Back in May I said there were a few topics I was going to tackle in coming weeks:

- Compound Interest is kicking my ass - Numbers don't lie, finally did a budget and um, yikes! - Lean months are coming - Going back to school?? - Taking a step back to see what I have accomplished so far

Naturally, I have forgotten the major points of said teasers, so this'll be easier than I thought. I'll be able to wrap this all up in one post.

*****

1. Compound Interest is kicking my ass

I didn't full grasp the evils of compound interest till I mused my Target bill and it's ever so slow downward creep. It seemed like I was paying interest on interest. Feeling frustrated and like I busted a credit card doing something sue-worthy, I opened up calculator and tried to crunch the numbers I never touch. The ones behind the scene. What I found out, floored me.

Looking @ my 3/5/08 statement, my previous balance was $9,323.79, w/a minimum due of $262.83. I paid 262.93 and made a mental note my next bill would be around $9,060.86.

It was actually $9,205.81.

Curious as to why I was so off base, I looked @ the bottom of the statement. In the purchases box (mind you I don't use the card) I saw a "purchase" charge for $145.00. It was labeled finance charges. I felt sick. For that amount of loot, I could've walked into Target and gotten myself $145 worth of stuff.

Taking a deep breath, I did some googling. That was the day I learned about compound interest.

I opened up my 4/5/08 statement. Previous Balance, $9205.81. Paid $265. Finance Charges $153.03.

It felt like for every two steps forward ($265 payment) , I was talking a step back ($265 -$153 finance = $112 actually paid).

Now I can't get too upset w/myself. The way I structured my debt pay off, to go from smallest to largest was for a valid reason. I need the mental hooray that comes w/each debt I knock out.

I know myself, had I attempted to pay this card off first, I'd still be paying it down, granted there'd be a considerably smaller balance maybe in the 3k range, but I'd also have 8 other mini debts nipping @ my heels. Visually, I like focusing on 4 debts, so while I an gripe, I am realistic and used my energy to figure out this money maker worked for Target and it goes a little something like this:

Average daily balance x daily interest = monthly finance charge

Got it?

How do they figure daily interest you say? Easy. see that annual % rate, mine is a tasty 19.99%, you take that and divide the # of days in the year, this case 365.

That gives me 0.054767123287671232876712328767123%, let's say 0.05476% for short, as my daily interest.

Now take the average daily balance, in my case $9,014.65 and multiply it by 0.05476% (be sure to hit the % key) it'll give ya 4.93642234, lets just say 4.94. Which really means $4.94 in daily interest. Finally, we multiply that by the days in the billing cycle, 31 and voila, $153.14 in interest. Just wow.

Learning that tidbit, has made me extra focused on paying off this debt and made me check out the interest on what I have left. Granted my student loan debt is simple interest and it makes more sense to pay the least amount of money possible, I am just @ the point where I'll just consider it a lesson learned and continue paying my debt smallest to largest.

It irks me that in a years time I'll have forked over $1800+ in just finance charges, but @ this point, it's a silly debate to have w/myself.

This was much longer than I intended, so here's another promise ;), I'll pick up the other 4 topics in a few days.

Doing this 2 days early b/c I'm scheduled to work EVERY FREAKIN NIGHT this week...*ahem*

Here is where I was 3/8/08:

Here is where I am as of today:

1. Capital 1 Gold (+ GA Taxes). Last month $4,873.29. Today it is Paid in FULL!.

2. William & Fudge. Last month $2,876.81. Now I owe $2,726.81.

3. Direct Student Loan. Last month $7,603.81. Now I owe $7,513.69.

4. Target Visa (+ Federal Taxes). Last month I owed $8,940.81. Now I owe $9,093.84.

5. Sallie Mae. Last month $23,734.48. Now I owe $23,542.20.

Grand totals: Last month I was $47,883.20 in debt. Now I am $42,876.54 in debt.

In the last 30 days I have paid down $5,006.66, resulting in me paying off 1 more credit card and consequently, my GA Tax bill!!

