Moving!

At this point, it looks more likely than not that I'll get the space in Grove City for the studio! I go to sign the lease on Monday, and deliver the deposit (thank you Uncle Rick), and then we go over construction details so the contractor can get started! To say that I'm excited would be a massive understatement.

This should all be ready for me to move into on June 1st. If that stays true, Skyline Sound Studios shouldn't need much downtime. (Enough time to move out of the old, and enough time to move into the new and get set up). Once it's all set up, and has been beta tested (may throw a free track at a friend to test things out in the new space, preferably a rock band so I can test noise levels and isolation), I'm considering an open house. This would be where I'm on the premises all day, and people can come in and out all day to view the space. Hopefully this would lead to some bookings, but even if all it does is increase awareness, I'm good.

The cheesy sentimental side of my brain is wanting to commemorate this event. It'll be my first commercial facility that isn't in a house that I happen to be also living in. It'll be a space whose sole purpose would be for audio production, and it would be in a  professional environment! This would be huge for me! So the sentimental cheesy side of my brain is envisioning a ribbon cutting ceremony or a smashed bottle on the building to launch the studio. If nothing else, it would make a great memory for me to look back on and provide a photo op, so we'll see.

At any rate, things are looking up. I'm excited to get into the space, and can't wait to see it develop over the next month!

Marion Ohio………..SUCK IT!

Babysteps.

I've been paying attention to Dave Ramsey, and I'm taking a personal finance class this quarter. Now, the quarter has been going on only two days, so I haven't really learned any valuable nuggets of personal finance information from the course as of yet, but I'm looking forward to what it'll teach and hoping it'll give me some great info to help me get things back in order.

As far as Dave Ramsey goes, i've been listening to him using an app on my iPhone. He's got some good advice, and it makes a lot of sense. I've been trying to pick up what I can, and think I've now got an even better idea of what needs fixed with my finances.

For example, I'm trying to focus really heavily on saving money. This is for obvious reasons, I need to have a safety cushion and be able to save for the future. But now I'm realizing that the debts I have are a toxic asset that need to be eliminated as soon as possible. This is because most of them are acruing interest rates that are at least 10 times the interest that my savings account is earning me. This means for every dollar I save, I may acrue an extra 2 pennies. But for every dollar of my debt, I'm paying an extra 15 to 30 pennies (depending on the debt). So in order for more of my money to be able to work for me, this needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.

Ideally, I'd have enough in savings to cover one year of income so that if I lost my job, I'd be ok. But that's not gonna happen for a while. I'm saving 10% of my income each week, starting at the beginning of the year (After my cancer scare and the depletion of my savings, and the subsequent lapse in responsible spending that followed while I dealt with that, I wasn't in a position to start saving again until after the holidays. I couldn't even afford Christmas presents for anyone.....), but at $14.00-hour at my day job, if I work 40 hours each week, my pay after taxes is only around $22,880-year. 10% of that is $2,288 saved in a year. It would take me 10 years, not counting interest earned on the savings account, to generate a full years salary by just setting aside 10% of each paycheck. That's not going to do me any favors, especially when I'm paying so much interest for these small debts.

So for now, the savings account would be more of an interest earning account to help increase my financial health, and provide me with an emergency fund. I have a $500 credit card that is maxed out with Chase bank, and it's an a 29.99% APR. If I make the minimum payments each month, it'll take me years to pay that off, and cost me a ton of money. I've had this card maxed out for years, and keep making the minimum payments each month, but keep jacking the balance back up when it's got a little wiggle room again. So I'm perpetually in debt, and have been paying chase 29.99% interest on a $500 debt for at least the last 6 years. That's rediculous, assenine, and a massive waste of my money over the last 6 years. That stops this year. In fact, that stops next week.

My very generous uncle Rick gave me a $500 gift to use to pay off that card. I did that in November. But then, I needed new brakes. My savings was already depleted from my cancer scare, so the brakes went on the credit card. I had that card paid off for a grand total of 3 days.  But next week, I plan on bringing the balance of that card back down to Zero.....and keeping it there.

