I am so glad for this resource!! =) Thanks for your time in examining my financial issues. I am a 30 year-old female living in Atlanta, GA. I rent an apartment in the city, for around $650 a month (thank God for tax-credit apartments!) =) I have the regular bills: electric ($70), water ($28), cell phone ($65), car insurance ($135 a month) and health insurance (since I have no benefits, I pay about $142 a month). I am paying $150 a month on a loan from my bank for a motorcycle, which is currently in storage. I own my car, it's a clunker but pretty reliable and gets me from Point A to Point B.

My primary job is pretty close to my home, and I only have to fill up my car every two weeks so I spend little on gas. I work at three part-time jobs (two in the same place) 7 days a week and am basically living paycheck to paycheck, with very little money left over, if any. I'd actually say that there are NO leftover funds as I am carrying quite a bit of debt. I owe around $80,000 dollars (I have my Master's degree) in student loans (paying $75 a month on that, since they based it on my income) and about $9,300 dollars in credit card bills across two cards. I am near my credit limit on one (around $8,300, with a limit of $8,500, a lot of it in cash advances, TERRIBLE!! ) paying the minimum payment on that one (approx. $230), and the balance is on the other one. I am looking into transferring my balance on the large one to another card with my present bank, as my rates are high on that card and I no longer belong to that bank. I've had the card for around 10 years. Any advice you can give me on that would be good too! =) I was a victim of credit fraud in the past, but after the lengthy process of clearing it all up I have a great credit rating, as told to me by my bank when I took out the loan for my motorcycle, however I don't know my exact score. I have been working in the industry I want to be in for around 3 years, and hope to move up, but presently I make about $30,000 a year before taxes including all three jobs and side jobs here and there. I have applied to several positions in the city in my chosen industry, but haven't heard anything as of yet.

Okay! Thankfully, it's not all bad! (Hurrah! ) =) My mother has given my sibling and myself $10,000 each as an early inheritance. Problem is, I have no idea what is best to do with it! I know nothing of investing, stocks, bonds, etc. Now that I have this money, I am thinking about buying a condominium, as I am basically wasting money paying rent. I am unmarried, single, do not plan on having kids, and do not want the added duties of owning an house with a yard, nor do I need all that space for just me, or even myself and partner. I would think that buying would be a good investment, given the glut of foreclosures, plus the huge numbers of available condos and other housing in Atlanta, and the great deals for buyers in our market. However, I am leery given my lack of savings and not knowing how much I will have to put down since the tightening up on loan qualifications. I don't know much about home buying either, but I thankfully have a friend who can clue me in should I decide to buy. Since I may end up having to move away from Atlanta in the next year in order to get an on-air position elsewhere, I am not sure I want to go through the whole process of buying a place, although there is the possibility of renting it out if I were to leave. Plus I'd need some of my money for expenses and living costs if I move. I have not deposited the money into my account as of yet... I'm also wondering if I should wait until after I file my taxes. I'm afraid of Uncle Sam trying to take some of it, wanting to apply it to my student loans... not sure if this is a valid fear or not! =) Sooo... I am basically looking for a low-risk course of action to use this money to the best of my ability. I definitely can't afford to lose it or waste it!

With ALLLLL of these variables, PLEASE tell me what you think I should do! Any advice would be extremely helpful! Thanks so much for your time...

First rule... never invest money when you have outstanding credit card bills. You can't make money when you're paying credit card interest.

Second rule... as soon as you get money, deposit it immediately in an interest-bearing account. A money market checking account is a good idea because it pays interest but is also liquid. Ask at your bank if they offer one. If they don't, check out investment banks like Merrill Lynch, etc. The idea of depositing it asap is that you start earning interest immediately. I don't think anyone can take it to apply to your student loans as long as you're paying them on time.

Don't worry about paying off the student loans. Leave them where they are. The $75 per month won't hurt you if you apply for any other loans (like a mortgage) and the fact that you pay regularly and on time only helps your credit rating. So leave them alone.

You have a few options. If you want to be very safe and conservative then you should keep 6 months worth of monthly expenses in a liquid account, like a money market checking account.

As for buying a condo, there are pros and cons. The main pros are that you are building equity rather than throwing away your money and the mortgage interest and taxes are usually tax-deductible. The main cons are that you will probably be very strapped for money for a few years and condos don't tend to appreciate much in value. You didn't mention how much you earn and how much you plan to spend on a condo. So the best info I can give you is that you should not spend more than 25-30% of your gross monthly income on your mortgage, r.e. taxes and homeowners insurance. If your income is $3000 per month before taxes then your monthly payment for your mortgage, r.e. taxes and homeowners should not be more than $750-900 per month. From there you can figure out how much of a mortgage you can afford.

