Mar 23
On February 1st, I got my W-2′s.
On February 2nd, I filed our family’s taxes.
On February 12th, I got our refund.
On that day, for the first time in 10 years, I became completely liquid-debt free. What a glorious day.
Freeing up the $200-300 / month I was paying (well over the minimum, I was making aggressive payments to pay it off) has allowed us to finally start doing some planning for the future. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 16
(In pt. 2, we discussed the economic stimulus check)
I’ve had to deal with some debt collectors in the past. Mine were typically dental/medical bills that I forgot about, or perhaps a phone bill that got lost in the shuffle during a move. I’ve helped some of my friends out with their debt collection issues though, and have learned a lot about dealing with Debt Collectors in the process.
Please note that the content below mostly deals with collectors for credit-line debt, rather than medical debt. I don’t know much about dealing with medical debt. Lawyer consultations are typically $100-$200, and well worth it if you have a substantial amount of debt. Always consult with a professional if you are unsure.
Here are some MUST KNOW tips for dealing with debt collectors: Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 15
Everytime they talk to news sources about how to spend our refund checks, they always tell us to go out there and spend it on a new TV, or a vacation, or groceries, but DO NOT PAY OFF DEBT with it!!!
To be fair, I admit that I am NOT an economist, but I AM a fiscally-minded consumer. (my wife calls it “anal-retentive”)
The thing is — the “buy stuff right now to stimulate the economy!!!!” approach is so myopic. Our country, our citizens, are MIRED in debt right now. Buying all the TV’s and fancy restaurant dinners in the world isn’t going to fix THAT.
It’s sort of like having an openly bleeding wound, the doctor handing you several pints of blood, and then you trading that blood to someone else for their hospital pudding. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 14
As the beginning of my last undergrad semester looms near, it’s time to buy books. Books are expensive, of course (I only needed two textbooks: “The World of Cell” and “Elementary Differential Equations”, and it cost just shy of $300), but receiving a fat student grant makes it far more manageable.
As is my tradition, I apply the leftover grant money (the bulk of it anyways) to my credit card. This time around, I was able to pay off half of the remaining $2,600 balance with grant money.
I have had an active line of liquid debt for 11 years — it has never once been zero’d out completely. In fact, if you think of a credit card like a stack of plates, where each purchase gets stacked on the next, and you pay them off by removing plates, then the first purchases I made 11 years ago are still waiting to be paid off!
This isn’t a “stay away from credit cards, they are TEH DANGERUZZ!!!!!” post, although I do believe people should have a healthy respect & awareness for the amount of debt they accrue.
There are a few things I think every consumer (i.e. you) should know about credit debt, and I say this as someone that has been almost obsessively debt-minded (ask my wife) for a little over 5 years. Read the rest of this entry »
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Cracking the GRE, 2010 Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation) by Princeton Review
Alternadad: The True Story of One Family’s Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America by Neal Pollack