The LA Times Money Makeover: Director needs to change her financial script profiles 50-year-old freelance director and single mom Jodi Binstock. While she is fortunate to be working and making between $60,000 – $80,000 in her field, Jodi has only accumulated $70,500 in assets ($68,000 in retirement accounts and $2,500 in savings), while her liabilities total $570,700 ($454,000 in home mortgage and $71,000 in a home equity line of credit. $45,700 in credit card debt).

Jodi Binstock has the long resume of a steadily employed Hollywood creative type: She has directed movies and plays, put in stints working for TV networks and had her share of fallow periods.

Her income has gone up and down. And as the single mother of a 10-year-old, she’s chosen frequently in recent years to bypass some well-paying but demanding gigs in favor of work that lets her get home by dinnertime. A decade of that, however, has left Binstock, 50, in a financial bind.

She juggles several freelance entertainment jobs, including serving as a graphics producer for the E and Style networks and producer of “Web Therapy,” an online series starring Lisa Kudrow. She typically earns $60,000 to $80,000 over the course of a year.

But her monthly expenses exceed her income by more than $2,000. She carries $45,700 in credit card debt. There’s no equity left in her small Los Angeles home. And to keep payments low on her $454,000 mortgage and $71,000 home equity line of credit, Binstock is paying mostly interest and not reducing the principal balances. She has about $2,500 in emergency savings and $68,000 set aside for retirement. Her pension from the Directors Guild of America will be less than $200 a year.

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After her fixed monthly costs of nearly $2,000 for her credit card payments and $2,500 for mortgage payments, she and Logan spend less than $3,000 a month.

Yikes! There is a lot of debt and not a lot of assets in this money makeover. The makeover does not say if Jodi’s home is now worth less than what she owes – hopefully not, because selling seems like the only sensible option to me. I am a bit amazed that one adult and one child can be spending $3,000 per month. There must be a lot of savings opportunities in that number.

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