Built from 57 statements, Jan–Jul 2026 · 8 credit cards, 2 banks · Last updated Aug 10, 2026 (Marriott Bonvoy Premier added)
Total card debt
$39,315
46.0% of $85,500 in limits
Interest cost
$504/mo
$6,044/yr — 14% of gross income
Monthly gap
−$1,404
Spending vs. $3,600 income · incl. IRS $63
Net worth excl. IRA
−$44,068
$290 cash cushion · <1 week of costs
New on Aug 10 — a ninth account was missing.
The Marriott Bonvoy Premier (Chase …7736) card was not in the Budget folder when this page was
built. Seven statements, Jan–Jul 2026, are now filed and reconciled.
$3,797.78 at 19.49%, $8,500 line, closes the 10th, due the 7th. Total card debt moves
$35,517 → $39,315. Utilization is essentially unchanged at 46.0%, because the card
brings its own limit.
Three recurring charges were missing from the budget with it — Starlink $130, Clipper
autoreload $75, YouTube Premium $15.99. They run only on this card, so no other statement showed them.
With the card's ~$97 minimum, that is $318/mo of outflow that was invisible. The gap
moves −$1,023 → −$1,341, and the IRS installment below takes it to
−$1,404.
This card grows on its own. Autopay is set to the minimum (~$97) against ~$221 of
recurring charges plus ~$60 of interest — a drift of about +$183/mo, observed at
+$187.62 in July. It went from $338.14 last December to $3,797.78 in July. Nothing self-corrects at
the current autopay setting.
Did it change the balance transfer? Only slightly. By rate, Marriott (19.49%) should
have ranked ahead of United and Bass Pro (18.74%) on the 7/25 form. That 0.75-point gap on $3,798 is
about $28/yr. The transfer as submitted was still the right call.
How it was missed: the original build reconciled 50 statements across eight accounts
perfectly, and still carried a budget with no internet line and no transit line in San Francisco.
Reconciliation checks the accounts you have. It says nothing about the account you do not.
Time-sensitive items.USAA AmEx: 98.9% utilization ($22,745 of $23,000), over-limit at the 3/10 and 4/09 closes.
Citi: the 9.99% promo on ~$522 expires 10/19/2026, then reprices to 26.49%.
SFFCU Visa is now current. The July statement (close 7/25) confirms it: past due
$0.00, no late fee, and the 17.99% penalty-APR risk cleared. Autopay is configured — $175/mo via USAA
bill pay, first delivery 8/17, ahead of the 8/22 due date. 2026 fees on this card stay at $30 (the two $15
late fees from May and June).
What changed on Jul 28, from the July SFFCU statement:
Balance $6,460.67 → $6,965.98 (+$505). $724.26 in purchases, $159 paid, $36.05 interest,
and a $96.00 Midjourney refund.
Midjourney $96.00 was refunded in full on 7/14 — you requested it. That line is closed.
BeFunky $71.88 was a separate request and has not been reversed; still outstanding.
The $5,594.08 balance transfer has not posted yet. It was submitted on the statement's
closing date, so expect it on the 8/25 statement. Keep the Citi / United / Bass Pro autopays running.
Correction — the SFFCU minimum is 1.0% of the balance, not 2.46%. The old figure came from
June's $159 minimum, but $94 of that was past due. Every figure on this page that depends on minimums has
been recomputed. Post-transfer the SFFCU minimum will be about $126/mo, not the ~$300 previously
stated — so the $175 autopay covers it on its own.
Every card, every term
Balance risingBalance flatPaid in full monthly
Card
Balance
APR
Interest/mo
Min due
6-month trend
Status
Card
Balance
Limit
Util
Purchase APR
Cash APR
Annual fee
Late fee
Closes
Due
Annual fees: United $95 (posted 5/01/2026, next ~5/01/2027), Citi $99 (posted 6/22/2026) and
Marriott Bonvoy Premier $85 (posted 6/01/2026, next ~6/01/2027) — $279/yr combined. Both issuers offer a "product change" to a no-fee version of the same card, which
keeps the credit line and account age intact. Handled by phone.
