I'm sorry to hear about your situation, but how did you accumulate so much debt? Why would you spend more than you had? It just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, it's nice to see you're trying to dig your way out.

Well it's a long story. I used to be really good financially. I was making good money at my first job when I was 16 (back in 1998) and had a lot in savings. When I went to college I had to fund a lot of it on my own which started me about $11,000 in debt in student loans. In my second year of college I studied overseas in China and put almost all the bills on credit cards (it was my only option and I really wanted to go to China). I met my wife over there and things were good...

Fast forward 2 years and I was able to bring my fiance (now wife) over to the US and again her airplane tickets, our living costs, etc. almost totally were on credit cards. It was stupid of me, but my family didn't really want much to do with us and didn't really help us out much. So for almost 3-4 years we've been stuck financially and used credit cards for almost $50,000 and the other $53,000 or so went towards leasing cars with loans at high percentage rates.

These days I do well as a Poker Dealer (though that may change..already our pooled tip rate has dropped almost 20% in the last month) and layoffs are really insane at the casino. My wife does works 40 hours a week but makes only about 11 an hour...so it takes a lot to pay off the bills with interest the way it is.

Hope that makes a little more sense. I didn't just go crazy and buy a million things, it just piled up over time :(

I heard about the casino layoffs. It's pretty shocking because casinos are considered to be recession proof.

Anyway, I could tell you that you shouldn't have gone to China if you couldn't afford it, but since you met your wife there, then it was probably worth it.

I hope you're able to climb your way out of the pit.

The problem was at the time my girlfriend was in China (the one I dated before I met my wife). It only cost me about $2000 total to go there so I figured I'd go there and come back to work three months later. What happened was though my girlfriend broke up with me in China due to her family pressuring her, and later on I met my wife which kept me there an extra three months. Almost all my expenses though came through getting my wife to the US and starting a reasonable living for us.

I will be able to climb out, it's just a matter of how long.

As for casinos...they are recession proof, but not depression proof. Lately people are pinching pennies, spending less on recreation and certainly driving less. It doesn't help that our casinos are in the middle of nowhere (the middle of the woods ... literally). It'll mend itself in time but God only knows how long. Thanks for listening Temporaryscars ^_^

Sorry to hear about your debt goomba... Can you get back to me on those GC games I asked about please? I'm also interested in FFTWOTL if it's not GH and would like to see pics if possible.

Thanks and good luck!

Tough situation bro. Instead of offering a "good luck" though, I'm going to attempt to give you helpful advice.

I don't know the specifics of your current situation, but it's pretty clear that you are living beyond your means. With that much debt, you are looking at years before you break even. According to what you told us about your interest rates, you may never see a zero debt balance if you don't make some drastic changes. So.....

Get rid of those cars. $53,000 for two cars is A LOT, especially considering that you are carrying an additional $50,000 in credit card debt. You can get a couple cheapo used cars for less than $10,000 (probably less than $6,000-7,000 if you really mean business) that will serve you well for at least a few years until you can get rid of that $50,000.

Secondly, you sound like a prime candidate for debt consolidation. You can attempt this on your own by searching for a credit card with 0% on balance transfers, or you can contact a company like Primerica who will sit down with you and help you get a good plan drawn up for eliminating debt. They are a division of Citigroup, so they can also finance the debt consolidation loan for you as well if you so choose.

This book by Dave Ramsey can be a huge help in turning around a bad financial situation. It's a bit simplistic, but you have to start somewhere!

I urge you to take some serious action (other than just selling games, which is a good start, but ultimately will prove insufficient) to repair your financial situation. Debt/financial stress is one of the top 3 factors of divorce in this country. Also, retirement time will eventually come for all of us, and there's just no way to properly prepare for that time while you're buried under a mound of debt.

PM me if you need any help or if you have questions. Hope some of this was applicable to you.

send me a pm I'll take ikaruga off your hands.

Ender, I see you're a fan of the Office (as am I...haha I just watched that episode). I think you give a lot of good advice actually, but I've always been worried about debt consolidation because I've heard that if done wrong it can really screw up your credit (even more than I am in now) and that a lot of those companies are pretty much scam artists or not as reputable as they claim.

I'll definitely look into your suggestions though. I'm not sure I can afford to get rid of the cars, after all I've put into them because they are financed with car loans, so I'm pretty much stuck. One is a Toyota Prius that I use because it gets great gas mileage and my job requires me to drive a LOT and the other is an SUV that we drive primarily in the winter (due to the snow in Connecticut) and my wife drives to her local job with.

