Tag Archives: finances

Our crazy year-end idea

TRANSIT_CONNECTI’ve driven pick-up trucks since high school. Specifically, Ford trucks. I’m a Ford truck girl… Yes, yes I am.

I did the whole lease-thing through college. Living in Texas, I put the miles on my trucks… yes, trucks, as in plural. I could blow through the allotted mileage on a lease in half the time of the lease. So in the course of a few years, I went through SEVERAL trucks.

Finally, I got out of the lease-cycle in 2009, when my husband and I decided to buy a 2010 F-150. We were pretty much forced into it at that time, due to the balloon payment at the end of three years that we could not afford. We’d loved the truck we’d had prior to it, having gotten it days before our wedding and we had NO complaints about it whatsoever. However, financially, we had to trade it in and go with a whole new plan.

2007 & 2010 F-150
We said good-bye to our grey 2007 and hello to our maroon 2010.

We were very happy with our 2010! It was our favorite color (maroon!) and it never failed to turn heads. We were going to pay this truck off and drive it until it just died.

Our payment plan on it, though, worked very similar to a lease. One price for the first three years, then the last two years, the payment would go up over $100/month. January — this month — would be our first higher payment. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I was braced for it.

Driving to Texas for Christmas, we were around Little Rock, AR, when my husband went, “Would we be crazy to go look at new trucks this trip?” (My brother works for a Ford dealership. The one I’ve purchased all of my trucks from, since as his sister I can get an employee family discount.) We started discussing that we’d need new tires this year. And the payment would be going up. I literally was pissed off that I couldn’t come up with any good reason NOT to go look.

So. We did. We walked into the dealership the Saturday before Christmas and went, “So… what can we do?” If they couldn’t give us a good deal, we’d walk away in the truck we already loved and be fine.

We test drove several of the new models, and eventually we went, “Let us go talk it over.” We really liked the 5.0 L V8 in the 2013 models. Gas mileage would be better. They had incentives going that we couldn’t ignore. Okay, lets go talk numbers.

First thing that floored me was that I had a dollar amount I wanted for our trade-in. I GOT WHAT I WANTED. Then we went in and discovered our payments would be going DOWN (not up in January!), the interest rate was lower, this would pay off the old truck leaving us without a truck payment in December (love it when financing lands such that that happens!), AND we’d be getting a refund on the extended warranty we’d already paid for on the 2010.

When we signed the final paperwork, I looked at my husband and went, “Well. Merry Christmas.”

SONY DSC
2013

I still… STILL… stare out my window at the truck going, “What did we do? That doesn’t happen.”

Lower payments. Better gas mileage. Brand new vehicle (it had NINE miles on it when we left the dealership… NINE). AND a refund? Whaaaa…???

I have to admit, though, I half dreaded coming home in it. I just knew — I KNEW — we’d be hassled about it.

I’m definitely my Daddy’s daughter. Like him, I refuse to be without good transportation. Especially with my husband on the road as much as he is. A few weeks ago, I discovered a slow leak in my front tire (my husband got it fixed and discovered a nail in the tire) while my husband was hundreds of miles away. Friends followed me home after we shut down the bar to make sure I got home okay, and it just bummed me out. I want a vehicle I can get in and just drive without concern. So, I’ll never apologize for owning a “new” vehicle for its reliability. But we hadn’t had ANY plans on getting a new truck, and the night before we’d left Nashville we were getting compliments on how nice our (now old) truck was. I was facepalming the whole time home just thinking of the reaction we’d receive.

Thankfully, everyone has been as blown away as we are by the deal we got.  We’re SAVING money. Heck, the drive back from Texas, we fueled in Little Rock, and we didn’t have to gas up again until we’d been back in Nashville for two days. That would have NEVER happened in the old truck. Absolutely blown away.

It started out as a totally crazy idea before Christmas, and it ended up being one of the best decisions we could have made. Thankful!!

Case closed

I’d previously sworn I wouldn’t go into depth in here about this, but I changed my mind. Maybe my story can help others somehow…

About six months ago, I made a difficult decision. One that I’m not proud of having had to make, but also one that I am grateful that I did make.

I made the decision to file for bankruptcy.

Oh I could go into countless reasons for how I got to where I was. Everything from bad decisions made in college to lost jobs that resulted in living on credit with the hope I’d be able to pay it off later to the great credit crisis that resulted to spiking percent rates. The reasons matter none… What matters is that I lived almost a year in a very dark place. One that I tried to keep hidden from everyone, but that leaked out when family members started to be harassed by creditors.

I researched all my options over and over again. I was in so deep, and my options were all pretty dire. Ultimately, I felt for myself (and my family) that I had no other option but to pursue legal help.

In Tennessee, you can file for bankruptcy without your spouse,  (in some states, if one spouse files, the other has to file as well) and all the debt was in my name. The only thing in our names together is our truck, and we opted to reaffirm our loan on that.

Now, when you decide to file for bankruptcy, its not until after you are presented every option available to you. It’s not something you do just at will. Its a huge decision. One that people in all walks of life end up making at one point or another.  (One that, frankly, isn’t cheap, either!)

The bad thing about it is, of course, that I have a HUGE ding on my record now. It’ll be on my credit report for about 10 years, and it could affect me in buying a house, a vehicle, getting credit of any sort, and could even affect my ability to get a job! Like I said, this is not a decision I made lightly.

The good thing is that I don’t carry this dark cloud and weight on my shoulders any more. I feel lighter. I no longer flinch when the phone rings. (The mental stress was reason enough to make the decision.) I have hope I didn’t have for a year. And on top of it all, as part of the bankruptcy, I had to put together a solid budget for myself and my husband. I had to inventory everything we own. I had to figure out where our income comes from, how much it is, and if it is enough.

It might have taken away my ability to get credit, but it gave me back a firm grasp on our money situation. We made a LOT of changes, and we’re in a place now where we should be able to see the light of day every month. Both of our incomes fluctuate month to month, so it will continue to take some juggling… but we’re not drowning any more. And that is huge.

I just found out my case has been discharged… case closed. That news gave me a huge sigh of relief. I can move forward now with an even clearer head.

I guess you could say I am in a better place than some who file for bankruptcy. I do still have our truck with my name on the note that we are paying. I still have two student loans that I am paying. And we are paying rent on our home. I already am working to rebuild my credit with all these. I plan, in the next month or two, to get a pre-paid credit card to help build my credit further. Hopefully in about a year, I’ll be back in a place where maybe a home loan will be possible. We will see, of course.

There IS life after bankruptcy. If anyone has any questions about the process, I’m happy to help what I can. (Even if its just a sympathetic ear or support.) If anyone in Nashville needs a lawyer for it, I would recommend mine before you could finish asking. She was amazing, and I would send anyone and everyone to her.

I’m not proud of having had to do it. And I don’t think anyone should consider doing it without a LOT of thought, soul searching, and research. But I’m thankful that I could file. I’m thankful for the fresh start. One in which I am far wiser and far more prepared to face future financial hurdles.

I’ve found the positive buried deep in the negative, and I’m holding on to it.