Police say that Balderrama shot herself Tuesday afternoon 90 minutes before her foreclosed home on Duffy Drive was scheduled to be sold at auction. Chief Raymond O’Berg said that Balderrama faxed a letter to her mortgage company at 2:30 p.m., telling them that “by the time they foreclosed on the house today she’d be dead.”

I just can’t comprehend this. Having gone through a foreclosure myself, I know it’s stressful. But taking your own life over it is not the answer. It’s never an answer. Ever.

Joe Whitney, who works with her husband, said that Balderrama handled the bills in the household and that the husband was unaware of the foreclosure.

This seems almost impossible to me. When my home was in foreclosure, I literally got sometimes 20 pieces of junk mail (all foreclosure related) a day. Someone came at night and posted a Notice of Default. One weekend someone knocked on my door and tried to tell me about foreclosure avoidance programs.

How could the husband not know?

I talked with my Landlord and we both agreed on continuing my lease at the current rate, only month to month!

Awesome.

It’s a small weight off my shoulders.

My landlord also said I was, “the perfect tenant”. I guess always being early with my payment has helped. I’m so lucky that I found this place last summer. Going from living in my office to having a nice work/live 1 bd. place has been such a blessing.

While I could find a cheaper place (or move to Portland and live with my mother for much cheaper), this is right for me right now. I can run my business here, and still have a life.

Announcement Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Thursday) I’ll be announcing a project that I’ve been working on for the last few months. I think you’ll have fun seeing what it is! So, come back tomorrow!

For homeowners with Countrywide loans, the process has been terrible.

It sounds like things are finally starting to change. I’m not sure if this has to do with the Bank of America takeover (likely), but according to two separate real estate sources I’ve talked to on the phone, Countrywide has beefed up their staffing for loss mitigation/short sales.

I’ve seen rumblings on my own posts from readers about short selling with countrywide about them finally stepping up and speeding up the approval process. Up to this point many people have been waiting sometimes 6 months to get approval from countrywide to short sell their home.

Madness, I say.

Glad to see things picking up. Short selling your home is a much better alternative for all parties involved than a foreclosure. I think people who short sell their home will have a much better time trying to buy again in the future vs. those who just walk away from the home. Obviously keeping current on payments is the hope but for many homeowners under water, a short sale is the best option.

If anyone else has news on Countrywide’s policy regarding short sales, please comment.

* * *

I’ve been reading the debt kid’s story with interest… how he came to be in as much debt as he is in and then decided bankruptcy was his only answer. I wasn’t quite as much in debt as this guy, but I thought I’d share my own personal struggle with debt – and how I avoided bankruptcy.

I put myself through four years of college at a private university (at the time I thought it was a better education than a state school, but now I realize there isn’t much difference in the real world unless we’re talking about Yale or Harvard or something!). By “putting myself” through college, I mean, I took out loan after loan, and put the difference between what the loans would pay and what I still owed on credit cards.

I graduated with close to $60,000 in school loans (about half are privately funded loans rather than federal loans), and a good $15,000 in credit card debt. Don’t ask me how I was able to keep getting approved for higher limits and more credit cards, but it wasn’t that difficult to do. I’d ask, I’d receive, I’d spend. As a college student, I prided myself in using credit cards only for college related expenses, thinking it made it “good debt” - while friends were using their credit cards and parents’ cards to charge their entertainment expenses. Either way- debt is debt and I was in trouble.

I was working full time for a government office, but my pay wasn’t anything exceptional and certainly not enough to cover living expenses and the loan payments and credit card payments. I was late on the bills simply because there wasn’t enough money to go around once all of the education loans came due; and to top it all off, I started a family just a few months after I graduated. Yes, I realize this was poor planning (or lack of planning?!) but it’s how it happened.

My expenses were increasing (new baby), but my income was decreasing (staying home with baby). I got a work-at-home position as an administrative assistant (no daycare needed), and supplemented it with writing jobs, but with $75,000 in debt and living expenses – I was still in trouble. My husband worked full time and made an average salary, but he had racked up debt and expenses from years of not really caring about whether he paid his bills or not!

We had to do something. Bankruptcy was considered and thrown out because you can’t write school loans off with a bankruptcy. Since the bulk of the debt was school loans, we didn’t think it would be very helpful in the long run to further damage our credit and file bankruptcy since we’d still have the $60,000 in school loans to deal with, and our living expenses.

My husband had a mortgage, and so he attempted to reduce his own expenses (cards in his name gotten before we got married, small loans, vehicle loan, etc) by refinancing his mortgage to include most of his other expenses. In the process, he was talked into taking the property and school taxes out of escrow for the “lower” monthly payment on the house – not understanding he’d still have to set aside $60 a week in order to have the money available for the taxes when they came due. So the consolidation of his debts with the mortgage refinance actually caused us to pay MORE per month than we had been paying previously!

