Jewish Credit Cards are like Jewish Crack Whores

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Jewish Credit Cards are like Jewish Crack Whores
By: Crack_Smoke_Republican on: 26.01.2008 [00:11 ] (2023 reads)
   
Try'em once in the USA and then kiss your normal life goodbye — Story of a Canuck living in the USA goes Bust due to the JEWISH CREDIT CARD Industry. BTW — For the record, the CSR has no personal experience with JEWISH Crack Whores and their various diseases but has seen the final effects on others and it is not pretty.

Drowning in debt, he needs a life raft

Nathan Drake, who owes $54,000, spends nearly $2,000 more than he earns each month. An advisor urges drastic changes.

By Kelly Barron, Special to The Times
January 25, 2008

Five years ago, at the tender age of 25, Nathan Drake of Whittier found himself starting life over, but with an anvil around his neck.

Drake wound up divorced and nearly $25,000 in debt after spending got out of control in an emotionally rocky marriage. With just a car and a computer to his name, he moved on and into an apartment, buying everything anew from a shower curtain to a couch.

Drake eventually mended his heart, and remarried last July.

But his finances are still broken, and that anvil got much heavier.

The Canadian transplant, who nets $30,000 a year, is $54,000 in debt and considering bankruptcy.

"I'm at my wits' end," said Drake, 30, who works as a product manager for a Whittier microfiche storage and industrial furniture company. "My paycheck is spent before I get it."

Starting over — and buying a truck and a sparkling wedding ring for his new wife — put Drake further in the hole.

He dug it even deeper, splurging as a newlywed to show his Canadian wife, Jodi, 23, around Southern California. He and Jodi dined out on $100 seafood dinners, took trips to Las Vegas and, on weekends, went out to dinner and a movie.

All of it added up. Drake carries $29,000 in debt on six credit cards. He owes an additional $16,000 at his bank. And he has borrowed $9,000 from his 401(k) retirement plan, which is worth $14,000 and was his only unencumbered asset.

Each month, he spends nearly $2,000 more than he earns. Any financial mishap and he's further in the hole. Recently, Jodi needed a root canal, forcing him to put $900 more on plastic.

"He's in terrible shape," said Linda Barlow, a certified financial planner in Santa Ana who reviewed Drake's situation.

His credit score, a numerical value that ranks a borrower's credit risk, has plummeted to 593 out of a possible 850, making it impossible to get a loan without a co-signer. The interest rates on his credit cards are as high as 30% — among the steepest Barlow has seen. And twice in the last month, he has invoked his bank's overdraft protection.

Only recently has frugality entered into Drake's budget. He moved from San Dimas to Whittier to cut his commute and save on gas. Because most of his cellphone use is for work, his employer agreed to cover his cellphone bills. And he and Jodi no longer dine out on crab legs.

But until a few months ago, Drake was spending as much as $225 a month on gas and $300 a month on restaurant meals.

"Even I don't spend $300 month eating at restaurants, and I can afford it," Barlow said.

Drake's rent is reasonable at $975 a month. But other recurring costs are high.

He pays about $6,800 a year in loan, insurance and gas bills for his Chevy Silverado truck. Drake said he needs the gas-guzzler so he can tow a motorboat to vacations along the Colorado River. He paid $2,300 for a one-third interest in the boat; his buddies own the rest.

"People who are $54,000 in debt don't go on vacation," Barlow countered. "The whole picture here is one of denial."

She estimates that Drake needs to slash his expenses by at least $3,000 a month and stop piling on new debt. If he does — and Barlow believes that's a big "if," given his spending habits — Drake could dig himself out of debt in a little more than three years.

To start, she advises ditching the boat and pocketing the $1,500 Drake estimates his share is now worth. Getting cheaper wheels would cut his expenses too.

Other savings can be found by reducing 401(k) contributions from 10% to 4% annually. Barlow, a big fan of saving early for retirement, gritted her teeth in making that recommendation. But in Drake's case, doing so would free up $1,440 a month.

She recommended that Drake contact his credit card companies and renegotiate his sky-high interest rates. He also should transfer some of his credit card balances to a card that offers 0% interest rates for a year. After that term is up, Barlow said, Drake could transfer the balance to another 0% card, avoiding high rates altogether.

Some of her clients have gotten entirely out of debt while using that strategy, she said.

She also wants Drake to see a debt counselor at a consumer credit counseling agency affiliated with National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a nonprofit organization that helps educate people about their finances. There, for a nominal fee, an advisor could help Drake renegotiate his debt, devise a debt reduction plan and create a household budget.

There are some glimmers of hope in Drake's otherwise dreary financial future.

If the division he manages reaches its sales targets, he'll receive a portion of the commissions earned from furniture sales. He said that could add $1,000 a month to his income.

And when Jodi changes her immigration status and becomes a permanent U.S. resident, she'll start working too. Drake, a permanent resident, is awaiting his U.S. citizenship. It could take as long as a year for him to become a citizen and six months more for his wife to get her residency, said Louis Piscopo, an immigration attorney in Anaheim. For now, though, Jodi must return to Canada while seeking residency. There, she plans to work for her sister's clothing company and to forward most of her monthly paycheck to Drake.

Every little bit helps. If his finances don't improve within the next six months, Barlow doesn't rule out bankruptcy. Because of the psychological stigma and negative credit implications of a filing, she views it as a last resort.

Drake nonetheless could be good candidate, said Marc Forsythe, a bankruptcy attorney in Newport Beach. Bankruptcy liquidation would discharge his debts and compel him to go to credit counseling. But the bankruptcy would remain on his credit report for a decade, which might make it difficult to get credit cards and loans in the future.

Drake never thought he would be in this position. Raised in a middle-class family in Nova Scotia where his father ran a sandblasting business, he grew up knowing the value of a dollar. As a teenager, he pumped gasoline to earn extra cash.

But when he entered college, he discovered that credit card companies, whose sales people marketed cards in the lobby of a school building, were more than willing to extend him credit.

"I had never had any debt before," Drake said. "But all of a sudden I had all these credit cards."

Now, he's desperate to rein them in. No longer trusting himself, he recently phoned his credit card companies to put ceilings on his spending limits. He couldn't get any 0% interest credit cards. But he did land one with a 3.9% rate and transferred some of his higher interest debt. He said he was open to seeing a debt counselor.

Jodi also is cutting back, clipping coupons and cooking inexpensive meals of chicken and potatoes.

As for the boat, Drake is not willing to sell. Because he and Jodi stay at his uncle's house when they go boating, Drake insists it's a cheap getaway. Nevertheless, he'll have to forget about motoring down the Colorado River for quite a while.

Barlow said she'll continue to check in on him over the next six months to help him get on firmer financial ground. Drake, meanwhile, is hopeful about a financial turn-around.

"There's a lot of work to be done," he said, "but the pieces are falling into place."

Do you need a money makeover? Each month, the Sunday Business section gives readers a chance to have their financial situations sized up by professional advisors at no charge. To be considered, send an e-mail to www.theawarenesscenter.org/prostitution.html#We