My thoughts seem so enormous, my perspectives so all inclusive at five a.m. Crawling out of my cranium and shooting from my eyes all over the dark cityscape like tendrils of empathy and genius tapping the soul of dawn. Before dawn. Quick like that. And sensitive. But firm and illuminating in a mysterious way. Mysterious to me because I don't really know what the hell but I'm thinking hard and inseminating the world around me with my consciousness.
My credit card debt began with the habit of living beyond my means on a regular basis, something that was encouraged by my decades in the fine dining industry. When you work around exciting ingredients and get creative with them daily, tasting wine to compliment your endeavors, you tend to want to eat and drink well when you're away from the job. Completely forgotten is the fact that the people that patronize your establishment make ten times more money than you do. Add to that your insistence on this pastime of making paintings and then hanging them somewhere for others to see.
Watercolors in particular require backing, matting, glass and something that holds it all together. My choice: a nice wood frame. Framing my paintings to exhibit was a form of gambling on myself and the next show. One credit card topped off I was soon searching the mail for one of those offers of a low low interest rate so I could transfer my already significant balance over to a new lender. Smart. Now I have two credit cards.
I cooked full time, painted full time and lived life in between like I had a right to. I would fantasize that success was right around the corner and that someone could purchase all of my paintings at my next show. I would pay off my credit in one sweeping motion and sit back savoring the good life.
Sixteen years later I'm budgeting hard for the first time in my life, trying to erase a mountain of debt. Right now, after a long day at work, I'm relaxing with a refreshing cup of hot tea. Yeah. One hundred bags for six bucks. I can lift and drink and pour it down my throat. I can sit and hold it in my hand. Hell, I can get a refill.
Cheers.
Bankruptcy is the poor man's bailout. I too can't handle credit cards and I'm completing this decade's Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. As soon as you start the process you stop paying your creditors but I'm a poor poet so you may not qualify for a Chapter 7 but you could still do a bankruptcy that would reduce your debt repayment considerably. A lot of what you owe is interest and if you stopped paying them you could also wait for them to sue you and then renegotiate a settlement with the ones that do sue(not all will.) Also litigation takes time and they will offer settlements, usually, for one half of what you owe. At the very least you should renegotiate with your Credit Cards as you can usually get them to reduce the amount you repay although they'll insist on suspending your use of them while you repay.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, within a year after my Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in 2002 I had new Credit Cards that I'm now going bankrupt on. I'm poor because I don't know how to save, handle credit or invest. Some people are just plain lousy at capitalism and I'm one of them. But then I've lived a stress free happy go lucky life because I've never had enough to worry about.
Good luck and I love your painting of the nude.
Rusty Wilson
Thanks for the personal insight, suggestions and taking the time to take a look around. I've read many of your posts on MM's column.
Deletetea is the bomb yo!
ReplyDeletealso, very relate-able material, especially for a fellow artist. nobody's scrambling to credit my checkings account for a look at my sophomoric poetry/prose. doesn't mean i'm going to stop creating though. but at 34 years of age i am finally waking up to the utter importance of financial responsibility
Tea is key.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe.