Debt Consolidation Vancouver

Hi.

This is Tyler. I’m new to this, so you will have to bear with me.

I read a few of Julia’s posts, so I have an idea of what you are expecting.

My story begins with a new job. After University, a family friend helped me get into the insurance world. I took a job with one of the major brokerage firms in Vancouver. After three years of paying my dues, I was finally able to build a respectable client book. By year seven I was pulling in over $100,000 a year.

Then I started to get bored with the industry. I made sort of a fool of myself at a business meeting and a week later I handed in my resignation. I worked for another month to save face.

The problem with me quitting my job was the bills that I had acquired during the period when I was making money hand-over-fist.

I had the fast car, a posh apartment in Yaletown and a taste for the finer things.

After a year of semi-retirement, I was out of cash and unable to find work in a field that would interest me. I had to reconsider my finances. I wanted to hold on to a few of the luxury items I had gained when I was at the top of my insurance game, but there was little money to pay for them. Eventually I sold my car, but there were still other bills that I was struggling with.

The anxiety was crippling and it affected my search for a new job.

Well hello again. It’s me Julia, your friendly storyteller and fellow debtor. If you have been following my story, you know that by the fall of 2009 I was seriously floundering.

Let’s quickly review my situation for those who weren’t paying attention:

I was unable to find work in my field of study, Education.

I applied and received a credit card to pay for my bills and rent.

I found a job as a waitress to pay for my rent and the minimal payment on my card.

Student loan repayment had me paying another $357 a month until I got it reduced to $187.

I found a position inside a school, but fortunately it was only volunteer. Income tax can be a killer.

To get back and forth to my non-paying job I bought a car. Correction; I agreed to start making payments on a car.

Now let’s add up those monthly totals:

Credit card min. payment: $110

Student Loan: $187

Car payment: $263

Rent: $720

Subtotal: $1280

Lets add to that my other major expenditures:

Groceries: $375 (roughly)

Cigarettes: $120

Gas: $60

Subtotal: 555

Grand Total: 1835

Ouch. And I was barely making $2,000 a month. Paying the bills, but only when I could. I prayed for an easier way, a path of less resistance. It came, finally, but not before I added another debtor to my list…

August 2009 – Hope Can Only Be Reached By Car

August held pretty much the same as the previous month; lots of work, little time for rest and bills, bills, bills.

Then, on the 23rd I got a phone call from a friend working in the Surrey school system. He told me that the school he worked at had drastically cut back the hours of the teacher librarian. They were looking for potential teachers to volunteer their time in the library. He asked me if I would be interested.

Of course I said yes. But as I hung up the phone, my one thought was: “How am I going to get to Surrey three days a week.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘the Skytrain runs right out there Julia.’ And yes, I am aware of this mysterious people transporter, but realistically it wasn’t an option. My job in Vancouver and the school in Surrey were both more than 5 km’s from a station. That meant a bus on each end.

By the end of the month, I signed myself up for yet another expense: a 1999 VW Golf. Yes, I could have bought a cheaper model, but I figured if I was buying a car I should probably buy one that was going to last me. And when I use the term ‘buy,’ I use it in its loosest form. Clarkdale provided me with a decent finance package but the monthly payment still eclipsed my monthly student loan bill.

So just when I was getting a grip on my debt, I dug the hole a little deeper. If only I heard about debt consolidation sooner.

But, on the positive side, I was in a school. Working for free. Thumbs up for volunteering! Yayyy….

Hello out there in cyberland. (Echoooo….)
My name is Julia and I have financial problems. Yes, I am one of the many who can’t seem to manage their finances. Too many bills, not enough steady income.
A few years ago I thought I had it all under control. I was just about to finish my Post-Bac Education Program and head straight into a teaching job. Oh, naive Julia of two years ago, if only I could warn you…
Now, in December of 2010, I have still not found my way on to the TOC list of any district in the Lower Mainland. I am working as a waitress four nights a week and volunteering at a local elementary school three days a week. I also work sporadically at an English school in North Vancouver.

Most days, my schedule is pretty tight, but sadly I am not making nearly enough to cover all of bills that seem to fill my mailbox.
I’ve asked my parents for help and they have provided me with a small amount of money to keep me afloat, but that too is running out.
I came out West to make it on my own and I am determined to succeed.
But determination doesn’t pay my student loans.
Thankfully, a friend tipped me off to a company that specializes in getting lost souls like myself back on track.
And that my friends, is why I am writing this blog. To share with you my story. And to offer hope to those floundering in financial woes.

I’ve always been an indecisive person.  I become enamored with something for a short period of time until I soon grow restless and in search of the next thing.  School turned out to be no different.  First I studied chemistry but I soon realized what a giant mistake that was (so boring!) so I moved on to philosophy and when I lost interest in that I moved on to psychology.

That is how my mountain of debt began, with school.  A year here, a year there, dancing through different disciplines and trying to find my niche. Post secondary education is a very expensive place to find oneself. After three years I was no further ahead and I had completed nothing.

Oh, and I had a load of debt and no skills to land me a decent paying job so back to serving in a restaurant it was. Only now I’m in my late 20’s and it is even less fun.

I have something to admit. I forgot to mention one little detail in my last post. And that’s that I am deep in debt. And when I say deep, I mean like 69-days-to-rescue-the-Chilean-miners-deep. I’m still trying to pay off my student loans, and my credit card bills are piled as high as that rescue shaft was deep. I really don’t know why my personal finances always trip me up, considering the fact that I help people balance their checkbooks all day. I really have to get it together soon, god forbid one of my future clients finds out.

So my debt poses a problem for my entrepreneurial aspirations. How am I supposed to pay my web programmer and graphic designer if I’m struggling to make ends meet? At the very least, I know I need to have a solid website if I want this business to succeed…

The worst lie you can make is to lie to yourself. And that’s what I did. I denied my own artist talent. Years in school taught me nothing but uncertainty. $10,000 for uncertainty in my talent. I felt cheated. I felt betrayed. I threw up my hands and told myself that I was not an artist. And that was a lie. I was an artist. And I still am. It took me a while to come around, but now I’m confident in my ability. And I intend to prove it to you.

I have run the gauntlet of debt, and debt consolidation, and creditor appeasement and all of that, and I’ll give you a hint, I don’t think I’d let them publish my story if I didn’t’ make it.

But you never know, this could be the most misleading spoiler of all time. Either way, thank you for reading – it makes me feel like less of a lunatic talking into an empty void, and more like I have friends on the other side of the campfire that might actually gain something out of this, somehow, someway.

The more I post this, the more I believe it is only to fair to state that I am getting paid to post this story. Surely, some of you may have guessed this already, but still. I think it is only right to set this straight. The way many of the earlier posts are written implies that I am writing from the heart, and indeed, I am, but now, a year later, knowing that I got paid for this story changes it a bit for me – I’m not sure why.

Either way, I just think it right for you to know that not only did Full Circle Debt Solutions save me by reducing my debt, and making my life manageable, they also helped me get my story heard.