Two Days Trying to Sort Out My Debt Relief

 

I haven’t written a blog for a while, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening. Sometimes everyday problems keep you busy enough that you don’t get around to writing about them.

I spent two days talking to two debt relief companies, Aspire Law Group and Elevate Financial, trying to figure out who was doing what. I had ended up signed up with both of them. That was confusing enough, but then both were telling me they had made payments toward the same account.

I wanted a simple answer: Who had actually arranged the settlement and made the payments?

Getting that answer took more telephone calls than I expected. There were letters and explanations, but some of the paperwork didn’t clearly identify the company involved. When two companies tell you they did the same work, how do you know which one to believe?

After going through it, I felt satisfied that Elevate had shown me evidence of the settlement and payments. I canceled Aspire and stayed with Elevate for now. I’m still waiting for paperwork, and I may decide to finish with Elevate too.

Looking back, I question whether I needed either program in the first place. I might have been better off contacting the creditors myself from the beginning. I hope I made the right decision this time, but I’m still sorting things out.

Meanwhile, my old laptop, number 11, is giving me another kind of trouble. It has very little memory. Debian is installed, but I’ve been trying to get antiX running, hoping it would work better. Several attempts have gotten close, then failed or stopped. I may try something else, but I haven’t decided what yet.

Between the telephone calls and that stubborn little computer, I’ve had plenty to keep me occupied.

For now, I’m glad to have the debt situation a little clearer. It took two days of asking questions, but at least I feel I have a better idea of who I’m dealing with.

I didn't need the service.

 A few days ago, I thought I might have signed up with a fraudulent debt-resolution company.

After doing some checking, I learned something important: I had jumped to a conclusion.

The company had actually contacted some of my creditors and had been providing a service. So I don't think it is fair for me to call the company a fraud.

The real problem was much simpler.

I didn't need the service.

I got caught up in a very good sales pitch. At the time, debt resolution sounded like a good solution. But after stepping back and looking at my situation, I realized that I am capable of contacting my creditors myself and paying what I owe.

Now I am trying to cancel the program and find out how much of the money I have paid can be returned. Since the company did perform some work, I don't know how much I will get back. I'll have to see what happens.

There is a bigger lesson here.

I've written before about internet and telephone scams. Some of those are obvious frauds. Someone calls pretending to be Google, for example, and says there is an emergency with your account. They want you to act immediately and give them access to something you normally wouldn't.

But there is another lesson that applies even when you're dealing with a legitimate business:

Don't let a good salesperson make your decision for you.

A salesperson's job is to sell. Your job is to decide whether you actually need what is being sold.

Before signing anything or handing over money, slow down. Ask questions. Read the agreement. Check the company independently. Talk to someone you trust. Most importantly, ask yourself a very simple question:

Do I really need this?

I wish I had asked myself that question before I signed up for debt resolution.

But making a mistake isn't the end of the story. You can learn something, correct what you can, and make a better decision the next time.

That's what I'm doing now.

Later

What Can You Do With a Laptop That Has Only 1 GB of RAM?

 

I've been working on another old laptop, and this one has been a challenge.

When I started, it had only 512 megabytes of RAM. That's half a gigabyte. By today's standards, that's almost nothing. Most new computers have many times that amount of memory, and modern operating systems aren't designed with machines like this in mind.

But I wanted to see if I could bring it back to life.

I installed Debian Linux on it. With only 512 MB of RAM, even getting the operating system installed was an adventure. I used the low-memory installation, and it took quite a while. At one point I thought the computer simply wasn't going to make it.

After the installation, I could get to the login screen, but when I entered my password, the screen would go blank and send me right back to the login screen.

Then some memory I had ordered arrived. I upgraded the laptop to a full 1 GB of RAM.

One gigabyte still isn't much, but it made a difference. Debian would run. The problem was that I had installed the Cinnamon desktop, which is really too much for a computer with this little memory. The mouse would pause, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

So now I'm working on streamlining it. Linux gives me that option. I don't necessarily have to throw away a working computer just because it can't comfortably run a heavy modern desktop. I can use lighter software and turn off things it doesn't need.

