Hopefull

I haven't written here in a looooong time.

 

Mostly because the news were depressing, sure I have two jogs and i'm paying down debt but it's such a slow process. Mostly because most debt I have is at 30 or 67% interest rate.

 

About three months ago my boss on my second job told me I got a 25% raise on my hourly rate. Great news, I would be able to stay above the debt-line.

 

About a month and a half ago I took an opportunity with Banpais with the Alternativa credit card. They told me they would take my credit card debt (most of it, still have some that was over their limit ouch) and give a loan at 22% , compare that to 33 on other card's payment scheduled or 67 on the actual credit cards.

 

Well it took a long time for the process to come thru, I was hesitant they would accept me since i've missed some due dates on payments, but i've managed to pay eventually. Also the debt amount is still so high that was also a concern.

 

A week into the review process they asked for clarification of a credit card extrafinacing loan I had as it seem as overdraft but it wasn't, it was just the way the CC company displayed stuff. Then they also wanted a letter explaining my second job...I also attached copies of the deposits for the last 2 years as further proof.

 

Finally a week ago they called me to say my loan+ credit card was approved. I was supposed to be very happy..yet I wasn't. I had been worrying so much about it that I thought I wasn't gonna be approved. So I figured they could still turn me down before the checks were printed.

 

Today I got the checks. Today is actually setting in that I'm improving my debt payment situation, consolidating my debt into two payments I can make with half of my second job's income.

 

I was able to go pay two of my credit cards today. The other two will be done tomorrow because I ran out of time before the banks closed.

 

I'm really hoping this will put me in a better position to pay it all out. Next month is my first of 48 monthly payments on this loan. As soon as the checks clear I'm closing out those accounts. If I could I would do it today but I have to way two or three days.

 

 

 

Have a good night. I gotta take some anti-anxiety meds now, I can't get too excited about this, I might get sick with a panic attack.

 

 

Winning the Lottery

Isn't as fun as one would think.

 

Read here:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/110553/jackpot-winners-just-as-likely-to-go-bust

 

Have a good day.

 

 

August rant

Lately i've been overwhelmed with work. I mean seriously. There's only three people in my department and for the last few weeks one has either been sick, on vacation or on a job trip. Which means I have to come in my regular time AND cover for their shift too, which means about a 12 hour workday. That plus my second job is overwhelming at times.

 

I was forgetting that I too had to take some time for a Disaster Recovery seminar, from 5pm to 10pm for two weeks. That also threw a wrench in my work plans.

 

Then my family wants me to come home and not work, and not watch tv (at least not what I want). On weekends I always plan on catching up on stuff from my second job. But the wife and girls want me to go out with them and that's ok. However they also want me to go with them to visit a friend of my wife and her family. the women have lots to talk about, they have 3 kids and so my daughters have a great time playing with them. So the husband and I are left with talking about sports, weather and politics. Sometimes for 5 hours. Five hours that I could've rested at home or worked or something else rather than have someone try to entertain me. To top it off they don't get cellphone signal in their house and have no internet service so even if I take my laptop I can't work there.

 

Yesterday and today have been specially bad at work. One of my coworkers is on a business trip opening a new regional for our processing. No more people on our payroll to do that since all is done from here. This new regional is giving us trouble in our system, which means I have to do manually what usually is done automatically. My other coworker who helps me out leaves at 4pm religiously because he's got classes to attend. So I have the whole thing to run by myself until 9pm

 

The cherry on top was my boss was in a home accident yesterday and after a few stitches to his forehead had to go home to rest. I thought it was reasonable. He didn't come to work today either, I suppose he is still not feeling good. However that leaves holding everything together, the administrative stuff and the technical stuff. If the secretary hadn't return from sick leave last week I might have had to do the bill collection myself too!

 

So I got that off my chest. The two things I did wanted to write about were my financial plans for this week and a note I got from Targus.

 

So as you can remember from old posts way back in May or June, this month I'm going to get a loan from my company coop. I plan to get a large amount of cash to pay down a credit card. I will still have about 40 to 50k of debt on it but that should be much easier to pay faster. A small percentage of the money I get will go to new school uniforms, eye exams and glasses, shoes, tennis shoes, books, etc for the girls. Also some minor but important repairs for both cars and home improvements. At least the home improvements will be repaid by the landlord but I need to put the money up front. I hope to get the ball rolling on all this on monday.

 

A few days ago I wrote a letter to Targus. They make accesories for notebook computers. I wrote to congratulate them on their great products. I've had one of their backpacks for 5 years now and it's awesome. Today they wrote back and told me that I could upgrade to new backpack and other accessories at cost price thru their local distributor. They said that they had never received such an emotional letter before. So i'm going to check their "cost" prices soon and see if it's really worth it to get a new backpack for my notebook.

