Finding Freedom

So here I am, trying to be a reasonable person and pay down my credit card bills, and the credit card companies (I’m looking at you Chase and Providian), after I make large-ish payments to them, decide that they are going to cut my credit lines.  While this makes good sense from a business standpoint for them (as I have obviously not had the best spending track record in the past), I can’t help but think that their cutting my credit lines is going to hurt my credit score, as my ratio of balance to credit limit is going to be higher.

When I noticed that Chase did this, I gave them a call right away, and they re-instated my credit line.  However, when Providian did this to me the other day, I called and they said that I needed to wait for a statement in the mail that would explain why it had happened.

I’m still pretty dead set about paying off the balances of all of my cards, but it’s discouraging to see that even though I’m doing my damndest to lower my balances and, therefore, to improve my credit score, it seems like the companies are doing their damndest to see that my credit score goes in the toilet.  Has anyone experienced anything like this with credit card companies?  Do I have any recourse?

Here’s my networth update for March.  I know that it’s a bit premature, but I’ve already paid all of my bills for March, so I thought that I’d stick the numbers in early, so that I could see where I am at.

On Wednesday morning, I had the opportunity to be in a commercial that I had auditioned for in the previous week.  While it’s just a local spot, it’s still going to air during Padres games, so that’s still quite a number of people that are going to see it.

I’m kind of excited at the prospect of being on tv, even if it’s just a silly little ad.  Plus, it’s another job, so it’s a little more money in the bank.  Good times.

I’ve got a call back this coming Sunday evening for a local theatre company that pays its non-union actors pretty well.  This is a double bonus because, if I get the part (knock on wood), I will be getting more local exposure from a fairly reputable company who likes to hire actors it has already hired over and over again (which would lead to more work) and, the supplemental income from the show would help me continue to pay down my debt.  In addition, the show would not affect my work schedule at my regular job nearly as much as the show I am currently in is doing (8 shows a week, a one-way driving time of half an hour, three matinees during normal business hours, all of which while trying to get 40 hours in at my desk job is very, very exhausting).

The show is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I am up against two other actors for this part.  I got a really good vibe from the director at the original audition, though, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if my good vibration was well founded or not.

I’m at an exciting time in life, where theatres are starting to pay me to do things that I would gladly do for free.  Just don’t tell them that. 

My girlfriend’s roommate has a bit of a debt problem.  I can obviously emphathize with her, but based on how frustrated she is making my girlfriend, I find my empathy shrinking every day.

Here’s the story.  The roommate has asthma, and it is serious enough that she, about once a year or so, has to go and stay in the hospital overnight because she just can’t breathe.  Unfortunately for her, overnight hospital stays are quite expensive.  What is also unfortunate for her is that she has chosen not to purchase insurance, and she doesn’t get benefits through her employer.  Because of this, she has accummulated about $60,000 in hospital bills.

She works with a drama group that visits local schools, and provides instructional presentations on aspects of American history, which I both think is a kind of cool and worthwhile job.  However, she only takes home, after taxes, about $300 a week.

Further, a few months ago, her boyfriend was driving her car, and got into an accident.  He was fine, but the car was totalled.  Rather then doing what I think just about anybody would think was prudent based on her situation, that is, try to purchase a used, reliable car for a few thousand dollars, she applied and was accepted for a car loan so that she could buy a brand new Nissan X-Terra.  While it is certainly cool to have a brand new car, this choice added another $30,000 in debt.

On the positive side, she doesn’t have very much credit card debt.  On the negative side, this is probably due to the fact that her credit score is probably very low because she hasn’t really made efforts to pay off her hospital debt.  I remember that she once talked her boyfriend into getting a Best Buy credit card, because she had been denied, so that they could purchase some things from the store.

The only reason I know these things is that she asked my girfriend to look through her finances, and try to figure out a way that she could fix them.  My girlfriend spent a month looking through the finances, and concluded that the roommate should sell her new car, get a used one, and get a second, and possibly, a third job.  This is due to the fact that she brings home $1200 a month, $500 goes to car payments, $500 goes to rent, $100 goes to insurance, and $100 goes to gas every month, which leaves her no money to either live on or to make efforts at paying the hospitals.  Because of this, she overdrafts her checking account frequently, which puts her deeper and deeper in debt.

