I got a new debit card today and got the old number frozen as being stolen. The card will come up as stolen if anyone tries to use the number.
I forgot all the paperwork I’d put together, so I have to go back Monday and they will refund my money to my checking account. I have to file a police report, though, but it’s mostly a formality.
I’m going ahead and doing the budget for October early so I can make sure everything is covered.
Until I get the money back into my checking account I can’t pay the rest of the bills from this month. It’s the phone bills, but those have to be paid or they will eventually turn the phones off, or I’ll get really behind and have to catch that up on top of the debt. This month is a really tight one.
Well, back to work on my online business. Check out my sidebar articles and blogs section and visit my new blogs.
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September 23rd, 2007
Posted by
joubess |
General |
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Somebody out there has my debit card number, and they’ve run up $389 in online charges on video games. I hate this. And I always seem to find out about it on Friday afternoon after the banks close. My bank has Saturday hours, so I’ll have to take care of this tomorrow morning.
I’m going to have to get another debit card.
I think this is still fallout from when I tried Project Payday back in July. I’ve had several fraudulent charges show up on my debit card ever since then. If I put a block on my current debit card number and get a new one with a new number, it will solve the problem.
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September 21st, 2007
Posted by
joubess |
Cost Increases |
2 comments
I just got my escrow analysis statement from my mortgage company. Since my homeowners insurance premium was so high last year, my escrow balance is below the minimum allowed. To prevent that from happening this year, my mortgage payment is going up $60 per month starting October 1, 2007. That means I’ll be paying an extra $720 into escrow this year.
Next year I’ll have an escrow overage, and my house payment will go down again next year.
$720 more in mortgage payments, and I need to add $6550 to my emergency fund in case of hurricane damage. I’m afraid to ask what’s next.
Damn.
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September 21st, 2007
Posted by
joubess |
Cost Increases |
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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.
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September 18th, 2007
Posted by
joubess |
Cost Increases |
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Amy Bass put up a great post on her blog. Check out this My Debt Free Goal post.
Right now, my biggest fear is failure to launch on my current business ventures. If I don’t start making a significant income pretty soon on at least one of them, I’ll have to go back to the dreaded j-o-b, that is if I can find one.
I haven’t been able to find a job in the chemical industry since 2003. I have a set of extremely specialized skills that are no longer marketable. I’m a wet lab chemist. Most companies no longer have wet labs or use these techniques (titration mostly). I also have a lot of development and problem solving skills because I worked in R&D and it was my job to develop methods and solve problems. My old lab partner and I also took our wet techniques to the next level - fully automating them using computer controlled titrators, specialized electrodes and applied the chemistry from visual titration methods to accomplish this. Companies mostly switched to instrumental techniques like NMR, IR, GC, LC, and ICP. They no longer use titration methods. So I’ve been out of luck in job hunting in my field for some time.
Why and Why Not?
First question: why not get training in one or more of those instrumental techniques? The minimum amount of training I’d need would be to go to graduate school and get my master’s degree in an area using one of those techniques. Companies don’t want a list of courses, they want evidence of experience and success with a technique and they don’t want to bare the expense of employees acquiring those skills until the employee has shown he/she is worth it. So, they’re not going to hire me just to see if any training classes I’ve taken were sufficient. I’d have to get a master’s degree because to get one you have to gain a lot of experience in research while you’re gaining course credits and grades. When you’re done, you graduate, too, and companies value advanced degrees.
Why not get a master’s degree in chemistry in one of those areas? I don’t have the money, savings, time, energy or the drive it would take to get one right now. I have a twelve-year-old and family responsibilities. Graduate school full-time is a 60-80 hour per week commitment with extremely little pay, and it would last for two years. It’s been 22 years since I’ve been a full-time student and since I’ve studied advanced level chemistry, physics and math. I’m not sure I still have what it would take to succeed.
Other Options
Why not get a master’s degree in another field? That is just the ticket. I’m currently working on it on a part-time, cash-only basis in personal financial planning. I’m getting there, but part-time sure doesn’t move like full-time school does. There will be rewards along the path with this as well, an RFC credential when I finish my first 6 classes, and eligibility to take the CFP(r) exam and be awarded the CFP(r) credential. Then I can finish my coursework and get an M.S., too. I can also choose to stop after my first 6 classes because I’ll be able to get a CFP(r) at that point, and that’s the credential consumers look for in a financial adviser.
My other option is to get my teaching license and teach chemistry. That is very doable with a few courses part-time. Lord knows the schools here need good science teachers. After being in the field for 19 years, I already bring a lot of experience to my tutoring students. Having tutored so many in science, I know I could do as good a job as any science teacher currently out there, and probably make it a lot more fun.
Vicious Circle
But in the meantime, I’ve got to have a sufficient income to support me and my family. Earning a decent living is interfering with my coursework completion, which is slowing down my future business prospects, which leads me right back to where I am now, in need of a decent income. It’s a vicious circle right now. And, because of the years without a steady income, I wracked up all the debt this blog is about. The only debt I had at the end of 2003 when I was laid off was my home’s first mortgage. So income is my first priority right now.
That is why I’m putting so much effort and time (but no money) into internet marketing. If I had a sufficient passive income along with my tutoring income, cutting expenses, and selling accumulated junk to make lump-sum debt payments, I could support my family, finish my classes, get my credentials and be free to pursue whatever future career path I choose. And pay off all this debt much fast than I can right now.
I still haven’t made my first $10 online with 30DC, and I’ve stalled at day 27. The last week of training had so much stuff to do that I haven’t implemented much of it yet on my 4 niche topics. I’m working on that, but not with the focus I had before day 27.
Am I stalled because I fear succeeding wildly at this? I don’t think so. I’ve always loved success. It feels really good. I do tend to be impatient when it comes to getting things accomplished. If I’m distracted too often from something, I’ll lose momentum and go on to something more interesting with fewer distractions. I’m not going to let that happen this time. I succeeded at completing a 4-year college degree in 6 years after changing my major 5 times, so I can succeed at online marketing, too. It sure won’t take me 6 years. Six months, maybe, but not 6 years.
I believe a lot of my momentum loss has to do with the back-to-back anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The lack of focus and energy is probably being caused by some depression creeping through my medication, but that’s bound to happen with such traumatic events in the recent past. I’m beginning to get my focus back and get my momentum going again. This year was the first year I’ve actually felt angry about the levee failures in New Orleans, the bungled response by FEMA and the extreme lack of federal help to rebuild a major American city and a state that contributes so much to the U.S. economy. That story is on my hurricane Katrina pictures blog. I don’t really remember much about this time last year at the first anniversary, only that I was having a hell of a time getting out of bed in the morning. I did it, but I really can’t tell you how. I was numb, and numb gets you nowhere. It’s a complete lack of emotion, or the result of turning your emotions off and your mind turning them into physical fatigue, an avoidance mechanism. If you’re asleep you don’t feel depressed. Anger is a much better, more motivating emotion.
So, enough rambling about success and failure. Back to cleaning off my desk and working on my 30DC sites! Maybe I should have named my 30DC blog: $10, come hell or high water.
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September 11th, 2007
Posted by
joubess |
Career |
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