My financial angst.

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m dirt poor. I make 7.50 an hour, and work only 30 hours a week, and it’s the only job I can find.

I have to pay $300 in rent and utilities per month. I have to buy my own groceries and other little bits of this and that which I need to survive every month. Everything taken in along with taxes, this leaves me with just a little over a hundred bucks in disposable income each month.

I have about $700 in credit card debt which I racked up, not by being irresponsible, but by having to finance a sudden move after I no longer felt welcome in my own house. If my current roommates had not been so kind as to let me in when I had nowhere else to go, there’s a hefty chance I’d be living on the street right now.

I can’t afford to insure my car. If I did, this would leave me with enough disposable income per month to treat myself to a large coffee at Starbucks. Just because I’m male and under 25, I’m reamed for insurance costs, even though my record is clean. Luckily, my place of work isn’t that far a walk.

One of my friends has a rich aunt who pays his way into college. Another of my friends has a wealthy father. Another has wealthy parents. Another is sitting on a big inheritance. I have no family. At least none that I speak to any more.

It’s depressing…I’m trying so hard and being so financially frugal, but it always feels like I’m the one who’s dirt poor and can’t afford anything. Everyone else I know here (iRL) has just sorta had it handed to them.

I =want= to go to college, but I can’t afford it. That’s all I’ve wanted for the past 2 years almost…I just want to get by, go to school, and become a doctor. It’s been my life’s goal. I’m not interested in the money…I just want to learn…and heal.

I’m going to be 21 this year—in July, not far from when Fall semester starts. I’m still a freshman. I don’t think I’m going to be able to afford it. I don’t know how I possibly can.

I don’t need to swear or curse in this rant…my own depressed feelings are enough for me.

Anybody want to share their own tales of financial woe?

2

Hmm… well let’s see.

For me, I finally moved out of my Grandmother’s where I was being dominated into being a 5 year old again. Recently I lost my job (Christmas eve) and Student Finance refuses to finance me for another semester at the school I am at because I apparently don’t have the courses they like me to have.

So now I am about $700 in debt (left over from a summer of having no finances, despite moving out when I had a steady job, and losing that one at the start of the summer). Rent is due in about 2 weeks and I don’t have the 312.50 to cover my share. I can’t cover my share of the power, or phone/net or groceries. Half the jobs I could maybe do I need a wardrobe that I do not have (ie dressy pants and tops and such. I have exactly one pair of dress pants and a couple of shirts. That’s it. And I don’t even have the money to stop by Goodwill)

Damn I wish I had a job for 7.50 an hour 30 hours a week. And I don’t have credit cards yet. Thank goodness my family (Mom and Dad) is understanding. I just hope I can find the cash to pay rent without having to hit them up again.

So yep I can totally commiserate. I’ll be 21 in the coming year myself. If only my father weren’t so picky about my not moving in with him. He’s got the whole menagerie there anyway :rolleyes:

3

I’m in the same boat as you Ashtar. I have exactly $150 dollars in my bank account, and $50 left on my visa. I was forced to quit my job during the second week of december (thanks, ya bastards), and I havn’t been able to find anything else yet. I’m in school and my loan is all gone for the semester. My rent is about $275 a month, and I’monly going to pay for feburary because I have over draft (thank god). I also have a hydro bill to pay from my old place of about $120 dollars.

Thankfully, I don’t own a car, so that is one little matter I don’t have to worry about. I’m also a vegitarian, and I can buy a weeks worth of organically grown veggies from my school for $20 bucks, so that isn’t too bad at all.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do if I can’t find work next month, but I have to say, all in all, things aren’t too bad. I have a roof over my head, my tuition is payed off for winter, and I have every thing else I need. If worse comes to worse, I have furniture that I can sell.

4

Ashtar:

Contact various agencies in the federal government. There are a LOT of federal programs that will pay not only for tuition, but also a stipend for whatever combination of degrees you want in exchange for 1.5 times the duration of their funding. (So, 4 years of college = 6 years of working for them). The intellegence/law enforcement agencies being some of the primary ones along with the military.

Yes you will be selling your soul for a while, but you’ll get the money to do what you want to and while you are working for your soul back you WILL have a job waiting for you.

5

Ashtar, I have to second what CRorex said.

I don’t know if you are just looking to vent or would welcome any advice. I am going to go ahead and give the advice but you are free to ignore me. :slight_smile:

There is tons of money out there to help finance your education. If only people who could afford it went to college then I wouldn’t have a degree and neither would many people I know. I don’t know if anyone actually pays for medical school. At least not while they are students.

Go to the local college and talk to the financial aid people. Don’t assume that you can’t get any aid until you try. Don’t over look community colleges. They are a great place to get started on your education but are not as expensive.

My tale of financial woe is over now. But to finance my college education I went into debt. I sometimes worked three part time jobs while taking more then a full course load. There was one year that I doubt I ever got more then five hours sleep in a row. I had to walk five miles to school in the snow, up hill both ways.

Okay the last one isn’t true. :slight_smile: But the rest is. The hardest part is deciding what you want and what you are willing to do to get it. It gets easier after that.

Good Luck.

6

Well, at least you have angst. I’m so broke, all I can afford is sort of a low grade anxiety.

I’m not helping, am I? O.K. I’ll go now.

7

I really think it’s admirable that in spite of your current financial situation you have a goal of becoming a doctor. There are federal programs that will pay for your education in return for providing some service to the government. Check out the Health Care Scholarships section on this page for information about some programs and links to more.

Good luck!

8

I just have to say the $7.50 per hour is a crime. Well, maybe not a crime per se, but not suitable for someone living out on their own. I don’t know what it is like in Utah, but at least around here, even the most entry level food service or retail jobs pay $10 and come with benefits.

Keep looking, there has to be something.

9

I was in your shoes at that age. Hang tight and take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way, and you should be fine. On the positive side, you will certainly appreciate life when it does starts to get better, because of what you went through.

Do what Crorex said as well.

10

Well said World Eater but I’d change it to say that you’ll appreciate the money when your financial situation gets better. Being a 21 year old guy is already a pretty damn good life (if I remember correctly). It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the bad and forget to look for the good so try and take a minute to think of three things that are going well for you right now. Sometimes the only way to get through the tough times is by mental effort.

Anyways, thanks to Ashtar I’m going to go hop in my new BMW, remember the days of surviving on rice and eggs and appreciate what I’ve got. If you keep working at it, it will happen to you too.

11

My turn!

8 bucks an hour, and I have to pay a freaking mortgage. Well I don’t have to, but I want to (I don’t want to be one of those stray persons). Used to work 48 hours per week, without warning last week my boss cut me down to 28.

In addition to mortgage, oil, 'electricity, insurance, and paying back my school loans & credit card bill, I run a small-ish dog rescue, and have a sled team, so lots of little mouths to feed (although the sled dogs usually pay their way, and carry some of the costs of the rescues.)

Eh, on the other hand, I can find another job, I’ve got half a chocolate cake in the fridge, and I don’t have to take the garbage outside for at least a week. So life is good.

12

You know, you all are making me feel damn guilty for making almost $18 an hour.

13

Good! Share some of the wealth then! Heck… anyone in the States makes more than I do once you change it to Canadian.

14

It’s been years, but - when I was a starving student-type, I found food stamps useful - check 'em out (US only).