Jeremy Herndon

I’ve been considering looking into one of those payday loans so that I can buy my wife a very pretty diamond necklace and earring set that she’s been mooning over from the local jewelry store.  I hate to borrow any money for anything, in this tight economy, but she has made a lot of sacrifices for me over the past few years, and I’d like to surprise her with something special for Valentine’s Day.  It was on a Valentine’s Day that I proposed to her!

I have to admit that one of the reasons that these kinds of loans are tempting is that so many of them don’t require any credit check.  Recently I heard that having too many credit checks on your record can actually hurt your credit rating!  I had just got a copy of my credit report and saw that all of my creditors ran a fresh inquiry on my credit last month, and I found that disconcerting.  And a lot of employers are doing credit checks now too!  I don’t know how or why it is any employer’s business what my credit rating is!  So if I can get a loan without any credit check, I think that might be a good idea.

If the television news can be believed, the average American family is drowning in debt!  I was reading an article in a magazine recently that many people are now starting to fall behind on their mortgages rather than fall behind on their credit cards!  That flies in the face of traditional debt management techniques.  Seems to me that one would take a good hard look at getting some debt counseling before deciding to fall behind on any of those creditor accounts!

Having to choose which bill to pay, and which one to let slide is never an easy choice.  One has to take a look at what would you really lose if you don’t make the payments?  If I were in that position, I’d put the local accounts, such as dentists, lawyers, and entertainment services on the back burner and let them slide a little bit.  Many of those professionals that allow you to make payments will let you skip a payment or two if you call them up and explain your situation to them.  In many cases doctors and lawyers will agree to taking a smaller monthly amount and not charge you any late fees.

When my wife was going through her troubles with her first husband, her lawyer let her pay in small amounts and often let her skip payments for a few months if things were bad.  So my advice is to take a hard look at which accounts can slide, and which can’t.

I heard that they are now saying that over 200 thousand people have lost their lives due to the earthquake in Haiti. That is an amazingly high number of lives lost due to Mother Nature being pissed of! It is good to hear of all of the money that is being raised to help the victims, people pulling together is always a good thing. We need more of that in our daily lives, we’d all be better off.

 My wife asked me yesterday what I’d like to do if we could get a loan to do anything we wanted to do.  I gave her a funny look and told her that the only loan we could get right now would be one of those emergency loans that we see advertised on television that I’d really like to stay away from!  She sighed and said, no I’m talking about what would you want to buy if we had the money to use for fun!   She said the sky’s the limit!

After the first blush of buying a new John Deere tractor and a new Corvette, and a new wide screen television, I think that I’d like to build a custom made full sized storybook style castle.  Of course it would have to have modern amenities and be energy efficient, but I’d love to have a full moat and drawbridge, turrets, courtyards, and great halls for entertaining and dancing.  

Of course the castle would have the most modern professional commercial kitchen, with propane range tops.  I’d love to have windmills nearby to generate power!  It would be decorated with gold leaf thrones and lush purple velvet. Only the finest tapestries and carpets.  Inside the castle would also be an atrium with a wonderful spa pool to relax in.

Of course no castle would be complete without stables and fine horses and coaches.

Then I’d like to host Medieval Renaissance Fairs there every year.  I’d love to see some jousting tournaments in my very own courtyard!  And we could make some money by renting out the halls for weddings, parties and events.  Maybe even turn it into a Bed and Breakfast!  What a hoot that would be!

Do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream?  I’m not sure that I do.  I really like a variety of flavors.  Lately my favorite is a pecan caramel praline flavor by Bryers.  The grocery store that I shop at doesn’t always carry that flavor, so when I find it I often buy several cartons of it.  I have never quite figured out why the price of ice cream fluctuates so much – it is almost as volatile as gasoline!  One week it will be almost $6 for the carton, then a few weeks later it will be less than half that price!  I find it very aggravating – when it is really expensive I won’t buy it.  I wonder if everyone shops that way and that is perhaps the reason why every couple of weeks the price drops!