Monthly Archives: May 2009

May 30, 2009

How To Survive & Maybe Even Thrive In Our Down Economy

Sunny yellow flower by Sharee Basinger

Sunny yellow flower by Sharee Basinger

The economy has been in a tailspin for longer than most people care to admit, but in the past year it has really hit home for people all across the world. While many want to place blame here or maybe there, I think that this may be just what the doctor ordered for this generation of reckless consumers (read the whole post before you go disagreeing, and leave your comments below). I know from reading questions on Mamapedia and Mamasource that many of you or your spouses  are unemployed or were unemployed and then had to take a job making so much less than you were earning previously, these situations place a major financial  and emotional burden on a household.

How does one get past that and get on with living a life of abundance? How does one get on with anything when bill collectors and mortgage companies have you on speed dial and remind you daily of your problems ?

The first thing that you  have to do is accept responsibility for your own  debt – whether it be a mountain or a molehill, if you don’t own it now then you will pay it off and just make more more.  You made it and now you need to claim it, neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama took that 7 day cruise for 5  that you put on your Visa card.  So don’t blame them, blame yourself and let’s get past the blamng.

Next, you and I both know that the Chrysler Government bailout will not be extended to any of us, heck the plan that was put in place to supposedly help people with their mortgages may never come to fruition for you. There are many small mortgage companies (like Litton) that are flying under the radar and bleeding their mortgagees dry. So the second thing you have to do is accept that you have got to fix your own financial problems.

Third, unless you are facing foreclosure on your home or your car is about to be repossessed,  don’t even consider bankruptcy. Filing bankruptcy to solve credit card and other debt issues, is like  putting a tourniquet on a paper cut. OK, that’s a bit extreme, but what I mean is that some forms of bankruptcy and “debt consolidation”

  1. leave you with a higher monthly payment than you had before
  2. ruin your credit for seven or more years ( did you know that getting into a “credit counseling” program appears on your credit as worse than bankruptcy?)
  3. are a temporary fix – I know people who have filed bankruptcy more than once, why? Because they did not learn from their mistake!

So, what can you do? Now here is why I say that this economic crisis is an opportunity for the rest of us. Here is our chance to :

  • figure out how to get rid of debt
  • learn to live within our means
  • create wealth for ourselves and future generations

Since you did not create your debt overnight you will not erase your debt overnight. Start by looking for ways that you can create additional income right now from selling things that you do not use to getting into a work at home opportunity or home-based business. I tell you how to handle those harassing phone calls in my post Your Reality Bites – How to Deal With Bill Collectors & Other Blood Suckers .

In my next post I will show you  some tools that will help you to create a budget and erase your debt without bankruptcy or credit counseling.

May 25, 2009

The Effect Of A Passing Storm

Rest in Peace Storm

Rest in Peace Storm

Back in 1994 my then teenaged boys chose the black pup with the white chest from a litter of brown pups. She was a beautiful puppy with white paws and  a diamond shaped white spot on the back of her neck which  was probably why my son Khalil named her Storm.

Back then I was working on my degree and Storm kept me company  when I stayed up all night doing homework. When the kids grew up and moved out and my husband went on tour with El Pus, it was the presence of Storm in the house that helped me to not feel quite as paranoid as I can get to feeling.

She’s always been the kids’ dog or my husband’s dog but within the past two years or so I began to realize that dogs really can be as neurotic as their owners and that in some ways Storm and I (being the only females in the house) had acquired each others habits:

  • we are  both slightly deaf and you may have to call us several times before we come
  • we both enjoy a good rub (top of the head, behind the ears, back, belly) or a good brush as long as you go with the fur
  • we both run to the kitchen and get very happy when our men get home (but we try not to do it at the same time)
  • we are both very  jumpy, Storm is very sensitive to noises and quite capable of scaring herself while eating or drinking (did I mention that she trips over her own paws?)
  • we are also both going gray and losing our eyesight
  • and finally we are both getting older but we look pretty damn good

Last night I was fooling around doing online surveys and listening to some recorded calls when my husband came upstairs and we started talking about fast food commercials. Then he started telling me how Storm wanted to go out but got to the back porch and did that thing she does where she doesn’t actually want to go outside, so he left her on the porch and continue watching the Lakers/Nuggets.  When he checked on her he noticed that she had done her business right there on the porch and he got some paper and cleaned it up and then when he came back she was laying there dead.

