Letter of experience with the Housing Partnership Credit Counseling Program
Dear Maria,
We wanted to thank you for all of the help you gave us.
Honestly, in about 3 hours of your time you really turned our life around. When
we met withyou back in October we had
no idea what we were going to do to deal with our $18,000 in credit card debt,
$20,000 bills for an oil spill at our house and pay for all of our student
loans, regular expenses and $1,200 per month mortgage. It seemed like we never
had the money to pay our bills, they were always late and our credit cards
were all maxed out and at really high interest rates. We were also ashamed because
despite each of us having graduate degrees, we had no idea how to manage our
finances.
You really explained a lot of things that we didn't know
such as, the importance of a credit report, how credit companies work in their
own best interest, how credit cards should be used (don't spend more than 25%)
and how to make a budget. We had fooled ourselves into believing that we were
living on a budget when in reality we never kept track of how much we were
spending on anything. We would spend too much money when we got paid, run out
of money, pay our bills late and then charge things on the credit card because
we didn't have money.
We were a little skeptical that a budget would help at first
because it always felt like we never had money to pay the bills when they came
in. You said if we made a budget we would have the money and you were right.
But there were many tears and shouting shed over that budget the first couple
of months. It wasn't easy. It’s a hard pill to swallow, like a diet that you
really can't cheat on. We were arguing about how every dollar was spent, how it
should look in the spreadsheet and what to do once we set the budget and then need
money for something not in the budget. We found that we had to redefine the
work "need" for ourselves. There are lots of things we can live
without. But, when all was said and done, the budget worked...even through the
holidays.
The other huge piece of the puzzle was the help from our
families. One family paid off the credit cards (they had to un-stuff the
mattresses) and one paid off the oil spill (by taking out a second home
mortgage). Now we pay each family back each month a set amount and like you said,
call them up and say "Thank you! Thank you!" all the time.
For the first time in our lives we have actual savings
accounts! This is a really big step for us. We set up a "dibble dabble" account
that we automatically deposit into every month and an emergency
account that we also contribute to each month that's earning money through mutual funds. My father has been telling us to "save your
money" for years -and we have finally
listened. We're even starting to look at life insurance and setting up an IRA. We find that we have plenty of money to pay our bills on time and we will have enough money to install new fences this spring with cash - something that we would have charged on the credit card in the past.
Maria, we want to thank you for giving it to us straight and helping us with patience, dignity and compassion to dig ourselves out of this problem. You taught us a lot and we hope you will continue the good work. Happy New Year and God Bless!