Hello - I just found this site and am hoping I can gain financial intelligence!

- Where you are from? - South Carolina, previously Florida.
- Do you have a lot of debt or a little debt? - About 15,000
- What sort of debt do you have? (credit card, student loans, medical, house, etc) - IRS, medical, credit cards - I'm not considering my mortgage as debt as it is less than I paid to rent a house in FL!
- Are finances affecting your life negatively?  Somewhat.  How? - everytime I think I'm ahead, I drop back two spaces and have to try and catch up again.
- What do you hope to get out of this site? - Information and resources.

We bought our first home last year due to a move with the company I work for - from FL to SC.  We stayed with a relative in SC for a few months - so did not have any utilities or rent topay.  I also received a lump sum check from my employer for moving expenses. We wanted to buy a house because the real estate was so much less in SC than in FL.  This was at the time of the mortgage companies fall out.  I was surprised when I gor approved for a mortgage with the debt I had - I was in the rating of weak to barely fair!   I was able to clear that up by calling each of my creditors showing on my credit report provided by the mortgage company and making an offer with them that if I could pay that day, what is the dollar amount they would offer me to pay off the debt.  I also made the mistake of taking a hardship withdrawal from my 401K over $10,000.  Yikes - I did not realize at the time that I would be paying a penalty for it on my taxes, even after having taxes removed from it upon disbursement.  I also knew I had back taxes to clear up, so even before I applied for the mortgage, I set up automatic withdrawals from my checking account to the IRS, bi-weekly to go towards these.  Apparently, this amount was not enough to satisfy the IRS and they filed a lien against my house.  The tale gets bleeker...when I filed my taxes this year - because of the money I took out of the 401K and the moving expense check - this REALLY overinflated my income from last year and I owe an additional $5000 to the IRS.  To top it all off - I cannot get a personal loan to pay off the IRS because the IRS shows on my credit report as a public record and one of the creditors I paid off, reported the payoff as a setlement. 

So that is my sad tale of debt.  I try not to let it get me depressed or discouraged.  I am going through stuff I have at home that I just don;t need anymore and I put that on eBay.  I'm also looking for a PT job - I want to get out from under this and start having my income all my own again!

Well welcome!  Hopefully you'll find these forums useful for you!