2015 Grand prize winner of CPA'S I CAN'T AFFORD IT AWARD

Alright. One week from when im starting to write this we will have a new year. 2015 will die off and 2016 will be born. This does not give me a whole lot of room to write my last thoughts of 2015. So without procrastinating any longer let's start with 2015's grand winner of the CPA'S (Car Payments Anonymous group)

"I Can't Afford It Award"
In January we had the expectant father who was graduating from a no responsibility fun and adventure don't care where my money flows guy to a sudden family life. After finding out he was expecting twins he finally figured out (what he should of along time ago) that he can't actually afford to finance something as expensive as his truck

So he tries to sell it. When things start to look grim his wife also puts her 2013 hyundai  up for sale.
This is exactly the scenario I talked about here....
http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-few-more-frustrations-with-bishops.html?m=1
And that was before I started seeing these adds.
Enough said.
I must have missed February.
For March we had The the college kid who thought one day "hey I'd look pretty awesome in a BMW."

I'm not clear if he got married before or after this purchase but I'm posative  his wife had a say in selling it.
Again please don't lease a vehicle this guy lost close to 7 grand in only a few months. Again I emphasize he only had it TWO months before realizing he could not afford it.
Next year's goal is to have 12 winners because again for April no winner.

May was an interesting month. I had 3 good canidates and almost chose the owner of a 2015 suburban but instead found another college married couple who just had a baby (my guess on medicaid) went to an all inclusive resort in Mexico and for their anniversary the young husband buys his wife her FIRST diamond ring. To top it all off they bought their first house while they were trYing to sell this car. So their add doesn't make sense to me.

Your tax dollars at work right here America because you have so generously paid your taxes this couple has enjoyed a nice vaca to mexico a diamond ring and a 12000 dollar car until "their" own money ran out. Just some FYI. this add did stay up for 4-5  months and they eventually lowered the price to around 11000.

For July we had the young family who purchased a brand new 2015 Honda Odyssey  (my dream family vehicle) 

I wish I knew what happened with this. When and how did they realize they could not afford it?? 

I'm running out of time! Need to speed this up!

For August we had another Leaser. This time It's A Lexus 

525 bucks a month that gets you no true value in return? Are you kidding me? Oh and look at that,  unexpected family issues.

Moving on

For September we had the Schnorkie.

Even had a second longer add.

For October we had this guy...

http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2015/10/financial-integrity-within-yourself.html?m=1

Unfortunately I'm not going to make it to the end. My phone is dying and my time is nearly up. 

The grand winner 

of 2015 CPA'S  

"I CAN'T AFFORD IT AWARD" 

goes to...

October's. (Link is right above)

Second place.

July Honda Odyssey 

And 3rd 

March's BMW 

more to come next year.

Happy new year!!

December's "I can't afford it award"

There is a plethora of canidates this month. I've broaden my search area beyond Utah to North Dakota. I was curious to see with the current economic down turn they are having up there what I could find. So without showing every single add I found I have narrowed them down to 3.

The 3rd place winner for Decembers "I can't afford it award" goes to....
This craigslist add in North Dakota.

I think I've made it very clear my thoughts on responsibly owning a dog. Too many people let their feelings get in the way of responsible pet owning. I sound like an animal rights person trust me I am far from that. I think dogs in particular have too many rights but that doesn't mean I don't care. You need to realize before you purchase or adopt an animal to make sure you can afford it. Having an extra couple hundred bucks one month does not justify being able to afford a dog. Look at your financial foundation debt vs income and make sure you look at the whole picture before you make that decision.

The second place winner is the owner of this escalade

I don't know if it's just me but Escalade have lost popularity over the years. I used to want one 10 years ago but unfortunately since then all I see driving them are semi wealthy people or Latinos who think they are wealthy. Again this proving my point you can't have what you don't own. The bank owns this vehicle. He doesn't. Unfortunately it takes a reality check of losing a job to realize that. He's being selfish towards himself and in the end when there should of been savings there's nothing and his family has to suffer. 

The winner of December's CPA's "I can't afford it award" goes to the owner of this truck add...

There is one particular reason I chose this person. He took a photo from a different view and it pointed out something to me.

Do you see the cars in the background? Now I'm just guessing that his wife drives the Toyota to the left. He paid 41000 dollars for this truck back in July. He has lost 7000 + dollars in value in less than 6 months!! And he has his wife drive a car that's worth a quarter of what maybe even an eighth of what his truck was bought for? Are those cars in the back still being financed? He's being a selfish jerk to his wife showing her no respect with his expectations.  That truck probably has a 600 plus payment on it (plus insurance!) that's if he has the loan for 6-7 years. You realy thought you could pay 600 dollars a month for 7 years!? Why would you want to do that?

Remember this equation when it comes to taking a car loan out. A typical car loan is 5 years or 60 months. Per thousand dollars borrowed, with NO interest, your cost is 16.67. Most loans will be between 17-20 dollars per thousand borrowed.  If this truck had no interest and had he financed it for 41000 dollars his payment would be. 683.47 at 5 years. He's only made it 6 months before he realized he couldn't afford it! Stop losing money when you don't have money to lose. I have no problem with a person having cash to pay the truck off. If thats your decision fine. That person could sell the truck in a difficult time and still have something to show for it. This person has a negative 7000 dollars to show.

I'm ending my rant there MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

next post will be the 2015 grand prize winner of the I can't afford it award.

Celebrating the winter solstice.

Today and tomorrow is the winter solstce.

The shortest day of the year.

The darkest nights of the year.

Take the time to celebrate.

The days becoming longer

By letting go

Of your dark and negative events thoughts or things in your life.

