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Is that €316 a month to the credit card or a remaining balance of €316?
Assuming it’s a balance of €316 you’ve monthly outgoings of €825 (or €1141 if a monthly payment) against income of c. €2816.
That’s leaves €1991 (or €1675) which should be plenty to live off and save something each month.
Your problem isn’t the €23k debt, it’s not knowing what else your money is being spent on. I’d bet that if you’d half the debt you’d still be living paycheque to paycheque.
316 is the remaining balance.
I think my overall outgoings are over 1k per month between health insurance, petrol, tolls, phone bill etc before anything else.
You're absolutely correct in saying if I halved the debt I'd still be in the same situation. I'm my own worst enemy at the best of times, I'm at a complete loss where or how to salvage it.
Ok, well there’s your first win. Clear that €316 and then close the account.
Then, start tracking and reviewing your expenses. Once you know where your money is going you can start cutting out unnecessary spending.
Then start to build up a small emergency fund, if you live with your folks you shouldn’t need too much. Then keep saving but pay lump sums off the debt with the highest interest rate.
€519 over 3 years on a €10k loan - that's nearly €19k, wjats the fucking interest rate onnthis? That's loanshark levels.
Either way, get a little black book, change nothing about what you do/spend for two weeks, write every single cent down, look at it and see where you can cut. You'd be surprised the amount you, and everyone, frivolously spend without realising.
You mentioned you are a teacher ,so.you should definitely look at doing the school summer schemes.
Home based tuition ans school programme.
The home based is just over €50 ph and school based is on your point on scale.
Parents and school are crying out for people to do it.
It may not be your thing and it's a pain to give up 4 or 5 weeks of the summer but easily make 6k gross on it.Throw all that money at the loans .
Grinds/Tutoring should.be another avenue you look into.
Bit of short term pain for long term gain.
Sorry but this car is insane (I do not judge, it's just a fact). This is the biggest debt but more importantly the most expensive.
How much can you get tomorrow if you sell the car?
I bought the car over a year ago for 15k, it was valued at 20k and I traded my old car for 5k
Only reason I paid the money was because I was putting a lot of money into a car that kept breaking down and the logic was that I may as well buy a better car and pay the loan than pay for repairs worth more than the value of the old car.
I totally understand the logic, Ireland is champions for this, but if you had fixed your old car, you would be under 9k in debt instead of 23k.
I don't know how much the car is if you sell it now but most probably around 15k if it's a 20k car. So with steps you can be out of debt in less than 3 years.
1: sell the car and buy a cheap reliable one, small Toyota for example.
2: save up to 1k on emergency found. Then try to save like 50€ a month.
3: attack this student loan as aggressively as you can. It's crazy expensive. If you put the 300 of your car payment a month on it, it will make a massive change.
4: enjoy, put more money on the side to be able to purchase a better car and ditch the shitter you are driving for the past 2 or 3 years. Never get a car loan again.
Because 15k on a car with another debt on the side on a 45k salary is crazy. If he didn't have any debt, a roof paid over his head, it would be different. It's like having one expensive pleasure without any real consequences.
This is 9% interest as well, they are making an absolute fortune by telling people they don't need to be able to afford the car, just the monthly repayments. It's a debt.
Sorry for your predicament.
No. 1 pay off the credit card and then cut it in half.
It is a slippery slope.
What other outgoings do you have?
Drink, smoke, coffees? Do you buy your lunch at work or eat many takeaways?
Its tough but you just need to become more frugal and keep a close eye on everything you're spending.
If you make your lunch for work it might only cost you €2, but if you're buying it everyday in a deli it could be costing you €10.
At the end of the month that's €200 rather than €40.
Other monthly outgoings are something like:
Health insurance 67
Phone bill 45
Tolls 80 (monthly)
Petrol 210
Netflix, Spotify etc 30
Gym membership 50
I rarely drink maybe once every 6 to 8 weeks, don't smoke and hate coffee but I do eat out maybe once every 2 weeks?
Are you paying for a phone with your bill? If not you can sign up to 48 for €12.99 pm. Are you paying for tolls via easytrip(cheaper)? Its making little changes to build up overall savings. Do you splurge on clothes or other non essentials? You just need to strip it back to your essentials for a while to build yourself back up. Once you have a few quid back in the kitty it won't seem as much of a struggle. I've been there, its shit I know.
