Our episode of Maxed Out aired yesterday at 8:00 and 11:00 (if you missed it, you can watch it after the Oscars at 11:30 on Sunday) and, ego centrists we are, we watched them both. Adrienne had been fretting about the show, primarily because she worried about being non-photogenic, but she looked beautiful. Don't know what was up with my hair though, and is my smile really that askew?
The show, for the many hours we put into it, moved along at a tremendously fast clip. I guess when you have days of memories, distilling it down to a 22-minute retrospective leaves a lot (in some cases thankfully) lost in that mix, like the kerfuffle between myself and Alison over selling the comics collection in full was pared back to Alison stating, "It's all about making choices" and me responding "Exactly."
The show, for the many hours we put into it, moved along at a tremendously fast clip. I guess when you have days of memories, distilling it down to a 22-minute retrospective leaves a lot (in some cases thankfully) lost in that mix, like the kerfuffle between myself and Alison over selling the comics collection in full was pared back to Alison stating, "It's all about making choices" and me responding "Exactly."
I know Adrienne's feeling a little reserved about having discussed her past relationship on TV, however briefly and tokenized it was, and the editing seemed to glom onto it as a sizeable plot point, and I can't say I blame them, as it is a pretty meaty chunk of drama, and to be honest the only tangible hesitation she had about our relationship. But even still, it wasn't that much of a hesitation (obviously, since she still married me) and approaching the show was another means pro-actively dealing with it (and it's being dealt with). The archives here at BNY note that I was already focussed on paying of debt, and the show just helped me figure out how to do it.
The editing on the show was really quick, and during the 8:00 viewing, Aden and I mostly just commented to ourselves over the show. The bulk of my comments were cracking wise at my "performance" moments or my one-liners, or saying "hey look, it's us/Kel/Lucy/George!" when we'd come back from commercial break or someone we know showed up on show, like it was some great surprise. We actually listened during the 11:00 viewing, and soaked it in. It's still pretty difficult for us to detach ourselves from the show, since we lived it for two months, so we really can't tell whether the message we wanted to get out there actually got out there and whether it'll be as useful as we'd hoped it would be for others (I mean, obviously it was useful for us).
I've been getting feedback from friends today about it, some who have said the editing made me out to look very irresponsible. If it did I didn't notice, but then I was prepared already for that contingent, since a) it is my debt and b) I'd never really addressed it (or had opportunity to address it) so heartily before. I've also had a couple discussions about the "comics habit", with a coworker stating "so if I see you with a Silver Snail bag I should chastise you?" Well, no, because I'm not spending money there, I've got store credit... to which they responded "Well, why do you have store credit, shouldn't you have taken cash?" and I can see that "It's all about making choices" comment coming back at me again. I'm not going to belabor the point, but for a couple hundred bucks a year, I do choose comics, especially now that it's not actually an out-of-pocket expense (using old comics to offset new acquisitions? brilliant!). You may like buying Japanese wrestling DVDs or you may enjoy buying music or hockey equipment or basketball tickets or playing the lottery or resort vacations or owning a car... we like comics.
The other thing we had feedback on was the numbers on the show. "I'm wondering about the tv math though...said you guys were overspending by $1950 and then that you were saving $1300 with your new plan...where's the over $650?"
Frankly, the numbers on the show make my head spin if I think too much about them, but, let's put it this way: Adrienne and I received a chunk of change for our wedding that was not factored into our monthly income (obviously since it's not regular income), but was a factor in the spending we did during the snapshot of our spending the show took from us (hard to separate out) thus making it looked more severe on TV than it really was. We didn't run a monthly shortfall every month (not that we didn't have shortfalls some months), but we weren't paying down debt very well either. During the snapshot some months looked really high (because of wedding money spending) while others actually achieved some debt payoff. I had been holding around 22,000 worth of debt for a number of years, and it didn't go up, but it also didn't really go down. Whenever I'd pay off some of it (at one point hitting around only 18,000), it would somehow crawl back up... usually through spending on little things like eating out. It's amazing how much little stuff like that adds up.
If you followed the details on the show, and were wondering how we're doing, here's the update:
Coworkers and friends have started to ask questions and really take an interest in what our process was in doing the show and what we learned. The fact that people are talking with us now, telling us they have issues with money management is great. We're not experts, but now we're armed with knowledge we didn't have before, and we have no problem sharing that. Ultimately, though, if you're having serious credit issues, professional help is the way to go. Not everyone wants to go on TV or will be accepted for TV programs, and for those people, there's Credit Canada to help point you in the right direction, either directly helping or directing you to the help you need. As with any habit, a willingness to break the habit and address it head on is the key. Ignoring it won't help and not really dedicating yourself to the effort will only frustrate you and maybe even set you back more. The only reason I'm so close as I am to getting out of debt is because I want to more than almost everything else.
Aden and I are lucky that we're in a good position compared to a lot of in-debt people. 6 - 12 months is a pretty short period of time to get debt-free, and we've been fortunate enough to come together at a time where we're able to support one another and focus on a shared set of goals. For a lot of people it takes years of spending discipline and breaking of bad habits, but let me tell you, when you see that light at the end of the tunnel, everything is much brighter.
Thanks to everyone who watched, and everyone who has written to us and thanks to the show for their assistance in getting us on track. If you have any questions or comments write me at graig(at) this website (maybe one day we'll get that comments system back on-line...).