Payment calendar — next 30 days
Due dates fall in two clusters: the 4th–10th (AmEx $540, Bass Pro $27, Marriott $97, Amazon $67
= $731) and the 17th–25th (Chase $145, Citi $41, SFFCU $70, United $98 = $354). SYDA pays roughly weekly, so the first two
paychecks of the month cover cluster one and the last two cover cluster two.
SFFCU Visa spending — 2-month average
New charges: $1,128.33 (May) and $1,192.62 (June). Payments received: $15.00 total.
Both months reconcile exactly to the statement totals.
Dining detail: 45 transactions over two months, $30.83 average. Largest recurring:
Patxi's Pizza $149.63 (3×), Himawari Tei $139.79 (2×), Zen Yai Thai $117.39 (4×), Udon Mugizo $76.96 (2×).
DoorDash delivery accounted for $142.90 across 4 orders.
Anthropic — resolved, one subscription not two. The charges are $100.00 on the USAA debit card
(4/17), $5.92 on the SFFCU Visa (5/06), then $100.00 on the SFFCU Visa (6/07). That's a single Claude Max plan
($100/mo) that moved payment method mid-cycle, with the $5.92 as proration. Claude Code and desktop usage are
included in Pro and Max — there is no separate web-vs-local billing, so there's nothing to consolidate here.
Midjourney $96 and BeFunky $71.88 each appear once, and both match those services' annual
price points rather than monthly. Treating them as annual, recurring AI/software is ~$137/mo
(Claude Max $100, ChatGPT $20, Render $3.33, Midjourney ~$8, BeFunky ~$6) — not the $260 a raw two-month
average implies. One more statement will confirm.
Monthly cash flow
Income $3,600/mo (4 × $900 from SYDA, April being the one fully-covered calendar month).
1099 with no withholding, so the tax reserve is listed as a line item.
Arithmetic: rent + card minimums + tax reserve + IRS installment =
$3,406.80 against $3,600 income, leaving +$193/mo to
cover everything else. Adding food ($764), AI/software ($137), other variable (~$300),
utilities/phone/insurance ($155), Starlink ($130), Clipper ($75) and the smaller subscriptions brings it
to −$1,404/mo.
Corrected Aug 10. Starlink, Clipper and YouTube Premium run only on the Marriott card and
were absent from this table until that card was filed. With the Marriott minimum they add
$318/mo that was previously uncounted. Starlink first appears 4/02 at $120 and rose to $130
on 7/02; Clipper has been a steady $75/mo since February.
Two cards are absorbing the difference: the SFFCU Visa grew $1,240 in June and $505 in July, and the
Marriott card is adding about $188/mo of its own.
Income context: $900/week for 15 billable hours is $60/hr. The Feb–Mar check deposits
($1,410 / $1,230 / $1,140) were also SYDA, at roughly $3,780/mo — so the switch to a 15-hour cap cost
about $180/mo, and the income line is effectively fixed at this ceiling.
What to do, in what order
The annual gap is $16,850. Ranked by what actually closes it.
Lever
Annual
% of gap
Income — SYDA Tier B, or one retainer
$23,900
142%
Food $764 → $350
$4,968
29%
File the 2023 return (one-time)
$3,828
23%
Recurring subscription cuts
$1,080
6%
AmEx hardship 16.40% → 9%
~$1,040
6%
Second SFFCU transfer
$312
2%
Every non-income recurring lever combined is $7,400/yr — 44% of the gap. Income alone is 142%.
Income isn't the last item on the list; it's about three times everything else put together, and it's the only
lever that finishes the job by itself. Expense discipline is worth doing — $7,400 is real money — but it can't
close this, and hours spent there are hours not spent on the lever that can.
By Sep 15 — Q3 estimated tax payment
Hard deadline, 35 days out.
This month — price the fee schedule
Every rung in FEE-SCHEDULE-STRUCTURE.md reads TBD. Costs nothing but a decision and blocks
all revenue. Nothing can be quoted until it exists.
