Posts Tagged How To Get Out Of Debt

Budgeting For Success: Getting Out of Debt, Building Your Dream

Budgeting is an evil word for most of us.

337/365: The Big Money
Image by DavidDMuir via Flickr

It renders images of deprivation, of telling ourselves we “can’t have that,” “we can’t do this,” “we can’t afford that.”

Listen to the inner messages those statements are making: “we’re poor, we’re a loser, we’re broke, we failed, life is filled with doom and gloom, do not pass go, do not collect $200…”

How long will it be before we’re back at the mall or going out to eat to rub healing salve on these

harmful statements?

I recently read a favorite blog of mine and the readers were talking about setting a strict budget and sticking to it. I was afraid I was going to get my knuckles rapped.

We all know that for most of us that just won’t work.

So, what do we do? Read the rest of this entry »

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Getting Out of Debt: Easy Concept, Hard Execution

THE DEBT DANCE METHOD OF GETTING OUT OF DEBT IS EASY–IN THEORY:bigstockphoto_Waterfall_in_the_forest_756089

DECIDE WHAT YOUR OVERRIDING DREAM OR GOAL IS.

EXAMINE HOW YOU CAN TRIM YOUR SPENDING.

USE THE 3 TIERED METHOD TO ALLOCATE YOUR MONEY:

  • First PAY THE GOTTA’S: MORTGAGE, INSURANCE, UTILITIES, MINIMUM DEBT PAYMENTS, CAR PAYMENTS, MEDICAL, CHARITY.
  • Second PAY YOUR DREAM: MAKE AN EXTRA PAYMENT ON A CREDIT CARD, START SAVING FOR A DOWN PAYMENT ON LAND YOU WANT TO BUY….
  • Third LIVE ON WHAT’S LEFT: GROCERIES, DINING OUT, CLOTHES, ENTERTAINMENT, ETC.

Sounds wonderful but it may Read the rest of this entry »

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Bankruptcy: Rare Facts You Need to Know

I follow an excellent blog from a gentleman named Steve Rhodes (www.GetOutofDebt.org.) He is extremely knowledgeable on the subject of money troubles and what to do when you are in the midst of them. The wonderful thing about Steve’s site is that he personally answers your questions. You can also read his answers to other questions and gain even more information.

In a recent post he featured information from a bankruptcy lawyer, Dan Nunley of Oklahoma. I think it is worth sharing:

Like most Americans, the majority of people who I help file bankruptcy have some credit card debt. And a small number have a lot of credit card debt.

As a general rule, credit card debt is among the easiest type of debt to discharge in bankruptcy.

However, once a credit card company is notified of a card holder’s bankruptcy, the credit card company will review the credit card account looking for certain activity including:

Balance transfers;
Cash advances;
Charges for travel, vacations or luxury goods;
Charges while unemployed; and
Charges made after consulting a bankruptcy attorney.

Sometimes a credit card company or its hired gun lawyers will assert or imply that the debtor did something inappropriate

in making charges or taking cash advances and therefore those transactions should survive the bankruptcy.

In my experience, when a credit card company objects, it’s usually rolling the dice and hoping to intimidate a debtor into entering a settlement agreement in which the debtor agrees to remain liable for at least a size-able portion of the credit card balance

.

Just yesterday, I received a letter from Weinstein & Riley, a law firm that is really just a collection agency for the large credit card companies. Weinstein & Riley wrote that after a brief review of my client’s Chase Bank USA Visa account, it believed “that there is evidence and a sufficient basis to object to the discharge” of the debt.

How am I going to respond? Like always, I’ll advise my client of the letter and review the specific credit card charges that are at issue. If there is a problem with something my client did, I’ll negotiate the best deal possible for my client.

However, 99% of the time, my client has done nothing wrong. In those cases, I simply send back a sternly-worded letter in which I advise Weinstein & Riley or whoever that if they don’t back off, I’m prepared to defend my client to the fullest extent necessary including seeking to hold the credit card company liable for my attorney’s fees and costs.

In order to have a card holder’s charges or cash advances held non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, the credit card company would have to file and win an adversary proceeding (basically a trial) in the card holder’s bankruptcy case. Normally a credit card company has no intention of going this far. Instead, they’re just hoping to be able to bluff their way into a quick settlement.