The editing on the show was really quick, and during the 8:00 viewing, Aden and I mostly just commented to ourselves over the show. The bulk of my comments were cracking wise at my "performance" moments or my one-liners, or saying "hey look, it's us/Kel/Lucy/George!" when we'd come back from commercial break or someone we know showed up on show, like it was some great surprise. We actually listened during the 11:00 viewing, and soaked it in. It's still pretty difficult for us to detach ourselves from the show, since we lived it for two months, so we really can't tell whether the message we wanted to get out there actually got out there and whether it'll be as useful as we'd hoped it would be for others (I mean, obviously it was useful for us).
I've been getting feedback from friends today about it, some who have said the editing made me out to look very irresponsible. If it did I didn't notice, but then I was prepared already for that contingent, since a) it is my debt and b) I'd never really addressed it (or had opportunity to address it) so heartily before. I've also had a couple discussions about the "comics habit", with a coworker stating "so if I see you with a Silver Snail bag I should chastise you?" Well, no, because I'm not spending money there, I've got store credit... to which they responded "Well, why do you have store credit, shouldn't you have taken cash?" and I can see that "It's all about making choices" comment coming back at me again. I'm not going to belabor the point, but for a couple hundred bucks a year, I do choose comics, especially now that it's not actually an out-of-pocket expense (using old comics to offset new acquisitions? brilliant!). You may like buying Japanese wrestling DVDs or you may enjoy buying music or hockey equipment or basketball tickets or playing the lottery or resort vacations or owning a car... we like comics.
The other thing we had feedback on was the numbers on the show. "I'm wondering about the tv math though...said you guys were overspending by $1950 and then that you were saving $1300 with your new plan...where's the over $650?"
Frankly, the numbers on the show make my head spin if I think too much about them, but, let's put it this way: Adrienne and I received a chunk of change for our wedding that was not factored into our monthly income (obviously since it's not regular income), but was a factor in the spending we did during the snapshot of our spending the show took from us (hard to separate out) thus making it looked more severe on TV than it really was. We didn't run a monthly shortfall every month (not that we didn't have shortfalls some months), but we weren't paying down debt very well either. During the snapshot some months looked really high (because of wedding money spending) while others actually achieved some debt payoff. I had been holding around 22,000 worth of debt for a number of years, and it didn't go up, but it also didn't really go down. Whenever I'd pay off some of it (at one point hitting around only 18,000), it would somehow crawl back up... usually through spending on little things like eating out. It's amazing how much little stuff like that adds up.
If you followed the details on the show, and were wondering how we're doing, here's the update:
- Monthly spending: grocery bills are up, housing expenses steady, entertainment expenses well under our allotted $260, and since we've been getting Metropasses instead of tokens for transit, we're not even using the $60 cash withdrawal every week.
- All my money on debt, Aden's money paying expenses: well, this isn't 100% accurate. I still pay for some things, meaning I'm not putting a full $2750 on debt, but I am doing about $2400 a month. Aden's paying most bills and has now set up better RRSP plans and an RESP for the little guy.
- Selling the collections: Still working on this, as I noted the other day, we finished the comics inventory, now we need to figure out what we're selling, and no, not all of this will be store credit. DVDs and CD inventory still to be done.
- 9 months to pay off debt The original plan I had was one year, Alison fast-tracked us to 9 months, and my current projection is 7 months (end of July), thanks to a couple bonuses we've been lucky to receive. Credit cards are paid off as of month end and thereon it's working off line of credit. It'll all be over soon enough.
- Merging accounts We've yet to merge our accounts, but we've opened up our finances to each other, and made every bank account a joint one. We're treating our money almost like a pool now, so once all my debt is gone we'll really see how we handle our wads.
- Get an handle on our investments We've been working with Lucy at Scotiabank, who you saw on the show, and she's awesome. She's helped us out so much already, and we can't thank her enough for the time she's been giving us. She's got our money working for our short term goals (buying a house), and a plan for our long-term goals (Retirment/Education savings). And she's educating us, which is incredibly useful.
Coworkers and friends have started to ask questions and really take an interest in what our process was in doing the show and what we learned. The fact that people are talking with us now, telling us they have issues with money management is great. We're not experts, but now we're armed with knowledge we didn't have before, and we have no problem sharing that. Ultimately, though, if you're having serious credit issues, professional help is the way to go. Not everyone wants to go on TV or will be accepted for TV programs, and for those people, there's Credit Canada to help point you in the right direction, either directly helping or directing you to the help you need. As with any habit, a willingness to break the habit and address it head on is the key. Ignoring it won't help and not really dedicating yourself to the effort will only frustrate you and maybe even set you back more. The only reason I'm so close as I am to getting out of debt is because I want to more than almost everything else.
Aden and I are lucky that we're in a good position compared to a lot of in-debt people. 6 - 12 months is a pretty short period of time to get debt-free, and we've been fortunate enough to come together at a time where we're able to support one another and focus on a shared set of goals. For a lot of people it takes years of spending discipline and breaking of bad habits, but let me tell you, when you see that light at the end of the tunnel, everything is much brighter.
Thanks to everyone who watched, and everyone who has written to us and thanks to the show for their assistance in getting us on track. If you have any questions or comments write me at graig(at) this website (maybe one day we'll get that comments system back on-line...).