This month — one FTB / Secretary of State lookup
LLC status, accrued franchise tax, and personal California balance. Three unknowns, one lookup. Currently
the largest unmeasured liability on the board.
This month — correct compensation-ask.md for the IRS $63
+$1,033/yr per tier. It exists to be quoted from, so it shouldn't be stale.
Next 90 days — the SYDA conversation at ~$71,733
The single highest-impact action available. 142% of the gap, one counterparty, already in flight.
Closes the gap on its own
Next 90 days — engage a CPA
2023, 2024 and 2025 filings plus the suspended LLC. Four threads, one engagement.
By Oct 19 — confirm the transfer posted
Citi promo expires and the rate jumps to 26.49%.
By ~Apr 15, 2027 — file the 2023 return
$3,828.38 expires.
$3,828 one-time
Everything else — food, subscriptions, the second transfer — is worth doing and none of it is urgent.
Do it while waiting on the items above, not instead of them.
The runway — 28 months to December 2028
Born June 1969; 59½ falls in December 2028. These months are a runway, not a wait —
the plan is to build the consulting practice inside them. The IRA is a backstop with a date on it.
What standing still costs. 28 months × the $1,404/mo gap = $39,317 of new
debt. Current card debt is $39,315. At today's gap the card debt roughly
doubles by the time the penalty expires — so waiting doesn't preserve the IRA, it spends it in
advance. That is a stronger argument for the practice than the $25,022 penalty ever was.
★ Two routes, one gap. The SYDA renegotiation and the consulting practice both close the
same $23K hole, and they land $881 apart.
Route to $23,019/yr
Annual
vs target
SYDA renegotiation to Tier B ($70,700 − $46,800)
$23,900
104%
One Rung-3 advisory retainer @ $2,000/mo
$24,000
104%
One advisory @ $1,500/mo + one $5,000 audit
$23,000
100%
Fractional COO @ $200/hr, 10 hrs/mo
$24,000
104%
Fractional COO @ $150/hr, 10 hrs/mo
$18,000
78%
Audits only @ $5,000 / $7,500
4.6 / 3.1 per yr
—
The blocking item is pricing, not capability. Every rung of the ladder in
FEE-SCHEDULE-STRUCTURE.md reads TBD. The structure is settled — Audit → Build →
Install Practice → Advisory — and the evidence is strong: Annapurna ran to 379 merged PRs, 946
commits, ~42,000 lines of Python, solo, four months, live in production, with four written case
studies behind it. But nothing can be quoted against prices that don't exist.
Colton's own market references: fractional COO median $200/hr, 25th percentile $150,
US range $150–500; senior nonprofit consultant $175–300. He bills $60/hr today.
Also open: the 4–6 validation interviews haven't happened, and Case Study Zero — the money
system itself, missed account and card numbers included — is unwritten.
Suspended California LLC — new, Aug 11.Colton Weeks, LLC is suspended
with the California Secretary of State / FTB. The $800 annual minimum franchise tax accrues while
suspended, and a suspended LLC generally can't be dissolved without first being revived.
How many years have accrued is unknown — plausibly several thousand dollars sitting
outside every balance on this page. It also blocks a branding decision and sits in the same California
blind spot as the unchecked personal FTB balance. One lookup answers it.
Assets — the IRA, added Aug 10
Equity Trust self-directed traditional IRA, 100% physical precious metals, dealer Birch Gold
Group. Q2 2026 statement, period Apr 1 – Jun 30, 2026. Until today this system modeled liabilities only.
IRA market value
$250,221
as of Jun 30, 2026 · $0.00 cash
Year to date
−$59,479
−19.2% in six months
Net worth
+$206,153
assets $250,764 − liabilities $44,611
Net worth excl. IRA
−$44,068
the month actually being lived in
Holding
Units
Market value
1 kilo silver bar
36
$68,890.68
50 gram gold bar — Valcambi
10
$64,701.90
2021 1 oz gold Britannia — Great Britain
10
$40,250.00
1 oz Austrian silver Philharmonic
549
$32,676.48
1 oz platinum bar
14
$21,851.20
1 oz platinum bar — Argor-Heraeus
14
$21,851.20
Uninvested cash
—
$0.00
Total
$250,221.46
It is falling, and quickly. $309,700.01 on Jan 1 → $304,273.62 on Apr 1 →
$250,221.46 on Jun 30. That is −$59,479 year to date, −19.2% in six months,
and all of it is price movement — no purchases, sales or distributions in the quarter. For contrast, the
12/31/2024 Form 5498 showed $143,403, so the position roughly doubled through 2025 and has since given back
a fifth of that.
