Financial Challenges Support Group
This community is for people who are struggling to meet financial obligations of any kind. Financial challenges include everything from the day-to-day challenges of making ends meet to managing credit card debt to bankruptcy. Get support from others who are going through similar obstacles on the road back to financial stability.
I am new to the Daily Strength website and to this Financial Challenges Support Group. I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself and why I'm here.
I am a middle aged male whose financial challenges seems to once again require an action plan to increase income and/or reduce expenses as retirement age is just around the corner. My immediate action plan is to get out of debt with loans and credit cards as the main priority. The next objectives would be to pay off the balance of the car loan and then as much of the mortgage balance as possible, all in the attempt to free up hundreds of dollars per month from our golden age budget. I would have thought by my current age that all of these objectives would have been reached but over the decades life has thrown obstacles at my wife and I. Surely by being in this group and reading this, YOU can completely understand.
Over the past decades my wife and I have both, together and apart, battled with those horrible D's ... divorce, downsizing, disability, and so forth. Further, eight and a half years ago, we had to file bankruptcy which was a horrible emotional and financial experience for anyone who has been there. It was not a "want" but a "need" in order to get and learn valuable lessons from a fresh start.
As far back as I remember starting out in my first apartment, I have always read as much information as I could find to reduce living expense below my means to have some money tossed aside into savings when possible. Sadly, that bankroll has accumulated and was spent countless times since those early days. At times I had 401K savings, only to be cashed in during unemployment. At times I had cash in the sofa cushions, only to be cashed in to buy a burger from McDonalds. But from the reading I have learned tips and tricks here and there so that I have never been hungry or homeless, just not living the lifestyle that I would have liked to have lived.
My objective in joining this Support Group is to find new discussions (and private messages and friends?) here who share my thirst for knowledge to share resources to help us all learn from each other in a more active group.
I am looking forward to reading other member's stories and objectives. We may not have all of the answers for each other's challenges but will be nice to get those questions and answers out and let the plans begin!
Who's on board?
I am a middle aged male whose financial challenges seems to once again require an action plan to increase income and/or reduce expenses as retirement age is just around the corner. My immediate action plan is to get out of debt with loans and credit cards as the main priority. The next objectives would be to pay off the balance of the car loan and then as much of the mortgage balance as possible, all in the attempt to free up hundreds of dollars per month from our golden age budget. I would have thought by my current age that all of these objectives would have been reached but over the decades life has thrown obstacles at my wife and I. Surely by being in this group and reading this, YOU can completely understand.
Over the past decades my wife and I have both, together and apart, battled with those horrible D's ... divorce, downsizing, disability, and so forth. Further, eight and a half years ago, we had to file bankruptcy which was a horrible emotional and financial experience for anyone who has been there. It was not a "want" but a "need" in order to get and learn valuable lessons from a fresh start.
As far back as I remember starting out in my first apartment, I have always read as much information as I could find to reduce living expense below my means to have some money tossed aside into savings when possible. Sadly, that bankroll has accumulated and was spent countless times since those early days. At times I had 401K savings, only to be cashed in during unemployment. At times I had cash in the sofa cushions, only to be cashed in to buy a burger from McDonalds. But from the reading I have learned tips and tricks here and there so that I have never been hungry or homeless, just not living the lifestyle that I would have liked to have lived.
My objective in joining this Support Group is to find new discussions (and private messages and friends?) here who share my thirst for knowledge to share resources to help us all learn from each other in a more active group.
I am looking forward to reading other member's stories and objectives. We may not have all of the answers for each other's challenges but will be nice to get those questions and answers out and let the plans begin!
Who's on board?
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
anyway welcome and listen to messanger as he has good knowledge of what he did....it is harder than many of us care to do but it is smart stuff....hugs
Right now, I'm in the middle of working 4 ten hour days, of very physical labor... so I just wanted to say thank you to Bill and welcome to Csa...
I started in 2010 with roughly $65,000 in debt. The biggie was a money pit of a house... my ex and I walked away from it. We gave it back to the loan company without the hassles or added cost of foreclosure. They sold it to cover the loan. After the sale I still owed about $7,000 in taxes. Hired an accountant for that cost and got it down to $750 and paid that off. Best money I ever spent.