Put it like this, when you do not see me updating this blog for weeks on end, I'm offline trying to make money...heh

I'm not sure what's up w/the Target balance of going up, I didn't make any purchases on the card, if anything, I was more likely to have been bleary eyed when I did the update last month. Oh well.

For some reason, I'm not feeling accomplished. Looking @ the numbers on paper, I can see something was done, I can grasp that 5k is nothing to sneeze @, yet I still feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I don't know exactly @ what point will I feel like I'm making progress, maybe when all cc's are paid off? when I have 1 student loan left? I dunno.

********

So I quit job #3, it was insane and I'll leave it @ that. No regrets nor any rush to find another job#3. I've just been taking it easy the last 2 weeks, enjoying a few days a week off and as of last week, decided to open up my availability for job# 2 and as much as that place irks me, it's pretty much a no brainer to just show up and get my job done.

Plus for better mental health, I've changed my time to leave @ 9pm Mon - Thurs, Friday nights I'll stay till whenever, plus I don't mind going in on Friday, traffic is off the wall, why not get paid right? On the weekends, I work till 2pm. This week, being my first since the change, I have 25 hours which is pretty good, and I'm off on Saturday.

Does it cut into my overall plan, just a bit, but again, my goal is do pay an extra $500/mo to existing debt an as you can tell from last month, I exceeded that goal by $4,000...hee!!

One more thing that soured my mood a bit, is that I lost out on some ad money last month. The good thing is, I never rely on that money, it's always in addition to what I make @ job #2 so on paper, it's no biggie. I also got a smaller ad, so I didn't completely lose out on much.

********

One last note on payments, I made a strategic decision to pay off the capital one gold card before the smaller debt. Reason being, that debt has no interest. Matter of fact, interest is the main reason I cleared out an old acct to pay off that card. @ the start of the year, I was earning 5% interest, and this week it went down to 2.96%. That day, I also happened to open up my cc acct and checked the monthly finance charge.

You know where this is going right?

I'd have been a dope to keep holding onto that $1,500 and earning about $3/mo when that 5k in debt was costing me $65/mo. I totally feel the same way about the Target debt. I cringe when I see how much interest I'm doling out, so the new plan will continue. Pay that off as soon as I can, and pay the minimum on the W&F loan, which if I keep @ the minimum payment of $150/mo, will be paid in full by Sept of next year.

********

Yet, I'm still all blah. I think I know what the prob is, while I'm working so very hard to become debt free, I have pending debts that can't be avoided, 2008 Taxes, state and feds (due in April); car registration, car emissions, insurance renewal (all due in May); tires, tune up, hair care (flexible I guess) and a few more things, so guess what kind of catch 22 I'm stuck in?

Either use existing cash to pay the new debt, or pay off the cc and end up putting the new debt back onto the paid in full cc. Ugh. Yea, that's what's been sticking in my craw for the last few days.

It has helped me reevaluate much of what I'm currently doing, I haven't been being super strict w/myself in terms of my finances. I can possibly squeeze more money out of my daily spending to set aside for the upcoming debt. I can pick up extra hours from job#2. If I can avg 25 hours/week for the rest of this month, I can get $700 and use 1/2 of that to take care of the car, still leaving $350 to pay down on debt and I can try to eek out and extra $150 from my main money (job #1), which if I tighten the spending belt, may be doable.

We'll see. Stranger things have happened to me, who knows. Maybe that fairy debtmother will shine her light and give me the 43k I need to make the rest of my debt completely disappear.

I remembered why I initially lumped all debts in one, ie ga taxes + existing cc debt, b/c i needed the mental boost of paying off the smallest debt. the way i redid it last night, on a whim by the way, i'll virtually pay off the cc's but for many more months will still have a card i'm paying on since that is where the tax debt is.

i redid the graph from yesterday and went back to all deb lowest to smallest and in my cheat sheet debt tracker in the far right, i note the 2 cc's that are also carrying my tax debt.

speaking of taxes...oy

i am so mentally tired and drained. i was going to go into job #2 tonight and get some extra hours, i was going to update the blog w/outstanding cliff hangers, but by lunch time my brain was fried from dealing w/ga dor and the irs. the entire situation is such a mess and i'm starting to feel like i'm being bullied around.

