Debt Recovery 102

The stock market crashes, you’ve lost everything and you’ve just lost your job. You’ve had an accident, can’t work and have massive medical bills. In the last year I’ve known someone in each of these situations, and in one of the situations that someone was me. Lost money is one thing but lost cash flow is a catastrophe. In each of these situations the loss of savings, either CD’s, stocks or 401k is often used to stop the gap but unless the core issue of cash flow is not addressed quickly, the stop gap will only delay the inevitable; the complete inability to meet your responsibilities. This is when debt begins to pile upon debt. By the time you’re actually able to find a job and begin receiving paychecks, the debt could have grown to a seemingly insurmountable mountain. Don’t despair!

In these situations, our first instinct is to invoke the cost reduction plan. There are few among us that haven’t for some time or other, tried to squeeze every penny into copper wire. In many cases this works quite well. Bring lunches from home. Don’t use the dry cleaner, and avoid going out to dinner. Each of these tactics works well to solve short term financial issues. In the situation described above the problem is far too large for tactics, you need a strategy.

Step one: Evaluate your core revenue

You’ve been unemployed for 6 months and you get your first job offer. Congratulations! That is really fantastic, now everything will be right with the world again. The job offer is for sixty percent less than what you made before but who cares, right? A job is a job and you’ll keep this one forever; out of gratitude. Wrong. Take the job, certainly. It will help with paying for food and clothing and may even address a couple of your debt issues. If your first job is not enough to pay current bills and pay extra to address your debts that are behind, keep looking for a better job. At this point self interest must come first. Even if this first job took three months of prodding and follow up calls, you first duty is to your own survival and if your core revenue cannot handle your debt situation then it is not a safe landing point but merely a life vest, keeping your head above water and a couple meals on the table. Keep on looking for better paying positions and jump at opportunities that are presented.

Step two: Core Revenue Solved, now what?

This next step is perhaps even more deceptive than the first. This second job pays just as much as your old job – the one you had before the debt disaster. Great! Time to call all your creditors and tell them you can start paying immediately. Hold on. In your old job you did well; your savings contribution was about two hundred a month and you were able to cover your expenses plus maybe go out once or twice a week. The point here is that your revenue basically matched your obligations and kept you current. That’s not the situation you find yourself in now. Now you have your current obligations plus your debt obligations. The interest accrues faster, the extra payments are larger and in some cases you have extra fees, late fees or attorney fees tacked on due to the late or nonpayment while you were unemployed. Now you have to aggressively turn the tables on your creditors and be careful which ones you start paying and when.

Step three: Get them in the tent, then bring them to the table.

Evaluate which of your debts are most important. Housing? Utilities? Telephone? Credit Cards? Focus on giving each of these a priority based on how far in arrears you are and how close you are to drastic consequences, such as foreclosure or service shut off. The next step is to review their respective statements and question it. For housing, ask if there is an assistance package to apply for, this will reduce your payments for a time while you get re-organized. For other bills ask them to write off a portion or all of your outstanding debt on condition that you’ll pay and keep current from now on. Explain your situation and don’t be afraid to go into the realm of “poor me”. It’s about survival now, the gloves are off. Your survival depends on your ability to protect one thing, your cash flow. Each of your creditors is interested in only money, but if you hold your ground, keep some cash for yourself to avoid any further debt and push back, in many cases an unjustified charge or exorbitant late fee will simply disappear in the face of your efforts.

At the same time it is important to keep looking for opportunities for extra cash revenue. Don’t avoid going out, or buying clothes. Instead, spend your money smarter, more strategically. Go out to dinner but go out to networking dinners. Buy clothes but buy clothes for the office. Spend money on things or activities that have a chance to turn into revenue. You could save $50 and pay debt by staying at home or you could go out to a networking dinner for $50 and secure an opportunity for a side project worth $250, now you’ve just created a situation where you can pay $200 of your debt, a rate increase four times over.

We all like immediate solutions and in every movie we’ve seen, our main character goes through hard times, finds a gold mine and is suddenly and immediately saved. Unfortunately that’s not the way real life works. You have to have a strategy for recovery; tactics alone won’t do. With careful prioritization, smart spending and a keen eye for opportunities, you can get on the control side of debt and become richer for the experience.

Eating Right

I thought this might be helpful.

I’ve been doing a lot of research in how to eat right in order to lose weight and have more energy. I’ve come up with a basic list, it’s not really a diet but just a way of looking at food that helps and food that hurts, so here it is, it’s not complete so any comments are most welcomed:

Avoid
- Potato chips, absolute 0 intake, totally cut this out, which is hard because they put ingredients that make people addicted

- Candy bars/most protein bars, same comment as above, by protein bar avoidance, talking about faux nutrition bars(some are ok)

- Avoid Dairy, Milk, Butter, Margarine, Cheese, Cottage Cheese, (exception yoghurt as a medicine for diarreah) These cause acid reflux, heartburn, bloating, gas and increased fat intake without nutrional balance. It is ok to eat sometimes, like cheese for taste just be aware the body don’t like it and will create some nasty farts.

