by Hope
Continuing from my last couple of posts regarding the current situation and my personal finance choices, I am considering all options. And I do still have options.
The Major Challenges
Mortgage – I am officially officially one month behind on my mortgage payment this coming week. Per my Googling, I can expect 2-4 months of no mortgage payments to trigger foreclosure, but I am going to call my lender this next week and have a conversation. I do not want to risk foreclosure, so I am exploring options to sell before that.
Auto Insurance – If I can’t pay last month’s auto insurance balance by November 4, our policy will be cancelled. This is my #1 priority this week.
Electricity – If I can’t pay last month’s bill by November 9th, we may be subject to it being cut off. I believe I can make a partial payment and buy a little more time.
Water – I have bought a little more time by making a partial payment, but last notice said I had to be current by November 24th or risk it being cut off.
The Good News
I’ve picked up some extra paying work this coming week. And it could lead to a bigger project, ie a pretty complex website build. Now, I won’t get paid this week, but I will bill this week so that should help with the above.
Options
Depending on my conversation with my mortgage lender, my thought is to give it until the end of this calendar year to see if I can find steady work. If yes, great, I’ll recover and get back on my feet a little at a time.
If not, then putting the house on the market very quickly in the new year will probably be my best bet. Houses are still selling relatively quickly here, and I have a good amount of equity in the house since I got such a good deal on it and have done LOTS of improvements. Alternatively, if I can get caught up enough, I could rent out the extra room and see if that plus some extra work could keep us in the house.
The house is the biggest drain on my funds. The other is bills for Gymnast and he is going to begin contributing now to his bills, that will take some pressure off. (Originally he would take them over completely come January, but he is starting now instead. I don’t know if he will cover everything right now, but he knows the numbers and we are using this weekend to do some research on best options.)
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.