Drop them off here

On the the shortest days of the year

And let the brighter days

Bring positive thoughts

And a happy new year.

So celibrate the winter solstice

As a day to let go and forget

The negativity in your life.

Had to shorten this one up. Only 4 days till Christmas and less than two weeks till new years. Alot to do. Merry Christmas! And happy winter solstice.

My Christmas Rant

So real quick. I have alot of topics to talk about but not enough time to write them so I'm going to just pick a few and be done.

Number 1. I have decided to get the V thing done. Yep no more kids for me. I could write a long post about it but every time I have tried doesn't quite put my feelings into words so here is the short version. A. I think my family is complete B. I'm a little selfish and don't think I've had enough alone time with the wife or enough fun time with the kids.C It's not fair that the government gives one group of people a free pass on baby bills (college couples or young people who CHOSE not to work so they can qualify for medicaid WIC and have their babies paid for.(( *cough byu *cough* Idaho)) while the rest of us pay thousands of dollars plus interest to pay for our babies. D. I don't want to pay any more into the system. Babies are expensive and unfortunately diapers and formula companies are making way too much on me. E It takes my wife around a year and a half to over 2 years from day one of conception to be her normal self again which leaves a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. And ending with F. I'm ready just to turn the page and not have a newborn or baby strapping us down. I've paid around 60 thousand dollars on medical bills diapers and formula and I am done! On to bigger and better adventures hopefully soon achieving my main goal of being an independent and debt free family.
The procedure? Uncomfortable and pretty painless. I would however make sure I had more time off at work. They do say you can be back to work the next day but that's for office jobs. Your better off staying home for up to 5 days if you can.

The next subject is once again Christmas charities. If you haven't read my blog before I have said it over and over be careful who you donate to. There are so many good charities out there but unfortunately alot of freebie grabbing people who take advantage of those programs who through life choices are relying on food banks to keep possessions that could be sold to pay for food such as rifles ATV Boats toys even cars. Then there are those who chose not to work. They too have to milk the system to survive. It's hard to think about donating to charities that those people rely on when you yourself are just barely getting by. Trust me there are days when I feel heartbroken from stories I hear of families struggling but then not a day later I find out that a "struggling" family was just at Disneyland or on a cruise just months ago and NOW they need your help when you are smartly saving and scrimp in so all of your bills are paid. What I am mainly saying is this. 1. There is nothing wrong with having a poor Christmas. Some of my favorite Christmases were when we didn't have alot. I just enjoyed the company of my family. One that sticks out to me was the year my mom worked at the DI thrift store. I had alot of gifts from that thrift store that i thought were awesone. The alarm clock i got didn't even have a snooze button but i still used it until i moved away to college. My wife also has a good story on this subject. When she was younger her dad was discharged (honorably) from the air force. After moving to a different state and into an appt shared with their aunt money was tight. Her dad did not get paid till Christmas Eve that year. They woke up Christmas morning only to be sent back to bed because Santa had not come yet. When they came back to there stockings about an hour later they were filled with donuts drinks and toys obviously bought at the only place open that Christmas morning the seven 11. She loved it. The magic of Christmas was still alive and well.
2. If you are going to ask for help at least TRY to clean up your financial life. I find it funny and alarming when a person will ask for help only to find out they recently purchased a car or a dog but won't get rid of those to help themselves become independent. They rely on you for your charity. I would include examples but would like to shorten this up. If your hardships are backed up with pictures of you on vacation in Hawaii just months earlier it's hard to prove you really need help or your just trying to get help digging you out of a hole that you created.
Hardships help people grow (or become angry like me) if a person doesn't experience loneliness in times of need how are they going to grow their inner strength and become a stronger person?
In the end if it feels right to donate, donate. If it doesn't don't
Have a merry Christmas everyone.

Coming up
Why the winter solace is like new years to me
And
December's winner of the I can't afford it award
PLUS
2015 grand prize winner of The I can't afford it award.

November's winner of the "I CAN'T AFFORD IT AWARD"

If you haven't heard, I have been out of time this month. It's usually the month I get to my irritation with cheaters of the motab Christmas concert or my spill on turkey bags. Back in March or April this year I wrote a little bit on my wife being pregnant. If you do your calculation right you'll realize she is due any day now with that and my job running full speed I don't have alot of time with bloging. I have been using alot of time with my new financial project and that is coming along really well. New developments are pretty much daily so alot of my time is spent on that. Since I'm pretty much the only one who cares let's get to November's I can't afford it winner.

So I was,browsing the classifieds again not looking for a person selling their car when I came across this add.

I thought that was interesting. Alot of money to be asking for car repairs. I mean you can buy a decent car for that price. So it peaked my interest. What kind of car repair needs 3 grand??

For some reason in the car buying world you have certain people who buy certain cars BECAUSE it fits their personality (whatever) take a person who buys a smart car.

They may be concerned about the environment or be a tree hugging left wing nut job who believes they're going to stop global warming.

what about a big huge jacked up deisel

That would be your right winged gun loving nutcase who would put his elk antlers on his grill if that was legal. (Just an assumption don't get offended! P.s. I would love that truck)
When it comes to this guy...

And his fiat, well that brings a new breed of personality to the car buying world. To me a person owning a fiat flat yells out I'm different with almost a demand of respect. It says I've read and seen all the Harry Potter movies but could care less about star wars. It's a guy with nerdy glasses but not nerdly educated. A hair bunned big glasses librarian lady who becomes a man's sexy dream when the glasses come off and the hair comes down. The biggest thing is they are clueless when it comes to asking for help when their problem was totally unavoidable. Does this guy not have a clue of what he is asking for?