Let me interject here that my husband is a bit of a kidder and the fact that he took so long to tell me this tale led me to the conclusion that he was kidding me , which is what I said and what I really truly wanted to believe.  So I ran downstairs to check, and sure enough Storm was laying  stretched out on the back porch and her eyes were open.

There’s not much else to say except I didn’t know that the death of  my dog would leave me so…so grief-stricken. Rest in peace my constant companion, I will miss you laying under my feet as I work at the kitchen table; I will miss your dismissive glance as I enter the kitchen from the garage each afternoon; most of all I will miss just knowing that you are here protecting me when no one else is home.

I know that you have gone to that big kitchen in the sky and that even now you are circling the island hoping that St Peter will drop a hot dog at the Memorial Day barbecue. But as your master always told you – be a Lady Storm, just be a Lady.

May 17, 2009

Yes, But I’m Not Interested in Residual Income

These were the words uttered to me by a young man to whom I had been speaking about my business opportunity. I admit that I was so surprised that I just said “OK, bye”.  In retrospect I should have asked him just what he thought residual income was!  After all, who wouldn’t want income that you work for once and continue to make month after month and year after year?

Well  here is a short tutorial for those who don’t know or understand what residual income is.

Residual income is also know as passive or recurring income- passive because once you do the work  that one time(sign a new business partner , sell an autoship for a product, or sign someone to a membership program) the money that’s generated from that one transaction will continue to be paid to you at specified intervals.

Imagine that you work at an Exxon gas station where you provide such good customer service that people actually return to this location because of you.  Chances are that you still only earn your $10 hourly salary no matter how much your loyal customers spend. This is what residual income is not, even if you were to earn a bonus based on your hard work, you would only earn it once.

Now lets pretend that you are a bass player. One day you’re at the home of a friend who is working on a demo that he hopes to present to a popular young singer (like India Arie maybe), and he asks you to lay the bass line.  The song is good enough to not only get on the new album, but it becomes a hit, and… they keep your bass line. Guess what? Suddenly, every four months or so, you’re getting a royalty check from this work that you did one time, just sitting at a friend’s house.

What’s the difference between the Rolling Stones and The Temptations?  Publishing. The Temptations did not write their own songs and missed out on millions in publishing, while the Stones wrote and performed their own music and go to the bank every time anyone uses  a  snippet of a song for commercials, cover tunes, movies etc.

So what if you aren’t a songwriter, artist, or  author? How do you create residual income? Well you can invest in the stock market directly or through a mutual. Or you can get into  a business that pays you month after month and year after year on the work that you do once.

Frankly, I can’t think of why anyone would say that they are not interested in residual income, unless of course they simply have no idea what it is.

What are you doing to create residual income?  Yes feel free to leave your wonderful business opportunity links -:)

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May 9, 2009

Do I Need A Crash Course In Love?

The Love Course

The Love Course

As you know from reading my last post , my relationship with love has been less than stellar.  Which isn’t to say that I haven’t come a long way from the kid who cried herself to sleep at night cause her Daddy lived somewhere else, but I did bring a lot of baggage on the journey – and I think that I may still have at least one train case with me (admit it, you have no idea what a train case is do you?).

When my blogging sister Lucy Lopez suggested that I try her Love Course, I  jumped at the chance.  The Love Course promises to (in Lucy’s words)  :

  1. Explain some of the most perplexing things about ‘love’
  2. De-myth-ify the most commonly held myths about love and relationships
  3. Lead you gently through a series of questions, exercises, meditations and visualizations to help you identify and sort through your own beliefs, doubts, (mis)understandings and expectations about love
  4. Give you many opportunities to reflect on and re-assess your dominant and conscious as well as subtle and subconscious thoughts, words and behaviours that characterize your relationships
  5. Teach you specific skills to help you overcome unloving habits of thought, speech and behaviour
  6. Help you build the confidence you need to love effortlessly, freely and fully.