my main gripe is being charged a collection fee for an account that i was actively paying and one of the ga reps was like why is this unfair, all condescending and sarcastic, you didn't file your taxes blah blah blah and i'm like look lady, see those penalties and fees and fines, I'VE PAID FOR THAT MISTAKE, do you not see that and by the way, i'm not disputing that, and on and on it went as i called dept after dept after dept till i just hung up in frustraton b/c they all basically told me, sorry nothing we can do.

then i call irs to get a letter saying things are current, only to find out i was owed a refund, but by the way, they gave the state the money already and the amount they say they gae the state is way diff't from the amt the state says they took and i owed, by this point, i was in tears and just wanted to curl up in a ball.

so i came home and just went ot bed for a few hours, w/a banging tension headache that no amount of aspirin or ibuprofen is curing. today just sucked big time.

the more i think about it, the more this yeargot off to such a bad start, i don't even know why i'm bothering w/this stupid debt thing, i'm starting to feel like i'll have this yoke around my neck for the rest of my life, so why get it paid off @ all?

a few years ago i worked w/a woman that said she owed thousands in student loans and her plan was to pay $50/mo for the rest of her life. maybe she was onto something.

i may go into job #2 for 5 hours tomorrow night and if so, i'll get that cliffhangers part answered when i get home.

53k in debt and I'm about to turn in my 2 week notice to Job #3 tomorrrow....why??

In many many many ways, it's just not worth it. While the take home pay is decent about $200 or bi weekly or $400-$450/mo, the actual job is greuling and the work enviroment is quite toxic. The point of taking on extra work is so that I can pretty much go in, do my work and not have to deal w/additional office drama and politics and not to overtax myself physically and mentally that it hurts my 9-5.

Job #3 hurts in both fronts, but I could've tolertated it a bit longer, say till summer or so if they were willing to give me more money, I am SEVERELY underpaid and not just saying that b/c everyone feels they are worth more than paid, for what the job described itself to be and what the actual work is, plus the additional skills I bring and the ever increasing added responsibility which really means, do the managers job, I feel is worth more than $4.90 and hour. Oh and did I mention no breaks and you stand for the duration of the shift which starting today is 8 hours on a Sunday, 5 hours during the week. All in all, it's safe to say the work/life balance is too out of whack adn I just don't fit in.

So early last week I sent the HR manager an email requesting more money, for over a month now I've been trying to get a sit down face to face and it's been hard. In the mail I listed all I've brought in terms of skill and ideas that not only saved them cold hard money, but were time savers that also increased productivity. I expressed my eagerness to continue contributing and noted that similar jobs pay upwards of $10/hour and I felt that'd be a fairer compensation. To clarify, the actual pay is $7/hour but I go by after tax money for accuracy and @ $10/hour it'd be closer to $7/hour and based on what they've seen me do in the last 2 months, am I worth and extra $15/a day.

Her answer?

Thanks for your hardwork, your concerns will be addressed in your 90 day performance review.

Mind you this is a small company, HR is one person, there are 2 owners, so I don't buy the BS standard form letter. If they intended to pay me more after stating my intention to stay & willingness to do more, what difference does 6 weeks make? Or why not have a face to face w/me now? What the HR manager did was the day after I sent the email, stopped by the job, it was her day off. She said she got my email but wanted to enjoy her day off so she'll see me the next day. Just her phrasing of it sounded off, but I dismissed it and said fine.

The next day, the second I walked thru the front door, I heard the back door slam and when I got on to check my email saw her reply. She ran from me. All of that just strikes me as shady. So i wrote her to see whne she'd be in again, she hems and haws and when I finally pin her down to saying she'll be in when I am, she asks me why what's up? so I didn't even reply.

And this is the too much drama I mean. I just want to go in to a job 20 hours a week, be able to turn off the part of my brain that does my 9-5 and just get my work done and go home. This is just a tip of the drama @ the job and it almost feels like the better I work, the harder I work the fact that I don't complain, makes them even madder.