If I were to follow the advice of Dave Ramsey, I'd close the card and cut it up. I'm not comfortable doing that yet, but am not likely to use it for anything other than emergencies. This is because I have virtually nothing in savings. I'll be working to build that back up, and will have stopped paying chase $0.30 on the dollar as of next week, which will free up that line of credit to be used for emergencies until I get a cash emergency fund in place. When that happens, the credit card gets closed.

Meanwhile, I'll have the money I was channeling into my Chase card available to apply to my NTB Citi card from the new tires I got last February. This is a $600 debt that I'm paying 28.99% on, so this is another toxic asset. Uncle Rick gave me $300 for this card in November, but I needed it for bills, so I'll be putting $300 on that card next week, which will cut the balance in 1/2. The next step will be to snowball the payments to that card so it can be gone a.s.a.p. This may include paying it off once and for all with my tax return, which I plan to file as soon as I get my W2's. Either way, my credit cards should be gone by summer, and that's a big sigh of relief to me. This will mean that more of the money I'm bringing in will be working toward my future, and not the bottom line of a bottom feeding credit card company.

So with my own credit card debts eliminated by summer, it'll be time to snowball my other debts, while resting on an emergency credit line that I hope to never use, and building a savings. Step one is finally back in action, and I do not intend to derail it again. I'm still picking up the pieces from the cancer scare's damage to my finances, and I will not allow that to happen again.

So now what? It's clear that this is going to be a lifelong practice from now on, but in order for my 5 year goal to come to fruition, I'm gonna need to make my money work for me. Step 2 addresses income streams that I'm trying to institute, but perhaps 3 would be diversifaction of assets. I need to figure out how to make the money I bring in work for me in a way that will exponentially increase my income, so I'm planning on using a portion of my tax return to invest. I'm starting small, and am going to do research to determine the best place to invest, but I am willing to risk a small portion of that money to see if I can turn that risk into a profit. It's a gamble, but then again so is everything. So I guess step 3 will be me figuring out how to best make my income work for me.

To Chase and Citi, you'll be an annoying footnote to me in no time. My advice to anyone considering a line of credit......unless it's absolutely vital, don't do it. Find another option. I've been a slave to these fucking cards for way too long, and I'm greatful to get the chance to get them behind me so I can snowball the remaining debts I have.

2017, here I come.

Taking stock of 2011

What a fucking year. A lot of good has happened, but a lot of very stressful bad things have happened too. Let's look at the bad......

Sarah leaves me.

I'm forced to adapt to life on my own for the first time in my life, at 30 years old.

I make some bad decisions in the love game.

I lose my day job.

I have to beg for money from family to pay rent.

I found myself dumpster diving for scrap metal to pay the bills.

I go into a depression of home sickness, longing for the Rockies, but knowing I can't get there because I lost my job and have no means to travel.

I get my job back, and start doing well, and start putting the pieces of myself back together financially, straighten out my love life, and start feeling optimistic about my future..............

..........but now it all might be derailed because I may have cancer?!?!

I don't necessarily believe in Karma, simply because there are a million facets to the decisions one makes, and what may be the only choice one has may be perceived by an outsider as a bad decision that will generate bad karma. I believe that life is completely random, I don't believe in a divine entity (despite my upbringing - sorry mom). I know I did nothing to deserve any of these worries.

But it doesn't make it suck any less.

Turning a corner?!

I'm feeling good right now! A few things have been going my way, and I'm happy about that (obviously). I've got some great business ideas that I won't discuss here yet, but they could help elevate me to the level I want to be. But aside from that, a few things personally have been going my way. We'll talk about some of those.....

First of all, I've been able to get a small savings of less than $1000, but more than $500. It's not what I wanted to have had out of my overage, but quite frankly I've had some bills to pay that were acruing after the job loss over the summer (not to mention the expense of textbooks), so I'm happy about having what I have right now. 1 month ago, I had less than $1 in my savings. I had to pull out the $99 I had saved over the summer to get some bills paid. But now, that's changed, and I've been setting back some of each check coupled with part of my studio earnings and my school overage. Now I have a nice little cushion! It's not much, and if I were to lose all forms of income it would deplete REALLY quick, but it's better than where I was.

Then, I got a bit of a bail out from my uncle. I've not asked him for money since this summer when I asked them to help me cover August's rent, but he's been offering me help to get me out of the woods and I'll forever be greatful! He recently asked me for information regarding my debts, and after I sent him a full report of what I owe, he sent me a $500 check to help me get back on top of things. That was over a month ago, and I've been waiting to hear from him since then, but he's a busy guy and difficult to reach.

