"I Only Have $1,400 To My Name"

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and in the process my car was repossessed. So right now I only have $1,400 to my name and I'm trying to figure out if I should use this check to pay the back fees to get the vehicle back or if I should just try and buy a vehicle in cash or buy here, pay here. Oh boy, I'm sorry that you're going through that. So when they took the vehicle, have they already sold it? Is there already a deficit for it or what have they told you about it? The vehicle right now is still on hold so I'm still able to get it reinstated but it would eat up that entire cash amount that I have. Okay, is it just you? Do you have kids? Tell me more about your living situation. Thankfully I do not have kids so I only have to worry about myself. My job is fairly flexible but I do rely on my vehicle for my job so it's hard for me to gauge how I should invest or what the budget should be. Okay, what do you make? What is your monthly budget? I make about $3,000 a month. Okay, so you need the vehicle and it's gonna cost, what's the exact amount that it's gonna cost to get it back? Roughly $1,400 so it's everything, yeah. And what, I mean, obviously, I guess my question is what's changed in your situation? Because what I'd rather do is maybe take this $1,400, add a little bit more to it and get a beater because what's changed about your situation that you'd suddenly be able to afford this vehicle is basically what I'm getting at. Yeah, I guess nothing really has changed. I had attempted to put some payments towards the end of the loan and so I'm already kind of in a deficit as is. And right now, I guess like 1,400 is impossible for cash. It's mostly like vehicles with parts. So that's kind of where I'm struggling as far as what budget would even be wise to look for as far as those. But let's say you blow all your cash and get this thing back. You have no emergency fund, you have nothing. You just get this car back. What in your life changes that says you're gonna be able to make the payment next month? They just took it from you because you couldn't make the payment. Exactly. Yeah, that's true. What's the vehicle worth before they took it? It's worth $10,000. And what did you owe? But with like 10,500 and when I looked at the total loan, it said I would end up paying 20,000. And the only reason I've been so attached to it is because it's a Toyota and I know they can last a long time. So I guess I'm sort of afraid of that. What was the payment before all this repo business? Meet EveryDollar budgeters, Christy and Steve. They used to fight about money. I'm the spender. I'm definitely the saver. Now that they budget with EveryDollar, they're on the same page. Money is definitely one thing we do not ever fight about. Having the budget gave me the permission to spend. Knowing that the money is in each category, it just allowed us to work together better. Now that's what we call a win-win. Now we just have to pick paint colors. We can't help you with that. EveryDollar, create your free account today. What was the payment before all this repo business? 336 a month. Okay, so we were struggling to pay 336 a month. Now I know you said you filed Chapter 7. Has that already gone through? What's that look like for you? What's the payment? Is there a monthly payment that you're making on everything or did they just take everything? Tell me where you're at in that. I just filed, so they took my vehicle on Thursday and then, or they took my vehicle on Wednesday, I filed on Thursday, and now they won't release it to me. What's your financial picture that you had to file bankruptcy? Oh, so mostly because of my job, it's contract work. So whenever I am working, it's based on clients and we've been having issues with insurance, with UnitedHealthcare, dropping people. So it kind of fluctuates. So when I say I make 3,000 a month, that's really just an average. I know, that's not what I'm asking. How much do you owe? Yeah, when you file bankruptcies, usually you have a bunch of debt that you're trying to clear out. So we're trying to find out what debt did you have and where did it come from? Oh, it was mostly credit cards. I had probably around $60,000 in credit card debt. I have 90,000 in student loans, 10,000 on my vehicle. And then I also had a $20,000 personal loan. Okay, so the student loans remain. And so what was cleared was the 60, the 10, and the 20. Obviously they took the vehicle. So when you file, they were gonna take the car anyway. You know, like that was gonna happen anyway. So you still got the $90,000 of student loans and now you just have no car to get to work, right? Is that where we're at today? Yes. Okay, so I stand by what I said. I think they probably took this car. Yeah, they might come after you for a deficit, but I don't think the solution for you is to go back to paying a car payment. I think the solution for you is to go, all right, I've got 3,000 bucks that I make a month. I've gotta work like a crazy person, even if I need to take the bus for now, and I need to stack up like 4,000 bucks. I've got 14,000. Let me see if I can double that. 1,400, yeah. 1,400, I'm sorry. Let me see if I can double that very quickly. There are $3,000 beaters out there. Just so you know, the car that I drive, it's a Cadillac SRX, it's a 2013. It's worth $1,500. I've just had it for a really long time. If I sold it today, whoever bought it would be getting a steal. But that's what it's worth. Well, if you're selling it, I'm buying. I'm just letting you know they're out there. So don't, you have to look for them, you know. Like a private dealer, probably? Yes, private sale. A Facebook marketplace. Go to a church, say, hey, is there anybody here selling a car? I'm in a bad jam. I mean, I got 3,000 bucks. Who can sell me their car, right? And I think, you know, yeah, look for a Toyota. Look for a Nissan. Look for a Honda. Don't get a HHR. Yeah, or a square Kia with one button that just plays house music. Hey, okay, so what do you do for a living? I'm a mental health professional. So I work with the youth, they're in home, and I help them before they go into like a facility or foster care or something like that. Are you licensed? And then I also- Do you have an LPC or an LMFT or something? I'm working towards that. No, right now I just have a QMHP, but I'm getting my master's in order to be in a practice. Okay, so you're continuing to add to this $90,000 student loan debt? Unfortunately, yes. Okay, here's essentially what you've done with the bankruptcy. You've never turned the faucet off. And so the faucet that buried you up to your eyeballs in debt that you called and you filed bankruptcy for, they came with a big bucket and took some of that water out, but that faucet is still going full blast. Yeah. You're gonna find yourself in this exact same situation. And if you are able to navigate that system, which is a nightmare, helping those kids out, what that means is you have skills that a local school district would want. If even if you had to go be a teacher on an emergency certification, if you had to go help out as a part-time social worker, here's what I'm trying to tell you. You can't just sit there and say, well, they're taking my jobs away and I guess I'm just gonna live in la-la land. You've got to start taking your skillset and start hitting the streets, trying to find places where you can work. And you've got too much value to add. Can I tell you my long-term goal? Here's the thing, and I say this out of respect, it doesn't matter what your long-term goal is right now because you're like trying to explain to me and Jade what your beach house is gonna look like and your boat sank out from underneath you in the middle of the ocean. You gotta swim to shore first. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Well, I plan to move to a different location to get more clients in June. So that's kind of why I'm like- That's great, but even if you max out your earning potential, what is the max on your job? 50 grand, 60 grand? Yeah, that's true. And you're gonna owe 125 when you're all said and done? Schedules, yeah. I mean- I definitely need more income. You've set yourself up with a vicious math problem and your heart is too good and your skillset is too necessary for you to chain yourself to this and then go out in the world and say, hey, I'm here to help. You get what I'm saying? And so I think all of you, your future dreams, your clients that you're serving now and in the future, everybody is served if you just hit pause for a second and clean up the mess, the big hole you've dug yourself. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. And you're worth that. It'll be real, real, real, real hard. Jade, people get like a picture of what they want their life to be and it's like, I'm gonna do anything I can do to get there. Yeah. And man, on the way, you find yourself in a real mess. Yeah, she can get out of this mess though. I believe you can. You've just gotta start doing different things if you want different results. You gotta stop borrowing money. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.