Thread: Financial ruin

Originally Posted by tubby

Not really. Just tried to think of a better way to clarify. Let me try again.

$4,000 will make or break me. That will get my failed business debt free so I can try again and start the second venture using the lessons learned from the first. My debtor wants it in full yesterday. Blood from a turnip. I can only make payments, which are unacceptable by his admission.

I've got a 4yo son and a daughter due in June. Family needs me, so suicide is not an option. Put off personal bills to settle business debts, which ruined my credit and now I can't get a loan to settle the last debt my company has. No friends or family to help.

I'm out of options with my back against the wall. Shit's going to get fucking ugly if I don't figure something out soon. Too stressed to think clearly.

i don't know your full situation nor much regarding bankruptcy, but perhaps there is a version you could make use of to discharge some of your debt? or perhaps not/perhaps a bad bath to go down since it sounds like your house is mostly paid off.

can you get a HELOC? if you just need 4k to turn things around and owe little more on your house, you could tap the equity, settle your 4k debt and service/pay back the HELOC. you could also use that for capital for your biz but that is more of a risk for the single guy to take on than the guy making 10 bucks an hour with a preggers wifey.

it sounds like it's an individual you owe the 4k to? what happens if payments are "unacceptable"? i would assume any legal recourse he would pursue would end up in some payments type of situation. although they would perhaps award him some of you business assets if they were valued at the amount owed and he requested them for settling the debt.

i'm really just speculating here. hope things work out for you and your family!

oh joyyyyyy this thread is REVIVED! I have SEEN THE LIGHT!

Tubby... We all have a lot of stress, and I can only imagine the turmoil the debts are causing you. I think there are some great ideas here to explore... HELOC would be a great idea; bankruptcy sucks, but if it's what you need to do, then it's gotta happen. Everyone gets in the ditch sometimes. You have (about to have) 2 beautiful children, a great and supportive wife, and it's times like these that we need to realize that money can be replaced. It's only paper. Paper that causes headaches, stress, etc... But a supportive environment is the MOST important thing. When you strip away the cash, you only have those around you.

I hope it all works out for you... I think exploring the HELOC is a very good idea.

You have a wife...a son...and another baby on the way and you have considered offing yourself? Thats the real sad part. Money can always be made. You can work 2...3...4 jobs if need be. You have a family...that is so much more important than riches. I hope you get back on your feet soon. You have the right attitude...just don't drowned in the negativity.

Like others have said...I'd sell your house if you have any equity.

There is a lot of detailing jobs popping up for the summer. You can pick one up part time they pay well.

BTW you only need 4k? Ebay something in your house which you can live with out. Downgrade your cars and next time in your new business get a LLC.

I mean everyone in this world struggles to make a living to an extent ... you will be fine.

Originally Posted by sickmint79

it sounds like your house is mostly paid off.

No we just bought it a few years ago for $30,000. Appraised at $32,000 during closing. We still owe $27-28K-ish.

can you get a HELOC? if you just need 4k to turn things around and owe little more on your house, you could tap the equity, settle your 4k debt and service/pay back the HELOC.

We don't have that much equity in the house.

it sounds like it's an individual you owe the 4k to? what happens if payments are "unacceptable"? i would assume any legal recourse he would pursue would end up in some payments type of situation.

Pretty much what I told him. So he got pissed and pressured for criminal charges (claiming fraud).

although they would perhaps award him some of you business assets if they were valued at the amount owed and he requested them for settling the debt

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He wants cash and the full order total, $4,120. My T&C policy he agreed to when he placed the order states a 15% cancellation fee in the event the customer (he) cancels the order before the order ships. That drops the amount owed to $3,502. I sent him a cashier check for a portion of it, as a show of good faith along with a promise to pay letter, but he refused to cash it and I incurred a $29 fee from my bank for a stop payment on the check. That's taken off from what is owed, so down to $3,473. Trouble is even if I can raise that amount, I can't force him to cash the check. Unless it's full value he'll refuse to cash the check. At this point if I could get the $4K together I'd pay it all just to have this guy the hell out of my life.

Originally Posted by JPatterson

Tubby... We all have a lot of stress, and I can only imagine the turmoil the debts are causing you.

It's been over a year of pure hell.

