What Does the Future Hold?
I haven’t been doing much posting here lately because I’ve been writing content for The Motley Fool. If you’d like to read those posts, they can be found at http://beta.fool.com/TMFHRFool.
I’m really proud of this writing. I’m taking something that has been near and dear to my heart for a long time and putting it in a place where, hopefully, more people will see and benefit from it. My writing is based on my personal experiences as well as stories that I’ve heard from friends and I’ve been reading and learning more on the topic on a daily basis. I’m so happy to be able to share it with the world because if I can save just a couple of people from incurring the kind of credit card debt that I struggled with or prevent someone from incurring it in the first place, I will have done a great job. It’s a horrible place to be and if you’re there, I feel for you and I’ve been there. To the tune of more money than I’m publicly willing to admit (yet – ask me again when it’s totally gone in a month or so).
This is a whole new career for me. I’m working on things that I never thought that I’d be doing and I’m loving it! In addition, I feel like I’m doing more to help the world than I could have done as an HR person for a 250 person company. My “service” reach is growing…I hope. And, I still get to share my years of HR experience with the non-profit organizations that we serve and up and coming HR professionals.
So, what’s the dilemma? Internal and external pressure to do what I do best, which is HR. I’m a pretty fabulous HR person at heart and I have good friends and colleagues who know it. I have a passion for it at heart and in an advisory role, but perhaps not in practice anymore.
Any career changers out there who can convince me that moving on from HR is the right thing? Or not?
Debt-Canceling Miracle Spring Water? Really??
I guess it serves me right for watching TV at 2:00am rather than sleeping. Last night I saw the most egregious get out of debt scam that I’ve seen yet. I used to think that the debt settlement companies were the worst…but this even tops those!
DEBT-CANCELING MIRACLE SPRING WATER AND SPIRITUAL TOOLS
Oh my…now I’ve seen everything (of course, I’m sure that I’ll be proven wrong about that). According to the website, “Rev Popoff wants to rush your Miracle Spring Water and agree with you in Prayer.” Out of curiosity, I entered my information and my “prayer” into this website and got a message saying, “Thank You. Your submission has been received.”
Hmmm…well, there’s got to be more to it than that. I’m pretty sure that Rev. Popoff isn’t going to just zip some of his special spring water right out to me for nothing. So, I started Googling and found out that I can expect to receive my Miracle Spring Water in the mail. But, in order for it to work, I’ll have to drink it and then immediately mail him exactly $17.00. But wait, that was in 2007. Taking inflation into consideration, I wondered if it might be more now in 2012. So, I Googled some more and found from this Fox news report in May of 2007 that one woman had her debt cleared for only $50.00. In this 2009 inside edition report, Inside Edition was asked for $27.00. But, one couple in their report sent him a total of $4,500 that they had borrowed from family and friends before they finally figured out that they were being scammed. So, apparently the initial amount that he asks for is just the beginning. Once you send that in, his ministry contacts you again saying that you need to send more. WARNING: If you have a friend or family member asking to borrow money to pay bills and you’re tempted to give it to them, offer to pay the bill rather than write them a check. That money could be going to someone like this or into lottery tickets, etc.
Apparently there’s other instructions that you have to follow too, like sprinkling magic salt (one of those little packets you get with your take out food) on the check or sending back a special silver and gold bracelet (which was a piece of ribbon that was silver on one side and gold on the other – you know, the stuff that curls). His staff must have a blast thinking this stuff up. They probably sit around in an office all day thinking, “what would be really funny to watch people fall for this time?” They must get quite a laugh out of it!
Watching Rev. Popoff on TV last night was quite fascinating. He said that he could just tell that there was someone out there that was having trouble sleeping (no kidding…it’s on at 2:00am). That’s when I turned it off in disgust. My initial thought was, “how can people be so stupid?” But, desperate people take desperate measures and that’s who this snake oil salesman is targeting. People who are sick, the disabled, the elderly, the unemployed, the soon to be foreclosed on or evicted – people who are DESPERATE and at the point where they’ll try anything that gives them some relief. It really is awful.
Apparently his scams were revealed once in the ’80s. Of all places, it looks like it was The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that broke the news. I vaguely recall hearing about this (I was in my teens at the time and not really worried about illness or debt). But, the scam back then was that he and his wife would hold these huge revivals and she’d find out personal information about people in the audience and then give it to him through an earpiece so that he could call out names with their associated medical conditions to the audience and say that this information was being sent to him by God and miracles were witnessed by all. Apparently he declared bankruptcy and went underground for awhile after that, but now he’s got a whole new generation of people to prey on who don’t remember that little transgression in the ’80s.
I wonder how many times this “Reverend” has had his life threatened? I’m just glad that I believe in karma, because he’s got something coming…
Does anyone know of anyone who has been scammed by Rev. Popoff?
