<prompt> Human: 20yr old male here, living in eastern Wisconsin. This week I started a new position at the company Im at where Ill be making 44k yearly before taxes 19.75hr, with 4 scheduled overtime hours biweekly several small premiums for night shift and Sunday work. Im still living at home, mostly due to the fact that I have zero savings due to debt payoffs and poor spending habits, and a wrecked credit score from events that happened last year. I moved to Texas with a new girlfriend last summer after losing my 10hr full time customer service job. Moving down there was a terrible decision along with being with her to begin with, but thats a fun story of abuse and heartbreak for another day. She convinced me to max out the available credit that I had300 in a Kohls charge, 750 on a capital one credit card, 800 in PayPal credit, and about 1300 on an Amazon.com store cardsince when we moved down there at the spur of the moment, to stay with her parents I had zero savings, again from poor spending habits, and had a hard time finding a job. Fast forward to last October, when we came back up for a medical reason and moved into my parents. Got seasonal part time employment at Kohls 9.50 and about 30 hoursweek, all while spending most of my money on things for her and neglecting to make any payments at all to my debts. Got dumped in December, and started a new job at a plastics factory in the new year at 14.50. Started attempting to pay off debts and try to raise my score which, at its lowest, hit 421. I started a new job at the end of May at a cheese factory making 40k yearly, and as stated above have just started a new position where Ill be making more. Out of a total of nearly 6400 I had in debt, from maxed credit cards with piles of interest and late fees to an ER bill in collections and a medical bill for a visit to the psych ward guess when that happened Ive paid off almost 3000. My score has risen to about 542 but its still nowhere near where it should be, and Im frustrated with my inability to do much about it. I need to budget and tighten down my expenses but Im feeling pretty discouraged by the lack of progress I seem to have made, and would appreciate any help you guys might have. Thank you.  <response>: Are you kidding? Youre half way there! Keep going!!! Dont be discouraged, and if you want any specific help with budgeting, it is usually encouraged to share details expenses and immediate obligations. Your credit will take a little while to get back up. If the cards were not closed, continue to pay them down and build a history with them, pay them by the due date etc. Maybe in the future you could request the late payments to be removed.Other than that, time. Give it time. You got this!!! 