Starting Balances calculated post-bankruptcy (May 2008):

• Debts excluding student loans and 1st mortgage:  $38,707
• Plus debts incurred between May 2008 and March 2009: $8,583
• Student loans: $80,215
• Total: $245,308 $127,050
  

Current Debt Balances:

• IRS: $2,148.39 (TY 2007)
  
• LDR: $3,168.21 (Louisiana Department of Revenue, TY 2007, interest added, negotiating regular payment, made $18.10 pmt)
  
• Chase HELOC?: $4,537.52 bankrupting
  
• CFCU Visa: $6,142
  
• Capital One HELOC: $21,434.14
  

Debt Balance excluding co-signed student loans and first mortgage: $36,137 $32,893

Student Loans:

• Co-signed student loans, approximate balance: $80,215 (found out the new balance when my attorney checked my credit report. No letters I’ve received add up to this much. Attorney is checking on it).

Total balance including student loans: $116,352 $113,108

Change since highest balance ($127,050 starting May 2008): $13,942

Discussion

I took the first mortgage balance out of the debt report. That’s not in the list of debts I need to pay off first, and we have to live somewhere. Balance totals changed substantially because of it.

I also found out the Chase loan isn’t a HELOC, so it’s going with the rest of the debts in the bankruptcy.

The changes are based on my attorney’s advice for going forward after I sign the papers tomorrow.

To see everything I owed before I changed my balances to “post May 2008″, read my May 2008 Debt Report.  Interest, fees and penalties have been added since then, and the actual amount of the student loans is now on my credit report with the correct amount due.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy update, debt free or bust, Debt Reports, June 2009 debt report

For the record, there was no April 2009 debt report. I didn’t have time to get it written.

Starting Balances calculated post-bankruptcy (May 2008):

• Debts excluding student loans and 1st mortgage:  $38,707
• Plus debts incurred between May 2008 and March 2009: $8,583
  
• 1st mortgage balance: $117,803
• Student loans: $48,774 $80,215
• Total: $213,867 $245,308

Current Debt Balances:

• IRS: $2,221.03 (TY 2007)
  
• LDR: $2,737.00 (Louisiana Department of Revenue, TY 2007, no payments scheduled yet)
  
• Chase HELOC: $4,537.52
  
• CFCU Visa: $5,035.04
  
• Capital One HELOC: $21,606.76
  

First mortgage balance: $115,303

Debt Balance excluding co-signed student loans and first mortgage: $35,932 $36,137

Total debt including first mortgage, excluding student loans: $151,630 $151,440

Student Loans:

• Co-signed student loans, approximate balance: $48,774 $80,215 (found out the new balance when my attorney checked my credit report. No letters I’ve received add up to this much. Attorney is checking on it).

Total balance including 1st mortgage and student loans: $200,404 $231,655

Change since highest balance ($245,308 starting May 2008): $13,463 $13,653

Discussion

A lot has been going on since March. Details below.

Bankruptcy Update

The only thing I’m waiting on right now to send my bankruptcy case to the trustee is my 2008 tax return, which will be done in the next few business days.

My balances are different from what I thought based on my credit report. What was reported to the credit reporting agencies isn’t the same thing that I received from the debt collectors. It doesn’t matter, the debts get wiped out anyway. I’m told it’s very common that the letters and the credit reports don’t agree. They are in the same ballpark, except for the student loan. That was significantly higher than anything I’ve been sent or that I cosigned to borrow.

My attorney is checking into bankrupting the student loans since they are private, I cosigned for them and didn’t borrow the money directly for my own or a family member’s education. If I can get them off my debt list, that will be great. If not, oh well.

Laid Off

I’ve technically been laid off again. The tutoring company I work for closed as of June 1 and the owner didn’t tell us until May 21. The company was very profitable, but she and her husband made a family decision that she would start working on his business because it makes more and takes less time away from their children. I’m very busy getting my own clients, and the former owner will continue to give out our contact information to potential clients.

The good news is I get a big pay raise, anywhere from $35-$45 per hour, nearly double to over double what I was making ($20/hr). The bad news is I have to do all the back end work dealing with clients, which may be more time-consuming than I like. There are other companies I can work for, but now that I have a client list, other potential clients and plenty of contacts, I plan to continue as an independent tutor unless the back office work is not worth the money I’m making. I doubt that will happen because I can streamline my back office a lot more than my former boss. I have more computer and internet tools to make things easier and more automated.

Online Work

With Hurricane Gustav, the messed up school schedules, and all the extra tutoring I did this year, I haven’t spent nearly as much time on my blogs or online business. But they are paying off better passively than ever before. My niche sites are making money with very little work on my part. Now that it’s summer, I’ll be able to spend more time on the sites that are paying and branch out into those niches more.

My plan is also to work on my own products so I can keep all the money I make from sales (minus taxes of course). I’m working on an ebook and a podcast. Video will come a little later.