Also, DO NOT get an adjustable rate loan. Only get a fixed rate loan!

If you choose not to buy a condo at this time then if I were in your position I would probably pay off the $1000 on the high-rate credit card, pay another $4000 on the other credit card and keep the rest in the bank for emergencies.

If you have questions or want more info feel free to email me. Just click on my profile.

Pay off your credit card debt before you even THINK of buying real estate. Put the $700 you'll have left after paying off your $9,300 credit card debt in a money market mutual fund and set up a monthly automatic investment plan to add $100/mo or whatever you can afford. Sell the motorcycle, and don't EVER run up credit card balances again. Keep paying on your student loans at the rate you are now.

The interest on the credit cards going away would be an immediate benefit, but if you pay them off and DON'T cut them up, you WILL charge them right back up. You said yourself, you have no financial control and cash advances are double dumb on credit cards since they charged you interest up front AND since.

So, I agree, you ALWAYS need to have money between you and disaster, and 4-5 months expenses is a good figure. Based on the numbers you gave, that means about $4000 in an emergency fund. Leave it alone.

The rest should be used to reduce debt. What you SHOULD do:
1) Close the small credit card account and pay it off
2) Transfer the balance to a zero interest new card (8-10 months if you can get it) and put the rest of the money on that balance to get it down to halfway.
3) WORK triple hard to get this balance to zero, and use the banks again in 6 months to transfer the remaining amount to another zero interest card. Do not carry or even keep the card themselves, shred them, don't use them, they are your enemy financially in every way. STOP buying things you don't have the cash for. Seriously.
4) Sell the motorcycle.
5) Sell everything in your house/garage/parents house that you don't need. Be serious about it... clean house.
6) Spend money on your clunker car so that it stays in good shape and running. It is the most inexpensive transportation option you have... a paid-for car! (Oil changes, new tires, tuneups and alignments... regular maintenance are NOT emergencies. Build them into your natural quarterly budget considerations.)

When you've got your emergency fund in place and paid off your credit cards, eliminated the moto-loan, THEN you can start the process of home ownership.

Pay off the credit cards, * then cut them up, or put them in a safety deposit box, where you can't get to them and use them.

Then take the money you were paying on the credit card and put in a savings account for an emergancy fund. * 3 to 6 months is a good guide line. And yes, I agree sell the motorcycle, saving the payment and storage fee. Use some of that money to fix clunker up some

Then you start putting the money you were paying for credit card and motorcycle into a savings account. So you would have that 300 to 400 a month going into savings, in a few years you will have a good down, have your credit in better control and then can consider looking for a home.

** also hello neighbor, I live and work in the Atlanta area myself.

Oops... I just re-read the post and saw where you're earning $30,000 including your part-time jobs. That means you shouldn't spend more than $625-750 per month for mortgage loan, r.e. taxes and homeowners insurance. Since you're already spending $650 per month for rent and things are tight, it doesn't look like buying a condo would work very well for you right now.

As for the bike, I don't think you should sell it unless it's a Harley. You probably won't get a lot of money for it and it's good backup in case your clunker dies. Besides... you're working 7 days a week at 3 different jobs. You're entitled to some fun once in a while and a bike is fun!

Just want to add some comments to some already good advice. I am most in line with what JBeaucaire said.

As for the motorcycle, you need to take a look at what you can sell it for versus what you are paying on it. You're spending $150 on the thing. That's money you could be setting aside or using to pay other debt. Would you be able to have someone just take over payments? Or, are you not going to get enough out of it to pay off the loan? You have to take those things into consideration. I don't think having it around just for a second vehicle is necessarily worth it.

How did your car insurance get so high? I don't know how much locality affects costs of insurance, but that just seems ridiculously high for an over-30 female. That's like 8 times what I pay. What could you save by removing collision? That's something else you could set aside and then use if you ever happen to need it in case you clunk your car up.

I'd totally forget the condo. You already have too much debt. Paying the rent may seem like a waste of money, but so is interest. And the tax deduction for interest is not all it is cracked up to be, because you can't take it at all if you can't itemize. Under normal circumstances I'm all for buying versus renting, but not when you're that bad in debt. You need to get your finances back together better. And that in turn will help get a mortgage when the time comes. (Although I personally do not think condos are the greatest investment.)

Having a good six months of savings is a good idea. However, I think I'd be more tempted to pay off the credit cards completely. You can get back $230 you're paying on the one and presumably you're making a payment of some sort on the other credit card too. Take all that and save it every month. And then start seriously looking at your budget and where you can cut back some spending. If you do all that, you can get some emergency funds set aside without having a credit card around. The reason I feel this way is because you only need those funds if you have an emergency or end up out of a job. This might sound a little weird, but hear me out. If you keep the credit cards, but hidden away and don't use them for dumb stuff, they will still be there if you need them. But that means avoiding the temptation to use them. In the meantime, you avoid what is probably a lot of interest that you're paying that is a total waste. If you end up having to use a card at some point, then you're no worse off than you are now. If you don't end up having to use them, you end up better off for having paid them off. So you have a chance to be better off, or just be right back where you were. But it's not really a situation that is worse than now. Of course, you have to be strong and not use them unless you do have a serious emergency or end up out of a job.

