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I hope you all had wonderful Christmases. My extended break has been great: filled with friends, family, and time for myself — I’m taking time to recharge my batteries. I still plan to be scarce around here until after the first, but meanwhile here are a couple of stories from elsewhere:
- “You can be happy. You can live the life you want to live,” writes Michael Montoure at Hack Yourself. “You can become the person you want to be.” This single-page website contains a fantastic essay about taking control of life using cognitive behavioral therapy (though it’s never mentioned by name). “We’re nothing but the stories we tell ourselves…If you don’t like the story your life has become — tell yourself a better one.” I love this.
- Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity recently warned his readers to beware random missed payment letters. His girlfriend received a notice that she’d missed an insurance payment — but she didn’t carry insurance with the company that sent the letter! Though I see this sort of crap all the time at the box factory, I’ve only seen it a couple times at home. As Jim notes, it’s like snail mail phishing.
- Lastly, a user at AskMetafilter wonders, “How do I deal with this debt?” This anonymous poster has over $66,000 in credit card debt, and spends around 25% of his monthly income just to cover the minimums. He’s looking for help getting control of the situation. If you, too, are deep in debt, you may find some useful tips in this thread.
I’m off to do some more pleasure reading. (Which means comic books, of course.)
This article is about Spare Change Thursday, 27th December 2007 (by J.D. Roth)
December 27th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
The Hack article was great.
I believe that it is important to take as good of care of your mental health as your physical side.CBT works for many people, epecially when coupled with drug therapyy to balance brain chemical issues
December 27th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Mental health and personal finance go hand in hand. I know once I got my finances under control and started getting out of debt I realized I was happier. I had less stuff and clutter in my life cause I was buying less. I realized this stuff didn’t make me happier, it was making me unhappier cause it was causing debt and clutter. Now I’m at peace with myself. I’ve changed my life and my outlook through handling my finances - I’m a much more confident person cause I know I can take care of myself.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for the introduction to the site. I’m a big believer in CBT, as someone who periodically goes through major battles with mental illness. And, wouldn’t you know it, I’m crashing from the holidays! Excellent timing, JD.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
[...] a little Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, try this site that GRS linked to earlier [...]
December 27th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
too bad Metafilter charges $5 to join the blog.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Thanks for that last link.
I currently find myself in an impossible situation, with:
-$27K in credit card debt
-$37K in IRS back taxes owed
-$90K shortfall with the short sale/foreclosure situation on my house that my lender could very well come after me for in 2008.
I’ve never seen anyone in a mess at quite this level so I don’t know where to go or how to start tackling this.
At this point, anything is helpful!
December 28th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Mike,
With lots of details missing one can only give general advice.
Assuming your already employed (otherwise start there) the next step to me would be tod rastically cut expenses — you need to take this to the extreme.
1) Go move in with a friend, rent out or sell you house. Your mortgage is probably your biggest expense and you can offset this (with rental income) or get rid of the bigger chunk of the debt by selling the house (even if short).
2) Sell assets/objects you don’t need (tvs, applicanes, cars, etc). If you can’t get rid of a car, sell it and get a less expensive used economy car and benefit from everything that comes with it - less insurance, less gas money.
3) Cancel subscription payments - cancel cable, cancel internet (get it at your library worst case). If you move in with a friend you should be able to get rid of all subscription paymengts.
4) Cut food costs — start eating lower cost food items, Ramen, peanut butter, take your average meal cost down signficantly.
5) Save even penny, start living at the bare minimum until you start gaining traction on your debts.
6) You need to get extreme with your cost cutting — saving 10% of you income won’t likely do it at this point.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Hi 2million,
Thanks much for the info.
As for details, I posted a bit more in this forum:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/2355432-post698.html
My biggest hurdles are a wife with her head completely in the sand, and the fact that I’ve been instructed not to do *anything* until the short sale/foreclosure process has been completed on my house - the thought being that if I show any ability to pay anything off right now, my lender may take it as a sign that I have enough money for them to come after me.
My wife either can’t or won’t see the problem for what it is. She refuses to cut her spending, so I’m separating our checking accounts, and only putting in my half of the bills into “her” account. (Or the other way around, which might actually be smarter now that I think about it.)
We need to go our separate ways, and that has been my plan for awhile now, but at this point, I think that would only complicate this mess even more from a legal standpoint, so I’m trying to hang in there until the house process is finished, and I have a grip on what the IRS might accept in an Offer in Compromise.
In the meantime, I’m reverting to living the life of a college student. Being self-employed, I have the potential to make more money if I work longer and harder, which I’m beginning to do. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go take two jobs for the foreseeable future.
I never dreamed one could get so deeply into trouble in 30 months simply by buying the wrong house in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong kind of income.
If nothing else, I hope my story serves as a lesson and a warning to others.
~Mike