My home was 20 miles (one way) from where I worked (200 miles a week round trip.) After I left the house, with it's acre of land and three bedrooms and my own office, I moved into a 600 sq ft apartment. The rent was half the cost of what my mortgage payment was AND was two blocks from job.
I quit using credit cards and lived a cash only lifestyle until I got out of debt and after reacquiring credit cards I never used more then 10% of the available credit and paid it off in full whenever it was due.
I quit having cable TV. I got rabbit ears for local TV and watched the rest of my TV on-line for FREE.
On a personal note... I quit smoking shortly after I left my ex-wife and in hindsight it was the best thing I ever did. Not only did I save money from not buying smokes but four years later I had open heart surgery and was so grateful that with everything I went through with it that I didn't have to worry about cigarettes on top of it all.
I started saving money right away. Very small amounts - that were hidden in my checking account. I would round up my checks and round down my deposits. So if I wrote a check for $10.01, I wrote it in as $11. If I deposited $50.99, I would post it as $50. I didn't balance my checkbook for the last five years I lived in America.
I quit spending change - except for quarters which I used for the laundry room where I lived. After two years, I quit spending dollar bills and put it in my savings.
When I started my savings account, my goal was 10% of my income... my last year in America I was saving 50% of my paycheck. Any extra money - tax refunds, overtime, or anything else went directly into savings.
I started my project to get out of debt in 2010... I got entirely out of debt in late 2012-early 2013. Every year from 2010 I treated myself to a holiday vacation in England, which I paid for with cash and on January 1, 2016 I moved to England from Nebraska.
I have now been debt free for well over three years and still watch every penny on spend. I never want to be that broke again.
Right now, I'm working for an agency in the dispatch area of a bakery - putting in anywhere from 28 to 40 hours a week. This weekend I have an interview for a full-time job as an IT support person at a national TV/broadband firm in the UK.
I'm 58 right now and left my 401K with my former employer, which means I can start drawing it whenever I want without paying any penalties. The UK is a "safe" country according to USA guidelines and I will start receiving my Social Security payments here when I reach 62.
The major concern of mine was health costs. In the UK, medical procedures are socialized - so any doctor visit, hospital stay, or seeing a specialist is free. Prescriptions are capped at 8 pounds 40 pence. Dental care is also very affordable...
So God willing, this is where the rest of my life will be lived...
http://www.dailystrength.org/people/540422/journal/2201418
My 2nd wife handled the finances for five years and got us deeply in debt before our divorce seven years ago, although I admit signing the jumbo mortgage package with a $15,000 balloon payment in 15 years. I had never expected this to come out of the negotiation with the lenders, but by the time they presented the final draft I was too tired and stressed to just walk away, which I eventually did after losing my IT job in 2009, during the "Great Recession." The bailout came to late for me; with no job, I couldn't qualify for "affordable home" relief.
I got a McJob in 2011, and the budget is balanced for now. I will be eligible to collect social security soon. I am not going to take the blue pill and wait for "full retirement age," because I expect the government to continue finding ways to take it back a little bit at a time.
I worry about paying for health insurance after quitting the job, because it will be 4 years before I qualify for Medicare. I have heard that a lot of doctors won't accept it anyway. I hate doctors even more than I hate lawyers. Anyway, I want to go out instantly, and am happy to see the movement to legalize suicide developing. This is "No Country for Old Men."
Out of pocket costs is nil. In a couple of weeks I see a cardiologist. My last bill in Nebraska to see one was $300 - for a fifteen minute check-up. That didn't include bloodwork or an ECG. That total visit was over $1,000. If I have the same treatment here my out of pocket cost will be - ZERO.
More and more Americans are moving for retirement because it is the only way they can truly retire.
There are numerous forums about it - just google "ex-pats abroad" or Americans retiring out of country" - you'll find something.
A year or so ago Yahoo did a series of articles about people retiring in other countries and how they did it.
One couple hadn't saved a penny their whole working life. Their retirement was their two social security checks. They found a bungalow in Costa Rica on the sea. They used the larger social security check for their rent, food, and medical expenses and saved the smaller check.
It is more common then people think and it is a very nice and stress free way to go into retirement....