Cost Decrease??? NOT
Well, the good news is my house payment will be going down by $128.76 this policy year, or $10.73/month.
The bad news is much worse than the good news is good. The bad news is my hurricane deductibles is going up from double my deductible from other perils to 5% of the home replacement value. My hurricane deductible is going up from $1000 to $7550.
That means I’ve got to raise my emergency fund another $6550 to cover that now uninsured risk. A baby EF doesn’t even come close to covering that amount of risk. How the @%&^* am I going to come up with that with my current income and debt situation?
Sometimes I feel like I take one step forward and three steps back, and this is one of those times. Right now I feel like this whole situation is pretty hopeless, and that no matter how hard I try, I’ll end up in bankruptcy because of things like this continuing to kick me down. Will we be eating beans and rice for lunch and supper everyday for the next 5 years?
I am a big Dave Ramsey fan, but our local ELP financial counselor hasn’t got a clue how to help someone in my situation. He’s a school teacher, and not exactly a financial guru. The guy said he’d get back to me after I got sued by Capital One Bank in June. I haven’t heard from him, even though I’ve emailed him and left a voice-mail message. It seems I’m on my own, except for the love and encouragement of my friends. Thanks a million. Without y’all, I’d really be going nuts about now.
So, as soon as I can, I’m going to go to Tennessee and get my ELP from Dave’s company. I’ll be much more able to deal with such difficult situations, having gone through one. I’m also working on my coursework to become a certified financial planner (irony, don’t you love it?), so I’ll be an RFC and CFP along with Dave’s ELP. (An ELP is an Endorsed Local Provider). What I’d really love to do is make enough money online to support us and be able to work full time with people in poor financial circumstances, whether from perpetually poor families to those going through a difficult time, and charge them a very small hourly fee, or even no fee at all. Although, I’ve found people who don’t put at least a little equity into something don’t reap the benefits of it. They have to put financial or sweat equity into something before they’ll buy in and take on the personal responsibility to change their circumstances. A good example is the sweat equity required by Habitat for Humanity from the future homeowner to qualify to get the home being built.
I scanned parts of my policy in and posted them on my Hurricane Katrina Pictures blog. Please follow that link to see the post.