- Avoid processed Flour. It’s ok to eat sometimes, the glutens stick to the inside of the intensines leading to colon cancer and other maladies because it distrupts digestion of good things. switch to low gluten breads if you must have toast every morning.

- Avoid Pasta. Same reasons as Flours, the glutens and processing make this a low nutrition high delicious food, ok to have sometimes

- Avoid Sugars. It’s impossible to completely remove this factor because it is so ingrained in American foods but if substitute low or no sugar jams, jellys or candys, or coffee sweetners, your actual intake will fall into an acceptable range for the body to digest properly and not spike in blood sugar, leading to diabetes.

Focus on
- Fresh Vegetables (Fresh potatos are ok too)
- Fresh Fruits and berries
- Old grains like Oats, Barley, Quinoa, Rice, Cous Cous
- Nuts and dried fruits
- Lean protein, chicken, eggs, lean meat, buffalo, venison, fish (salmon etc), lamb, goat

Funny how the focus on group is so much more simple….

I want to make the point that the Avoid list is not at all from the perspective of being a nutritional granola crunching zealot. I simply looked online, compared sources and drew a line based on energy. The Avoid list simply pulls energy away from you, for example, when eating bread, the glutens stick to your intenstines right? Well it takes the body more energy to clean that stuff off than you actually gain in increased activity. The overall result is that you feel sleepy, can’t do as much and are lethargic. The Focus on group, pulls the energy out of food and almost directly to the muscles, where you can use the energy to do what ever you want, your muscles will actually push to be more active like a young dog pushing it’s owner to go out and play.

Enjoy!

How will Journalists Get Paid in the “Link Economy”

Jeff Jarvis and the BuzzMachine started a very interesting discussion about the many failings of the Newspapers, seen here: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/04/07/the-speech-the-naa-should-hear/

It is a good discussion but fails to address the question of how a journalist can make a living? Below is my post to the discussion.

Paul says:
April 9, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’ve read all the replies and the question persists:

“How do writers get paid and get the resources to find, write and report good news?”

Within the google aggregate, the links are not organized by the publishing newspapers, they are organized by the individual article, written by an individual journalist. The google aggregate becomes in effect a newspaper itself. It organizes the content in a comprehensible fashion and matches that with advertising in order to sustain itself.

Perhaps not prevalent at the moment, but if I had a blog and I posted a unique story about a pressing national issue, I have just as much chance getting a top google listing as the Baltimore Sun.

The fundamental question is, should I get paid for that and how?

According to the link economy, I cannot charge for my content, but I am responsible for creating a monetization plan that will sustain my efforts. How? My little blog advertisements can’t do it alone or cannot do it in a stable manner, by this I mean, what I write today is hot but tomorrow maybe not. What I write is still important but just doesn’t hit a chord with the hundreds of thousands of people necessary to garner 1% advertising clicks necessary to pay the bills.

A good example of this is that until today I’ve never even heard of Jeff Jarvis but this post is relevant and interesting to me today. I will probably never return to this blog again, link or no link, it’s just the law of probability versus the number of content sites out there. Plus I’m thinking that Mr. Jarvis makes a whole lot more from CNN appearances or speaking engagements than he does strickly from this blog in other words the actual journalism here is subsidized in a similar manner as in newspaper business models.

At the issue’s core: If I don’t get paid, I can not continue to do it. Newspapers today have placed themselves in an intermediary position. Writers work for newspaper because they offer paychecks and resources with which to get the job done. As newspapers die, journalists will try to make a go of it on their own but can an individual come up with the money needed to go undercover for a story? Probably not as effectively if just relying on advertising.

An Analysis of “My Life Stood – A Loaded Gun” by Emily Dickinson

The following is an email exchange that I thought might help others working with Emily Dickinson

Hi !
How are you ?!
I wanna ask you something.. I know you have much more experience with American literature then I do )) and also in poetry. I’m writing an essay for my literature class and my goal is to analyze, interpret the poem “My life stood- a Loaded Gun” by Emily Dickinson. I’ve been trying to do it all day today..but it makes no sense to me..

I think she(Emily) was a psycho-weirdo-alien to write such stuff (LOL) or I just don’t get the meaning )

I’m reading all the critics writings about this poem, and everyone tells a different story. One says she was writing about her lover, another – that it was about her relationship with God, then maybe it was about her father etc… I think, by “He/ owner/Master” she meant a men’s world or society she lived in, and she-is a gun , an aggressive, powerful, not feminine and inhuman – was made like that by her world/society.

Can you please take a look at this poem and help me to analyze it..I’m
freaking out by this poem ))) I’m clarifying every word, looking in all dictionaries, but it is way TOO DEEP for my realistic mind
Thanks !Myah !

——————–response email————————
Hi,

LOL – (psycho-weirdo-alien)

Absolutely, here you are, let me know if you have any questions.

In summary, my interpretation of the poem is that it is about being a woman in a closed society and that there are religious overtones throughout the poem, as though religion and God are placing pressure on her. (I actually think it is about sex but that might be too radical for class)

There is no right or wrong when interpreting a poem, but especially a poet like Emily Dickinson. She does not write to explain or to hide an inner meaning, she writes to express her emotions pure and simple as she can. Since we are each grounded a little differently in emotion, the same poem can mean very different things to different people.

