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Pay now. We have several options for getting you back on track.

I am grateful to Ontrack Financial and for my housemate who laid out for me the process of going through Debt Settlement with Credit Card companies. 

Each step along they way, the present the option of paying a little bit now. This will put you back in their system, and also delay the time for which you may qualify to settle your debt through another route.

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This Call May be Recorded. This is an Attempt to Collect a Debt

They were calling 20-30 times per day. Having seven credit cards doesn't help. 

After declining their calls for a month, I picked up a call from Citicard yesterday. They were a representative from my Bestbuy account. They're looking to take any amount of money "to get my account out of delinquency".  

Today I picked up a call from Amazon's Synchrony Bank. 

I feel bad. I have yet to pay any interest on my Amazon or Bestbuy account.

The credit counselor at OnTrack Financial, a local non-profit, suggested to stop paying all credit cards, regardless of the amount owed or the amount of interest they have collected. Alright. Almost to the end of the second month of not paying. 

Friday December 5th, 2014

#amazon #Synchrony Bank #bestbuy #debt coll #Credit Cards

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Dis-organized Animal

I am a disorganized animal. 

I like systems that help me make sense of my disorganization.

I like systems that assist me in making sense of the world.

I like systems that assist me in having meaningful contact and connection with folks, animals and plants.

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A Credit Failure in Action

Empathy.

Have been in process of applying for foodstamps (and EBT card) for the last month. Heard from my caseworker this morning that the card may arrive in 5-10 days! 

This feels odd. 

It feels odd to be exciting for the arrival of a card that I've heard will at most convey <$200/mo.  

At my consulting rate I earn that amount in 2-3 hours.  I've certainly spent more than 2-3 hours in applying for foodstamps. 

Empathy. I feel very fortunate to live in a small city. I feel extremely fortunate to have caring non-profits have assisted me in the process of applying, and that my caseworker returned my calls, and followed up to answer my questions. In each moment when I had doubt that I might hear from my caseworker, I felt fear. I felt fear of being invisible. I felt fear that a process through which I may have been able to have my needs met would break down. I felt empathy for folks who have lived juggling various assistance programs through various bureaucracies of govt and non-profits to make ends meet. 

I could have applied to food stamps over two years ago. I didn't even consider it until recently. I thought that financial freedom was just around the corner. Perhaps applying to foodstamps could have helped me (psychologically as well as financially) not dive so deeply into credit card debt to finance my business endeavors. 

#Credit Cards #creditors #failure #food stamps #EBT card #invisible

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Ambition

In good moments, I feel smart. I feel that I am supported by the credit system.

...grateful that this credit score earthquake may end within 12 months...

In other moments, I feel humiliated. I feel doubt. I feel dumb.

What is ambition worth? 

I take it back to 1) freedom and 2) health. 

...for myself, my loved ones, and my family. 

My intelligence feels shackled. 

...perhaps its my ego.

I want to play. I want to risk. I want to dream. I want to be rewarded for expressing my gifts. I want to create.

So what's next?

Reflect on.

I like the quiet games. I enjoy succeeding in secret. In private. 

Seems there's some catch. I perform better when no one knows. 

Must find a workaround to that one. 

I want to perform

      play

   tinker

 share

I'm not quite there. 

Here I am.

Listening.

I will be here until called

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GDHI

Gross Domestic Health Index.

Paul Farmer is elected president in the aftermath of a power vacuum remaining after one of the major political parties' collapses.

President Farmer proceeds to announce an initiative to replace the GDP. This initiative will include 16 definitions of health. A council of seven will steward these definitions. A single definition may be updated every 2 years This allows for a complete rewriting of all 16 definitions every 32 years.

This is the story of the creation of the first 16 definitions for the Gross Domestic Health Index in America.

Where do you experience the greatest health in your work life?

Where do you experience the greatest health in groups in your life?

In what groups in your life do you experience health?

#Paul Farmer

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Decaf Jester

Today the jester was strong.

I felt a lot of resistance...

...Pushing back emotionally on progress in my relationship... 

...Reconciling receiving calls many times a day from creditors... 

...Feeling ambiguous towards my car...

...1) The transmission is out, 2) I entered a wrong checking account number, and since have spent the funds I had set aside for car insurance, 3) in process of selling the car 4) would like to sell the car without paying the full insurance premium since that $84 would come in handy. 

Over all, I'm feeling a strong link of inner and outer worlds. Rather than feeling empowered by this link, I feel embarrassed. 

For years, I've attempted energetic short cuts through coffee and wine. The risk/reward ratio has become larger and larger...for example, I found it easy to (all but) give up sugary eats years ago because i could viscerally feel the buzz and crash that I would experience in the hours afterwards. Imagining that sensation has allowed me to steers clear of the sugars for years.  A similar feeling is now steering me away from whiskey, wine, coffee, and decaf...

four things I have loved so dearly...