Three risks stack: one asset class, one dealer, and a $0.00 cash sleeve —
any distribution means selling metal first. Equity Trust's own disclosure notes the statement figure is a
prior-day spot indication that excludes dealer markups and premiums and "may not represent the value
received if you sell."
What this changes — and what it doesn't. Net worth is +$206,153. Net worth
excluding the IRA is −$44,068. The second number describes the month actually being
lived in: the IRA doesn't pay rent, and the −$1,404/mo gap is unchanged by it.
Age confirmed Aug 11: 57 — under 59½, so reaching it today costs ordinary income tax
plus a 10% additional tax under IRC 72(t). On the full balance that penalty alone is
$25,022. Full liquidation nets about $165,146 at a 24% effective rate — 66%
of statement value — against roughly $190,168 at 59½.
The 10% expires on its own, roughly 2.5 years out — somewhere between early 2028 and early
2029 depending on birth month, which still isn't recorded. Waiting is worth a flat $25,022 at any tax rate,
because the penalty scales with the withdrawal rather than the bracket. Rule of 55 doesn't apply to IRAs;
a 72(t) SEPP would have to run to age 62.
Arithmetic, not advice. A large distribution stacks on 1099 income and moves the bracket, so the real rate
would need a CPA to size. The acquisition basis for the metals isn't in this folder either — statement value
excludes dealer markup, so what was paid and what it's worth are two different questions.
IRS — qualified against 11 transcripts, Aug 10
Tax year 2022. Balance $5,296.23 — tax $3,550.54 + interest $827.67 +
penalty $918.02, as of Aug 24, 2026. Assessed Dec 4, 2023; agreement established Feb 21, 2026;
$63/mo running correctly. Reading the transcripts also turned up three unfiled returns.
★ The biggest number on this page isn't the debt — it's an expiring credit.Tax year 2023 has no return filed and holds a $3,828.38 CREDIT. A payment of $3,828.38
posted Jan 11, 2024; no return was ever filed against it. Refund and credit claims generally expire
three years after the due date — about April 15, 2027, roughly eight months out. Applied
against the 2022 balance that would leave $1,467.85.
Recoverable only to the extent the actual 2023 liability lands below it — filing is what reveals that.
2024 is also unfiled (non-filing inquiry Jun 16, 2026, CP59 notice Jul 6, 2026),
and 2025 is unconfirmed. This is CPA / enrolled-agent work with a hard date on it.
Two things to separate. The $530/mo tax reserve is forward-looking — it
covers 2026 1099 income the IRS has not billed yet, with the Q3 estimated payment due 9/15. The
$63/mo installment is backward-looking — 2022 tax already assessed. Combined tax outflow
is $593.23/mo.
Bookkeeping error confirmed and corrected. This page previously showed "$63 paid to date"
against the 2026 reserve. The transcript shows those payments posting to the 2022 account.
2026 estimated tax paid to date is $0 and the 9/15 obligation is unreduced.
The penalty is already at its cap — the earlier estimate was too pessimistic.
Failure-to-pay caps at 25% of tax: 0.25 × $3,550.54 = $887.63, against $918.02
already accrued. No further penalty accrues; only interest, at 7% for Q3 2026.
$30.89/mo of interest against a $63 payment — $32.11 reaches principal.
That is 9.7 years, not the 12.6 estimated before the transcript was read.
