Tag Archives: future

Debt…wasn’t that what it was really about?

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Somewhere along the way this veered away from what I thought it would be.  A blog about getting debt free in two years.  HAH!  The inspiration was the One Red Paperclip guy.  Surely if he could trade a paperclip for a house I could find a clever way to raise money to pay off my debt and help others with my humor and ingenuity, right? 

Have I discovered the best way to get debt free? No.  Am I debt free? No.  Was I as clever and dedicated as I wanted to be? Definitely not.

I have lived so much since I first started this blog.  So today this becomes what it is supposed to be today…an expression of freedom.  Freedom to think, feel and say what you want.

Hello, to everyone who reads this. To those who have been reading my sporadic posts. To those who are unsure what to think and feel about the  America we live in. I’ll get into this later.

Today, I really started the process of getting debt free. Unfortunately I had to start with a debt management company. Yep you know the ones. I had to. I have been drowning for years, with no relief in sight. I tried a debt consolidation loan and that put me in deeper than ever, the interest rate was huge and life happened. I had to use the credit cards again for a medical emergency. When you hear that people are one paycheck away from being in trouble if a medical emergency occurs. Believe them…I found out the hard way. My wonderful hubby is going to have to have spinal surgery so my medical issues are not over.

So…here I found myself stressed beyond comprehension. Working every single angle to get by…including dipping into my retirement…just trying to survive. Every minute of day, every week, every month an insurmountable collection of debt. I had to do something drastic.

Here are the goals:

  • get rid of credit card debt
  • get rid of car payments
  • get rid of medical payments
  • get my kids through college
  • find an effective side hustle that can actually generate money (I have a whole blog series that will get into this)
  • retire my husband so he doesn’t injure his spine further.

It doesn’t seem like a realistic lift, but I can assure you it is. I will not be drowning.

Since 2020. I lost 2 of my 3 income streams.

I had a full time job and two substantial clients. Since 2020, I started a new job. A great move. But I lost my two clients, they were unsustainable, and required more than I was willing to give outside of the scope of what we were contracted to do. But that was a combined loss that amounted to more than my one salary, which immediately put me under. I worked more than I have ever worked to keep up. I didn’t have the time to put in to find more clients that could make up for the two I lost, so I found several that could try to make up for what I had lost but without time to put into it it proved a feat of epic proportions. I took out the consolidation loan, I paid off most of the credit cards, I felt like I was making a bit of headway. Still on the cusp of overwhelmed but OK.

For almost two years I was making it each month but 2022 almost drowned me. My youngest had many mental health issues resulting from the COVID shut down, she landed in the hospital twice and had a suicide attempt and the medical bills started rolling in. Yes, we had insurance but that did not matter, insurance does not cover everything and you have to meet a deductible. I was still facing more bills than I could handle, so things started to falter. I was stubborn, not looking at reality…with the mindset “I spent the money I should pay it back. Its the right thing to do.” Until this month when I had to face facts, I was drowning. I needed help and had to ask for it. It was either bankruptcy or a debt management company. After many conversations I went with debt management, its going to kill my credit for the next year but better than the other option, bankruptcy which would kill my credit for about 7 years, and my creditors would see nothing. I did consult financial people. One was ColorMyCredit.com, Alisa has terrific advice. Her social media, TikTok in particular has amazing advice. Another was DebtFreeLatina.com, Mayra is so easy to talk to. You don’t have to be Latina in order to use her common sense approach to debt. I am not making any money by referring these two sites. I respect their advice.

I have some uncertain times still ahead as my husband goes in for surgery. As debt collectors start calling me to ask where their money is, until the debt management company, Accredited Debt Relief, attempts negotiate my debt down. But getting out from under some of the interest rates I was paying will definitely help.

FYI…I will be adding links to affiliate sites in future posts. If you like the stuff, it will help me for you to use my links to buy, but if you don’t want to just ignore. Or look at the stuff I use and then ignore it. I am very loyal to the brands I love.