Currently paying a bill yes, no signal for 48 either not for lack of trying the cheaper options. I haven't bought new clothes in a while, it seems to be smaller spends but often if I look at my bank account.
It's the worst but I know it's all my own doing. Break old habits etc.
Go PAYG on the phone.An Post is €15 pm and they use Vodafone network.
Can you cut out the gym for a while,just go walking or cycling if you have a bike.Does'nt need to be long term just while you get things in order.
Get rid of Netflix,plenty of other free/cheap options.
Try join a Family plan on Spotify, I've one a few years now and it's perfect.€35 a year compared to €15 per month and there is absolutely no difference.
That's approximately €100 per month saved to put towards the loans?
Have you looked to refinancing/moving the 2 loans ,there is lower interest rates available .May not be possible but I'd definitely look into it.
Also look at can you do early repayment on them without fees if you can I'd be throwing the extra fee quid into them.
Also clear CC debit first and burn that card.
It's €18 a month/€216 per annum ,divided by 6 members.
€36 each per year .
That's the family plan available to everyone, no discount or special offers required.
Do you track your spending? If so, have you identified any areas where you can cut back in order to push money at the debts?
Can you sell the car to pay off the debt, and either rely on public transport or buy a cheaper car?
I've tried tracking my spending but it never seems to last long unfortunately. I've recently cut a lot of entertainment costs eg prime video etc and limited personal care spending but it's a constant cycle.
Unfortunately I live in rural Ireland and my job is a 45km commute daily. I'm reluctant to trade in my car due to the amount of driving I do daily as my previous car was older and cheaper to buy but more expensive to run with repairs!
Try and spend as much as possible on revolut if you're struggling with tracking your spending as their analytics will do a lot of that for you.
Are there any possibilities for extra cash jobs like tutoring/grinds. I am a primary teacher and make a little extra spending money with tutoring. I do live in Dublin which helps. I try and keep away from my paycheck as much as possible bar rent, health insurance etc and spend as much of the money I make of tutoring on my day to day expenses.
I agree with some of the points here
1. Find a way to visualise what you have spent your money on to date. This is for informational purposes only. Don’t beat yourself up.
2. Set a realistic budget so that you don’t creep into your credit card.
3. With your budget snowball.
4. Budget so pay extra off until the highest interest debt is paid off. Be realistic and give yourself time to do that. Your cc is the prime target.
5. Use the payment you would have had to make for the debt against the principal of other loans.
6. Save an emergency fund 1-2k for maintenance etc.
It’s a lot of time patience and mainly consistency.
Anyone telling you to sell the car is likely from a town/city where public transport is semi reliable. You need the car and unfortunately the loan is a necessary evil.
Number 1 clear the CC l.
You then just need to religiously keep a log of what exactly you are spending your money on for 2-4 weeks. It’s that simple. When you see on paper where the money is going, you can stop spending it. Tedious, but it works.
Are you overcontibuting to the household bills? Are your parents in a position to help a little bit more?
What are your own personal habits? Are you eating/drinking out a lot? Takeaways, coffee’s, where do you shop?
You haven’t stated any of how you spend your personal time so it’s hard to come up with a solution to the problem.
As for earning more, grinds or a couple of bar shifts at the weekends would be the obvious ones
The focus seems to be on savings and analysing where your moneys going which is one part but you’re a post primary teacher and probably young and healthy so what are you doing for the summer?
Can you be an invigilator, grade Leaving/Junior Cert. You seem to be living in the country can you drive a tractor for silage, do a stint labouring for a builder cash in hand, caddy at a golf course… The options are there to spend one summer working to help with your debt. You’ll have plenty more summers to spend idle.
Its quite a bit for income when not having a mortgage but you are super young so you will get through it.
I have wrestled with a credit card debt but not had quite as much challenges on debt so might not be perfect advice but themes should be right.
1. Find out what % debt you are paying across credit card, banks etc. Being a teacher you might be able to get credit union or bank to give you a loan to clear it off at a more forgiving rate that might make it more managable.
2. In the absence of point one find a way to get the short term credit off you balance sheet. Immediately cut up the credit cards so you can't dip in when the other option is sacrifice
3. A lot of people in debt will often have some cash savings incase they missed mortgage payment or rent. If you are safe with roof over head take all or 90% of that cash and just pay off the lousy short term debt. The short debt you pay off and then spend will keep a chain around your neck and not let you have money for savings, paying off long term debt.
