<prompt> Human: I was very irresponsible in my early college years and managed to rack up a huge amount of credit card debt buying stupid crap. Then, I got married and life happened. Financial literacy was not part of our language.Now, I find myself divorced, and barely making it. I have 200 dollars to last the next 10 days. I have a total debt load of 17,237.01 Three credit cards and a student loan. I pay nearly 500 a month to pay down debt. Im tired of it. Really tired of it. Im tired of working just to give away my money. If I could go back in time to slap my younger self, I would.  <response>: So you went to college and have a degree. You are not mentioning alimony or child support, so at least you dodged those financial bullets. 17k isnt that bad and at 500 a month it will be gone in a few years.At this point you need to consider your financial offense and defense. Offense is about increasing your income, this is generally done by getting promotions of finding more lucrative work. Since you have a degree you presumably are smart enough to have a good job, even if it takes a while to build to it. How to get more pay for your work is very regional and based on your skills, but you should be actively thinking about your 5-10 year career trajectory.On the defense side you try to protect the money that you do make. Find realistic ways to save. For example, have you shopped car insurance rates recently? Have you considered moving to a prepaid cell provider when you are off contract? Can you cut your cable bill back or move to a competitor for a promo offer? Can you eat out less frequently? Those are just various ideas that may or may not fit your life, but the point is to go through all of the things that you spend money on and find ways to save or cut back.If nothing else, all you have to do is continue on for four years and you will clear out this debt. Then that extra 500 a month can go to savings or disposable income. 