Do You Have Your S**ff in Order?
Some of you who know me might know that on August 7, 2008,my father suffered a debilitating stroke. Prior to that, we had several conversations about how I was to be the executor of his estate and if anything happened to him, to just contact Prepaid Legal Services, because he had put all of his affairs in order with them.
When his stroke happened, I was on my way to the airport for a vacation to California. I pulled into my parking spot (was driving to the airport with the top down on the car and music on and didn’t hear my phone) and looked at my phone to see that my sister had tried to call me about 12 times in 15 minutes. As I listened to her terrified and horrifying voicemails, I could only think of one thing…get home now! I ran into the airport crying and clearly in distress and running from desk to desk to anyone who would help me and found that I could get on the next flight to Detroit in an hour. It was the worst day of my life – my father, the person that I felt closest to on earth, could be dead by the time I finally got home.
I won’t keep you waiting until the end, my father lived, and is still with us, although severely disabled.
This seems like a terrible thing to say, but in retrospect and almost 4 years later, it feels like the airlines knew of my need and clearly took advantage of it. That one way ticket on a half-empty plane was $750. Of course, it didn’t matter to me at the time. But, if you think that you’re going to get any kind of special treatment from the airlines in an emergency situation,don’t bet on it. (That airline was Northwest, for anyone who cares.)
Anyway, I made it home to Michigan and spent 10 days with my father and family trying to figure out what to do next. We were all devastated by his condition. It appeared that he would live, but would be profoundly affected. I found that his affairs were not in order and that, although he had contacted Prepaid Legal to begin the process of his will, living will, power of attorney, etc. he never completed it. My siblings knew of his wishes, so we all agreed that I would take the lead on what to do. And then, everything fell apart because someone, at the last minute, decided to disagree.
What resulted was a legal battle that has pulled our family apart. I won’t got into anymore detail here except to say that its a situation that you don’t want to ever find yourself in, either as the family or the victim.
What I’m embarrassed to admit is that it has taken me this long to finally get my own affairs in order after this ordeal. But, I’m working on it now. And, as a single person with no children or spouse to consider into the equation, it’s actually been tough! Who would I want to saddle with responsibility for me if the same thing were to happen to me? I have a very good friend (love you, Angie!) who saw my distress over this and said that she would be my executor and GPA. My siblings all have too much responsibility on them already and also live in a different state. So while the “will” part is easy, the “trustee” and “general power of attorney” was not.
So, hopefully over the course of the next few weeks while I finalize all of my wishes, nothing will happen to me. But, do you have your affairs in order? This situation caused one of my sisters to finally do the same and I’m so proud of she and her husband for getting all of the necessary paperwork in place “just in case.”
Have you done the same?
January Has Been Good to Me
Along with the beautiful weather we’ve been having here in Alexandria, January has been a great month for me financially…or, at least I’ve taken lots of steps to make the coming months even better! I’m happy to report that I’ve accomplished the following:
- Decided to start cleaning my own house – savings $200/mo
- Stopped going to the shrinkeroo and started a Buddhist book club instead – savings $102/mo
- Refinanced (should go to closing any day) – savings $800/mo
- Finally got around to cancelling my online Weight Watchers subscription I wasn’t using – savings $17.95/mo
- Cancelled useless freecreditreport.com subscription – savings $13.95/mo
- Disputed my property tax assessment – savings TBD
- And, filed my taxes early – should get that $3,000 refund any day now
Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone take all of these dramatic steps, but just examine the areas in your life that can change from time to time. For example, cleaning my house was something that I really hated to do and just thought that I didn’t have time for. For some reason, since I’ve started studying Buddhism and meditating more, I actually kind of get lost in the act and enjoy my sense of accomplishment when I’m done. I also found that my Buddhist studies feel like they’re doing more for my stress levels and overall mental well-being than my bi-weekly visits to my therapist (who also didn’t deal with my insurance company, so I had to pay upfront and then wait for reimbursements..ugh…talk about stress!)
The refinance has taken awhile. My condo is underwater, and neither of the two appraisals that my bank of choice had done came in high enough for me to qualify for a refinance through them. So, I went the HARP route. HARP is a government program that allows people whose mortgages are backed by Freddie or Fannie to refinance with their current lenders without a physical appraisal. Fannie’s assessment of my property came in just barely high enough to allow me to refinance. However, since physical appraisals expire, the banks have to get those refinances done first and then they finally get around to the HARP refinances. I started this process with Suntrust back in October of 2011. I think we might finally be closing early next week. The good news is, after all of this waiting, they managed to get my interest rate down another .5%! I’ll take that!!