Payment
Payoff
Interest
Total paid on $5,296
$63/mo — current
116 mo · 9.7 yr
$2,005
$7,302
$100/mo
64 mo · 5.3 yr
$1,057
$6,353
$150/mo
40 mo · 3.3 yr
$652
$5,948
$200/mo
29 mo · 2.4 yr
$474
$5,770
$250/mo
23 mo · 1.9 yr
$374
$5,670
$300/mo
19 mo · 1.6 yr
$309
$5,606
Sequence the filing before the payment increase. Going from $63 to $150 costs $87/mo and
saves $1,353 plus six years — real, but a smaller prize than it looked before the
transcript was read, and it competes for the same $193/mo of floor headroom. If the 2023
credit lands, most of this balance disappears on its own. File first, then decide the payment.
Collection statute. The IRS generally has 10 years from assessment to collect.
Assessed Dec 4, 2023 → roughly Dec 4, 2033. At $63/mo the payoff lands around 2035, past it.
A fact worth knowing, not a strategy to rely on — the IRS can review an agreement and raise the payment.
Still open: whether the agreement is direct-debit or manual-pay · the 2025 filing status ·
California, which assesses separately and has not been checked at all.
Balance transfer to the SFFCU line — modeled
Full monthly amortization, avalanche order (highest APR first) after minimums. Chase Freedom and Amazon Prime
are excluded — they're paid in full each month and carry no interest, so there's nothing to move.
Transferable revolving debt is Citi, United, Bass Pro and the AmEx.
What moves, at each SFFCU utilization target (no fee — confirmed 7/25)
Target
Citi
United
Bass Pro
AmEx
Fees
SFFCU after
As submitted 7/25
$752
$3,778
$1,064
—
$0
$12,560 (83.7%)
90% ($13,500)
$752
$3,778
$1,064
$940
$0
$13,500
100% ($15,000)
$752
$3,778
$1,064
$2,440
$0
$15,000
Payoff outcome at $1,000/month
Recomputed Aug 10 with the Marriott balance included. Every figure is
larger than the Jul 28 version because there is $3,798 more debt in the model — the scenarios did not get worse,
the picture got complete. The rate-optimal rows now place Marriott ahead of United and Bass Pro.
Scenario
Payoff
Total interest
Year-1 interest
New minimums
vs. no transfer
No transfer
53 mo
$13,880
$5,506
$874
—
As submitted 7/25
50 mo
$10,885
$4,763
$764
−$2,995
SFFCU to 90% (rate-optimal)
50 mo
$10,442
$4,627
$750
−$3,438
SFFCU to 100% (rate-optimal)
49 mo
$9,825
$4,449
$743
−$4,055
Correction to my earlier figure. I first quoted ~$1,028/yr for this, which was a static
rate-differential on current balances. That overstates it: under avalanche the small high-APR balances
(Citi at 26.49%, Bass Pro at 18.74%) get cleared in the first several months anyway, so the differential
only applies while they exist. The real number is ~$630–770 in year one and
$2,200–3,000 over the life of the payoff, depending on how far you fill the line.
SFFCU confirmed no transfer fee, so the fee variable is gone. Still worth doing — just not as large as I said.
The more useful effect: the transfer lowers your required minimums from $874 to
$743–764. Right now your minimums exceed what the budget can sustain, so this makes the plan mechanically
feasible rather than merely cheaper. The transfer as submitted lands at 83.7% utilization and
within $1,060 of the best case, while keeping a $2,440 buffer on the line.
That $2,440 of remaining room is now a decision. Moving that much Marriott balance from
19.49% to 6.70% saves about $312/yr; the full Marriott balance at the same spread would be
$486/yr. The tradeoff is that it puts SFFCU at ~99.7% of its line and removes the account that has been
absorbing the monthly deficit. That is the number, not a recommendation.
How much the monthly payment matters (transfer as submitted, no fee)
For reference: minimums-only across all six revolving cards, with no transfer, runs
377 months — 31.4 years — and $45,847 in interest, more than the principal itself.
Minimums-only after the transfer is worse, not better — 508 months and $48,565 —
because moving balances onto the SFFCU 1.0% minimum shrinks the required payment. The transfer only helps
if the payment level is held. It is not self-executing.
