| I dropped out of school and after a series of events, found myself living out of a broken-down car on the other side of the country with no money and two credit cards that I promptly cut up. I spent a couple weeks unemployed and then worked fast food until I had enough to afford a room in a shared house within walking distance to the restaurant. Showered in the local park every once in a while. Dumpster dove for food initially, at one point sucking down ketchup packets because I couldn't find anything else (protip: bakeries throw out enormous amounts of slightly stale but perfectly edible stuff). But working fast food is nice because at least you can grab some stray fries or something. Once you have shelter and you're committed to saving more than you spend (again, working in food industry is beneficial there because free food), you can start taking on more jobs and slowly work your way out. I also had decent coding skills at the time, but never got a job out of it. So don't put too much of your hopes on that. I got a couple responses from job ads, but never even got to the interview stage without a degree. Eventually (two years) I managed to get to the point where I could work and go to school at the same time (with the help of student aid), and subsequently got a degree and a real job. But the whole time it's all about minimizing expenses as much as possible. You mention inheritance. I recommend putting all that away in some investment and not touching it. Not because the investment is going to be worth a ton in the future, but because doing so will help build the financial discipline you'll need to get through these times. Ultimately, digging out rests on stability and savings more than anything else. Find a job with reasonably stable income (maybe uber is fine? it wasn't an option back when I did this), and save every penny that you can. Then you can start planning realistically for the future. The hardest part may be kids; I'm sure it's tempting to spend everything you have on them, and these days even the cost of gas to visit them may be more than you should be spending regularly. At least budget (strictly!) the number of miles you drive outside of work; that money adds up. But get a handle on your budget and spend less than you make. That's the only way out. |