To understand her poetry, the reader must know something about Emily.

- She grew up and lived during the “Romantic Period” in the 1800s a period where art was based on emotion, much more so than the Classical Period

- She also lived during the Victorian Era, where women were shackled to their pedestals, most women had to be married by the time they were 18, they were not allowed to vote, women of Emily’s status could not earn money and society was very linear, meaning anyone who strayed out of their box paid a heavy price.

- Emily herself grew up and lived in Massachusetts, at the time, probably one of the most religious, morally upright and independent sections of the United States, this is the part of the U.S. where abolition rose up.

- Emily rarely published her poems, a sign that these were emotional expressions by herself, for herself, she was not talking to anyone else.

- Finally and most telling, Emily was a recluse spending almost all of her time alone in her house and even staying in just her room. This can maybe point to a Phobia – like fear of crowds and such, it could also point to a very independent person who is so completely frustrated with the society she lives in she just doesn’t bother to interact. A key emotion to a recluse is “frustration”

“My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun”
For a poet to express their emotion at any time, their first thought is about which format should be used for the poem. In this poem, Emily has used the Quatrain (four verses) with alternate rhymes, but these are in many lines “slant rhymes” or lines that “sort of sound the same but not quite”.

Use of the quatrain is also informative; this style is typically used to express heavy spiritual topics, death topics, or deep meanings. In other words Emily has not used a poem format that in any way indicates light hearted happiness or romance but a deep heavy subject, like having a heavy beef stew for dinner.

I see short stilted lines, many of the lines don’t quite rhyme (slant rhymes) and this adds to the short, sharp tones in her voice. Especially note the last lines of each section; it’s startling because it does not fit in rhyme or rhythm.

In the analysis of the poem at the bottom of the link you gave me I see three explanations:

- Emily is writing out of anger for her father and restrictive social roles
- Emily is writing about poetry as her “Master”
- Dangers and risks of being a woman

Personally, I don’t get any of these. These analyses are rooted in today’s world explaining today’s issues with little understanding of Emily and her world, but again there is no right or wrong and these answers are fine as a quick shallow response. Also, poets rarely write about “poetry” they write about anything else but rarely about the vehicle of their expression.

I don’t know who “He” is, my feeling is that it is either God or Sex or perhaps both, there was a tremendous amount of guilt associated with sex that was intermingled with religion at the time making the experience very deep and perhaps disturbing for some women. It would be very nice if we knew when she wrote this, was she young? Old? Middle aged? Menopausal? Was she reflecting on a young lover she once had?

I’ll break the explanation out stanza by stanza:

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun -
In Corners – till a Day
The Owner passed – identified -
And carried Me away -

Emily feels confined, restricted in her life until one day the “Owner” shows himself and sets her free. “Loaded Gun” is not necessarily an expression of anger but an expression that she feels she has something to say or do but cannot say or do those things and it would take just a small nudge to set her expression off, like the hammer in a pistol. Guns were everywhere in those days and using it in this line is not really a surprise.

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -

Emily roams the “Sovereign Woods” to me this indicates an illicit or illegal action. To enter the “Kings Woods” and hunt was a serious crime at her time and she would have known that. They hunt the Doe, I believe means they end an innocence. It is also interesting that “She speaks for Him” why does she need to speak up and defend him, yet even so the powers that be or the Mountains, shut her up quickly.

And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through –

To me, this speaks as though she is remembering a lustful sexual encounter. Often analysis looks at Vesuvian and says she is expressing rage. I don’t see that, she is expressing a tempering of a hard personality. A Vesuvian face is one that has a sharp sarcastic tongue but that quickly softens and she says that her pleasure has shown through not a false smile but genuine pleasure.

And when at Night – Our good Day done -
I guard My Master’s Head -
‘Tis better than the Eider-Duck’s
Deep Pillow – to have shared –

Again she is protective of her Master’s head and finds more comfort there than with a deep downy feather pillow.

To foe of His – I’m deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb –

And again protective, almost jealously so, she says she will fight anyone who tries to confront her Master, Yellow eye says jealously or “evil eye” and emphatic Thumb (or thumb your nose) was a gesture of disdain and insult at that time.

Though I than He – may longer live
He longer must – than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without–the power to die—

This is the most riddle like section. Some analyses even say that Emily was in a state of confused thinking, that’s just poor analysis. To be honest, I’m not exactly certain what she is saying; I get a feeling that she doesn’t want “He” to leave her even by death. There is a reluctant tone in the second line almost pleading, “he longer must than I” The last two lines are the most mysterious. I get the sense that she’s saying while she can kill, through abortion (the only means of birth control at the time) or more broadly that she could kill someone and be forgiven her sins, if she committed suicide she’d never be forgiven and would go to hell, hence the power to die is not in her hands and she does not want to loose “Him” first. In other words, I see deeply religious tones in those lines; she’s speaking in common vernacular understanding of the times.

Hope this helps!

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