Well, I recieved a letter from him on Friday that included a check, and a letter stating that he wanted me to use that check to pay off one of my 3 credit cards! I've since done so, and I only have 2 in my name now instead of 3! It's nice to have that cleared out of the way, cause I'd originally used that credit card to pay off some medical bills that were in collections about 5 years ago, and I quickly maxed it out. It stayed maxed out the ENTIRE TIME! By now, with a $500 limit, at 26.99% APR, I've paid off those medical bills & THEN SOME! Also, I was stupid with it, and would use it for stupid things like fast food when I knew there was a little bit of room on it. Obviously, if you read this blog, you know that I've since wised up to how stupid my financial actions were, and am trying to reverse the damage before it gets worse. So this opportunity to just pay off the card, which at that point was over limit, is a big sigh of relief for me as it will free up those assets to go to my other cards and car loan, and allow me to have more disposable income if it were needed for other things!

As soon as I got his check, I went online and made the payment! Over the weekend, it was processed, and yesterday I was GIDDY to see that the balance was Zero and the card was closed!



If that was the extent of my uncle's generosity, I'd be ecstatic. But on Saturday I spoke with him on the phone and he expressed interest in helping me get the next two cards paid off over the next two months! I don't expect him to do this, but honestly if he did it would be a HUGE sigh of relief! I felt like I was really in over my head over the summer, and now it seems that some things are finally going my way! I attribute it to a few things, one of which being my not being shy about needing help, and one being my new dedication to managing my assets.

That said, there are other things that are happening too. It would seem that my once estranged father, who I didn't really talk to until around my birthday in 2009 (I'd have been turning 28 - I've forgiven and moved on, we now keep in touch), has recently gone through a breakup and needs a place to stay for a few weeks. I've offered to let him stay at my place for a weekly rent of $100. It's a short term arrangement, and I can't see him being here more than 2 months tops, but he needs a place to hang his head and I have a spare bedroom. This extra $100 each week would be an obvious help to regaining my financial health. He's expected to move in later this week, and I've converted my band lounge back to a bedroom for his use during this time.

So monetarily, things are turning around. But that's not the only thing that's going well. I'm happy with a new relationship, and I can't imagine being with anyone else. I've got some really cool business ideas that I'm working on. School is in full swing, and I'm uber busy these days between classes and various mixing projects. In general, things are better than they were not that long ago, and I'm starting to feel a sense of stability. I walked through the fire, I got burned, but the wounds are healing and I'm back in action!

I'll post more as it happens, but this is all good news. Thanks for reading.

Worthless

I feel worthless right now. I sent my financial information to my beloved uncle who has expressed interest in helping me get out of the hole. Quite frankly, I hate how proud and stubborn I can be, and it's those qualities that are causing me to feel worthless. I hate feeling like this, but quite frankly I hate being in this situation too. I don't know what the outcome of these interactions will be, but there's no way of saving my dignity in this. I may as well just swallow my pride and see what happens, but that's really hard when you feel worthless.

I'll be ok, but this feeling sucks.

Turning the corner?

Ok, I make no bones about the fact that my financial situation sucks. But I'm a proud person. This means that even though I'm public about the fact that I'm poor at the moment, I don't wanna be a charity case and I don't wanna ask people for money. My stubborn grandfather, who raised me, instilled this quality into me, and I value it. It means that I don't wanna seek a hand out, cause I'd rather hustle and bustle to get where I need to be through hard work and sacrifice…..

…but sometimes we all need help. I'm in no position to turn it down if it's offered.

My uncle has heard of my current situation, and is offering to extend an olive branch of sorts. He wants to know how deep in the hole I am, and when he gets the numbers he said "we'll talk". That's not a promise that he'll write me a check, and I do not expect him to do so. Even if all he did was guide me to where I need to be through well thought out steps designed to get me out of this mess, I'd owe the world to him. It hasn't been often that my family has been able to help me in life, largely because of my stubborn side, but I won't lie that if these interactions with him get me out of this mess, I'll owe everything to him and be eternally grateful.