Over the next 6 weeks I will immerse myself in LOVE and share the experience with you. In the meantime do visit Lucy at www. lucylopez.net.

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May 4, 2009

If You’re Serious About Finding A Job, Don’t Do This…

job huntingIn the average  month there are at least 300 resumes that come to me via email.  I am writing this post as a service to those of you who are  unemployed or underpaid and are seeking gainful employment.  If you know someone who is currently job hunting, please ,please pass these tips on; let them know that if they are serious about finding a job:

  1. DO NOT have inappropriate music (I don’t care if it’s  rap,rock, country or gospel) on your phone message. After all why should a recruiter have to listen to 30 seconds or more of your favorite song before they can leave you a message about the job that you applied for? Just yesterday,  a recruiter I know was treated to” u got one more time to feel on my booty, you’re turning me on” and then (this is the same call mind you) he  was played an entire song (Angel Of Mine) and finally there was a beep; just a beep no message.  He hung up, because he felt that this person does not really want a job, if they did they would have taken a few moments to ensure that their message to incoming callers was an appropriate one – end of story.
  2. While I am on the subject of voicemail, let me just say that the serious job seeker will ensure that their mailbox is set up correctly, and that it is never so full that a prospective employer cannot leave a message.
  3. Don’t save your resume as resume.doc or some other generic title.  You want your resume to stand out in all of it’s glory and this is just another one of those little things that can make the difference  between getting a second call and being buried in a pile of resumes named  resume_2008.doc .
  4. Do not use your current personal email address on your resume, especially when said email address is  sizzlingblonde@hotmail.com or hotnbothered@yahoo.com. Don’t use any email address that describes your sexual proclivities, race, ethnicity, or political orientation. You never get a second chance to make that first impression, so don’t blow it with an email address that sends the wrong message about you.
  5. DON’T send your resume in a format that is not widely used . Send a  .doc or .pdf or even .txt file;  there just aren’t that many businesses using WordPerfect or  Microsoft Works. To avoid sending your resume in a format that will never be opened, go out to openoffice.org and download a free office suite.
  6. If you don’t actually have an “Objective” or can’t think of an objective to put on your resume then just don’t put an objective. Let me show you what I mean about objectives that don’t improve your chances:
    1. Objective: To obtain a career with advancement in the company.
    2. Objective: To get a job.
    3. To get a job at a company that I can retire from
  7. Don’t get me wrong on this one,  I think that proper English is a beautiful thing. Actually I am so passionate about good writing that I won’t read certain authors because I just don’t enjoy their stilted writing. Here’s the thing, I have read some cover letters that were nothing but “words of the day” strung together to create sentences. Please don’t write a cover letter that requires a Thesaurus. Don’t over do it to the point where your cover letter doesn’t make any sense.
  8. This is the epitome of “tacky” (yes I realize the use of this one word exposes my age) and unprofessional: sending a copy of your resume and cover letter to 2 or more companies/recruiters at once and not even using bcc.  Why i s this a bad thing? It reeks of desperation and throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. I certainly  won’t respond to you, because chances are you aren’t organized enough to know who I am. And if you are applying for a job as (for example) an administrative assistant and you can’t organize your own job search, then how can I expect you to organize my office?
  9. Every prospective employer and recruiter  out there can tell that you are not serious about your job search when you neglect to put an area code on your phone number. Not in your cover letter, not on your resume, not in your email – no area code anywhere. It’s 2009 , everyone has an area code,  here in the Atlanta area we have 3 area codes  which renders the number 555-1212 totally useless to me even if it comes with an address.

Help me to finish this post by providing me with number ten  and I will give you a free copy of the “Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles.

Leave a comment I want to know what you think.

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