After completing my birthday reward journey, I collected over $100 worth of free goodies. The highest value items were from Denny’s ($14.59) and Freshii ($13.49). The lowest value item was the cookie from Subway ($1.35).
A first-time bankruptcy stays on your credit report for 6 to 7 years, but you can start rebuilding your credit much sooner than that. The Canadians I spoke to got secured loans or credit cards with low limits and rebuilt within a few years.
Thomas used the Capital One Guaranteed Secured Mastercard with a $300 limit while still in active bankruptcy. T. Morrison opened a GIC-secured credit card through Meridian immediately after discharge. And Robert Jenkins got the Capital One after discharge.
B lenders accept credit scores as low as 500. But you’ll likely need to make at least a 20% down payment, and your housing costs plus debt payments should not be more than 50% of your income.
Shelby turned $45,000 of debt into a $250 monthly payment she could actually afford. Christopher reduced a $20,100 balance down to about $7,000. Chris finally escaped the cycle of moving money around while interest kept growing.
I paid $30 to borrow $100 for 15 days, which works out to a 30% borrowing cost over just two weeks. If you stretched that same cost over an entire year, the equivalent annual interest rate would be roughly 730%!!
If you chose the 20-year payment option, you would end up paying almost $30,000 in interest, and over $45,000 (for a $16,000 hot tub) by the time the loan was paid off.
Once you know what you want to sell, you go after locations. A good location comes down to two things: foot traffic and hours of operation.
