It’s been a crappy week. I had a rockstar and some chinese food about an hour ago…so I’m feeling better now, but it’s still been a crappy week.
I slept for 12 hours last night. I was exhausted at 8pm last night, with the intention of just sleeping for an hour maybe 2. Next thing I know it’s morning. I’ve been exhausted all the time lately. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I haven’t been running as much lately, I’ve just been too tired. I’m sure that is part of it.
Life Sucks. Debt Sucks. Blah
Life kinda sucks right now. I need to find some way to seperate my business from my emotions. Everything is just so tied together right now, one bad thing in one area of my life affects everything. Finishing up with my personal bankruptcy has been nice. I can now try to start saving (and maybe even investing) without fear of losing that money to any business creditors (I listed all my business debts in the bankruptcy as well, so I should be protected personally there).
My Plan A project is moving….just slowly. We have a very large client that is interested in the service, but just moves so darn slow in adopting it. I have a meeting with them next week. I have alot riding on this one client, which makes me very nervous. I’ve been working on other clients as well, so that it’s not all or nothing…but not much luck so far. I ultimately hope this client could buy this project out, but that is a long time out. In the meantime…the whole project stresses me out. It’s bringing an extra 1K a month, but still no where near it’s potential. Grr…
Risks in Business – Invest or Save?
Here’s my dilemma with my business….do I save extra cash right now, maybe try to pay off some off some of the smaller creditors, or do I put it back into growing the business? Two parts of me are fighting each other on this right now. One very strong part, that is new in this last year says, “Save! DO NOT SPEND ONE EXTRA PENNY!”. The other part says, “Saving 1K a month won’t do any good on 300K of debt. Invest the 1K back and try and grow the business”. I really want to listen to the second part, it’s just so hard to spend money now that I’m so used to barely scraping by the last few months.
Dealing with IRS
And then there is the IRS. I have back issues with them to the tune of around 20K from 2006 and 2007. Can I afford to setup a payment plan with them? Yes, but could I delay another few months? Probably. Sigh. I don’t know. Part of me just wants to bankrupt the business, move to Montana and join the Army (this is honestly how I’m feeling….not joking here).
Casey Serin and Dr. Phil
Anyway, I watched Casey Serin today on the Dr. Phil show…that was entertaining and made me feel a little better about myself. I may have screwed up pretty bad, but at least I made my mistakes before they impacted a wife.
odds and ends
- I have some short sale info posts coming out. I’m testing to see how much short sale related traffic I can drive here…just a test project for the moment.
- I got a netflix account. Looking at my movie spending for the last two months, I’ve been spending more than $20 each month. I could also use a blockbuster promo code if I wanted to go that route. So it seems crazy not to do this. No more blockbuster or redbox. I don’t spend much else in entertainment, so I figure this is a good use of $17.
- I’m up to $400 in my Lending Club account from referrals. Thanks everyone that’s signed up. I think at the next update I’ll be over $500 and more than halfway to my goal of having a $1,000 for an emergency fund.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Boy, do I understand how you are feeling! I have been feeling the same way the past week – I got laid off (like soooo many others) from my mortgage job and the job market is just flooded with good people right now, so there is A LOT of competition. Also, I have a couple of friends who are recruiters and their company sent out a memo – no more mortgage people! There is some prejudice, so that makes it even harder. Sometimes it does feel like life really tests your resolve; I continue to try and focus on doing what I know is right and focusing on things in my control. Yes, you are going to have that debt for a long time – all you can do is continue to get up every day, work hard, and pay it back. From everything I have read here, I know you can do it!
Regarding saving or investing money versus paying down debt, would you borrow money to invest it in your business? I think most things need to operate on a bottom line, and I think you need to look into how much money should be going to your creditors each month to keep the loans current. Not paying them because you don’t have money is probably costing you even more. Then saving money to put back into the business, I would hope they don’t find out first. I think you could focus on the smaller ones and let larger ones sleep until you’re able to deal with them. You have a lot of debt to deal with, but it is going to take 2-5 bucks to clear each dollar you owe in the grand scheme.
well good ole casey thinks a thousand dollars in his hands will grow four-fold in no time.
you’re much smarter than that. but what’s the real figure? if you can apply a thousand dollars for a return greater than your interest do it.
i’ve found in business there are rarely conditions where more money translates directly into more profit. warren buffett says the same thing. but it is possible to starve a good idea, too. if you can prove returns on investment in your own enterprise exceed interest costs, then invest.
