My Debt Reduction Blog » DMP http://www.mydrblog.com/blog Our road down debt reduction to elimination, and living without a budget Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:47:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en The most shocking number, and what keeps me motivated http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:26:33 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/ There’s a lot of reasons that cause folks to wake up and realize their in debt over their head. For us, my slap in the face was the fact we had so many different credit card bills that I couldn’t keep track of them anymore and started missing payments. I was getting hit with late fee payments and my interest rates kept going up. That was when we sought the help of a Debt Management Program.

Coming up in December, we will have been on the program for 2 years, and have paid over $20,000 of our debts off. But with the routine we’re in now, sometimes there is an urge to stray, buy something I don’t need, or spend foolishly without thinking. I started this blog as a project to keep me focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, but my main motivation is a number I see every time I enter a statement in my spreadsheet.

I built a spreadsheet that I update every time I get a statement, even though I don’t personally pay any of my statements(DMP does). On this spreadsheet, there is a line for every credit card that lists Balance Due, Minimum Due, Actual Payment, and Finance Charge. Across the bottom are the totals for each column.

And the total finance charge is what absolutely pisses me off and in this case, anger is very motivating. As of this writing, my total monthly in finance charges is just over $330. Isn’t that sick!?! Every single month I throw away over $300 while nothing goes towards my 3 kids college fund, or our retirement or anything that will ever benefit us.

So, right now that my biggest motivation to keep on track. What is your biggest motivation?

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/01/the-most-shocking-number-and-what-keeps-me-motivated/feed/ Are debt management companies really bad for your credit? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/15/are-debt-management-companies-really-bad-for-your-credit/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/15/are-debt-management-companies-really-bad-for-your-credit/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:18:59 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/15/are-debt-management-companies-really-bad-for-your-credit/ In October of 2005 we met with a local branch of Consumer Credit Counseling Services because we had balances on a large amount of credit cards, and we found ourselves missing payments once in awhile which was racking up fees and becoming increasingly frustrating. They came up with a plan for a single payment that we could meet and they would disperse that amount to our credit cards. There were some glitches the first few months for them getting payments made by the due dates, but everything got worked out. So overall, I think their service has been beneficial for us.

So tonight, I’m sitting here reading though Total Money Makeover and Dave states that these debt management companies, stating CCCS specifically along with Ameridebt, are to be avoided. He states that using a dept management company trashes your credit record and makes it look like a chapter 13 to potential lenders. So now I googling like crazy to find stats to back that up, but I haven’t found anything yet. Can anyone give more insight to this?

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