My first goal of saving up $1000 has been achevied. Thanks to a bunch of LC referrals and savings, I’ve been able to sock away $900 in long-term investments and $500 in my emigrant direct account in the past few months. I plan on continuing to try and save/invest around $400 a month. (this is all on the personal side of my finances, the biz side is a whole different ballgame)
New Goal: A Mattress Worth Sleeping On
I’ve had my place to live over 6 months now. Wow. I’m so lucky. Seriously, although I spent sometimes all day here (work + live), I’ll never complain.
I do however have gripe with the mattress I’ve been sleeping on the past 6 months. I got it for $30-odd bucks on craigslist, and well, I think I got what I paid for. The biggest issue is that it’s only a twin. (not a twin-extra long). Twin’s are 6 feet in length…and well, I’m just a hair over 6′ tall. So…I haven’t been able to fully stretch out and sleep in a while. I’ve been sleeping a little better lately, but no thanks to my mattress. So mattress, it’s time for you to go.
New Goal: Foam Mattress + Frame
I used to have a wonderful foam mattress from Costco. I had to sell it when I moved into my office. It’s really one of the few items (of many) that I sold that I actually miss. I don’t know how much to budget for this goal, but I’d love a queen (so I get the 80″ length). Anyway, I’ll refine the specifics of this goal later. I’m hoping by Summer I’ll hit this one!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I bought an Ikea mattress last year, and it’s been great! It was a queen sized foam one, and it was under $200.
Has your Chapter 7 bankruptcy gone through yet? Because any savings you are keeping in your emigrant account, plus any investments you have that are not specifically retirement investments, will go to your creditors. I hope you know this! You should ask your attorney (or research yourself) about your state’s exemptions to find out what type of investments you will be able to keep and in what forms once your bankruptcy is officially filed.
I’m very confused with your posting lately. Your blog seems to have more to do with getting your business projects going and such, not so much focused on what you’re doing to get out of debt. I know you have filed BK and the IRS is on your case over payroll taxes, where do those kinds of things stand? From what I can tell your business is your more than full time job. Have you considered doing a regular 9-5 while running the business on the side? Your income just seems so low to tackle the amount of debt you carry. The BK can clear some of it up, and you owe half of your 300k to your mom, but even still how much progress have you made regarding paying it? Buy a mattress so you can sleep I guess, the creditors can wait until you decide to give them money or they get a judgment against you and force you to pay them. IRS on the other hand can just take without even asking.
@ Law girl – Yes, my Ch 7 got discharged this week. I haven’t written about it yet, because well, I dunno, it wasn’t a huge event. It was more like, OK, one more thing down. I may cover it next week. It was a just a single letter in the mail.
@ Jim – I have so much debt that my only chance of paying it off quickly is for me to make significantly more income. So yes, I write about my business stuff….because that’s pretty much my life. I finished paperwork today requested by my IRS agent, I’m hoping to have a payment plan worked out with them for the 18K (plus penalties) in the next two weeks. The BK is done. Also, my personal income is low, I’ll be keeping my salary low even if my business income goes way up. My personal finances (sans the 150K I owe mother) are actually not terrible right now.
The creditors will not go away. I know this, heck my phone reminds me of this every day. I’m paying CitiCards, soon to be paying the IRS for 06/07, and hope to start knocking off some of the smaller collection accounts soon as well. I’m lucky to not have any judgments yet on the business side of things, I don’t know how long that will last.
So yes, business posts. Sorry if their boring, but it’s not like I’m sitting on 20 grand right now and NOT paying anyone. I’m doing what I can.
Erm, so now I’m confused… Why are you planning on repaying creditors after you’ve declared bankruptcy? Has the BK law got so screwed that even after BK, you’re still in debt? What’s the point of the BK if you’re still going to pay?
And where’s the results of the Nintendo DS drawing?
@ Mike – My ch. 7 personal BK only wiped out around 50K in debt. Another 100K+ is under my business. So, still lots to go there.
And the drawing is coming!!! I have the package all set to mail, I just need to go through and calculate the entries and the winner. I’ll have it done this weekend. That was really neat to see all the dumb purchases. Made me feel much better!
I’m no BK expert, but doesn’t the folding of the business absolve the debt? I mean, if it’s any kind of incorporation, the debt should go away, and if it was sole proprietorship, wouldn’t it go away in the personal BK?
I’m not asking for your situation, I’m asking because this is all counter to what I’ve learned/known in the past, and I’m actually quite shocked you’re still having to repay debt after BK.
The “mom” part of it I do understand though, I would be risking personal harm if I didn’t pay back the loan from my family, BK or no BK, lol!
Alright, I’ll keep my eyes open for the drawing results…
The business didn’t fold. I’m not BK’ing the business. That’s a whole different ballgame, and one I don’t plan on getting tickets too.
DK I never said your blog is boring, it isn’t, it’s much better than Casey Serin going on and on about all his endeavors. I’m just curious if there is any specific debt you have ‘focused’ on instead of the debt as a generic whole. Sure if you were sitting on a pile of cash it would be easy to do some settlements and a few creditors off your case. Just curious if you’re working with any of them on payment plans or settlement negotiations and how you’re scraping up the cash to get rid of a single debt. At the least you should inform them of Fair Debt Collections Practices and have them only contact you in writing, so the phone calls stop. Don’t nuke the business either, if you’re making profit from it clearly you’re doing something right. Your personal debt sounds mostly BK now except for what you owe your mom. How are you handling the business debt?
Well done on reaching your goal of $1000 savings. That is fantastic. Make sure you use it as inspiration for your next goal.
Debt Kid, Please spend as much as possible on a mattress. I had a neck injury. Went to an orthopedist. He prescribed a contraption that I used, a pully and lever held it under my chin and i used it to ‘exercise’.
Then my husband got backaches. We got a new mattress. Within two days I was FINE!! All I needed was a good mattress.
This is your future talking. Please get a good mattress.