| Need Help w/ Financial Planning and Saving's (I am 22) HELP! |
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joshualaliberte
New Member
Cash: $ 0.71
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Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: New
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| Need Help w/ Financial Planning and Saving's (I am 22) HELP! |
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Hello, this is my first post on this forum and have been looking forward to posting since i found this forum.
My story is this. I am 22 years old with a 2 year old son and another son on the way. he is due on April 28, 2005.
About 3 years ago I started a business on the internet selling automotive parts. Things went incredibly well. I started from home with $0 and managed to save $100,000 in a matter of 9 months. I opened my first shop/warehouse and managed to pull in 1.2 million in sales in only my second year.
Needless to say I wanted more, not more money but more space and room. So I moved from my 1,200 s/f warehouse to a 6,500 s/f warehouse with complete install facility.
Things went well for about 2 months after the move before my cousin/web designer decided he was going to play games with my website because I told him that I didnt want to pay him in cash anymore and wanted to pay him on the books. Needless to say, he destroyed the website and business that I had built. He did the site design only and repairs, fixes, etc. I was responsible for all the content and everything else associated w/ the website & business. He decided to delete the website and destroy my reputation by setting up autoresponders, changed the website to a porn site, etc. I decided to take a vacation because I was undergoing a lot of stress and went to Florida for 3 days. On the 3rd day I got a call from a friend telling me that i needed to get home because the shop had been broken into.
Upon my return home, more than $60,000 in damage had been done to customers cars and equipment and I made the HUGE Mistake of not having any insurance.
That ended my business and pretty much sent me into a depressed state.
problem now is that I damaged my name and still am paying off tons of bills on a $2,000 a month income plus whatever I can make extra selling parts on Ebay from the one manufacturer I do not owe money too.
To make a long story short, when I started the business I was about 18 1/2 and had bad credit so I received help from my grandfather in ways w/ his credit. He is 74 years old w/ perfect credit and this is what allowed me to succeed in this business. his credit is stilll perfect as I have pretty much done anything I had to do to make the minimum payment on all the bills in his name. I never had a father growing up and the respect of this man means more to me than like itself.
In his name:
I owe $35,000 on a car loan which runs me $600 per month plus $125 for insurance.
$13,000 on two credit cards which are roughly $450-$500 per month.
$1,880 for a cash loan he gave me
$1,700 for a TV I promised to buy them for helping me.
In my personal/company name I owe:
$15,000 to a company for Auto Parts
$700 Trash Removal
$3,000 Cingular Wireless
$5,000 various credit cards.
My credit is basically screwed but I do not want to claim bankruptcy. I owe this money and have every intention of paying it all back.
Me and my girlfriend decided that it would be in our best interest to move back to pur parents homes for the time being so I can clear my debt.
My monthly bills will be:
Car $600 (Owe more than the cars worth, so I need to keep for the time being)
Insurance $125
Credit Cards $500
Cingular $65
Child Support $240
Internet Access $50
I am trying like hell to pay everything off and I am looking for some ideas on how to pay my debt off faster. I am a killer salesman but my lack of schooling is what kills me and cant seem to get a decent job. I want to continue with the business and am trying to start over again but want to clear my debt first.
Any ideas on what to do. My Ebay Activities net me about $500-$1,000 per month extra. I can get this up to $10,000 per month if I just had about $10,000 to purchase product. Any ideas on where I can get the $10,000 from to purchase product up front. I want to get this debt cleared.....
Not open for get rich quick schemes.. Any ideas are very much appreciated.
thanks,
Joshua & Family
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Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:36 am |
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johnlmiii
New Member
Cash: $ 0.53
Posts: 7
Joined: 06 Feb 2005
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Are you saying that you can get your profit up to $10k per month by selling on e-bay? How do you know that? What part of Pawtucket are you from?
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Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:08 am |
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Andrew
Admin
Cash: $ 460.25
Posts: 1695
Joined: 02 Nov 2003
Location: Texas
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Joshua,
That's an amazing story.
I can see you've dealt with some big problems and learned some hard lessons, but if you were able to build the business that you said you did, I feel fully confident that you will be able to regain and surpass that level again soon.
In the meantime, you know you've got to deal with that debt squeeze. Hopefully we'll have some good advice for you soon...
