I’m a 21 year old who was formerly in college and is now working full time because of a combination of circumstances, grades, grandma having a stroke and a bunch of other shit.
Anyway, I don’t want to take the damn booster, and mom is literally making me walk home because she doesn’t wanna be in the same car as me (warning sign I should’ve noticed a while ago, as she threatened to kick me out if I didn’t take the Pfizer jabs), and now I think I’m gonna get kicked out of my house.
Right now I don’t have much to my name, if anything at all (except about 1k worth of Yugioh cards) and I also have debt because of me being an idiot with other shit, but I’m on the way to paying the debt off. If I do get kicked out, what should I do first? Right now I’m trying to see if any of my friends could take me in, and I’d be able to pay rent if they’d charge, but it just feels like hell, knowing my mom is a Branch Covidian, even though she’s an RN.
I would seriously consider treating this a bit like a game. I'll explain in a minute.
You may want to talk to your creditors directly and see if you can arrange a payment plan with them. Vast majority of the time, your creditors will probably take 30% off your principle and interest if you intend to actually pay them. $2,300 is not the worst believe it or not.
The Credit Cards are not gonna really help you out, tbh. Once you start playing that game, you'll get buried.
For Cellphones, whatever you've got now, I'd advise you to sell that shit for money and pick up something from Ting. The good thing about their plans is that you can actually bring it below what you would pay for Pay-As-You-Go phones. That $10 a month plan is no frills, but if you're gonna stick to a phone for work and little else, it's the best you're gonna do. Walmart won't sell you anything less than $35 a month which will eat up the costs very badly for a year.
Depending on where you live, a cheap, used, car can cost anywhere between $500 - $1000. I suggest looking for Toyota and Kia. They are pretty reliable so that will keep the maintenance cost down.
Here's what I mean by treating this a bit like a game:
Play it like "Recettear"
You need to focus on what you have to pay down, and how you have to get money. Getting money needs to be a primary focus. That means, if you haven't noticed by now, living it a little rough and working your ass off to save money.
Now, the REASON you are saving money is not to have it. The reason you are saving money is so you can SPEND IT BETTER. In economics, this is called "Capital Investment". You are investing your savings into a mechanism that will make it easier to produce more wealth.
You will have to budget your time and efforts carefully, and aggressively. Unfortunately, this means you will have to take significant responsibility for yourself, and abandon a few luxuries, probably for several months while you work at this.
Your primary objective is to use your savings to move yourself up into the next segment of society so that you don't have to work as hard, while getting more money.
Start budgeting, really budgeting, right now what you can afford. You already have a job, so you know how much money you are taking in. DO NOT spend more than 80% of your income. If you're genuinely poor, you might need every penny so fuck all your subscriptions to Hulu and shit in the taint. You might have to go the other way and realize that you can save 80% of your income instead of spending it. And again, why are you saving? To spend it later on something that will make working harder, for more, easier.
If you're working for $7.50 an hour, it's going to be rough to get money for a car. Do whatever you can to get overtime, or additional income through some side-hustles for anyone who can pay you. If you live near a sports arena, I shit you not, consider selling bottled water for cash. I met a man in Baltimore who was selling "Ice Cold Water! Just one dollar!" near a convention center. He was walking out with hundreds of dollars because of the excellent location. Though, be careful that panhandling isn't illegal where you are at. Look that shit up now. Hell, honestly begging for cash or even a job will still get you some work. Look for manual labor if possible, they'll always accept people.
Your purpose is NOT to work at these places forever. It's to get you enough savings to get that car. You don't even need the greatest car in the world. A $500 car to get you to and from work is good enough. You already mentioned you are taking an Uber. What the fuck do you think they are doing? Yup. Take your car, and do the same shit. Moving people or food around in addition to your working day. Yes, I am telling you to work 60 hours a week.
Yes, your car will break down, plan for that. That's what the savings are for. Expect that your $500 car won't last a year, or if it does, it's because you put money into repairing it. You need to know that you're going to be saving $300 for that new alternator before it blows. Here's the game part: you can flip the car for a bit more money than you got it for. If you took care of the car, cleaned it up a bit, and got some stuff working, you might be able to sell it for slightly more than you bought it for. Just try not to sink too much money into it. You're going to move from a $500 car, to a $1000 car. Now, if you're starting off really low, you might have to trade cars, sell the car for junk and just save to buy a new $600 car instead of paying for the $500 repair cost. But, what would it really take for you to put a few repairs into the car, clean it up nice, and flip it for $1500 ? People aren't expecting much for $1,000, and just a good external and internal cleaning to the right seller would probably do the trick. Put the labor in to get the extra cash that others won't put in. That goes into your savings to go into the next upgrade.
You're going to do this with everything, including you. You're putting experience into both work and your side hustle. Keep your resume going, even after you get a job. We're in a labor shortage, that's great for you. Every time someone offers you a job with a slight pay increase at these low level jobs, take it. Negotiate for higher pay. If you work at Walmart, put your resume over to Kroger, Target, Giant Eagle, Beulers, whatever. Stay competitive. Stay Clean. Look Presentable. Show everyone that people want your work. Confidence and aggression.
As you learn the ropes with your side hustle, you'll get better at identifying the key markets and money making opportunities. I have a co-worker that makes $20 /hr. She still does Uber Eats on the side because she can make more in a weekend than she can during the week because she's aware of the opportunities to make good money. Hell, if you play guitar, put that shit on the street or the park for donations. People will give you a couple bucks, it will add up. Work experience is where the real money is. And don't think your side hustle is JUST a side hustle. If you get really good at cleaning cars, and Target (you moved up from Walmart) isn't paying you enough, add that shit into your resume and put an application in to a detailing place or a mechanics place. Hell, put pictures in if needed. Suddenly your side hustle is now your primary. Then, use your old primary as a side hustle, or get a new one.
As you save money, it will be easier to keep paying off your stupid debts regularly (don't necessarily pay them off all at once unless you're sure it won't strike you down later by hurting your savings too much). But as you save, you upgrade your situation. Once you've got a reliable car, you can probably move out of your car and into a trailer park. No, that wasn't a joke. That's you're next step up. Don't fucking burden yourself with a $20,000 lease fool. The trailer parks will accept anyone that isn't trash. If you show that you have gainful employment and don't start fights, no one will give a shit. If you haven't involved yourself in social clubs already and been making friends (which always gives you opportunities), consider making friends with your neighbors there too. Again: don't think you're here forever. Think about how you're going to make this place better than when you found it, and where you are going next. Keep your planning to 6 months to 1 year in the future and keep sticking to it.
Keep saving and upgrading aggressively and you'll probably have your own house within 5 years. The hardest part is going to be this first year in the car because you won't know what to expect and you'll be scared. You'll also have to rid yourself of a lot of bad habits, and probably work pretty damn hard to get yourself up to the next step. You'll know when you can finally settle back down to 40 hour or so work weeks. The good news for that first year is that everything is your fault. Everything you do right brings you your reward. Everything you do wrong is because you failed to do the thing. The more responsibility to take, the more ownership over yourself you have, and the more you can improve your position.
For that first year out of your car, I forgot to mention: consider going to the public library for entertainment. Check out some of their books if nothing else. You might be able to use their internet for emails and shitposting here (before they ban it) if you can't use your phone.
STAY AWAY FROM VICE. This is what kills poor people the most, and keeps them poor. Drugs, alcohol, porn, cigarettes, strippers. Worse: combining any of the above. I promise you it's not worth your future. It makes everything so much worse, and is outrageously expensive.
Go forth young one, keep us appraised. I believe in you. Ask us for more advice if you think we can help.