Ok ski passes? I thought he needed financial help?? Obviously only working 40 hours a week is exhausting and that 300 dollar car payment doesn't pay itself. And they need ski passes? Again this is another example of a clueless person not knowing what to do when a financial hiccup comes along which is really easy to fix. He still has a job so it's not like he's not making money.

Here is my suggestion. Get rid of the fiat asap. The automaker has only been reintroduced into the US markets since 2009. OF COURSE they're going to have problems. They don't have enough time to prove they're anything but a lemon. Your down 3 grand right? Try to
Sell yours for the max dollar you can. If you sell it and have less than 3 grand left on your loan your AHEAD. 2nd buy a car outright. For 3 grand you can buy a decent car with "heat" to keep you warm through the winter. Yes I know you don't have the money. I haven't written about  this yet on my "classes" but I have discovered a creative way to loan yourself. There's two options 1 find out all the available credit on your credit cards. As long as your not already forking out too much on high interest credit cards use those as a loan. How?? Well first of all absolutely no cash advances. They are not worth it instead because you are working put all of your expenses on those credit cards but make sure you take the amount you would of used out of your bank account in cash or transfer it to a savings account. Continue to do that over several weeks until you have an amount that you can use to buy a car outright. The 2nd option is to apply for a
Zero introductory interest cash back credit card. With this you'll have up to 12 months to pay off the balance. Again use my system of loaning yourself the money through using the card solely day to day purchases keeping track of every purchase and backing it up with cash or savings that you will use as your loan to fix this problem. IF all else fails there's always the option to surrender the vehicle. Yeah your credits destroyed but then for the next 7 years you can really learn how to become an independent person who can live without loans and have his stuff paid for. What's wrong with that??
Anyways I have rambled on way to long and since I don't know how to do a great close of this post I'll just end it with this.

There you have it your winner of the November I can't afford it award.
Next month we will have two winners December's and 2015 grand winner.

 which really doesn't mean anything.

Class 2 (using credit cards to get out of credit card debt)

I'm really struggling on how to teach this. I have a few ideas but unfortunately trying to write them down is difficult for me. If you have accidentally found my page because you researched something about credit cards whether it was grace periods questions about  interest or how to get out of debt quicker I'm going to tell you right now you might want to continue reading. I have found so many good uses for credit cards and new ideas are flowing in every day. Yes good uses. I have been to the bottom where there is no hope. Every tax return I get goes straight to credit cards because every year I go deeper in debt. Using this system which I accidentally found due to my wife accidentally canceling my debit card while ordering her a new one has created 3 credit cards with no interest. 2000 dollars a month will not have interest and I will save 40 dollars a month. 600 dollars of credit card debt has been paid off in only 2 months. There is no change in the way I live my life but I have more motivation to change my financial life. Are you ready to take a financial journey with me and start using everything you got to take your financial life back from your credit cards? Let's get started.

In a nutshell the way this works will be described by the next story.

Jake buys furniture on his credit card for 1200 dollars. After making a minimum payment for a year he pays 130 dollars principle and over 200 dollars interest. So after paying 330 dollars his loan is now 1070. After looking at his expenses he realizes has around 2000 dollars he spends every month. 1200 of that can be put on a credit card. It's the first of the month and he has till the 30th to make his next payment. Imediately he pays his credit card 300 dollars and his balance goes down to 770 dollars he then allows himself to use 300 dollars back on his credit card. He pays his phone bill groceries goes to the movies eats out and puts gas in his car. By his next paycheck  (weekly paycheck scenario) on the 8th his credit card is 1065 dollars he pays it 270 dollars adds that to the amount left over which is 5 (1070-1065=5) and he allows himself 280 dollars to put on his credit card. He pays some more bills buys groceries gets sick buys medicine and changes his oil. On the 15th he gets paid again. His cc balance is 1069 dollars. He pays his credit card 250 dollars then again pays his bills again. (Use your own imagination on what he buys)  The next week the 23rd he makes his last payment of the month of 250 dollars he allows himself to use 220 dollars because his normal credit card payment of 30 dollars is coming up so he deducts that from his allowed amount. At the end of the billing cycle Jake has paid to his credit card 1070 dollars he has used his credit card for all of his expenses spent 1040 dollars. His interest is zero. How? He paid his credit card balance in full by the due date. Even though it was in 4 payments. He also earns a 1 % cash back rewards of 10 dollars which he uses for account credit. So instead of paying 30 dollars and having 20 dollars eaten up in interest where his balance would be 1060 dollars he pays the exact same 30 dollars in a different way pays no interest and gets 10 dollars account credit making his new balance 1030 dollars. This works. Don't use your debit card for expenses your credit card can pay for.
Let's continue.
You need to know some things before you get started.
1 You need to know your credit cards due date. Most likely this is a duh answer but take a person who has it set up on auto payments they may not know. This is important to know.

2 You need to know your billing cycle beginning date and your ending date. Sometimes this can be hard to find. It's on the statement. Starts with a few days after your due date and ends usually one day before. For example a beginning date of sept. 20 usually ends on oct. 19th. This is important because after you complete a credit card cycle you don't want to start it over until the beginning of the cycle or else it will not be as effective.

(Billing cycle example)

3 find all expenses that can be put on a credit card. Write on a piece of paper what expenses can an cannot be put on credit cards. Go through your last statements and find how much you've spent and what of those expenses could of been put on a credit card.

4. Write EVERYTHING DOWN!! This by far is my most important rule.  You need to write everything down. Everything needs to be tracked so you know exactly where you are. At first I used a pen paper and envelope. That became annoying so I'm so glad xcel has finally produced a free smart phone version.

Unlimited access to your card will help. Smart phone laptop even a phone can have some access to your account.