My goal isn't to turn this old laptop into a gaming machine or a high-powered workstation. That's not going to happen.

I'd simply like to get it running well enough for basic Internet use, email, writing, and hopefully streaming a video. If I can do that, I'm going to donate it to the thrift shop.

Someone may be able to buy it cheaply and get some use out of it.

That's one of the things I enjoy about working on these old computers. There's a challenge in figuring out what they can still do instead of concentrating on what they can't do.

A computer with 1 GB of RAM isn't worth much money today. But if it lets somebody check their email, write a letter, browse the Internet, or watch a video, then it still has some value.

Sometimes old technology doesn't need to be thrown away.

It just needs a lighter load—and another chance.

Later

When an Old Laptop Still has a Lot of Life Left

 I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately working on old laptop computers.

What I’ve discovered is that fixing them usually isn’t the hard part.

Most of the time, the problems are fairly simple. A laptop may need a new battery or charger. Maybe it needs some additional memory. Sometimes I replace an old mechanical hard drive with an SSD. Then I install Linux, and a computer that somebody thought was obsolete can be useful again.

I enjoy doing that. There is something satisfying about taking an old computer that has been sitting around unused and bringing it back to life.

The difficult part, I’m discovering, is finding somebody who wants it.

Recently I contacted the IT person at our local school district. I thought perhaps the school could use some of these computers, or maybe find students who could. I was willing to provide some very cheaply or even give them away.

He wasn’t interested in the older laptops. I can understand some of his reasoning. Schools need standardized equipment, and their IT departments have to support whatever computers they put into service. An assortment of older Linux laptops probably doesn't fit very well into that system.

I also mentioned that I have some Chromebooks, but I haven’t heard anything further about those.

That experience got me thinking.

Maybe fixing old computers isn't really the problem. Maybe the problem is finding people willing to use something different.

Most computer users are accustomed to Windows. They've used it for years, and understandably they don't necessarily want to learn another operating system. But Windows also has hardware requirements that can leave older computers behind as newer versions come along.

Linux gives me another choice.

A computer that may no longer be a good candidate for the latest version of Windows can sometimes run Linux very well. It can browse the Internet, play YouTube videos, handle email, write documents and do many of the everyday things most people actually use a computer for.

You don't necessarily need a new computer to do those things.

So I’m changing my approach. Instead of asking, “Who will buy these old computers?” I’m asking, “Who actually needs one?”

There is a man I know who runs an antique shop downtown and is also a pastor of a church in Laurens, Iowa. I’m thinking about asking him whether he knows anyone in his congregation who needs a computer and perhaps can't afford to go out and buy one.

If somebody needs a computer for email, looking for work, writing a résumé, keeping in touch with family, watching educational videos or simply exploring the Internet, one of these old laptops might be all the computer that person needs.

It may not be worth much money.

But that doesn't make it worthless.

We live in a society where technology gets labeled “obsolete” very quickly. Sometimes there are good reasons for replacing old equipment. But sometimes the old machine isn't finished at all.

It just needs a battery, a charger, a little memory, Linux—and somebody willing to give it another chance.

Here's a good example of what I've been doing with these old laptops.

Later

My Blog Is Really a Journal

I've been thinking lately about what this blog really is.

I suppose the simplest answer is that it's a journal.

I don't have a huge audience. For quite a while I had only a couple of people who seemed to read regularly. Lately that number has gone up to maybe six or seven, which isn't exactly going to set any records, but I'm glad to have them.

There have been some strange exceptions over the years. At one point, for reasons I still don't understand, I suddenly had about 250 people from Moldova reading my blog. They stayed for two or three days and then disappeared. I never did figure out what attracted them.

Over the years I've written about all kinds of things. I've written about what I'm doing in my everyday life, things happening in the world, computers, money, bicycling, getting older, and whatever else happens to be occupying my mind.

Years ago, during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, I even wrote about some theories I had concerning what might have caused it. Looking back, some of my speculation wasn't supported by what we now know. But that's another interesting thing about keeping a journal. A journal records what you were thinking at a particular moment in your life. It doesn't mean you were always right.

