I love movies. Especially when you can so perfectly relate to a character. This weekend I watched “Elizabethtown” a hilarious, fluffy romantic comedy from Cameron Crowe.
The main character is a young shoe designer who just cost his company nearly 1 billion dollars.
OK, so I didn’t quite lose 1 billion, but I really want my story to follow this movie…
My story should go like this…
- Guy gets girl - When he finally tells the girl (Kristen Dundst) about his 1 billion dollar mistake, her response is: “That’s your big secret? That’s it?”
I only hope whenever I meet someone and have to explain my quarter million dollar mistake that she responds the same way. Hopefully she’s as cute as Kriten DundstKirsten Dunst as well….he he.
2. Guy puts life in perspective – It takes a trip to Kentucky for the funeral of his father, but guy learns what’s really important (family, love, intimacy, laughter, etc).
I feel I’ve got this lesson down pretty well. I wouldn’t be here without my family and their support. Not just through this mistake but earlier ones in my life as well.
I’m still a little weak in the “love” area. And I don’t just mean mushy, romantic love. Lately I’ve been able to “feel” much more….but I’m still not emotionally where I’d like to be. Maybe it’s strange to have emotional goals, but I’d always been an emotional person until the past few years. 2007 was like year of the Robot for me. Stone cold Debtkid….yikes.
Coming this week
- Q1 Financial Reports – Revenue should be in the 20K range for the first quarter
- IRS Meeting – I’ll be chatting with my IRS agent, try to setup a face-to-face meeting
- Possibly completely restructuring how I pay myself from my business (due to a potential w-2 half-time job)
- I will try and talk to a girl I’ve wanted to ask out for ages…
- I will likely fail on the last point
- But gosh darn it I should try…right?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t think you’re going to win over Kirsten Dunst if you call her Kristen Dundst.
Without all of this struggle, the movie of your life might have been really boring. Going through all of this at such a young age and coming out on top (which I am SURE you will) makes for a much more interesting story. And success will taste so much sweeter. I think your struggle will help you out with the emotional stuff too. Going through crap can make you more sympathetic, empathetic and relatable. Plus it just seems like you appreciate people more when you’ve gone through something really tough.
And seriously? If you can talk to some super-scary IRS guy you can TOTALLY talk to a girl. Do it!
I updated the Kirsten mistakes! Thanks….(she’s not my fav. celeb though…I’m not a huge blonde fan)
@ Shel – You would think it would be easier to talk to a girl than the IRS wouldn’t you? Nope, not for me. I’ll keep working on it…
DK, everyone has a movie called LIFE and you are writing it every day. Don’t think about how would like for things to be, reality is what matters.
Q1 AR’s have you looked at the taxes on this? Meeting with the IRS guy is something you have to get on top of and handle quickly. Talking to a girl should be the easiest task of these. Just make sure you’re presentable and the cologne isn’t too powerful and say “Hi” conversation should take place from there. If you think you will fail, you will.
Debt Kid -
Just came across your site, and didn’t really know where to post this. I enjoy your openness about your situation as well as your determination to fix everything. I just graduated college and hopefully will learn some things from your site. I work for a credit card company and this, along with living on my own, has forced me to learn about personal finance.
Too many young people my age view the stock market as a sure-fire thing. However, in reality it is just another form of gambling.
As far as asking out the girl, you should definitely go for it. It doesn’t have to be stereotypical like in the movies. No “do you want to have dinner with me”, because that could lead to awkwardness. You need to give them an out, because they won’t feel pressured. “Let’s get together sometime” is a good way to make it happen. The best way I have found is this: A simple Friday night text saying “I’m going to with some friends, it’s going to be fun you should check it out”.
Keep up with the postings.
In the last line, I meant for you to insert a location such as a bar in there, but the comments wouldn’t allow the symbols I had used.
Good luck
Yes, you should try, Debt Kid. And you should try with the attitude that you’re going to succeed!
Talk to her! Ask her out. Girls love to be persued. It’s not important to talk about your financial situation. Have fun!
You’re a young guy, you should definitely be flirting with the ladies.
In your writing, you are giving off the impression that you would like to have a meaningful relationship, but due to the difficulties in your life, you’re having doubts about that. If that is coming across in your writing, you may be giving off that vibe in person without realizing it.
Just look at going out with a pretty, interesting lady as having fun. I’d learn how to become a really good flirt. That way you can have fun, low pressure intimacy with another person without the anxiety that comes “where is this relationship going?”. All women love a good flirt and flatter.
Just be sincere, and don’t go too far where anyone’s feelings will get hurt.
You were not afraid of betting thousands of dollars in daytrade, but you’re afraid of asking a girl out? Come on man, quit fooling yourself. You know you can do it.
what i am curious is how u managed to day trade that much money (250K is a lot) without realizing u needed to stop.
anyway why even bother paying back that much money. i think its better to declare bankruptcy and just packup and not work and live of SS and parents income. unless u can make some big bucks real fast thru your business..
since u are young, it is possible to make up that amount… anyway good luck.
@ Stan – I was never trading with 250K at one time. It was over a period of about 3 years. It would go like this: I’d get a loan (30K for example), and I’d trade that into 60K. Wohoo, I’m on top of the world. Then I’d lose it all. Then I’d repeat the same process…each time thinking I would actually cash out when I was up….but I never did. I never thought about stopping…only about getting my money back. Classic addiction (I know now…).
I did declare personal bankruptcy. The rest of my debt is either 1.) the 150K I lost of my mothers account 2.) under my business which I do not want to BK
I do think it’s possible for me to get back to zero. It’s just going to take much longer than I had hoped when I first started this blog.
“It would go like this: I’d get a loan (30K for example), and I’d trade that into 60K. Wohoo, I’m on top of the world. Then I’d lose it all. Then I’d repeat the same process…each time thinking I would actually cash out when I was up….but I never did. I never thought about stopping…only about getting my money back. Classic addiction (I know now…).”
That is a classic example of a gambling addict…you’re absolutely right. You and I do have something very much in common.
DebtKid, so u did well initially in the market and then im guessing like most people became overconfident and placed even higher bets and then lost the bet. this is what i think happened.
if u dont mind sharing, did u trade on Penny stocks or currencies or just regular stocks.. where did you get the information on what stock to BUY/SELL.
im just curious because i have started investing recently and lost some money but also gained some.
@ stan – I started with scalping bid/ask prices on low traded stocks. That was profitable but not enough….so I moved to strait day trading stocks. Then to forex (currency trading) then dabbled in options trading, then back to forex for the big losses. Never penny stocks…
I used technical analysis to find entries….which worked well. Like I’ve mentioned though….I never had good exit strategies.