Every Month I Survive is a Victory

Taxes are done.  I forgot that I should be getting a new homebuyer tax credit, here.  That should be enough to help me get through maybe two more months.

I just sold off two of my son's toys.  One was a pitching machine.  The other is a four wheeler.  He hardly ever rode the four wheeler.  In the years since I bought it, maybe a dozen times.  The pitching machine?  Sits in the basement gathering dust. 

So, I don't need them, but it still feels strange selling off stuff I bought for my boy.  Name of the game at this point is survival, though.

Every month I survive brings me closer to getting out of the woods.  A lot of my debt is term debt, most at very favorable interest.  In August of this year, I pay off one of my business notes.  That'll free up over $300 a month. 

After that, it's a bit of a slog until 2013.  Once that year rolls around, though, I'll have reached the end of three more notes.  Monthly payments on the three of them, combined, is almost $2,000.

In 2014, I pay off three trucks, which frees up another $1,500 a month.  So, all told, if I can somehow manage to survive until the end of 2014, I will have almost $4,000 more free dollars a month due to retired debt payments.

Granted, that still leaves a lot of credit card debt, but if I simply apply the $4,000 to credit cards, they'd all be paid off in a couple of years, too.  I'm also chipping away at the credit card debt in the mean time.  It's not impossible that they would all be paid off before the term loans are finished. 

The trick is, of course, to stay alive (without declaring bankruptcy) for that amount of time. 
I'm literally maybe 3 years away from being completely debt-free, if I can just survive month to month.

Trouble is, I am not sure I can keep treading water between now and then.  I'm doing everything I can, but quickly reaching the end of the road.

I may have to start hoping for a Navy deployment.  If I got sent to a combat zone, the combination of tax-free status and combat pay, etc. would probably make this the biggest take-home pay I've ever had.  I wish I could hold on until I make O-3, though.  The difference in pay is pretty big.

Plus, if I'm involuntarily deployed that lowers all my outstanding debt to no more than 6% interest and no real adverse collection action can take place until I get home. 

I thought managing my business was tough, but frankly, now that I'm managing my business and my personal finances, life is pretty hard.  This is gut-wrenching stuff.

I wish I could be more help to Tessa, but she seems to be surviving.  I don't think she's in great shape, but she's not in as bad shape as I am.  I need to finish law school and get to where I make real money.  I can help us both, then. 

The proverbial salvation of my business is always right around the corner.  Just because we haven't been busy in two years doesn't mean we'll never be busy again.  However there's nothing preventing the business from taking off again if the weather conditions are right.

The uncertainty is a killer, but these are tough times.  Tough times require tough people. 

Everything gets better the further down the road I get.  My military pay goes up.  Debt gets retired.  Every month I survive is a minor victory. 

Not much left to talk about.  Just hanging on.  I lived through one bad recession when I got out of high school and it shaped me forever.  I don't think I've ever gotten over the feeling of going to a Burger King for a job and being told they ran out of applications. 

I hate recession.  This one blows.  Someday, when I survive this, all this will be just a colorful story.  But in the mean time, yeah, this blows.

Oh, and I'm going to take a more active role in trying to get Navy stuff.  It doesn't pay that great if you're not deployed, but a thousand here, a thousand there, it all helps.  Might be spending a month in Japan.