I realize selling games won't pay off the majority of my debt, but as a small business owner that has a lot of items to sell it seems a good place to start nonetheless. Thanks for your help!

Great advice from Ender. I too think you should seek some help with some sort of debt consolidation. There are plenty of places that will be willing to help, and the few dollars they charge you will save you enormous interest payments in the long run.

I'd be happy to pay a company if they could actually help me save money. I've just been screwed over by companies in the past and am a little skeptical of financial companies (especially now with how the market and banks are going these days). Thanks guys!

Mohegan Sun really is in the middle of no where. Takes me about 1.5 hours to get there from southwest CT. I've been there a few times and always lose money (just like any casino) so stopped going. I can see how people would stop going with the economy being the way it is and gas prices being so high. No matter what, you'll always have the seniors who are there all day and play 2 slots at the same time. I'm still surprised they would have layoffs with all the money they have. Not to mention the fact that there is no where else to work around there. Perhaps you should move to a more city like area (even New London if you don't want to go far) where there are more jobs to choose from if you are afraid of being let go. Anyway, sorry to hear your situation and hope it all works out for you.

I don't know if this will help or not, but it's worth checking out.

http://consumerist.com/5058070/how-to-get-out-of-debt

If you think Mohegan Sun is in the middle of nowhere, try Foxwoods which is another 10 miles away in the woods. That's where I work as a Poker Dealer, so trust me it's in the middle the boonies. Yeah the old people will still play slots, but the problem is our casino built that MGM at Foxwoods and spent like 900 Million dollars to invest into it (big mistake). I was born in New London but have no real interest in living there (especially since that's where people threw rocks at my Prius...thanks but no thanks).

Anyhow, thanks memex. It's going to work out I know it will. You can follow my updates on my blog and hopefully in a few months my debt will drop below the $100,000 mark (should by November/December if I stick to my plans).

Temporaryscars, thanks. I like that article a lot I'm actually sticking to a plan rather similar to that so we'll see how it goes ^_^ I'm going to publicly show my running debt amount to get inspiration from folks like yourself. Thanks for the support!

I wish you the best. I know what it's like to be broke, and with the way the economy is going, I can understand how a situation like yours can try the nerves. But you seem like a smart dude, so I'm sure you'll be able to work your way out. It'll be tough at first, but once you start shedding the debt, it'll be a whole lot easier.

Well if there's one thing I'm not, it's a quitter I'm going to make the best of these hard times and just wait...some day (in the far future perhaps) you will see a "Goomba Gets out of Debt....the Sky is Falling" post ^_^ I assure you we'll work it out. I'm really good with balancing finances, I think it was just hard going a few years with a crappy paying job, lots of bills and my wife not working. Now that things are looking up in terms of a few things they'll turn around soon enough. I shall overcome this mountain of debt Glad to have good friends behind me all the way though.

First of all best of luck to you goomba. However, just going back to a few of your blogs I noticed that you had "extra gamecubes" and over 100 games and just recently bought a mac it seem like some of the debt is not due to financial hardship but rather overspending. I think you really need to revaluate you purchases going forward. Elminating most luxury items will help you tenfold.
Best of luck.

Well it's not like it seems ivanctorres. The extra gamecubes and over 100 games were business purchases that were in fact purchased at the start of my business in 2006. The business actually helped lower my debt quite a bit, but I was unable to keep up to pace with the orders so I ended up with a lot of extra merchandise and such. It's not as if these were all my personal games that I splurged on In fact, most of them I bought in bulk so I have never been able to truly go through and inventory them properly.

As for the Mac, I'm actually selling my Dell computer to get that and the Mac Mini is far cheaper than the Dell computer (which was also a business expense) so it works out. I do appreciate your insight though I can see why it would look like I just had a major spending problem. I'm actually pretty frugal with my own personal shopping (I spend on average less than $20 a week).

Why doesn't your wife work?

Oh she does work now. She works full time, but when she first came to the US we had to wait almost 6 months for her to get her working papers, and even then it was hard for her to find a job without a car/transporation since we lived in the middle of nowhere. Now like I said, things are looking up. I work two jobs (both technically part time) so between the two of us we have two full time jobs. My jobs pay $15-$22 an hour and hers is around $11 or so, so not too shabby. Things will get better with time Thanks for the followup.