switched on, and all games ceased.  I was real about this before. But after I told her "I Do" I really do!

So we moved into our place beginning of September! We have broken the bills up.
Monthly Inc $2860 (I get queezy whenever I think about it lol, im getting better)
Rent - ($975)
Cellphone (87.34)
La Fitness (34.95) (Can freeze it but I feel like physical fitness and financial fitness are important!)
Direct Loans (167) ( On forbearance right now, and I actually should be enrolling at the state universities MBA program)
MyFico (29.99)
Netflix (10.99)
Apple (9.99)
Crunchy Roll (6.95)
Dog food (35)
Gas(her car)(60)
Groceries (100) (We pretty much pack lunch every day... well I do anyway haha)
Dog Insurance (45) ( havent started this back up yet as he is not due for his shots
Wedding Ring Pay off ( $447)( on the 19th I am paying this balance, and save 61 bucks a month!)

($1562/Mth)

Leaves me about $1290....Now the wife and I have created a budget obviously. And have looked at things down to the cents. (those are some GREAT conversations to have the week leading up to and the weeks after your married)

The minimum ( who pays that..I did for a little while smdh) for the rewards is $203 and the minimum for the secured is $20. Their interest rates are the 13 and 13.5% respectively.

I like most have aspirations of touching the 800 club.  of course the simulator on here says Hey Bob if you pay mid to high 3s you can have this balance paid off in 3 years and you will have a possible 810 fico..Sounds great but I dont know if that is realistic right now.  Like Ive said I am to possibly start class in January, I am going to need a vehicle.(Maybe I can push my start date back to summer, it would wholly suck to have to wait til the August, but that may be the best credit wise maybe not career movement wise.)  Anywho, so of course I was looking for ways to shuffle debt (against my better judgement) got declined for a personal loan (Lending Club) of course because of my utility(overspending) and the Navient Derog on EQ.

NO LATES
AAOA - 8.5 yrs
First hurdle is I have to quell this dag on high balance.  My own fault.  
Second hurdle is get a vehicle.  (It is sobering) ( of course once my score hit 675 I got another PreQual through Cap1 and Chrysler, but heck the CU the where I want to be, even if its a refinance.

I know that once I pay my balance down to $8399/$10500 my fico with EX will goto a flat 700 per the estimator.. ( the estimator is pretty dag on close to reliable)
I am not sure, of what I am asking from you all.. I just been reading on here since about mid Sept and said I will share my situation. Im motivate to getting it better. Any advice from any of you would be great!

So what would you all do??

[Fleuriste]

I don't see a lot of fat in that financial diet. I would say when you are on a tight budget, I'm not sure you need the monthly myfico membership.  You might not know your exact numbers at every moment, but you know what you need to do to increase your scores: pay your bills on time and get your credit card balances down.

I think you can save yourself $30 from the myFico subscription and apply it to your credit card debts. Meanwhile, when the ring is paid off, you should also switch that payment over to your cards. If you make a goal of building a 6 month emergency fund, which for you  is about $9,000.  

If you set $500 a month aside for the emergency fund, and then apply the remainder to your credit card debt, you should be able to tackle all of the debt and have your emergency fund in about a year and a half.  However, I'm a little unclear as to where your student loan payments fall into this equation (you mention $400 a month in the body of your post but then list $167 per month in forebearance in your month bills.)  If you are figuring $400/per month not included in your $1290 per month after your regular payments, then, obviously, you won't be able to put $500/month towards your emergency fund and you will have to build that a little less aggressively. If you can manage to set aside $300/month, it would take you 2.5 years to build it. 

Sorry this is a bit rambling, but you can figure out what numbers work for you.  The way I see it, once you have the emergency fund, then you can build funds for downpayments, vacations, etc.  Once you get the credit card debt down to a manageable level, your scores should jump up.  Good luck!

[ThaDude]

Thank you for the reply! To clarify the $400 was me paying over what was req’d. This is why I reduced it to167 once I started this new job.

Also the $167 payment is already included in monthly expenses!

Again thank you as I reread your message, take a few notes!

[Queen_Etherea]

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@ThaDude wrote:

So we moved into our place beginning of September! We have broken the bills up.
Monthly Inc $2860 (I get queezy whenever I think about it lol, im getting better)
Rent - ($975)
Cellphone (87.34)
La Fitness (34.95) (Can freeze it but I feel like physical fitness and financial fitness are important!)
Direct Loans (167) ( On forbearance right now, and I actually should be enrolling at the state universities MBA program)
MyFico (29.99)
Netflix (10.99)
Apple (9.99)
Crunchy Roll (6.95)
Dog food (35)
Gas(her car)(60)
Groceries (100) (We pretty much pack lunch every day... well I do anyway haha)
Dog Insurance (45) ( havent started this back up yet as he is not due for his shots
Wedding Ring Pay off ( $447)( on the 19th I am paying this balance, and save 61 bucks a month!)

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In what world are groceries only $100/month?? Holy cow I would be on top of the world if that was my grocery bill lol. It's just me, the bf, and our son, and I spent $108 just in one trip. Our grocery bill usually comes out to about $300/month. We also all pack lunches every day.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm just amazed lol. Also, welcome to the FICO Fam! The people here are amazing and have helped me raise my score over 100 points this year, and I hope they can do the same for you. As long as you're willing to put in the work, you will see results. I thought I was in a hole I would never climb out of, but I'm halfway up, and I can almost reach the top!

[ThaDude]

Farmers market, bogo sales and my wife matches. Yes i am going to do this. Operation pay the balance down, and I need to add more credit accounts, need advice on this. Maybe a couple soft pull accounts, just need to know where to start!