There will also be political and personal feelings posts. So if you don’t like what I have to say don’t read it and don’t leave hateful posts. It takes too much energy for you and for me. It also accomplishes nothing.

As ever yours, I am who I am.

Is this who we are?

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3 years ago I still had hope that this country could open their eyes and see the monster that had just been elected to the highest office in this country.  I thought, maybe just maybe, we can turn this around.  Just use facts and reason, I said to myself.  But alas no.  This xenophobic, misogynistic, egotistical poor excuse for a human being is still there undoing decades worth of forward progress.

We are a country built on immigrants and now for the 3rd time in our short history we have herded human beings like animals and put them in internment camps or concentration camps.  Because the collective government “we” has decided that this group of people are dangerous and are costing the American public more than just money. Apparently, even if you study history you are bound to repeat it.

When will our shouts of terror be heard?  How is it that America is not decrying the acts of terrorism this president (lowercase is on purpose) is committing and he is still there.  How are we continuing to allow this?  How has the moral, ethical majority not knocked down those walls?  How are speecehes and articles and spewing the disgust helping these babies that cannot fall asleep on their mothers chest or look into their fathers eyes.

The Children’s camps are costing us $775 per day per child.  Why?  Why are we spending money to keep children away from their parents, away from loving homes,  we are creating a generation of dissent and mistrust with both every person in the camps, with those babies that are being held in the camps and with Us.  The American Public.  The ones who disagree and are vehemently opposed to the atrocities that we are witnessing.  These are human beings who want a better life, want to help their children have a better life, working, yes working, all those jobs that are deemed to low for even the homeless people who have set up tent cities in the middle of downtown Los Angeles.

We have jailed thousands of children.  We have jailed women and men who have done nothing wrong.  They are being housed like animals and not being provided with essential needs.  Did we not learn from the Internment Camps during WWII?  Or the Trail of Tears?

This is not the America I believe in.  This is not the world I want to live in.  What kind of world do you want to live in?  Do something!

I am who I am.

Read.  Read everything.  Don’t just read those who agree with you…read the opposing views.  Form your own opinion.  Inform yourself.  See below…

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pav877/american-concentration-camps-dhs-border-detainment-mexico

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/21/brief-history-us-concentration-camps

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/16/620451012/dhs-nearly-2-000-children-separated-from-adults-at-border-in-six-weeks

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/06/13/oklahoma-base-set-for-migrant-site-was-wwii-internment-camp/

 

Help Wanted. Electoral Voters to Make a Decision on Dec.19

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HELP WANTED:  At least 38 Electoral Voters needed to vote against their states popular vote.  If you believe that our Country is at risk of catapulting itself backwards 60+ years due to extreme ign…

Source: Help Wanted. Electoral Voters to Make a Decision on Dec.19

President Who?

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Ok here is how it works people. Educate yourself please. And share, share, share.

If you think your voice does not make a difference then you have already lost.

I am devastated at the thought that Donald Trump is our President Elect. There is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. He has given a voice to the closet racists, of whom there are many, to act out and voice those feelings. I am afraid for my daughters & friends which encompass a varied cornucopia of life. Is this the example of a man that I want them to have? No! Thank God for the men that are in our lives.

I am afraid for our freedoms and our capacity to be great. The vote just reduced us to an International laughing stock. Let’s watch on live TV how the very fabric of what we stand for from our forefathers to current time gets ripped apart by this megalomaniac narcissist. You can argue that he can’t do that because he has to go thru a process. But he can, he has the talent to cause chaos on a mass scale. So, yes he has the capacity to do that. Why? He doesn’t give up and never stops to think he might be wrong. He is goal oriented, organized and extremely manipulative. He rules by fear and steps on anyone who opposes him. That’s why. Putin, Stalin, Hitler, Tom Jones, Kim Jong Un, Fidel Castro…so many that have risen so far, only to put their own people down like dogs. I have the shivers just writing this.

