My Debt Reduction Blog

I have to get a new (used) car

Chad — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:54 +0000

Due to some changes with my employer, the need to for me to get a decent, reliable vehicle has risen. For the last 6-7 years, my employer has provided a work vehicle. Which has allowed me to drive a P.O.S. for my 5 minute commute I had to work. Well, the work vehicle is going away and my job consists of a lot of driving. My personal car is basically dead and couldn’t be trusted as reliable what-so-ever. I’ve known of this need for a few months now and it’s down to crunch time. Because my job also requires carrying tools, ladders, and sometimes large items, and because winter in Wisconsin is nasty, I’ve decided I want a full size 4 wheel drive SUV. My employer now provides a $160/month gas allowance, so gas mileage isn’t terribly important to me.

I’ve been saving for a new vehicle for awhile, but that got used up when the wife totaled her van back in March. So I’m only back up to about $1,000 saved for it. Sadly, I can’t find a decent vehicle with the specs I’m looking for in that price range. I would love to get something around a 2004-2006 Chevy Tahoe or GMC Yukon, but those are going for around $15,000 used, and that is out of my price range. I’ve determined, even though I do not want car payments, that I could afford about $150/month. Which puts me in the price range about $7,500. If I get lucky, I may be able to find something around a 2000 – 2001.

Now the tricky part, I’m going to need to finance the purchase. I have plenty of time to research and do it right. I’m not going to be pressured in to 15% financing on a dealer lot. Have I mentioned just how much I hate dealers yet, and car shopping in general? So I’d like to get pre-approved for the $7,500 amount without actually committing to a vehicle. Then I could get a little negotiable. I don’t have the best credit past, and I’m certainly stretched now, so I don’t know how easy that will be.

Now I need to just figure out where the best place would be to do that. My bank? A credit union? Is there a trusty online loan source anywhere?

Update: I applied for a loan with my bank that I’ve been with for 12+ years and was quickly shot down. Damn!

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Anyone have their mortgage with ING Direct?

Chad — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:55:11 +0000

I have used them for their online savings account, but now their current mortgage rate of 4.5% is appealing.

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Reuters: U.S. senator predicts swift action on credit cards

Chad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:31:01 +0000

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Credit card practices considered unfair to consumers, such as sudden rate increases, will disappear sooner than a 18-month implementation period set by regulators, Sen. Christopher Dodd predicted on Thursday.

“Consumers are trapped in a business model that is designed to induce mistakes and jack up fees,” Schumer said.

Read full: Reuters UK

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Just paid off one credit card, and damn, it feels good

Chad — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:11:27 +0000

Just sent off a payment of $413.49 to Juniper which will bring the balance on that card to $0. Sadly, there are still a lot of bills to go, but it feels great to stick a fork in one of them.

That is all! Peace.

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I’m on a staycation this week

Chad — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:39:27 +0000

It’s been a rough year, financially and maritally speaking. I am glad to see 2008 coming to a close. I’ve taken this week off to give me some time to detach from my everyday responsibilities and focus on where I am and where I want to be. And most importantly, what do I need to do to get there.

My main concern is my marriage. I haven’t been happy for a long time. I would rather do anything than go through a divorce, but when do you have call it quits?? That’s what I’m hoping to determine this week.

At some point this week, I need to review the finances too. They’ve been sorely neglected this year. I know I we’ve incurred more debt, which certainly the wrong direction.

And one more project for the week, is to finally put together stuff to sell. I’ve been sitting on some stuff that I need to get rid of to bring in some cash.

That is all for now.

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Really quick update

Chad — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:47:13 +0000

I’m still alive and still in debt. I am still married. My wife still has not gotten a teaching job since she’s gotten her teacher certification back in June. Times are tough and reserves are running out.

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Making a little extra income

Chad — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:49:46 +0000

Thanks to some enhancements I made with Google Ads, plus starting to put Google search in a few strategic locations, I’m actually impressed with the results. Now I’m not talking tons of cash all of a sudden rolling in. But in the past it usually took me about a year to accumulate the minimum $100 payout amount. Now I’ve hit and exceeded it a bit about 6 months. I even had one day where I made $10+ on adsense searches. I would love to see that everyday!

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I can’t believe how much I neglected this blog

Chad — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:27:15 +0000

Let’s just says the last six months have been a rather rough roller coaster ride. Financial and marital problems can really take a toll on ones motivation. There have been no big improvements on either front to speak of unfortunately. In fact, financially, I put us a little deeper by buying a new TV and a Nintendo Wii recently. I certainly didn’t need these items, but I’m glad I bought them. They have provided a form of bonding and fun times for our family. Something that was desperately needed.

