“Dear Steve,
Struggled throught the last few years after attending a trade school which flooded the job market with similarly trained people so finding a job and maintaining my household became nearly impossible so I could not repay my student loans and defaulted on a few utility bills.
All of which are now in collections. In total I owe $38,000 which is mostly the student loans, $8000 of it is child support, and $4500 is a snapon credit, both of which I am current on and have been for 6 months now.
How should I go about taking care of these debts? Counseling, consolidation, how do I settle the debts?
Victor”
Dear Victor,
Well the first priority debt is the child support. Failing to pay child support can land you in jail.
The next are the student loans. I suggest you read The Ultimate Guide to Dealing With Student Loans You Can’t Afford.
The least important debt, in terms of what can happen to you, is Snap-on.
I assume you graduated in some auto mechanic area. If so, what I’m hearing from others that have graduated from auto trade schools is they can’t find jobs that pay enough to pay for the cost of school. Those that are finding jobs complain the service shops want them to over bill and cheat customers. For the most part the job prospects are not as the trade schools claim.
Even if you file bankruptcy they only debts you can discharge are the Snap-on and utility bills.
The two ways to otherwise get out of a situation like this are to increase income, reduce expenses, or a combination of the both.
I have no idea what your other expenses are but is there room to trim those down? Maybe rent a room or share a house? Anything?
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Your student loans may be dischargeable. See this new article that explains why and how. https://getoutofdebt.org//53288/these-private-student-loans-can-be-easily-discharged-in-bankruptcy