Financial Woes Destroying my life

irishsaint

I dont have much financial Debt, for an unqualified individual, I even get a fairly decent wage. My problem is that I am not able to manage my finances, I miss payments on loans, gym, phone, just about everything. Even DD or SO coming out of my bank account are not good enough because I just overspend when I shouldnt. I have tried a few times to sort out my financial situation, organising what I owe and a plan to repay but I fail everytime. Its really starting to eat into my life now, I feel depressed, too much on me and just have this "could not be bothered anymore" attitude. I know my credit rating is attrocious, 7 years ago when I started college, I have a credit card and failed misserably on keeping up payments. I know I never paid it off in full so undoubtably that is against me too. I have no excuses, I never was ill, I just completely missmanaged my financial life. I want to change that now.

I think the first thing I should do is get my credit report from the Irish Credit Bureu and see what fnancial institutions have said about me, what is o/s etc and one by one, go through them and settle my o/s debt with them. I know I should do this and I really want to but I know in 2 months time, ill be back to square one. How do i get on top, how do i motivate myself to re-organise my life and get on top of my finances and start to try and repair my credit. I think if clear my financial history and i can kind of look at my life with a fresh start and I hope that it will kick start me to a better way of living. The last 2 years has seen me become more and more depressed, gain weight, loose touch with friends.......

Can anybody who perhaps was in a similar situation shed hope that their is light at the end of the tunnel?

V1llianous

I would recommend that you make an appointment with MABS - http://www.mabs.ie/

They run a free advice service and can help with with managing your debt and creating a budget. They are experts in this and will have dealt with many people in similar situations so will be able to help you get in control of this.

RedXIV

Hey OP, i honestly know where you're coming from, i can't save money to save my life. I'm in a new job that pays monthly and until the end of the month i'm broke

What i can recommend is getting rid of things like credit cards, subscriptions to gym's etc you probably don't need. And if you can, get to a financial advisor. I can't offer much else because i minimised the amount of damage i could do myself but hopefully this will be a start

Glowing

This should just be a case of proper payment management - you said you're earning a good wage - does your wage cover all your outgoings every month?

Start at the beginning and write a list of everything you spend on a montly basis. Then try to organise your direct debits to come out the day after you get paid, all together, so these won't default. If you have a clear idea of what money you have left to spend on treats and the like, you'll be less likely to overspend.

mkdon05

My advice to you would be:
Pay your wages into your existing bank account (Your "Main" account) and set up all your bills to be direct debit from this account.
Then set up a new bank account (Your "Play Money") and every week/month transfer a certain amount of money that you can live on (lunch money, booze/cigs, petrol etc) to this account. When you run out of cash in your Play account you will just have to slum it till next payday, when you can transfer more money.
Always leave your bank cards for your "Main" account at home so you cant just withdraw from it as you like.

seamus

Budget budget budget budget budget budget budget budget.

It's really the only way to keep a handle on your finances.

At the start of each month/week (depending on how often you're paid), Write down how much you have in your bank account now.

Then list off all of the things you expect to have to pay for this week/month. If you don't have exact figures, make an estimate based on past bills and then add 10%.

Deduct this figure from your income for the month.

Now deduct other things you expect to pay for - nights out on the beer, weddings, birthdays, and so forth.

This should give you a figure - this is basically the amount of "free cash" you will have at the end of the month. You should aim to spend less than this, and you should never spend more than this.

Update your figures as the month/week goes on and bills get paid off and your bank balance goes down. I use an excel spread sheet for this. I've attached a sample - change the figures around and you'll see how it works.
If you don't have online banking already, get it. It makes keeping track of your balance simple.

Try this for a month or two and if you really can't get a grip on it, contact MABS, as advised.

You're stuck with your credit history for five years, but don't worry about it too much.

smellybiker

hey OP, i went thru a really bad time in my life when i wasn't able to pay for morgage, credit union - anything. i was self employed and the business went thru a lull and so my wage was non-existnat! i ignored the mound of letters coming in the door warning me of losing my house and debt collectors calling to the door. it was a big mistake for me to do this - to carry on and pretend that it would work itself out.

i knew i had to do something so i firstly called to the credit union. the loans guy was so nice, he was so understanding and i even cried with relief as i couldn't believe that they were gona be okay. he worked out another repayment plan and he checks with me every month that i'm okay with what i'm paying. now i'm in the position to pay more - but instead of changing my new plan, they're allowing me to see how i get on and pay as much as i can. i then rang my mortgage company, they too worked out a different repayment plan and within three months - i was back to normal - and no longer in arrears.

my mistake is that i never went to talk to the people i owed money to - i was frightened of losing everything and i spose a bit ashamed that i had got myself into this sitaution. my advice to you is to go talk to all those people you owe money to - i can guarantee that they will help reorganise your payments in a way that will help you sleep at night.

also, the crediti unions have a budget type account where money is placed into every week - when a bill comes in - you just take the saved money out when the bill comes in - simple - check this out with your local credit union!!!

matrim

mkdon05 wrote: »

My advice to you would be:
Pay your wages into your existing bank account (Your "Main" account) and set up all your bills to be direct debit from this account.
Then set up a new bank account (Your "Play Money") and every week/month transfer a certain amount of money that you can live on (lunch money, booze/cigs, petrol etc) to this account. When you run out of cash in your Play account you will just have to slum it till next payday, when you can transfer more money.
Always leave your bank cards for your "Main" account at home so you cant just withdraw from it as you like.

+1 I do something similar to this. I've my bills account and my normal usage account.
I get paid into the normal usage account and have a SO to automatically transfer a certain amount of my money to the bills account the day after I get paid. All DD are from the bills account.
I don't carry around the ATM card for the bills account so can never take money out of it. It pays the bills and anything left over is savings.

Maggie Simpson

http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/index.jsp?1nID=93&2nID=94&3nID=109&pID=423&nID=143

LegacyUser

Then set up a new bank account (Your "Play Money") and every week/month transfer a certain amount of money that you can live on (lunch money, booze/cigs, petrol etc) to this account. When you run out of cash in your Play account

Probably best to transfer weekly, even if you are paid monthly.