That said, I still hate that I even find myself in this place. I don't want to be the broke 30 year old who needs family assistance to get himself on track. I hate it, but here I am. Nothing I can do about it but try to turn it around. I'm in no position to deny any blessings that come my way.

Money and life.

I make no secret of my financial situation. I publicly talk about being poor on my blog, because really.....who gives a shit? If I have something to get off my chest about my financial situation, so be it. Before I go into this blog post, I want to touch on the idea that money isn't everything. Ok, sure, money isn't everything, and money can't buy happiness in the Tibetan philosopher sense. But the fact of the matter is that a lack of money suddenly can make money the only thing that's important in life. After all, the bills don't stop just because you don't have the income.

Believe me.

Now, with that said, I'm 30 years old with about $40 to my name. Sure, I own my own part time business, I have a car, and a pretty nice roof over my head. On those levels, I can't complain. Things could definitely be worse. But I had to bum $5 off of a colleague today in order to have enough gas to get back to Marion, and I barely made it in time to visit the local scrap yard, which paid me $13 for the scrap metal I'd collected. This $13 will go toward putting more gas in my tank so that I can go out and try to better my situation.

This blog post isn't intended to be me bitching about how bad my situation is. I live in one of the poorest cities in the state of Ohio, which in turn makes my cost of living stupid low and allows me to live in a much nicer dwelling than I could afford in Columbus. So there are some things that are definitely working in my favor, especially when you consider the poverty rate of my community. We're a bunch of poor sons of bitches, yet I've been able to maintain a roof over my head and have yet to have a utility disconnected! (Three weeks of Ramen Noodles 3 times a day helped that happen).

This blog post is instead a declaration that I'm not going to be in the same boat when I'm 35 if I can help it! After Sarah left, I was living paycheck to paycheck, but not really doing it as responsibly as I could have. The income from my job in Dublin was just enough to keep me afloat with some quality of living, though not much. When that job went away, and I had absolutely no money coming in for 3 weeks (thank you unemployment checks), that really set me back even further than I already was. The companies I owed my (lack of) money to were less than understanding of my situation. I had to borrow money from a much loved uncle in order to pay my rent last month. I'm left here looking around at my financial situation, and looking at myself asking why in the hell I'm in this situation?!

Well, the fact of the matter is that I am. And believe me, when money is a huge issue in your life it becomes everything to you. Getting back on my feet financially is the single most important goal I have in my life now. And now that my old job has me returning to their ranks in 10 days, I know that if I adhere to some strict rules and do all I can to maximize my bottom line, I'll be ok once again. In fact, with luck, I'll be in better shape than I was before I lost the job in the first place!

Step one. Pay myself first. Period.

Minimum of 10% of ALL income goes into a savings account. Be it income from the studio, music sales, music performances, day job payroll, scrap yard salvage.......whatever it is. If I take just my prior income alone of $430-week and put 10% in a savings account, then after a month, I've got $172 saved. Even if all I can do is $172 each month, after 12 months, I've now got $2064 saved back for another job loss, or emergency situation. And while I have a lot of bills that need to be paid right now, and owe a lot of money, this rule cannot be deviated from unless it is a dire circumstance. After all, I don't want to find myself jobless again in 6 months with nothing in the bank to help sustain me til I find another job. Last time was a nightmare!

Step 2. Diversify.

Find multiple income streams, and use this to help not only increase my bottom line, but also to help build my savings. Let's take my $430-week day job and include extra income from selling scrap metal to the local recycling plant, as well as any money earned from the studio, and any money earned from music sales and performances, and now we've got a much healthier financial picture. The day job is easy enough, I show up and work 40 hours each week and they pay me. The scrap metal selling should also be easy enough, as I have colleagues who are doing electrical work and have promised me their leftover scraps. I've been getting this weekly from them and have been making nearly $80-$100 each week from that alone (depending on how much they have for me to salvage). That could equal up to $400 in a month, which is almost like getting an entire extra paycheck from my day job! Then we have the studio's earnings, which ok it's still spotty and not quite self sustaining yet. I'm taking steps to make that a reality. During this period of unemployment, the studio's income has had to all be applied to the "regular income" category. Once the full time paychecks start picking back up, studio income can go back into the category of "extra income"! Let's face it, right now, anything extra will help! And if I add into that picture any money I earn from the sale or performance of my music, that's just icing on the cake!

