pic.twitter.com/QLo3raTEte

— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) March 23, 2024

OC

I'm 29 years old. I've lost all the money I've had and took out credit card debt and borrowed money from my mom to day trade. Each time I tried making it back, I ended up losing more and spiraled out of control. I'm a complete idiot and I really ruined my life. I'm now trying to turn it around since I hit rock bottom.

There's about 45k of various credit card debt. 12k in line of credit and 45k of credit card debt held by my mom. I have no other debt. I make 90k a year before taxes, which amounts to about 4400 per month. I live with my parents. My mom does not have an income but my dad is supporting her. He does not know about the credit card debt and I've been making the minimum payments.

My credit score is about 650, so I'm not even sure if I'll be approved for some debt consolidation. I have a meeting this Friday to apply. If that doesn't work, it time for me to consider a consumer proposal or bankruptcy?

EDIT: so I had an appointment with an insolvency trustee and it sounds like they may be able to reduce my monthly payment to about 440$ a month for 60 months under a consumer proposal. I also have an appointment this Friday to apply for a debt consolidation. The consumer proposal would allow me to free up money to be able to pay off my mom's debt faster, but the debt consolidation may allow me to recover my credit faster. Obviously I want to do right by my mom, so fully ready to go the CP route, but just wondering what people think about the debt consolidation route if that's possible as an option.

Really appreciate any advice..

I'm like "I got maybe $3 between two different debit cards, what can I get?" and the dude actually spotted me a pint of vodka saying bring me a $5 bill next time. I absolutely will bring him $5 next time, I kinda needed this drink. That was unexpected kindness but I guess I have given him a lot of business over the years. You'd expect a liquor store owner to throw you out if you can't pay but maybe he realizes I'm good for it.

...

Edit: Thanks for the nice replies, frick you to the judgmental ones.

And we dislike you too.

Edit 2: I have tried rehab several times and it didn't take. All they do is dry you out and send you to a religious group. Oh sorry "spiritual not religious" like there's a fricking difference. It's all superstitious nonsense. AA can go frick itself.

Perhaps if you stopped wasing money on alcohol you might become not poor? But then again I doubt it.

It's literally an active subreddit called /r/poor where poors unironically and in total honesty congregate and complain about being poor. I'm sure there's tons of stuff to be mined there.

For instance the top post of the subreddit is called "America is unlivable" (15.1K upvotes):

This country is absurd. I hate it. I hate that two people in the home are working and people can still not afford to get by. People should be rioting in the streets for the way we live. Government taxes the frick out of us. There is no federally mandated workers rights, no mandated pto, maternity/paternity leave, hardly any paid sick time. Other counties get 4-8 weeks federally mandated pto, 6mos -1yr of mandated paid maternity leave, unlimited sick time. We are literally living off crumbs of happiness. Most people can't afford to put food on the table. And we don't do anything. My car ins has gone up 50 dollars in the past year for no reason no accidents nada I even lowered my coverage because it's so expensive and it still went up. We pay for streaming services because it's cheaper and a way to avoid commercials. But now every streaming service is 20 bucks and it's 60 for the "premium version " with no commercials. People can't afford to feed their kids but the government is still taking at least 300 bucks out of every single pay check. Rent has gone up utilities have gone up. And everyone cries inflation which is true because the US feels the need to get involved in every single countries problems but the people living here who are starving isn't their problem. And the number one profit that has increased is corporate profit. They all say it. They're making more money than ever and their profit is at an all time high. But most people are living paycheck to paycheck one bad week away from homelessness. Not to mention all of the stupid shit they make us pay for. Please explain to me why I need to re register my car every single year and it costs nearly 100 bucks? We should only have to register it if you buy a car. Register one time and that's it. The government completely controlls us and takes advantage of us and most people don't care. We should be protesting in the streets. We should be trying to cripple this tyrannical government. But people are too scared or too busy. It's killing me. It's so sad, we're wasting our lives away working. I hate seeing people live like this.

DoorDash has, for many people, become a substitute for frozen meals, despite being less convenient and radically more expensive. And a lot of frozen meals taste fine, plenty of chain restaurants are actually serving that.

— cai (@AnneNotation) March 17, 2024

The replies to this tweet, which puts the bar as low as possible (frozen foods), somehow receives gratuitous pushback. Examples:

https://twitter.com/trochele/status/1769811110511710669

One pot pie is 600 calories

https://twitter.com/alxcharlesdukes/status/1769518810271211879

Unless it's like Stouffer's or hungry man frozen dinners, McDonald's is much worse than any frozen option.

https://twitter.com/KnoxEndemic/status/1769733590164672606

This one is the funniest to me. Somehow this person is distressed by the prospect of taking a meal out of the freezer and into the microwave.

https://twitter.com/Sarahj1919/status/1769853056777134438

Normalize institutionalizing these people and whipping them in shape

OP

It would be nice if you could just find something to chew on or drink that covers a lot of necessaries. My issue is that I get bored with the easily made, cheap food I can buy and prep. They all take a short amount of time compared to other foods but then I get super bored of them and would want something more or different..

