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.
One of the old classics from the 70’s that I’ve always enjoyed hearing now and then is the song “Taxi” by Harry Chapin. I was browsing through You Tube earlier and stumbled onto the video. I really enjoy the way You Tube brings us all the music you could ever think of and allows us to listen and watch at our convenience.
A few years back I got hold of some Houston Rodeo tickets from work. The tickets were being handed out pretty freely so many of us in the office ended us with tickets and so we decided to made a day of it. We generally don’t do much together outside of work so it a big to do and we all had a good time. For not having to pay for the tickets, we ended up with some pretty descent seats and had a clear view the whole time, which really is a big deal considering that you are sitting there for several hours at a time. There is nothing worse than having bad seats at an event like this. The only thing worse than having bad seats is being stuck close by a little kid that will not shut up and parents that won’t do anything about them!
I really enjoyed that rodeo and I would really enjoy attending another one, maybe this spring or summer. Think I’ll start looking around online and seeing if anything is supposed to be going on rodeo wise some where in the surrounding towns and counties. I like going to outside events. I don’t like being stuck indoors in a big crowd. I like being able to walk around and see everything that is going on everywhere during the whole event. I’ll bet I can find a few people who would like to attend a rodeo with me, something to look forward to!
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.
For several years now Dean has been talking about how much he’d love to move to Philadelphia. He had a college professor who was from Philadelphia and the professor kept talking about how the people there were so nice. He kept saying that it really and truly earned its nickname of the “City of brotherly love.” Since that time Dean has been looking for a job that would allow him to live in Philadelphia. Since he is still young and single it really would not be difficult for him to move there if he got the chance.
I’ve suggested that while he is looking for a job there that he should also be taking a look at the options in Philadelphia apartments. Knowing how much it will cost to live there should have an impact on what kind of job he should be looking for, in terms of wages. And since this would be Dean’s first experience living away from his parent’s home, I’ve advised him to plan on a lot of things that he probably never even thought of before, in terms of living expenses. He needs to find out if the rent includes the utilites, if it includes admission to any gyms or pools, what the neighborhood is like, how close it is to public transportation and grocery stores, and health care. All of these things are important to consider when looking for a place to live.