In the next segment I will talk more on opening and closing statement dates as well as interest and cash back. I've decided to keep these short on certain points because I'm finding it hard to focus on it as an entire subject for just a few blogs. There's many parts to it and if I don't go in depth on every part I may not get to important keys of how to make this successful. More to come.

October's "I Can't Afford It Award" and deleting an old post.

Starting with the runner up, The October's "I Can't afford it award" 2nd place goes to the owner of this jeep.

It's funny to me how a person has to go through with a purchase to learn he or she can't afford it. He or she can't sit down with a pad of paper go through some scenarios and actually figure out if they can or cannot make a large purchase and unfortunately with so many preditory lenders and even family members blinded by in debt artificial sucess so many of us don't have a person telling them the cons of financing and pros on having your stuff paid for. Which is exactly a scenario that quite possibly happened to this person.

The winner of October's "I Can't Afford It Award" is not a car owner. Nope and if you haven't guessed by now it's this individual.

Again for privacy concerns I'm not showing the whole picture.

Look I understand we all have our struggles and our trials. Some we bring upon ourselves and others just happen. The problem with this persons argument is the check engine light was on as early as 2010. The problem still persisted through 5 more years and even after taking a trip to Florida and to Baltimore and to Australia in just this year alone, he still has the nerve to ask for help?? You cancel your trips and you put your life on hold to take care of the problem. Instead my assumption is he caved to the phrase "we deserve this" whenever a vacation or purchase opportunity came around then kicked the can down the road. (Oh how many times I've wanted to do that)

I also wanted to add a small segment on deleting a post that I explained in a prior post just written. This is for all the good that's been happening in my life. For the 2 good Christmases in a row. For my mortgage payment being on time for the 2 week vacation this summer for the father's day camping trip a stronger relationship with my wife and a new baby on the way. I even have a plan and funds to pay for the hospital. Things are looking up and I hope they continue to improve so that I can one day write my final post and delete my entire blog.

This is the post I've chosen and even though while writing this a few set backs have happened I know I can justify so much progress to do this. Again this is me keeping my end of the bargain with karma luck and the universe. (Nutcase alert) I know it sounds weird which is another reason to not keep this blog around. I hope to do more of this in the future eventually erase my entire blog when it's purpose is fulfilled.

Yes, another rant

Here I am again being mr negative. Without making excuses I want to share just two rants I found from Facebook.
I have mentioned before that I have a Facebook friend who I have wondered if they have used social services to fund their first and even their second pregnancy. It's pretty obvious when both of them do not come from wealthy families and one is working part time to assume that they would take advantage of social services up at BYU IDAHO. I still argue that if they truly needed to pay for their medical bills one or both would postpone college and get a full time job but yet the responsibility shoe only fits certain people. Again I'm not positive but it's obvious that the freedom to move back home from their first job out of college may point to several social programs used during their stay up at BYU IDAHO. So when I saw this last week/month I was amused and a irritated at the same time.

I am a believer in Karma and luck but I don't believe this is karma related more in the bad luck catigorie. Although I would like to blame it on karma for abusing the welfare system will cost you in the end I doubt it. What this does prove is that yes, contrary to some believe you can pay for your own pregnancies even if it's later in life. Although the government propably won't change its program rules may I at least make a couple of suggestions . One take a deeper look at both parents incomes of the couple who is applying for medicaid. I showed you one example earlier where a couple were using social services and getting free housing were also getting to go to Alaska California and Disneyworld  on the Parents dime. Parents can't step up to the plate? 2. Vehicles should be considered as an asset. Yes their unfortunately have been couples driving up to the hostpital in brand new vehicles that are not considered assets on the application. And 3. A payback plan. A person going to college is getting a degree to uhm I don't know make money. The government can't at least charge them a deductible amount for major surgeries or medical procedures such as births. I think 6 grand is a good number. Give them an amount of time to finish school and then take it out of their taxes. It's simple and it's right.
My other rant is on this.

Ok realy? I think it's funny how there levels of trials from small to much larger. Oh my gosh she's learned a few things while she's waiting for a NEW house. She's learned how to be grateful for the little things while a friend let them stay with them. Wow instead of writing an article on how you've taken a situation where you know your getting a BRAND  NEW house you possably have a working new car outside and you know things are going to get better. How about this, try waking up on a deflated mattress leaving for work sick because no one can take your place. Try working till midnight that night putting everything you own into a storage unit try doing all over again the next day which happens to be the last day of the month the day you have to be out of your place so after work having no time you put everything else you own under the  carport hand in your keys spend the next hour leaving your wife and 2 young kids in a car then using a geo metro to transport the rest of your belongings sacrificing a t.v. stand because it doesn't fit and become homeless with a plan in mind but nowhere to go just so you can achieve the American dream. Thats exactly what happened to me. I just have to laugh at these articles sometimes I don't feel like they truly know what true sacrificing is. When you don't have a place don't have church or parental support and your friends have abandoned you then write an article on that.
And that's my weekly rant.

Class #1 introduction.

I was like most Americans. Yes I admit it I lived paycheck to paycheck paying my bills and putting just a little excess on my credit cards. "I'll pay it back"  I would say. "It's only a few dollars." Over time a few dollars dollars grew to a hundred then 200 then 500 then 1000 until one day in the fall of 2013 after successfully maxing out 7 of my 8 credit cards I was in trouble. For the first time I went 30 days past my due date on my home loan. We could not pay the minimum on our largest credit card. We were barely skimping by. At 18000 dollars credit card plus 4000 car loan and a few thousand in medical, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was ready to claim bankruptcy and I was researching on how to do that. Thankfully and unthankfully HUD rescued me. It came with a price. Although they did reduce my mortgage payment the program destroyed my credit. My credit rating went from 750 to 550 in a matter of months. Desperation set in the next year when my cars transmission went out. I fought hard to work and fix my car. We tried twice to get a loan. Once we almost succeeded. Finally the banks said no and my family and I were on our own.

