<prompt> Human: Hey everyone. Im looking for some guidance and it seems a lot of great advice is being given here. That said, heres how I got to where I am...I graduated from college straight into the recession. Up until the end of last year I never made more than 15 an hour and with a wife and two kids we never had an opportunity to do anything other than live paycheck to paycheck and creep into some debt. I now have a job making 49000 a year and want to make serious financial progress. My wife works part-time normally 20-25 hours a week at 14 an hour. Now for some numbers. - Credit card debt is somewhere around 30,000. We dont use them at all, just make minimum payments each month. Not terrible interest rates either. - Student loans are around 28,000. I actually had a full ride to college but this defaulted to a loan when I couldnt find a job in my field and uphold the promissory note on my scholarship. I havent been able to pay anything on this but desperately want to. Itll be 500 a month. - Rent is 800 a month, childcare is 1200 a month. Car payment is 200 a month. - Other than that its mostly groceries, utilities, and a few luxuries. We just turned off Netflix, Squarespace, and Hulu. We spend a little on clothes mostly to give a little attention to wardrobes that have desperately needed it for years now; that clocks in at maybe 150 a month for all of us.- Oh yeah, theres insurance at 200 a month and some medicaldental bills my teeth got pretty fed up during the years I could never see a dentist. Maybe well say 300 a month combined.The strange thing is I look at the number I can expect to get from mine and my wifes income and it appears I should be able to pay for everything without a problem. Then when we talk about finances it always seems were behind in some way. Were moving forward most definitely in a better place than at this same time last year but Id like to get ahead in a significant way, maybe even be able to invest and save up for my childrens future. One more thing I should note: I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and through treatment realized how bad I was at managing budgets or anything like that. My wife has done that stuff for most of our 8 years together God bless her. So if I sound vague on where we stand financially, understand its like Im brand new to this stuff.Id like some sort of plan, but its hard for me to know how to begin. Anyways, thanks for your help!  <response>: Your wife makes as little as 1120 a month before taxes and you are paying 1200 a month for childcare. That doesnt make sense. My advice is that you will not start getting ahead until that credit card debt is gone, and that might mean your wife should work from home or in the evenings for a few years because what she is doing now is costing more money than its bringing in. If you can pencil it out so that you can see that the debt will be gone in 3 years, the sacrifices will be bearable. None of that will matter, though, if you dont figure out where your money is really going. Track it all. 