In fact, maybe that's part of its value.

When you go back and read something you wrote five, ten or twenty years ago, you aren't just remembering what happened. You're meeting an earlier version of yourself. You can see what concerned you, what excited you, what you believed and sometimes how much your thinking has changed.

My journal just happens to be public.

These days I write about rebuilding old computers, trying to keep physically active, bicycling, finances, things I've learned, and occasionally just what happened during my day. None of those things may seem historically important while they're happening. But put enough ordinary days together and eventually you have the story of a life.

That's one reason I think journaling is worth trying.

You don't have to write something profound every day. You don't even have to write every day. And you certainly don't need hundreds of readers. You can use a notebook, a computer, or even start a blog.

Write down what you did. Write down what you're thinking about. Write about something you learned. Write about a mistake. Write about something you're looking forward to.

Then keep it.

Someday you may discover that the person who gets the most value from reading it is you.

And if six or seven other people happen to come along for the ride, that's pretty good too.

Later

g.

I Turned 79 Today—and I’m Not Finished Building

Today is my 79th birthday.

That's a strange sentence to write, because I really don't feel 79.

Some time ago, I was going through airport security and asked a TSA agent whether I really needed to take my shoes off. I mentioned my age, and he looked at my driver's license.

He told me he thought I was about 50.

I was 78 at the time.

Now, I'm not going to claim that I look 50 every morning when I look in the mirror. But I do think there's something to be said for staying active.

In fact, I feel more active now in some ways than I did a year ago. I'm walking better. I swim. I lift weights. I ride my bicycle. None of those things happens without effort, and sometimes it takes quite a bit of effort.

But it's worth it.

Yesterday I wrote about the idea of building instead of simply consuming. I've been thinking that the same principle applies to ourselves.

We can keep building ourselves.

That doesn't mean pretending we're not getting older. It means continuing to use what we have. Keep the muscles working. Keep the mind working. Keep learning. Keep finding something new to do.

I've been repairing and rebuilding old laptop computers for years, so that's nothing new for me. But I'm still learning from them. Every computer seems to present a different problem, and sometimes I have to figure out something I've never dealt with before.

The bicycle has given me another challenge. Riding takes physical effort, but it also gives me somewhere to go and something to look forward to.

And then there's this blog. Writing makes me stop and think about what I'm doing and what I've learned.

Maybe that's part of staying young.

I'm not talking about trying to turn the clock backward. I'm talking about having something you're interested in doing tomorrow.

At 79, I still have things I want to learn, places I want to go, computers I want to fix, miles I want to ride, and ideas I want to explore.

Getting older takes place whether we work at it or not.

Staying active takes effort.

For me, that effort has been worth it.

I'm 79 today.

And I'm not finished building.

I found a TED talk on this topic; it should be good.

Later

Building Instead of Just Consuming

During those quiet hours, I began watching YouTube videos by people like Dan Martell, Robert Kiyosaki, and Jaspreet Singh. At first, they were simply interesting videos. But over time, they caused me to think differently about work, money and financial freedom.

One lesson that stuck was that a paycheck matters, but by itself may not be enough to build the kind of stability people hope for.

These days, I ask a different question: not what can I buy, but what can I build?

Building to me can mean many things: starting a small project, learning skills, investing in productive companies, owning real estate, rebuilding a computer, or writing a blog. There isn't one formula that fits everyone, but I've come to believe there's value in creating something instead of simply spending.

Before I spend now, I try to ask, will this help me build my future, or is it simply something I'll consume today? That question has probably influenced my financial thinking more than any single tip I've heard.

I don't agree with everything every financial educator says, but I do appreciate anything that encourages people to think for themselves and take responsibility.

At nearly 79, I'm still learning. I don't think learning has an expiration date.

If there's one thought I'd leave you with, it's this: Instead of asking only what you can earn or buy, ask yourself what you can build. A skill, a business, a blog, a better habit. That might become one of the most valuable assets you own.

For me, one of the videos that sparked this line of thinking was by Dan Martell.

I'd also genuinely enjoy hearing from you. What channels, books, or life experiences have shifted your perspective?

Later