vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
"You will definitely want to look into odd jobs, if possible. I'm sure this sounds patronizing, but the biggest problem you have right now is your credit card debt, most likely at very high interest rates. You said you have enough to ""make your payments"", but you didnt specify what that meant. Are you making the minimum payments only?   If you're only making the minimum payments, you'll want to really find SOME way to scrounge even an extra $50 together each month (odd jobs specifically. You might also want to try mturk, where you get paid to fill out surveys). You see, by making only the minimum payment, you are actually probably only putting a few dollars at all to principal. Most of the rest went to last month's interest charges.   The best thing to do is lay out each card and what the interest rate is. You have 9 of them, so this seems like a bit of a task.  The first step is to identify which card has the HIGHEST interest rate. There are two things you can do then. You either throw every extra penny you have at that specific card, OR, you find some way to move that balance to your LOWEST interest rate card.   In all cases, your goal is to move debt from the high-interest rate cards to the low interest rate cards. Once you can't move debt around anymore, your goal then is to pay only the minimums on all the low-interest rate cards, and put EVERY SINGLE SPARE PENNY you have towards the higher ones.   If you don't mind me asking, can you outline all 9 cards and how much you owe on each, adn what each's interest rate is?  It's possible you don't know, and that's problem one. If you don't know the interest rate of each card, then you don't even really know which card you should be paying off first.   Edit: How miuch do you spend on food a month? If you were really really determined to get over this, you'd basically just eat rice and beans, or buy nearly-bad bananas and eggs. These are the cheapest foodstuffs you can find."
In my opinion, it generally makes sense to focus all of your debt-reduction energy and funds on one loan at a time. There are two reasons for this: It will allow you to more quickly move from 4 loans to 3 loans, and then 2, and then 1, providing you with a sense of progress and motivation. As you reduce the number of loans that you have, your monthly minimum payment obligations will be reduced.  Then, if you have a month with an emergency expense, you will have more income available to you for your emergency without getting behind on your loans. There is debate about whether to pay loans in order of the loan balance or in order of interest rate (you can read about this here and here), but in your case, your highest interest loans also have the lowest balance, so either method would have you picking the same loans first.   You have already chosen, wisely, to start with the $1500, 6.8% loans.  Send all of your $1000 to one of these loans, and continue to work aggressively to knock out all four as quickly as possible.
The essential (and obvious) thing to avoid getting back into debt (or to reduce debt if you have it) is to make your total income exceed your total expenses. That means either increasing your income or reducing your total expenses. Either take effort. Basically, you need a plan. If your plan is to increase income, work out how. If the plan is to increase hours in your current, you need to allow for your needs (sleep, rest, etc) and also convince your employer they will benefit by paying you to work more hours. If your intent is to increase your hourly rate, you need to convince a current or prospective employer that you have the capacity, skills, etc to deliver more on the job, so you are worth paying more. If your intent is to get qualifications so you can get a better paying job, work out how much effort (studying, etc) you will apply, over how long, what expenses you will carry (fees, textbooks, etc), and how long you will carry them for (will you accept working some years in a higher paying job, to clear the debt?). Most of those options involve a lot of work, take time, and often mean carrying debt until you are in a position to pay it off. There is nothing wrong with getting a job while studying, but you have to be realistic about the demands. There is nothing sacrosanct about studying that means you shouldn't have a job. However, you need to be clear how many hours you can work in a job before your studies will suffer unnecessarily, and possibly accept the need to study part time so you can work (which means the study will take longer, but you won't struggle as much financially). If your plan is to reduce expenses, you need a budget. Itemize all of your spend. Don't hide anything from that list, no matter how small. Work out which of the things you need (paying off debt is one), which you can get rid of, which you need to reduce - and by how much. Be brutal with reducing or eliminating the non-essentials no matter how much you would prefer otherwise. Keep going until you have a budget in which your expenses are less than your income. Then stick to it - there is no other answer.
As many have said consult a bankruptcy attorney and think of it this way:  Are you realistically going to be able to pay off said debt (less the student loans, you cant escape these in bk) in the next 7 years?  If not, strongly consider bankruptcy. It'll fuck your credit for 7 years, but if you're going to be pinching your pennies to barely cover interest for &gt;7 years anyway, who cares. Further, you don't need more credit anyway, so who cares if you cant get it.  If you do plan on the bk route, be sure you're comfortable with your job prior to filing. It will obviously fuck your credit score and many employers check said score when hiring. Chances of switching jobs are diminished to some extent.  EDIT: On a second note, 11k in debt is not that much money. Take a second job.. Sell shit.. Sell drugs.. Sell a kidney. Do something. 11k is not hard to earn. But earn it now before exorbitant interest rates turn it to 22k, then 44k, etc..
