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Are You Afraid Of Overdue Bills? Then Welcome to Fright Night

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Are you scared to open your bills?

Are you worried about your finances?

Well you are not alone.

Millions of Americans are worried about their finances.

However, you must push through your fears and find a way to draw up the courage to face your fears.

This one movie always comes to mind when I think of a person that decided to be brave and stand up to their fears. You may have heard of it; it’s called Fright Night.

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I remember this movie vividly because it is the only film I have ever seen where every frame seemed to be carefully crafted for maximum effect. And it worked. The music, dialogue, and acting were top notch in my opinion.

Even this scene with a cameo by 1981 Playboy Playmate Heidi Sorenson. It’s affect was profound. She was..magnetic. And you know I like magnetism. 😉You knew something was coming. You could feel it. It was potent. The emotions were so raw and real. Feelings so intense they felt palpable. That is how every scene in this film made you feel. I have yet to find a movie to match this level of high anticipation and sense of urgency in a protagonist at least not like this. I thought it was an incredibly acted film.

Even the music was creepy and like credit cards…seductive.

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And the film had one of the hands down creepiest movie posters I have ever seen.

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The tagline reads: There are some very good reasons to be afraid of the dark. If you love being scared, it’ll be the night of your life.

Well I told you last month, I was going back to the 80’s.

This time I’m going to the year 1985.

Welcome to Fright Night.

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Fun Fact: I got to meet the one and only Chris Sarandon at Awesome Con in DC. He signed this photo for me. I love this 8×10 glossy of him as Jerry Dandridge.

The photo reads: To Miriam, Welcome to Fright Night…For Real. Jerry Dandridge. He is still so cool and suave!! And love the hair! 😉

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FACE YOUR FEARS

The film starred a high school kid named Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), his creepy neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), and his vampire killing hero Mr. Vincent (Roddy McDowall).

Basically, Charley learns his neighbor is a vampire. I know, crazy right? However, in this movie that assumption is real. Charley finds himself face-to-face with a demon of the night. Instead of running for cover, Charley fights. And that is what you must do when it comes to your money. YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR MONEY.

See my post America Is The Land Of Subscriptions

In one scene of the movie, Charley goes to see Jerry with his pal and the police. When Mr. Vincent learns vampires are real he runs and hides. Jerry is a bully. However, Charley stands up to him anyway.

That is what you too must do. Have courage. Be willing and able to look whatever it is in the eye and say do your worst for I will do mine.

See my post 5 Wealthy Nuggets Of Wisdom From The Count Of Monte Cristo

Do not let anyone peer pressure you into doing ANYTHING; especially, with your money. You fight and then you fight some more. NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER SURRENDER. Your money is too important to part with out of fear. Research anything and anyone who asks for your money. What is their background? Where do they work? Who do they work for? Do not go gentle into that good night. You must rage against the dying of the light. Thank you Dylan Thomas for that inspirational poem.

I hang up on telemarketers, I block numbers that I do not know or from anyone who is contacting me rudely, and I avoid signing up for most contests.

I will never forget when some slick talking salesman tried to recruit me to hear a 6-hour timeshare pitch. He was nice when I met him and told me it was only a 90 minute presentation on visiting the resort, but my Spidey senses were tingling so I googled his company and found out IT WAS A LIE!!!

So look out for the con men!!!

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I decided not to go and blocked his phone calls. I do not want to buy a timeshare. Let me repeat that again for the cheap seats in the back: I DO NOT WANT TO BUT A TIMESHARE. Not only are they expensive, but they tend to go up in price over time.

Why not just buy a home or rental property? Then you own the thing once you finish the payments and can rent it all and pocket all the profits.

HELP YOUR FRIENDS

In the movie, Charley has a girlfriend named Amy (Amanda Bearse) who gets taken by Jerry.

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One of the best scenes in the film was when Jerry says to Mr. Peter Vincent, “you have to have faith.”

These are listed in the comments section from this scene that were posted online that represent my sentiments exactly.

That was the same expression I had too when I opened my last month’s power bill.

“Haaauauaaghghg…” priceless.

“You have to have faith,for that to work on me.” -_- Note to ALL VILLAINS,don’t tell your enemies how to destroy you!