Another thing that I’ve never done before, but decided to do this time, was shop around for a settlement company. I saved around $500 by doing so and would have saved even more if I’d been on my company’s legal benefit plan for a couple of months more. Unfortunately, the Legal Aid Plan has a 6 month waiting period to cover settlement services, but they still gave me a 20% discount and the law firm that I’m working with has been very attentive. My prior company also agreed to match any other price I got, but since my legal aid firm is also working on my Will, Living Will and Power of Attorney (for free under the plan), I thought I’d keep it all in one place.
Then, while going through all of my bank statements to do my taxes, I started noticing all of the recurring subscription charges for things I’m not using anymore. I don’t remember the last time that I logged onto WeightWatchers.com and FreeCreditReport.com isn’t free…if you’re trying to get your credit score out of them, don’t forget to cancel immediately.
Lastly, I got my property tax assessment in the mail. It was $33,000 higher than the highest physical appraisal that I had received on my property! So, I went online and submitted a dispute. A very nice man from the city of Alexandria called me a couple of days later. I sent him electronic copies of the two appraisals that I had received in my first attempt to refinance and he came by my condo the following day to do a physical appraisal himself. So, we’ll see what the city of Alexandria says!
I’m looking forward to applying that $3,000 toward my debt balance and the extra income every month too. This is so much fun, I think I’m going to have to see what I can do in February!
Tax Refund Happy Dance
Last year I made a terrible mistake. Sure that I was going to owe rather than get a refund, I waited until the very last minute to figure out my taxes. When I finally got around to it, I found that I was actually going to get a fairly substantial refund – money that could have been applied to my debt balance months earlier than it did. So, this year, I got an early start. I’ll be getting an even larger refund this year (somehow) but this time I didn’t wait to figure my taxes.
The moral: Even if you think you might owe, it never hurts to figure out your taxes early and if necessary file later. You might just get a nice surprise and have something coming back. Don’t let the government hold onto your money any longer than you have to!
Tell Eric Cantor to Pass the STOCK Act
Okay, so this isn’t one of my normal posts about getting out of credit card debt, but I just had an experience that upset me, so I thought that I’d write about it.
There is a bill in front of the House called the STOCK Act that would make it illegal for government officials to trade on inside information. Something that’s illegal for the rest of us to do. Representative Eric Cantor is standing in the way of this bill passing.
The Motley Fool has been writing about this issue and is rallying people to contact him to tell him that they believe that passing this bill is the right thing to do. This is how Americans are supposed to work within the system. You are supposed to reach out to your representatives when you believe that they are doing something wrong. So, today I tweeted to him and then went to his Facebook page to ask why he wouldn’t pass something that was so clearly the right thing to do. My post was promptly deleted from his page, but not before someone called “Sanitation Department” made the snide comment to me, “I don’t know, Angel. I hope that all this spamming works out for ya’ll.” I could see the other comments that this person had made to other concerned citizens too, like calling them idiots. Pretty demeaning. I hope that Mr. Cantor deals with this individual appropriately.
In the meantime, I’d encourage you to take action too. Here’s a couple of links to information published by The Motley Fool to tell you how:
Oh, My Aching Budget
Last month I opened a new savings account with USAA and started a rainy day savings account. HelloWallet.com, which I’ve recently subscribed to and highly recommend taking a look at, had analyzed my budget and found substantial dollars that I could be socking away for this purpose. I was very proud of myself! Until…
This month the email notices from HelloWallet have been pouring in telling me to reign in my spending or change my budget. A lot of this activity has to do with the holidays, but some of it doesn’t. So what’s a girl to do? Get real, that’s what!
I was talking to someone at work last week who confided in me that her shopping habit is so bad that she doesn’t want to even look at her credit card balances. She said that she had tried using mint.com, but stopped because the “you’ve exceeded your budget” emails freaked her out and frustrated her, which in turn only made her shopping habit worse - like a dieter who goes on a binge after being frustrated by depriving themselves and not losing weight. It occured to me after speaking with her that making a REALISTIC budget is probably one of the keys to success. It also occured to me that making a realistic budget could be tough to do and it may take a few months to get it right.
When you set yourself up with mint.com or HelloWallet.com or any of the other financial tracking programs out there, chances are that you’re only looking at expenses from the previous month or two. If those were light spending months, and you create your budget based on them, you could be setting yourself up for failure. You also need to be careful about telling yourself that you’ll cut a whole bunch of expenses because unless you make some radical lifestyle changes, you might not actually be able to do that either. And then, there’s the whole Christmas, birthday present, anniversary gift thing that only comes once a year that will make your budget look like a giant sink hole.
So, I think I’ve figured out a way to make this work. First, I’m accepting the fact that for the next few months, I need to make adjustments to my budget until I get it right. I should probably budget for more than I think I’m actually going to spend – not less. Second, I’m setting up a budget to save for Christmas shopping next year. Tucking that money away throughout the year means that there’s no giant budget sink hole next year.
So cheers to keepin’ it real!