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Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:06 am |
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Mical
New Member
Cash: $ 1.20
Posts: 6
Joined: 08 Feb 2005
Location: Tampa, Florida
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| Somewhere to Start |
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Joshua,
If you are able to do well on ebay you should consider using a Drop Shipping company so that you don't even have to keep any of the products on hand. You can then sell them at what ever price you want and they take care of all the customer service end of thing including shipping. The great thing about them is that you can do one item at a time.
As for the rest of your situation I can most likely help there as well. However I will need a little more info. For the sake of time if you would email me and then I will contact you persoanlly. Lets get you started right away.
Good Luck
Mical Johnson
www.Debt-Free-Personal-Finance.com
Simple. Creative. Manageable.
Insights Into The Millionaire Mind Set.
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Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:01 pm |
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maurivildrose
Contributing Member
Cash: $ 0.85
Posts: 26
Joined: 08 Feb 2005
Location: LIVING IN PARADISE..!! Finally..
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| DEBT DEBT DEBT |
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1. Maybe u did this but GO and stay face to face with every Co. or person u own Money donīt hide ur face..
2. Explain them what hapenned don give much details.. Then Ensure them u are going to pay and that are still working to do it. This will Stop a litle people calling u or spreading the bad news around.. your Credit. Beleive it or not the story u told us is heart touching..!
3. Start Dropshipping on Ebay but don make of this ur Full time job, would ur wife do this 4 you??
4. Look for People or another Automotive parts Stores
Offer ur services and EXPERIENCE to them.. soon the BOSS will notice how GOOD u are at YOur JOB.. probably promoted soon!! Work FULL time there.. people to who u own will see u r working in REAL world hard not just saying u spend DAYS in a room wiht a PC ( is the way they will see if u Claim U work on ebay.. full time.)
5. Sell things u just donīt need ask friends or relatives aware of ur problem to share some OLD or not using parts or electronic equipment they r not using it anymore.. ( camcorders, cameras and more and on WEEKENDS when possibe go selling the parts in Flea markets or so.. ALL this MONEY use it to PAY BILLSSS the closing sooner better
MY ADVICE takit or not..
Am able to guide thruu the way to Real success just as I did. REAL and Sane Advice...!
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Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:16 pm |
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titus_87
Member
Cash: $ 2.81
Posts: 13
Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Location: northern idaho
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| oh boy! |
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josh, as far as getting out of debt is concerned i would start with the credit cards. figure out your priorities. cut all extras you are paying in personal bills (cable tv etc) and start saving as much as you can. if you have built up a savings account, by the time your son arrives it wont hit so hard. like i said, the credit cards are probably first priority, building intrest and bad credit is probably what i would try to avoid first. im sure your grandfather will understand if you dont pay him back right away. like andrew said, if you did it once, you can do it again! that was a powerfull story, keep up the good work and from now on, put contracts in writing and stay insured!
titus
sleep on IT!
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Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:22 am |
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titus_87
Member
Cash: $ 2.81
Posts: 13
Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Location: northern idaho
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p.s what happened to all your savings?
sleep on IT!
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Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:23 am |
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joshualaliberte
New Member
Cash: $ 0.71
Posts: 3
Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: New
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thank you for all the advice.
My savings slowly disappeared as things started to go downhill. I also had to pay out the rest of my lease agreement, finish paying employees, repairs to customers cars that were damaged while I was away on vacation.
Its not that I am not paying the bills on time, it is that I am just one of those people that wants to pay everything off fast and get it out of the way. I feel like such a failure but I am starting to realize that I am ONLY 22 years old and I have my whole life ahead of me.
The company I work for now sells automotive parts so we have something in common. I am in the shipping department but I am slowly trying to get my way into the sales department. I have informed them of what I have done in my past but I dont think they believe me because I really have nothing to show for it. I have one manager that truly believes in me and is trying to get me into the sales department.
As far as selling things that we dont need, I have pretty much already done that by selling the computers, printers, laptops, and all spare parts I have. I will resort to selling my DVD Collection next week once I get more settled into my mothers home this weekend, I should be all set.
I am also blessed with an 8.9 % rate on the credit cards which i think is pretty low. I am trying my best and am thinking about getting a lawyer to sue Paypal. They have taken roughly $8,000 from me that I have receipts to prove the items were shipped.
If you know how USPS does delivery confirmation, tracking numbers look like:
0304 4565 3454 3454 3454
When paypal asked me for tracking numbers. i responded with:
0304-4565-3454-3454-3454
I spoke with a Paypal representative and they told me they are on my side but I really dont know what to do now. My balance in the account is roughly $900 but it should be $8,000
Any ideas?
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Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:06 am |
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