The Masquerade Is Over

Saturday, February 28, 2009

February 24, Tuesday, 1:30pm. I’ve got to remember this date because this day, the masquerade is over.

I’ve given to the bank what they are after me, though it is not the full payment of my obligations, it is enough for them give me leniency by not pursuing the matter through legal avenues. Enough for me to take a step back and ask myself what I have done on my finances.

All the while I have been confident that I would be able to manage my finances smoothly. And that I would be able to pay my various financial obligations because I have the income.

Our culture has been a factor to my current predicament. OFW’s like me are almost always the “Bank” of our relatives left back home. The only difference is that you need to deposit in the bank to withdraw money, but in my case, the typical OFW, they only withdraw from you. In the bank you’ve got to pay your loans, but to a typical OFW, loans taken from him is not paid.

Our culture to help our relatives in need sometimes gets out of hand. To the point of providing them not only their needs but also their wants. The tendency to dig deep into your pockets when they cry for help is but normal. And when your pockets cannot withstand the constant dipping of your callus hands, you will turn to your credit cards, and then you start making loans just to give “loans”. Unconsciously, I am stepping into a quicksand of financial troubles.

Anyways, what’s done is done and I have no regrets whatever help I am able to extend to my relatives. The most important thing now is to pick-up the pieces and figure out how to get out from this quicksand. And the masquerade of “can afford” needs to be stopped and face the reality of “can’t afford” is the only way to handle this situation head-on.

My bank’s harassment has given me the wake-up call and made me realize how I messed up with my finances. I have decided to eliminate all my bad debts and leave all these financial stress behind me. I will not be again into such situation I was, begging the bank not to escalate my issues to legal means.

And to start building my road map to freedom from debt, I listed all our “debt instruments” and found out that we have 8 credit cards, 2 overdrafts, 3 personal loans with bank and 3 personal loans. That’s easy to calculate with all those single digits, but wait until I told you that all these are maxed-out. Then you will get overwhelmed with the figures.

Taking into account that all our credit cards are maxed-out, I realized that I am in debts of around Php 3,100,000.00… Humongous… Yes, I am a millionaire in debts. Ironically, this is what I earned during my 14 years of struggles abroad. The fruits of my sacrifices of being away from my loved ones. And technically, I have a negative networth. That means I owe everything I have, even the food I eat. Having said that, I blame no one but myself. This got to end.

Me and my wife have discussed my financial issues and have set our goal, which is the first step. As the famous adage says, “A journey starts with a small step”. Huge and difficult it may seem, I have no plans to run away from my debts. I will settle all these as long as it may take.

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