Debt - Tumblr Posts
I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!
If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)
You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)
You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)
You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)
You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)
Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.
I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.
The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.
I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.
I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.
The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.
Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.
UHHHHH??
Just got my bill for this quarter from my university. O O F
I paid off the remainder of my debt with my savings today.
My original plan was to be debt free entering 2019. That didn't work out and I've been treading water until now.
I feel bad that I haven't stayed on track. I'm also sad that it's like everything I've been working for for years is up in smoke. I guess it isn't really, but it's definitely a set back.
I'm making sure I'm not a burden when i leave my job. And I remind myself when I'm getting really self loathy about it that he dug this hole this deep to make it difficult for me to pull myself out of. At best he did so negligently, at worst he did so knowingly and purposefully.
But the ugliness he created is gone now. My hard work did pull me out, albeit not the most graceful and ideal ways.
Now it's just a manageable bit off the credit card and I'll be officially debt free.
A Moment.
I will take this time to celebrate a big thing: I am officially out of debt.
It took a little longer than I had anticipated (15 months longer) and a lot longer than I would have liked. But I pulled myself out of the hole he tried to bury me in.
He left me with so many injuries, but come hell or high water, they will all be healed.
Aren't you tired of the lies??
I've sold all of my Google Shares so that I may pay this cat to talk about lieful thumbnails!
Find out more @iknowrightfromwrong
Our national debt today is estimated to be around $30 TRILLION dollars, or to put it graphically, thirty times the one billion dollars of stacked $100 bills stacked on pallets in this picture. It is a debt that is impossible to pay back for our country, but did you know that YOU and I have an EVEN GREATER DEBT that we also can never pay back? It is the debt of SIN.
We all have a debt greater than the national debt that CANNOT be repaid by being a “good person,” being generous, saving the planet, or contributing some great work to humanity. There is nothing you can personally do to escape the debt and payment for sin which eventually will be your eternal death, however someone has already paid that debt for you, and all you have to do is 'Ask for MERCY, because His Mercy is More!'
Friend, the message of the gospel, — plain and simple — is this…
Christ died for YOUR sins and paid the sin debt that YOU owe, and like the master in today’s scripture verse, he showed COMPASSION, FORGAVE & RELEASED the man of the impossible burden of debt that could never be repaid.
Likewise, there is just one thing you must do in order to be forgiven of this debt, and that is ASK GOD TO FORGIVE YOU and repent of what you have done. Mercy means NOT getting what we DO DESERVE, and God is always merciful to all those that simply ask him from a sincere and contrite heart.
Be released of your sin debt today before the Grim Reaper of debt comes to collect. Ask God to forgive, and He will forgive…but he does not forgive unless you ASK.
Have you asked Him?
God Bless Your Day Jesus Loves You
NotesOnLife.org
Just as eggs go with bacon, peanut butter with jelly, and hot dogs with beans, the pair of MERCY & GRACE also go together and are God’s gift to all that want to receive it. Here’s why.
The Bible says that our sin is a debt (with compounding interest!) that we acquire in our lives that we can never pay back. The consequence for this liability is that every one of us deserves punishment and separation from God for our sins, but God has given us a 'Get Out Of Jail Free Card' that exempts us from the punishment we deserve! You see, the FINE of our sins has been paid for through Jesus Christ who took our sins upon Himself. He didn’t just pay a 'Bail,' HE PAID THE FINE! with this dual pair of MERCY & GRACE.
You see, it’s very simple!
MERCY Is NOT getting (the punishment) that we DO DESERVE (and) GRACE Is getting (the blessings) that we DO NOT DESERVE Friend, you can receive the 'Mercy & Grace' card simply by confessing with your mouth that you are a sinner, believing in your heart in what Christ did paying for your sins and rising from the dead, and start living your life for Him by HIS standards and ways - and not your own.
If you have not done this would you do this right now? Otherwise, TOMORROW is another day of compounding interest on a debt that Jesus has already paid. All you need to do is draw the MERCY & GRACE CARD and your sins will be forgiven.
Will you choose that card today?
God Bless Your Day Jesus Loves You
NotesOnLife.org
Video summary: Most hospitals have legally mandated financial assistance policies for people under a certain income level. This can eliminate medical bills. Look on their websites for their financial assistance/Charity Care policies.
I found more details at
I always put close parentheses, I'm just special like that ❤
Tho I legit once put a semicolon (;) after the parentheses in a for loop and kept going crazy why my code wasn't working 👨💻
parenthesis debt
(pay off your debt here)
)))))
College Debt: A Political Approach to a Standard Issue
This morning I'm in a semi-good mood, despite the chirping noise from my smoke detector waking me up grumpily. I walked to center campus, bought a cup of joe at Kangaroo (its addictive and tastes so good) with my refill up (saving $$), find a table on the 2nd floor in Belk library to start studying/homework/prepping for the upcoming week and then I go online to check out what's going on in the world/country today. I came across this article "College Costs, Battled a Paycheck at a Time" via NYTimes (Click HERE for link).