 

On the last days of July I won a month's membership to a country club here, and two hours of golf training. I haven't used them but they intrigue me. I hope I can make the time to at least get those hours under my belt.

 

Well the phones are ringing so i'm off. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love my Wii Fit Plus

So I bought a Wii Fit Plus for my Nintendo Wii console in June.

 

Not a money-saving action obviously. It was about 3,000lps with a good discount.

 

However one month and a bit more after having purchased it I still think it was a good move. Here are the reasons:

 

1) I thought about purchasing it since about more than a year ago. So it was a well thought purchase. Not an impulse buy.

2) The girls love it and use it almost every day. Not many games attract girls like the Wii Fit.

3) It promotes family activities, competition and mutual congratulation. When was the last time a video game told you while you were playing your game, that your daughter did a great game and you should congratulate her? Wii Fit does that.

4) It tracks all your workout activity, minutes worked (real minutes worked, not setup or warmups), weight, time of day, type of exercise,BMI, it does all the math for you.

5) It's veeeeery patient. The digital instructors never urge you and never lose temper, they always find ways to give the bad news on a positive light, usually saying "You can improve your posture if you do these exercise routinely, great work!"

6) You can exercise by simulating other activities not just gym stuff. Tight-rope walking, hula-hooping, bicycling, skate boarding, snow-ball fight, skying, flying like a chicken (yeah silly but fun).

7) you can exercise seriously too. Yoga, strength, step and other aerobic exercise are there too.

8) After many days of not using it myself, it had tips on what to do on it if I was in a hurry, really cool and a motivating event.

9) It can be set to spanish or english so anyone in the family can play.

10) Being right there in my room makes me think of using it more than if I had to drive to a gym with the right clothes,etc..etc

 

Any thoughts?

schedule change and money in money out

It's been a chaotic weeks since I got a schedule change. My main job now starts at 9am and ends at 5pm, my "morning" job now suffers. So what I do is do work for my morning job from 6 to 9pm from my main job's offices. But that's usually interrupted by main job stuff that happens after 5pm. Also after 5pm there are friends that wanna meet with me, errands to run, etc. Always hard to work enough and balance with life's demands.

 

Mostly sad news, I got my 14th month pay and my bonus pay and although I paid some debt and paid off some debt (a bed), I spent most of the money on car repairs and maintenance, clothing, furniture, etc. Sorta bringing the house and family maintenance up to date. Of course my family did a 50% effort to help me. They would say they "needed" a new tv but were happy to get a model and chip in with half of the montly pay from what I give my wife for food and house stuff every month. Also had to spend money on dresses for the girls as they are going to a "Sweet 15" party. Partly is my fault for giving up to their demands and partly it was a way to sort of reward myself for having been better with my money since my last bonus pay. Now I feel the hangover from all that spending.

 

I guess the only thing i'm not totally depressed about purchasing is the Wii Fit Plus video game. I had purchase a Wii box last year and this was my ultimate goal. Between then and now, the Wii Fit was upgraded to Plus. Nothing technical attracted me to it, just simple things like a way I can relate to to exercise (on my own at my own pace but with tutoring from a trainer). Also a way for my girls, now in vacation, to have something to do without having to spend more money on "summer camps", and they also stay fit. And it's a family game so at night we gather around and laugh and play against each other to sweat out bicycling, running, skating, boxing, stepping,etc. As days go on I like it more and more.

 

My next financial goal is to get my loan from the company coop in August or September and pay a big lump towards my debt with HSBC and then do a full effort to pay it off by end of year. We'll see how that goes.

 

Oh and Honduras just lost to Spain 2-0 , no biggie, it was expected.

Switching accounts

Lately i've been tapping my "Emergency fund" account very frequently, usually for repairs or to cover miscellaneous expenses like school stuff, gifts.etc. I put 2000lps every quincena on that account and I usually take out about 1000 to 1500 from it.

 

At the same time i've request my coop to take 600lps every quincena and put it in as "voluntary savings" which can be withdrawn at any time I wish, after filing out the necessary paperwork. THis one was supposed to be my "Freedom Account" to cover the expenses i'm paying with the account previously stated.

 

It seems natural that the one account which is easier to access be the one that I actually tap into the most. So even though it might seem like a setback i've decided to swap labels on them and have my bank account be the "Freedom account" for car repairs, gifts, school expenses, home repairs, etc.

 

At the same time I will now label my coop voluntary savings as my "Emergency Fund" since I will access that only in case of a real "Emergency" like unforseen medical expenses, accidents, etc. I would probably have to use a credit card to pay up front since taking that money out requires at least a half day of processing (even though I manage the coop too!). But this paperwork makes it harder for me to take money out in a whim and makes it easier to build up a nice amount. Some other coop members already have 20,000lps or 90,000lps in voluntary savings!!

