My SOA. What a mess to get into.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2250

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 728
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 36
Council tax............................. 80
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 16
Telephone (land line)................... 17 (this is 60% personal bit)
Mobile phone............................ 17 (this is 60% personal bit)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 35 (this is 15% personal bit)
Road tax................................ 3 (this is 15% personal bit)
Car Insurance........................... 6 (this is 15% personal bit)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 3
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 110
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 18
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 45
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1398

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 111000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 116000...(728)......5.45%
Total secured debts........... 116000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Sainsbury CC...................9000......180.......5.94
Halifax CC.....................7100......71........7.9
Egg CC.........................9000......180.......6.9
Abbey overdraft................1700......0.........12.9
Abbey loan.....................4800......200.......5.7
Halifax loan...................14000.....246.......7.9
GM CC..........................2950......38........5.9
Total unsecured debts..........48550.....915.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,250
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,398
Available for debt repayments........... 852
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 915
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -63

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 111,000
Total Secured debt...................... -116,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -48,550
Net Assets.............................. -53,550

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

e.g. the number of adults & children in the household, the number

of cars included in the SOA or anything else that may be useful.

---

bargainbetty

Hello and welcome.... don't lose heart, it could be worse.

Let's see....

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 728
Management charge (leasehold property).. 36
Council tax............................. 80
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Water rates............................. 16
Telephone (land line)................... 17 (this is 60% personal bit)
Mobile phone............................ 17 (this is 60% personal bit)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5
Internet Services....................... 18 -Could you get this cheaper?
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 How many is this for? If just for you, then you might be able to save a bit batch cooking etc Check out the Old Style Board.
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 35 (this is 15% personal bit)
Road tax................................ 3 (this is 15% personal bit)
Car Insurance........................... 6 (this is 15% personal bit)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Other travel............................ 3
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15 Can you look at the NHS prescription payment cards?
Buildings insurance..................... 9
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 110 What!!! This is incredibly expensive. Do you need this level? Shop around and you could halve this.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 18
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 45 You might have to skip this for a while.
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1398

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Sainsbury CC...................9000......180.......5.94
Halifax CC.....................7100......71........7.9
Egg CC.........................9000......180.......6.9
Abbey overdraft................1700......0.........12.9
Abbey loan.....................4800......200.......5.7
Halifax loan...................14000.....246.......7.9
GM CC..........................2950......38........5.9
Total unsecured debts..........48550.....915.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,250
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,398
Available for debt repayments........... 852
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 915
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -63 You could save this on your life assurance alone!

Call all your card providers and find out if they are offering reduced rates. If not, find out if they do balance transfers at reduced rates..... then switch the money around a bit.....

Good luck x

Paulgonnabedebtfree

RE: MY SOA.
More info.

Compiling that lot took a lot out of me. A few anomalies to explain as it's not totally straightforward.
I am self-employed and my phones and vehicle are proportioned between business and personal usage. I have deducted my business usage already to produce the take home pay figure. 15% of the vehicle and 60% of the phones are the personal use shown on the SOA.
The buildings insurance and management charges are all in one so I've had a guess and split them off. The gas and electricity
are one direct debit at £60 a month. I've shown them at £30 each though the exact proportions may differ somewhat from that.
As for the debts, they aren't exact figures but they're pretty close. The GM Card will be going up from 5.9% to 12.9% around
March time. This is doable without a DMP but it will take a lot of hard
graft on my part.

There are plusses and minuses that do not readily show up
in the above figures. Self-employment does muddy the waters a bit.
POSITIVE. I have enough gap in my workload to increase my business
turnover by about £1,000 a month (approx take home pay from that would be about £620. It will take time but that (and probably more) is doable. I feel very positive about this because I know what I can achieve.

NEGATIVES. This is a big one. I haven't been able to put any money away for my
next tax bill on January 31st. My accountant is currently calculating it. The van that I bought in october 05 is being introduced into the mix for the first time so there will be a decent capital allowance for this. It was deferred from last year's books as it would have meant a minus tax bill so it was better to delay that a year (this is a perfectly legal tax avoidance measure).
NEGATIVE 2. There is a big service and an MOT due in February. If I can see off my tax bill and the van maintenance without borrowing more then that will be a good achievement to start me off.
ANOTHER POSITIVE. I am single and have no dependants. Financially that's a positive which will help me sort out this mess.
ANOTHER NEGATIVE. I come off my fixed rate mortgage next August/September. I'm with Redstone and they are not renowned for their competitive SVRs. There is no hope of me switching for some years as I am very deep into sub prime territory. About even equity at the moment (possibly negative), with over 4 times annual income borrowed on mortgage and 1.75 annual income on unsecured debts, in my early 50s and mortgaged till I'm 74. Think I can forget about a mortgage switch don't you? Haha.
I see a fair bit of room for cutting the grocery bill. Will save on toilet paper too :-) . Also, as part of my business expenditure, I rent a garage which is too small for the van I have now. It will take me a while to empty it out and there is a decent boot sale in there too. The garage is £9 a week so ditching that would give me an extra £6.40 a week take home pay (this is allowing for the fact that the fee is tax deductible@.
The big message for me from this SOA is to get out there and get a load more work in. If I REALLY put my mind to it, I may even be able to up that turnover as much as 20 grand (take home pay of about 12 grand) but that would be going some.
This all looks bad but is definitely doable (said Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid just before they jumped off the cliff into the river).