We just answered that age old question ‘How could the people have let this happen?’ Just like this. By allowing fear and ignorance to rule as opposed to righteousness and love.

If this is what I have to accept. So be it. I am an American. I will stand for my country. He will be his own undoing. I don’t see how he can make it 4 years without committing an impeachable act. Can he be impeached for acts he committed before gaining the Presidency? I don’t know. I will be researching and studying from today on, because I want to know.

Here is what I do know. There is still hope. Please read this carefully. Do your own research and share, share, share? Make this something everyone knows right now. Today. NOW!!!!

Let me try to explain it. There are 538 Electoral votes up for grabs. A candidate needs 270 to nab the presidency. The final decision will be made on Dec 19 when The Electoral College casts their votes. Generally, Electors will pledge their vote to the candidate that wins their state. They are Pledged Electors. If they vote differently than their pledge they become “faithless electors”. Listen carefully now there are only 21 states.  Some Electors do not pledge their vote and are called Unpledged Electors, they will usually swing the way their state goes. In an election where the margins are so paper thin, they the “faithless” can swing the election the other way. They can but are they willing? That is the nail biter now.

The vote was split in a very close race, where the assumption is the the Electoral Vote is going to stand as it is now at:

228 (232 CNN.com) Hilary Clinton

despite the popular vote:

59,938,290 Hilary Clinton

59,704,886 DT

This can make the difference. Not in the states where the margin is more than 5% points but how about in the states where the margin was so so close. Only problem is Can those Electors have the courage and bravado to become “faithless electors“? The biggest hurdle is that 29 out of the 50 states are either bound to their party by law or impose fines to those who go against their party. There are 21 states where the Elector is not bound by law. I have to go thru the list and I will post it.

There is a precedent where the Electoral College has chosen the Presidency despite the Polpular Vote.

This has happened 4 times our past history.

1824: John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson (Meh..was chosen by the House of Representatives because the electors could not reach a majority vote)

1876: Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J Tilden

1888: Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleaveland

2000: George W. Bush over Al Gore

So on Dec 19th, The Electoral College, that we just helped elect, will cast their votes. The majority of the time the Electors will vote by way of the popular vote ( 1824 doesn’t really count but that’s a much longer story).

If Hillary keeps her holds and gains just 38 more votes…there can be a flip of the Presidency to her. Below are the states with the tightest margin.

Florida (29) 47.8% 49.1% Elector bound to party

Michigan (16) 47.3% 47.6% Elector bound to party

Pennsylvania (20) 47.6% 48.8% Electors not bound to state

Wisconsin (10) 46.9% 47.9% Elector bound to party

Arizona (11) 45.3% 49.7% Electors not bound to party

North Carolina (15) 46.7% 50.5% Elector bound to party

What now? Well take it to a ROARING Social Media. There are 60 million people out there that did not want DT in office. They spoke loudly and spoke very clearly…now 60 million, the majority, need to convince those 38 Electoral Voters that our country is on the verge of regressing to a time when women could not vote(Susan B. Anthony is rolling in her grave) and black people were considered animals. A place where a homosexual would stay in the closet and shivel and hide. Where a tran-of-any-permutation was an abomination. This is not what I am teaching my kids, I would like my country to continue to move forward. A place that is not perfect but at least a life matters, no matter how they choose to live it.

I am what I am.

NOW GO GO GO…SHARE EVERY STORY EVERY ACT THAT EXEMPLIFIES WHAT WE DONT WANT. SHARE EVERY ARTICLE AND EVERY ESSAY.

DON’T SAY BAD WORDS. USE LOVE TO PASS ON YOUR MESSAGE. USE PEACE AND DON’T ACT LIKE TOOHLESS CAVE PEOPLE. BE EXAMPLES NOT STATISTICS.

SHARE SHARE SHARE. NOW GOGOGO.