In Business

In a few years I would like to become an independent consultant in the new media industry. I don’t know what that means either. Basically I want to help tell companies what they need to do in order to stay up in this internet game, primarily TV and magazine properties. But the problem is I’m not tryin to be property of The Man. I’ll contract myself out to various folks, but I run my own company. Plus I might venture into other things like web development, content production, and maybe some video stuff.

The point is, I need money to start this thing.  I did a little bit of research, and to establish an LLC, It will cost roughly $900. Right now I have a few freelance clients lined up, whose work I have not finished. The plan is to take their money, cash the checks, ball up the cash and put it under my mattress. Ha. I don’t know what else to do with the money for now. I don’t want to be tempted to spend it, and also I want to keep business finances seperate from personal finances. I don’t want to spend money on opening a business account yet either, because I’ll incur charges on that, which will just dip into my LLC fund.

For now, I can expect $400 to go towards the business fund.

$ 4,126.39 Refund

I took a student loan out to help me with my debt. This may or may not have been a smart move. I figure with a low student loan rate, I can pay off some collections debt quicker, and clean up my credit report faster. Once this is done, I’ll start paying off the loan, especially since I am still a student, and have a decent grace period before the loan starts collecting interest.

Almost There

So lately I have been feeling like a freeloader because I live with my dad and don’t pay rent. I barely clean up because I am so busy with my job and Grad school. In addition to all this, I have nothing saved up. Loser, much?

The idea is that as soon a I ca save up 2500 bucks, I’ll move out. I’ve never saved that much money in my life. I figure $1500 for the deposit on whatever apartment I find. Then I will factor in $1000 for moving and furniture expenses. I have enough furniture to furnish a bedroom, but nothing for a living room. I figure $1K will get me jumpstarted at IKEA at the very least.

All of this to say, I don’t know what order this is going to happen. I need to save up for that customary 3 mos living expenses, which I think should be $4000-$4500 bucks, right? That’s including rent, utilities, and car note for 3 months. Sheesh. A lot.  Once I have that saved up then I’d feel comfortable enough to save up to move.

I can’t move anyway until I clean up my credit report. Right. Stay focused on that first.

My Story

Alright so before I get to setting my goals, let’s back up here for a moment and talk about how I got to where I am.

It all started in 1999 when I entered college. I was far far away from home. I was signing loans for my extra-expensive school. And I signed up for credit cards. Keep in mind, my mom always warned me about credit cards. But it was always like, “Don’t get any credit cards.” That was all I knew. Did I listen? No.  I wanted to. It’s just….well, I grew up kinda poor, and had a bit of a troubled childhood. I was using college to run away from home, and so it was imperative that I become financially independent if my plans of severing ties to home were going to work. My parents were so unstable and unreliable, there was no way I could risk depending on them for things like clothes, food, and other necessities. So I got a lot of credit cards, and started buying things I needed like clothes, shoes, and a cell phone. I had a job that I worked, but I couldn’t do too much work, due to my courseload at school.

And so the viscious cycle began. By the middle of my sohpmore year, I was maxed out to the limit on my credit cards. I remember taking a trip to NYC with only 30 bucks left on my credit cards. To this day, I cannot explain my rationale in this. Looking back, it’s difficult to understand my line of thinking in this. I guess I was just a poor girl who finally got wind of some loot and didn’t know how to control herself. What’s worse is, I didn’t know how to handle myself with creditors. As the months rolled by, I got calls and letters from bill collectors. I panicked, and didn’t know what to do. I kept it as my dirty little secret: I was a few thousand dollars in credit card debt and had no idea what to do about it.

And so that’s basically it. I ignored my bill collectors. All my accounts went into collections.  I still got calls every now and then, but because I moved a lot, they were never able to get me on the phone.  I just deicded to stick my head in the sand and hope it all went away.

It didn’t.

Needless to say my credit is less than stellar. The good thing out of all of this is that I have learned to live life without the crutch of fake money like credit card limits. I save up for things, or go without things I don’t need. That’s the benefit of all this: I learned a valuable lesson. I was able to get a car loan when I was out of college, and rent an apartment….however, a few more recent mistakes two years ago have probably pushed my credit further and deeper into the depths of High Risk zone. For one, I defaulted on my college loans one month. I also had a big mishap with bank of america and one of my cards went into collections recently.  I tried to find an apartment over a year ago, and couldn’t get one in a nice neighrbohood because my credit was apparently bad. And finally, in March of this year, I was sued for one of my old credit card debts. I never thought it would happen. I ignored the letters in the mail because I thought they were fake. They looked like spam. But one day I got a letter in the mail that had court documentation on it, and the next thing I knew, my checking account was frozen. I panicked. I still don’t know what to make of that. I called the company as soon as I could and made arrangements with them to pay monthly, which I am still doing. My recent pitfalls are due to making poor decisions with my income. I was making $31,000/ year with an $850/mo rent and $425/mo car note, plus $180 insurance. I was once again, barely making ends meet.

Today my salary is $55,000, and I am living at home with my dad. I work full time, and go to school full time. I have taken out no loans for school until this semester (I have been in school for over a year now), and the plan is to use some of this loan money to immediately pay off some of my bad debt, in the hopes that it will clear up my credit report faster. I don’t know how much debt I have, besides car loan and college loans, but I plan on figuring that all out here, and keeping track of my progress. the first goal is to get my credit report cleared up. Get old things removed (some statue of limitatins have passed or are nearing), get some things cleared off by paying them out. I believe I have one or two companies trying to scam me on my credit report by listing that I owe them on accounts I never owed anybody (i.e. a fake Cingular account I don’t owe on). I have other companies trying to re-age some of my upcoming status of limitations accounts as well. I have other debts I want to dispute. So, there you have it. A lot to figure out. A lot to sort out. I hope I can be of help to someone on their way to a better credit score, and better financial freedom.

Prelude

So, this is what it has come down to. An anonymous blog on the ‘net will hopefully bring me closer to financial freedom. I am starting this blog because I became inspired by all the personal financial blogs on the web, as well as all the resources, forums, etc. about debt issues. I figure, maybe I can give back by telling my own story. Plus this will help me keep track of what’s going on in my life with my credit reports, debt, and savings.

Right now, I don’t have the time to go into my debt story, but it will come soon.  In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite songs as of late, by Kanye West. The hook explains exactly how I will feel once I get this money debt monkey off my debt:

“La la la la
Wait ’til I get my money right
La la la la
Then you can’t tell me nothing right?
Excuse me, is you saying something?
Uh, uh, you can’t tell me nothing
You can’t tell me nothing
Uh, uh, you can’t tell me nothing”