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.
Now that I'm finishing my first full year of being debt free, I sat back and reflected what a journey it has been.
When my ex-wife and I separated, I was penniless. If my present landlord didn't hold my first month's rent check for a couple of weeks I would have been homeless.
I slept on the floor for a month and lived off of PB&J sandwiches, as well as hot dogs and cheese sandwiches and very little else.
Getting out of debt started very humbly - no bounced checks. Then things kind of took over from there. I now have emergency funds for one year.
I still live entirely on cash. When I moved here, I paid off the three Credit Cards I had and closed them. Then realized, I did need at least one for my speaking engagements, to rent a car or get hotel reservations.
So, my first card had a $89 annual fee, with 33% interest. I didn't have a choice, I needed one. I never paid a dime in interest on it and if I used it for reservations, I paid cash upon my arrival.
A year later, I got a better card - $39 annual fee and 25% interest and triple the amount of credit on it.
Today, I was sent another form for one and got approved for it - with NO annual fee and 19% interest, with now seven times the credit limit I had with the first card.
I'm in shock with it all. I never budgeted. I did small things to save money and cut expenses. My first year on my own, I cut expenses by over $9,000.
I haven't used loose change in over three years, except for quarters to do my laundry. The last six months, I've quit using dollar bills, they go directly into my savings account every two weeks.
I was overwhelmed when I moved here and looked at the hole I was in. If I tried to take it all on at once, I would have failed. I just did it small and in time things began falling in place...
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The past two weeks I have been on a "mini-holiday" with a European touch to it. Now, in six months I will be heading back to the UK for a month long holiday... knowing what lies ahead for me, helps me stay debt free... I needed goals to get out of debt and to stay out of debt...
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And this Tuesday, I will get some overdue work done on my teeth. I will have a crown done and hopefully before the end of the summer, I will get a partial for my bottom teeth... that will come close to a $1,000 out of my pocket, after insurance pays their part...
A good chunk of change but I feel good about "babying" myself...
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Wishing and praying that everyone here finds the joy and peace of finding the goal line of being debt free...
When my ex-wife and I separated, I was penniless. If my present landlord didn't hold my first month's rent check for a couple of weeks I would have been homeless.
I slept on the floor for a month and lived off of PB&J sandwiches, as well as hot dogs and cheese sandwiches and very little else.
Getting out of debt started very humbly - no bounced checks. Then things kind of took over from there. I now have emergency funds for one year.
I still live entirely on cash. When I moved here, I paid off the three Credit Cards I had and closed them. Then realized, I did need at least one for my speaking engagements, to rent a car or get hotel reservations.
So, my first card had a $89 annual fee, with 33% interest. I didn't have a choice, I needed one. I never paid a dime in interest on it and if I used it for reservations, I paid cash upon my arrival.
A year later, I got a better card - $39 annual fee and 25% interest and triple the amount of credit on it.
Today, I was sent another form for one and got approved for it - with NO annual fee and 19% interest, with now seven times the credit limit I had with the first card.
I'm in shock with it all. I never budgeted. I did small things to save money and cut expenses. My first year on my own, I cut expenses by over $9,000.
I haven't used loose change in over three years, except for quarters to do my laundry. The last six months, I've quit using dollar bills, they go directly into my savings account every two weeks.
I was overwhelmed when I moved here and looked at the hole I was in. If I tried to take it all on at once, I would have failed. I just did it small and in time things began falling in place...
*****************************************************
The past two weeks I have been on a "mini-holiday" with a European touch to it. Now, in six months I will be heading back to the UK for a month long holiday... knowing what lies ahead for me, helps me stay debt free... I needed goals to get out of debt and to stay out of debt...
*****************************************************
And this Tuesday, I will get some overdue work done on my teeth. I will have a crown done and hopefully before the end of the summer, I will get a partial for my bottom teeth... that will come close to a $1,000 out of my pocket, after insurance pays their part...
A good chunk of change but I feel good about "babying" myself...
******************************************************
Wishing and praying that everyone here finds the joy and peace of finding the goal line of being debt free...
I have been inspired by many of your posts. What great advice and information you give.
Today I actually looked at your profile (not sure why I never did that before, since i am usually pretty nosy - LOL:)
I know you are well respected on this board..........I've seen that, read that.
But truthfully.............I can't even begin to relate to you after looking at your web site. How many folks here have written not just one, but two and THREE books???......Plus a newspaper column.
I am on SSDI for COPD, CHF and now a recent cancer dx. We have NO Credit cards, therefore no credit card debt.........but we also have no medical insurance..........so any money we have goes to pay that (sometimes). We haven't eaten a meal out in years............buy any clothes we have at the Boys & Girls Club or yard sales......rarely eat meat, cause we can't afford it..........
Problem is.........we have no book deals...no royalties coming in........and have pretty much stopped using dollar bills too.......cause we just don't have any:(
............and I also wish we could even dream of going on some kind of vacation (haven't been on one for 12 years)................
Insurance???????? Oh yea.....I sorta kinda remember having that............
But.............you do give some get advice and that I admire........and I will continue to read...............and we have never bounced a check:):):)
Its all good............
~~~~~bear
Anyone who has written a book will tell you, that unless your are Steven King or a well known author, you won't make money by writing books. If I had to rely on income from my writing to support me, I would be homeless.
The same with writing a newspaper column, unless you are a well known journalist, the money isn't there. Newspapers are downsizing. I lost that job over five years ago.
Plain and simple, people who write, do it for the joy of writing. For me, as an alcoholic it is therapeutic.
I am not a professional speaker... I would love to get known enough to become one but I'm a long way from that. I get my expenses covered and that is that. The most I have made in any speaking engagement was $100 and the least was losing $50. Again, right now, it is for my own journey that I do this.
Who am I? A twice divorced man who has experience many hard times. I was homeless, because of my addictions for well over a year. I ate out of dumpsters and bathe in rivers.
I grew up in an incestuous home and watched my mom be beaten to death.
After my first divorce and deeply in debt, I attempted suicide as a way out... I had no idea how I could ever fix the mess I created. Then 20 years later, divorced again and found myself in the same situation. No suicide attempt this time but a total change of attitude.
The community where I live would say the complex I live in is very much a slum house. Which I don't consider it to be, but it has that reputation. My apartment is 400 sq. ft. That's it. I have no storage, so I own very little.
The car that I own is an '85 Olds with 220 thousand miles on it. I drive it once every two weeks to get groceries - the rest of the time I walk everywhere.
Through all my financial nightmares, I have been very blessed to have a steady job. 17 years ago, I applied for a job as a panwasher at a wholesale bakery. I had no plans to stay there for long, but over time, roughly a year, I got a promotion and a raise and began to enjoy the job. And now, I'm in charge of a whole department.
Because of the economy, I have had one raise in six years... but even during that time I made sure I kept up with insurance payments and even kept contributing small amounts into 401k plans.
I don't just say, "I'm going to England" and go. I save all year for it. And as soon as I'm back in the States I start saving again for another trip.
I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth...
As far as not spending dollar bills or loose change, this is from articles published by "Yahoo Finance" as ways for people struggling with money to acquire some.
As I have written time and time again on here, I have never said someone needs to make more money... I have always said that for me, the key to success was cutting expenses.
It didn't matter how much income I had if my expenses were not under control. I don't make a lot of money, its just that I don't spend any money.
I am sorry for your battles with medical issues. That is the one thing that scares the heck out of me. I know I'm one medical issue away from being in a financial nightmare again.
Until that time comes, I will continue to live frugally and do my best to be prepared for the worst...