« Announcing the Winners of Ramit’s Book | Main | A Review (and GIVEAWAY) of “The NEW Coffeehouse Investor” »
Getting Out of Debt on $26,000 a Year Income
By JLP | April 9, 2009
I saw this on the MSN front page this morning: Get Out of Debt — on $26,000 a Year
Today, the 37-year-old single hairdresser pays her new bills on time, without fail, and has no credit cards. But she’s made big money mistakes in the past, leaving her with about $3,000 in ancient bills, some dating back nearly 20 years.
I feel for this woman. I also applaud her for being proactive in getting out of debt.
I agree with the article’s author in that this woman needs some extra income. She could wait tables or work retail for a few months until she got out of debt. I believe the article says she owes something like $3,000 in old debts. That doesn’t sound like much but when you are only making $26,000 per year, that’s quite a lot to pay off. At $26,000 per year, she probably doesn’t have a lot of extra money.
Topics: Budgeting | 2 Comments »
April 9th, 2009 at 8:34 am
It IS quite a lot of debt on a $26K income, and I feel for her as well. We’ve all (OK, I have) made money mistakes that have followed us around. On the other hand, if she is down to 3K and not incurring MORE debt, she deserves some kudos for getting on the right track.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:59 am
If this woman could find extra work like waiting tables or retail as you suggested, she could earn the $3k she needs to pay off her debt pretty quickly…as long as she learns to live on her current earnings and devote ALL her extra earnings to that debt.
I used to work part-time at a Starbucks(in addition to a 40+ hour a week full-time job) and funneled all of my extra earnings (between 8-10k a year) towards debt. Worked for me!