<prompt> Human: Ive finally come to realize that I am addicted to shoppingspending. Needless to say that this addiction severely damaged my credit and Im in deep debt. Ive put myself in this hole and need to crawl my way out and thats why Im here. Id like for some advice on where to start. Below is the lowdown on my income, debt and expenses. Income: 4400 USD, take homeExpenses: 1 Rent: 900month. 2 Utilities water, electric: 110-170month depending on the season 3 InternetCable: 70month costs less to bundle internet and basic cable than to have just internet 4 Cell Phone: 40month. 5 Groceries: 40week. 6 Gas: 25week for car and motorcycle 7 Car insurance: 140month. 8 Motorcycle insurance: 65month. 9 Renters insurance: 35month10 Parents health insurance: 160month11 Car payment: 225month still owe 8500Debt: 1 Credit card 1: 15300 - paying the minimum 400month 2 Credit card 2: 5600 - paying the minimum 200month 3 Credit card 3: 3100 - paying the minimum 100month 4 Credit card 4: 600 - paying the minimum 25month 5 Store Card 1: 850 - paying the minimum 50month 6 Store Card 2: 2000 - paying the minimum 70month 7 Store Card 3: 1100 - paying the minimum 100month Things to consider: 1 Bank account is -86 at this moment2 I have 0 savings and make no 401k contributions stupid and sad, I know 3 I own the motorcycle and have tried to sell it multiple times but got no offers. It is worth 3000 or so I bought it a year ago for 3000 4 I will likely get a 15k bonus sometime in April. 5 I cannot stop paying my parents health insurance 6 You might be wondering what I do with whatever is left from my paycheck since Im paying the minimums only. Guess what? I spend on more useless shit because Im stupid like that. . WhereHow do I even start cleaning up this mess? I know this is going to sound bad, but do I have to sell my motorcycle likely at a loss? This was a childhood dream and the mark of a new chapter in my life. Yep, go ahead and remind me how much more important financial stability is. I need to hear it. No, seriously.Also, how long will it likely take for me to pay all of this off? This process of writing it all down made me realize how much Ive fucked up. I have very little experience managing my own money as if you couldnt already tell and Ive blamed that on my humble beginnings, but its time to face reality and own up to my mistakes. Im tired of living paycheck to paycheck. TL;DR - In knee deep debt, needing advice on how to clean up the mess. Thanks much in advance, everyone. Edit: I tried fixing the lists formatting, but couldnt. Sorry. Assistant: You didnt list anything other than the motorcycle, but do you have any other assets? I assume that your car is worth something, but its not clear whether it is more or less than you owe. Some thoughts:1. You should sell the motorcycle under pretty much any scenario. You need the cash, and its costing you 780 a year in insurance alone. In addition, its 27 times more dangerous than a car based on fatality rates and worse if youre under 40. If youre not saving for retirement, is it fair to assume that you dont have long term disability insurance? The lucky motorcycle riders end up crippled instead of dead. Some childhood dreams go splat on the windshield of reality. In this case, its better that the dream does than you do. 2. Adding it up in my head, it looks like you have 3010 in monthly expenses assuming four weeks a month. Lets round that up to 3100. Assuming that by takeaway you mean your net payment, you have 1300 in free cash flow to work with before selling stuff and reducing expenses and you should do both. Thats something to work with.3. Assuming that you see 10k of that bonus after taxes, you could knock out north of 25k of that roughly 38k in debt next year, and the remainder after. Thats some real belt tightening to be debt free by Jan 1, 2019. Note that it could be a little better than that because Im eyeballing the math and not including the principal portion of your debt service payments partly to make it easy for me and partly because youll probably have 300-400 in discretionary expenses which is probably close to those principal payments.4. Ive known people with way more income that were paycheck to paycheck e.g. 300k, but its ridiculous for you to live that way given your income and expenses. Among other things, its far less stressful to have a robust personal balance sheet that would allow you to weather the unexpected.5. What I do is make a balance sheet every month, with the current value of our assets and liabilities. Compute your net worth by taking your assets and subtracting your liabilities. Based on what you said, yours is probably negative, and it wont be fun to look at. But, calculate the change in your net worth from last month to this month this month minus last month, and let that be your score for the month. An increase of 1300 is on track, more is a win, less is a needs improvement, and a negative change is unacceptable. You can do this easily with a spreadsheet use something free like google docs or Apples Numbers if you have Apple stuff.6. Look around for stuff you can sell in addition to the motorcycle. Xbox that you dont play? Craigslist. Be ruthless. If its been a year, its gone. If its not a seasonal item and its been six months, gone. These are assets that arent doing anything for you. Some people only ask themselves if theyd like something. They dont stop to ask if they have room in their lives to also do whatever that involves, so they have way more hobby junk than time to enjoy it. 7. Instead of buying stuff you want, make a list and see if your interest holds up. I might buy 25 percent of the stuff I consider, but Id be surprised if its that high. For the things that survive more careful thought, I have more time to spot a deal. If I see a deal and decide Id rather advance other goals, I delete that item. Buying things isnt about wanting it. Its about wanting it more than all the alternative uses of that money. I want to build wealth more than I want an iPhone every two years instead of three or than I want a new car when my current ten year old one is fine.8. Price shop some of these expenses. I insure two cars with higher than standard maxes and comprehensive coverage for less than your single car. Renters seems just a little high, too. Cable and cell seem alright.Listen, youre in a bad spot of your own making. But, you have the resources to climb out of it, if you change your thinking and develop the discipline to do so. I grew up poor, too. It sucks, especially when youre short on food a lot. Make the decision that you and your descendants will have a better life built on a solid financial foundation and not a bunch of stuff you dont use and a pile of debt for things youve long forgotten about. Human: Hi, thank you for the reply and advice. I really appreciate the input. As per KBB the car is worth about 5000 if privately sold. I pay 3 interest rate on that loan. The more I think about, the more it makes sense to sell the motorcycle and Ill proceed to do that this weekend. Ive tried keeping a monthly budget, but after a couple of weeks I usually fall off the tracks, only to regret it at the end of the month. Without making any more excuses, I never took it seriously enough and wasnt in the right mind set. The years are creeping on me and Im starting to realize that if I dont start saving now, my retirement wont look much better than my current situation...  <response>: Im glad to help. Hang in there. You cant undo the decisions you made. You should realize why they werent good choices, but you should try to let go of guilt. You can largely undo the consequences, but that path requires offsetting bad decisions with good and building good lifelong habits. Dont forget how you feel right now, though. Its motivation. Great athletes hate losing more than they like winning, and you should make a point to remember this as a low point. If you do it right, its all up from here. The path isnt difficult to see. Its just hard to decide to stay on it. Win a little bit every day, and youll win the game. When money is tight, budgets can be really helpful. Once its less tight, you can do something easier. We make most of our monthly expenses on our Amex account always paid off in full each month, and we have a target amount that it should be by the end of the billing cycle. We watch that balance, and adapt our behavior throughout the month to stay on track. Id track it pretty closely for a while, though. Part of the battle is identifying those 10 and 20 and 50 things that dont look like much but add up. The balance sheet I mentioned is something different. Its a snapshot of your overall financial position. It lets you see the whole picture and looking at it month over month helps you see improvement. Its a useful tool all the time, and that month-over-month change lets you grade your overall choices. Thatll show up in a budget, too, but a balance sheet is more of a strategic tool for planning your future. 