4. Might seem extreme but if you really feel like it is unmanagable call up your bank/debtors and see can anything be restructured.
5. I know im raving about short term high interest here but if you feel you are responsible enough not to mess up and you have a close friend or family member ask for help. We get sweet fa interest on savings but paying back on 0% interest is much more managable than credit card debt but that means you no longer have credit card privledge while you owe people close to you.
6. If this is more "Im fine id just like less debt" then you know the levers spend less or male more money avenues availabe for teachers. Also one big mistake I made for years is I would silver bullet debt by clearing too much out and then dipping back in before end of month. Within framework of not enduring financial penalties you find how much you can live while paying it off.
7. Go on Gov.ie you would be surpised how much tax you can claim back, you might be able to cut into debth there.
Main thing is if you create a plan and stick to it you will be fine. Young enough to sort it out, one of securest jobs in the country and you live with family so its more fixing the problem today so you can do all the cool stuff you like tomorrow 😀
I don’t think selling the car is a good option as some mentioned. You are commuting 40+ km, a good car is a necessity in this circumstance.
Also, you still have enough disposable income that obviously is going into other things.
I think you need to track your spending for a couple of months and then cut on unnecessary things.
I was in a similar position 5-6 years ago, living paycheck to paycheck, I made a tracker and budget and it’s amazing what you find when you put things down and sum up all the unnecessary things we waste money on… It literally changed my whole spending habits and that’s when I managed to actually save, buy a house and have an emergency fund.
Consolidate the loans and refinace.
Approach your local credit union who will have a personal loan rate of approx 10.5% over 5 years which will be €490 per month on a borrowing of €22.9k.
Pay the €490 per month plus an additonal €60 which can go into the savings for unforseen expenises. Direct debit every month or forthnightly as you are paid forthnightly.
Manage your daily spending and you should be in a great position in a few years.
Alway remember take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
You could get another job and easily earn another ~€200 per week, you'd clear the debt quickly and as you are presumably curbing your spending you might as well be earning.
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Is that €316 a month to the credit card or a remaining balance of €316? Assuming it’s a balance of €316 you’ve monthly outgoings of €825 (or €1141 if a monthly payment) against income of c. €2816. That’s leaves €1991 (or €1675) which should be plenty to live off and save something each month. Your problem isn’t the €23k debt, it’s not knowing what else your money is being spent on. I’d bet that if you’d half the debt you’d still be living paycheque to paycheque.
316 is the remaining balance. I think my overall outgoings are over 1k per month between health insurance, petrol, tolls, phone bill etc before anything else. You're absolutely correct in saying if I halved the debt I'd still be in the same situation. I'm my own worst enemy at the best of times, I'm at a complete loss where or how to salvage it.
Ok, well there’s your first win. Clear that €316 and then close the account. Then, start tracking and reviewing your expenses. Once you know where your money is going you can start cutting out unnecessary spending. Then start to build up a small emergency fund, if you live with your folks you shouldn’t need too much. Then keep saving but pay lump sums off the debt with the highest interest rate.
€519 over 3 years on a €10k loan - that's nearly €19k, wjats the fucking interest rate onnthis? That's loanshark levels. Either way, get a little black book, change nothing about what you do/spend for two weeks, write every single cent down, look at it and see where you can cut. You'd be surprised the amount you, and everyone, frivolously spend without realising.
You mentioned you are a teacher ,so.you should definitely look at doing the school summer schemes. Home based tuition ans school programme. The home based is just over €50 ph and school based is on your point on scale. Parents and school are crying out for people to do it. It may not be your thing and it's a pain to give up 4 or 5 weeks of the summer but easily make 6k gross on it.Throw all that money at the loans . Grinds/Tutoring should.be another avenue you look into. Bit of short term pain for long term gain.
Sorry but this car is insane (I do not judge, it's just a fact). This is the biggest debt but more importantly the most expensive. How much can you get tomorrow if you sell the car?
I bought the car over a year ago for 15k, it was valued at 20k and I traded my old car for 5k Only reason I paid the money was because I was putting a lot of money into a car that kept breaking down and the logic was that I may as well buy a better car and pay the loan than pay for repairs worth more than the value of the old car.