The AmEx rate dominates everything. At $1,000/mo with the submitted transfer posted, moving the AmEx
from 16.40% ($10,885) to a hardship rate changes total interest as follows: 12% → $8,136 · 9% → $6,553 · 5% → $4,448.
A drop to 9% saves $4,332 — more than the balance transfer and the food target combined, and
worth more than the Jul 28 estimate because the balance being modeled is now complete.
That phone call is the single highest-value item on this page.
Options, ranked by dollar impact
Bring the SFFCU Visa current — done 7/24
Confirmed current. The 17.99% penalty-APR exposure on the lowest rate you hold is cleared.
One piece remains: autopay is still not configured on this card. It's the only one of the
seven without it, and that's what allowed the 5/03 and 6/02 late fees. Setting it once removes the failure
mode permanently.
Protected ~$730/yr
Set up a tax reserve
2026 estimate on $34,200 of 1099 income: SE tax ~$4,832, federal ~$1,258, CA ~$273 — around
$6,400 (19%). $0 paid to date — the $63 previously recorded here is
the IRS back-tax installment for a prior year, a separate liability that does not reduce the 2026
estimate. That's ~$530/mo. Q3 estimated payment is due 9/15.
Business expenses from the fractional-COO work — AI subscriptions, home office, mileage — would reduce this,
possibly by a lot. Estimate only; a CPA can size it properly.
Balance transfer onto the SFFCU line
Fill to 90% of the $15,000 line: Citi $752, United $3,778, Bass Pro $1,064, AmEx $1,307, plus ~$138 in
fees. Saves ~$2,352 over the payoff and drops required minimums from $867 to $842. See the modeled
section above for the full comparison. Requires being current first; relocates debt rather than reducing
it, and only holds if the cleared cards stay at zero.
~$2,995 over the payoff · minimums −$110/mo
Ask USAA about hardship or rate-reduction programs
$22,745 at 16.40% generates $311/mo interest against ~$545 payments, so ~57% of each payment is interest.
Issuer hardship programs commonly run 5–9% for 12 months. Modeled at $1,000/mo with the transfer done:
16.40% → $10,885 total interest, 12% → $8,136, 9% → $6,553, 5% → $4,448. Availability varies; it's a
phone call to find out.
A drop to 9% saves ~$4,332
Recurring line items
Revised down — the Anthropic charge is one subscription, not two. Available: ChatGPT $20/mo (Claude Max
covers most of the same ground), Midjourney and BeFunky at their annual renewals (~$14/mo combined),
United + Citi annual fees via product change ($16/mo), and Trump Mobile $55.50 vs ~$15 on an MVNO ($40/mo).
One-time decisions rather than ongoing tracking.
~$90/mo
Food spending
Currently $764/mo combined ($694 dining, $70 groceries). At $350/mo that's ~$414 recovered. Mechanically
the simplest version is a fixed weekly amount on one card rather than per-transaction tracking.
Any target between $350 and $764 scales linearly.
Up to ~$414/mo
Income
Items 3–6 total roughly $570/mo of recurring effect against a $1,404 gap, leaving ~$834. Billable hours
are capped at 15/wk at $60/hr, so the SYDA line is fixed — this has to come from outside it. Rent is $1,940,
54% of gross and 63% of after-tax. The remaining ~$540 comes from either the housing line or added income;
one coaching client at thirteen hours a month at that same $60/hr rate would cover it. The full brief on the
SYDA ask is in compensation-ask.md, revised Aug 10: break-even is now
$68,800/yr and the pay-down target $70,700/yr, against $46,800 today.
Mechanics worth knowing: keeping the Chase Freedom and Amazon Prime cards open preserves
available credit and account age, both of which affect utilization and score — even at zero balance they
cost nothing. Cash advances on these cards run 28–30% with no grace period, so they're the most expensive
liquidity available here.
Another option: NFCC-member nonprofit credit counseling agencies negotiate debt management
plans that typically bring rates to 6–9% across all cards at once. Consultation is free. Relevant if the
items above don't close the gap.