 

I will increase my coop voluntary savings to 1000lps every quincena (400 more) and leave the new "Freedom Account" at 2000lps per quincena. The good thing is that both are taken deducted automatically from my pay by my employer. Although for the change I have to wait a bit since the person that does it is on vacation until June.

 

 

Surprised again

Lately i've been having emotional issues and I think that plus work on both jobs has put me on a somber mood. I've been trying to figure out how to finish paying for my girl's school and how to control my budget with a wife and two daughters that cooperate half way.

 

The most depressing thing has been watching my emergency fund go down rather than up. Even spending Holy Week mostly at home and just travelling to my dad's ranch on a friends car (and on his gas), and we still managed to spend more than usual. Even he complained of the same. He bought a large inflatable pool and we took turns going to each other's house, which are nearby, and we still ended up spending more money than usual. Bathing suits and extra food caused that. So with that and other little things, that add to a big thing, my my emergency fund has gone to a record low.

 

Then just last week my wife asked me why was I sad looking and I started to explain my money concerns about the girls' school and I got no support from her. My oldest daughter's birthday was comming and she got upset that I wouldn't give her money to buy a present for my daughter, I told her we could buy one this last weekend rather than on the actual birthday since I would have some money by then. My daugher was ok with that, she's turning 13. However that idea got a cold reception with my wife and we had one of those ugly discussions about why I owed so much money, how come I still owed so much money, who else was I paying for (implying that I probably had a mistress), etc,etc. Even though she's a business admin mayor and is studing a master's degree, the concept of interest evades her. I see the credit card bills, no charges, and the balance only goes down about 10% or 20% or my total payment, the rest is lost to interest charges. Such is the price to pay for many years of money mis-management. However she refuses at times to consider that the party is over. Eventually we did it my way. We cut her a birthday cake on wednesday and saturday we went shopping for a shirt and shorts for her and it all went fine, except I had to endure the awful discussion earlier in the week.

 

Well, this week I had to cover for a coworker which meant I could've leave the office for anything until 2pm. So I told her I wasn't going to be able to come home for lunch. Surprisingly she volunteered to bring me lunch to work so that I wouldn't have to buy food here. I agreed even though in my head I was already making the math of the fuel cost of her driving here versus me buying here. But like most money problems it's not all about math but also about emotions. I know if I start making the math with her she will get upset at me by not recognizing her effort to help me with the food costs.

 

So I was going over the tution problem over the weekend and this week and thinking about the Promerica balance and how I was going to pay it all up on August or so. I figured that I needed a little breathing room between now and August. The montly payment of Lps 8040 is the second largest payment I make after tuition. So I called Promerica just a few minutes ago.

 

I got a guy there, let's call him Al, and I explained that I wanted to lower my monthly payment by either lowering my interest rate or extending the term. He looked at my account and said he could make cut my payment in half by refinancing my "loan" to 48 months starting now. Good, but 48 months!!! No no. Plus the balance he had is one payment behind of the balance I have. So I told he I would go to their offices to clear the issue. It's then that he told me that if I could he would prefer I paid a little more because with a 48 month refinancing I would pay a lot in interest, I agreed totally. He said I should try a shorter term. I guess they do have a heart too.

 

It was then that I told him that I expected to have about 80,000 lps by August and make a "ballon" payment on the debt. He then spoke a little softly and said that once I had that amount to go to their offices and talk to his supervisor and tell her that I had x amount of money and that I could pay it all at once. He said it was probable that I could get a discount on the balance owed!! LG, you commented about this and I said it was very unlike. Well I'm glad I at least had your comment in my mind. He said I could get 10% or 15% off if I pleaded my case well. So I will try that but won't count on it, that way it will be a happy surprise and money that I would put towards another one of my debts

 

Unfortunately Al is going on vacation starting tomorrow and I have to get this done this week, but he was going to pass my case to his buddy "Dean" who would handle the refinancing and balance review with me tomorrow. I want to lower my monthly payments to something like 5000lps, but still have the plan to pay it all at once when I get to the sweet spot. That being the month in which the money I can take out on a coop loan (at 12%) is equal or more than the money I will owe by then on this card. From previous calculations I estimate it will be August.

 

So i'm a little happier today. It's probably a combination between getting paid today, having the wife in "cooperative" mode for now and Al's information about refinancing and the possible discount.

 

I still have to figure out how to pay for 1 and half month's of the girl's tuition to end the year. If things become desperate I know I can pay it but it would mean setting me back for the start of their school year in September. So I have to make a saving's plan to have that money available by mid June. (my 14avo bonus is already comitted to that cause to pay for 2 and a half months).

 

I had thought of taking the coop loan earlier and making that ballon payment and lowering my balance a lot to keep paying for a couple of months, however with Al's information I think I should do my math once again to really try to get the full amount or close so I can get the discount by making the full payment. We'll see how it goes. I can't wait to start paying up more money to my HSBC account!!

 

Oh, happy Columbus Day!