Completely Overwhelmed

[TryingToMakeItRight]

I've been extremely irresponsible for the past 12 years, I'm finally motivated to fix it.

Basically I've entirely ignored bills and collections. I don't answer the phone, I haven't even opened the mail.

I pulled my credit reports and did my best to correlate the data into a spreadsheet but I don't know what to do next. If everything appears to be in collections (mostly student loans) who do I call about setting up payments? What do I say once I have them on the phone?

 

I know I need a budget, I've started that. Once I figure out which loans I can pay towards, I'll be able to figure out what to pay to each.

I've looked at the beginner section in here ... but I'm entirely overwhelmed. There must be a few hundred pages of text that I'm supposed to read... my ADHD made it hard enough just to get through 50ish pages of credit reports (took about 3 days), I don't know if I can read entire government documents...

 

Please help. I really want to fix this but don't know what to do next.

[IAmOnMyWay]

1) Open all your bills

2) deal with the student loan, they don't ever go away. Call the current company who has the debt and try to work out a monthly payment you can actually afford

3) what are your other debts and very important 4) Do you have charge off and collections

5)How old are the collections? ( last recorded activity, look on hard copy of credit reports)

6) Are charge offs and collections within your state's statue of limitations

[Poor Bastard]

Two pieces of advice. First, while it's not the easiest to follow, so far the best step by step plan and tutorial I've seen is the one at the very top of this page that is part of the navigation bar, named "Why Chat's Credit Confusion".

 

Secondly it sounds like you are or have been absolutely overwhelmed and could use some support. Having gone through that myself I can relate. I don't know what options are available to you but you might want to look into seeing a therapist, or see if there are support groups in your area for this type of thing, to help give you emotional and psychological support so that you have better tools to deal with this emotionally. It can be very anxiety provoking but if you stick with it, it will help you to regain control of your life and reduce the anxiety greatly. You've already made a huge step by getting to this point. Avoidance, like not opening mail, is a viscous cycle that always makes things worse in the long end. Here's a personal example, I've fixing some old medical debts right now that I probably could have negotiated with the hospital at a greatly reduced price. Instead I did the avoidance thing until they ended up with collections agencies. So you need to keep moving in the direction you are and don't be bashful about developing support mechanisms. The forum can be one too.

[Stormandshadow]

Dear Trying,

 

As a Newbie myself, know that you are not alone;many, including me, have dealt with debt anxiety by ignoring mail, ignoring calls, and perhaps from time to time, engaging in some magical thinking (i.e., I will hit a lottery or somehow come into large sum of money and immediately pay it all!)

 

Check your self-esteem: All sorts of good, loving, intelligent people, for one reason or another, at various points in their lives, can find themselves in debt. You are stressed out - not only because its scary - but because you care. It's not who you are; its just how you handled the situation. That was then. This is now.