Topic : Debt

I just watched the show about Money Crisis, dated September 15th.  I felt compelled to write to Dr. Phil for the first time. 

I know I am not alone in the battle of trying to survive in the American crisis today.  I am a single Mom living in a small town in NW Ga, the carpet capital of the nation.  The economy here is in severe crisis. If I really sit and think about how bad it is, it scares me to death.

I hear Dr. Phil say we have to live up to the reality of why we are in a personal financial problem.  I sat and thought about that.  What I felt wasn't mentioned was there are some conditions that happen which can lead someone down this road that are way out of our control.

The last year my happy and secure world has turned upside down.  I have worked two jobs for the last 5 years. I was a sales and marketing specialist at a large carpet manufacturer and also have my own business I have done at night for 19 years.  We were financially stable, but yes, I did have debt.

Last year, I was keeping my grandchilden and my son and I took them out to breakfast and to go to Walmart.  We were gone a few hours when I recieved a call from my oldest son to stop what I was doing and meet him in town immediately.  We rushed to meet him and he got out of his truck with tears on his cheeks. He held me and said, "Mom, you have lost everything."  Of couse denial was my first reaction.  He put me in his truck and drove me to my home.  Firetrucks were everywhere, people I didn't know in my yard and my state of shock was unbelieveable. 

My shop was built beside my home, it was a catering business and bakery.  The shop had caught fire, burnt to the ground, then spread to our vehicles and one exploded and threw the fire onto the house.  I sat with my two sons, my daughter in law and two grandchildren on a crosstie in the flower bed and just watched.  At that point, the overwhelming urge to cry was far outweighted by thanking God  that the most important things in my life were sitting beside me.  What was lost was material possessions, all my material possessions.  I also lost my second income, we depended upon.

My insurance was wonderful, to rebuild the house and to get another vehicle, but would not pay for the shop.  We rebuilt and I got back into our home 5 months later.  During this time I lived with my son and worked steady at my other job.  The loss of the one income was certainly noticed, but I was handling things and keeping things current.

Then we broke for the Christmas break  at work and I  went back to work on January 3rd.  We were all summoned into a meeting and told the company filed bankruptcy over the holidays and we could go home.  In six months time I went from making $70,000.00 a year to $269.00 a week unemployment. After pounding the pavement constantly and being turned away for job interviews due to the economy and no hiring policy, I decided to reopen my shop downtown. 

I devised a plan, to take the last of my savings and open a small scale of my shop downtown.  Knowing we could not survive on the shop income starting out, due to having to purchase so many things for it, I pounded the streets continuously and found two more jobs I could do at night and on weekends.  I became a restaurant manager part time and became the Conventon Center Catering Manager.  For the last six months I have worked 7 days a week, sometimes 15 hours a day. 

I called my creditors.  Most were very helpful and worked with me to lower the interest in a plan to pay off my credit cards in a one, two or three year payment.  Three would not work with me at all.  I set up automatic payments, which I controlled through Bill Pay online to all of them weekly, even the ones that would not accept a payment plan.  Those three turned it over to a collection agency, all with balances of around $1000, to $2000.00.  They pile on late fees and demand hundreds of dollars to bring them current, even though I don't have it.  I am doing all I can.  I receive at least 20 calls a day on the home phone plus they call my cell phone 20 times a day.  They won't take no for an answer.  One creditor even suggested I hit the street corners to pay this debt. I have my house payment and car payment current.

The debt I am paying on was all lost in the fire.  I threw away my credit card years ago, most of that income was generated on the debts before my divorce. I agreed in the divorce to take all our debt, in order for him to sign.  A stupid thing on my part but I wanted a quick divorce for the boys sake without a lot of turmoil and this was the best avenue. 

Things are getting harder and harder, with gas and groceries prices soaring. I have struggled to keep my son in college, but much to my regret, I have pulled him out for financial reasons this upcoming fall quarter.  But we are surviving and the schedules on my debts are slowly coming down, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it is just a few years away with a  gradual decrease starting soon. We cut out all eating out,  spending money on clothes and extras. We cut our TV  to a basic package, turned our air up at home and drive as little as possible.  I had the cars paid for before the fire, but now have two car payments

to pay. 

The calls, the stress and the pressure each week can be overwhelming at times.  But I am one determined little lady and I will over come this.  But please realize sometimes situations are out of our control for the problems surrounding us.  I thank God I have three jobs to keep us up, I feel fortunate.  I know many that have nothing or have lost everything.  But I belive, if there is a will, there is a way to overcome.  It may be a long and bumpy road, but this gal will get back to the top of the mountain again.