HELOC would be a great idea; bankruptcy sucks, but if it's what you need to do, then it's gotta happen. Everyone gets in the ditch sometimes. You have (about to have) 2 beautiful children, a great and supportive wife, and it's times like these that we need to realize that money can be replaced. It's only paper. Paper that causes headaches, stress, etc... But a supportive environment is the MOST important thing. When you strip away the cash, you only have those around you.

I hope it all works out for you... I think exploring the HELOC is a very good idea.

Pretty much why I'm thinking just get this guy the $4,120 for his order total and be done with this shit so I can concentrate on my family and move forward.

Originally Posted by saintv90

You have a wife...a son...and another baby on the way and you have considered offing yourself? Thats the real sad part.

My family is the only thing stopping me. If I was single, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Money can always be made. You can work 2...3...4 jobs if need be. You have a family...that is so much more important than riches. I hope you get back on your feet soon. You have the right attitude...just don't drowned in the negativity.

Like others have said...I'd sell your house if you have any equity.

If we put the house up for sale, it would take a minimum of 1 year to sell. Also Capital One has a lien on our home for $3,800 from a CC debt of mine.

Originally Posted by lalasd

There is a lot of detailing jobs popping up for the summer. You can pick one up part time they pay well.

Not around my area. Nothing.

BTW you only need 4k? Ebay something in your house which you can live with out. Downgrade your cars and next time in your new business get a LLC.

Yep, only $4K. Vehicles are about as downgraded as you can get. That's one thing we never splurged on.

Also the current business is an LLC with myself as the sole member and no employees. When this guy filed the civil suit, he filed it against "my name D/B/A my company". Which is stupid because he wasn't doing business with me personally, he was doing business with the company which is a separate legal entity than me as a natural person. He filed the suit in his home state (halfway across the country). I responded to the papers with a copy of my T&C indicating such suit against the company in matters pertaining to business with the company must exclusively be filed in person in such and such county in my state (aka choice of venue being local to my company's location, not the customer's). The civil suit was tossed out of court due to his state not having jurisdiction. That just pissed him off even more.

The civil suit I'm not that concerned about, it's his threats of criminal charges and the incompetence of my local law enforcement officers. If it goes that route and I beat the charges, I could still lose my job for the time I'm in custody with no bail money, etc not to mention I can't afford a respectable attorney so I'm stuck with the incompetent public defender who is only in the paper because all his clients are sentenced.

I mean everyone in this world struggles to make a living to an extent ... you will be fine.

I sure hope so.

Hang In There Bro! Prayers Sent!

I have a web design business, typical profit per website sale can be anywhere from $1k-3k. If you can generate some leads and sites get sold, I would be more than happy to give you a generous cut from the profits.

PM'd you.

Thanks, Hollywood. We'll be in touch.

I spent a few hours Thursday and all of today looking on careerbuilder.com for jobs in the Green Bay/Fox Cities (Oshkosh, Appleton, FDL) area for possible relocation. I spoke with my wife and she gave me the green light, since she wants to move back eventually. My father lives in Oshkosh and stays with his girlfriend in Appleton, so his house is open. He said if I find a job in the area, I can stay in his house and just pay utilities, since the house is paid off. When my wife is ready to move down there with our kids, not a problem. That way we can basically have free room/board and can pay down our debt and save at the same time.

It will be tough on everyone since my son (4yo) will miss out on my wife's parents since he's very, very close to them plus our second child is due in the next month. I might be away from my family for some time and my wife will have to deal with the kids on her own during the week, with her parents and I'll probably have to drive up/down every weekend. I'll have to sacrifice a lot in order to get ahead.

I'm looking for jobs that pay no less than $15/hr with benefits. Couple jobs I know I would do well in, but am not educationally qualified.

My current business is sensitive to zoning, so I couldn't bring it with me unless I found commercial zoned property, which is discouraging since I know I'll have a better opportunity for growth down there than up here. That might bring me to start a different seasonal business down there though, which is service based. I've got a snowplow on my truck with a few years experience plowing in 250-400 inch winter snowfalls (my area gets a lot of lake effect snow). Down there it's a lot less snow, but more demand. I could do snow plowing for residential property in the winter. Sporadic work dependent upon the storms, but it's profitable especially in a neighborhood with close properties.