Understanding Consumer Proposals

The Consumer Proposal provides you with protection from your creditors while in these programs (no garnish).  This program will protect all of your assets (house, mortgage renewal, vehicles, personal and household items, etc.). To help to explain and understand consumer proposals, credit counseling and bankruptcy, I will be sharing my own personal ongoing experience. This is a more detailed version of my earlier post - Getting Debt Off My Back.
When it became apparent back in March of this year that I could no longer keep my head above water when it came to my financial situation. A drastic drop in wage ($27/hr + $125/day living allowance to $12.44/hr) just couldn't pay the bills - I was almost $50,000 in debt. For 6 months I worked 2 jobs ( approx 60-65 hrs/wk)  but health-wise and a financial dispute with one employer ended that in February and one month after that I had to sit down and force myself to look at my options. I had already lost my truck last year and was worried about my home, and credit card companies taking me to court - the harassing phone calls were already coming in.
Through my Facebook feed an advertisement for debt relief came up and I looked into I clicked on it and read the testimonials and how they could help me. They were advertising consumer proposals, a legal procedure that can relieve up to 80% of one's debt. One of the reviews specified a particular agent at the company of Debt Relief Canada. I contacted Laura and she explained all of the options to me: Consumer proposal, bankruptcy and credit counseling.
Laura felt the best option for me was a consumer proposal. I qualified as I owed more than $10,000. She felt this was the best option as it requires less of a monthly payment than credit counseling and bankruptcy payments often shift from month to month. The following figures is what I would pay per month per option as provided to me by Laura.
Option #1: Consumer Proposal - Federal Government Program
Unsecured debts = $49,272

• Debts consolidated to $15,600 (includes $600 admin fee)
• Interest reduced to 0% Interest
  Repayment schedule set at $250 for 60 months (you can pay this off sooner).

We were able to get it down to $200 per month

• Option #2: Debt Management Plan/Credit Counseling
  Unsecured debts = $47,277 (excludes income tax)
  Debts consolidated to $52,200 (includes the non-profit agency 10% admin fee of $4,728.
• Interest reduced to 0%
• Repayment schedule set at $870 for 60 months.

Option #3: Bankruptcy (fyi, not discussed in detail, not recommended)
Cost of Bankruptcy is based on your net income and value of your assets
Based on your current net income and asset value you would  pay $225 for 9 months plus approximately. If your income increases, the cost of bankruptcy will increase and continue for 21 months.

Note:  Prior to deciding to proceed with a bankruptcy, I suggest you reach out to a real estate agent and request a letter of opinion or free market analysis.  This will give you the current approximate value of your home.'

 A Consumer Proposal and the Debt Management Plan is removed from your credit history 3 years after you've paid in full (8 years in total, unless you pay off sooner).  A  Bankruptcy is removed from your credit history 7 years after you've been discharged (8 years in total).

So I decided on a consumer proposal and this is the list of things I needed to send her to get the process rolling and my cost to me.

Birth Certificate or Passport or Canadian Citizenship or Landed Immigrant Papers (one)
·         Driver’s License
·         Two Recent Pay Statements
·         2016 Income Tax Notice of Assessment (or summary page, if the NOA hasn't yet been received)
·         Statement of Accounts, Invoices, Bills, Loan Agreements, Security Documents (Choice MC, AmEx, TD Visa, RBC Visa, Home Hardware, RBC Line of Credit & RBC Bank Account)
·         “Letter of Opinion” or "Free Market Analysis" – Realtor
·         Current Mortgage Balance Statement and Mortgage Penalty (if applicable)

·         Property Tax Bill
·         F350 Registration, Insurance & Loan Balance Statement (or original loan document)

Note* You may be required to send in more. It all depends on individual situations.

Cost of Program - $600.00 as follows:
1st meeting – Paperwork started - deposit of $300 is due (1/2 admin fee)
2nd meeting – Court officer approval - deposit of $300 is due (1/2 admin fee)
3rd meeting – Signing appointment - 1st proposal payment of $250 (or less), is due

I sent in all the paperwork as required and a week later I was informed that my signing appointment date had been set for May 29th . I initially called Laura on April 3 by phone. It took almost 2 months to get to the signing appointment but that is part my fault. It took me about 3 weeks or so to get a real estate agent to come out and view my home and then another week to get me a letter of opinion to me. In actuality the process is much quicker if you get everything needed right away.

When I arrived at my appointment at Abakhan and Associates, a licensed solvency trustees, and  I was given a thorough explanation of both consumer proposals and bankruptcies. I was also informed that I must attend 2 financial advisement appointments as part of the program.

