Bad financial advice or “work”

Two write this I’m considering who was giving financial advice not necessarily if it was bad advice. For example there is a saying don’t accept financial advice from someone who’s broke. Well I was in that situation once.

The Fiend in addition to giving me advice on jobs especially the last one where after establishing myself he decided to just swing a convo to changing jobs for more money he would offer financial advice. In the beginning it was  trying to convince me to take my money out of the community bank where my mother set up my accounts in my teenaged years and put it instead in a credit union. Of course as fate had it, my community bank failed and now my money is in a credit union.

Another piece of advice was he wanted me to do business with a tax preparer of his choosing so that I could get a much larger tax refund. His sales pitch was that the first one was free. His justification for this was that he wanted me to get a larger tax refund so that I can get a car and a place. Basically get me away from my mother….

My way of killing that was to tell him that I get my taxes prepared for free anyway. My mother sends my tax info to a CPA every year along with her own information. I’ve never paid a dime for his services and well I’ve only met him earlier this year. 😛

I know what you’re thinking, yours truly is too old to be an entitled brat. Bear with me here.

I think his financial advice or in working me was more or less really about getting me to spend money. It could be to spend it on him because likely he doesn’t have any. Or perhaps he does he just likes to hustle people, bad trait of character and I heard it from somewhere. Just not from him…

I tell my mother this and she might state I may get a larger tax refund but I’d pay for it later. Meaning like the refunds I have now once the IRS corrects that money won’t be mine for long. They’ll find a way to get that money right back if I try to play the system as Ant wanted me to do by going with his tax preparer.

Remember the Hook up story? It was also a means to get me to spend money. He wanted me to buy some tickets for that comedy show with a woman whom we worked with. He wanted me to really go out and whatever I did outside of work alone wasn’t good enough. And of course if things had worked out as he’s working me I’d be spending money on that woman.

His work might be about independence and having something that’s yours – as opposed to living at home with momma – and I think there was an ulterior motive. I do think he wanted to pull me away from my mother, and he wanted to replace her. His goal was to be a father figure although in reality it was in his programming to engage in hustlin…

That’s it isn’t it. The bad financial advice was to create the opportunity for me to become beholden to him. Taking advantage of his job leads and of course his financial advice and his insistence on me following his own plan – get a car and get a place – is part of his game. Remember he’s decided in effectively exposing himself that he needed to be my father figure, my male mentor.

In other words dominance and control and perhaps even eliminate anyone who might be a better influence. Those who could interfere with his game perhaps my gains after leaving The Show caused him some concern over whether or not I might still play his game.

I’d say any advice in his work he had to offer from the workplace to the job search to even financial matters – which I recognize he was only interested in for rather selfish reasons – was only for his benefit not my own. And unfortunately I fell for the trap. 😦

The snowball

I’ve recently taken one step to get out of debt well the hardest part of my student loan debt.

Since 2017 I’ve yet to get caught up on my student loans as well I’ve hardly paid them since that time. Yes it was possible to pay them off while being out of work from Oct. ’17 to Apr. ’18. The unexpected event of the “Climax of the Reign of Error” caused me to put paying off my loans on a very low priority.

Recently I had a call with the student loan people and one thing I thought was worth discussing was potentially settling those loans. I had my former banker mother on the phone and she largely took over, however, I think I was better off for it. For me the better deal possible to get this done was worth her getting on the line because honestly I have no clue on these matters.

I can tell you about Ramsey’s baby steps or even the debt snowball however negotiating a settlement on any debt particularly loans well not in my wheelhouse sadly. In my head as I was getting the information was that settling meant that I had to pay up in at least 90 days which could be extended to up to six months. I need to have that lump sum ready to go so, unfortunately to settle the loan and for what they want damn near close to up front not doable not with my savings at least.

My thinking I could settle and have up to 5 years – no more, no less – to pay off that settled amount. Well I won’t have five years to do that. Also if I defaulted and I was dangerously close to doing to they could recall the whole amount of those loans and I don’t have it. 😦 So some hard choices to make.

So I get one important debt out of the way, perhaps with whatever contributions my mother offers. I eliminate one major debt in a short time and perhaps have to take a hit as far as taxes and certainly my credit score. However I no longer have to worry about it and that’s something I definitely want. I feel like this debt is strangling me and keeping me from doing the things I really want to do.

Now in the meanwhile I have to make some payments to get my current payments current and I have some time to decide as far as settlement. The number the student loan people were discussing was about 45% of the balance. In my research it was possible to get up to 50%.

The number the account manager was offering went down from the initial number they were able to offer. Could it go down more? Perhaps in the next few months we could get up to 50% of the balance settled. Let me repeat the settlement amount went down a few thousand on the call.

All I can say on this is that we shall see where we are once I’m close to current on these loans!

I must add this video of Dave Ramsey discussing the debt snowball. I think I’ve got a bit backwards at this point as I’m attempting to tackle the biggest debt as opposed to the smallest debt. And I also know that at this point I’m on baby step two. Just remember to keep $1K on the side for emergencies.

Milestone

I got another raise recently, but we’ll read about that in a moment.

Just about a decade ago I was at The Show and during most of the winter and spring hours had been cut. The basic excuse was that no major pictures were coming out and it just didn’t justify giving everyone 30-39 hours – oh yeah as a regular associate we couldn’t work more than 40 that’s reserved for mgmt. Anyway I went from five days a week to three days a week.

