Looking for a financial mentor Please Read

**riverwed070707** · 03-29-2012, 09:48 AM

Fortunately for you, asking for advice on the forum is free. What kinds of questions do you have? Maybe we can help.

What is it you're trying to accomplish? When you say bad financial situation do you mean debt? Can you post a list of your expenses and where you feel you're falling short?

**bjl584** · 03-29-2012, 10:10 AM

If you are willing to post your situation with as much detail as possible, then you will get a tidal wave of advice. I would start by doing that.

Most people on here are quite knowledgeable about finances and are more than eager to help out.

**matthewc81** · 03-29-2012, 12:41 PM

Thanks for the reply
My financial problem started 5 years ago while I was working for a well know freight company. I had worked for this company for about 4 1/2 years. I had two nice cars financed and in the middle of purchasing a new home. I got stress out at work and had to be put on sick leave and after three weeks of therapy I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. I was placed on social security 5 months after the diagnosis. I have tried going back to work on two different occasions and did not do well.
since all this had occurred I ended up getting my cars reposed and of course the mortgage didn't go thru. After taking this hit I've been trying to find some way to increase my income with the benefit of not being in a "work environment".
Not only was my income cut in half, my credit has been hit drastically. With not enough money at the end of the month I have had to got various finance companies that charge a lot of interest. not to mention writing checks at a check holding place. This is a never ending cycle that needs to stop. But i don't know how. About a third of my monthly income goes to this. I have paid everything off a time or two, and something comes up and i go back to having to finance again. After paying for monthly bills I maybe be lucky to have three hundred dollars to do me for the month and with gas and everything going up I know its going to start getting even harder on me.
I'm willing to try working at home and reporting it to SSA of course. but trying to find that beneficial thing that I can manage to increase my income.
I've been searching online but everything wants you to pay something or is just straight up scam.
Once again thanks for any suggestions.

**BuckyBadger** · 03-29-2012, 12:59 PM

You said that you had two cars financed. Does that mean you have a spouse/partner? If so, does he or she work?

If not, maybe that was where your problem started. Financing one "nice" car for yourself isn't a terribly good idea. Financing two is pretty crazy. This makes me think that there might be a lot of fat in your budget that could be trimmed, and you might not realize it.

Can you give us some hard and fast numbers? Balances, interest rate, and minimum payment of all your debts. Living expenses -- rent, utilities, food, gas, insurance. All income. Give us all this information and you will get some good advice about how to get out of this hole.

**matthewc81** · 03-29-2012, 01:24 PM

here is my list of monthly expense and income

monthly income 1565

bills include:

rent 260(section 8)
cable/internet/phone 110
utilities 190
auto insurance 71
mobile phone 90
loan companies payments

I'm not sure of the interest rates or balances but all loans are between 500 and 700)
74
89
90
79
70
when i write a check I write for 350 and payback 402
household items we spend about 100

My wife goes to a community college three days a week. she has a job that she works at one day out of the week.

**BuckyBadger** · 03-29-2012, 01:29 PM

That comes out to $1223, leaving you 342 a month to pay off your debt. Is this correct, or are we missing something?

Can you break down your utilities more? Why do you have a land line and a phone line? Can you drop cable and internet? Does your monthly income include your wife's money? CAn she work more days a week? DO you work at all outside the home? What do you mean by "when i write a check I write for 350 and payback 402"? What about gas and food?

You need to stop getting deeper in debt to the payday loan people, or you'll never dig yourself out. Can you clarify the things I asked, and then we'll be able to get somewhere.

**matthewc81** · 03-29-2012, 01:50 PM

thanks for your interest

I spend about 40 in gas a week
I have a my cable, internet and phone bundled so the home phone is actually like 10 a month
the check comes in when i go to a check cashing place I write the check out for 402 and they hand me 350 cash and i pay it back i get paid on the 3rd

I need to consider asking my wife to try to get more hours but feel guilty cause I feel I supposed to be the one to bring the money in.

the monthly income includes my wife's income as well.

I do have perks working on computers that need to be repair and such. but getting a steady income from it is hard to do.
Maybe if I could advertise or something I know how to do that kind of work. I may can add to my income.

**riverwed070707** · 03-29-2012, 02:09 PM

This isn't a time to be concerned about "who *should* bring in the money". If you aren't making enough to get by, she needs to work more. Period.

There is no reason someone can't go to school 3 days a week and work more than one day. I'm not saying you shouldn't be working on ways to increase your income also, but it seems the golden ticket here is that your wife has the potential to earn and she's not. Think of how much more quickly you could pay those debts if she brought in an extra $600/mo.

I see room to trim in your budget too. Ditch the cable and land line. Go to a prepaid phone. Those are luxuries and you can't afford them if you're paying $50 to have someone loan you money every month. STOP USING THOSE SERVICES. They are a rip off and with a little discipline you can get your situation under control enough that you won't need them.

**BudgetSurgeon** · 03-29-2012, 06:22 PM

Yeah, I agree with above poster. You have to get your wife to take the lead on obtaining more employment. Your bi-polar disorder may certainly keep you from working, so she will have to absorb this duty while you collect your SSA. A couple of pointers from my perspective:

1) Stay away from the debt if you can, and attempt to pay of any existing debt that you have.
You want to get out of that trap;

2) Stay away from Internet-based scams. As you stated, they will just cost you money, and they
will put you further and further behind;

3) What you can do to make money is to actively work on reducing your budget by 10-20%. How
you might ask? First step is coming up with a comprehensive list of every single expense
category item (your list above is a great start). Next, for each of these budget category
items, come up with a list of ways that you can reduce your expenses by the aforementioned
amount. For example, with Food expenses, you could 1) Make sure your wife eats breakfast
at home before school or work; 2) Make sure your wife brings lunch to work; 3) Eliminate
any purchased cafe lattes during the day; 4) Eat out less frequently; 5) Use coupons in the
supermarket for items that you are already buying; etc., etc., etc. Do this for every
single budgetary item. The sum of all the individual savings parts will be monthly amount
saved (I like to think of it as EXTRA income). Yes, you can help yourself and earn some
money by staying home and constantly thinking of ways to cut expenses. It will become like
a game after awhile, and you will find this process challenging. But, at the end of the day,
after you see tangible results, you will be rewarded with more disposable income, and you
will garner much satisfaction. I have done this countless times; I speak from experience.

Good luck to you.....you can do it!

Looking for a financial mentor Please Read