Six Figure Debt

Its been almost a year since I made the LAST payment on my car and it feels great.  I doubt I will ever own a new car in my life again unless I can pay cash for it.  I simply have no interest in having a car payment again, EVER.  I may continue to buy a newer used car for my wife, but we don’t want the cost of owning a car.  Think about the payment and insurance for a second.

The other day I was wandering Wal-Mart picking up a few things for my wife’s business when I came upon the iphone in the electronics department.  I need a new phone as my two year old Motorola Q for some reason isn’t downloading my e-mail anymore.  I really rely on my Q for business and personal e-mail so I started to think I should look for a new phone.  Wal-Mart started selling the Apple iphone for $197 this month so I figured I would take a look at the phone.  The one at Wal-Mart for $197 is a 4 gig, which is likely just fine for me, the 8 gig model is $297.

Yesterday I received a notice from Bank of America that two of my credit card limits had been lowered.  I have no problem with them lowering my limit, but I don’t understand why they decided to lower it.  I’ve made all my payments and haven’t used the card in months, I would have thought I was one of their better customers.

My wife didn’t get the job but all isn’t lost.  The school district isn’t going to hire a full-time replacement until the fall so she is still in the running when school starts up again in September.

We aren’t devastated as our small business is up 20% in January.  We’ve experienced phenomenal growth since Christmas and are stunned by our good fortune.

If business keeps growing at this rate the job in the fall will not be important.  She would still take it, but it won’t be “mission critical.”

I haven’t written anything in a few days as I was anticipating news on my wife’s job prospects, but as of Friday we hadn’t heard anything about the job.  My wife thinks she nailed the interview so we are hopeful.  This job could change everything for us, including a move to a new area of the city to be closer to her job.

As Barack Obama and his boys get ready for round two of “economic stimulus,” I can’t help but wonder why none of the stimulus is being given to the American people.  Sure, car makers, bankers and insurance companies are getting a ton of money but the American people are getting nothing.

Tax money is our money yet is seems to be going to everybody else but us.

Instead of giving the money to banks to buy other banks why not give the money to us?  We would actually spend it and as a result wouldn’t it bailout the banks, insurance companies and car makers.

Both my wife and I have been looking for full-time work to supplement the income we earn from our new small business, a fulltime job would help because it would provide Health Insurance so we don’t have to take money out of the company to buy our own as we grow, it will also allow for a regular paycheck when business is slow.

I caught ABC’s Nightline last night on reducing credit card debt.  The featured a woman in Detroit who was swimming in credit card debt.  It was a fascinating segment on how to call the credit card companies to get your APR reduced.  I was aware of this technique but wasn’t sure how easy it would be to actually get the credit card interest rates reduced.  Check out the video, it didn’t seem that difficult.

If you haven’t heard of it, I suggest you take a look at “Magic Jack” for your telephone land line needs.

Magic Jack is a device that connects to your computer’s USB port and allows you to make unlimited FREE phone calls.  There is a one time fee of $40.00 and each additional year is just $20.00.  I don’t know about you but my monthly land line is almost $30 for basic service so this is a no brain-er for me.

As we look for ways to dump frivolous expenses, we are exploring any and all avenue’s to reduce debt.  here are  ways to deduce debt and eliminate the credit cards.

1.  Stop using debt.  No more credit cards, stop borrowing.  We are strictly a cash only family from this point forward.  We have one credit card for emergencies but once the emergency fund is full, that one goes too.