With school ending soon, my wifes student teaching is also coming to an end. She will have her certification in a couple of weeks and can officially get a teaching job. But the local need for teachers right now is a bit bleak. I don’t predict her landing a job anytime soon unfortunately.

So, there’s a quick update in to the happenings here. Thanks for hanging around. And, as usual, I plan to start posting more.

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Can txt’ing save a marriage?

Chad — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:09:22 +0000

Please forgive this majorly off-topic post, but I don’t want to start another website to showcase additional turmoil in my life.

There are a few reasons why this website has seen so much neglect over the past few months, but the major reason has been the fact that my marriage has been on the brink of utter disaster. So many factors have played into why our marriage is teetering right now, and I won’t go in to all the details, but I will say that our financial situation isn’t one of the factors. There have been mistakes made by both of us. There have been things said, that both regret. This has been something that has been in the works for a couple of years. It came to a head September of 2007 when I was awoken to just how bad it was.

In October we both agreed to start seeing a counsellor and we continued to the end of January of 2008. During that time we had ups and downs, but overall nothing improved. We mutually agreed that this particular counsellor wasn’t doing anything for us. After we stopped going to counselling, things continued to get worse. So much so that on February 15th I packed my bags and told her I would not be coming home after work that day or ever again and I wouldn’t tell her where I’d be, but I’d be reachable via cell phone. She asked that if we could talk face to face after she came home from work before I took off. I agreed to that and ended up calling in sick to work and just staying home to try and relax.

Something that I should mention is that because of all of this I was under extreme anxiety and had feelings of depression. One of the last things our counsellor suggested to me was to try some anxiety medication to help cope with the marital issues we were facing, because I always dwelled on the current negatives and never on the positives. So I saw my doctor and explained what was going on and he prescribed me something called Paroxetine. It came with the warning of a lot of side effects that I would probably experience during the first three weeks. And I had them all. It was a miserable 3 weeks, and my packing up to leave happened right in the middle of all that. I was also prescribed Xanex to help me relax at night and to help me sleep. That stuff works great.

Ok, on to the point of this post as we’re starting to get up to date. On the 15th when we had our talk, we both agreed that neither one of us wants to call it quits, but with her student teaching, going to school one night a week, and working a part time job, that she just can’t give much to the relationship right now. I never left, and my medication is working in full force now without the crappy side effects.

We’ve just been taking it day by day. I’ve backed off on the ‘always wanting to talk about us’ approach that never seemed to do anything other than drive her away. And the medications have helped with that. Just last week, we started with a new therapist, and right away, her approach seems way different. She recommended a book, called The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work, which I ordered right away from good old Amazon. I’m about half way through the book already and it’s really good.

There is still plenty of tension between us, and when we’re in the same room together, it’s still somewhat uncomfortable. We do a ton of text messaging with each other though. And what’s really cool, is that we have normal, good conversations via our phones. Something we haven’t been able to do face to face for a long time. I really think that all the text messaging has helped us in a non direct way.

Over the last week, she has been talkative and will actually sit down by me. As weird as it sounds, that feels really good when she does. I’d really like to think that some stuff is turning around for us. It isn’t an earth shattering turn around, but it is something. And I also think that all the text messaging that we do, played a major role in getting us to start communicating again while we’re in the same room.

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The time is here

Chad — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:34:53 +0000

My wife has been going to school to become a teacher, and now her time to start student teaching has arrived. What does this mean for us? Well, it’s actually quite substantial. It means she had to quit her full time job, which also provided all our family insurance needs, so she can take over an actual class full time for six months for no salary. Her last day was last Friday and she starts student teaching this Monday. While she wasn’t making a ton of money at her job, we still needed every penny to get through every month.

I really don’t know what is going to happen over the next six months. She has picked up a part time job, but it’s not nearly enough to help us cover our current monthly expenses. We’re hoping to get our taxes filed right away so our return can cover a couple of months. And this weekend I’ll be scouring the house looking for items to sell. Other than that, we can only wait to see what happens.

When student teaching is over, she will then get her teacher certification and can start applying for teaching jobs. And with any luck she will land one before the start of the next school year. If that happens, she would then be making about 15k/yr more than she was at the job she just quit. Plus our girls will be starting kindergarten this fall, which means no more pre-school costs(saving us over $17,000/yr). So the second half the year could end up being a real boost for us.

Only time will tell.

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