Text size:

Chasing a big city dream comes with big bills

By Lauren Johnston | amNY.com

June 19, 2007

Looking back, Oscar Collazos says his money problems probably started that day in Florida a few years back when on a whim he used his "emergency" credit card to buy a $3600 motorcycle.

Then he wrecked his car. Then his job folded. Then he decided to travel. And then, in debt and out-of- work, he moved to New York. He put all his expenses on plastic, "just because there was no other way," and the balance ballooned to about $8,000.

Collazos, 28, came to New York from Miami in 2005 to pursue his passion for stand-up comedy. Along with the $8,000 on credit cards, he had about $16,000 in student loans. And it took him three months to get a job.

"The bills started to kind of pile up and then before I knew it, I was like, 'Wait, what is all this money that I owe? Where'd this come from?," said Collazos, who lives in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

It wasn't the first time he'd confronted credit card debt. As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, he charged up about $3000. "From the second you walk in, they're hitting you up with credit card applications," he said. "When I graduated I had 11 different accounts. I had a Home Depot card and I didn't even have a home."

He'd nearly paid off that balance and then he got that motorcycle.

At its highest, Collazos said his debt rose to between $45,000 to $50,000 about $30,000 spread over credit cards plus the student loan. "I try not to think about that number because it can get depressing," he said.

Finally, he found work in New York as a waiter at the posh midtown restaurant Nobu 57, and since then he's changed his entire lifestyle, cutting out each and every excess cost to pay down the debt he racked up when he first hit town all the while hoping for breaks to get his comedy career rolling.

"A lot of my expenditures are because I moved here," he said. "I moved here and acquired rent payments, so whatever money I was using to pay off debt ended up going to rent, so it's all based on moving and trying to get ahead in your career."

But he admits that a weakness for online shopping and fine dining did some damage, too. So he cut the eBay purchases, the pricey restaurant and bar tabs, quit his tendency to over-tip and even stopped treating friends another high-rolling habit. "I was that guy you go out with who says, 'Don't worry, I'm paying the bill,' but that mentality is over," he said. "I'm now the scrooge."

But he hasn't cut out every bit of fun. "If I do that, then debt has won control of my life and I won't let that happen," he said. So he'll grab a drink here and there or enjoy a moderately priced dinner with friends. And the avid sports fan just can't cancel his deluxe cable television package, which costs about $200 per month.

Collazos says he's knocked off about $10,000 of his credit card bills and has the debt consolidated to three "accounts": $11,000 from a personal loan, $8,000 on a credit card and $1,000 he owes a cousin.

Nobu covers Collazo's MetroCard and health insurance. He pays $700 in rent per month and allots himself between $100 to $200 per week for food and other expenses from his $1,200 weekly wages. The rest goes toward paying off the debt.

"I've really put my mind to it," he said. "So if I don't veer off or have any unexpected situations come up, by year's end I could totally pay off everything."