Hi everybody, I'm new to this. My wife and I are having debt problems to. We fell behind on some bills and now are suffering just trying to get back on our feet. We've already had our gas shut off ot our house because we're trying to pay one debt at a time but they just keep piling up and up it seems endless.

We already consolidated our debt at the bank we own a small business and my wife has a job on the side but it's still not enough It's sooo depressing.

To top it all off our 21 yo son moved back home because of drug abuse so we know have bigger problems because where we're from there is no government help. Life seems to be getting shorter at a rapid speed I could just curl up in a ball and die.

Life sucks...

Ahhhh.......the arrogance of youth!!!

Obviously......you didn't read what I said......or if you did, you did not comprehend what I said!!!

YOU SAID......I need $1398 plus another car and you did not know where to get the money or what to do.

YOU SAID......I have no CREDIT.

YOU SAID......I OWE my Mom $50 a month for auto Insurance.

YOU SAID......I borrowed $150 from my boyfriend.

I SAID......you have an Income Problem.....drop ONE  semester and work like a dog to get some money.

I SAID......you are about to take on more debt.....because you want it NOW!!

I SAID......Please, do not BORROW to establish credit......I would tell you a way to get credit WITHOUT using Credit Cards OR going into DEBT.

I SAID......Don't waste your money on a College Education that will only get  you a job making 25k a year. You completely missed the point on that one!!

YOUR response was what you would NOT do, what you CAN"T do, but nothing about what you CAN do. I made NO assumptions on your career.....you didn't READ what I said. And again you jumped off on a tangent about your car. What you really want is a Band Aid so you can keep doing what you are doing.

GIRL, YOU ARE GOING TO COLLEGE......FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!!!!

I'll be straight with you. Until a year ago, I had been debt-free for at least ten years. Even back in the day when I had debt, it only took me one year at an extra weekend job to pay it off. I recall how sad I was to calculate it all and to see that I owed a total of almost $8,000.

Today, I am wishing it were that low. I wish we had never bought this house. I wish we had just rented a while longer. If I knew then what I know now... but it is too late and I just cannot seem to get out of this.

Here is the story. The CEO I had worked for fired me two days after learning I was pregnant. I know it is illegal, but my husband was still there and, being the bully that this CEO was, he would seriously retaliate against my husband. Then my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. Between his medical condition and the falling housing market (it was a building supplies company), his hours were cut to part time.

All this started happening not too long after we bought our first home. At least we got a 30-year fixed mortgage. I thought the property taxes were low, but what I did not know was how much the previous owner had saved from a "Save Our Homes" exemption over time. It was a devastating blow the next year to see OUR taxes jump by over $200 per month.

We were able to wing this, as we had "stockpiled" our savings considerably for emergencies. The problem is, the emergencies kept coming. After my husband's last chemo, he was laid off. He still had to get a reverse ileostomy, but at least this jerk CEO paid his COBRA for a few months until this got done.

Getting a job for him again was very tough, between slow housing and high unemployment, because my husband is a locksmith. The old car needed repairs and my dog got seriously ill. By this time, I had no choice but to use my lines of credit.

What should have I done?  Tell my husband and my dog to die painful deaths because I don't want to use the credit card to save their lives?

My husband finally got a job, but now we learned that the roof needs replaced. We learned the hard way about house inspectors and about insurance companies. I have no beef with the insurance company, as this was not their fault. The inspectors, hired by our real estate agent (how convenient), gave the roof a good rating. We only learned last month that the roof is old and had been giving out from normal wear and tear. The quote for a new roof (a good one, anyway) from Rizzo today was $8600.

I know I need to work, too. There is a great opening with homeland security, information my brother-in-law sent to me. He's a border patrol agent, but this would be as a produce inspector. I have a good enough background in it, and I hope I get this job. I just do not know what to do with my baby.

I would never use my credit cards to "keep up with the Jones" so to speak. These were all major catastrophic issues in my life. Even without the roof issue, my debt is around $18,000. I had seriously considered an "accidental death" to wipe out those debts under my name. My husband and baby could collect the death benefits until the social security kicks in. That was before I discussed it on a spirituality board and I did get help there, emotionally at least.

Things are actually getting better, but a few last hardships keep coming. Even if I do not get the job at homeland security but get a regular data entry or pharmacy technician job around here, I know I could juggle it especially if my husband gets a second job.

I just feel lost and a bit shell-shocked. Sorry to vent it out here. I just feel lost.