Eating a special nourishment paste sounds so practical and if its 100% digestible, it is fine with me or I wish for someone to create a human equivalent of dog kibble that contains all the daily nutrients and calories needed to sustain life.

When you don't feel like cooking, eat it, and when you don't want to eat kibble, cook. Why can't we have something like this? I know slowcookers exist, and it's the closest thing to set and forget and eat so we can do human stuff.

Okay so back when I wasn't making much money, I had the month to month Amazon prime. I decided I should just get the year of Amazon prime to save money.

What happened was this:

-Amazon charged me for month-to-month

-That SAME DAY I cancelled and it initiated refund for the monthly charge (like $8 or something)

-Again that same day i immediately enrolled in the year to year Amazon prime

-I got the $8 returned

-I NEVER got charged for year to year

I was hoping it would continue but nah I've been charged for the full yearly price again. But if you're tight on money and willing to risk it (unsure if this still works), might be a good idea.

Edit: for people like @Pikachu who suck at math and logic, this saved me more than $100 because it was a year of prime for free. That was a decent amount of money to me at one time okay.

I had month to month bc they used to give me free months of Amazon prime whenever there was an issue with my order but they stopped doing this

bonus: corporate cucks give 1.4 percent of their bitcoin each year to middlemen for no reason.

https://old.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvestments/comments/1bewdro/31m_employer_401k_with_fidelity_and_opened_a/kuxgmz7/?context=8&sort=controversial

For reference, the minimum wage for retail managers as per the general retail award is ~$27AUD or $18USD full/part time.

You may not think the same when you're in your 40s and still renting and still in retail. I wish I pushed myself more when I was younger . But everyone is different. You may be happy working your entire life in a job like that. +2

[end thread]

Sure. Live a happy and stress free life now. Sounds like fun! Just don't b-word about it when you're 45 and wish you had better income, a house and thought about how you're going to fund your retirement earlier. -4

Your snarky bitchy comment ignores the fact that people HAVE to do these jobs otherwise society doesn't function. And they SHOULD be able to have a house and retire with ANY job . Go lick a boot. +4

y'see, they're right but not for the reason they think. our GDP would be fricking obliterated if the service industry stopped because we don't make anything

Do none of you have any darn ambition? I'd already bought my first apartment at 24. -4

evidently not

I haven't even watched it yet the thumbnail just made me lmao irl

I miss when this was a serious show about helping people!!!

Reddit is, of course, mad. Just from latest comments

!coomers

I fricking hate how firefox puts bullshit like this in my face when I open a new tab

Timestamps:

As always, nothing makes !peakpoors seethe harder than telling them to live within their means.

This post reeks of privilege portraying itself as advice. [+65]

Explain [-10]

It just seems like someone who didn't work a job til after college, had their entire expenses paid for and had their parents help them with a down payment on their house preaching about finance, it's hysterical.

Majority of the case, your finances are an indicator of your upbringing. It's not the rule, but usually in the case I mentioned, that person didn't do anything special, they just had parents who helped them out. But because they did well, they want to convince themselves that they're just more responsible. Especially with the last gripe of “don't live on govt/others”, it's pretty clear you're incapable of considering any case where you do need to rely on government/others.

My parents have both been on disability since I was 16. My mom has had 2 strokes, and my dad had a really bad work injury and suffered moderate brain damage. Both of them are now incapable of working. So what do you consider they do for income instead? [+35]

1st gen cuban american. I've worked since I was 14 and my parents only gave me food and shelter. I paid my own way through college and bought my own house at 23 (funding the down payment myself).

I'm glad your disabled parents had govt/taxpayer support. Obviously disabilities might require some form of govt assistance, which is why those programs exist. My advice remains, whether one is disabled or not. Live below your means, work more/harder (as much and as hard as your mind/body can) to provide for yourself and your loved ones to the best of your ability.

Haters gonna hate. Whiners gonna whine. I prefer to suck it up and improve my lot no matter my circumstances nor my limitations. [-20]

Ah, classic machismo. You just proved their point. [+15]

This is just self righteous, mental masturbation. Just put it in your journal next time.

Personal responsibility is a dirty word on Reddit

Spoken like a nepo-baby who got a "small loan of a million dollars" handed to them.

This isn't educational, it's abundantly ignorant to the reality that much of the population is facing.

We have hundreds of thousands dying in poverty. They are not "living above their means" and people who rely on the government don't have a choice. This idea that it's "optional" would be hilarious if people weren't actively dying because they are unable to afford basic necessities for survival.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-04-18/americas-4th-leading-cause-of-death-poverty

We need to be expanding these programs right now because the current state of poverty in the US is unacceptable and it's been getting much worse with inflation.

In that article you posted they didn't talk about how poverty is actually killing people, they just kept saying that it kills and says it's the 4th leading cause of death but yet accidents are the the 4th highest.

