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.

Speeding ticket court date Friday

Well, I go into court tomorrow to plead my case before a judge on why I shouldn't have gotten a speeding ticket. I'll post the results later.

Recieved a $1600 commission in October

Sales picking up recently. I received a $1600 commission last month.

Sales have been much much slower this year. I even talked to a co-worker the other day who told me he's been having difficulty this year making his house payments.

Turned in our lease - bought a used car

We turned in our 350Z last week. Bought a very well taken care of used Mazda 626. We're very fortunate.

So good to get rid of the Z and that monthly payment. It was a fun car but it was a stupid decision to lease a car. Never again. Now I've got to reallocate that money toward paying down my debt. I've got another 2 and half years to pay off our debt. Hope we make it.

Turn in my leased car

My wife and I decided to turn in my leased car at the end of October. We really didn't have much choice. I had it up for sale and I didn't get any calls. I dropped the price a lot. I even took it to Autoland and got an estimate from them - they offered 50% less than what I thought it was worth. That was a waste of time.

We're going to get a used car - a small sedan. A family member has one available that we'll be able to buy. We really got lucky on this. But I'm also going to have to pay back excess mileage charges and my tires on the leased car dont match and I'm sure the leasing company will figure out a way to charge us for wear and tear. That' not going to be fun :(

Got my court date

I paid my $250 bail. I plead not guilty. I have my court date set for early November. I already have my defense ready. I'll keep you all posted on how I present my case, how the officer presents his case and the outcome.

I'll be getting a commission check this month.

I'm very excited!

I talked with my manager today. He said that I'll be getting a commission check at the end of the month. It won't be anything big but at least it's something. I'm very happy about it!

It's actually the reason I agreed to make a large $599 payment to Citigroup (my HomeDepot account) for the matching payment.

Citigroup Match Pay

Thought I'd share this with everyone.

My 1-year Balance Liquidation Plan (a.k.a. Hardship plan, Debt Repayment plan, etc) on my Home Depot account ended last month. So today I get a call from Citibank who owns my HomeDepot CC account. They said they had not yet received a payment from me that was due on August 1st - so I was 11 days late. I explained my debt to income problems and I mentioned that it was "financially killing me."

They offered two Programs:
1. Match Pay - I make a payment anywhere from $144 to $599 and they will match it. Basically they waive a matching amount and call it a "Late Fee Credit" on my account statement.
or
2. PayDown 60 month program, 0%, $66/mo. I chose the Match Pay. I will allow them to issue a check against my checking account for $599 that I have setup for these type of payments. I also tape recorded the call. My new balance will be $1198 less than what I previously owed. My next payment will be due end of September at 21% APR. I'll ask for another MatchPay then or the PayDown plan.

This is the first I've heard about a Match Pay plan. It's kind of like a debt settlement plan without the dings to your credit report. Maybe some of you reading can ask for this "Match Pay" plan from your creditors to help you with your own debt. Good-luck.

I'll keep ya'll updated on whether Citigroup follows through on their promise to "match" my $599 payment.

Paid off another debt

We received a big snowflake this month so I paid off another debt. Killed. Dead. Gone.

I paid off my Prosper peer-to-peer loan that I took out in December 2007. Moving on to the other debts now.

I'd normally be very happy about it but we (my wife and I) are spending money again. And she hates the condo we live in. We've still got another 10 months on the lease. I tell her that its (the condo rent payment) helping us achieve our goals but that doesn't seem to help. She's not happy about several things: the condo, her recent surgery recovery, she's going back to work this week, shes' away from our kids, the soon to be loss of our shiny sports car (fleece) to be replaced with what I keep talking about - a beater, her approaching 50th birthday, and, her 10-year old car is also starting to break down and may need a new transmission soon. She'd rather go the Cash for Clunkers route and get a cheap new low-end Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic or Nissan Sentra or low-end Kia.

Our once high youn and fast lifestyle is slowly being converted into the old people lifestyle.

Not looking for answers. Just venting a little. Just another family frustration to deal with.

College tuition costs

My son and daughter registered for school yesterday. It was $26 per unit. So it was 2 x 12 x $26 = $624.00 total bill.

Next bill is books. That'll be painful.

But at least we're in California so junior (community) college is cheap compared to other states.

Speeding ticket will cost $250

Got the summons for the speeding ticket. The county wants to charge me $250 for a speeding ticket that I and my wife believe was undeserved.

I go to court in September. Gonna fight it. I disagree that I was speeding - just going with the flow of traffic like everyone else. I was in a group of about 15 cars and I was not passing or speeding by anyone. My wife agrees. She'll go to court with me.

I'll keep ya posted on what happens.

Crown cost $268.00

Well, just got back from the dentist. My crown is going to cost $268.00. I had to pay half that today ($134.00) and then the other half in about two weeks when I go back to get my permanent crown put on.

Seems like I never get cavities filled anymore. It's always a crown. Without insurance it was going to cost about $750 so thank God for my insurance. They did not do a "build-up" which would have cost more so I saved some money there. Hopefully this will fix my pain problem. Dentist said if it doesn't fix it then I'll need a root canal.

Got a 3% raise!!!

Wow! I'm very excited and happy!

I know it's tough out there for a lot of folks. And I just hope the economy gets better.

My own personal news is that I got a 3% raise this month! That really helps my budget! Hopefully I'll have all my debt paid off one day. Still looking at sometime around December 2011 or early 2012.

Other news is that my wife will get a 6% raise starting in August. Every bit of good news helps.

Without a refrigerator for two weeks.

We rent. And the condo we rent came with a (Maytag) refrigerator. But there's been problems with it for almost two weeks. So we've resorted to coupons at fast food places but not for all of our meals. Sometimes a good PB&J hits the spot Other times a can of soup. But we can't refrigerate milk, any dairy products, no frozen goods, etc.

We had to toss out a lot of food that started to go bad when the refrigerator broke down. We dont own the refrigerator. And the landlord has already spent $500 trying to fix it. Maytag now says it needs a new compressor. They already shipped one but it came in damaged so now we have to wait another week without a working refrigerator.

What would you all eat? (besides MREs:)