It's crazy, I can't explain it properly and to be honest, I'm so over it.

Reading Suze's new book gave me the courage to quit. And going online and finding comporable jobs that pay $10-12 and hour gave me the motivation to type up my letter of resignation the same day I requested more money. I realized then I had options and it'll only be a matter of time before the ideal job situation manifests itself to me. In th meantime, I'll use the next 2 weeks to finish up working there and banking all the extra money I can.

In 2 weeks, I am also going to cut Job #2 back to a Sat/Sun gig b/c most p/t evening jobs are M-F. During the final 2 weeks I'll keep hunting for another job, I actually applied for one on Friday and am waiting to hear back from them.

So that's pretty much it. A tiny part of me wonders if I'm crazy "giving up" a job when I'm so racked w/debt and people are looking for work and why not just suck it up and do what I have to do.

I guess, the bigger part of me feels, I know who I am. I know how I work, what I contribute, what I bring and what I am worth. I may not always get 100% of what I want but in 9-5 and Job #2, I'm pretty close and am happy. It's not worth it for me to invest so much time and energy when I can make more elsewhere and while I may not make progress taking off time to find another job, I believe the time I take will pay for itself before long. Besides, me working somewhere that is clearly not a good fit, is only keeping back a job from someone else who may want to work there and work out better for them in the long run.

Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. @ some point this week, I need to deal with the Scary Debt I never discussed in detail, just vaguely alluded to (here, here & here).

Scary Debt has thrown a monkey wrench in my plans to have paid off my car loan in full by May...hence no update...right now I need to regroup and play w/some numbers. Once I get a better handle on things, I'll post a bit of background, though for some obvious reasons I can't spell out all that happened to cause this.

I'll leave this hint of what it is...there are only two guarantees in life, death and...

Yea...that one.

:(

So last night I got online to pay my monthly bills, when I get to my cell phone bill from Verizon. Last 2 months, something about the bill was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As I've been house hunting since the start of the year (yes I'm that ready to move!) on a few occasions, I've taken pix w/my cell and emailed them to myself. One month, I learned it was a .25 per email charge and it tacked on an extra $2.

Then I saw a similar charge the following month, except I didn't recall taking any more pics, much less emailing them. Learning the fee after the fact, made me walk w/my digital camera. Yet, the month was so hectic, I couldn't be 100% sure. Last month, I decided to purposely NOT use the phone. Guess what I find this month?

The following two new line items:

250 MSG Camera $5 03/15 - 03/19 .89
250 MSG Camera $5 03/20 - 04/19 5.00

$5.89...for what?

I called them up immediately.

Except it was almost midnight and the call center closed @ 11. I called as soon as I woke up this morning.

Turns out this charge was added in @ a store!!! How the F could that happen? It wasn't even a store near me or even close to the store I originally got the phone. I was really in such a state of shock, I couldn't even think str8. The rep hurriedly told me it must have mistakenly been added to the wrong account and she'd go ahead and take it right off. I was like ok, still in a brain fog.

Then I remembered there is a $15/mo fee on this phone too:

Current Data Plan 03/20 - 04/19 15.00

When I originally got this phone, it was only b/c my old phone died a bad death, so of course they roped me into the whole 2 year contract, despite the fact I've had a phone w/them since '99. Fine, I got a free phone out of it, I'll bite. But it was to be the same monthly service w/a bill around $30-$35/mo depending on taxes etc.

According to the rep, the $15/mo was a promotion that had just expired last month and should've been stopped, so she went ahead and removed that too. I confirmed that going forward, neither of the 2 charges would reappear, she told me they wont.

Yet not only wasn't the promotion stopped, when I look back thru my last 6 available online statements, the charge has always been there.

Now I'm seething and seeing red.

I'm going to give myself some time to calm down a bit, then I'm going to ring back up the super friendly folks over @ Verizon, I mean they are so friendly, they add services to your account whether or not you are even there ::rolls eyes::

I'm going to ask, no, demand for them to refund all the charges.