I appreciate Steve’s sharing of this information.

NOW HERE’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES:

Play with life, laugh with life, dance lightly with life, and smile at the riddles of life, knowing that

Ok... you have GOT to hear the story of why my...
Image by colorblindPICASO via Flickr

life’s only true lessons are writ small in the margin.
Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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More Money:Have a Dream? Plot it Out to Make it Real

Most of us know what we would do if we won the lottery.

And we think we know the method of winning the lottery:

  1. Get a dollar.
  2. Go to the store.
  3. Buy a ticket.
  4. Check your ticket.
  5. Win!

Pretty simple, right?

Until you look at the odds:

  • 195,000,000 to one to win Powerball
  • 700,000 to one of being killed by a meteroite
  • 22,000 to one of becoming a professional athlete
  • 12,750 to one of hitting a hole in one (if you’re an amateur)

bigstockphoto_Meteor_Impact_664699But the odds I liked the best, Read the rest of this entry »

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More Money: How to Focus and See Real Results

I have 452 messages in my three email accounts. About one eighth of these I have not read yet. But, I’m going to. At least 30 of them are things I need to act on. Or remember. So, I save them.

About another fourth are offers for ebooks and links to sites I want to visit, interviews I want to hear, etc.  And I will…Sometime. When I’m not so tired. When the house is quiet. When I have time…

But, if I’m honest with myself, there’s really only one word for the situation:

OVERLOAD!

bigstockphoto_Upset_214124

It’s just too much. Waaaaaay too much.

If we’re in debt, and/or if we’re not pulling in the amount of money we want, we are probably experiencing similar overload in terms of why things are the way they are. We could probably make a very long list as to why we’re in debt and/or not making more money:

  • we eat out too much
  • credit card interest is killing us
  • we go shopping for emotional reasons
  • the car is constantly breaking down
  • we don’t know how to xyz so we can’t earn more money
  • we’re afraid to start a business–what if we fail
  • it’s the kids/my spouse/the government’s fault.

And the list goes on and on. It’s like being pitched 12 baseballs at once and trying to hit a home run.

So, how do we focus?

Choose one. It could be the easiest one to deal with or the hardest (most of us prefer to start a certain way–the most difficult or the least difficult. Either will work.)

It could be the one causing the most damage.

But choose only one and then do this:

EVALUATE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS:

  • “I don’t know how to program so I can’t get a job at the University”
  • Why haven’t I learned this in the past?
  • I failed at it once and I don’t like doing it. I really hate programming.
  • What does this mean?
  • I may not like the job at the University.
  • How else could I achieve working at the University or making more money?
  • I could take a course in something else, like graphic arts. I love graphic arts and they have a big program at the University. Maybe I could eventually teach!

Once you have dissected the issue you must work at it for several weeks before you will settle into the new way of thinking or the new behavior. Like a new pair of shoes or a new bed, you have to get your groove in there.

It takes about 3 weeks to develop a new habit.

The good new is that it ONLY takes 3 weeks to develop a new habit. In three weeks time you could be making major renovations to your life!

The key is to

  • identify the pieces of the puzzle that are defeating you, stressing you out, and getting in your way of living your dream
  • choose one
  • peel off the layers so you can see what’s really happening with the issue (sometimes we need counsel to help us do this!)
  • find a way to change it or alleviate it that you will really be happy with.

There’s an old saying that people do what they really want to do. Design your new life with things you really want to do and you will be infinitely successful.

Best wishes.

NOW HERE’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE FUNNIES:

John invited his mother over for dinner. During the meal, his

mother couldn’t help noticing how beautiful John’s roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between

John and his roommate, and this only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between

John and the roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom’s thoughts,

John volunteered, “I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Julie and I are just roommates.”

About a week later, Julie came to

John and said, “Ever since your

mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?”

John said, “Well, I doubt it, but I’ll write her a letter just to be sure.”

So he sat down and wrote “Dear

Mother, I’m not saying you did take a

gravy ladle from my house, and I’m not saying you did not take a

gravy ladle. But the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.”

Several days later,

John received a letter from his

mother which read: “Dear Son, I’m not saying that you do sleep with Julie, and I’m not saying that you do not sleep with Julie. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the

gravy ladle by now. Love, Mom.”

Lesson of the day: Don’t lie to your

mother.

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