>>I may have screwed up pretty bad, but at least I made my mistakes before they impacted a wife.<<
Amen to that. Is your mom paid back yet?
debtkid,
im curious what your take was on casey on dr. phil. did you think he was being sincere? is he really sorry for what hes done? dr. phil seemed a bit standoffish like maybe he wasnt sure of caseys motives for being there. also he said casey was rude to the staff and indecisive about appearing on the show. just wondering what you thought?
@Mary – sorry to hear about your job! It’s a tough time right now. Thanks for the encouragement
@Jim – No, I would not borrow money for the business. I’m just debating about current profits and where to apply them…
@Jason – Touche
@the1chery – I think he probably is sorry. His blog infamy won’t ever be back, so he’s lost that. His wife has left him, and that’s not coming back.
I did feel that Dr. Phil really didn’t challenge him much. He seemed unsure about what to think of the kid. I wish he had a chance to know more about Casey and really go after him more. I honestly don’t watch much Dr. Phil, but I thought he was more abrasive (”tough love”) then what I saw on the show yesterday. The line about flipping tents was pretty funny though.
Overall, I do hope Casey can move on with his life. He has to be at least close to rock bottom, and that’s not a difficult place to be. But, it was his actions that put him in his current situation, now he has to deal with the consequences.
Hey DK,
I love reading your blog and I offer my next comments in the nicest way possible – it is not my intention to be mean and/or snarky in any way.
I notice grammatical errors in your blog and I know you are soliciting clients for your business – I just want to be sure that you have someone very trustworthy reviewing your business documents for grammatical errors. In a perfect world, it shouldn’t matter if you use “seperate” or “alot” in a business document, but sometimes, it does. Please be sure that you have someone reviewing your documents carefully so your future clients see that you are a top-notch professional company ready to offer them a top-notch professional product.
Wishing you all the very best – and please, do not take this as a mean comment – I honestly have your very best interest in mind.
Much success,
Susan
@Susan – Not mean at all. Good point. I do have my part-time employees review business documents/communication. grammar and spelling have never been my strongest suits! Thanks for watching out for me.
“Next thing I know it’s morning. I’ve been exhausted all the time lately. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
you’re probably depressed. I know that you’ve written that you’re not but when your vision of what you want and the vision of what you’re experience are different, it creates a tiring inertia.
if I were you, I’d make a list of 2 or 3 things that make you happy and start doing them– that’s how I seperate my emotion from my work.
the three things on my list are: reading; playing the piano; and exercising.
my “exercise goal” is “being able to row 14,000 meters per hour on my concept2 rower.”
my “piano goal” is to playing songs from the nutcracker by next christmas.
my “reading goal” is to reading several “classic” economic, literature and philosophy works.
have fun! because when you have fun in your “private life,” it infects your “worklife” and that’s the way it should be– i.e. not the other way around!
01/18/08
DK, Regarding your pontificating on short sales, how did you fare with yours? Did you get a 1099? Also, I remembered from an earlier post that you said you had a partner so your business debts are not only yours, and couldn’t be listed as your personal debts.Then you mentioned you listed business debts on your BK filing. Is your partner aware of your back taxes and business debts and other issues? If the partner situation still exists, you know the IRS will go after him/her as well you to get their money, and you better notify them fast if they are not aware. That could be a nasty surprise!
I have not received a 1099 Yet. I doubt that I will.
No, my business debts are all mine. I don’t have a partner. I sold equity in the business years back, but all the business debts are only co-signed by myself.
I am working on the IRS issue, I hope to have a payment plan setup with them in the coming weeks. They were easy to work with the last time I contacted them, so I’m hoping for that same result. We’ll see.