What is the worst financial state you have been in? How did you recover?

[Sunnydruid]

@title.

This is a little personal, so feel free to just round the numbers if an exact is too much to reveal for you. Not asking for ANY other information than what your absolute WORST state was. 10k in credit card debt? Student loans? Evictions? Repos? Was this a college experience gone wrong? Just took out too much in loans? Lost your job?

I'm sure i'm not the only one looking for a little motivation. Something to show me there really is another opening to this freaking cave of debt I feel like I am in lol.

I'm about 7k in credit card debt right now. Was behind in all my bills except rent however I have since caught all of them up, now i'm just plugging away at my CC bills.

[Deleted]

I'm lucky to never have been in any money troubles. That said I'm also quite a cheapskate and was fortune enough to be born into an average wealthy family (Germany).

[Everwake]

Missouri. God, that state sucked. I recovered by getting on a plane and going back to Cali.

[Video Games]

5k in debt and being homeless with only food stamps.

[-aiko-]

Technically I'm in my worst financial state now, although I am in recovery mode.

In what was possibly the worst luck ever, 1 month into my new job I started getting sick. Real sick. I wasn't able to enroll for benefits until I had been there for 90 days so in that 2 month freaking period where I was uninsured I was diagnosed with a hyperactive thyroid which was causing temporary paralysis (HPP). I needed radioiodine treatment immediately and I couldn't wait.

While I'm blessed to have had that taken care of I am over 50k in debt with all the ambulance and emergency hospital visits, as well as the treatments. I am slowly paying it off but my credit was hit real hard as I was essentially broke for half a year and missed many payments. I started recovering by working my ass off at work, getting a promotion, and saving money.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Thousands and I was just out of my teens, I was pathetic, owed a lot of money, but I was fortunate enough to have a mentor that was willing to help me out, after telling me some things I really needed to hear and know. Took me a while to dig out of my debt and make the choice in changing my habits which was the most difficult of all.

[Deleted]

I got issued a fine for equal to about 800$ when i was 18, the ones that issued it was very aggressive in their writing and issued threats and such if i did not pay back.

[Witchblade77]

combination of really bad choices when it comes to credit in college, bad choice of college to begin with (didn't grow up in US, so I had zero understanding of how college loans and those credit cards they gave away like candy work. I have since learned. the hard way) which left both me and SO in gigantic debt, I had a shitty job, he lost his and replacement was.. not paying well, and we were this close to losing our rental lease without another place to move to. our food budget was practically nonexistent, but somehow.. the income was just large enough to disqualify us from foodstamps, unless we jumped through more hoops than either of us had time or strength for. that was that time when I learned how to stretch VERY tight budget into sustainable and at least mostly nutritious food (I still tend to prefer a lot of the veggies in frozen form because I got used to cooking with them during that time). its also the reason why I will die on the hill that is Planned parenthood, because it was the only place I got any kind of medical care at all.

how did we recover? luck coupled with hard work. out of desperation both of us were trying anything and everything we could possibly think of in terms of finding better/more work as well as new place to live. by chance, one of those things was a complete wash in terms of income/new job, but I met a dude there that just happened to have a place for rent in the neighbourhood we lived in. pure, lucky break. it was tiny and crappy and needed repairs (for which I negotiated reduced rent for the first month in exchange for us doing the repairs ourselves), but it was a place to live that we found 2 weeks before we had to move out and it was cheap. eventually he found a better job that turned into a career, I found another job, and little by little, we paid off the credit card debt. had some medical setbacks, but with payment plans, have recovered from them - another hill i'm willing to die on is carecredit. its existence allowed us, more then once to get medical care when we needed, and pay it off in installments interest free.

it took a long time to climb out of this financial pit. and by a long time - I mean it took us over a decade just to start seeing actual improvement and even then, both of us worked like crazy to the point where there were days we wouldn't see each other due to conflicting schedules. (night jobs are great when you are an owl, and tend to pay not to bad, since not as many people are willing to work nights, believe it or not). if you are doing it on your own - it's probably 3 times as hard (I was going to say twice, but honesty, just that knowledge that you are not alone in this is incredibly helpful and so is pooling your resources)

its also harder now than it was back then, because prices keep growing faster then salaries. its still possible. incredibly hard, especially if you have never been taught certain things, don't have as easy of an acess to some of them (having acess to public transportation, and public library as well as decent supermarket within walking distance was completely and utterly invaluable. not everyone has that), but its not hopeless. just... tough. I mean.. I have seen people climb out of far worse.

[Shelly]

Unemployment in 2008 when the recession hit with a lease on an apartment I couldn't afford.