The roommate’s response has been to do nothing differently.

While I feel badly for the roommate both in that she owes so much money, which can be daunting, and that getting rid of a new car would be a serious admittance of a problem, I feel like there are going to be definiate consequences to her inaction.  While I certainly have no moral authority to throw stones based on my own debt situation, both my girlfriend and I are worried about her because she seems to be lacking any kind of responsibility for her actions.

Have any of you ever been in similar situations, where someone that you care about is living seemlessly recklessly?  Unfortunately, my girlfriend has loaned her about $1500 in rent money, which is money that she is starting to suspect that she won’t ever get back.  Does she have any recourse?  What do you think? 

As I’m sure most anyone reading this site already knows, paying money to play the lottery is a bad, bad idea.  However, I recently came across a site that had a lottery theme that you can play for free.  Ostensibly, the site is free to use due to the fact that they run continuous advertisements. This bothers me very little as I tend to have the volume turned off on my computer.

Just like the normal lottery, if you hit all of the numbers correctly from their random drawings, you win the grand prize.  Unlike the normal lottery, if you get even one of the numbers correct, you get points that can be traded for gift card to Lowe’s, Amazon, or other places.  On the negative side, you need a ridiculous number of points to get these gift cards (you need 25,000 to get a gift card, and you start with 1,000).

If anybody is interested in giving it a shot, you can sign up for an account here.*  There is currently a little over a million bucks as the grand prize.

*If you do sign up through that link, I get a percentage of what you have won.  The points that I get are not subtracted from what you have won; rather, I will get additional points based on whatever you win. 

I recently auditioned for a graduate MFA program in acting.  I think that getting into such a program is a definite step in the right direction in terms of pursuing acting as a career, as much of my training thus far has been from a musical perspective, and therefore, not as much from an acting perspective.

In addition, much of success in acting comes from knowing somebody who knows somebody, etc.  Spending two years with a group of people who are, theoretically, some of the most talented people in the area of acting and therefore, theoretically, the most likely to succeed seems like a great opportunity for future work.

Time will tell whether these and other benefits will provide enough of a positive economic effect to offest the costs of schooling.  I am fortunate that this program, should I get in, will provide a full tuition and a bit of money for living expenses.  However, I would obviously not be able to continue my day job that pays me pretty well.  While I suppose that all advanced degrees rely on a level of talent on the part of the individual getting the degree, it seems like this talent is most necessary in the success of a performing arts degree.

Have any of you had success with graduate degrees from an earnings perspective?  While I am currently finding consistant work, I can’t help but think that more training would be invaluable.  What are your thoughts?

The largest single amount I owe to any one creditor right now is (thankfully) currently a 0% balance transfer in the total amount of $7650 to Bank of America.  Unfortunately for me, the 0% runs out come June.

Fortunately, I am making enough money from my first job for both monthly expenses and making serious advances in the paying down of my other, smaller debts.  This means that I am able to set aside most of what I am making from my acting job this month to go towards that large debt that were soon come a-calling bearing interest.  I am taking that money, and sticking it into my ING account, so that it will earn just a little bit more interest in the meantime to aid the paying off efforts.  While it will probably not accrue a huge amount of interest between now and June, I can’t help but think that every little bit will help.

I recently left a comment on somebody else’s site, and received no link in the comments back to my own site!  While I understand leaving comments for comments sake, which I will likely continue to do, I don’t understand why blogger would take the links away from folks who no longer blog on blogger.  Wouldn’t anyone using their service like to see who is writing them?

I have left comments before, but I never noticed that it was doing this.  Has anyone else had problems with this?

The last couple of months have been really nice, money-wise, because I was getting paid both from my regular 9-5 job and from the acting work.  However, once the show closes on April 1, I will obviously be back down to one paycheck. 

Fortunately, about the same time as the show closes, my raise will start kicking into my normal paycheck, so that will help.

My experience working with this theatre has been wonderful, and I hope that I will be able to work there again, albeit next time without having to put so many hours into my day job.