The 5 lessons A Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Evans, is a small book, featuring five keys for financial success. I'm going to put the first key to the test. And I'm going to keep a record, to see if and how it works.
You, dear reader, are invited to tag along.
For the first key, Evans suggests writing "Today I decide to be wealthy," and put it someplace where I will read it, morning and night, and someplace else, like next to my credit card, where I will see it often. Personally, I think that the credit card suggestion was suppose to be a reminder not to use the credit card, and I don't have anymore credit cards, just my unemployment Reliacard. Instead, I've put a sticky note on my computer screen, and have it here where I can see it, and be reminded every time I log on.
I am to do this for two months. So we'll see where I'm at on February 18, 2012.
So here I am now. I am underemployed, living in Bend, Oregon, which has been in recessions more than other parts of the country. I am 55 years old. My husband and I got a bankruptcy lawyer, who told us that we don't need to file, as we have no assets to protect. My husband has a vocation, but it's in construction, so we are really, really sunk. We get food boxes from the church. Fortunately, our children are grown, though they still aren't on their own, as they are in college, on grants, scholarships and loans.
I am a college graduate, though I don't put what year on my job applications. I graduated in Journalism/Public Relations. I had a bit of a career of it, before I got married and moved here. I realized my career was dead in the water, when I went to bid on a PR job, and was asked if I had a modem and a fax machine. No. What I had instead was this: three preschool children, a house going through major renovations, a car that was always needing repairs, no money, no extended family to help me, and a husband whose own career needed constant attention. It's been twenty years since that day, and my PR jobs have been volunteer work with the local school's PTA, helping out with press releases for a couple of events at the church, writing a few articles for the neighborhood association newsletter, and working behind a cash register at the local Kroger.
Did I mention that the cash register gig has been over with for over two years? (That the family had employer-paid health and dental insurance?) That's how long I've been un- and underemployed. Fortunately, I'm not what is referred to as a 99er, as I've had temporary jobs, both part-time and full-time. But I don't see any end to the crushing financial mess we're in now.
At the end of his book, Evans says one of his purposes of writing is to give hope.
I would like some hope. I would like to hope that next year. I'll be someone putting Christmas presents on the church and community's "angel trees." I'd like to hope that I'll have the resources to visit my daughters when they graduate from college. I'd like to hope that this mess will get under control, and that I will pay off my medical bills, have decent health insurance and keep up with my utilities and other household bills and get ahead in my finances.
I'd like to hope that my hopes will be fulfilled.
Please.
You, dear reader, are invited to tag along.
For the first key, Evans suggests writing "Today I decide to be wealthy," and put it someplace where I will read it, morning and night, and someplace else, like next to my credit card, where I will see it often. Personally, I think that the credit card suggestion was suppose to be a reminder not to use the credit card, and I don't have anymore credit cards, just my unemployment Reliacard. Instead, I've put a sticky note on my computer screen, and have it here where I can see it, and be reminded every time I log on.
I am to do this for two months. So we'll see where I'm at on February 18, 2012.
So here I am now. I am underemployed, living in Bend, Oregon, which has been in recessions more than other parts of the country. I am 55 years old. My husband and I got a bankruptcy lawyer, who told us that we don't need to file, as we have no assets to protect. My husband has a vocation, but it's in construction, so we are really, really sunk. We get food boxes from the church. Fortunately, our children are grown, though they still aren't on their own, as they are in college, on grants, scholarships and loans.
I am a college graduate, though I don't put what year on my job applications. I graduated in Journalism/Public Relations. I had a bit of a career of it, before I got married and moved here. I realized my career was dead in the water, when I went to bid on a PR job, and was asked if I had a modem and a fax machine. No. What I had instead was this: three preschool children, a house going through major renovations, a car that was always needing repairs, no money, no extended family to help me, and a husband whose own career needed constant attention. It's been twenty years since that day, and my PR jobs have been volunteer work with the local school's PTA, helping out with press releases for a couple of events at the church, writing a few articles for the neighborhood association newsletter, and working behind a cash register at the local Kroger.
Did I mention that the cash register gig has been over with for over two years? (That the family had employer-paid health and dental insurance?) That's how long I've been un- and underemployed. Fortunately, I'm not what is referred to as a 99er, as I've had temporary jobs, both part-time and full-time. But I don't see any end to the crushing financial mess we're in now.
At the end of his book, Evans says one of his purposes of writing is to give hope.
I would like some hope. I would like to hope that next year. I'll be someone putting Christmas presents on the church and community's "angel trees." I'd like to hope that I'll have the resources to visit my daughters when they graduate from college. I'd like to hope that this mess will get under control, and that I will pay off my medical bills, have decent health insurance and keep up with my utilities and other household bills and get ahead in my finances.
I'd like to hope that my hopes will be fulfilled.
Please.
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