Then learn to budget and learn that you can't have everything. I don't see any reason a single person with no dependents can't live on $30,000 without all these issues. I realize cost of living is different in different locations. However, you've already said what some major expenses are, like the rent, utilities, health insurance, etc. So I can kind of relate to it. Cut little things. Like can you find a way to lower the cell phone bill? Be careful in grocery shopping and do couponing. Clothes can get expensive, but if you have a decent thrift shop around, you might surprised what you can pick up for dirt cheap. Learn how to look for better bargains. I think it is OK to spend just a little bit on something you like, to keep from going insane. Everyone needs a hobby or something. Just be careful with it. (I'm lucky I play computer games for my entertainment. For the hours I get out of a game, it's very cheap really.)

Most of all, learn the difference between need and want. Right now you have too much debt and too many financial problems and you're going to have to give something up. Maybe it will be temporary. Think of it as investing in your future. As of right now, I don't see that you have any retirement at all. But at the moment, cut back on everything you possibly can. One way to do this is to literally keep track of where everything goes, because most people are surprised what they're spending money on, and it shows where you can cut back. In the first months you'll want to just save enough to set some extra money aside. (Dumping $230 off the top is a really good start.)

After you build up some spare cash, you can then re-think where you need to be and where you want to go. I agree the student loans should not be the big issue right now, but you do eventually have to pay that off. But think about that later when you get things together better.

I was only going to add a few comments. LOL. That's just me -- I get on tangents and lose all track of time and space.

Pay off the CC with the larger balance. Close that account and cut up the other card.
Take the remaining 1700 and get 3 $500 6-month CDs - you can still get it in an EMERGENCY but it's not in checking begging to be used.

Use the $230/mo you were paying on the big CC to pay the small CC balance off - about 4months and you're done! Don't open another account and transfer balances - you'll only be tempted to use it to accumulate for debt (stuff).

You'll now have about $300 more available each month - put half in a retirement account (401 or IRA). Put the other half in savings - the clunker WILL need repairs someday - do not get a new car.

Make a budget and stick to it - every day! Only buy what you can pay cash for (no - 0% for 90 days is NOT cash).

My situation 2 years ago was very similar to yours only I had $65K in debt. This approach worked for me - all that debt is gone in 2years. It wasn't fun but working overtime evry weekend so I could pay Citibank wasn't fun either.

The credit card companies will own you - If you let them. They had me for a while.

Be disciplined and stay focused. You aren't in a big hole - you'll be out in no time.

Best of luck

WOW! Thanks everybody for your advice and input. I've got a lot to think about! =) LisaB4657, thanks for the offer of extra advice, I'll probably take you up on it. Since I may be moving away, I decided to table the condo discussion for now. I'm going to give myself the rest of the year to decide on the move. It's definitely time to find some means of a higher income! =)

I have decided to put some of the money toward my higher balance credit card, but I'm not totally sold on paying it off all together. I honestly hate the idea of using almost all of the money on that, although I would love to not have to worry about it that card anymore. I have run up the balance on the big card since I moved out of my parent's house and have had to pay rent…have to have cash for that, thus the cursed cash advances! I'm thinking of possibly paying off half the card balance then maybe putting the balance between what I was paying on the card and the new payment toward the other card, or putting that money in savings of some kind. *Thanks JH1* I definitely am going to look into transferring the higher card balance to a lower interest card. *Thanks JBeaucaire*

I really want to keep my motorcycle! It is one of the few fun things I spend money on, I'm not much for buying clothes or stuff like that, haven't really bought any in about a 2 years. I'm keeping it at a friend's house, so I'm just paying a note on it, not storage charges. I guess if I move, then I'll probably sell it. I'm thinking to pay it off, if I decide to keep it. There's not much left to pay. *Hey morgaine300!* Insurance on my car is elevated as I have had several accidents in the past, and it has gone up since I moved within the city limits. I'm going to shop around for a better payment, but the insurance company I'm with now has consistently been the cheapest I could find with coverage. I'm afraid to remove collision from my insurance, however misguided it may be! =) *Hey there Fr_Chuck! =)* Atlanta did a number on my insurance cost! =P

All in all you guys have offered some valuable advice. Again, thanks a lot. I think I'm on my way to a better financial place, especially once I find some better income. I'm working on it! =) Let me know if you guys think of anything else!