Our next attempt to salvage the money situation was to use a loan from his 401K to pay off credit card debt. Having been an avid reader of personal finance blogs for several years now, I understand that 401K loans aren’t the best use of the money – but it seemed our only option. The interest we would save on paying off the credit cards with the 401K loan made it worthwhile to us to take from the retirement fund. Plus, when you repay a 401K loan, you pay interest on the money borrowed – which is also deposited into your 401K (so you basically pay yourself back with interest!). We probably lost money on the investment side of the 401K by having less in the retirement account, but I’m certain we probably gained in the long run by paying off credit cards that were at 20% interest or more!

We have sort of learned our financial lessons, although we’re still a long way from where we’d like to be. When we added to our family with our second child, I had a difficult pregnancy that put me on bedrest for awhile – reducing my income temporarily and making it difficult to keep up with the school loan payments (again). The federal loan programs allowed me to defer the loan payments for a few months, but my private education loan through Wells Fargo did not offer a deferment program or any other alternative payment method for this difficult time, and charged my loan off when it was 91 days late as per the contract I signed when I was 19 years old. This of course, further damaged my credit, and the only way to get this loan out of collections is to either pay it in full (about $24,000 right now, after the company added close to $8,000 in fees and such immediately before charge-off), or make payments for years until it’s paid off – but during which time Wells Fargo will not update my credit report to reflect the payment status and so my credit score will not improve by making payments.

We rarely use credit cards, but when we do we pay them off within a month or two of using them. I think the point I’d like people to take from this post, is that even when you think bankruptcy is the only answer- reconsider. If you have retirement, a way to consolidate, or a family member willing to help you get your act back together again, you will probably be better of using these alternative resources rather than filing bankruptcy.

My week-long vacation is over, and although I did work a bit last week, I mostly stayed away from my computer and away from my work. I’m back in Seattle now and feeling refreshed and energized to take on my ongoing battle vs. my 300K debt.

You’re going down debt. Your butt is mine!

Can I cut any major expenses?

My biggest financial choice I need to make in the coming weeks is in regards to my living/work situation. My lease on my current place is up at the end of August, and I need to let my landlord know by the end of this month (July) what I intend to do. My current rent is a $975/month. Bear in mind, I also have a “home office” that my employees work in here as well. It’s still steep though. Considering I used to pay $4,000 a month (house payment + office lease) for my home and business, it’s not terrible. But that was also really dumb.

The options:

1. Renew my lease for 1 year
2. Try to get a 3-month or 6-month lease
3. Go month to month on my lease (which would likely increase the monthly payment)
4. Move to Portland (live with parents or find cheaper rent)
5. Live in my car (really cheap!) and store some stuff. Have employees and self work in a coffee shop.
6. Find a cheaper apartment in Seattle (would be very difficult. I couldn’t pass a credit check anywhere)

What I’m thinking

My gut says to stay put for the short term, although longer term (6+ months out) I want something different. My business is in fairly big transition right now, and I still may be talking a half-time W-2 job soon, and so I’m not sure moving is the best thing right now in terms of keeping turbulence down.

Anyway, I’m taking a few days away from work this week. I haven’t had a true “vacation” for nearly 2 years, and I really need it. So, I’m down in Portland for a few days and will be back and up to speed next week. My “problems” are still with me, I can’t really escape them. And I’m not trying too, I just needed a few days away.

It was hard to justify spending a little cash to get away….but I think my brain needed a break. I’ve been all work 24/7 (brain wise) for the last 12 months, and I felt some of my creativity starting to falter. Ideas just didn’t seem to be flowing as well.

I had a few guest posts I thought lined up for the week, but haven’t’ seem them in my inbox yet. I should have quite a few updates next week and more thoughts on debt, this economy, “staycations” and the IRS.

Most of the major mistakes I’ve made in my life came from me thinking I could do everything on my own.

Every once in a while I have projects where I either need feedback or a comment or a vote. And the great thing about the internet is there are tons of people that are WAY smarter than me that have knowledge and a desire to help.

So this is me asking for your help : )

If you’d be willing to help me out once a week or so, I’d really appreciate it. Sometimes it will be just asking for feedback, sometimes it might be a new idea I want to run by people (but not one that I want to share publicly on the blog here).

I promise I won’t send you an e-mail more than once, maybe twice a week at most. I hate lame, pointless e-mails as much as anyone.

Join the DebtKid Helper Army!

Thanks to everyone that joins my little Army. I really appreciate it, and it will be fun to share a few more private things with you all that I don’t want to share here!