#coffee #decaf #debt #debt collectors #inner worlds #creditors #wine #whiskey #embarrassed #addiction #resistance

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Community

...takes on a diverse set of interrelated demographics, and creates overlapping layers of value for each of the demographics...

modern city building takes a rough blue print of something easily reproducible and does it for as long as it can.

Building profitability into building community is not easy.  Its counterintuitive to the way that much of our business is done.  

Its by no means impossible. 

Jumping ahead a bit, ... building community requires expanding our systems of values beyond the financial realm.  Not only building these systems, but allowing ourselves to be accountable to each other and these systems...

...and eventually allowing these systems to again change.

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To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the human condition of the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertain and on a willingness to be exposed; it’s based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something rather fragile, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from its fragility.

philosopher Martha Nussbaum in conversation with Bill Moyers (published in: Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas)

thank you brainpickings

(via jeoblivion)

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Go

Letting go. Control. Appearance. All appearance of control. Reason. 

There is an I there. After. Afterwards. The pretension of reasoning away. Failure. 

The I there. What is it? An experience. Some lyrical continuity of presence. Hmm. Guided by experience. Wavering moment to moment. Preferences rise and fall.

Pattern Integrity. A knot. A wave.

More so a pattern than a person.

#buckminster fuller #Pattern Integrity #wave #particle #surrender

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Key Points in Debt Settlement Process

1) Debt settlement is less painful and quicker than a bankruptcy. I'm avoiding bankruptcy because I do not want the bankruptcy on my public record. My passion is real estate development.

2) You will most likely have to wait until your credit score drops sufficiently / or your account becomes delinquent and is sold to a debt collection agency in order to settle your debts for less than the original price.

3) Feel free to avoid the Collection Agencies' phone calls until your are ready to settle/negotiate.

4) Have the funds necessary to make one lump payment for the debt once you are ready to settle.

5) Get everything in writing before you give any payment information whatsoever.

6) Once you settle, the difference between what you originally owed and what you paid may be considered "earned income" by the IRS.  Take note that you may elect Insolvency. Below in much greater detail because I find this one to be most complicated: 

   Exception 3: Debts canceled when you were insolvent. This is the most sweeping exception, because debt is generally only canceled when debtors are "insolvent" -- IRS-speak for being broke. Take note, however, the exclusion applies only up to the amount by which you are insolvent.

   Example: Trisha owed $30,000 in credit card debt, which she settled by paying $5,000. She received a Form 1099-C showing canceled debt income of $25,000 ($30,000 minus $5,000). She had no other debts. Her assets at the time were worth $10,000.

Canceled debt: $25,000

Total assets: $10,000

Insolvency amount: $15,000

Trisha reports $10,000 ($25,000 minus the $15,000 insolvency amount) as income on her tax return.

Also here: 

   •You may be excluded: Taxpayers may qualify for one of several exclusions that allow them to reduce taxable income from canceled debts.  Look into the details, and if the exclusions apply to you, file an IRS form 982 in addition to the 1099-c.

There's a ton of websites with further information. This is one that I like.

#debt collectors #debt settlement #strategy #bankruptcy #credit cards #colletion agency

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Settlements

On Tuesday October 14th 2014, I stopped paying my credit cards.

It was an accident. It wasn't bold. A blip. Not even embarrassing.

My identity as a delinquent debtor did not come as a surprise, only sooner than expected.

I received an email informing me that my recent payment for my GM Mastercard account was not approved. Rather than fixing the payment I let it slide.  

I already had planned to skip the October 21st bill for my Discover card. I had sufficient funds in my account. Its unclear why the Mastercard payment didn't clear. I'll claim it for luck.

Fortuitous: less good money chasing bad.

I have ten credit cards. Nine have balances that total $ 40,000 in debt. I also have $42,000 in debt from my graduate degree.  

The interest rates on my credit cards range from 10.99% to 19.99%. $ 3,000 of that is interest free. In December '14, $1,500 of that $3,000 will begin to accumulate 25.9% interest. In March '15 the other $1,500 will do the same.

So far, my research says that I may be able to settle my debts within 5-14 months for 40-50% of my current debt.

Voicing my fears, excitement, and experiences as I negotiate settlements for my credit card debts inspired me to start this blog.

I want to share my experiences so that they may assist others in a similar financial situation as a thanks for the support I've received.

#david graeber #nassimtaleb #debt: the first 5000 years #debt #debt consolidation #debt collectors #credit cards #student loans #karma

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Trial and error is freedom.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (via bombtune)

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I want to be happy to be human and be in an environment in which other people are in love with their fate.

Nassim Taleb, Antifragile (via drug-stuck)

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Your duty is to scream those truths that one should shout but are merely whispered.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (via kyleschen)

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NY Times | Oct 29, 2014.  }~ Facebook to Spend Billions on Future ~{