Where to start? I have made a large amount of completely dumb choices in the past few years and now it is caving in. I have a truck that I owe about 17 grand on and it is not worth that much (not in my name), a motorcycle that I owe about 7 grand on and isn't worth that, owe about $2,400 on credit card (not mine), owe over 3 grand on my credit card and owe a college 8 grand. All of my APR's are high and I have rent, insurance and all that other good stuff to deal with now. I can pay my bills, but not by much. Well everything, but the college bill. The main issue is just that I have to do something about it and have no clue what. I have no equity and am wasting so much money in Apr's that it makes me sick. All I want is to start my own business, but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel with all these bills and am living with 0 freedom due to it. I have no idea how to make it better and I am going to go insane trying to figure it out on my own.

So you have total debt of $37,400. That's not a pretty picture.

Have you considered to sell your truck and your motorcycle?

You said that you can pay your bills, which is a good thing. I suggest that you sit down and write down all your income and your expenses. Next You should look for ways to free up more cash in order to tackle your debt problem.

It won't be easy but that's what you have to do in order to get out of it.

If you can sell your truck and bike I would suggest to buy something in cash as cheap as possible in order to get you around and with the rest you will have to choices:

1. Use it to repay as much debt as possible (If you do that I would suggest to repay the credit card debt first, it will eliminate $5,400 in debt and you will have more cash available to pay for the other three debts that you have, before you pay on those I would also suggest to set up an emergency fund which will cover up to six months of living expenses)

2. This is an option the majority of people would classify as way too risky and would not advice you to take. I only lay it out here and let you make the decision (This is what I would personally do).

Sell you truck, sell your bike and buy somethíng very cheap to get you around unless you have family or friends that will be able to help you short-term, if you do don't buy anything.

Next, invest your way out of it (that's were the risk comes in and most likely you don't know how to do it and may require help which will cost you and you may not want to do this). The reason why I even suggest it is because I know individuals who have done it. They took some help, but their debt was repaid rather quickly and they had their life back on track.

Since you mentioned you want to run your own business you may want to use those funds for that rather then for investments.

I think the importance is to pay yourself first. If you use the cash and pay your debt then you will definately decreased your debt load and free up some cash which you can use to increase your payments for existing debt. That is not a bad choice at all.

If you use the cash to create an additonal source of income in addition to your current paycheck you will also have more cash to pay your debt but the principal will be there as well so after you pay off your debt you will have a decent amount of cash to pump into your business.

Like I said, the second option is one every financial advisor, debt councelor, etc. will not recommend. They would advice you to play it safe and if that's what you want to do then there is nothing wrong with that.

I rather play it smart which is why I personally would favor the second option.

You can also use a combo of both depending on how much casj you can free up and how much the slale of truck and bike will bring in, i.e. if you get a combined 15k you culd use what you need to pay off the two CCs and use the rest for your business/investments.

There are plenty of options on the table and it really depends on how you decide to handle the problem.

It will be tough but you need to be disciplined and stick with either plan you decide to follow.

It can be done. Good luck!

I am not sure I understand your situation. You state that almost $20,000 of the debt is not yours or not in your name. How then is this your debt. With that out of the way this should be very simple to clear. Also, not to sound smug, but it sounds like you need to get a little bit more financial self-control before considering starting your own business.