Fast forward a year my cars fixed our income is up my credit cards are down and I haven't been saying the phrase we can't afford that so much anymore. We still have a few financial set backs but have been able to stay ahead by watching our spending habits and putting off bigger purchases until we can afford them.

A couple months ago as I was reviewing my family's national debt  (what I call the all the debts we owe) I noticed that since I wrote about it back in the spring we had only paid off around 400 dollars. After all the mortgage payments the credit card payments all the dr payments the 401k and the car payments we had only paid 400 dollars!? Now my wife is pregnant and is the blame of a big portion of that plus my dr bills from my surgery have been surfacing but still only 400 dollars after all that work? This is when I started wondering how I could make a bigger punch to my national debt how can I Pay off my credit cards faster. Is it possible to pay just Princable and no interest? As I thought about this I remember a time back in 2014 after my injury we left to Arizona. We had to keep careful eye on our finances and I realized that at times we had enough to pay off our entire balance so I would. By doing that I wouldn't pay interest and my 300 dollar payment would turn into 500 credit dollars. I thought at the time as long as I did that every month I wouldn't be paying interest and my credit card would slowly pay itself off. I was wrong it only lasted 2 months and I was farther in debt back to paying the minimum payment. As I thought about that I wondered what went wrong. I stayed up late drenched in thoughts of how can I Pay off my credit cards faster how can I stop paying interest and make my payments more powerful in knocking out a few credit cards. I have finally been able to at least figure a few solutions and in doing so have paid off one credit card and just over 600 dollars on credit card debt saving around 60 dollars in interest in just under 2 months. 3 of my credit cards during this time have stopped charging me interest and in about 2 months I am projecting that I will have another credit card paid off and another one with no interest. I have been able to start my debt snowball at nearly it's full strength knocking out just over 300 dollars at one credit card per month. That is what I am going to try to teach. I get nothing in return for this just the satisfaction of passing on some valuable information to those who could use it and being able to pay themselves and not the finance companies is satisfaction enough for me.

Preface on what's going on

I'm putting a little preface of what is about to come. I have been writing alot lately and have a few blogs ready to go. First of all I have an announcement. As none of you know (since I realy don't have any followers) my main purpose of this blog is to write my feelings ideas frustrations down until a time where A. 7 events happen one being a honeymoon and 2 being debt free or B. as of right now an unknown reason I will erase my blog. At that time it will have served it's purpose and I can move on to another chapter in my life. To show myself karma and the universe my dedication to my end of the bargain I am going to review my blog and erase 1 blog post. Yeah it's not much but to me it shows progress is bring made and if it continues my end of the deal will continue.
Two other things. I have a winner for the "I can't afford it award" I've started my classes on credit card no interest payment plan and I still have a few rants to get out of the way so without saying anything further the next few blogs are going to go in such order
1st. Class # 1 on credit card no interest payment plan.
2. My rant on two facebook posts
3. My winner of the I can't afford it award
4. Class #2 on credit card no interest payment plan.
Coming very soon. Have a great Monday and the rest of the week.

Financial integrity within yourself.

More proof of the wealthier than you and me person going above and beyond his needs is asking for a hand out. I've warned about this over and over that a family needs to look at their budget look at their expenses and gosh danget look at what your future looks like. Build a financial foundation with wealth food storage and knowledge so that when storms of financial distress comes your way you will not only withstand it you will live comfortably with it.

I always had this fantasy of being stuck in bad weather with a girl of my dreams. Usually it involved a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. We would wait out the storm by a fireplace with nowhere to go. Finances are like that fantasy . Are you going to be the person who looked ahead built a comfortable sturdy cabin complete with furniture and a fireplace? Or are you measly going to get by with a tent. Yeah it's better than the last option of building a shelter but it's not as good as the first option. Just an FYI my fantasy sort of came true in 2006. My girlfriend who is now my wife and I got stuck in a town in arizona during a freak snowstorm.  They shut down all the roads and we were forced to find a hotel.

So I was again browsing the charity classifieds going through horses cats and dogs not having enough food or needing surgery when I came across this.

Who wasn't a victim of preditory lending? Both my father in law and sister in law lost their house and credit in the housing crises. My brother was forced to move out and rent his house. He was able to save it but then again I have to brag about my family how brilliant they are to weather storms and save their credit and house. So if he is so desperate for a hand out obviously he has been sacrificing for a while trying to clean up his financial problems right?
Uhm wrong
Just a month ago he was fishing in Florida

(I need a better editing app)


3 months ago he was at a ball game in Baltimore Maryland

(Could of been work related?)

And how many of you have wanted to go to Australia? Well you can ask this guy because 4 months ago in June he was there.

This is exactly the example that inspired me to write this blog. I have been taught to donate and feed the poor only to find out these people our over drafting fast offering accounts using food banks and church services to stay in their luxurious 350 thousand dollar homes.

I'm the one who was poor the entire time. The food I needed and donated went to people like him. There is no reason he could of said no to anyone of those trips yet here he is. My prime example of the person who buys the nice house cars toys and goes on nice vacations is asking for your money to save his house.
I just looked up this persons Facebook account and during the time I have written this which is about half a week he has since gotten a gofundme account set up and has posted it to his facebook page. Look, I don't have a problem with legit gofundme asking for help but this again is a problem that could of been fixed years ago. The warning signs were yesterday but procrastinated until today.