I am looking into setting up a membership site, but I haven’t found the right niche with sufficiently low competition that would attract enough paying members to be worth the time. It wouldn’t cost me much money, only $10 more per year for another URL.

April and May Income

Passive online income:

• Affiliate Sales Commissions: $150.55
• Advertising: $111.92
• Services and active sources: $0

• Total online income: $262.47

I will be doing some active online work as well to increase my income. I have friends who need work on online marketing for their brick and mortar businesses.

Tutoring:

• Company: $2,780
• Private Students: $50

• Total tutoring: $2,830
  

Total Income: $3,097.47

On top of my income I also receive child support of $400/mo.

Online Income Discussion

Common wisdom in the blogosphere and in internet marketing circles is if you can earn $100/mo with your online business, you can earn $1000/mo. All it takes is continuing working on it and developing a few of your own products and/or starting a membership site. The key element is consistently working on growing traffic to your sites.

If I don’t put up another site but keep producing content for my existing sites and marketing them, I will start making $1000 in a few months. If I want to increase my earnings from $1000 to $5000, it will take a lot more effort up front; some new sites in either new niches or profitable extensions into current niches.

If I can find a good niche for a membership site, get 200 subscribers and charge $27/mo per member, I’ll make $5400/mo. If I find a niche willing to pay $47/mo per member, I’ll make $10,800/mo. I’ll have to pay taxes out of that, as I do now on my other income.

Over the summer, I tutor fewer days/week so I have more time to work on marketing current sites, work on more niche sites and start a membership site if I can find the right one.

Conclusion

The online work will have to come after doing everything I must get done for tutoring.

I will be glad when my bankruptcy is over. Then I can focus on work and starting over.

Technorati Tags: debt report, income report, May 2009, pushing income up

First, for the record, there was no February 2009 debt report. I didn’t have enough money to pay anybody except the IRS until it was almost March.

Starting Balances calculated post-bankruptcy (May 2008):

• Debts excluding student loans and 1st mortgage:  $38,707
• Plus debts incurred between May 2008 and March 2009: $8,583
  
• 1st mortgage balance: $117,803
• Student loans: $48,774
• Total: $213,867

Current Debt Balances:

• Dentist: paid in full ($415)
  
• Attorney: paid in full ($449)
• IRS: $2,363.70 (TY 2007)
  
• LDR: $2,735.00 (Louisiana Department of Revenue, TY 2007, no payments scheduled yet)
  
• Chase HELOC: $4,617.52
  
• CFCU Visa: $4,776.16
  
• Capital One HELOC: $21,439.48
  

First mortgage balance: $115,698

Debt Balance excluding co-signed student loans and first mortgage: $35,932

Total debt including first mortgage, excluding student loans: $151,630

Student Loans:

• Co-signed student loans, approximate balance: $48,774 (got a letter from these folks; need a complete audit on these accounts; not sure this balance is correct)

Total balance including 1st mortgage and student loans: $200,404

Change since highest balance ($213,867 starting May 2008): $13,463

Discussion

All the bills are caught up, including utilities. I paid off the dentist and my bankruptcy attorney so I can proceed as soon as my 2008 tax return is finished. I took that to my accountant last week and it should be done by April 15 at the latest. In the meantime, I can fill out all the bankruptcy paperwork and collect all the supporting documents required to file.

Since I made significantly less money in 2008 than in 2007, I hope I will qualify for a tax refund which will pay off my IRS bill in full, or at least pay it down somewhat. Then I’ll be able to work on paying off my state tax bill.

I’m getting some maintenance done on the car, bought my son a much-needed pair of shoes and some summer clothes (on sale), bought myself a few essential pieces of clothing (on sale), got the front window repaired from damage from Hurricane Gustav, and got the dogs their annual check-ups and shots.

The upstairs toilet may be leaking, so I may have to come up with the money to repair it. I’m not sure it is in fact leaking, but if it is, it’s from the seal around the sewer pipe and that will have to be fixed.

Tutoring income will be up significantly this month because there are no breaks in the school schedule and I gained a lot more hours since last month.

I don’t really know how my online business income is doing right now because I haven’t updated QuickBooks with income and expenses since mid-February. I’ve been working a lot more hours and I haven’t been paying attention to P&L. I was also working on getting my taxes ready for my accountant and making sure QuickBooks for 2008 was up-to-date and accurate compared to my records. I’ve paid bills and there have been automatic deposits to both my PayPal account and my checking account. I plan to catch that up on my tutoring day off this week — Friday.

Student Loan Question

The student loans I co-signed were private loans, not federally guaranteed. I need to call my attorney and find out if those can be bankrupted because they are private. If so, they’re going with the rest of the debts, and it will save me nearly $50,000.

Does anyone have any idea about this?

Technorati Tags: balance update, debt report, March 2009, private student loan question