financial problems

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Ok, I bought a house in February of 2007, which was probably not a stupid idea at the time since I had a reasonably large savings in the bank and a job with plenty of overtime. I bought the house and was treading water well. I decided to try and start my own business on the side of refurbishing laptops and selling them on eBay while working full time. It was going pretty well for a while.

Then, I got promoted to a salaried position, which meant longer hours but for a fixed income potential. Every day, I get home and am too tired and stressed out to do any of the work I need for my business. When I finally do manage to get things done, the results are far less productive because of the economic paranoia in the minds of most consumers currently. Thus, I'm finding it harder and harder to meet my financial obligations and have pretty much run out of ideas.

I'd really like to avoid robbing a bank, and I also really not good with the whole sales pitch thing. Would anyone care to share how they are able to get by and make ends meet these days? I was considering screwing with adwords but am severely handicapped by my subhuman programming abilities

Perhaps I should also distill the mash and produce a question more along the lines of "Hey everybody, what business/self-employment opportunity have you found to be most effective and profitable with your interests and traits, and how does this translate to a sort of unified economic theory for success?"

How many bedrooms does your house have?

Get a lodger and rent out a spare room?

(NB: In the Uk, there are tax implications if you rent out a room and your rental income is above a certain amount, because you're supposed to declare the income to the taxman.)

My house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, but it's full of all my stuff. I can hardly imagine living with someone else here, but it may very well come down to that. I guess I could let them have one of the storage rooms and use the hallway bathroom as their "dedicated bathroom" since I have a tiny bathroom with a shower directly connected to my bedroom. I'm just really, really tense about people being around my stuff, moving my change, or doing anything that would alter the arrangement or functionality of any of my belongings.

There are tax implications here too, but there are always ways of avoiding liability (or proof of liability) through various means. Outside of a room mate, what else can you suggest? Though, I will leave that option open to consideration.

I'm gonna say maybe ask yourself if management is something you really enjoy? I've been feeling much the same way since my recent promotion. More work/less OT = less pay, more stress. I've already asked for a demotion, and was talked out of it. Meaning, they offered me more $$$ to stay. But I'm still on the fence. It takes so much out of me, I dread going to work.

It sounds like a simple solution - you were happier before you got into middle management. I say, keep your job options open

Ivanov,

Whilst you figure out how to resolve your larger problems check how much you can gain from economising. I highly recommend this website for advice; it's regularly updated and it's free-

MoneySavingExpert


Magliabechi.

Hre's an American one, too

http://www.stretcher.com/index.cfm

There has to be a better way than scrimping. Still, being cheap is one of my favorite hobbies

Prioritize your expenses. If spending money on something really isn't that important to you or just isn't that much fun, cut it from your budget. Put it in savings instead. Or spend it on something fun if that's what matters more.

Only pay the minimum on your debts, and don't incur any more (includes credit cards!) Put the difference in savings (which reduces stress-spending). Ride out your current debts.

And yes, rethink what job you want. If your job is no fun and doesn't give you overtime, then how much is it worth? The no fun part is more important than how much you get paid.

Sometimes, though, it's not the job but the transition - give yourself time to adjust to the new job before rejecting it.

Blah, blah, blah. Lots of advice like that out there. Don't know if it's any use to you or not.

In my own case, I don't have debts, but don't have enough to make ends meet, either, so balancing basic costs with fun is what's critical for me. I have to have some fun in life, otherwise what's the point? So I cut back on other stuff and make compromises that I otherwise wouldn't make to give myself room to manouver. You have to give yourself room to breathe no matter what.

Off-topic but I mis-read "adwords" as a misspelling of "Edwards." That would have netted you $15K a month if your timing had been on. Then I read the programming part and figured it out.

I'm not sure about this advice about paying the minimum off credit card debts and putting any spare money in savings.

That's not necessarily a good idea.

The interest rate being paid on credit card debt *might* be higher than the interest rate earned on savings.

It's best to try to transfer the balance to a 0% deal on another card if possible. If that's not possible it's probably better to pay off credit cards asap before putting any spare cash into a savings account, because the amount you pay in interest is probably more than you're earning in interest on savings.

This is true. The best rates on savings I can get around here are about 2-3% APY unless I do a CD, which isn't suitable at this point. Zero percent interest cards aren't an option because of the large amount of outstanding debt I would need to transfer. I have also attempted to refinance the house or seek an equity loan, but because of the housing market crash, nobody will even remotely consider me for a refinance offer or home equity loan.

I'm trying as best as I can to live on cheaper foods and smoke less while drinking cheaper or less. The amount of money I save by spending less is nearly insignificant compared to the necessary payments on the outstanding debt. I am struggling, really, to keep my head above water and honestly need to find a way to increase my monthly income by between 1k and 2k USD in order to make things work.