(Facebook post)

(Facebook comment)

I understand that he probably us the nicest and honest person but in this situation he hasn't been honest with himself or his family. This is a problem he has admitted he has known about for years. To be truly honest with himself would be to know when to say "we can't afford this". We all have those moments where we say we deserve something such as a vacatiion. I know i have. I deserve a honeymoon I've never had one but to just go on an a expensive trip knowing that problems are looming would be dishonest. Ignoring and kicking the can down the road until it's too late is being dishonest with yourself. What kind of father would you be if you chose to go on a trip knowing a problem was looming that could possibly end with you losing your house? The kind who eventually plays the charity card and asks for help.

Look at your debts look at your interest and start saving today wherever you can. Save as much as you can and live within and below your means. Build your financial foundation stronger. Say no to bigger purchases that get in the way of paying off debt.

Again if you haven't read this blog this is my spot to write my frustrations down. It's nothing personal just my ideas frustrations and helpful tips for sucess.

Not "Their" yet

I remember once learning that for a man to survive he would need 3 things. Food, water, and shelter. To make surviving more comfortable you would add clothing fire and a bed. Beyond that you wouldn't be considered as just surviving but rather moved up into the living category. I thought about that this conference weekend after moping for a couple of days because some things didn't go as planned. One week ago if I would have written a progress report I would have continued on on how financial we are doing well. Physically I'm getting better and overall just a brighter future picture all together. Unfortunately  two instances have set me back emotionally. No thank goodness it's not a sick or injured family member and although it does relate to money we are actually considerably doing well. My credit card, no interest, use them to pay off the credit cards plan is actually doing quite well. I have managed to pay off almost 300 dollars in less than 2 months. Only 1 credit card acrue interest and that was the first month rolling it so I thought it would. Obviously I have alot more to say on that subject and explain how to do that but that's a subject for another day. Our fridge is somewhat full and our bank accounts too. So why am I still not satisfied why am I not "Their" yet and what is "Their". Well taking the above example of what a man needs to survive what is it that I want,need to live a life. I think I've at least figured a few things.

#1 is food security. When I first got married I told my wife that no matter what I did not want to ever have to chose between a credit payment and food. Food came first. I had heard too many stories from a high school girlfriend how her dad and mom did not know how to manage money and that one time before a paycheck their was a bag of cerial left. Her and her sister ate it while her parents starved for a day and a half until they got paid. I did not want that to happen. I stressed that again before we bought our first new car and although we have never starved we have come extremely close. Luckily with the help of the plasma center none of my girls have never come close but we can and should do better at this.
#2  Reliable transportation. You could go into debt to have reliable transportation but then how reliable is it when you lose your job and your car is repoed when you need it to go to the hospital to have a baby. My idea for reliable transportation is to have 3 or 4 vehicles for our family. If I could pay cash I would definitely buy better newer cars but since I don't multiple vehicles are the answer. If one breaks down you park it and use the other one until that one is fixed.
#3 A getaway place. For me this would be my very own cabin. I envy those who can just getaway whenever they want to. A short hour drive they're a million miles away from their problems. For some it's their camping trailer others it's a hotel or a relatives house. Just something to call my own.
#4 Toys! I can't believe I'm 30 and have only owned a motorcycle for about 9 months. I sold it to pay for a dr bill. (huh imagine that) I may be cheap but I still want to have fun. Watercraft Snowmobiles and Atvs. Unfortunately my toy money has went to pay dr bills for the last 9 years. At 6000 a year well you do the math.
#5 A modern or modernized house. Again I consider myself a simple guy who still would like a few luxuries. Such as a jetted large tub a walk in closet and a nice size Master bedroom. The house doesn't have to be a mansion but a nice size house with a nice size yard in seclusion if I could ask for that would be living.
#6 Vacations. I'm not talking once twice or maybe 3 times a year vacations I'm talking more in Tha ballpark of 10 to 15 mini and long vacations per year. Now I know I am dreaming but I can dream right? I already know of at least 4-5 couples and families who take advantage of life circumstances and take that many plus. I know of one couple who practically does this every other week. At least 30 vacations a year.

#7 Financial Security I'm going to end on 7. This trumps all of my other items and the list could go on and on but financial security has always come first for me. There have been times I've skipped meals so that a bill could be paid. It has always been my worry and will be until....? I always question my financial security before anything else and yes that is one of the reasons I don't have toys a nice house or vacations. I hope to one day have my expenses paid my loans paid off and generated income that happens non stop even when I'm sleeping driving or flying away on one of my many vacations. A vacation where there is no budgeting no care and no concern if my bank account is going to be overdrawn or my fridge empty when I come home. And that is it my friends my main 7 gifts qualities or circumstances I would like to have to finally say I'm "their" I'm living.

September's winner of the CPA's "I can't afford it award"

I just finished up reviewing both contestants and I have the winner anouncement for this month's award. By the way you should not be happy to obtain this award. I'm basically calling you out. Those of you who are financial liers who turn to societies welfare system to bail you out of an obvious financial mistake seen from the beginning. Think your financial decisions through. Don't do a wait and see approach. Pros and cons and seriously ask the question. Does this decision put me in danger of not being self reliant.
 This weekend I had enough cash on hand to purchase a trailor and 2 ATVs. I didn't. I want to, I deserve it, but it's not the right decision at this time. So considering the rash decision of not thinking ahead for possible future emergencies because it's not if but when they will happen that..

I have chosen.....

The owners......

of the Schnorkie.

The young girl with the horses is not married no kids not a whole lot of responsibility. I'm guessing no rent possibly no car payment. She has a lot of time to fix her financial mistakes and doesn't have alot of financial worries at this time. The couple with the Schnorkie are that typical show off the wealth you don't have young couple that are setting themselves up for future subsidies that they don't deserve. Start protecting your wealth today. Stop the debt stop the payments. Don't pay interest, earn it
Thats it for now. More to come.