I signed some papers giving Abakhan power to oversee my proposal which meant submitting paperwork into court.  The $200/per month must be in my account on due date. A missed payment may be costly and two will pose risk on your proposal validity.

I hope my experience will help you to decide what is right for you if you are facing financial hardship.

Are you in a similar situation? - comment below and continue the conversation!

Cheers, Sue!

Why I'm A Blogger

Everyone blogs for different reasons and I am of no exception. This led me to research blogging, where posts are much shorter than novels :) And I am having quite a bit a fun with it, although the technical side of things can be quite frustrating. I have even purchased my own domain, https://keepingupwithsue.com where I plan on having more in-depth posts.

Everyone has something to say and everyone has a different way of saying it. I chose to blog and here are my top reasons for doing so:

#1 - I love the written word and like many others often get my thoughts down better on paper versus verbally.

#2 - I always wanted to write, attempted several novel ideas, but found I just don't have the attention span it takes to write a novel, although I am still attempting (my latest attempt is about a Canadian who wins a U.S. mega jackpot).

#3 - I have something to say. In my 57, almost 58 years of living, I have learnt a thing or two and want to share my experiences.

#4 - Keeps me connected. My work, including the time it takes to get to and from work, takes up to 13-14 hrs a day so I often don't have time for social stuff. Blogging gives me that.

#5 - I hope to eventually supplement my income to save for retirement. I will be perfectly honest - I hope, with increased popularity, 'Keeping Up With Sue' will generate advertisement income. I will do so with integrity and hard work.

Well there you have it. A short but sweet little post on why I am a blogger.
Are you a blogger? Share your experiences by commenting below and start a converation!

Cheers, Sue

 

  

My Top Five Public Transit Pet Peeves

I ride public transit almost on a daily basis, spending a total of just over 2 hours and it never ceases to amaze me, and piss me off when I see the following pet peeves of mine:
#1 - Passengers taking up a seat with a backpack, bags, etc. Really?!? People's butts pay for those seats - not bags, groceries, purses.

2 seats taken up by carts and backpacks while the bus was standing room only

#2 - Young people not giving up their seat for someone much older. To me that is just a show of disrespect. I once had a man offer his seat to me. I had hopped onto the bus in downtown Victoria, going to Sooke, which is about an hour ride away. I knew this man and knew he also was going to Sooke. He is about 20 years older than I am. I refused saying I would be fine standing and he replied, "All the way to Sooke." During this entire exchange not one of the four young men seated by me offered their seat. How sad is that?

#3 - People with backpacks standing who forget they have about a foot and a half added to their back who constantly are hitting others with it.  I can't tell you how many times I have been seated in an aisle seat and have been smacked with a pack back. Why can't they just put it on the ground between their feet or hold it, not rocket science to me.

#4 - People putting their feet up on seats. Again, my butt paid for that seat, not someones feet, Besides do they put their dirty footwear on their own furniture? If not, why on the bus? This is simple manners.

#5 - Using the floor as a garbage. I have seen coffee cups, energy drink cans, half-eaten ice cream containers and it is disgusting. Every bus-stop has a garbage. People simply need to hold their garbage until they get off the bus and dispose it in the garbage can. Easy, peasy if you ask me.

So there you have it - my rant of the week, as well as my top five public transit pet peeves.
Do you have any? Comment below and start the conversation!

Cheers, Sue

My Top Reasons For Quitting Smoking

My journey into becoming a non tobacco smoker, after smoking a pack-a-day for nearly 40 years, began with these reasons.

Reason #1 - So I don't have to get up multiple times at night to go pee.
That's right, smoking increases your bladder activity, especially at night. I found this out when I went to a urologist years ago because of frequent urination and when he discovered I was a smoker he advised me that when I quit smoking, my frequent night trips to the bathroom would stop. He was right - since decreasing my smoking to almost nil for the past 68 days, I no longer get up in the middle of the night and am experiencing solid 7-8 hour sleeps. I cannot tell you the last time that happened.

Reason #2 - Wrinkles - I do not want anymore wrinkles, please and thanks!
Of course smoking causes wrinkles. It is probably the #1 reason! It also decreases Vitamin C in our bodies, a vital component to healthy skin. Smoking dries the skin, another cause of the dreaded wrinkle, especially the spider lines around my mouth and gives it a yellowish tinge - thanks, nicotine. Since my drastic reduction in smoking I have already seeing an improvement in the brightness of my skin.

