Buried Beyond Belief! (credit card, loan, collection, payment)

[oscottscotto]

Dang.

[SuSuSushi]

Originally Posted by oscottscotto

Dang.

Indeed.

[czubmeister]

I took out equity everytime I re-fied.
Car 1: 1994 Lexus with 100,000 worth about 4,000. No Payments on this car
Car 2: 1999 Chevy Suburban with 160,000 miles. Worth probably 4,000. I'm a Scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts. I use this to go on outings every month with the scouts. No payments on this car.
Car 3: 2004 Lexus with 65,000 miles. Just came off of least and purchased for 20,000. Payment is 400.00 mo that I run through the business.
Car 4: 2002 Chevy Silverado. My daughters "dream truck" . She purchased with her Batmitzvah money and cashed in her bonds that she was supposed to use for school. Paid off worth about 15,000. Told her to sell the truck when she comes home and buy a compact car with good gas mileage.

Right now I'm worried that if I just stop using the credit cards my health insurance of $580.00 and auto insurance $358.00 may get cancelled if I can't pay it. That's why it's on the card on autopay. I know that it buys me time but it's also digging myself into a whole.

About the wife comment. You mis-understood me. She does work at three different jobs teaching mommy and me classes. It's like pre-school but for babies. I have spoken to her about getting more work but in her line of work, enrollment is down due to the economy so I guess we do have to talk about other employment options.

I just looked at my office phone bill and the 176.00 looks like it was a double payment because I missed one. Cost is actually around 80.00 but I will look into another option for that line. Tried vonage once and the connection sucked so bad it was embarrassing to my clients.

Came off the a few dot com jobs as an it manager and was bringing in 125,000 for about 3 years. After that, IT manager jobs were hard to find so I decided to work for myself. I started processing direct mail and telemarketing data for newspapers about 5 years ago and we all now what's happening with newspspers now. In fact.. as luck would have it, I received an email from my biggest client (I received about 3,000 per month) yesterday who said he wanted to meet for breakfast. He cancelled on me and now I'm in even worse shape. I'm going to hit the phones hard for the next two weeks to see if I can drum up some business.

I will cancel the life insurance and start ripping through my expenses and cut back. Doesn't help with Christmas right around the corner. Pretty tough to tell the wife right now, "Sorry, you can't buy gifts for anybody this christmas.. we're broke" But I guess that's the reality.

I'm still optimistic I can bring in some more money.. that's my only option because I would really hate to go bk.

[HappyTexan]

Wow..where to start.

-Get rid of all the cellphones. Keep 1 for business and that's it.
-Tell the kids to get jobs and start contributing to the household. Gas their own vehicles and pay for insurance, registration, inspections, etc.
-Kids go to community college for 2 years..transfer to University
-Get rid of all cable except for 1 TV and only get basic
-Get used to hamburger meat and macaroni and cheese
-Grow veggies in the back yard and learn to bake bread and make jerky
-Shop at Goodwill and the cheaper stores for clothes

You are going to be in a heap of trouble if you don't cut back big time and reign in your finances.
At least you acknowledged it and that is the first step. The rest are hard but having no debts and money in the bank is heaven

[Mach50]

I wonder if you may also want to rent out that house in CA and move to a state that is much cheaper. I see you live in 91364 Woodland Hills, that's a pretty desirable area and you could probably rent it for close to your mortgage and go rent a cheap apartment somewhere else and pay off bills. Maybe even live with relatives.

Like others have said, you need to go down to the raw basics, get your family on board to expect rough times ahead.

[bbkaren]

I think a "mommy and me" is like a daycare teacher, susu--she's working.

[Colddiamond102]

OoOoOh Im so glad Im not you!

[NYSinger]

Try calling the Suze Orman Show. She might be able to help.

Stop living a lie to impress others. You have no idea how fortunate you are to be making $7000 a month. But you chose to be ungrateful. It's time to change things around.

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Colddiamond102

OoOoOh Im so glad Im not you!

Yeah, it sounds like they enjoyed a pretty extravagant life thus far. Unfortunately many people in the US (not only CA) have Lexus's, IPhones, shop at Whole Foods, big houses in a nice neighborhood... and are in this situation.

This economy will make people realize just how much of an "excess" addiction there is.

[SuSuSushi]

Originally Posted by bbkaren

I think a "mommy and me" is like a daycare teacher, susu--she's working.

My mistake, acknowledged. Looked like he was saying she was a stay-at-home mom.