I'm gonna be real with you, if you need someone to spell out for you how poverty can be detrimental or life-threatening you might be r-slurred.

Employee approached me crying, asking if he could park his car in our parking lot overnight and work late “to stay warm”. I asked him what he meant and he told me that he hasn't been paying child support so 100% of his next three paychecks would be garnished and now he couldn't afford rent and was planning on living in his car.

I told him that I wouldn't allow any of my employees to be homeless so I gave him a $6000k interest free loan to pay all of his child support at once, so his paychecks wouldn't be garnished and he wouldn't be homeless.

Then we sat down and I helped him form a budget so he wouldn't have this issue ever again (he makes nearly six figures, just financially illiterate)

Four week later, he requesting PTO because he's flying out of state for a little vacation.

How do you go from on the verge of homelessness over unpaid child support to buying a plane ticket and taking a vacation four weeks later? Wtf man? Why can't people just be normal?

Edit: $6k my bad yall!

I also personally know the guy, he's a good dude just a little deep on the goofy spectrum.

Supposedly the money is being pulled from his paycheck so OP might eventually get paid back. There's some back and forth about whether or not child support can take your whole paycheck. Other manager stories dealing with poors.

One time I had an employee come to me sobbing that he was unable to buy groceries for his family. I spoke with my superiors and we agreed to help him out. I went and bought $500 worth of groceries and we filled his fridge and cupboards. Lots of shelf stable stuff that would last a long time. Beans and rice and stuff.

About a month later he was super excited telling me about the new vr headset he bought. A couple weeks after that it was the airsoft gun he bought to go play with his friends. Couple more weeks on he's showing me the puppy they're going to buy. He didn't understand why I didn't seem excited about the puppy, so I laid it out for him.

Haven't been willing to help an employee in that capacity since, unfortunately. I will show them compassion and even leniency for things like attendance when they're having a hard go at things, but I've learned that that has to be the extent of it.

I had a staff member give me a sob story on how they have to have surgery but do not have enough PTO to cover their surgery. She was very upset since the surgery is not optional and she didn't want to lose her job. I felt bad and donated 40 hours of my PTO to her so she could take the time worry free. Two weeks later she went on a weeklong vacation...

My dad used to give our payroll advances for situations like this semi-regularly. At best, the person just ends up coming back for another one as soon as they paid off that one. At worst, then end up quitting or needing to be fired for cause before it's paid off and we have to garnish it in its entirety in their final paycheck, which usually pisses them off more and some have gotten violent. Even worse, sometimes their final check isn't enough to cover it and we either kiss it goodbye or have to pursue them for it with threat of legal action. I've made him add the stipulation that it has to be taken out of the next check for whatever pay period we're in and cannot be greater than where their takehome pay is at the moment they're asking. Doing that, we've been able to help people that just had a very rare shortfall for rent or something like that so they don't have to go to a payday loan place while also keeping away the people that abuse it.

As everyone mentioned you got played, sorry.

It took me knowing someone who was "always broke " over 10 + years...at first it made sense, they were supporting a lot of kids, no degree and few jobs to accommodate the schedules for various kids and pick up drop off being sick etc...but then she attached herself to a guy who paid big bucks.. and I had hope for her, they got bills paid off, a nice house, help with the kids...except now with the change in support and schedule she continued not to work by choice (no medical issues). Annnnd then came the (in my mind unexpected) money choices...new cars, lots of new tech and junk for her and the kids...then we learn the mortgage is behind and they used COVID as an excuse to blow it off...despite making the same amount of money throughout...dude made 2.5 times more than me and she started asking for help with bills...they scammed medicaid/snap/wic etc and got found out and had to pay it back and got banned for life from receiving benefits.

Long story short she had already fricked her credit and fricked his...got him to quit 3 years before he could retire and cash out.. when the money ran out she ditched his butt.

So I say this: she could get a million dollars and still be broke within a month. It's pointless to give her money because she won't learn. I remember one time hanging out and Bill collectors were calling and they both acted irritated with the people for bothering...she doesn't see this as an obligation to pay back just another free paycheck. Sorry OP.

I own a travel agency, and I've seen the other end of this. His vacation is very likely being covered by a relative or it was purchased before the garnishment was announced and was non-refundable. It's a bad look, and people assume that someone like this is playing them, but it isn't necessarily that they have played you. Just keep this in mind as you move forward.

Travel agent's still exist Also

Why do people here .. ?

You show people a way they can save a lot of money eating out (apps, save 50% or more)

So they lecture you that instead of eating out you should spend hours shopping and making everything from scratch like you're some kind of a farm family Like, some of us don't like to eat out or do it for convenience?

Or, why do people eat out when poor people can't afford it? How about this: you might be too poor but some of us like to if that's okay with you!!

They do that to steal your data! Like, using credit cards or loyalty retail cards or when they have your email or phone number, They don't also get your data?