The Canon 7D was starting to collect dust. The poor thing hasn’t been to a real estate shoot since 2011. When there’s no work, the SLR gets no play. It’s a bit of a beast, and rather unwieldily to use for everyday snapshots.
But last week, since I didn’t have to walk more than a few steps out my front door to see this, the 7D had the pleasure of some fresh air, if only for a frame or two. ☼
This week I did something incredible.
I was so excited. I skyped Kirk at work. I called my parents. I did a little dance in my kitchen.
I made an extra payment of $500 on the principle of my student loans.
Not that exciting, you think? Well, let me tell you: on the contrary, this is momentous. This is my first step towards getting out of debt.
Four years at Michigan State University cost me over $100,000. Even after several scholarships, working an on-campus job, Mom’s & Dad’s contribution of a few dozen grand, and planning my classes so I’d have exactly the 120 credit minimum required for my BA, I was still left with $55,000 in student loans.
Almost all us have some kind of debt: a mortgage, a car payment, credit cards. Student loans, however, are a strange breed of financial obligation. The monthly payments don’t go towards something you can touch. There isn’t a house you can walk into or a car parked in the driveway. There isn’t a home gym or a new wardrobe or whatever else we go into credit card debt for. The only thing to show for thousands of dollars of student debt is a single sheet of paper. That paper that’s supposed to get you the job to pay off the debt. (It’s funny: we don’t even bring that piece of paper to the interview. My piece of paper? It’s in my old dresser at my parents’ house.)
Paying back my student loans feels like pouring money into a black hole. Sure, technically, I’m getting myself out of debt. But the debt is so enormous it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Let’s put paying off my student debt into more tangible terms.
I’m going to drive to the Apple Store and buy an iPad. Oooh! So excited! I get to play Cut the Rope on a big screen! Then, on my way home, I must stop on the side of the road. Wait, but why? I open the car door and drop the iPad on the curb.
Are you kidding?! You just threw away a brand new iPad!
I know. It’s awful.
I “throw away” an iPad every month.
What a downer. What’s worse, though, is thinking about the total amount that I still owe. On several occasions I’ve thought myself into mini depression-attacks over my student debt. I don’t like to log into my accounts and see the balances. My payments are auto-debited, so I’ve tried to avoid thinking about it altogether.
Early last fall, my payment suddenly dropped from $620 to $540. At first I was excited: my payments were smaller! After mulling it over, however, I decided to find out why. I called up Citibank, the administrator of my private loans.
I found out that my payments had been automatically adjusted because of a recent drop in interest rates. Adjusted how, I asked? To fit the duration of the loan. And remind me, what exactly is the duration of the loan?
18 years.
I choked on my coffee and fell off my chair. Eighteen years? That’s ungodly long.
Eternity long.
I knew it would take some time to pay off my loans. And I’ve always thought, as soon as I have the money, I’d pay them off as fast as possible. As soon as I have the money. Unfortunately for money, I don’t like it. I don’t want a 9-5 job to earn it nor do I care to work myself into the ground for it. Unfortunately for me, Citibank doesn’t accept payment in the form of homemade cookies, heart-to-heart talks or free skateboard tows with my bike.
What to do? It’s but a simple equation. More money in + less money out = savings. The last few years I’ve traveled and moved around so much that I’ve made it impossible to save any money. I’ve changed jobs and income streams more than many people do in a lifetime. To make paying off my loans a priority, I needed to stay put and put in the hours.
In January, I decided against traveling to Chicago with Kirk. I would have loved to go – but the $300 ticket and the amount of time I would have had to take off work just didn’t make it worth it. (And, having just spent two weeks in Europe in October and one week in Wisconsin in January, I need to cool it with the jet-setting.)
For me, travel has always taken precedence over everything else. At some point, however, I need to start sacrificing traveling now for traveling (and everything else) I want to do in the future.
Already I’m seeing positive results. In the last two months, I’ve been able to create a small rainy day fund. I’m no longer scrambling each month to make sure my checking account balance is high enough before my loan payments auto-debit. And, I have extra money left to pay down the principal of my loans. I’m on track to pay off my smallest loan in April. When I do, my total monthly loan payment will drop by $50, which will allow me to pay down the principal on the rest of my loans even faster.
I’m starting to see the light. And light coming from a black hole is pretty amazing. ☼
Part one of Kirk and my foray into the export business has been a success! We bought and shipped a motorcycle from the US to Costa Rica.
(If you haven’t yet, check out part one of this story.)
The YZ450f arrived in San Jose last week in one piece. Considering we declined shipping insurance, this was extremely good news. Especially after a casual search online for Maersk – the shipping company that was responsible for transporting our motorcycle on a 10-day voyage over the Pacific – returned this result:
And this:
And these:
And all of these:
OK, I went a little overboard with those last ones (disclaimer: not all of these ships are Maersk’s), but still. Yikes.
Back to the good news: “our” ship completed its voyage, and the motorcycle was delivered without a scratch. It was now sitting in a customs yard in San Jose waiting for Natalia and David to pick it up.
But, we had yet to find out:
Will we make money or lose money? Two things still need to happen:
Let’s run through the numbers.
Our hope was a net profit of $1000-$2000. Natalia, David, Kirk and I all agreed at the start that we’d split the profit (or the loss) 50/50. That would mean $500-$1000 for each couple. Once we worked out a system, it wouldn’t be a bad return for a few days’ work.
So far, the motorcycle and expenses (gas for Kyle’s truck, tie-down straps and swapping out the paddle tire) totaled about $2000. In November, Miguel of North Atlantic shipping had quoted us $375 to ship the bike to Costa Rica.
$2375. Bam. OK, we still need to know the – DUN DUN DUN DUNNNN! – import tax. Somewhere along the line, we all got it in our heads that the import tax might be only a few hundred dollars. I don’t know where that came from, because 40% is the typical amount. (Again, 40% of what number? We had no idea.) Realistically, at the very least it would be $480 (that’s 40% of our $1200 declared US customs value). If this proved true, our net profit would turn out as predicted: $1000-$2000.
We were
SO WRONG.
On Friday, January 13th (go figure), Natalia told me via Skype that she had just talked with the customs office:
FUU…DGE.
Weeell, that’s awesome. Our expense sheet now tallied…
…nearly $3900. With a sale price of $4500, that leaves us with a teeny profit of…
$600.
Split 50/50.
Ugh.
It could be worse. We could have lost money. Either way, it looks like our motorcycle export endeavor has come to an end. What can we say? We tried. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides, in between all the uncertainty and the craziness, we learned a few things, and had fun doing it too.
Right now, Natalia and David have the bike listed on crmotos.com for $4700.
Let’s hope it sells. Fingers crossed. ☼
“Are you looking for humans?”
There’s a faint gleam in his eye. He looks wily.
It’s January. The post-holiday doldrums. Outside the restaurant, I’m standing next to the display menu trying with zero effort to entice people to have lunch. It’s 1 p.m. and the place is empty.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” I ask.
I can’t tell if this guy regularily sleeps on park benches or if he’s one of those rich dudes who dresses like a bum because he doesn’t have a single person left to impress on the planet.
“I said, are you looking for humans to eat?” He eyes me.
Uh…
nervous laugh…
“I suppose so… I’d say anyone who’s hungry.”
“Mhmm,” he responds, strolling away down the sidewalk. ☼