At least I paid off my loan

I did use my certificate that matured and paid off my loan. The loan was money that I had used to have major work done on my car last year. I was supposed to use the excess to pay off a credit card but that didn't pan out. I can't even tell you what I did with the extra money that was left over. I pretty much just frittered it away.

Now it's time to rebuild those savings. It's not going to be easy either. It will take me almost a year to get back to where I was this year. Of course I will not have that personal loan hanging over me so that's a good thing. On the down side, it's going to be so painful saving almost all of my excess income.

It takes so long to save and it's so easy to blow it all.

Short term loans

I've never taken a payday loan, but I know quite a few people that have. I was surprised when I found out one of my coworkers took one. He makes a decent salary but said he always found himself short of cash. He got one of those No Fax Payday Loans. He said he could get up to $1500 and the money was deposited to his checking account. So there is no waiting for checks and having them clear. The money was immediately available.

He got the money he needed to get him through his short term cash crunch.

Nothing but junk mail

I was looking forward to getting the mail today. I'm expecting a check to come in and instead I get all of this junk mail. There were several credit card offers in there. I have bad credit right now that I'm working on improving.

Having bad credit is a pain because you can't get things like home loans or auto loans. If you do get someone to give you a loan, you will get outrageous rates. For instance a car loan. Most places will give you a car loan but you might pay over 40% during the life of the loan in interest.

That's why it's always in your best interest to compare rates. Even if you have bad credit, there is someone out there who is willing to compete for your business. All you have to do is show them that you're responsible and you've moved past whatever caused you to get the bad credit in the first place.

How am I going to pay for school?

I don't know where the money is going to come from. I dropped my math class so I won't get that money back. I was planning on using that money to help offset the next semester. I would take a student loan but the first time I went to school I took more money than I was allowed to.

How does that even happen? If I took too much, the school should have denied me the additional funds. I could go to my bank to get a private loan but I may not get that either. I may take advantage of a student loan consolidation loan and then try to get a private loan.

I have 3 months to figure something out.

Would you ever take a payday loan?

I know several people that have. They can really help you out in an emergency. All payday loan companies are not the same. There are some really bad ones. There are some that aren't that bad.

You can even get a payday loan over the internet now. I believe that each individual should do what's right for them and their situation. But if you look at the website offering the loan, all of the information that you need is right there to make an informed decision.

I need to save money on my student loans

I thought my job was going to deny my tuition reimbursement. I have a coworker who is also in school and the department only has so much reimbursement in the budget. I was sweating bullets waiting for the acceptance paper to come back. Luckily I go it today.

I also had to call my bank to get student loan consolidation papers. The payments are way too high. If I consolidate my student loans into one payment, I cut my payments in half. I need that money to pay for the classes that I'm taking now.

The best thing that I read about consolidating my loans is that I can get a reduction in the interest rates for using automatic payments and for making so many consecutive on time payments. Hey every little bit helps.

Do I really want to buy a car?

Right now may not be the best time to do so. I am slowly rebuilding my credit and I do mean slowly. With large banks tightening up their credit requirements, I'm looking at getting bad credit personal loans. The downside of that is that my interest rate will be through the roof. Interest rates on car loans are generally lower than on personal loans but still.

I really want my car payment to be low. Low to me is under $300. I would prefer a lot cheaper than that but I know that's not realistic. Most of the cars that I've been looking at are between $13k-$15k and I'm looking at cars that are known for being low priced cars.

I'm leaning more towards a sedan to have more room. My last car was a suv so I'm used to having lots of room. I also don't want a 2 door car because I don't want to have to get out of the car to let someone else in.

I guess I need to work on getting my down payment together before I do anything else.

I registered for my other class

I finally registered for my math class. I'm not looking forward to this class at all. Even though it's a beginner class I know it will be a lot of hard work. I mean the class is called analytical methods after all. I know I will have a lot of homework for this class. I don't mind reading homework, but this will be exercises and math problems.

It also made my school outlay for this semester a little higher than I expected it to be. I was only expecting to take 1 class, by adding one my costs went up. Tuition and fees increased but I'll also have to pay more for books. I'm thinking of taking a personal loan from my bank to help with expenses.

My economics book cost $65 last semester. I expect the book for a similar class to be about the same amount. I'll also spend $80 for the math book and I'll need a scientific calculator which runs about $60 bucks. Heck a personal loan might not cut it. I might need to take a secured loan for all of the money I need.

I know one thing, I'll be glad when I'm done with school. I know it's worth it in the end and I'll be glad I finished, but the money is killing me.

How do you take too much student loan money?

I don't know, but believe me I did it. As a undergraduate student there is a certain amount of money that you are allowed to borrow. I went way over that amount by at least 15%. The student loans should have been denied but they weren't. I also had private loans through the school as well. Those are paid off. My regular Stafford loans are still being paid.

I will be glad when I'm done with school. The money that is now paying tuition will be put on my student loans to get those things paid off. Hopefully within the next 5-7 years I can be student loan free.

School is getting more expensive

I was supposed to take 2 classes in the fall. Now it looks like I might be taking 3. I've been paying myself but I think I might have to take out a student loan. I can't afford to pay for the classes. I do get reimbursement from my job, but I don't have the money to kick out first.

I have to apply for a private student loan. I don't qualify for regular student loans because I took too much money the first time I went to school. So instead of going the traditional student loan route, I have to go through a bank. I do still get the low interest rates and the interest rate deductions on my taxes. Those deductions are important. I made sure I got them when I applied for my student loan consolidation loan as well.

Man, I had to take a student loan consolidation because the payments were killing me. I was paying several hundred dollars per month. Now I still pay a couple hundred dollars but not as much as before. Not by a long shot. I was paying a car payment just for student loans. No wonder I couldn't afford anything else. But with student loan consolidation I have a little bit of extra money. Of course now that money is paying tuition and books.

That's why I'm trying to get a new job. I need to make more money. School is really breaking the bank.

Working my money

I work my money to the max. Anyway I can find to make extra money, I do. I work at a bank and they have incentives for banking with them. I didn't get in on this because I already banked there before I started working there.

However, now that I'm a employee, I take full advantage of their programs. I plan on opening a certificate of deposit. They don't pay a high interest rate but my job perks will make it worth my while. I'll get an extra percent plus a gift card. That will make my rate of return over 5%.

I'm also going to get a debt consolidation loans I plan on using this to pay down some outstanding personal loans that I have. Again because I'm an employee, I'll get percentage points knocked off by using automatic debit. So, I'll still spend money for my payments, but the amount that I pay will be much lower. And the loan will get paid off quicker to boot.

I read all types of personal finance websites like creditloan.com. They give you great ideas about how to get out of debt. I plan on putting these ideas into action.

People want me to loan them money

No way Jose. Been there done that got the t-shirt. I've been burned before. I feel bad when someone needs money. I've been there myself. But I've had to dig myself out of the hole I was in because I didn't want to ask anyone for money. I know it's hard especially when you have kids. But if I've loaned you money once and you don't pay it back or it takes you 2 years to pay back $100, don't ask again. The answer will always be no.

Not having a car sucks!

I had planned on going to Cleveland this summer to catch a baseball game. The Pirates are right here, but most of the teams that I really like are in the American League and Cleveland is fairly close. The problem? I don't have a car. Day to day, it's not bad not having a car. I take the bus to work and shopping is fairly close. When you want to go somewhere out of the ordinary is a different story.

I don't like to borrow other people's cars. I don't even like to drive their cars. I prefer to have my own. I'm looking into Bad Credit Auto Loans for New and Used Cars. I've been eyeing a couple of different cars and I might have to just bite the bullet and finance something. I was hoping to put that off for another year or two, but I'm shopping around now. I'd say that I should have a car within the next 6 months.

A school update during spring break week

I didn't even realize spring break was coming up until 2 weeks ago. I didn't make any plans, so I'm just chillin' during this week off.

I knew my micro class was hard, but I didn't realize how hard. Our prof has to grade 2 of our quizzes during spring break. The majority of the class did bad so she needs some kind of curve on those quizzes. Her quizzes are hard.

I've been thinking about school a lot lately. I'm scheduled to be in school for 3 years. I just don't want to take that long. I've been thinking about taking a loan for school. I could consolidate all of my debt into one big loan. But because I have bad credit, I would get crappy rates. I have a secured debt consolidation loan already. I used some money I had in a cd and got the loan.

I want to take the extra loan so I can finish school quicker. I'm on track to graduate in December but I want to finish in May. I need to take one extra class this year. A full schedule one semester next year. And a full schedule the last semester. I'll get through school if it's the last thing I do!

Student Loan Interest Deduction

I've been reading other blogs and a lot of people are complaining that they can't deduct their student loan interest. To them I say: SHUT UP!!!

I know people worked hard to get through school. I'm still paying loans and I'm back in school. I won't be done with school for three more years and let's just say it's a lot longer for those loans. But, if your AGI is over $65k you can't deduct the interest. Ummm, that's a very respectable salary and more than most people make. I think the average salary is somewhere around 42K. I make less than that so I still get to deduct my interest. But I heard people making 6 figures complaining. Give me a break!!!!!!!!

Be thankful that you're making the salary that you are. I know some people have Masters Degrees and feel entitled to their salary. I think they forget, just like they got their job, they can lose it. And someone will be there to take it for less money. Heck, here in PA, teachers need a Masters and they don't make 6 figures and they love their jobs. For some people it's not really all about the money. Believe me I know, if you don't like your job it doesn't matter how much money you make.

Whew....rant over.

Stay On Top Of Your Finances

Do you keep up with your finances? I've blogged about not balancing my checkbook for a while now. But I do know that there is money in the accounts. Keeping track of your finances is important. Today you can't get a mortgage, credit card, or even car insurance if your finances aren't in shape.

One of the first things you should do is make sure you have money in your savings accounts. You never know when an emergency will hit and you need to tap that money. You could always go for secured loans. But in the case of a true emergency, would you really be able to add another debt payment on top of all of your other bills?

Take some time this weekend to make sure your financial house is in order. If you don't know where to start, check out Nations Finance for some great articles. They will help you get on track. I can't promise it will be fun, but you will be glad that you did it.

I Need Financial Aid

I can't believe this. I can't get financial aid. It used to be that you could take 6 credits and get aid. Now you need to be a full time student. I can't afford that right now. I do get tuition reimbursement from my job, but it's easy to use that money up.

My last year I plan to just suck it up and take 1 full term to finish. I will need to look into a Student Loan Consolidation first. I can't afford to pay all of that money up front plus pay for my student loans that I already have. So I need to consolidate my loans to lower my payments so I can still afford to eat. Sigh, I guess it will all be worth it in the end.

Can I Catch A Break?

My financial aid never came through for school. So even though I knew I needed money, I grossly under-estimated the amount that I would need. I now owe another $600 on top of the rest of my bills. I thought I had everything under control buy now I'm not so sure. I might have to take another Payday Cash Advance Loans to get by. My mom has already said that she would help me pay it off. But she doesn't have the money right now either.

There are a number of offices in my area and some of them are affiliated with a local bank. That gives me a little more piece of mind.

I would feel a whole lot better if my financial aid would come through though. I sure do miss my old job and all of the overtime. I sure could use it right now. But I'm sure I'll find a way to make it. I always do.