<prompt> Human: After basically being an idiot concerning finances for all of my adult life, I need to get everything in order but I dont where to begin. My parents were terrible with money, never taught me anything. I dont even know what outstanding debts I have, my records are more or less nonexistent. I know I defaulted on a student loan at one point, I believe a credit card was cancelled. I did not pay taxes the past 2 years, I was freelancing the past 2 years, but not making enough to make ends meet. I only have a rough guess as to how much I earned.Ive started budgeting, and paying down current debts Im aware of, but I know I need to get everything else in order. Please help! All suggestions and advice are welcome, even especially? the simple stuff most would take for granted.  <response>: pull your credit report. make a list of all of your accountsdebts with balance, interest rate, and monthly payment. pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first. for anything thats in collections, call to negotiate a pay for delete to see if you can get a discount for paying it in full.go through your records and figure out how much you earned and file your taxes. You already owe a ton of fees and penalties. get the taxes filed and set up a payment plan. you dont want to be on the bad side of the IRS.start tracking your spending with a site like mint and cut back wherever you can. 