September's second contestant

The second contestant this month is the owner of this horse

Pretty simple back story. Girl grows up with horses gets her own and a few more. While she is living at home she loses her job and her dad ask her to take responsibility and get rid of her horses. Not the best contestant I've got to admit.
I put it down to show that this is one way financial disaster starts. Good for her dad teaching her financial responsibility.

One last thing. Again and again I will explain that certain animals are in the  "expensive" catigorie and the reason I am so against owning them is because they do hinder financial progress. When it comes to a financial disaster such as the 2008 2009 recession certain animal owners such as horse or dog (with exception) should be next in line for help. They helped cause some of their financial problems through necessary funds that supported their animals when clearly they can't afford them. Again my thorough thought through opinion.
There you have it. My 2 " I can't afford it award" contestants.

September's first contestant.

I've been doing alot of I can't afford it awards on cars lately and have decided to switch gears. This months I can't afford it award will go to a person who can't afford an animal such as a dog or a horse. Now I've brought this fact up several times that you need to think twice before getting a dog or an animal that is going to aquire alot of attention. What most young couples don't realize is they do take alot of your freedom's away and they are expensive. Some require a certain brand of dog food and vet visits. I've had a dog before and it was so annoying paying the vet every time we thought she was hurt or sick. I don't think we were thinking about our future enough. Eventually after having a baby and moving we decided that our future would be better without her. We found a nice couple who adopted her and we moved on. So again please make sure you think and calculate what you are going to give up before you adopt that cute little puppy.


This month's first contestant is the owner of this little Schnorkie.

I know cute huh?

I was lucky enough to catch this add twice because in less than 48 hours she changed it.
Here is the original post

And here is the updated.

So does anyone see what I spot imediately? Got to say I have more questions about the car than I do the dog. I find it ironic that in the first post she mentions getting a new car which obviously begs the question if she can afford a new car Why can't she afford a dog? She must have caught that because in the new post she says she needs to pay for repairs. So what is it? Repairs or new car? They've only had this dog for 2 weeks? Seriously? This is unfortunately America's planning people. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we default.  I also want to point out this. This is the by far the cheapest I can't afford it contestant I have had so far. What she and other people don't realize is how much work and effort goes into having a puppy. Not the greatest idea especially if you have a 1 year old. Your strapped down and lose your freedom. Just try getting out of town with a 1 year old and a dog. It's not easy. Do yourself a favor wait at least 5 years until after you are married before you even consider a dog. There is so much you will want to do in that amount of time that a dog will be in the way.

By the way. They seem a little desperate. This is the 3Rd post in one week and the price is reduced.

How to eliminate interest on credit card balances.

About a year ago while I was on the injured list I suddenly became 40% poorer due to a cut in pay that happens when you go on disability. Even if you don't want to hear this I am going to say it every time this is mentioned. Nobody paid my mortgage and I still didn't use the bishops storehouse. Just saying. Now moving on. I had alot of time on my hand to think and I tried to figure out how to reduce debt or at least reduce interest. I realized your credit card can cary a balance and upwards towards 2 months can be interest free before accruing interest. For 1 month I tried using credit cards and paying them off. I had no interest the 2nd month then lost track of my expenses  and ended up leaving the credit card balance on the card. I then slowly started paying it down. The credit card won and I didn't. Now I realize my mistake and I will show you that it is possible to destroy your credit card by using it.

First learn how credit cards work.  Credit cards have an opening and closing date. Usually exactly 1 month. For example if your credit cards opening date is the 9th your closing date will be the next month on the 8th. You usually have a grace period of around 20-25 days. So your due date will be around the 4th or 5th. So if you put 300 dollars on your credit card that once had a zero balance on the 9th of September you have until November 4th to pay it off before you start accruing interest. This is very important to remember.
1st find out what your opening and closing date.
2 pick a payment amount you know you can stick to. Mine is 25.00
3rd find all of your bills that can be put on a credit card.
Now let's begin. Remember for the first month you are going to accrue interest. It's the following month and then after your not. Your basically going to pay your credit card backwards.  Instead of paying a payment towards your credit card where your charged more than half in interest you are going to pay off your credit card with the money you would of paid for your groceries bills gas ect. Towards your credit card first then pay your bills up to 25 dollars less or whatever your payment is on your credit card. Your paying the old balance in full every month putting a new balance on then repeating every month until you have a zero balance. Your credit card is paid faster because you eliminate interest. Credit rating goes up?
and you get of debt creating more stability and income for your family.
A couple of pointers
1st a credit card can have multiple payments. If you have a bill coming up that can be put on a credit card pay the bill with the credit card then pay your credit card. Check with your cc company to see how many times you can make a payment.
2nd You must eliminate all old debt on the card for this to work. If your making payments make sure you pay your entire statement balance by your due date. For example if you owe 500 dollars but only can put 300 towards it do that but make sure before the due date another 200 goes on it or it will not work.
3rd BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET! You will not get anywhere if you don't care. Chose the cheaper items drive your car slower to save gas pack your lunch. Just by changing simple things you can easily save the amount of your payment. For example I love soda. The place I go to charges soda at a 1.39 + 8 % sakes tax. I've decided to change and go to my grocery store which charges 49 cents + 4% tax for refills. In one month I can easily save 25 bucks just from that one decision.
4Th Write EVERYTHING down. This is seriously my most important rule. Get a piece of paper or a notebook and you write the date description and price of every item or bill you pay for than deduct that from your amount your allowed. I use a folded piece of paper in my wallet. For example you pay your credit card 600 dollars. Minus your payment of 25 dollars you are now allowed 575 dollars.
5th. Most often you use your credit card for about 2 weeks. As soon as your done put it away and don't use it until your within your credit card time frame. Usually it's 2-3 weeks prior to your due date.
6th Use credit cards that have incentives such as cash back or points. They will help you quicker by paying you to use them.
7th Last one for now. Combine and conquer. Combine your credit card debt into one credit card or pay off higher interest cards by combing them. Here's how that works. Say your done with one credit card for the month but want to eliminate another higher interest card. Well max out the one you are working on with bills or things you would have spent from your account then pay that amount towards that high interest credit card. When you pay it down again months later repeat until that other credit card is eliminated. Works best for department store cards where your eliminated on only one store you can shop at. Just remember to not go over what you can handle paying off on a monthly basis.

