Time to get the lead OUT!

Photo courtesy of rendebbie

Aight, confession time... I've been hiding from you guys. I've hit a wall. I know it's temporary but I've just kind of found myself in a financial lull this week. I havent even wanted to LOOK at our budget, let alone make descisions on how/what to pay.

It's natural to feel this way, I know. But it's still painful. There's a restlessness that comes with deciding to get out of debt. Once you make that decision, you want it to be OVER with PRONTO! But I've heard some people say "Hey, It took me my whole life to get INTO debt, so obviously it'st gonna take some time to get OUT!" Though I know this to be true, it's just not helpful to pacify myself with that thought at times like this.

Yes, it's a process getting out. And sometimes you just dont really grasp the toll it takes on you when your income vs. your outgo only ebbs -- not really flows -- on a bi-weekly basis. The only time the debt moves is virtually once every 14 days, or when you get that paycheck. You make a payment, then wait another 14 days to do it again. It's a SLOW process at first.

But there is hope! And it's called the Debt Snowball! It's truly a work of art once it's working properly in your financial situation. Right now, my wife and I are about 3-4 months away from the moment this tool will really start to be of benefit to us. We have it all graphed out, diagramed, and circled on our calendar, and we cant WAIT for that baby to start gathering steam.

We have 2 large monthly expenses that are really standing in our way right now. A personal loan with about $700 left to payoff (4 more payments). And another line of credit with about $3000 left to payof (about 7 more payments). Once those 2 monthly payments are gone, it will REALLY allow us to lay into more of this debt!

Wow! Just writing about this has helped improve my mood. I think sometimes we dig around in the details so much that we lose sight of the big picture. Thanks to you all for helping me through this funk!

Anyway that's my time for now. It's Friday afternoon and I gotta run some errands so I can start my weekend off WRIGHT!

God bless you all,

@W

A small commercial break...

Photo courtesy of merlinmann

Hi gang, It's been a brutal week at work (Part and parcel with being a manager now!) so I've been unable to get on here and finish the banking series.

Instead I just have a quick quote I want to share with you:

"Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack."
Gen. George S. Patton

This quote jumped out at me particularly as it relates to getting out of debt. During too many conversations I've been met with resistance and borderline hostility when I share that my wife and I are trying to get out of debt. I usually get the defensive "Oh, well we are too!" but within no less than 2 minutes after that statement, they're already talking about the struggle they're having keeping the mortgage current and how it's going to impact the $10,00 vacation to the Samoan Islands they're taking next month! How did we as a society get into this state of disrepair?!? And why are we so willing to TALK about it, instead of BE about it?

For me it's eerily reminiscent of people who claim to know and love the Lord but consistently exhibit behavior contrary to His Word and His Will! (But I'm not even about to go there today.)

Are you cynical towards something that you should not be? Is there something you lack, but instead of working toward it, you're the one laughing on the sidelines while others cross the finish line? If so, then this post is for YOU, how ever you want to recieve it...

@W

Overdraft fees, or "When $16.05 costs you $86.05" Part I

Photo courtesy of Snappy Larry

Ok so I couldn't sleep Monday morning. I woke up around 4am and just had a sense that i wouldn't be getting back to sleep. So I flipped open my Sprint Mogul and started typing out this post. I had some exciting topics lined up to write about this week until I realized that I was basically ignoring an extremely relevant and interesting story to share with you all. So the other topics will have to go on the back burner for now cause nothin else is cookin till I work my way thru this pressing subject matter.


So what is this all about? Well as much as I hate this subject I think I should dedicate a post (or two) to the wonderful world of Overdraft Fees. How they are not considered to be predatory lending I will never know.

Yup as you can probably tell by the title today, we got hit over the weekend by this snare of the Enemy. (no not the devil, I'm only dealing with banks today... But feel free to use them interchangeably if you wish.)

This time there's the added sting that this is our first ODF (Overdraft Fee) since we started our Total Money Makeover (TMM) in October. On the bright side, this is still only the second ODF of our marriage though. Quick shout out to my wife of 9 months and 7 days I love you... *cough basicallywright.blogspot.com cough*

So anyway, yeah this one hurts on a few levels. Like to hear them -- here they go:

The average bank charges a flat $35 fee per overdrafted transaction in addition to 'covering' the expense(s) that put your account in the negative. That means they get $35 whether yo go over by $100.00 or just $1.00. In our case we had two... A $1.05 redbox charge that was pending on the account since Wednesday -- stay tuned, the next post in this mini-series is dedicated to pending purchases -- and a $15.00 charge for gas that was pending since Thursday.

Now before I go any further I REALLY need to testify to how good God has been in my life! He's really changed my heart in so many places!

Back when my wife and I were dating I really had a disdain for banking institutions because of stuff like this. The nickle and dime fee's they'd hit you with to diminish your stacks, and the truly minuscule interest rates they'd break you off with while they were piling their stacks! I mean it would really be enough to throw me into fits of rage. But Saturday night when I checked the account from my phone and saw the negative amounts IT DIDN'T EVEN PHASE ME! I simply turned to her and said "Can you pull up the account on the laptop? Its saying we're overdrawn and we need to have a quick finance meeting to talk this thru." And that was it. No kicking, screaming, attitudes or drive-bys.


Yes we lost out on some much needed funds, and yes it was a hard lesson learned and a very hard time to learn it, but at the same time it was a blessing. Now I say that because it was a painful reminder of why we've gotta get out of our current financial situation for good! It's also a blessing because I get to share it with you in a positive way that hopefully will encourage you to join me in getting out of this mess. I can honestly say that I'm thankful to God for the way He's allowed me to view it this time around.

Ok I'm getting long winded again so let me bring this to a close.

So back to the $35.00 fees. Like I said there was one for redbox and one for a gas purchase, which totals $70.00. They made $55 dollars of pure profit off of me for $16.05 dollar worth of transactions. The redbox charge was fine because we budget for it each check. ($5 total) It was the gas that jacked us up here. Our gas envelope from the previous check got us through to Wednesday night, but we didn't get paid till Thursday morning. This left no opportunity to get to the bank and envelope the money like we normally would, so instead I used the check card... First time in a long time and hopefully the last time for as long as we can help it.

In my thinking banks would be better served by charging a 10% fee. That way if you go over by $16.05 you pay a $1.61 fee but if you go over $600 (say, if your car note doesn't clear), you pay a $60.00 fee. This would punish the behavior and not the individual. For good measure they could even have a sliding scale where the first ODF transaction would be 10% and each following transaction would be increased in increments of 5% per transaction. The bank would still make PLENTY of money and PLENTY of people would still keep their accounts in the negative... And they'd both continue to live the 'American' dream.

@W

My next post will be part 2 of this expose... 'Pending Transactions'