~ DebtKid

Wallet Before Clean Out

Pretty thick. Here’s what’s inside:

My Wallet Contents

• 2 Checking Cards (Business and Personal)
• Old Safeway Gift Card
• Subway Card
• Health Insurance Card
• Blockbuster Card
• Seattle Library Card (need to pay them the $70 I owe!)
• Expired Costco Card (but I still keep just to get in if I want to browse around and grab a cheap hot dog)
• OR and WA Driver’s License
• 2 Random Gift Cards
• 1 $5 bill and 1 $1 Bill (I’m rich!)
• A mess load of random receipts and business cards
• a book of stamps (in the mess at the top)

What I Decided To Keep

• All the random receipts and business cards got ditched. I did however, keep a fortune cookie message that I got about a month ago, “You are only starting on your path to success”
• 2 Checking Cards
• Subway, Blockbuster, and Costco Cards
• Health Insurance Card
• Seattle Library Card
• WA Driver’s License
• $6 in cash!

It had been awhile since I cleaned out my wallet, and I had a bunch of crap in there that was not needed. I kept the stamps, because I like having those on me. Also, I kept my costco card, even though my membership is expired. Sometimes I like to just go there and look around at all the cool stuff and grap a cheap hot dog. It’s a cheap solo date.

“Share your wallet pics” MEME

OK, so I’ve never started a TAG thing before, but I think it would be fun to see what’s in some other PF bloggers wallets! I know this has been done before, but I’ve never done it, and if you haven’t, nows the time! Plus, I’m amped up on like 2 huge cups of coffee and feeling adventurous!

Rules:

• Post a picture of what’s in your wallet
• Share what you cleaned out from your wallet, and what you kept and why
• leave a comment on the 5 tips post here along with a link back to your wallet post
• Tag some other peeps (3 min!)
• link back here to the rules or just repost them on your post

I will tag…

I’d love to see these’s peeps wallets:

• Pinyo from Moolanomy
• Lynnae from BeingFrugal
• JD from GetRichSlowly (unlikely he will do this, but it would be cool)
• Jonathon at MyMoneyBlog
• Frugal Dad
• Patrick from Cash Money Life
• DoughRoller
• SquawkFox
• Mrs. Micah
• Gibble from Gather Little by Little
• I could tag a bunch more peeps, but I don’t want to take everyone!

So, Do you have anything crazy in your wallet? Am I missing anything in mine? (besides more cash!)

While I’m happy for my friend, myself being a male, I’m seeing understandably alot less of her. More like once a week now vs. 3-4 times a week the past 12-18 months.

What has this meant for me and my whole mess? Well, mostly it’s meant more time to work on some side projects outside of “normal business hours”. In other words, prime time social time has turned into prime time work time.

I’ve made some other friends the last few months, and I feel like I “know” alot of people (names, basic facts, etc). But I don’t feel truly close to anyone here in Seattle besides my friend I mentioned above.

So, her getting a boyfriend has really opening up a whole lot of free time for me.

It’s both good and bad. It’s good that I’m getting lots done. It’s bad that I’m working on too many things at the moment (but time is allowing this for now). It’s good that I’m making money.

It’s bad (is it?) that I’m trying to make money on BOTH friday and saturday night this past week.

So far I’m up and down with the whole newfound freedom of time. At times, it’s very handy because I’m pretty motivated right now to work. But, like saturday morning….those big chunks of “free time” are actually a little scary.

Keeping myself motivated work-wise is priority number #1 right now. But in a close second is keeping myself motivated to take care of myself (keeping my apartment clean, doing laundry, running, hitting the weights). When I tend to slack on the second priority it really starts to affect my work motivation.

I guess it boils down to the fact that I work alot better when I feel better about myself.

So, does more time equal more money?

Right now, so far in my little experiment, it does. I’m not rushing to judgement just yet though. If this keeps up the next few months I’ll have a better idea of how this newfound extra time is affecting my bottom line both financially and emotionally.

It’s usually around 8:30am, and if I’m sleeping it it will often wake me up. Anyone know how to stop those? (actually, I do enjoy them, and incoming texts are free for me, so no worries)

But I digress. The whole intro there was to get to this:

Up: My Business

Business stuff is going well. Pulled out a pretty decent June, especially considering the Wells Fargo fiasco. I got everything switched over to Bank of America now, and so far so good.

Down: The Ladies

Yikes, I think I’m done having crushes for a while. I just keep getting disappointed. I haven’t actually asked any girl out since last fall, but the one I had my eye on is clearly not interested. Sigh, oh well. At least citibank thinks I’m married (did I mention they listed me as married on their judgement against me? Which I discovered that I did file in my personal BK. So, I sent them a letter to dispute and I shouldn’t have any judgement from them coming).

Oh yeah, ladies.

I think I’m just going to put those on a pseudo permanent hold for the time being. Seattle is actually a great place to date cheaply, heck even freely, but doing I have the time? Not really. Any time I spend not working, or running, or sleeping, or keeping myself sane, is precious time. I have alot of my plate right now. So in terms of brain cycles, women are going on the back burner for a while.

The Future

I can see where my business is going the next 6 months, and I need to consolidate a bit. I’m a little spread thin on a number of different projects. All have potential, some are making good money, and others I need to wrap up or get sold off some how. If I could get out completely of two of my projects by the end of the year (software development), that would be fantastic.