Yes you can't bankrupt these loans, but the money you repay on them doesn't go toward housing you or paying your bills on a rainy day. I went through the same feeling when I completed my MBA with $50k in debt, you want to pay it off as soon as possible. But you need to step away and realize that it was an investment in your future and your future is long, you need time to make a financial foundation for it. And you will feel a lot more empowered when you have money saved and you can make the decision for how you want to deploy it to work for you. (Ex. I could pay down my student loans with the balance I have in the bank, but I am going to use it to invest in myself and open my own business)."
"It is possible to pay down debt (including interest) without issuing new debt money to pay for it. I think this is the heart of your question. Let me present a highly contrived example in which society has four people and one bank. Here is a bank with $100 in initial deposits. Total money supply in this society is $100. (We assume there is no currency circulating, since you're interested in debt money.) This bank lends out $90 to Bob at 1 year maturity and 10% APR. Bob spends this $90 with Charlie to buy raw materials. Charlie deposits $90 in the bank. The money supply just grew from $100 to $190. Bob does something with the raw materials and adds some kind of value, eventually selling the finished goods for $110. In our little silly economy, the only people who have money are Adam and Charlie, so we must assume that between the two of them they buy $110 worth of goods from Bob. Let's say Adam buys $60 and Charlie buys $50 -- the actual amounts don't matter. Bob deposits this money at the bank. Still $190 of money supply. At the end of 1 year, Bob instructs the bank to transfer payment from his deposit account to his loan account. The bank wipes clean his debt and the money remaining in Bob's account represents his return. Who is this David guy? He's the owner of the bank. He grosses $9 in interest from the loan to Bob, and he pays $5 to Adam as interest on Adam's deposit. The remaining $4 is the profit to the bank's owner. Money supply decreased from $190 to $100 after Bob pays off his loan. I realized after writing this, the one thing I left out is, ""where does Adam get $100 to start with?"" Presumably Adam starts off with some kind of currency, either fiat money or commodity money. (IOW, debt money can't be created out of nothing, it has to be expanded on top of some kind of currency.)"
To confirm: you say you have credit card debt of $18,000 with min. repayment of $466.06, plus on top of this you are also paying off a car loan and another personal loan. From my calculations if your monthly interest on your credit card is $237, the interest on your credit card should be about 15.8% p.a. Is this correct? Balance Transfer If you did a balance transfer of your $18,000 to a new credit card with 0% for 14 months and keep your repayments the same ($466) you would have saved yourself a bit over $3020 in interest over those 14 months. Your credit card balance after 14 months would be about $11,471 (instead of $14,476 with your current situation). If your interest after the 14 months went back to 15.8% you would be able to pay the remaining $11,471 in 2.5 more years (keeping repayments at $466), saving 10 months off your repayments and a total of $4,781 in interest over 3 years and 8 months. The main emphasis here is that you are able to keep your repayments at least the same so you are able to pay off the debt quicker, and that your interest rate on the new credit card after the 14 months interest free is not more than your current interest rate of 15.8%. Things you should be careful about if you take this path: Debt Consolidation In regards to a Debt Consolidation for your personal loan and credit card (and possibly your car loan) into a single lower interest rate loan can be a good idea, but there are some pitfalls you should consider. Manly, if you are taking out a loan with a lower interest rate but a longer term to pay it off, you may end up paying less in monthly repayments but will end up paying more interest in the long run. If you do take this course of action try to keep your term to no longer than your current debt's terms, and try to keep your repayments as high as possible to pay the debt off as soon as possible and reduce any interest you have to pay. As you already have you credit card and personal loan with CBA talk to them to see what kind of deal they can give you.
"As THEAO suggested, tracking spending is a great start.  But how about this -  Figure out the payment needed to get to zero debt in a reasonable time, 24 months, perhaps. If that's more than 15% of your income, maybe stretch a tiny bit to 30 months. If it's much less, send 15% to debt until it's paid, then flip the money to savings.  From what's left, first budget the ""needs,"" rent, utilities, etc. Whatever you spend on food, try to cut back 10%.  There is no budget for entertainment or clothes. The whole point is one must either live beneath their means, or increase their income. You've seen what can happen when the debt snowballs.  In reality, with no debt to service and the savings growing, you'll find a way to prioritize spending. Some months you'll have to choose, dinner out, or a show. I agree with Keith's food bill, $300-$400/mo for 3 of us. Months with a holiday and large guest list throws that off, of course."