I live in sort of an overpopulated and economically depressed area in which there are many overqualified people applying for any given position, so I'm quite lucky to have any job at this point. I've been trying to found a way out for a while now but don't appear to be too good at it =p

It's difficult any time you need extra income to stay afloat. One question to ask yourself is if it really is worth it. Would selling be better, long run? Are you hanging on with no end in sight, or hanging on knowing that it can and will eventually get better?

As for extra money, I went and found a part time job when I needed to kick things up in a hurry. I have some specialized experience that the right firm will pay a premium for just as long as they don't have to commit to me long term. So that is what I have. With two different firms. I go in and do my specialized stuff, and then disappear. I average maybe 5 hours a week at both, and the money is just enough.

It was recommended by someone I know to read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Though he seems like he might be a scam, there will hopefully be reasonably valuable/useful content in this cheap hard copy I bought used from amazon. I really hope nothing happens to this house with the approaching tropical storm. I suppose I'll know within 24 hours. Naturally I would have replied last night, but I powered all my systems down and turned off the UPS's ahead of the storm to avoid hard loss of power and burnin up any [more] of my batteries. I'll probably be at work for at least another 12 hours at this point...

full sympathies,a nd agree with all of the above.

there was a very good tv series on the bbc a couple of years ago, with american alvin hall called your money or your life (i think).
he took a number of different people from across the uk and taught them to econimise for a year to pay off their mortgages- most managed it. since it was only for a year they were able to to manage not going out, not buying new clothes etc- because the end was brilliant, and in sight. it would be really worth thinking of it in this way- sell everything you dont need. dont buy new things.

i am a hoarder, and have spent the past almost 4 years selling my rubbish on ebay and have made ive no idea how much. lots. thousands.

but def re think your job- ive been in the same situation- i just ended up over compensating in other ways. eg- id hatedgoing to work so i'd 'treat' myself with nice food- from harvey nichols (VERY expensive shop opposite harrods in london) so i was spending my wages on immensly expensive food (very aspie lack of thinking there!!).
doubt you're doing anything so dense- who would?- but do sit down calmly adn work at knocking some corners off your outgoings.

energy saving light bulbs save £10 a year. little things count too.
good luck!!

Just another update here. I was able to get an interest-free loan with "pay back anytime if you can" terms from bank of grandmother, the only blood relative with whom I have strong ties since she raised me pretty much from birth. I've also ramped up my side work and have been profiting reasonably well from replacing failing hard drives in laptops and cleaning out the latest variants of Antivirus 2008 that people seem to install.

On the cost side, I'm foregoing maintenance on a few things such as new eye glasses, oil change, personal health check, and further non-essential house repairs. I've been eating quite a bit of rice and beans along with instant noodles for cheap meals and have found that 10lb of whey protein isolate is a reasonably inexpensive way to put protein back into your diet that you miss when eating instant noodles. These measures are helping to take some of the strain off the budget.

On the stress side, I've increased my galantamine supplementation slightly and have found that it has pretty much eliminated my nicotine cravings. Over one month, taking the tablets is cheaper than smoking anyway, and I have additional cognitive benefits from it. I still have the shrink appointment on the 22nd to seek some medication to help out with stress, anxiety, insomnia, and a general lack of focus, especially at work. Hopefully I don't pull all my hair out before then =P

1. Sit down and write out all your expenses for the month

2. Take a blue pen and do a line-by-line veto of all expenses that you don't need. Examples:
A. Lawncare - gone! you can mow your own lawn
B. Homecare - gone! you can clean your home
C. Entertainment - gone! watch TV, read a book, surf the web
D. Cell phone - gone! switch to a GO phone. buy refill minutes as you need them

3. Make changes to things you need. Examples:
A. Travel - gone! you don't need it
B. Food - shop at those discount grocery chains. Buy store brands.
C. Mortgage - call up your bank and talk to them about working out a better payment system or having them eating some the mortgage. i've heard co-workers tell me how some banks have axe 50-100k because it's more cost effective to keep you in the house paying interest on the loan then having you foreclose.
D. Phone - change to a basic land-line and eliminate a long distance carrier.
E. Use Skype for long distance calls
F. Television - downgrade to the basic plan. If you have HD, switch the non-HD package
G. Repairs - try and learn how to repair stuff around your house
H. If your employer allows, telecommute
I. Do no donate any money to charities. Keep it all to yourself for now. Charities also include occasional homeless people.
J. Music - don't buy music. Go to myspace.com, imeem.com, and last.fm and listen to your favorite tracks for free

4. Avoid Internet advertising