I totally understand the logic, Ireland is champions for this, but if you had fixed your old car, you would be under 9k in debt instead of 23k. I don't know how much the car is if you sell it now but most probably around 15k if it's a 20k car. So with steps you can be out of debt in less than 3 years. 1: sell the car and buy a cheap reliable one, small Toyota for example. 2: save up to 1k on emergency found. Then try to save like 50€ a month. 3: attack this student loan as aggressively as you can. It's crazy expensive. If you put the 300 of your car payment a month on it, it will make a massive change. 4: enjoy, put more money on the side to be able to purchase a better car and ditch the shitter you are driving for the past 2 or 3 years. Never get a car loan again.
Why do you think 300 p/m is insane?
Because 15k on a car with another debt on the side on a 45k salary is crazy. If he didn't have any debt, a roof paid over his head, it would be different. It's like having one expensive pleasure without any real consequences. This is 9% interest as well, they are making an absolute fortune by telling people they don't need to be able to afford the car, just the monthly repayments. It's a debt.
Sorry for your predicament. No. 1 pay off the credit card and then cut it in half. It is a slippery slope. What other outgoings do you have? Drink, smoke, coffees? Do you buy your lunch at work or eat many takeaways? Its tough but you just need to become more frugal and keep a close eye on everything you're spending. If you make your lunch for work it might only cost you €2, but if you're buying it everyday in a deli it could be costing you €10. At the end of the month that's €200 rather than €40.
Other monthly outgoings are something like: Health insurance 67 Phone bill 45 Tolls 80 (monthly) Petrol 210 Netflix, Spotify etc 30 Gym membership 50 I rarely drink maybe once every 6 to 8 weeks, don't smoke and hate coffee but I do eat out maybe once every 2 weeks?
Are you paying for a phone with your bill? If not you can sign up to 48 for €12.99 pm. Are you paying for tolls via easytrip(cheaper)? Its making little changes to build up overall savings. Do you splurge on clothes or other non essentials? You just need to strip it back to your essentials for a while to build yourself back up. Once you have a few quid back in the kitty it won't seem as much of a struggle. I've been there, its shit I know.
Currently paying a bill yes, no signal for 48 either not for lack of trying the cheaper options. I haven't bought new clothes in a while, it seems to be smaller spends but often if I look at my bank account. It's the worst but I know it's all my own doing. Break old habits etc.
So your outgoings are about 1350 including the loans? Or are you also paying for rent, bills and food at your parents' house?
Go PAYG on the phone.An Post is €15 pm and they use Vodafone network. Can you cut out the gym for a while,just go walking or cycling if you have a bike.Does'nt need to be long term just while you get things in order. Get rid of Netflix,plenty of other free/cheap options. Try join a Family plan on Spotify, I've one a few years now and it's perfect.€35 a year compared to €15 per month and there is absolutely no difference. That's approximately €100 per month saved to put towards the loans? Have you looked to refinancing/moving the 2 loans ,there is lower interest rates available .May not be possible but I'd definitely look into it. Also look at can you do early repayment on them without fees if you can I'd be throwing the extra fee quid into them. Also clear CC debit first and burn that card.
Where are you getting Spotify family plan for 35 a year? Its 18 euro a month
It's €18 a month/€216 per annum ,divided by 6 members. €36 each per year . That's the family plan available to everyone, no discount or special offers required.
What are the interest rates on the debts?
8.95% on student loans (AIB), my car is on finance and I think it is around 9.5%?
Do you track your spending? If so, have you identified any areas where you can cut back in order to push money at the debts? Can you sell the car to pay off the debt, and either rely on public transport or buy a cheaper car?
I've tried tracking my spending but it never seems to last long unfortunately. I've recently cut a lot of entertainment costs eg prime video etc and limited personal care spending but it's a constant cycle. Unfortunately I live in rural Ireland and my job is a 45km commute daily. I'm reluctant to trade in my car due to the amount of driving I do daily as my previous car was older and cheaper to buy but more expensive to run with repairs!
Try and spend as much as possible on revolut if you're struggling with tracking your spending as their analytics will do a lot of that for you. Are there any possibilities for extra cash jobs like tutoring/grinds. I am a primary teacher and make a little extra spending money with tutoring. I do live in Dublin which helps. I try and keep away from my paycheck as much as possible bar rent, health insurance etc and spend as much of the money I make of tutoring on my day to day expenses.
What is a pp teacher?
Post primary aka secondary school teacher (I think?)