Paulgonnabedebtfree

bargainbetty wrote: »

Hello and welcome.... don't lose heart, it could be worse.

Let's see....



Call all your card providers and find out if they are offering reduced rates. If not, find out if they do balance transfers at reduced rates..... then switch the money around a bit.....

Good luck x

Thank you for the positive message Betty.
I will take your points one at a time.
INTERNET.
Firstly the internet charge.
Yes, I think I could get it cheaper but, even though I'm not too far from the exchange, the copper wire around here is poor. I had a very flakey service through it several years ago. This means that to have a reasonably reliable service, it really ought to come in on the fibre optic cable. This means that it needs to be Virginmedia. I am a captive audience so to speak. I do have a BT telephone line and enquired what sort of deal VM would do if I switched the phone to them - bearing in mind that I would have all three services from them (albeit a VERY basic TV package. I could have saved a bit on the rental but would have lost out by no longer being able to use my 18866 override service so it looked like swings and roundabouts really.
GROCERIES.
I put £100 but know I can do it for a LOT less. In November I have kept a spreadsheet and I did it for £85 - and out of that £85 I have stockpiled some long shelf life products that were on offer. I put £100 as I wanted to be sure I wasn't under. I live on my own.
MEDICAL.
No NHS card needed. That figure was for two dentalk checkups and a bit of work, a pair of driving specs per year (average), and an occasional prescription. I am actually in very good health.
LIFE INSURANCE.
Yes, I am well aware of this and will be reviewing it in the coming weeks. This is actually for a fair size level term policy and two pretty small ones. I prefer to keep the details private but suffice to say a medical examination that I underwent when I got the insurance revealed a potentially life threatening liver disease. In addition to that, I had a rather flowery medical history. These days I am totally well but insurance companies don't like people like me. As I have no dependants, I have wondered whether it is worth me keeping this on. The problem being that there is critical illness cover bundled in with much of it. I need to consider carefully what to do about this stuff because if I ditch the cover, there is a very big risk that I would not be able to get alternative cover. I will be looking at the policies' details closely in the coming weeks and I think I will need an insurance expert (with no agenda) to translate for me. I have more pressing issues at the moment though.
HOLIDAY.
I will probably do something much cheaper this year. That was the cost of two breaks last year. However, the biggest cost for me in having a holiday is no pay (self-employed).

Renovatio

Hi,

use this calculator to structure your unsecured debt repayments:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

It will optimise the debt payments.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

bargainbetty wrote: »

Hello and welcome.... don't lose heart, it could be worse.

Let's see....



Call all your card providers and find out if they are offering reduced rates. If not, find out if they do balance transfers at reduced rates..... then switch the money around a bit.....

Good luck x

Oh yes. Forgot ther card rates. I think I've got some OK deals there. I never mentioned that, apart from GM Card, all those deals are LOB. I have got a 0% offer from MBNA but as I have some, as yet, unquantifiable outlays coming up for tax and van, I am unwilling to take the risk of being unable to pay it off in the promotion period. They had me on 30% plus before (but only a tiny balance I'm delighted to say).

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Renovatio wrote: »

Hi,

use this calculator to structure your unsecured debt repayments:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

It will optimise the debt payments.

That was funny. It reckoned that if I snowball correctly, I will be debt free in March 2092 .
I would be delighted to live that long.
It would make 135 years of age.

Realistically, I need to go through to late February just paying minimum payments as I have a tax bill and major service coming up on my van. From March I will be able to start throwing more money at the debts. I know the order to do it anyway. Overdraft first, the GMCard (possibly transfer some if I can repay within the any other promotional rate), then start with the higher APRs on the other cards. I badly need to up my income though and from next weekend will start putting my business out there again. Bit busy this weekend with other stuff to prepare the ground and have some commercial contracts to clean.

bargainbetty

All fair points... and I'm sorry to hear about the liver condition.

I know being self-employed makes a big difference on life assurance.... it's still worth checking. Maybe you could look at having just critical illness cover, and read those smaller print bits well.... I cancelled mine when I worked out I would almost need to contract leprosy to get paid out....

Paulgonnabedebtfree

bargainbetty wrote: »

All fair points... and I'm sorry to hear about the liver condition.

I know being self-employed makes a big difference on life assurance.... it's still worth checking. Maybe you could look at having just critical illness cover, and read those smaller print bits well.... I cancelled mine when I worked out I would almost need to contract leprosy to get paid out....

Thank you for your good wishes Betty.
The liver is fine. The condition that caused the problem was totally eradicated. Livers are excellent at regenerating themselves. Unfortunately, it was the medicine that cost me six months work and a depleted business at the end of the treatment. Some medicines are severely debilitating. It was worth doing though as my life probably would have been shortened without it. Ironically, it was an insurance medical that revealed the previously undiagnosed problem.
Going through that godawful treatment was what tipped me over financially. I was already in a fair bit of debt but managing it OK. But six months off work proved to be the tipping point. I lost customers while I was ill (and retained quite a few too) and it took me quite a while to rebuild my business and my energy levels.
As far as money goes, the worst that can happen is bankruptcy and I go rent somewhere. It's possible that they wouldn't even take my van off me as an essential work tool but I'm not sure about that. However, I am a proud man and I've never welched on a debt in my life. I don't intend to this time either if it's humanly possible.