Reason #3 - To be able to breathe again when climbing the hill.
I live on quite an incline of a hill and when I was regularly smoking I could barely make the trek without stopping to catch my breath and I would audibly wheeze every time. Now, although it is still quite the climb, I no longer wheeze or feel the need to stop. I know it will get easier the longer I refrain from smoking.

Reason #4 - The money I am saving.
As stated in a previous post I have saved around $700.00  from July to first week of September. A pack of smokes is not cheap - they range from $11 to $15/pack. Not hard to figure out the math. So, buying the cheapest as I did, it was costing me 333 dollars a month to smoke - a lot of moula. Now that money is going towards food and savings.

Reason #5 - To enjoy my food and gain weight.
Smoking decreases the appetite and I can attest to that. There was once upon a time that I would choose a smoke over a meal. My weight often plummeted to below 95 pounds. Since ceasing smoking, I am now a healthy 106 pounds(I am very small framed) and I love tasting my food again!

Reason #7 - It doesn't look pretty with a cigarette dangling from my mouth and I stunk.
I know that's two reasons but they kind of go together. Watching other people smoke made me realize just how unattractive that looks and, whew, the smell- did I really smell like that? Yuck!

Well that's the main reasons although there are quite a few more. They are my reminders and help me get through some really tough cravings

What's your reasons on quitting? Comment below and start a conversation!

Cheers, Sue 

 

Getting Debt Off My Back

The past two years have been one of the hardest periods as far as my finances go. For five years I had a job where I was bringing home between $6000 - $8000/per month working in the Alberta oilfields. Then 2015 happened and oil prices plummeted to record lows and hundreds of workers were laid off. Two years later many are still unemployed in their craft, for me it was running heavy equipment, and I am now working for less than quarter than what I was bringing in before. In order for me to even think of getting back into civil construction I would need to upgrade and get certain tickets that have expired and the cost of getting those tickets would be around a thousand dollars - money I just don't have, at this time.

I pretty much ended up losing just about everything except, thank God, my home. I lost my pick-up truck and my good credit rating, which is unfortunate. I finally admitted I needed help a couple of months ago and got in touch with Debt Relief Canada, who helped me come up with a consumer proposal so I wouldn't lose my home. The lady I dealt with was great; she was compassionate to my situation and did not judge me or make me feel incompetent. To my relief, my proposal was accepted by the majority of my debtors, which ultimately cleared me from about 80% of my debt. I paid an initial fee of $600.00 for the program and my proposal payments are $200.00/mth for 60 months - no interest.

I would highly recommend to anyone who may be in a financial bind to at least check into the program to see if it is right for you. I believe the only qualification one must have, is that their debt load is higher than $10,000.

One of the other things I did to save myself a whole lot of money was to quit smoking. It is a very hard thing to do and I am still fighting but overall for the past 2 months I have had less than 5 smokes and all of them have been after the 2 month mark.  I quit on July3/2017 and had no puffs until Sept 4/2017. Yes, I am still kicking myself in the butt for even having those three. But it is just a stumble - not a fall. I enjoyed putting away the money I have saved to blow it by becoming a pack a day smoker again. I will not let that happen as I simply cannot afford it - either health-wise or financially. Besides, as of today I have saved approximately $700.00. A nice chunk of change.

It wasn't easy to admit I needed help but I am very glad I put pride aside and asked for some. My stress level has been reduced by an immeasurable amount and if truth be told I think it takes more strength to get help, than it is to ignore the problem, and the phone calls, hoping it will go all go away - it won't, by the way.


Start a conversation by commenting below and don't forget to follow😃😃
Cheers, Sue!

No More Heat Please And Buy A Friggin Ashtray

Holy crap. I actually called in sick today and I can't remember the last time I have done that. But somehow coughing in people's faces as I greet them would not be the ideal situation for anyone. I don't know when the cough is coming, it just comes and its a tad embarrassing. My throat constantly tickles and I am always clearing it; plus my eyes are watering and red as a tomato. I think also being only a recent quitter of the cigarette, isn't helping my cause.Perhaps if I worked in a office, alone, that would be one thing and I could get away with going to work, but working in such a public place as I do, I just would feel uncomfortable. Even yesterday I had customers asking if I was feeling all right.

We all woke up to this haze yesterday morning, September 5. The first day of school for many kids and my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! Not only is the smoke making it hard for me to breathe it also is bringing a certain mugginess to the area. Mind you, probably would have been hotter if there had been no haze.

As I am writing this now, and looking out my window in my office that faces the east, the sun is a brilliant orange. You can see a bit of it on the right in the picture below.

I tried to capture it in pictures but its hard for me - not an expert photographer yet. But it's all due to the smoke coming from the many fires in the burning in the interior.

