I'm $130,000 In Debt And I'm Getting A Divorce

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I feel very scared and nervous with what's going on in my situation. I have a total of about a little bit over $130,000 in debt, car loans, credit card, personal loans. I am a homeowner right now. I pay about $5,000 a month, not including property insurance or taxes. I'm behind on my property taxes. I'm behind in my 2025 taxes. I'm starting to get served for my credit card debt. I have three kids. I've been married about 20 years, separated, renting right now, not living in my own home. And I'm getting ready to file for a Has your income changed? My income has been increasing. So why are the bills unpaid if you were making them before and now you're not? Why? Because we, you know, I didn't follow the rules and guidelines for you. We did some remodeling, which in the home, which was not a good move. My debt went way sky high. Our kids are in private school. That was an added cost as well. And what do you mean? 200 girls, 240,000 a year. Does your wife work outside the home? She just started working. She makes about 1600 a month. Wow. Okay. Well, the way you eat an elephant is a bite at a time. And so there's a whole lot of moving parts here and it's real easy with that many mosquitoes flying around your head to point at the wrong one. So we need to sit down and say, okay, what is the first priority with my money? My $240,000 to work with. I'm going to buy food for me and my kids. That's first priority. Okay. That's done. We're going to keep the lights on and the water going at both locations. Okay. We can do that. All right. And we're just going to go down the list like that until we start running out of money. And if it's forced rank, the things at the bottom of the list, when we run out of money or the least important things like the credit card debt, they can jump in a Creek right now. If you can't pay something, they're a good one to not pay. They bark and foam at the mouth and roll around the floor, but they don't really do anything other than mess up your credit. Okay. Uh, you got cars you can't afford. I'm guessing. Don't wait for the interest rate to be perfect before buying or refinancing a home. Talk to Churchill mortgage, smart buyers, buy the home they can afford now, and then refinance later. If rates improve, Churchill helps you make decisions with confidence instead of guessing. And Churchill mortgage has a webpage with special offers just for our audience. Go to churchillmortgage.com slash Ramsey offer. This is a paid advertisement in MLS ID one, five, nine, one in MLS, consumeraccess.org, equal housing. Uh, you got cars you can't afford. I'm guessing. Yes. So, so I do have a plan for a car. There's one that I'm going to sell. I owe 13,000 on it. I do believe I could sell it for about 10,000, which I'll have to put out. All right. And so what is she driving and what are you driving? Um, I'm driving now a truck that's been paid off for, what about her? Uh, she is driving the vehicle that we owe 21,000 right now on that. Okay. Why not the 13,000 and sell the 21,000? Yeah, that is an option. Um, she makes 1600 after the divorce. She's not going to be able to afford to keep a 21,000 on a car. Yeah, you're right. Okay. And you're not going to be able to afford to keep this house either. No, I've already had that discussion with her. Yeah. So the house needs to be on the market. The $21,000 car needs to be on the market. If the divorce is really going through, if there's no chance of reconciliation, we've gone through counseling and you know, the financial aspect of it has a lot to do with it. I've broken down, showed her all our debt, what we make, what I make, and she's just unwilling to look at it to face reality. And I'm just done with it, unfortunately, after so many years. Gosh, Sam. Yeah. Well, if, if that is going to be happening, then also all the, you said you were behind because that's going to be part of the prioritization lists that you make is getting current on what you can. And so you're behind, you set, you named off a couple of things that you're behind property tax, which you don't have to worry about if you're selling the house. I assume the house has equity, right? Just pay it with the equity it sells. About $350,000 in equity. Okay. And she's going to get a big chunk of that and go start her new life. And you're going to get a small chunk of that and start your new life with your big income. And she's going to get a big chunk of your income called alimony and child support. And so, you What do we keep and who pays for what? And that's the questions. And, um, you know, so the reality is in the mediation and, uh, the discussion between the two attorneys, we've got to get the house on the market and we've got to get that car sold. And, um, you know, out of the, or she's got to pay it off out of the proceeds of the, her portion of the proceeds of the house and keep the car. She could do that. You're going to sell the house. She's going to get enough money to pay off the car. If she wants to keep that car. Um, I wouldn't recommend it, but if that's, if that's what she wants to do, that's fine. And then sell the $13,000 car. You know, which one do you want to keep honey? Cause we're going to sell one of them and you're going to pay off the other one with your portion of the house proceeds when it sells. So which one do you want and get the other one sold? Right. And, um, you'll, you know, that three, your portion of the equity will probably clean up almost all these bills. If you sell those cars, if you pay off the cars and, or sell the car. So what, uh, so 13 and 21, so 34, what's the other hundred thousand dollars in debt taxes? How much you owe the IRS? Um, I owe 12,000 for the property taxes and about, I'm calculating 10,000 for my taxes that I haven't done yet. So an additional 10,000 in why have you not done your 25 taxes yet? This is June. Yeah, no, it's, I, it's a lot of stuff going in my mind and I just make it a priority. Yeah. Not filing is a bigger penalty than, uh, than not paying. So figure out what they are, even if you don't pay them and get that filed and see all these things start to relief your brain, your brain is overwhelmed by 93 things swimming around at one time. And if we just start setting them to the side, one at a time, one at a time, one at a time, that's what I meant by eating an elephant about at a time. Then you go, okay, I'm going to file the taxes. I'm going to pay them later. I may have to pay them out of the proceeds of the house. I may have to pay them out of what income I have left after child support and alimony. Uh, and then you've got a pile of credit card debt too, don't you? Yes. Yes, I do. Yeah. What was that? What was that on Sam? Was that her racking it up? You know, I, yeah, there was some remodeling that I had to put on. Oh, you put that on the credit cards. Um, yeah. Well, you're going to, again, proceeds from the sale of the house. What I'm doing, if I'm your attorneys is I'm looking at 300,000 coming out of the house. I've got to clear 130, give or take selling a 13,000 or $21,000 car. And then we're going to split up the rest of it. She's going to get most of it. You probably got a 401k. You're going to try to protect and give her the most of the house money, but 130 needs to be paid off out of the sale of the house. The house needs to get sold as soon as possible before you get behind on it. That's what's hard. That's, you know what I mean? It's a lot of the stuff that can take. Yeah, but it's put it on, you know, again, the, the, um, leaving things in limbo, waiting, dragging things out six months, having too many discussions about stuff. If it is over, it's over. If it's not over, it's not over. It's two different sets of decisions. And so you cannot, uh, drag this out. That will kill you guys. Both of you. It's going to take both of you out. And so you're going to end up losing the house or something silly like that. Right? That's what I was thinking is like, I don't know. Would you get current on stuff and see if I would get current on that house and stay current on that house? Cause it cleans up the rest of the debt when it sells. And then you're going to need to get the divorce mediation to begin between the two attorneys and get that house on the market as soon as possible. And, um, and, and then you've got to work through, you're going to end up paying your taxes and figure out what you're doing with these different things. But again, break it down one thing at a time, and then it's not as overwhelming. Force rank these things. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.