"Others are very correct to indicate you NEED to put numbers on it. Exactly how much debt are you talking about? What kind of interest are you paying on it? Put that against your income (on a spreadsheet) and then start charting your monthly expenses. Now add in a ""fudge"" factor for the unexpected like car repairs or other unknown that appear from time to time. Once you do that you'll be staring straight at ""reality"" otherwise it's just fiction and guesswork. As Mrs. John isn't working she should be doing everything possible to help you save. Great saving ideas include: Buying in bulk and portioning food in the freezer. Preparing bulk meals like Chili, rice dishes, noodle dishes and thing you can prepare for 1/5th the cost of eating out, portion and freeze meals. Wash dishes in the sink, use cold water (but buy good soap, you'll use much less). Take short showers, save energy everywhere you can. If it's cold, dress warm even at home and if it's warm, undress to the tasteful limits. Minimize heat and AC use. Do you NEED cable and all the channels? So much to view online. You and she may need to find creative ways to earn money, if she's paying off student loans then she has a degree, use it! Can't find a job? Be a consultant, go sell yourself and find some work. It's out there but may take work to find work. If she's disabled than look into government subsidies to assist. If not, then find work that needs to be done and go do it. Time to get busy!"
"First, you've learned a very good lesson that quite a few people miss out on: notice how easy it is to get out of debt when you get a windfall of money?  The trouble is that if a person doesn't have the behavior to maintain their position, they will end up in the same place.  Many lottery winners end up being poor in the long run because their behavior is the problem, not their finances. If you feel that you're going to end up in debt again, this means simply that somewhere in your finances, your expenses exceed your income.  Simply put, there's only two fundamental things that can be done: You can do one or the other, or both.  Over budgeting, I prefer automation - automate your bills and spending by setting up a bill and spending account and when the money's gone, it's gone (you can tell yourself at that point, ""I have to find another source of income before I spend more"").  This not only helps you show where your money is going now, it also puts a constraint on your spending, which sounds like most of the problem currently.  Many of my friends and I make our saved/invested money VERY HARD to access, so that we can't get it immediately (like putting it in an account that will require three or four days to get to). The purpose of this is to shape your behavior into actions of either increasing your income, decreasing your spending, or both."
Unless you can have your savings earning more than the transfer fees, you should just pay the credit cards off before the interest free period ends. Also, there is the difficulty in finding new cards offering 0% interest continuously. You are better off paying off all your bad debt as soon as possible, start saving and investing, instead of wasting your time and energy trying to find new offers of 0% for your transfers before it expires. Rule of Thumb: Get rid of your Bad Debts as soon as possible; Keep your Good Debts as long as possible (as long as you can afford them).
Should I use the money to pay off student loans and future grad expenses for me? Yes.  The main drawback to student loans is that they cannot be gotten rid of except by paying them off (other than extreme circumstances such as death or complete disability).  A mortgage, car loan, or other collateralized loans can be dealt with by selling the underlying collateral.  Credit card loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. Stop borrowing for college, pay for it in cash, then decide what to do with the rest. Make sure you have a comfortable amount saved for emergencies in a completely liquid account (not a retirement account or CDs), and continue to pay off with the rest.  You might also consider putting some away for your kids' college, so  I want to get my older son into a private middle school for 2 years. They have a hardy endowment and may offer us a decent need based scholarship if we look worthy on paper I have a hard time getting behind this plan with a 238K mortgage.  If you want to apply for scholarships that's great - but don't finagle your finances to look like you're poor when you have a quarter-million-dollar house.  If you want to save some for private school then do that out of what you have.  Otherwise either rearrange your priorities so you can afford it or private school might not be in the cards for you. That said- while it was a blessing to be able to pay off the second mortgage and credit cards, your hesitancy to pay off the student loans makes me wonder if you will start living within your means after the loans are paid off.  My concern is that your current spending levels that got you in this much debt in the first place will put you back in debt in the near future, and you won't have another inheritance to help pull you out. I know that wasn't your question, but I felt like I needed to add that to my answer as well.
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"Many years ago I heard a multi-level marketing pitch that pointed out how many doctors don't get out of debt until they are well into their 50's.  The selling point was that you can get rich quick, as rich as a doctor, with nothing more then a bit of elbow grease.  Of course the pitch failed to mention that most doctors, buy the things doctors buy, when they get that first big job.  The big house, expensive cars nerf the income that they receive and they are probably stuck with years of student loan payments. I assume that you are one of the ""lucky"" ones that have graduated college with a well paying job.  By lucky I mean you concentrated on obtaining a skill for which the marketplace has a need.  Why not continue to live like a college student for a few more months and pay off all of your student loans ASAP?   Get rid of them like you were purging the phone number of that high maintenance girl you dated during a short time of insanity."