Our scheduling manager I heard was only distributing hours equally to everyone and not according to perhaps who was actually productive. Of course the loudmouths said something and a few of them got accommodated and they weren’t necessarily deserving either. I’m not a complainer and glad to have a job – and even with my mother saying this isn’t good which had upset me – I just took this. I was still getting paid and very loathe to really look for another job. The drama hadn’t really hit yet but I had some goals if my career actually took off at the theater.

Needless to say it hadn’t, by 2014 my time at this place would be history. I moved onto a job that if I had been applying to jobs in 2011, I was slowly starting to pursue which was in the banking field. A branch of Gotham Bank was one of my first call backs and something dumb happened, I heard the voicemail and somehow it got deleted. It was hard to call them back and find out who called me.

Regardless, to get to that rosey salary – whatever that entailed – takes some time. And perhaps at this point I thought making roughly $20K/year was a great salary. Surely a better set of wages after a year than just about $10/K which was true of my income after a year at The Show.

And come to think of it, when I share the numbers of working at The Show I gave you the wrong numbers. Perhaps i was looking at gross income on my tax returns instead of my adjusted take home income. If I say about $10K/yr I really mean just about $9K/yr and bear in mind that’s not average salary it may well be closer to $10K/hr if I average it out over almost five years. These were truly the lean years but the place I formerly call $H!tplace fulfilled something I needed back then which was regular income.

Fast forward about a decade later, and I work for a company where one could really grow their income. You won’t be richer than the stockholders, however, there are real opportunities to apply for so that you can get your income up. I really hype up my job with Fresh Foods and probably lots more than I should have. I’m mostly pleased and while there were some negative experiences overtime with this company I got to make over $20K to $29K per year.

At this point I went from minimum wage which used to be $8.25/hr to finally cracking $17/hr for the first time. It’s in my head that this is a good liveable wage. It’s something I look forward to adding to that as long as I remain with the company.

Sometimes I like to look at where I had been to where I am today. It feels great to get out of a situation that wasn’t working and finding a situation that does. However one thing is certain now isn’t the time to just be comfortable.

Money

In a recent post over at the other blog I shared a video that illustrates some steps you can take to get into control of your finances. It’s something I’ve begun to take more seriously now. My deal has been saving, however, my goal is to take control of my student loans which is the massive amount of my debt.

I’ve told you over time of my dealings with the Hustler. He knows I have student loans, and don’t really recall telling him how much. He knows my mother isn’t in the best shape healthwise and lost her longtime job and the last time he still came around looking for a small sum of cash.

The worst part is the man is in his 50s and he still has to resort to begging. And the history he has of it for whatever excuses he has – which included buying a hot dog from concessions one time – just let’s me know this is a recurring pattern he knew who to chase down for his needs. He knew how to adapt so that he can pull his target in.

Meanwhile what were my considerations?

Well I had one real setback which was the Calamity of 2017/Reign of Error. That was a setback, I had saved more money from the time I was at The Show to my time at the Hole that surpassed the money I had back when I was 18-19-20 years old due to having survivors benefits from my dad. It was an accomplishment though just a small fraction of the debt I hold. My optimism, allowed me to think it’s possible to whether the difficulty of holding such a large debt.

I made my goal of making $20K a year perhaps about 5 or 6 years after leaving the theater where I made nothing more than $12K/yr. I used that to put more money away and certainly to put a dent in my debts. Then here comes the set back and it was necessary to put a dent into my savings. In this case it was more to eat, and yes certainly it was to pay some of those debts though at this point I had an income issue which was for a brief period of time none were coming in at all.

The real income issue is making more which is why my long-term goal is six figures. There was someone at work who said be more realistic and in their mind – not the hustler thankfully – they were miserable where they were and saw no opportunities there. However that is an ongoing financial goal that I do have it will enable me to finally finish my debt once and for all and do other things I would like to do.

However, I can’t do that if there are people coming around looking for a small cash infusion. I definitely can’t do it only working $20K/yr and yes there were some good opportunities to get ahead. Unfortunately those opportunities lead to the idea that I just needed to slow down. Yours truly was forced to slow down ad realize that it’s not yours truly’s job to take care of those who come around looking for something. Will there be anything left for yours truly if anyone comes around looking for a handout and expects any without question.

So on this Easter as it closes, that’s where I’m at now. That’s why it’s time to follow Ramsey’s seven baby steps. And my income, my financial resources belong to me and only me. I should be allowed to do with it as I please. There is no obligation to anyone else, and especially outside of any family relationships.

Vehicles

When talking about going out of my comfort zone one of those things is assuming responsibilities that I often presume I’m not ready for. I’ve yet to own my own car although I do have my license true since I was 21.

Often I do think about what kind of car do I want. Do I want to peruse the classified ads, Craigslist, or even facebook listings for a cheap ride? Or do I just want to get what I can from a good dealer.

When I think about buying a car I want to get a luxury car. Almost like what my mother has although I don’t want the same brand. For example I always desired a Cadillac, but then I’ve got my eye on a Lincoln lately. I make good money – even with student loans – to possible get a late model entry-level luxury car which is worth in the low $30K range. The question is should I get such a vehicle.

I want to share this Doug DeMuro video from earlier this year. I got my eye on the Lincoln Corsair. As far as a car for myself – to go wherever I please at any given time so that I won’t have to take public transportation to work all the time – well perhaps within the next year I’ll get that done.