July 27, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen I've found our new Casey Serin. A 24-year old kid with $300,000 in unsecured debt: Introducing "Debt Kid"


Hundreds of years from now when they study this brief period of debt stupidity (2001 - 2007), they might find Debt Kid (along with HousingPANIC of course).

Enjoy.

Or on second thought, be afraid. Be very afraid.

DebtKid.com
my journey to repay over 300K in unsecured debt…I am 24.


I got myself into 300K+ of unsecured debt. I recently avoided foreclosure by short selling my home. I've been trying to build my business income up. This while trying to deal with being over 300K in debt and now living in my office. Let's just say my life ain't boring.

A few things I need to decide this week:

#1. Should I consolidate my office into a “home office”? I’ve been in this building for over 2 years now. My office space is a good deal, but with only 2 full time employees (myself included) and one part-timer, shouldn’t I work from home? I’m looking at a place tomorrow that would be larger than my current office (yet also provide a “real” place to live. ahh….a real mattress!).

#2. Can I file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? We are getting to crunch time now on the BK filing. If I’m going to do it (I have to at this point, it’s the only thing that makes sense all around) I need to get it all figured out this week. I made more progress on the paperwork today, but it’s difficult finding time when my employees are not around (and I have a friend visiting from out of town! yikes…)

#3. Can I win the contest at DCC? (go here to vote for me, please leave a comment too!) If I can win that contest I may just have enough money to get a place I’m looking at that could hold both myself and my business! (for only $200 more. IE, with no business lease @ $800/month this place would only cost me 1K/month, and allow a place for my business and personal life!). Obviously I’m hoping I can win this contest!

#4. Will I ever be back to my “old self”? I don’t think so. I don’t think I want to be. As I slowly shed every piece of my former life (big house, lots of crap, fake relationships, fancy office?), I’m feeling more and more genuine and real and honest…and it’s wonderful.

#5. Will I ever make it out of this hole? I don’t know. I’m still so right on the edge right now….

What do you think?

21 comments:

JohnDiddler said...

Please don't call him Casey Serin.

Anonymous said...

*****************************



Yea!

Anonymous said...

what a helmet!

Anonymous said...

What the hell, it's only paper.

Anonymous said...

I wish SNL was still that funny.

Anonymous said...

This guy ( as long as he resists his apparent stock gambling addiction) appears to have his head on A LOT straighter than Casey. For one, he is actually willing to do things to deal with his debt and apparently has a real business that earns income.

Anonymous said...

I thought everyone has this life.... at least everyone I know is like this, isn't this normal.

Anonymous said...

Who cares!

Wake me when Twiggy The Waterskiing Squirrel has $500,000 in unsecured debt.

Boozehound said...

Will you please stop promoting these j-holes? They are simply trying to cash in on their own stupidity.

I'm going to start my own blog so I can get a bunch of "haterz" that will drive traffic to my site and make me dough too.

(It will only be half as much BS as Serin posts...I promise.)

Anonymous said...

Kieth:

I do not why you are always attracted to these types. Once again, another kid full of sh*t. Maybe that's why he is in such debt. In any event, how does a 24 ear old kid get 300K?

Mammoth said...

The "Debt Kid" is to Casey Serin what the Monkees were to the Beatles.

Anonymous said...

I don't sense any real pain in the narrative. This individual hasn't even begun the journey yet.

Anonymous said...

474 FICO. WOW. I thought 500 was as low as you could go.

Anonymous said...

Get fired then file for bankruptcy. It's as easy as that. Move back in with your parents for a couple of years and work for cash.

Anonymous said...

What a punk!

Anonymous said...

One thing I've noticed with "these kids" (generation Y as a gross generalization) is how everything is always, always, always presented in a positive light. Its most patently ridiculous in extreme cases like this fellow ("As I slowly shed every piece of my former life...I’m feeling more and more genuine and real and honest…and it’s wonderful") and Casey ("it's all good," "win-win," "good things are coming," etc),but I've also noted it in others around the same age.

It must come from being kids of the boomers and being instilled with some sort of pseudo-mystical "The Secret" type new-agey ex-hippie garbage about "mind power" and "manifesting positive conditions through positive thought," etc. I don't know about you, but I find the cheery, chirpy tone utterly out of place and indeed rather grotesque. To me this is sick, pathological form of denial rather than some kind of positive thinking for positive results.