So try it. Use your credit cards to destroy them and again remember. Do this with extreme caution and a very watchful eye. It can easily get away from you with one simple mistake.

Just Another thought on car loans

So I just wanted to add this thought with all of my other thoughts on financing a car.

Normal car loans last around 5 years. Your more expensive cars in the 30k range are probably around 72 to 84 months (6-7) years. Before you purchase that vehicle ask this question, can I really afford this for 5 6 7 YEARS. So many things change in that amount of time. Families grow creating more demand on your finances. Your payment doesn't go lower. Remember your paying that 600 dollar payment for the next 5 years. Most often your payment just barely keeps up with the value of your car so by the time you own your 35 THOUSAND dollar it's value will drop to less than 10 thousand. If you add Princable plus interest plus insurance payments you've paid close to 45000 and it's only worth 10!
The other argument I'm hearing is,that the economy is doing well. Uhm well it's not. I've been arguing for a while all of those numbers you are seeing from your house prices to your stock prices are inflated and can easily go down. The economy is not doing well interest rates will go up eventually.
Again do yourself a favor and keep your auto loans at 5k or less and that's only if you have to.

Yeah, That makes sense......

Welcome to a new segment of my blog. A recurring segment on subjects, mainly purchases that we make every day that we should look at more closely at.

So a couple of weeks ago I noticed the gas prices started to go down. The news agency says that by fall gas prices will be under 2 dollars. For 2 weeks I noticed a few gas stations including costco go down below 2.50. Just this last week they have all jumped 20 cents. Why??? They haven't even accommodated for the oil price drop. Why the increase??? Well labor day is coming up. So no other reason than to stick it to our wallets they are increasing gas prices. Uh huh. That makes sense. Obviously we all have places we like to go but consider doing stay cation instead. Stick it to them and their analysis. One more thing. After labor day only fill your tank half full. I have a feeling prices are going to drop daily. No need to give the oil companies more money. I mean seriously what have they done for you. Oh and p.s. investors, stop trying to make oil go up. Your going to get burned.
Here's a headline just 32 minutes ago.

August winner

When chosing a winner I just don't automatically find someone with desperation spewing all over their add. In order for it to qualify as an I can't afford it, it does have to meet certain guidelines. I can show you several adds that need and  want to sell or can't afford written all over the add but because something doesn't add up I just can't qualify them for the I can't afford it award.

Before I chose my winner I wanted to show you two previous winners who STILL haven't sold their car/truck. Now realize how many freedoms you give up when you sign your loan that these two are dealing with right now.
If you remember back in may I chose this car

Why? Well when you find out more info on this couple you'll find out they just had a baby (paid through medicaid I'm guessing) they are getting items for that baby through state programs such as wic and are going through college but can't afford a car. Although they can afford an all inclusive trip to Cancun and a diamond ring but again can't afford their car?
Well as of 2 weeks ago it's for sell at a reduced price.

K one more thing. I just found out this couple just bought their first house. This is honestly confusing to me. How can you not afford a car but can afford a house all of a sudden??  Especially when your add says that you don't have a job?

Very confusing. Apparently in today's market you don't need steady income to buy a house or is this where parental support comes into play?

My June award is still up for sale

I actually didn't include a picture when I wrote that blog but this is it.

This was the one where the guy bought it but put it up for sale BEFORE his first payment was due. Why? Lost his job and didn't have ACTUAL assets to back up his purchase. This again proves my point that truck owners who finance their trucks ARE selfish especially towards imediately family. 

So moving forward let's start with the runner up of this month's "I can't afford it award "

The runner up in this case didn't have alot of information on wether he needed to sell or if he was forced to sell. I still chose him because he just doesn't get it.

1000 dollars down? Realy you think you deserve a thousand dollars to get out of your car payment? I don't care if it's worth more. Your the one trying to get out of a car loan not selling a car you own. You dont have any right to an extra 1000. I'd wait till this guy is a little more desperate than offer him 3000 dollars less than kelly blue book or what he's asking whichever is less. Make him pay me money to buy it.

The winner this month is another lease-er and like the last lease that won he too lives in provo. (Must be a provo thing) He's still a kid at heart with a growing family and he has half a mortgage payment for a car payment uhm actually car rent payment because hes not actually buying it.....no..he's throwing away 500 bucks a month to look like a millionaire. Only problem is millionaires own their car. When will you?
The Winner of this months CPA'S " I can't afford it award"......

The Lexus Lease-er

Sooooo...what's his family issue that came up? My guess? Well his wife IS pregnant so I'm guessing they are having financial difficulties due to a baby. Babies are expensive. You can't live a millionaires life if your not a millionaire. Indebting yourself to look like your upper class is stupid. This is where charities need to stay out of. These people realy do need to hit rock bottom in order to learn the true value of a dollar.

Hope you enjoyed this month's winner.