Six Figure Debt

This spring has brought no relief to our situation.  Currently we are in default on all credit cards and can’t even seek settlements because our basic living expenses far exceed our income.  I’ve had zero luck even getting a job interview and my wife is getting interviews but so far no offers.

To make matters worse, our small business, which was growing nicely in January, February and March has come to a near dead stop.  I don’t know if it is just a cycle or if our customers have just stopped spending money.  I hope it is a cycle but at this point I am losing hope that our customers will return.

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 hate this, but I decided today that I will declare personal bankruptcy. My wife will not be involved, but I need to off-load debt or I will never be able to provide for my family in the future. The unsecured debt I will declare is both mine and my wife’s but I have decided that I will take the hit to get the family back on the road to financial solvency.

Our debt reduction plans took a small hit this week as we were hit with $300. in unexpected medical bills.  It isn’t anything we can’t handle but it put a serious crimp in our debt repayment this month.  Looks like the minimum payments for at least one of the three credit cards.  We will still make a double payment on the home equity line of credit.

I will update you on our debt this week; we did manage to take a chunk out of our debt, reducing our HELOC by $800, cutting a few hundred of each of the three credit cards and even adding a few hundred dollars to our emergency fund.

Is there such a think as Credit disease? @ Gatherlittlebylittle

Ben Franklin on frugality @ Dual Income, no kids

Christmas on a budget @ Momma and the boys

5 ways being lazy got me in debt @ lazy Man and Money

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One of the ways to pay off debt early is to make more money.  There are so many ways to make money in your spare time that it is impossible NOT to generate a little extra income if you are willing to put in the time.  Some ways I have found to generate extra income….

-Blog:  This blog is too new to generate any real income but hopefully as it gains readers it will begin to ad a few extra bucks a month to my bottom line.  I also have a couple of other revenue generating web sites that I will talk about later.  If you can generate traffic, you can make a good income with a blog.  There are many bloggers making a full time living just by writing.  Check out Problogger for more information on blogging as a way to earn money.

• HELOC                              $ 61,622.16
• Credit Card # 1                $  15,000.00
• Credit Card # 2                $ 11,206.94
• Credit Card # 3                $ 21,209.65
• Misc. Attorney fees         $ 28,000.00

Debt to be repaid.                 $  137,038.75

A large portion of the money we owe, 40k is a loan that we made to ourselves from our home equity line of credit to start our new business.  It is being repaid by the company and should be even in 5 years.  The rest, approximately 97k is ours to pay for no matter how long it takes.

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