I was doing fine with a low salary of $500/month, living a simple but peaceful life in Vietnam. But my mistake was not putting much into a saving “bank”. I just threw random small bills into a piggy bank once in a while.

Then suddenly, my company got into financial troubles and delayed my salary for two months. At almost the same time, my dad got diagnosed with stage-3 colorectal cancer. I was reading the apology email from my company while waiting for my dad’s surgery! He had health insurance, but they only paid back AFTER he was released from the hospital.

I was in a panic, and went into debts with some banks and credit organizations. I should’ve done a lot more research into credits and loans back then, but I didn’t. I thought if the debts were divided into small installments, I could just use my salary to pay them. But eventually, I had to borrow from place B to pay for place A, then C to pay for B.

Now after a year, my father’s health is actually not bad for someone with stage-3 cancer, but the debts are starting to feel overwhelming. I’ve taken up a part-time job in the evening, but it doesn’t pay much. My full time job is R&D for an English-teaching organization, and my part time job is tutoring.

The total debts are about $1500 (from about 5 different lenders), and my salary is only $500. The paying dates are different, but they are all within this month.
My family has already spent everything on my father’s hospital bills, and my parents are spending both their wages on paying their own debts.

I don’t think I’m close enough with anyone to actually ask for money from them, and even if they do lend me some, it probably won’t help much.

I have already sold the few valuable things I had. I’ve tried many different methods to get money, even the silliest ones like leaving QR codes on the streets or selling my collection of rare adult videos and stories (that I’m sure very few people have).

My strength is my English proficiency (compared to people in my country) and I’ve also scored 990 on the TOEIC, but that only helps in getting tutor jobs, and those aren’t helping much.

Right now I’m going through my friends lists to see if there’s anyone who might help me, but I doubt I will get much from them, as I’m not close with anyone (another mistake).

How long can I delay my debts until the debt collectors come to my house, or worse, my workplace? I only borrow from legit places like banks and reputable credit organizations, but in this country anything can happen.