I'm still working on figuring out other ways to get a healthier financial situation for myself and get out of debt, and maybe I'll talk about those when those ideas come up. But one thing is certain. If I stick to my guns and am very strict about my money (for the first time in my life), I should be able to finally have a much healthier financial picture than I did before. And believe me, not having to worry about money makes for a much better quality of life.

Wish me luck.

Survival mode…..

I looked at my bank account this morning. Not much left in there after bills. I looked in my cabinets, not much left in there because I was going to go grocery shopping with my last check, but decided I'd better pay the bills since I had been let go. I look at my gas tank, not much in there because gasoline is so expensive and I spent the day 50 miles south in Columbus job hunting and visiting friends.

Panic is starting to creep in.

But what am I gonna do about it? I find myself in this situation, and only I can get myself out.

But that statement adds a level of fear to everything. Before Sarah left, I had a support structure financially. I took it for granted. I'm now paying the price for that.

I've got one last paycheck from my old day job coming in, and I've got some recording sessions coming up that have been booked, so I'm not at the end of my rope yet. But realizing how little I had currently and how little is coming in threw me into a panic.

I've got almost $70 in savings in an online bank account. That will be definitely coming out asap, but it's in an online account which means that I'll have to wait a week before I can see it.

I've got two clients at the studio with deficient balances that I'm trying to collect, but one of them was just laid off too, so it could take some time to collect, and the other one is still booking and still paying on the balance, so I can't really hound them for a payment that I know they are working on making.

How did I get here? Let's flash back to a year ago:



A year ago, I was making plans for a bright future in Ohio as I departed Colorado. I was stable, I had an ok job where I wasn't a temp, and I was doing well at it. I had studio clients that were rolling in, and I had great connections in the industry in Denver! I was going to come to Ohio and take over the local music scene with my studio, and things would be great. I was going to attend college to get a bachelors in business, and I had huge ambitions!

But then it all falls apart. We move to Ohio, and move to Marion of all places, thus stranding me an hour from my target studio market (Columbus) and from any jobs that want to may more than minimum wage. Sarah left me, increasing my financial burden and reducing the income in the house to just myself. My job's hours kept changing, putting a strain on my educational goals. And now having lost my job, I find myself in a sorry state as I look around and do damage control. I'm broke and unemployed an hour away from any good jobs with very little money coming in.

It's not a good place to be. I'm in a panic today. And so I turn to the world, here on my blog, to get it out. I have to allow myself to feel these feelings and give them a place to come out, or else they would just fester and come out in other ways.

It's hard to find the faith that I'll be ok in times like this. I feel that I'm at the bottom of the barrel today, and am trying to find the strength and conviction to make it through to the next dime coming into my possession. I don't wanna borrow money from anyone, I'm admittedly too proud (thanks Grandpa for making me as stubborn as you were..lol), but it may come to that point soon. I've got friends offering to help, but I won't take it unless I absolutely need to in order to survive.

I was talking to Bob Swanson a few days ago about all of this. He was talking about getting himself financially set up for retirement in 10 years, telling me that I should start planning that now when I'm 30 rather than when I'm his age, but then he acknowledged that at this second I'm likely in survival mode and just trying to stay afloat. I like how he put it, because it's a perfect depiction of where I am. Survival mode.

I don't wanna be in survival mode, but then again who really does? I realize that right now I've got to get my shit in order or else it's down with the ship. I don't wanna lose everything that I've worked for, although I suppose it could always be worse. But even though I always knew that I was one paycheck away from really tough times, it never sunk in that it was this bad.

But now I'm thinking that I've had enough of panic mode. I've definitely had enough of survival mode. I've had enough of life kicking me in the teeth this year. 2011 has been a catastrophe in many ways, but I'm finished with it. It's June, and I've got 6 months to turn my year around! I'm not going to sit idly by and let myself go down the drains! I'm going to get back up, dust myself off, and claw my way back out of this shit! The studio is about to go full strength. I'm going to be much more responsible financially. I'm going to survive this fall and I will thrive!

So now I'm in Scarlett O'Harra mode. I've hit the dirt, and now I'm ready to fight! "I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again!"