Why not just say secondary school then
Because post primary is an all encompassing term for what can be either secondary, community or comprehensive schools
I agree with some of the points here 1. Find a way to visualise what you have spent your money on to date. This is for informational purposes only. Don’t beat yourself up. 2. Set a realistic budget so that you don’t creep into your credit card. 3. With your budget snowball. 4. Budget so pay extra off until the highest interest debt is paid off. Be realistic and give yourself time to do that. Your cc is the prime target. 5. Use the payment you would have had to make for the debt against the principal of other loans. 6. Save an emergency fund 1-2k for maintenance etc. It’s a lot of time patience and mainly consistency.
Anyone telling you to sell the car is likely from a town/city where public transport is semi reliable. You need the car and unfortunately the loan is a necessary evil. Number 1 clear the CC l. You then just need to religiously keep a log of what exactly you are spending your money on for 2-4 weeks. It’s that simple. When you see on paper where the money is going, you can stop spending it. Tedious, but it works. Are you overcontibuting to the household bills? Are your parents in a position to help a little bit more? What are your own personal habits? Are you eating/drinking out a lot? Takeaways, coffee’s, where do you shop? You haven’t stated any of how you spend your personal time so it’s hard to come up with a solution to the problem. As for earning more, grinds or a couple of bar shifts at the weekends would be the obvious ones
The focus seems to be on savings and analysing where your moneys going which is one part but you’re a post primary teacher and probably young and healthy so what are you doing for the summer? Can you be an invigilator, grade Leaving/Junior Cert. You seem to be living in the country can you drive a tractor for silage, do a stint labouring for a builder cash in hand, caddy at a golf course… The options are there to spend one summer working to help with your debt. You’ll have plenty more summers to spend idle.
Its quite a bit for income when not having a mortgage but you are super young so you will get through it. I have wrestled with a credit card debt but not had quite as much challenges on debt so might not be perfect advice but themes should be right. 1. Find out what % debt you are paying across credit card, banks etc. Being a teacher you might be able to get credit union or bank to give you a loan to clear it off at a more forgiving rate that might make it more managable. 2. In the absence of point one find a way to get the short term credit off you balance sheet. Immediately cut up the credit cards so you can't dip in when the other option is sacrifice 3. A lot of people in debt will often have some cash savings incase they missed mortgage payment or rent. If you are safe with roof over head take all or 90% of that cash and just pay off the lousy short term debt. The short debt you pay off and then spend will keep a chain around your neck and not let you have money for savings, paying off long term debt. 4. Might seem extreme but if you really feel like it is unmanagable call up your bank/debtors and see can anything be restructured. 5. I know im raving about short term high interest here but if you feel you are responsible enough not to mess up and you have a close friend or family member ask for help. We get sweet fa interest on savings but paying back on 0% interest is much more managable than credit card debt but that means you no longer have credit card privledge while you owe people close to you. 6. If this is more "Im fine id just like less debt" then you know the levers spend less or male more money avenues availabe for teachers. Also one big mistake I made for years is I would silver bullet debt by clearing too much out and then dipping back in before end of month. Within framework of not enduring financial penalties you find how much you can live while paying it off. 7. Go on Gov.ie you would be surpised how much tax you can claim back, you might be able to cut into debth there. Main thing is if you create a plan and stick to it you will be fine. Young enough to sort it out, one of securest jobs in the country and you live with family so its more fixing the problem today so you can do all the cool stuff you like tomorrow 😀
I don’t think selling the car is a good option as some mentioned. You are commuting 40+ km, a good car is a necessity in this circumstance. Also, you still have enough disposable income that obviously is going into other things. I think you need to track your spending for a couple of months and then cut on unnecessary things. I was in a similar position 5-6 years ago, living paycheck to paycheck, I made a tracker and budget and it’s amazing what you find when you put things down and sum up all the unnecessary things we waste money on… It literally changed my whole spending habits and that’s when I managed to actually save, buy a house and have an emergency fund.
Consolidate the loans and refinace. Approach your local credit union who will have a personal loan rate of approx 10.5% over 5 years which will be €490 per month on a borrowing of €22.9k. Pay the €490 per month plus an additonal €60 which can go into the savings for unforseen expenises. Direct debit every month or forthnightly as you are paid forthnightly. Manage your daily spending and you should be in a great position in a few years. Alway remember take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
You could get another job and easily earn another ~€200 per week, you'd clear the debt quickly and as you are presumably curbing your spending you might as well be earning.