Cashed out all my retirement savings to make it through the lease and I've been living with family since, but by taking advantage of the privileges that afforded me (free rent, steady job with my family's company) I'm now in the process of buying a house.

Pretty much took 5 years just to bring my credit up to the mid 600's where you can get a loan, all monies that would have gone to rent saved up for a down payment too to get 10% down.

[Aphrel]

2010, finished a 3year education in mechanical engineering but couldnt find any jobs. So ended up studying 2 more years for a masters degree in hydraulics because i had no choice. (in sweden you are eligible for student funding and studentloans (rentfree as long as you study and 0,5% ish once ur done) aslong as you are studing and finishing the courses (up to 6 years total i believe). So that kept me afloat when sweden were going throu a minor recession, the alternative whouldve been moving back in with parents wich whouldve felt like a real defeat tbh.

[Deleted]

Was 180k in debt years ago and now I'm 40k give or take. Paying off a fuck ton and hope to be done in 2 years.
After that it should finally be smooth sailing for the first time in my life. (been in financial trouble since the day I was born).

[Lochton]

Worst state?

Gotta be when I got sent to the hospital with blood clots. While in the hospital, I was also diagnosed with mental illness problems while being evicted from my apartment due to a half a year period of depression and no job. When I finally came out of the hospital, I was in debt of about 25.000 dollars - and those weren't even hospital bills. After that, I had to get myself into gear again, so I was on benefit till I could find a job a few years later - still paying off that debt now.

[Vizardlorde]

When I had $20 in my bank account and looking for a job...
I got a job and saved money.

[Deleted]

@title.

This is a little personal, so feel free to just round the numbers if an exact is too much to reveal for you. Not asking for ANY other information than what your absolute WORST state was. 10k in credit card debt? Student loans? Evictions? Repos? Was this a college experience gone wrong? Just took out too much in loans? Lost your job?

I'm sure i'm not the only one looking for a little motivation. Something to show me there really is another opening to this freaking cave of debt I feel like I am in lol.

I'm about 7k in credit card debt right now. Was behind in all my bills except rent however I have since caught all of them up, now i'm just plugging away at my CC bills.

For some short periods of a month I didn’t have any money at all. Welfare is hell.

[Daedius]

Can't say I've ever had financial trouble... when I finished Uni for programming my father gave me €300k as a gift for doing well.

[Ghostpanther]

I guess the worse would have been when I was born into a pretty poor family. Worked my way up the ladder. Now living the American dream.

[Deleted]

I was completely homeless at one point and was jumping between friends, family charity for a while until I got my shit together to be able to show an employer my work ethic and ability to work, after since I have never been unemployed for longer than a week.

I was 19 at the time.

While I don't wish anyone to go through what I went through, it was an incredible learning experience and I think I matured 20 years in just over one year.

[Ghostpanther]

I was completely homeless at one point and was jumping between friends, family charity for a while until I got my shit together to be able to show an employer my work ethic and ability to work, after since I have never been unemployed for longer than a week.

I was 19 at the time.

While I don't wish anyone to go through what I went through, it was an incredible learning experience and I think I matured 20 years in just over one year.

Good example for others to follow. How one can make things better with enough desire to do so.

[Deleted]

Good example for others to follow. How one can make things better with enough desire to do so.

I love working, if you're an employer you should really give some people a chance, I was incredibly lucky to get back on my feet again, I have friends who suffered through much worse before their break finally came.

It's unfortunate but it's pretty rough.

[Katchii]

Shortly after college, company I worked for cut me loose for financial reasons (I was a temp, so the first to go on budget cuts) and my wife also lost her job. We made things work by living at friends houses (had to live separated for a few months due to where we found jobs to keep us afloat financially). I found a stable job/ career, still have it 12 years later which is what ultimately kept us afloat along with racking up some credit card debt to pay for the emergencies that inevitably happen, but we went through many more years of my wife having trouble finding and keeping a job as she was in education and we live in California....5+ years ago finding and keeping a contracted job in education as someone without years of experience was like finding the holy grail. Luckily the state got their heads out of their asses and hired more teachers so now she has tenure and we're absolutely fine financially, aside from still paying down the debt we racked up while going through the struggles.

- - - Updated - - -

Can't say I've ever had financial trouble... when I finished Uni for programming my father gave me €300k as a gift for doing well.

I don't begrudge you or your family's financial situation, but this is not normal...at all. This is where many people wish they could, but will likely never, be.

I hope you're able to provide for your family in the future the same way your family did for you, that's a great place to be.