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Financial Troubles Can Hit Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere
By DaveM | March 14, 2006
If you read my article, “How a Trailer Park Changed My Life“, then you already have a pretty good idea that I’m just as human as anyone else. Back in 2003 when we moved into the modular home, things were starting to go downhill a bit financially and we were making attempts to remedy it. The kids keep getting older (and more expensive) and my wife’s catering business continues to struggle along, even today. She’s basically continuing to work the business just to pay off the original loan and some credit card debt. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to pay herself a salary for at least 4 years — kind of a sad situation.
We finally sold the last home (which was on it’s way to being a money pit) and we moved the modular home out of the trailer park and onto a new piece of property. The construction is finally wrapping up and things are starting to feel normal again. The only major stuff left to do is grass & landscaping, pouring a sidewalk, and partially finishing the basement.
Needless to say, moving is a HUGE expense and can definitely hit the credit cards pretty hard if you don’t have cash readily available. In our recent move/construction project, we encountered several unexpected expenses:
- Almost $10K overbudget on the construction due to unknown issues encountered with moving a modular home (thankfully we were able to adjust most of this down with other minor changes).
- $3K to purchase a new furnace that we didn’t think we’d have to do.
- $1,600 for new washer/dryer and microwave because we sold those items with the last house (they were REALLY old anyway).
- Not move related, but $3K for a used car that my daughter totaled last week. We only had liability insurance on it, and she was at fault.
Those are probably the biggest ticket items, but there have been a few others that I didn’t list. Anyway, for #2 we tapped a mutual fund, and 3 & 4 went on credit cards. I know, I know… I’ve been kicking myself for it, but like I said…I’m human too. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
But that’s only part of the problem. We had already accumulated some other expenses due to:
- Approximately $6K in credit card debt from a previous move that we hadn’t paid off yet. Thankfully that is on a zero-interest balance transfer card!
- Having the modular home sitting in the trailer park for a full year while trying to sell it. For that year, we were paying lot rent, utilities, and property tax.
So, why am I telling you all this? That’s a very good question!
I’m telling you this because it’s about 75% of the reason I’ve decided to resurrect the Money Matters blog. The other 25% is because I really enjoy writing and working on my website and I needed to get back to it. After seeing how quickly and easily we backslid financially over the past 2-3 years, I figured it was time to get serious again about MY OWN matters of money.
Back in December ‘05, in the midst of house selling and construction, I had some interesting revelations about money. Despite all the financial advice I’ve given over the years, I discovered some very important things I never knew about money. Primarily about envelope budgeting (yes, I actually said the ugly “B” word), but it really had more to do with a basic financial awakening. This newfound information is now the fuel that is driving me back to my website so I can share what I’ve learned with anyone who will listen…er, read.
So stay tuned over the coming days, weeks and months as I break everything into bite-sized pieces. Not only will it help me sort out my own thoughts and solidify my future financial goals, but I sincerely hope I can take a few other people along with me on this journey.
If you use a news reader or feed aggregator of any sort, you might want to subscribe to my feed so you’re alerted whenever I post something new. If you don’t have a news reader, I recommend either SharpReader or Bloglines. Both are free, of course. 
September 18th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
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