Saving is something that I have always wanted to do.? I?have started?saving many times, but?I have never been able to stick to it.? That is of course until a couple of months ago.? Back in January I took $1,000 and put it in a new bank account here on post at Ft. Jackson, and established my emergency fund which I have not touched since.? I didn’t use my regular savings account because I didn’t want it to be too easy to get to or act as overdraft protection.
Last night, I did something that I have never done in my entire life.? It was a simple transfer from my checking account to my savings for $162.14.? The exciting part is that $122.14 is exactly one sixth of my insurance premium which will be due in August.? I have known for the past ten years that insurance is due every February and every August for my vehicles, but I have never saved for it.? Each time it came due, it was an emergency, which meant that a charge to one of my cards was sure to follow.
In following what Dave Ramsey teaches, if you plan on keeping the money for less than five years, then it is saving.? If it is longer than five years, then you should invest it.? The difference is basically the stability and rate of return that you are looking to receive.? It is now my way of life to save for all major purchases and everything that I can forecast.? In order to conquer debt, this is required.
I have to apologize to a couple of you whom I promised to have breaking news on my post this morning.? I was hoping to break a milestone on our total debt, but two of the creditors had to get back to me later today.? Even with them, it looks like I will still be a little short for a couple more weeks.? As a reminder, you can track our progress anytime by clicking the link on the left hand sidebar.? We did get two more paid in full yesterday, and two others will get paid later today, putting?Hiland Dairy at the top of my debt snowball (meaning they get paid next).? That will be significant, because once they are paid in full; there will be no pending lawsuits!
Joel,
The more I read through your blogs and your desire to hide behind a book to achieve some sort of financial independence the more I think about all of your “friends” that you left high and dry to make your initial dream come true i.e The Lasy Susan.
I read on one post where you shaved about $50,000 from your debt, but you failed to mention that most of that amount were debts that people forgave, not
dollars you earned. No you were too busy making sure everyone knew that you saved $1000.00 (I wasn’t impressed)you should have sent that same $1000.00 to your friend and general contractor that you owe $1000’s of dollars too. Your friend that had to refinace his home and his wife has taken on a second job just to keep their heads above water, or at the very least you should send them a copy of Dave Ramsey’s book. Then maybe as they work to pay off the huge bill you left behind they can learn how to have some sort of financial independence themselves, after they work for a couple of years to pay off your debt to them.
I read where you implied that you were some how better that Donald Trump, well maybe you are, or just maybe the new bankruptcy law took effect (10/17/05)before you could file,timing is everything.
Later….
Comment by Joe — March 25, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
Joe,
Thanks for taking time to read my blog and leave a comment. I certainly am deserving of some criticism, and I definitely welcome that here as much as I would anywhere else. If that wasn’t the case, me and you could be enjoying a really good chicken dinner down in Nixa.
I do want to take a minute to respond to some of the items you mention. First of all, I certainly did get lost in my desire to fulfill my dream of The Lazy Susan. There is no doubt about that. All of my concentration and effort was focused on that one thing, and making it happen; however, I am definitely not hiding behind a book now. The only hiding I did was in November and December when I was in denial. I am now telling the whole world about my shortcomings, in hope that they will not have to experience the same as me; whether that is on a larger or a smaller scale.
Reference to the $50,000 plus that has been paid off to date; your statement is just incorrect. $38,000 of that came from the auction that the SBA did of all the restaurants assets. That is a point of contention with me because we had requested the opportunity to sell the items individually on ebay which likely would have brought three to four times as much. That situation illustrates how the borrower is slave to the lender. We had no choice.
Of the remaining $16,000 that was paid off, you are right, some of that was forgiven by three individuals/companies who felt bad for our situation. The grand total of that was $414.92. The rest was either paid off with money I earned or was negotiated. Negotiated is totally different than forgiven, and I will be talking in detail about it in a future post, probably in about two weeks. The total negotiated is still only a little over $3,000 and most of it was from the Missouri Department of Employment Security. So over $12,000 has been paid from the money that was earned by using this system.
Next, reference the $1,000 in savings for an emergency fund. As you read my post, “Stop the Bleeding” I talk about how I will never borrow money again. Things happen unexpectedly that can not be budgeted for; therefore, the only way to prevent from putting something on a credit card, such as an alternator, blown tire, furnace, etc…you have to have an emergency fund put aside. It will never get larger than $1,000 until I am totally out of debt. The other money that I am saving is simply items I will be paying (bills) later this year that could kill a budget if it came from any single month. I would love to have sent that $1,000 to my general contractor, but that would have put me in a situation where he may not receive more than that.
My boss, and probably the best boss a person could ever work for, Jack Merritt, has a saying that really applies to your comments in that middle paragraph. The saying is this, “Even the thinnest pancake has two sides.” If I was looking at the pancake from your side, I know I would feel the exact same way if not worse. The problem is I don’t have a choice but to look at it from my side. I certainly empathize with your side, and wish every day that this wasn’t the case, but I can’t un-ring the bell. I have to go forward from where I am right now. Don’t think that I am comfortable right now either. Every extra cent I have is going to pay people off. Tuesday, I will talk in detail about the system I am using to pay all 33 of my creditors (was 53).
