<prompt> Human: This will probably read as more of a ramble but Im at the end of my rope. Honestly I feel like my life has been a series of bad decisions. My wife and I used to get into arguments a couple years ago because she would want to go on vacation or do this or that and put it on the credit cards, and Id protest because I HATE debt and Id just spent the last couple years, and a divorce, getting clear of it. Shed tell me debt is fine, thats how you live life! Then a great job opportunity came up for her and we moved out of state, but had problems with my house and I wasnt able to get it corrected and sell it for over a year so that whole time I was paying a mortgage in another state while renting a house, way more than we could afford but it was like what can I do? In the mean time, more credit card debt racking up since theres not enough cash flow to pay for fuel for my 100 mile daily commute or the ikea furniture we needed.That house was sold a while back and I used a lot of that money to fund a photography business which has been a passion of mine for a long time. Ive actually got a shot at it and Ive been doing decent booking weddings, but not enough to keep me afloat yet. However, it did become enough that I cant do it and my very demanding job that I had so I went part time, work from home with that making about 13 as much. Now that I have all day to sit and stew about where Im ta in life the reality is setting in that Im never going to get out of this credit card debt which is around 70k, and if I dont get more bookings I actually cant even pay all my bills. Weve been paying only minimum payments because thats all we can afford, for over a year. Across probably 13 or 14 accounts this totals about 1800 a month. A few have balances as high as 13000, interest rates in the mid 20s. On top of all that shes got 150k in student loans which is getting us for about a grand a month, got two car payments totaling about 900 one of which is about to end, the other in three more years. I guess thats it lol. Her salary is around 87k and I WAS making about 50k with my management job but now its about 20k with the part time, plus whatever I make with photography around 10-15k this year, should be much more next year. Were going to be insolvent in probably two or three months max. I cant declare bankruptcy because theyll take all my photo gear which is worth about 20k and I need it to shoot the weddings that I have booked out through next year, and obviously Im not going to grow my business if I cant actually do the work. I financed most of it with the deposits from these peoples weddings so even if I sold it all Id just have to pay them back anyway, and destroy any prospect of having a future in this business. Im ok with stiffing Discover or Citibank but not some young 20 something couple trying to start their life, you know? I just dont know what to do. Im not too far from checking myself into a psyche unit somewhere because I cant deal with this stress, and all the regret almost every single decision in the past five years. From moving out of state, to the wedding not marrying my wife but spending money we didnt have by way of credit cards, to using the proceeds from my house sale to start a photography business, to basically every time we went out to eat because we were too burnt out from our stressful jobs to bother preparing for dinner, to buying a more expensive house than we needed because it was nice. Still not even expensive by my states standards at all, at 250k , but a lot more than the house we were renting which we could have bought for 180k, if we had known the landlord was going to sell it when we moved out. What are my options?  <response>: You have to get a salaried job, is the main thing. Trying to start an independent business, with all the uncertainty that comes with it, at this stage of your financial life is frankly madness. With a baby inbound the financial and personal stress will only get worse. How does being the sole provider temporarily anyway AND paying down 70k in CC debt AND getting no sleep for two years, because baby, AND stressing over your sole-operator photography business sound? You can only jettison one of those stressors, and that is the business. Keep your weekend bookings but find something steady and reliable that brings in a bi-weekly paycheck. Your wifes attitude toward spending and debt is another story -- debt is not evil, in and of itself, but it sure as hell is not how you live life. You will be paying for the life already lived for years to come, and your prior spending will severely curb your ability to buy things for provide for your kid.For every minute of pleasure you have spending money you have not yet earned... there is an hour of pain associated with earning money you have already spent. Tell that to your wife. 