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[MUSIC PLAYING] Brought to you by the Every Dollar App. Start budgeting for free today. I'm just trying to figure out if I should file bankruptcy or not. Pretty simple. Ooh, that's a pretty serious thing. You just lobbed out there. It's like, I'm not sure if I should go with Coke or Pepsi at dinner tonight. What do you guys think? That's pretty serious, Alex. What caused you to come to this point? Well, just been out of work for about three and a half months, had about 30,000 saved, gone to my last 10,000. I know it cost money to file bankruptcy, because I've done it back in 2008. Oh, gosh. Not your first rodeo. So how much debt do you have that's making it bad? I got $100,000 in credit card debt and a lease, which is about $15,000. So you didn't learn your lesson from 2008? Is that what you're telling us? No, actually went through a separation in 2021. And our life savings was taken by my ex, and I became a single father of guitar. You didn't get anything from the divorce? It wasn't actually a divorce. It was just a kind of snatch and grab. What? Yeah. A snatch and grab. So there was no legality to it? No, no. I didn't pursue it. I do well when I'm working. So I mean, she needed it more than I did. And I had my son's post. OK. I just focused on that. Are you saying this is like a robbery? Like they cleaned out your bank account? I'm like, well, they probably needed it more than I did. So-- No, I said that. But yeah, she did clean out the bank account. So she cleaned out the bank account. You walk away with nothing. Is that what this $100,000 in credit cards is? Tell us what that came from. Well, some of the debt I did tell her to transfer because I kind of seen the marriage coming to an end. So like I said, I do better than her when I'm working. And I just was trying to be the bigger man. How much was the life savings? $100,000. OK. So she took $100,000. And then you-- No, she took $80. She took $80. OK. And then there was also debt that she transferred. How much debt did she transfer? About $60,000. And then you went $40,000 into debt over the last few months? No, it's been since 2021. OK. And what kind of-- where did that come from? Is that you trying to keep food on the table? Just Rob and Peter to pay Paul balance transferings or for certain paying off all the balance transfers and just kind of caught up to me now. OK. And I'm trying to get to the bottom of this because I never want you to have to consider bankruptcy again. So if you hear me asking you a lot of questions, it's not me trying to drill you into the wall. It's me trying to understand what's going on. So I just want to throw that out there. So you're transferring balances. But you also said that you made a better living than her. And you obviously felt like, hey, let me take some of this debt on. I'm not going to fight it. You kind of were taking that stance. So what was taking place right after the fact that suddenly it's like, I'm Rob and Peter to pay Paul. I'm not-- help us understand what took place. Just transferring from state to state. Because of work? Yeah, moving around a lot. What kind of work do you do? I manage car dealerships and motorcycle dealerships further. Got it. OK, so you're in car dealerships. What are you earning? Like, what's a normal take-home pay for you every month? Um, we were from 8 to 10 take-home after taxes, isn't it? And that's currently. You said you've been out of work for three and a half months. What happened over the last 100 days where you've been unable to earn a single dollar? I've just been looking, swinging and missing. Just made a move. I was at a place made a move. It was about a move. It wasn't a good fit. And then, you know, grass is not green or water, your grass type of deal. But can you work at a dealership? Does it have to be, you know, managing one? Could you get some job in that world? Probably could. But I've been managing for many, many years. So it's kind of-- It feels like a downgrowth. I'd like to fish out of water. How many shots have you taken at this? Was it just-- I got 32 applications on Indeed right now currently. OK. And they're all for a car dealership management role? Car power, power sports. You have motorcycles or cars. Do you know anybody in these roles? Because Ken Coleman would say, proximity principal. OK, so you've got-- you've made your calls and you've said, hey, I'm applying, tell someone. So put my resume at the top. Absolutely. And that worked with about 20 different people at 20 different dealerships. And I've worked at probably eight different dealerships in Orlando, met some people, and everybody spread out. But yeah, I'm not working. OK, do you feel optimistic? Because it sounds like not if you're talking about bankruptcy. Well, just because I have nothing coming in and I don't have so much left. So what I say all the time is any job until you get the job. Because I wouldn't want to sit and piddle away. Can you drive for Uber? Yeah. Yeah, with my lease at 10,000 miles a year, sure. I mean, you're sitting over the whole lot of debt and no job prospects. I get it, I get it. Whatever it is. It is hilarious when people drive up in luxury cars doing Uber as a side hustle because they're trying to get out of debt. And I got nothing but respect for someone just trying to get a better life, even if they made some mistakes. Yeah, because your choice is you piddle away, or you burn through $30,000 of savings, or at the $20,000 mark, you go, OK, this is it. I got to do something. What does it take? What's your bare bones budget? What's it take every month for you to just keep things running? Comfortable $7,000. Not comfortably bare bones. $7,000. OK, $7,000. Do you have a mortgage? No, no, I sold my home. OK, so you're renting right now. You got the car lease and $100,000 in credit card debt. That's it? Yeah. And you got $10,000 to your name. That's it. OK, what's the interest rate on these credit cards? Are we talking like 22% APR? We're talking anywhere from $15,99. We're up to about $27.99 when you get into debt. They raise the interest rate. Are you paying like $2,500 in interest a month right now? Gosh, I don't know. When the promotion, the 0% promotion end, which I wasn't aware of, they actually charge you the interest on your balance. Yeah. Plus your minimum payment. Yeah. Here's what I would do. I'm going to go do my homework and calculate exactly how much interest I'm paying, exactly how much I'm getting screwed, because I think we need to turn some anger into action here. And sometimes you got to pull that rubber band back to feel some pain, because you've been living pretty good, Alex. I mean, aside from the life circumstances, you've had a great income, your expenses are high, you've got a lifestyle, and now it's hard to come down from that, isn't it? Oh, yeah. What's your home? What about your living situation? Oh, renting. Renting? Okay. Yeah. Oh, boy. Yeah. Any job until you get the job, and I'm talking about any and every job you can get your hands on, because you got $7,000 a month to make my friend, and you don't have much time to do it. You have 30 days to lock down something, and if not, then you're going to have to look at deflating this lifestyle in some way, shape, or form. We've got to get back to making six figures fast, and then we can easily avoid bankruptcy. We can clean up this debt in a few years with some sacrifice and bringing our lifestyle down, but income is what you need right now. I don't care how you get it, and how much pride you have to swallow to get there, man. You need this. 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