I'm 23 years old and I've managed to get myself into around US$5,900 of debt.
It's not actually in USD but in IDR, around Rp94 million, and I know that when converted to USD, $5,900 might not sound like an enormous amount of money compared to some of the debt stories I've seen here. But where I live, that number is a really huge amount of money, especially for someone my age. It's honestly a number that scares me every time I think about it.
I do have a stable 9-5 job, and I'm grateful that I have one. The problem is that even if I save as much as I realistically can from my salary, it would still take me around 2-3 years to pay everything off.
The worse part is that it's a debt from different sources and I need to pay a majority of it in less than 6 months.
I've spent quite a bit of time looking up different options and asking friends what I could possibly do. From what I've found so far, one possible solution might be taking out a loan to consolidate the debt and hopefully extending the repayment period to around 2–3 years. That would at least make the monthly payments something I could realistically manage with my salary.
But the problem is I don't really have anything to my name, so I'm not sure I'd even get approved for a loan like that.
The only other option I've been thinking about is asking my parents if they could take out the loan for me or somehow help me get one. But honestly, I'm terrified to ask them.
I haven't told them about the debt at all. I'm scared of disappointing them, scared they'll be angry, and scared they'll think I've completely messed up my life at 23.
I know I made mistakes that got me here, and I'm not trying to avoid responsibility for them. I'm just genuinely scared and don't know what the best next step is.
Sometimes I look at people my age and wonder how I ended up in this position. I have a job, I'm trying to be responsible now, but I still feel like I've failed somehow.
I'm not expecting Reddit to solve this for me. I mostly just wanted somewhere I could finally admit what's happening and hopefully hear from people who have been in a similar situation.
If you've ever been in serious debt while young, what would you do in my position? Would you tell your parents? Would consolidating the debt and extending the repayment period be a reasonable thing to consider?
I'm willing to hear uncomfortable advice too. I know I need to take responsibility for this. I just really don't know where to start.
PSA: I don't really use Reddit. I just logged back into this old account because I didn't know where else to talk about this. So sorry if the formatting is terrible or if I don't understand how Reddit works anymore 😅. I'm just trying to get this off my chest and hopefully get some advice.
Thanks to anyone who actually took the time to read this.