So, a few weeks back, Robin in Savannah asked me about my car loan. For some reason, that question stuck in my craw, and while I put it on the back burner so I could focus on paying off the final credit card, I knew I had to get to the bottom of something that was puzzling me.

A few months back, my amount owed was $5,004, I remember that # b/c I felt a huge relief knowing by the next payment I'd be under 5g's. Fast forward to January, I check MS Money, only to find, I still owed $4,999.

WTF?!?!

When I tallied up what I paid since using MS Money, it was well over a grand, yet the amount owed only went down a few hundred bucks. Not only that, I had to put in an account adjustment of $117 (more!) to get MS Money to be in synch w/what I owed.

I called up World Omni Toyota.

The rep, Chris, who was QUITE rude by the way, and this isn't the first time I've called them and been treated rudely. Matter of fact, in the 3 years I've had the car, it's only my 2nd call to them. BOTH times the reps act as if they are collecting money and I'm behind calling to make a payment. Just plain old surly and rude.

Anywayz...

From Chris I got some basics, the percent is 7.4% and the pay off amount is different than what I currently owe b/c they factor in 10 days of interest. She's going to mail me a history of my payments, which since I pay by direct debit, I don't get. I went ahead and opted to have my statements emailed to me.

I went back into MS Money, deleted the old account and made a new one w/the new figures. Worked like a charm. Give or take a few cents, it now matches what I see online.

I also saw if I pay online, as in sending extra ducets, those bastards charge me $9.95 for the privilege. How kind of them *gag*

Bump that, I'll be paying them for free via my bank account thankyouverymuch. The one bright spot, there is no prepayment penalty, I'm past that point. You better believe I'm paying this sucker down pronto.

Now I have a similar tale about my Direct Student Loans, minus that nasty customer service, so I wont go into more details. To sum it up, interest rate is 7.125%, I deleted the old account, added the new one and that too is matching what I see online.

All of this made me think. Perhaps I should leave the William & Fudge debt for last, I'll have to double check w/Sallie Mae, but W&F aren't charging me interest. Though psychologically it'll feel good to get that paid in full, just like my rationalization on why to pay the car first, the $100 I pay getting added to another debt is far less than adding say $263 from the car or $131 from Direct or even $318 from Sallie Mae.

I don't mind them hanging around a bit longer if I can get the interest charging loans out of the way first.

And I'll put it out there, again, I'm really looking forward to having the Toyota Car Loan PAID IN FULL by the end of May, which would be so awesomely amazing if all I have left to tackle in the last 1/2 of 2007 are my student loans.

;)

So you know the PeoplePC account that was cancelled ? And how easily I was told by Jan that there will be no further charges…and the only charge was from December sounded too good to be true right?

You know what happened right?

Of course you do.

They charged me.

First thing I do w/all accounts I cancel is, take copious notes. I'm sure the reps know b/c they can hear me click-clacking away as I repeat back what they say. Plus I make a very strong point to catch their names and repeat that back to them too.

W/my notes from Jan in hand, I call back and ask for a credit. This is where my past work experience comes in handy.

@ that job, people would call in to cancel the service, or sometimes forget. A few months would go by, they'd get a bill w/charges and dispute it w/their credit card company who did a chargeback to the company. My job was to recover the money by proving either the customer didn't cancel or was still using the account when they said they stopped.

A few more months would go by and we'd get a report on what monies we recovered and what the customer won back.

If it gets this far w/me, I need to show Capital One I cancelled, didn't use the account and got a verbal confirmation from Jan @ the 22nd @ 2 pm when I asked, "Will I be charged again?" "No." "Let me be clear, the only charge appearing on this account is from December 22nd correct?" She replied, "Yes."

W/my notes in hand, I call PeoplePC to ask for a credit. The first rep I spoke to hemmed and hawed over whether or not she could do it. When I said, if you can offer me one month free to keep me, you can give me a credit. She sighed, said she had to escalate the call and either purposely, which I believe, or mistakenly, hung up on me.

Fuming, I called back.

This time I get a guy, explaining to him what happened, right away I say, "If you can't do it, transfer me to someone who can. I was already hung up on and am not in a good mood".

