The Basement

This is not only going to be a negative post, but a bitching post too

So we all know the economy is bad, so allow me to share a bit of a personal story.  In fact, a current personal story. Now before we go much farther, yes, these are my problems, yes they are mostly the results of my actions, yes doing things differently would in turn give me a different outcome, and yes, i take full responsibility of everything in my life.

Now, i bought my house a couple years ago, and being young in buying a house, and the current downward trend at the time, i got a pretty high rate of interest on my Mortgage. Now while i can afford the mortgage, that s not the problem, with all my other bills, it just makes living tight.

Let me throw a little tidbit in there.  Now, I’m going to give highly exaggerated (for my case) yet relevant numbers out just as a stable groundwork for this post.  Let’s just say i make 80K a year, and bring home 4K a month.  Let’s also say i have a 2500/month mortgage. Now so far, this is all very reasonable, and pretty good.  I’m making good decisions.  Now add in bills, cost of living, etc, alt let’s say that i pay out 3000 of my 4000 a month

1000 saved!! good number……except for problems.  While trying to save money, let’s say i have to replace a transmission in mine, and my wife’s car.  I also have some windows that leak or are broken i need to repair before winter.  I also say, have a baby and have alot of medical bills i have to pay off.  That 1K a month is is quickly reduced to say 100 spare a month as i have racked up say 40K in credit card bills and 900 a month is going to pay those credit cards off.   Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is an overnight thing, this is say, over the course of 2 years.  Life happens, you need things, like a roof, car repairs, etc, and these things can happen.  Too make that 40K more reasonable let’s say that 5K of that is repairs and 25K of that is financing a car after my repaired vehicle dies.  So now you see where a Conundrum can begin to appear.  While i had unexpected expenses happen, and also have done my best to keep things in check, life happens and now i’m in a hole.  Now I’m playing catchup, if something else major happens, i obviously won’t have the liquid cash, credit cards got me to this point first because banks were not really lending, so trying to stay away from them is a priority, so you can see where this just gets bad.  though 900 is being paid out, with increased APR’s, and the fact that the payment is being spread out over say 4 cards, you make very very little headway in that format.  And while the classic solution is pay minimums and focus on one car at a time

So let’s say your trying to fix this. how do you begin? well, like everyone does!! with a mortgage! trying to refinance though, is wretched.  If your not missing payments, there really isn’t any help for you.  If your being good, paying all your bills, on time, maybe even a bit extra, you can get no relief.  there is NOTHING in place for you.  So for being an ass and screwing over banks and other people, there is help for you, but if your doing the best to NOT be one of those people,to NOT become a statistic and a burden, your just stuck sitting there, hanging on, with little choice for change. Why is it this way?  why is the guy trying to do right, but just wants a little safety net shunned?? it makes no sense to me!

Ok so let’s try another approach, the credit cards!!  Hrmm……

We already know traditional methods of focus, while it will work, will take FOREVER and will not work in the aspect of having some spare cash for emergencies.  Now there is the whole new fad of “debt consolidation” but that rips your credit score up one side and down the other and really just messes with you long term.  This is an extreme action and is really just not a good option at all. Why people do this tactic, i don;t get it, but i am sure there are some justifiable reasons or scenarios for it.So let’s look at this angle then, how can we lower the payments?  well the easiest way is to get a better APR RATE!  YEAH!!  so how can we do this?  well with the credit card companies fun new practice of just upping rates, that won;t happen.  so what about a loan? well one idea that makes sense, is to take out a loan with a lesser APR, say, from a bank.  Say your credit cards APR is 15% or more, and a bank can get you a personal loan for 12% APR.  that is a huge savings! So let’s go try that…..wait nope, wrong again.  It’s a risk.  But you pay all your bills, on time, and your never late. You should be a great candidate right?  Nope, because no one will see that you pay on time and more then minimal, all they will see is your Income to Debt ratio, and you get denied. Wow. Shot down again.

So is it just me, or does this whole system seem flawed? i mean, how is it that a system will not help those who are doing good by the letter of their agreements?how is it that it does not get setup that way? it just baffles the mind. It appears as if there is no system in place to help the good people, only the ones who screw up.

Now mind you, i don’t have a huge mortgage like i talked about, i don’t have 40K in credit card debt, and my situation is not as bad as the one i laid out, it is just as frustrating, and i just needed to let it out at how i find it all so very hopeless in trying to do the right thing, but am fearing i just may become another statistic.