Bipolar AND Money

Do they mix?

Certainly not when you have not found the right mix of medication. Even then it can be extremely difficult. It is near impossible to understand the truth about your finances when you feel like the world is perfect emotionally; when you are on that high nothing is wrong. Deny all you want but the debt does not lie.

Here is my story in short.

When I graduated college I managed to not have any bills. I did this by living at home, having no job, and being old enough to be considered "poor" because the government could not consider my parent's in come. So I got pell grants and used those to pay for college.

[On an unrelated side-note I got through 4 years of college without repeating a single class and I was receiving no treatment - previously I was a complete mess and should have been institutionalized but somehow I got through this 4 years like I was not bipolar]

Near the end of college I found my wife to be. We dated. I graduated and eventually moved in with her.

From here it's all down hill financially. Like many I had gotten a small hand full of credit cards in college. You know those offers they put out where you get a bag of candy if you apply for card. I was having a impossible time working so we used credit cards. Finally I got a job and asked her to marry me. We put the wedding on the cards. We put the honeymoon on the cards.

Being kicked out of the house we were renting and rolling one car later . . .

. . . Fast forward a few years. We put the cards on a financial counseling through a reputable company. This particular one was shut down due to mismanagement. I was screwed. So I thought. I waited for a while. Then we put the cards on another plan which I still use faithfully today.

Well I never realized until later there was one more card. Plus there was one that refused to go through my consumer credit counseling service - thus they will not be paid YET. Then we had an account at a bank where you can have a credit card to back you up -- overdraft protection. We maxed that out fast. Eventually we realized that bank was ripping us off big time. We changed to a credit union. I now had a third credit card to pay off.

With a lot of inconsistency that last card is still not being paid off. I tried to here and there but it was pretty useless. It went to creditors a long time ago. I got a letter at some point and decided to send them $100 I have not heard from them since. I lost their contact info. I have no interest in finding them at the moment. I have enough to deal with.

Then I decided I wanted to switch my career to graphics design. I got some student loans and went to a second (or maybe third) rate Jr. college. I really enjoyed it however I was not putting in the kind of effort I would expect if I were to really go into it. So for the first time in my life I dropped out. It was a very smart decision because I should not have been there.

In retrospect I regret going but I also got some good knowledge. Perhaps in the future I will take some classes to complete some of my training. I really do enjoy graphic design even though I get frustrated.

Fast forward again

After not paying the student loan I finally defaulted. This prompted me to finally talk to them and I set up a plan where I pay $122 a month. After enough months of paying on time I will move out of the defaulted state. This is because I moved fast.

Also I finally got subpoenaed for not paying my mental hospital bill. Again I took this seriously jumped the hoops and I pay $50 a month. I want to increase this to $100 a month in July or sooner because I just want the damn thing paid off. Financially it in my better interest to focus on something with higher interest but emotionally it's not.

So now I discover the best way to handle this situation:

The order you should pay things off when you are in trouble:

1. House, Car, and other necessities
2. Government (IRS, Student Loans)
3. Credit Cards and everything else

Since a credit card is an unsecured loan not paying it off only affects credit. They can't come repossess something or foreclose. Third party bill collectors cannot garnish wages or anything like that and they have rules about harassing you.

So as it stands we take care of #1 faithfully. We can afford to pay these things. I am doing #2 faithfully -- my wife has a student loan that needs to be paid on. #3 one half of my credit cards are being paid off. I cannot afford to pay off the rest of my cards until I pay off the current ones.

What I have learned through all of this is that communication with creditors is paramount. Make sure debt in areas 1 and 2 is covered and when you cannot pay--pick up the phone and talk to them about it. Credit cards are credit cards. They are in a dirty business. Pay those of faithfully but at the same time they are low on the totem pole. If you cannot pay you cannot pay and of all the consequences they have the least. Bad credit is better than a foreclosure, repossession, judgement, garnished wages, etc.

That was a mouthful.