Credit history is built over time, so paying this loan off immediately wouldn’t do much if anything for you.   Best thing to do is to start with a low limit credit card and pay it off every month. You’ll build favorable history and avoid interest.   Check r/personalfinance for more advice.
First, read my answer here: Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing For me, the answer to your question comes down to how badly you want to get rid of your student loan debt. I recommend that you get rid of it as fast as possible, and that you sacrifice a little in your budget temporarily to make that happen. If that is what you want, here is what I would do. Following the steps in my other answer, I would pay off the student loans first. Cash out your non-retirement growth fund to jump start that, then challenge yourself to take as much of your paycheck as you can and throw it at the debt. Figure out how many months it will take before the debt is gone.  Once the debt is gone, you won't have those monthly payments anymore and you won't be continually losing money in interest to the bank. At that point, you can build up your cash savings, invest in your employer's 401(k) plan for retirement, and start saving toward other long-term saving goals (car, house, etc.) To address some of your other concerns: If you cash out the non-retirement fund, you'll probably owe some capital gains tax. (Although, on a $3k investment, the long term rate won't add up to very much, depending on your tax bracket and cost basis.) You can't use the money from your non-retirement fund to invest in your 401(k).  You can only contribute to your 401(k) via payroll deduction.  To explicitly answer your question, your non-retirement fund is not bound by the limitations of retirement funds, meaning that you can cash it out and use it however you like without penalty, only paying perhaps a few hundred dollars of capital gains tax at tax time next year. Think of it as another source of cash for you.
What is my best course of action, trying to minimize future debt? Minimizing expenses is the best thing you can do. The first step to financial independence is making do with less. Assuming I receive this $3500, am I better off using the bulk to pay off my credit cards, or should I keep as much cash available as I can? This would depend on the interest rate that is associated with the credit cards and the $3500. If the $3500 has a higher interest rate than your credit cards, then do not use any of it to pay your credit cards. Paying back the money you borrow hurts but it's the interest rate that does you in. If the interest rate for the $3500 is lower than the credit card interest, then placing some of it on the credit cards may be a wise course of action. But this depends on how long you are out of work. If you could be out of work for an extended period of time, I would recommend holding on to all of the funds. Note on saving I know this goes against the grain, but I would actually not recommend saving several months worth of funds (maybe one month though). Most employers offer some type of retirement savings account (401(k), Thrift Savings Plan, etc.). I contribute 5% to this fund instead of putting the money in savings. This is an especially effective strategy if your employer offers matching contributions such as mine. Because the divedends for a savings account are so low, it is not a wise place to store your money in the long run. If I had placed my Thrift Savings Plan contributions in a standard savings account, I would now be $12,000 poorer. In addition to this, most long term investment accounts allow you to withdraw the money early in case of emergency, such as being without work. (I also find it too temping to have huge amounts of funds on hand).
Simple rule for UK student loans. Never repay early. (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay) They are not real debt: only payable over threshold and wiped after 30 years (ish).  They do not appear as debt with Credit Agencies. If you have other debt, it is almost certainly at a higher rate or worse terms and should be paid off first If you don't have debt, then you can put the cash to better use: whether saving, mortgage deposit or avoiding worse debt in the future.
I see some merit in the other answers, which are all based on the snowball method. However, I would like to present an alternative approach which would be the optimal way in case you have perfect self-control. (Given your amount of debt, most likely you currently do not have perfect self-control, but we will come to that.) The first step is to think about what the minimum amount of emergency funds are that you need and to compare this number with your credit card limit. If your limits are such that your credit cards can still cover potential emergency expenses, use all of the 4000$ to repay the debt on the loan with the higher interest rate. Some answer wrote that Others may disagree as it is more efficient to pay down the 26%er. However, if you pay it all of within the year the difference only comes to $260. This is bad advice because you will probably not pay back the loan within one year. Where would you miraculously obtain 20 000$ for that? Thus, paying back the higher interest loan will save you more money than just 260$. Next, follow @Chris 's advice and refinance your debt under a lower rate. This is much more impactful than choosing the right loan to repay. Make sure to consult with different banks to get the best rate. Reducing your interest rate has utmost priority! From your accumulated debt we can probably infer that you do not have perfect self-control and will be able to minimize your spending/maximize your debt repayments. Thus, you need to incentivize yourself to follow such behavior. A powerful way to do this is to have a family member or very close friend monitor your purchase and saving behavior. If you cannot control yourself, someone else must. It should rather be a a person you trust than the banks you owe money.