Mystery Shopping The PayDay Advances Stores!

I am getting a little sweet comeuppance. I am going to shop some payday advance stores in town. I already have two assignments, and I am signing up for some more. I do not have to take out a loan or fill out any forms--just ask some questions about a payday advance. And I get paid to do this. I figure this way I will recoup a little of the money I have spent on interest on cash advances in the past. Shysters!

I Want A House!

I love my condo, but I want a house. Maybe a cute bungalow with a fenced-in yard. In a cool neighborhood. With sidewalks. In the area of town I want to live in. At a reasonable price. That's not too much to ask, do you think?

I have no idea how much money I would need to buy a house. I bought my condo so long ago, I have no reference point. I am sure things have changed since then.

I would need to make a down payment, money for Closing Costs  a cushion for repairs and unexpected costs. plus furniture and such. Buying a house is not a cheap proposition! But it is something I want to do, and soon.

Times Are Tough Out There Today

I read about all the unemployed people out there today and shake my head. It is so sad. People losing their jobs through no fault of their own, or alternatively, making a career move that turned out to be not so good. And they got stuck. Ending up in the same place--no job, running through their savings, maybe losing their homes. Hard to believe. I have wondered what I would do if I found myself in such a dire situation. I own my condo, so that is good, but there are still expenses connected to that. And I have car payments, and other bills. You have to buy food. What would I do? I have a pretty heart 401K, even though it is not as hearty as it once was. After I took a couple of withdrawals from it to tide me over during my bar exam study, and then the tanking of the stock market in the past year, it is not as good as it once was. But it is still pretty good. More than a lot of people have. If it came down to it, I guess I could live off of that. I wouldn't want to however. If someone has a pension, they could Sell Pension. Someone should get advice about this though.

Condo Parking Lot Needs Repaved

I am home today waiting on the AC repairman. Yeah, lucky me. He had to pick up a part, and I hope he will be back in a minute. It is sweltering hot! While waiting, I am doing a few things around the house. Looking out the window, I can see our poor, sad parking lot. Our condo association had to authorize a special assessment for us to pave, and I guess we will start doing that in a few months. The special assessment was $1,000, and that is hard for me to pay on my budget. But it will be nice once it is done. I am an owner/occupant, so it is not so important to me that it get paved right away. But the owners who rent think differently. They want it paved right away so they can please their tenants. I can understand that.

Who to pave it for us is another story. I have no clue. I will let my property manager figure that out for me. If I lived in San Diego, I might call San Diego Paver Contractors and get a quote from them. I might look around my hometown for some suggestions of contractors and give some names to my property manager.

Good Time To Refinance

I do not have a mortgage (yes, I know how lucky I am) but I have heard friends say that it is a good time to refinance or to do a Home Loan Modification.  A friend said it is time consuming to do such, but she is glad that she did it. Every little bit helps when it comes to a budget, and it can be especially important to do with a debt as big as a mortgage.

My condo is paid off, thank goodness, but it is too small, and I am getting house hunger, as Dave Ramsey would say. The problem is I still have too much debt and too much month at the end of the money, something else that Dave Ramsey says. But I should be debt free in about 2 years, and then I want to get a house. I will need to learn a lot in the next two years about home ownership. Condo living has been easy; I have a feeling it will be harder with a house and a yard and no board to help you figure out when repairs have to be made.

Need Multiple Income Streams

My friends and I have been talking about the importance of having multiple income streams. Especially when you are trying to strike out on your own. The newspapers have been littered lately with stories about people who put all of their eggs in one basket, and when the economy tanked so did their income. Like the man who gave up his regular job and took on one consulting client, and when they let him go, he had no income and could not find another job. Lost his home and saw his possessions on the side of the road. Very sad. And there are many others out there like that.

Right now, I am trying to figure out if I can quit my day job and become a full time solo lawyer. It would be easier to do if I had some extra income, especially online income. If I went out on my own, I would have to pay for my own health insurance, which is always high. Also, I would need to make sure I had some saved income to fall back on.

For some time, I have been trying different ways of online moneymaking. I used to do online surveys, but not so much anymore. I have been pretty successful at mystery shopping and freelance writing, and I could do more of both if I had the time. That would be a good source of extra income. I am going to investigate other ways to make money online as well.

I Got A Speeding Ticket!

I went on vacation recently--drove about 10 hours north to visit my favorite relatives That is a long drive for me, and I tend to have a lead foot, so I bet you can guess what happened. I didn't want to take 10 hours to get there, and I was in a hurry, and I pushed the envelope.
It was the 4th of July weekend, and there were state troopers everywhere. That made me nervous, so I was pushing the envelope, while still keeping an eye on my speedometer. I am not so stupid to speed when Smoky is out there in force. My car insurance rates had just gone down, and I didn't want to do anything to make them go back up.
Well, I was going downhill, around a curve, and trying to pass a van that was keeping pace with me. You know the type? They won't let you pass them. So I might have been going a tad fast. But it couldn't have been for more than a few seconds, and it couldn't have been 20 miles over the speed limit, like the trooper said.

Well, I saw the car pull out of the median with the blue lights flashing. Surely, it couldn't be me, I thought. Well, soon enough I realized it was. I pulled over. I had a moment of panic when I realized I did not have my car insurance card with me. I was driving a rental car, and my card was in my glove box in my car, which was in the shop. I told him the truth about my car insurance card , and luckily he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. I got a ticket, and the fine wasn't too bad. I just hope my rates don't go up, but I am sure they will.