<prompt> Human: Im 37m. Im a college grad. I make ok money, not great, about 50k a year. i would have to go back to school to make more. I have no kids or spouse, just a dog. My truck is old and cheap and runs and is paid for, but is a gas hog. I have no credit cards. I own almost nothing. An old motorcycle, an old truck, a computer. I have the cheapest cell phone plan I can get. I have about 80k in student loans, which started at 55k and have gone up due to interest. I have never made a single payment and they are in default. as you can prob guess, my credit is very low. about 530. my debt is all student loans and a couple of old doctor bills. my credit was about 630 and then I applied for a bunch of car loans trying to get a better deal, not knowing that it affects your score to apply for them. I woke up this morning and realized that I have never had more than 4k in my possession at one time. My bank account has less than 1000 in it 90 of the time and I live check to check, despite my checks being about 1000wk. I grew up with parents that were worse with money than I am, and I dont have the slightest idea how to fix this. I want to start my own business and need about 40k to do so, and I cant fathom owning that much money. I realized today that at 37, owning that much money should not be a mystery to me or something I consider to be something that rich people do. Where do I start? Im completely lost. Im intelligent and hard working but I have never learned about money and am terrible about it and its really holding me back. EDIT: re: everyones suggestions, i looked at my bank acct and calculated my actual take home pay. I traveled in Jan and Feb, all of July, and have been working on my own projects in August. My actual take home so far this year is 16000. I am taking a 50 deposit on a project this week that will bring that total to 35000 for this year. I am working full time in October, which will add about 4000, so 39000. my actual take home fluctuates each year between 20k and 45k after taxes, depending on how much I travel and how much I work on solo projects. HOWEVER, the amount of money in my account never changes with the increase in pay, i just spend more, so your advice still holdsedit: per request, these are my expenses:fixed:gas: 50-60wk v8 truck. reliable as hell, cheap to insure.rent: 400monthphone: 100 a month im in a contract that ends in November. I tried to take data off to make it cheaper, but sprint wouldnt allow itgroceries: 75wkSpotify: 9modog food: 30momotorcycle insurance: 48mocar insurance: 300yrstudent loan: 1kmonth edit to clarify: this is the amount i owe every month. I do not pay it. gym: 25monthmeds: 30modoc: 60 every 3 months.flexible expenses:I travel alot. I go to Austin once every two weeks. 60 in gas, usually about 50 in food. go to south carolina once every two months, about 300 in gas plus food for a week. I also just traveled for 25 days in the rockies, but my legit expenditure on that trip was about 1000 total. motorcycle parts: irregular. 50-100, usually about every other week. truck parts: irregular. usually 50 once a month or so. clothes: prob about 100 every other month. Coffee: I get coffee at a coffee shop pretty much every day. sometimes twice. restaurants: I usually eat out at least once a day. usually around 7. I also get ice cream or a snack almost every night. usually ends up being about 5. I often also get a couple bottles of selzter at some point during the day. On Fridays, I often go out to eat for a big meal and get a big dessert later. miraculously, im only a little overweight. edit: thank you all very much for the advice. much appreciated.Assistant: I have never made a single paymentWhy? I mean - what was your thinking on that? Its not like youre a kid. Youre 37.Human: when I first got out of school, I was an adjunct professor making less than minimum wage and I couldnt afford it. then I lost my job and was out of work for a while. then it became habit. now, Im terrified to tackle it, because my payment will be around 1000k a month.  <response>: Have you not heard of income based repayment? Look into it.Ignoring them will only make matters worse - and they have gotten a lot worse. Your expenses are low - you just dont track your spending. 