The article discusses a few students who each have different situations both financially and personally. The main argument I found was in three parts: 1. you don't have to be enslaved to your parent's decision for you to go to college, 2. additionally you don't have to be enslaved to your parent's financially for college or otherwise, and 3. if you decide to pay your own way through college you do NOT have to contract debt.
Another interesting perspective addressed in the article was the idea that us as student or soon-to-be students do have the power over our own lives even in high school. I remember being one of the few out of my groups of friends that had a job throughout my high school career. It wasn't working because I necessarily needed it or was "being forced" to get a job based on my mom's reasons to do so. I wanted to start to have control over my own life. I wanted to have something other than grades and educational achievements to be proud of. I wanted engage in something that would help develop professional skills, embark on my own learning experience that may or may not strengthen my qualifications for future jobs.
Of course in my situation I did not think like most of my H.S. colleagues in suburbia. I wasn't anxious about the rest of my life. I was trying each day to live and enjoy my high school years. I was involved in a number of extracurriculars because I have a TON of PASSIONS :) That's my personality. I put my time, patience, energy and determination to activities/causes/professions I felt reflected my own ideas/perspective/opinions/passions. I'm not saying that my colleagues or everyone in H.S. needs to do that but I think its important to start learning about yourself and what makes you happy/what makes you you instead of living a life that isn't yours.
I had a very IN-DEPTH convo with my mom over "fake" break about this very subject. I am not only passionate but enraged at how the leaders/teachers/people in charge of the education system from middle school onwards are SO narrow-minded. I remember the day we had a general assembly the first week I started classes at Mt. Hebron middle school. These people were telling me in short: who I was right now isn't important, its what you are in the future that matters. (Now in college, I find that to be a lie too.) They told us that college is where we need to focus, thats the goal. All of my education from that point on was intended preparation for the college process (i.e. SATs/ACTs, college application, visiting, etc). I empathize with middle school & H.S. students who feel so lost, so misunderstood, so rejected from all the people and places they should feel the three S's: safe, secure, and supported.
*Soapbox moment but its an interesting perspective I promise :)
So what about students? Actually they are not JUST STUDENTS, they are people, unique individuals with a variety of talents and skills. So what about those people who don't fit into the small scope - those who are "meant" or "better suited" or encouraged to go to college based on their passions - i.e. doctors, lawyer, engineers, etc. However, even the individuals who have a remote interest/passion in those areas what is so wrong with letting them choose for themselves? See if that's what you really want to do BEFORE you go crazy, going through the HELL of the college process, spending all that money (initially, college app fees, transcript fees, a whole ton of fees) to see if you qualify for college? Why can't we encourage people to investigate their passions with action - internships while working or not working throughout H.S.? What so wrong about saying its okay if you choose not to go to college? What is wrong with that?
I remember the college jargon used over, and over, and over again throughout grades school. I was constantly hearing college, college, college and never anything else. I often thought, being a person who didn't see college as the OBVIOUS option after H.S., what about me? I know people who become successful and are happy and never went to college so if I follow them I'm nothing??
Basically, if you don't jump onto the college-track you automatically are an outcast. You are discarded, you simply don't matter. WHAT??? The arts is one professional track that doesn't require secondary education. I know with absolute certainty that education in the arts is one thing but EXPERIENCE is the far more superior. Can't that be encouraged in grade school in tandem to the "traditional" college crap?
Example: Ironically enough even big-star rappers like Jay-Z remark the fact that he dropped out of H.S., skipped college and still made it big ("NYMP" album Vol. 3... Life And Times Of S. Carter).
The same is the case when you are IN COLLEGE! They continue to shove the graduate/doctorate/law school rhetoric down our throats. HELLO?!?! If most of the students in college are coming from the years of hearing you are nothing until you GET to college doesn't it sounds CRAZY to continue to promote that attitude to students in college: "you're still nothing until you get more education and oh, by the way you need experience too so fit that in somewhere."
Relating back to the article's argument, these are students/individuals that took responsibilities and basically their life, their future in their own hands. Steve and Zach understand that in order to get to where they wanted to be, without debt, they needed to be uncomfortable, not overindulge or over-expend on already limited resources, make compromises in order to have a better future for themselves (and their families - Steve's wife and children). And in reality, they have better relationships with their parents because there is no resentment or expectations (for the most part). I see too many college students that are in debt of their parent on top of their financial burden of college-debt.
I would love for those of you who read this to please comment a response. Its important for me to hear different arguments, have a civil debate on this topic, get it out in the open. I believe its one of the only ways we'll make real changes.
This is a big fucking deal: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195141913/borrowers-can-now-apply-for-new-income-based-student-loan-repayment
Under the SAVE plan, as long as borrowers make their monthly payments, interest will not accumulate. With previous plans, borrowers with low or $0 payments — too low to cover their monthly interest charge — saw that interest accrue. Now, the government says, that won't happen.
The department says that under the old plan, borrowers repaid, on average, $10,956 for every $10,000 they borrowed. Under the new plan, they would pay back just $6,121.
…
Borrowers can now apply at studentaid.gov/SAVE . In an announcement video, President Biden assured borrowers that the application will take "10 minutes."
The program allows borrowers to opt in to a feature that allows the Education Department to access their tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service. This will allow the department to automatically recertify borrowers' enrollment every year, so they don't have to keep applying and updating.
The administration is urging borrowers to apply soon because, after three years of pause extensions, student loan payments are set to resume in October, with interest starting to accrue in September.
studentaid.gov/SAVE
Maybe unpopular opinion, Wei Wuxian matured faster then Lan Wangji, he just was never romance focused. Besides keeping himself alive on the streets and thriving in a sect where his superior at the very least strongly disliked him (Madam Yu and her relationship with Wei Wuxian has been discoursed to death), he was head disciple for at the very least his generation on down of one of major sects. Which means training, potentially housing, politics, watching diet, classroom work, the Six Arts, core foundation. And he probably had a role in assigning night hunts and any administration task that neither Jiang Fengmian or Madame Yu wanted to do. Boy was busy, even discounting the civilians who could approach him for something they considered important but not enough to bother the sect leaders about.
Going to Cloud Recesses was probably the closest thing he’d had to a vacation in years. (Which, explains a lot about his general attitude while there. And why Jiang Cheng kept wanting to strangle him. Imagine going for study abroad and your obnoxiously talented sibling spent the whole time site-seeing and getting straight A’s while you studied your ass off just to get A’s and B’s.)
This is not, in any way, trying to say that Lan Wangji was not mature for his age, or that he didn’t have duties and responsibilities of his own, just that he wasn’t taking on an adult’s workload while still in puberty. I think a large period of his personal growth started with the burning of Cloud Recesses. The Wen Indoctrination Camp is a dark mirror of the Lan Lectures as the fandom points out, but people seem to miss that it was also a personal dark mirror of Wei Wuxian‘s Cloud Recesses experience. Forced to obey the rules of another sect that he found ridiculous, physically punished for what amounts to a personal grudge, most definitely did not have his choice of food or drink. Some of the only things that made the Summer Camp From Hell bearable for him were probably all related to Wei Wuxian. Noticeably, this is the first time that he is able to experience the benefits of Wei Wuxian being a pest to authority figures, and see some of the moral benefits to Wei Wuxian’s antics.
And then after the crucible of growth and maturity that is war, they are both indisputably adults, and mostly mature. Lan Wangji has decided that it’s Wei Wuxian or no one at this point, and while he has a few rough edges, he’s ready to commit. Wei Wuxian however is not in the headspace of a romantic relationship being possible. We know he’s at least a little bit of a romantic himself, because no one saves/protects their first kiss like that if they aren’t. And given that the word “protect” is used, it wasn’t due to lack of interest in his person. But the majority of the romantic relationships he has observed first hand have been unmitigated disasters, and he doesn’t remember his parents. It’s no wonder he questions Jiang Yanli about romance. He’s trying to figure out if she’s agreed to be the next generation version of Jiang Fengmian at best, or the next generation version Madam Jin at worst. He wants to know why she’s going back to the man that has been hurting her, and quite badly, since they were at least fifteen. I tend to think it was for longer, because of how willing Jiān Fengmian was to break off a political alliance when the Wen were on the move. This is, actually, also a scene that reminded me of my own brother. There’s roughly the same age gap between he and I as between Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian, and while he is an adult and mature, his own grasp of romance has lagged behind. I’ve had conversations with family over this where they all comment that what he’s found that helps him understand to be juvenile, I have observed to be about right for him emotionally.
So, while I adore fix-it’s and early get together stories, I don’t think the two of them were in compatible places in life until Mo Xuanyu did his thing. There, after he fulfills the summoning rituals demands (and in the novel, the only targets were the the Mo and A-Tong) he is free of all debts. With the core transfer he squared his debt with the Jiang Sect as a whole, and with protecting the Wen he paid any remaining debt between he and Jiang Wanyin by saving the latter’s honor even if no one else knew it. Any debt between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng ended when the latter set the dog on him. (That does not mean the emotional connection between them snapped then, but with the breaking of the promise, it was the last debt tie.) This is literally the first time since Jiang Fengmian took him off the streets that Wei Wuxian has not been either debt bound or tethered to anyone. For the first time, his life is his own.
So he makes himself responsible for a donkey and goes to become a rogue cultivator. And finds himself smack dab next to the one person who can draw him in like a moth to a flame without even trying.
