Down to $26K in debt

I'm still plugging away at this. Just thought I'd update.

Update: at $31K in CC debt

Still hanging in there. Total CC debt is down to $31K. 2011 was small progress - started 2011 with $44K in CC debt.

We're still renting and retirement age is coming up soon. Net worth is about $0. It's best to just keep plugging along. Make the best of the time you have - but make sure you save something. You never know what's going to happen so be prepared.

In 2011, we bought a 2nd car - used car for $1500 cash. It runs and continues to run so that's good.

More Credit card settlements

I had to settle 6 credit cards recently. At the beginning of the year I ran out of money to make payments. I was beginning to use PayDay loans again and I just couldn't do that and go into the hole all over again.

I settled 3 BofA credit cards for 25%.
I settled 2 Chase credit cards for 30%.
I settled 1 Citicard for 30%.

I'm making payments and will make my last BofA, Chase and Citicard payments in November.

That still leaves me with about $47,000 in credit card debt. I'm still insolvent, no house, no assets and still living in our $1300/mo condo trying to put my 2 kids through college without them taking any student loans - I would certainly not qualify.

Anyway, I won't rest until....well....I guess I won't be resting anytime soon.

Sold another car - now share 1 car

Just a quick update. Last month we sold one of our cars. My wife and I now share 1 car between the two of us. My wife doesn't like it but financially it means we save $60/month on car insurance. Plus it helps a little with college costs.

Update: Still paying off debt

Been a while since my last post.

We sold one of our cars. Now my wife and I share one car. Takes coordinating our work activities.

My debt now stands at about $78,800 total = $9400 (end of car lease debt) + $69,400 CC debt.

I'm still working my part-time job but my yearly income is still down about $20K a year for 2009 and 2010 (so far).

I'm hoping to settle with one of my creditors for 3 CC balances. I'm totally insolvent so I'm not worried about taxes: I owe more than I have assets.

Debt status

Been a while since I last posted. Thought I'd bring this blog up-to-date.

My CC debt is now at $74,000. Last year (2009) I paid back $26,000.

We had a medical expense of about $8000 so I guess I really paid back $34,000 in 2009. That's a lot of cash. Oh well.

I'm down to a $1000 emergency fund. I'm also back to delaying some monthly CC payments. Just don't have the cash in my budget. Last year my income dropped $20K from the previous year.

Got a call from our ex-car lease company yesterday. They said as long as I can make a payment on our "end of (lease) term" balance then it - the $9,444 owed - won't go to collections. I probably need to add that $9.4K onto my total debt which would make it go up to $83.4K owed as of today. Nothing I can do about it.

I'm still working my 2nd job that adds to our overall income so that helps.

I heard Obama is going to speak tonight about helping the middle class - too bad he defined the middle class as an income level of $85K and below. I've already short sold my house two years ago, burned through my savings a longer time ago and am back to living paycheck to paycheck with two kids in college. Lotta fun these days.

Oh well, we'll see what 2010 brings.

Lost my speeding ticket case

I just got back from traffic court - I lost. Had to pay an additional $52 on top of the $257 that I already paid. Now I have to go to (and pay for) traffic school to keep my insurance low. (After I lost, I asked the judge if he would allow me to go to traffic school to keep my insurance rates low - he said yes.)

Anyway, here's some things I noticed:

- Be respectful - to the judge and the officer - they're only doing their jobs. Address the judge as "Your honor" or "Yes Sir" "No Sir"

- 5 out of 35 cases were dismissed - Officer did not show up - that's about a 14% chance that the officer will not show up in court.

- One person fought and won against a speeding ticket - had his case dismissed because of insufficient evidence. The defendant challenged the time between when the officer first saw the defendant "speeding" and the time that the officer pulled out, raised, aimed and then pulled the trigger on the Lidar gun. Also said that a passing truck obstructed the officer's view. The defendant also had a witness with him in court - the driver of the truck.

- Most cases are lost. It's better to have your case first or towards the first. If you're last - I was near the last, about two hours last - then the judge is tired and has heard all sorts of BS reasons, excuses, and complaints from whiners, etc. and he's just not as fresh or willing to listen as he was at 8am.

- Bring a witness if you can, someone to help support your defense.