Past $ mistakes....confession time

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Past $ mistakes....confession time
18
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 2:15pm

I know we've all done it, ME, more than once.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2010
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 3:02pm

<<>>

Yes, us as well.
DH bought our rental for 220,000 (excellent deal for the city) and now it's mortgaged for close to 500,000.
Granted, the last refinance helped us buy our house we live in, so it wasn't all for naught...but it's a daunting number.
But if we'd never refinanced, the place would be paid off by now!

Personally, my biggest mistake was to let my health care premiums get behind. I was eligible for a subsidy and they were arguing with me...the previous year determines your subsidy for the next year, and they wouldn't approve my subsidy unless I have them my (then, not-yet) DH's tax info from the previous 3 years - when we'd JUST moved in together and weren't even considered common-law yet! So I was stubborn, and fought, DH's tax info was none of their business.
That was my subsidy for 2005, and most of 2006 I should have been subsidized as well. But latter 2006, 2007, 2008 I owe for, plus interest. Thankfully, the outlawed health premiums here as of Jan 1 2009 so now I get to play catch up.

I have a folder titled "MELISSA'S BIG, UGLY, SCARY DEBTS" that contains that stuff and my student loan, which I missed when DH & I both were unemployed, but they wouldn't approve me for interest relief because of our previous years income. So it went to collections and now gov't collections, which is not cool at all. Those to add up to about 15,000 but that's not even factored into the 77,000 CC debt/prnsl loans we now have!

Wow thanks Norma, I think that's the first time I've "admitted" those two things to anyone outside my close friends & family!

Melissa
~ Mom to 5 ~
~ Melissa ~ ‎"We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us, if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity." - Barbara de Angelis
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-28-2006
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 3:06pm

Well ok, here goes.


My first credit card was a Texaco gas card. My parents got it for me to establish credit when I started driving. They also gave me a 1982 model pickup. It ran great and I loved it.


Then I got married hurrah hurrah! We were newlyweds we deserved the best. So I got a new truck. Not enough credit for me and hubby's was awful so my parents co-signed and threatened death if I ever missed a paymnet. I never missed a payment nor was I ever late. Good for me right? Well no, because toward the end of the payments (only a years worth or so left) Discover called and congratulated me on qualifying for my very own credit card! YES! So put the left over balance from the truck on it so I could say it was my truck - yes I know at this point I had the title, but seriously, Discover now owned me and the truck.


I charged every thing. Hey the monthly paymnets were great! $15, $25, $50, $100...no problem. Yeah well didn't realize that minimum payment wasn't a drop in the interest bucket. Until it maxed out and the calls started.


Then got a nasty divorce, had to get Discover off my plate, so I transferred all I could to MBNA. Things just kept spiraling out of control. At my lowest I owed $25000 in cc debt alone.


YIKES!


Now I have that original gas card to this day and nothing more. I have care credit and am working feverishly to pay them off. I WILL NEVER have another credit card as long as I live. I can't handle them. I am out from under all the credit card debt I so stupidly put myself under.


That felt good!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 3:21pm

Amen..sister...amen.


OH, I forgot to post one of the top blunders of our lives.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 3:24pm

Somehow it makes me feel a "tinnie tiny bit better" because I'm not the only one to screw up.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 11-14-2008
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 3:34pm

I was never bad with credit. My problem was being a push over where credit was concerned. My ex husband wore me down every single time he wanted something. Also I chose to bury my head in the sand regarding income tax, property tax and how much things really cost, and when they had to be paid. I have learned. It took a divorce to and about 3 years, but at least I have a clue now!







iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 4:26pm

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-17-2010
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 4:29pm

I could write a book about my stupidity with money. DH and I started getting in trouble almost from the day we met. I financed a car and DH (BFat the time) cosigned for me and it never dawned on me that $360 payment with a $1000/mo income would be a little crazy. We were both in the army at the time and there is no money to be had there. Got married, pregnant and out of the Army.

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 4:36pm

I wondered if you would chime in about your house disaster.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 4:56pm

Stephanie,

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 02-17-2010
Wed, 03-10-2010 - 5:51pm

We're actually doing great. In what seemed like just the nick of time DH found an awesome job and he received his disability benefits from the VA so in all we have nothing to complain about these days as far as income. We have been through some hard times but it has all been our fault. We kept screwing up and going back for seconds.

 

 

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