Side note, this isn’t the rule, but another thing I learned working in and having lots of friends who worked customer phone service, the majority of males don't care and will do whatever the customer wants just to get them off the phone.

This guy said he'd refund the charges. First he had to reopen the account. That made me uneasy, but he said he can't process a refund on a closed account. Fair enough. Then he gave me a case # and told me he pushed back to the next billing till March. This give me enough time to get the credit 7-10 business days, and call back to cancel, which he kept stressing I do so I don't end up in a vicious cycle of getting charged, getting credit, waiting for the credit then getting charged again.

On my end, I need to check my Capital One Visa account by February 9th to see if the credit has been processed and if it has, cancel PeoplePC. If it hasn't, well I have another host of phone calls to make.

Is all this hassle worth $5.47?

Yesssssssssss

If they want to keep my money, big a corporation as they are, I want it back.

Over the holiday, I took my computer w/me. My mother has DSL and there is a wireless connection in her area which I was able to tap into every now and again. Needing to work online, it conked out more times than not and I came up w/the bright idea to get a free trial dial up account from PeoplePC.

Except come to find out, I didn't. >:{

I logged into my Capital One Visa account, just cuz I get a mild high seeing the Zero owed balance and see a charge for $5.47 from PeoplePC.

I was about to go batshit nuts on a customer service rep when I checked their site so I could get my facts straight. What do I see?

There are 3 options, the first 2 are signing up for a trial @ a reduced price and wayyyyyyyy @ the bottom is the 30 days free option.

*sigh*

I went ahead and paid the bill. $5.47 isn't a whole lot to bitch about, I have bigger battles to work on. But I can seriously kick myself for that one.

Ah well, alls I can do now is go ahead an cancel before this becomes a recurring charge nightmare.

I feel like such a doof.

Capital One visa is playing games. I noticed the week I was paying it off, it took for-freaking-ever from them to credit my account. Any other time, as long as I paid before 3, it ws credited the same day. The final payment I paid before 3 the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

They didn't credit it till SATURDAY! Fine I said, I'll give them a pass on the holiday. Whatever. Now that I'm checking the site for my statement, to see if they dicked me over w/finance chargers, no statement.

I check the Capital One Gold card, that one has a statement. What gives? The messages I'm getting say it's possible there is no statement if I only made a payment and there were no recent transactions. That I'd buy, but they still show recent transactions from last month, whereas the Gold card shows no recent transactions.

That has me steamed.

Then there is my bank. I have a direct deposit that shows it was paid out on the 11th. Again, any other time, this would @ least show up as processiong. For 2 days nothing! I notice when I have high funds in my bank, pending deposits get processing status or show up lickety split. When my funds dip a little low, right now under $300, nothing is happening.

This happended before when I had to rush transfer monies from paypal. It normally takes 2 days, it took almost 4. Another paypal transfer when I was sitting on almost $1,000 went thru right away.

fuckers.

Luckily I have nothing to pay right now, aside from gas money, my balance will sit for a few more days. I am anxious for @ least the deposit to go thru so I can pay my rent before I go on vacation.

Speaking of which, I'll have time then to finally enable comments on the site.

*sigh*

I guess this is why I'm not a good debt blogger, when I get a financial kick in the gut, I want to crawl under my covers and hibernate.

Last week I got a few such swift kicks.

I went to see my mom and as promised, no charges on the credit cards. I am still making progress w/paying a bit extra and Month 7 should be pretty sweet after all. I hate wishing time to fly, but in the case of my bills, I'm anxious for June and July to come already.

Now when I got back, 2 kicks, the check engine!! light popped on my car and my gas, water bill: $264!! for one freaking month!! All other months, I'm in the $35-$55 range. I still have to call and find out what the heck happened, but it feels like every step forward, I'm picked up by the scruff of my neck and tossed back.

Now, I got the car checked yesterday morning, nothing. *fumes* I was pissed to waste all that gas and waking up super early to hear that, but very relieved I didn't have to shell out loot, for now.

I do need to do my car maintenance, but next month I should be able to spare the funds. As for the gas/water bill, stay tuned...