Positive attitudes are important, but so is a realistic apprasal of current situations. You don't solve problems by sticking your head in an ostrich hole and humming bliss-manifesting mantras: you solve problems by taking a cold hard look at the situation, gritting your teeth, rolling up your sleeves, and going to work. But this generation seems awfully afraid of even taking the first step to real concrete solutions...on so many levels.

burn baby burn said...

Not as good as Casey. Do not want to waste my time figuring out why.

Anonymous said...

Casey Serin profiled on tonight's (7-27-07) ABC Nightline...

...pretty much admitted to fraud...lawyer is probably having fits right now...

Chris said...

I've been following debtkid's dilemma for a few months now (he's been posting since January), and I can tell you there are vast differences between this guy and Casey Serin.

Debtkid made some pretty bad choices, although what he did to get into this hole was not illegal. He was basically daytrading, sometimes in options, and was borrowing on margin. This was basically kicking him in the ass. What made matters worse was when his mother, inexplicably, decided to let Debtkid "manage" her investment portfolio. In an act that is probably the most Casey-like of them all, he took the money and started daytrading with that too.

It wasn't until he was $300K in the hole that he realized he wasn't going to get out of it. He decided to come clean and tell his family. They were upset, but were even more upset that he didn't have the balls to come to them sooner about this problem.

What makes Debtkid different is that Debtkid actually is based in a world called Reality, while Casey is usually in La-La-Land.

Debtkid got a realtor to do a short sale on his house. Casey didn't get a short sale done on any of his houses.

Debtkid actually runs a legitimate business (at the age of 24!); therefore, he is actually living at an office in a commercial building where he pays business rent. Casey couldn't manage a business to save his life, especially when other people are involved, and mooches off other people to find a place to sleep. Right now I believe he's living with his mother.

Debtkid actually went bare-bones on his eating regimen by cooking up noodles and vegetables. Casey still enjoys his wheatgrass shots at Jamba Juice, as well as his semi-vegan diet that consists of occasional runs to In-and-Out Burger Joint.

Debtkid only blames himself for his problems and knows that he is the only one who can truly fix it. Casey blames others for his problems, and occasionally blames himself, but because he has some sort of narcissistic personality disorder, he can't fully come to grips with his responsibility.

Finally, Debtkid sets goals that can actually fix his problems if achieved, and sometimes reaches those goals, or at least is moving toward them. Casey rarely sets goals, and when he does, they either have no correlation to business success or he doesn't move toward them at all.

So give Debtkid a break. He screwed up but he admits it, and he's actually working on fixing it.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Said..."Positive attitudes are important, but so is a realistic apprasal of current situations. You don't solve problems by sticking your head in an ostrich hole and humming bliss-manifesting mantras: you solve problems by taking a cold hard look at the situation, gritting your teeth, rolling up your sleeves, and going to work. But this generation seems awfully afraid of even taking the first step to real concrete solutions...on so many levels."

You hit the nail on the head my friend. And the key word was in the word "Work". This generation does not believe work is anything more than going in to a building, surfing the net for 4 hours, taking lunch at Starbucks for an hour, and then back to the net for the rest of the day. Then go party at a loser club, talk about Lindsey or Paris on TMZ then go home and see if your IPO made you millions overnight. Of course driving home in your massive Hummer while talking on the Blackberry.

This generation is like the old guy (forget his name) in the John Belushi movie 1941 riding the missile as it heads for the Japanese sub yelling YAHOO!!! Positive until the missile explodes....

Anonymous said...

This generation finds your over-generalizations tiring. Everyone I know works their asses off at their jobs (or in school, if they're pursuing grad degrees). We're climbing out of financial holes before we even get started: tell me how any of us are supposed to afford a home of our own when the starting cost in most major cities is beyond what we'll make in the next five to 10 years?

You're right on one point: we don't want to let our jobs become the dominant forces in our lives. We believe in balancing family, work, and life. I'd rather work a straight 9-to-5 with a company that treats me right, even if that means making less, than slog away at it for decades. And for what? Does anyone lie on their deathbeds and think, "Gee, I wish I'd worked more at the office." I want to be healthy and relatively happy, and I don't think I can find that working the insane hours that Americans are expected to put in every week. There's more to life -- maybe part of why we feel that way is because many of us have been able to travel (on my own dime, thank you) and have seen that there are other ways of doing things, ways that might make a little more sense.

Frankly, I think people my age have taken a good look at people your age and decided that we don't want to be you. You don't have to like it.