My side of the pancake is living in a one room motel room paid for by the Army. My wife, four year old son, and three year old daughter also live here with me. I have a microwave and a mini-fridge. I have $150 dollars budgeted for food every fifteen days. I eat at least two bologna sandwiches a day, and sometimes four. When not in school for the Army, I am thankful that the Texas Roadhouse saw fit to hire me as a server knowing that I was leaving in April, and I am able to make some extra money to pay off debts. And then there are nights like tonight where some genius manager had a great idea to give all the servers only three tables so we could turn them faster, but then didn’t put enough people in the kitchen to support it, so I left with only $68 instead of the normal $125 that I would get on a Saturday night. Then there are other nights where the arthritis in my knee is so painful that I can hardly walk, but I keep working anyway, because I am making it right with everyone I owe. Then there is the whole situation with my mobilization. I was supposed to go with a unit in May to Iraq, but something happened and they left early without me in January. I have since then been trying to volunteer for a mobilization through several channels, but have not been able to make that happen. Because that hasn’t happened and I need that extra income, I have been applying for Federal jobs in cities I would never want to live in, meaning I would have to give up the best job I have ever had at the Sheriff’s Department. That in a nutshell is my side of the pancake. I don’t mean to rant, and I certainly do not blame anyone, because I definitely put myself where I am today.
Reference Donald Trump; read about the catastrophic losses that he forced several of his creditors to take while he walked away clean with no intention of ever re-paying. You tell me if what I am doing is better than that.
And finally, about the bankruptcy law and timing; if you know the law, I could easily send my lawyer to the Federal Courthouse in Springfield on Monday morning and file bankruptcy on my behalf. The only people I owed would be the Missouri Department of Revenue and the IRS. I could legally be free of all of my other obligations, if I chose to be. The only thing the law did was create a test for a person’s ability to re-pay, and require before and after counseling.
One other serious note, if you like I could send you my personal copy of The Total Money Makeover if you provided me an address either on or offline. I have $5 left in my envelope for postage this month, and that would only take a couple. I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to send the book to my contractor, but if you wanted to present them with it after you read it, that would be great by me. The book and the system really are powerful enough to change your life as it did mine. If that were not true, we certainly would not be having this conversation.
I really hope you keep reading, and feel free to comment anytime!
Comment by Joel — March 26, 2006 @ 2:29 am
Wow, good response Joel. Only being somewhat knowledgeable in your and Amy?s situation, I think you are doing the best you can. You have found a plan that has worked for many people before you and you are sticking to it. If some people do not agree with your financial recovery technique, I?m sure you would take constructive suggestions instead of despairing comments about what you are not doing properly. Hang in there and I?ll see you guys on the other side in 2010!!!
Comment by Sheila — March 27, 2006 @ 10:15 am
[…] This month marked the first time that I paid my automobile insurance without having to stress about where the money is coming from. I pay my insurance once every six months. You may recall me talking about this here. […]
Pingback by joelmaxwell.com » Paying Car Insurance - Stress Free — August 9, 2006 @ 1:56 am
I’m afraid that Joe’s response might have elicted a quite less friendly one from me than you gave him, Joel. I admire your complete responsibility for your current situation and your ability to articulate the failings and how you are getting your financial house in order by following the plan. Kudos to you!
(Yes, I’m working my way forward through the blog … told you I would!)
Comment by Barb — February 28, 2007 @ 8:14 am
Joel: Don’t let the bad comments get you down. You are owning up to your responsibilities and that is a trait to be admired! Your response to Joe was handled nicely. You will tackle this debt because you have already taken ownership of your situation and to me, that is something that many people never do! As you can tell by my late response to your post, I’ve just stumbled on your site, but will be sure to bookmark it. You are an inspiration for many. If you can get out from under the mound of debt you are in, than I certainly can get out from under my “mound”.
Thank you for sharing your story!! For those that find nothing helpful about it then leave the story for the rest of us!!
Thank you.
Comment by Mary — March 23, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
People who post comments such as the one above forget the trade off is for easy credit is easy bankrucpty. That’s the way capitism works.
Comment by Rob in Madrid — December 24, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
No matter which way you stand in the world, no matter which direction you face, you are still turning your back on half of the world. That’s a quote I read one. The obvious meaning is, you can’t ever make everyone happy! —as clearly shown by this naysayer above.
Most of your comments are from 2006 and 2007 but I just found out about your website. I am 23 years old, on a recent graduate pay check, and paying for student loans, an auto lease, an apartment, heat, electricity, internet, car insurance, and credit card bills that I ran up. I’m most concerned with getting the credit card bills done, and then I’ll tackle the student loans. I was reading about the snowball plan when I saw a link to your blog.
Can I just say that it’s amazing that you decided to write this and admit to the world your debts and your struggle-and that you are doing it the hard way, not by filing bankruptcy.
If you can chip away at $500,000, then I can certainly get on the bus and pay off the $8000 I owe in credit card debt, even if I am pretty much balancing every month at zero!
Luckily, I can get the $1000 (although I’m capping at $750) from profit sharing that my company does - I’ll get that in my paycheck at the end of Feb. Then, if I stick to my plan, by October 2008 I should be totally credit card debt-free. And have an extra $600 a month to pay down other, secured debts that I picked up. Which maybe doesn’t count as “extra” but I like to think of it that way.
Thanks so much again for writing this and God Bless!
-Hannah
Comment by Hannah — February 3, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
[…] positive and negative. A good conversation from the weekend can be found on the post for “Make Saving a Way of Life.” « Sell Something The Debt Snowball […]
Pingback by joelmaxwell.com » Working a Second Job — July 30, 2008 @ 11:17 am
My guess is that Joe from the first post never had the goal of having a starting, opening and running successful business. My guess is Joe never had to scramble to make a payroll or make phone calls to customers to collect some old receivables. It’s not easy being in business for yourself. My parents lost their business to the banks after poor health took over and I closed mine because because I had unscrupulous employees and I could make more money elsewhere. Having an entreprenureal attitude should not subject one to a life of servitude, but many times, it does.
Comment by Mel — August 6, 2008 @ 3:46 pm