Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent

I've been in your situation many, many times I'm afraid. Comes from having poor money management skills, highly narrowcast career expectations, as well as an exaggerated sense of modesty bordering on The Imposter Syndrome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

But my story is a different topic. Some quick advice:

(1) You already know you're headed towards a brick wall. The most sensible thing you can do at the moment is to soften the blow, and buy yourself time. Really, every $50 or $100 is critical here... so if at all possible, pare down your lifestyle to the barest essentials.

An apartment lease (in SF!) is probably the easiest to dispose of, and will net you the most cash, especially if, say, you have friends in the East Bay (or practically anywhere else besides the city and its immediate suburbs) that you can talk into letting you move in without a deposit. Plus you'll get your security back. That change alone might help you coast until Dec or Jan.

(2) after that, you need to put yourself on an austerity budget, i.e. you should be able to get by on $5 a day or less on food from grocery stores, +perhaps $2.50 a day if you must use coffeeshops for wifi. If you can avoid using public transit save for special trips, that's a huge plus.

(3) -DRASTICALLY- lower your expectations for you next job. Customer support, friggen PHP dev... whatever it takes. If you don't get tech work, just work at a Trader Joes, do delivery work, ANYTHING. Bottom line is it's VERY important to get out of the idea that you have to borrow money from people unless you're truly, seriously on the edge... which it sounds like you aren't6 yet, not by a longshot.

(4) finally -- you're in yout 20s (sounds like).. you're touhgh, you can take anything. forget about what other people think and their so-called "success" stories. just concentrate on you'r own story for now. Trust me, when you pull yourself out of this (and you will) you'll have a lot to be proud of + to look back on yourself positively for.

Many people don't work where they want, or even in their desired field. Perhaps lower your standards until your financial crisis is over?

Pay it forward: I'll hire you for a half-day of work to help you. When you get on your feet, do your best to help the next person. Also look at the Hacker News "Freelancers Wanted" postings. I'm mailing you now.

Wow. That's a bit frightening. I too have been struggling on the job front, but have a less impressive background. Admittedly a huge chunk of my problem is having purchased an expensive program purporting to teach me how to get rich and find my dream job. If I didn't have a four-figure debt due to that (and another few hundred bucks due each month), I'd have a lot less stress.

One thing that I have found is that while it's a tough job market for fulltime work, companies are a lot less conservative about hiring people on a freelance basis. Non-tech companies have been an especially bet for me. Many restaurants, bars, independent realtors, are making money and haven't updated their sites in a long time. It's been a very slow process but I have gradually been getting better and better referrals from it. When I bid, I generally take 20-40% up front. For someone in your situation, that could make a big difference.

> Admittedly a huge chunk of my problem is having purchased an expensive program purporting to teach me how to get rich and find my dream job. If I didn't have a four-figure debt due

ouch. I'm sorry to hear that, you sound quite upfront about it though, so can I inquire as to what program you "fell for". Was the cash all in one go, or installments?