Pixels Sold: 0
Pixels remaining: 1,000,000
Pixels remaining: 1,000,000
Hasn't this been done before?
Sure has, but a good idea is a good idea. I've got a domain name, I've got a server, I have the skills to code a web site, why not make some money off it, right?
What made you decide to do this?
When my debt started to outpace my income. I'm not saying I'm spending money faster than I can earn it because I have to have the latest and greatest toys. OK, so I do want the latest and greatest, but it's been years since I've had them.
It started with getting married to the woman of my dreams. We didn't have a big wedding, in fact, I think we had one of the least expensive weddings I've ever been to (but that because the place we got married only charged us for the reception, big thanks to them). I didn't have an extra penny at the time (having just scrimped and saved for an engagement ring) so I put everything on the old credit card and then used one of those 0% interest card deals. Now, almost 3 years later I'm still paying it off (Still interest free). I should pause here and mention that the money put on the card also helped cover the down payment for our house (a modest two bedroom home).
So now married and living in our new home we had a budget and it was good. We had a mortgage, two college loans, a car loan (hers, my car was paid for) and a credit card with a hefty balance. Didn't bother me at all then, I never liked to carry a balance on a credit card, but we were making the money to cover it and weren't being charged any interest. Soon we even paid off her car loan; everything seemed great.
That was when troubles started, my car started to take a turn for the worse. Seemed like something was always going wrong with it. And then it died on me while I was driving to work. To get it repaired would cost $1500.00, money we didn't have. But if we didn't have money to repair, we really didn't have money to buy something else. So we paid our money and got the car back and it ran better than I can remember. Until...
One day on the way home from work in a light snow a woman in the northbound lanes crossed the median and struck me while I was traveling in the southbound lanes. The car, being a '92, was written off as a total loss. The insurance company gave me $530, not even enough to break even with how much I spent fixing it the previous year.
So with $530 and a generous $2000 gift from my parents we bought a "new" (read: used) car. So now instead of paying off debt, I'm accumulating more. It's tight on the budget, but we're making it work.
The next new debt is health related, for reason of personal privacy I'll not be any more detailed on that. Nothing life threatening though, if you were worried.
As if that weren't enough to keep us spending every cent we have trying to pay our way out, my "new" car decided to blow it's engine. That's not cheap, but once more I was in the situation that repair was the lesser of two evils.
So here I stand: a mortgage, two college loans, a car loan, a health care loan and credit card debt (that seems to have grown more than shrink). Both my wife and I will be taking part time jobs. It is my sincere hope that this website will be a successful business (let me emphasis "business", you do get something for your money, it's not charity) and maybe I can pay my way out of the hole, spend time with my wife again... and who knows, maybe even bring a kid into this world.
Does that debt really equal a million dollars?
No, not even close. But the million dollars page has a nicer sound to it. I like knowing that I can fall far short of my goal and still be able to call this site a success. And I could certainly use the extra money if I plan to have kids some day... which I do, and someday soon I hope.