Price of Coaching

Lately I have felt a little down and sometimes downright depressed about my current work situation. I feel as though I want a new job, but somehow that seems so difficult to do, I know I should just concentrate on making a stellar resume and go from there. Still I can't seem to get myself motivated to get on that path.

I listen to the 48 Days podcast by Dan Miller and I am truly inspired by his coaching and resources. I reached out to the website and contacted them about coaching, the total cost for a 2 hour coaching session with Dan Miller: $4,500. WAY out of my budget, so I have decided I will coach myself with the Dan Miller material.

This is my plan:
Read 48 Days to the Work You Love read by November 1st (will post review here)
Read Wisdom Meets Passion (Read by December 1st)
&
Read his newly released book of 48 Low Cost Business Ideas (Read through December before the new year)

I will keep you all update on this process.

Going back to school!

I decided I am going back to school to earn a degree. I don’t have any college credits, I went to college in 2007 and it was for only one pre-college course! I have always felt very embarrassed for not going to school, which is sad seeing as it wasn’t really because I was lazy or stupid but mostly because I did not have the resources.

In recent months the thought of going back to school has been persistent in my mind. I started by doing some research on online college. Even though I am only 25 due to my professional career I don’t feel right going to a campus, plus my employer is super against people furthering their education… Really.

I researched online schools and I found a couple, I fooloshigly called a few and then they hounded me forever. I saw that the credits for online schools were around $400 to $1200 for the University of Phoenix, which is a total scam! I then researched my community colleges, I had no idea you could go to college online through a community school, I was so happy.

I went back to the school I originally was going to, a community college a county over, the credits there are only $103 for a highly regarded public school! I will be able to study online and take all of my classes online for an associates degree.

I am so happy, I will start in the winter term! I will update you all with my exact costs, I will start with 2 online classes.

A Debt Settlement Story

Funny this links up to my recent computer fiasco, once these things happen in such synchronicity it's weird for me to think everything is not connected. I feel like a life cycle of mine is coming to an end and another one is starting.

I bought a Toshiba laptop over 2 and a half years ago after my divorce. I didn't have money for it, but I needed it for work, so I charged it up on a debit card that did not have funds, over-drafted and never looked back and paid for it. I then proceeded to close that bank account and started a new account at a new bank, I know, mature. I felt a lot of guilt about this for a long time, and there were many times where I could've paid for it but I didn't. The only reason for that was my maturity just wasn't there to understand the importance of paying off your debts, not only to make good on the money you borrowed but also for your feelings about yourself.

I owed this $500+ since the Summer of 2009. I lived with it, I got calls and letters and my feelings towards it were filled with guilt but not enough guilt to make me work a little harder in the savings department to pay for it.

This past Summer 2012, when I finally got my sh*t together I got an offer in the mail to settle this debt for $285, still, I didn't pay for it. Till one day I picked up the letter and called the collection agency, I told them I wanted to settle but didn't have the money, of course they asked "how much do you have"...I said less than $200.

They in turn offered to settle with me for $225 and I did, I paid right there and finally got this out of my life. I don't even have that laptop anymore. I dropped it and broke the side of it and used it for a few months like that until my parents gave me a new computer for Christmas in 2011.

I don't feel proud about settling for less than half what I owed, one thing I do feel though is a much stronger sense of maturity. I believe that is 70% of finally getting your finances straight, the other 30% involves action and actually doing it.

Do you have/had any debts laying around that maturity kept you from properly paying back?

Life Update!

So much has happened since my last post here, my head has been spinning for the past few months and I have been unable to properly organize my thoughts and make them into a nice neat post that I felt would be useful or entertaining for anyone.

Financial Updates!
Some GREAT things have been happening for me financially, funny thing is I felt weird blogging about them because I did not want to jinx them.

1. First victory: I was able to re-finance my auto loan and I got my interest to go from 26.7% (this should be illegal) to 10.99%!!! YAY! Now I am STILL working on my credit, I hope that in 6 months time or less I will be able to re-finance and get an even better rate. I did make one mistake during the re-financing process, I was offered a 3 year loan instead of another 4 year loan, and without much thinking I took the 4 year loan... ughh why did I do that, anyways, hopefully I will be able to re-finance once again soon.
2. I was able to get my first credit card with a high limit! Well, a high limit for me at least, I was able to get a credit card with a $2,000 limit. 
3. My car insurance rates have lowered by $25/month! I have 2 tickets on my file that will not drop out of my history for at least 2 more years, my rates when I first got my car earlier this year were $275/month, after major examining and re-structuring of the rates I was able to get them down to $245/month. Six months later at my policy renewal and I'm at $220!

All of these "great" things were able to happen because I was able to pay off my credit card balances. Unfortunately now I have a HUGE balance again $1250 on my new credit card. However this is okay because it was for emergencies, $465 for car re-financing, $300 medical expense and $200 for new tires. I have to work towards paying this balance off and then maybe my score will jump back up again and I will be able to re-finance and lower my payments further.

NEW PROJECT!

I have also been working on a new professional project. I started my own consulting business. I have managed hundreds of employees in a retail environment for years, therefore I created a service to help others get into the retail industry with more ease and with changes of getting better employment opportunities. I have very reasonable rates and and willing to be flexible with them.

Check it out: RetailWithMe.com