We already broke a record for the longest continuous dry spell - not sure how many days its been now - lost count at 54 and 53 was the previous record. With all the fires burning on the mainland we desperately need rain. I personally have been doing the rain dance for the past month to no avail but I will keep trying. Our firefighters need it, the people evacuated from their homes need it and I need it. This is B.C.'s worst fire season on record. Last I heard they are calling for rain tomorrow - my official day off this week. So hoping I will be good to go come Friday.

another view of orange sun from back yard

B.C. Forests have asked the public to stay out of the back-country during this heat spell to prevent human caused fires and concentrate on the natural caused ones. Somehow though it would not surprise me to learn that some idiot threw caution to the wind and ignored the request, and accidentally caused a fire although there have been some fires recently started on purpose and were caught on video).

And then you have those other morns who think that, get this, that if vehicles don't come with an ashtray, as they don't, then it is acceptable to use the roads, sidewalks, gardens, etc, as their personal ashtrays. Hats off to the RCMP officer who ticketed the guy in Langford who threw out a lit cigarette from the vehicle he was in and who complained very loudly of the $525 fine. I would have thrown him the $2000 littering fine if it were up to me. I mean, seriously people??? Do we still all have the mentality that it 'won't happen to me' or 'it won't happen here'? Like really?!?! I don't know how many times this year and last I had to go outside at work to put out a smouldering fire because some nut tossed their lit cigarette in the bark mulch near the entrance to the building. It takes me several buckets of water to put out the smoke. I shudder to think someone doing this late at night where there is no one to see the smoke.

Today I am going to stay in the house, get some serious housework done and drink plenty of fluids to keep my throat lubricated. I might even have to put drops in my eyes and I NEVER have to put drops in my eyes. Hell, I don't even know if I have any. Off to search for one.

Cheers! and don't forget to follow🙋🙋

Happy Labour Day!!

There seems something right about putting out my very first post on Labour Day.
I work in the service industry and worked the entire holiday weekend. And what a stickin' hot weekend it was. The pic below was taken at 4pm this afternoon in the shade. That is correct, 30 C. There is a reason I feel like I am melting. 

taken outside back door on deck

I am so not a heat person. I tend to lose weight, which I cannot afford to do and I can't sleep because I need the weight of blankets to fall asleep; I cannot fall asleep with a sheet or, even worse, nothing. So yeah, I normally do not fare too well during a heat wave. I am thankful that I work in an air-conditioned workplace - helps somewhat. I know I may not make some friends when I say, please fall and winter hurry up!

As forementioned I did work all three days of the Labour Day Weekend but I did find time during a split shift on Sunday to go shopping for a new purse. I went to the Bay Centre, (still getting used to this, as before I moved away it was the Eaton's Centre) and walked by a new shoe store, aptly named The Shoe Store, immediately spotting a purse that caught my eye. It was red, had plenty of different pockets. It isn't leather, rather it its polyutherane but not all of us can afford leather, I being one of those hence the relatively inexpensive price of $89 plus they had 25% off. At the check-out counter, after taxes, I handed over just under $67.

Although I really loved the look what make me make the purchase was 1) I loved the lining and all of the compartments. There is three on one side, another one on the back and then 3 main ones.  But there was a second reason and that was the lady who sold it to me. She was nice and down-to-earth and genuinely happy I was there. We chatted a bit about her grand opening and she said she was busier than she thought she would be. Hats off to her and good luck!

Now talking of hats, I recently became interested in growing my somewhat small collection. According to co-workers, family (my mom gave me the hat that started it all) and even strangers, I look good in a hat. So on the start of the long weekend, after my shift ended, I went in search of hats and found two. One, a fedora, making the total amount of fedora's I own 2 and I paper cowboy hat.

the hat that started it all - free

my 2nd fedora

material - 100% paper

I was a bit surprised to see one manufactured out of paper and found it at Field's. I haven't shopped there in a coon's age as most of their clothing doesn't fit me. The fedora I found in a trading post in China Town as I was getting my fruit and veggies (I shop only China Town when in search of fresh fruit and veggies. Again, it comes down to good prices). Besides we have the oldest China Town in the country and for that alone it is worth saving(unfortunately, over the years, due to development, our China Town has been shrinking).
So my hat collection now stands at 6, not counting my numerous ball caps, and I do suspect it will continue to grow. It is probably one of my favourite reasons for living on the westcoast - hats are in!

Phew! the first official post is in the books. Thanks for reading, don't forget to post a comment and follow.
Til next post, Sue