At The End of The Day It's All About Seeing The Good
Even on the bad days, there's still hope in our lives, which lives on in small moments.
When was the last time life hit you like a brick wall?
For me, that was a little over six months ago when I effectively lost 66% of my income and needed to learn to live on only what remained for a few months.
It was tough, but I managed to do it without asking for help for four months. However, because I was suffering from “lifestyle creep” I slowly descended into overdraft for purchases I did the months prior.
Last month, the bank asked me to come up with a certain amount of money I didn’t have because I had crossed my overdraft threshold. And so I asked for help from people close to me, and turned out empty handed.
And I don’t blame them. Times are tough to be asking someone for the amount of money that I needed, which was the equivalent of $1500.
Once I reassured the bank that my salaries are going back to normal from this month onward, this amount of money would be covered, but not for at least one more month. The person I talked to at the bank was kind enough to allow me to increase the overdraft amount on my account temporarily until I got the salary.
Two days ago, I got the salary and told the bank: “Here, I have a full salary again. Can you help me get through this one month until my next full salary covers my money gap?”
And they suddenly said no. Out of the blue they needed to see at least two full salaries to make any changes to my account. What? What has changed since last month when you told me you’d consider it? (because a banker will never promise something his manager might not approve). What do I do with the remaining charges? Do you just reject them and completely destroy my credit score or do you help me by offering some other solutions?
So that’s where I’m at right now. A few charges to my credit cards will be returned to the credit card company if the bank won’t offer a solution today. They will start harassing me to pay them in 30 days or they will sue me, etc. etc.
I hate this.
I talked about it on my latest youtube video where I shared 37 Life Lessons now that I turned 37 because this already happened to me once on a much larger scale in 2017:
But yesterday ended on a positive note when I got to the supermarket after work to buy some groceries for home (which thankfully I can still do with the card that did clear after my salary was paid). There was a man in front of me in line that was missing a coin for his amount total and I had that coin in my wallet so I offered it to him. He refused and paid with a credit card, but was so taken a back that I offered it to him that he thanked me multiple times before he left.
That made me feel a little better about my situation. Yes, I’m going to have to deal with some crap until my next salary, but even in this dire situation I could still find a way to help someone else, and that gave me a measure of control.
If any of you want to help by the way, I have a Ko-Fi page where you can buy me a coffee, or you can become a paid subscriber to this publication. Anything helps.
Thank you for reading!