Chris Sarandon’s moan and look of horror were terrifying. He did more by acting than most 100 million dollar budgets can pull off.ï»ż

You bet you do. You have to have faith in yourself and anything you do. If you truly believe it is good and true, then fight until your blue in the face. Give anything you do in this life everything you’ve got because it takes no less than that.

I was recently asked if I could “loan” someone $800. My answer: No.

First, of all, “borrow” is a loose term. People tend to forget what they owe you, but not when you owe them. If you truly cannot afford to loan someone money or let them have it, then just don’t do it. I had previously gave the same individual money “to have” a few years ago. Maybe they asked me again because I gave it to them the first time. I do not like to create patterns that are not sustaining.

I have learned if you say yes so much, that eventually when you do say no people tend to get upset. I say just stop it before it starts.

However, when someone truly needs you and you feel it in your heart to help, then help them. It’s always your call. It is always your decision to help and don’t let ANYONE take that anyway from you.

STEP INTO THE LIGHT

When Charley gets a chance to stop Jerry he takes it. Once a decision is made, then you forge ahead. However, always TRUST YOUR GUT.

I remember being scared to open bills. I would sit in my car for an hour just to calm myself down. You see I was in the habit of paying my bills first and then myself last. Now I do the opposite. I pay myself first.

That is why I now pay all my bills as soon as they arrive because I have already set aside my money for saving and investments. The $13,000 I decided set aside a year is separate from the money I invest.

For my birthday, I like to but shares of stocks or index funds. I own at least 5 individual shares of Amazon and up to 100 or more of some others. At $1,897.13 a share, I own about $9,485.65 of just one stock! And I own thousands of shares of stocks! This is a long way from where I started with $300 to invest.

I always like to look back and evaluate my present situation to see how far I’ve come. It allows you to take notice and recognize what you have done and see that you are not standing still.

I went from taking out $150 and $300 payday loans to saving more than that amount of money per week. It took me years to do all of that.

My advice is to open up those bills, contact your creditors, negotiate lower interest rates, and seek out 0% deals.

Prince Charming isn’t coming.

See my post on Money And Life Lessons I Learned From CBS Storybreak’s Yeh-Shen It’s a Cinderella story from China 😉

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That is why I decided to start saving a minimum of $5,000 cash a year. That way no matter what, in 10 years I have $50,000 cash in my bank account! You must ALWAYS have cash reserves for an emergency!

You are your last line of defense.

No one is coming to save you.

You cannot phone in a life line.

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Who wants to be a millionaire?

Therefore, you have to figure out what can you do right here, right now.

Step up to the plate. Rage against the night. And step into the light of financial independence.

I promise you will not regret it.

Lipstick Confessions: Confessions Of A Teenage Waitress

Lips, Taboo, Secret, Silence, Mouth

You read that right.

Like Usher, these are my confessions.

Lipstick Confessions that is. 💋

Not Confessions of a Teenage DRAMA QUEEN. Even though I was a teenager, but of a TEENAGE WAITRESS!

Being a waitress was a humbling experience.

After reading about Financial Samurai working for $3.50 an hour at McDonald’s, I was inspired to share my story of making $2.39 an hour + tips while waiting tables at Shoney’s.

It was early experiences like that that shaped my attitudes toward money and work today.

It is also a reason why I try to tip well.

I believe in being a good tipper because that is how people make their living. My father always says tip well enough for people to feel it. I concur.

A waitress is a pretty grueling job.

You are on your feet for hours on end. You must constantly be moving and taking orders or picking up food. Then there’s the nonstop cleaning, folding of napkins, packaging silverware, putting ketchup, salt and pepper and other condiments out and etc.

That early job experience was enough to make me want to work and study so hard while I was young, so that I would not have to when I was older.

This job and other hardships are what drove me to dig my way out of debt and start saving over 40% of my after-tax income.

I have always been thrifty and a saver.

It is because of that, I knew I could not marry someone that is fiscally irresponsible and stay married to them. It just wouldn’t work.

See my post on Why I and Halle Berry Save Soo Much

I have never had the urge to go rent a Mercedes-Benz, drive down to Vegas, buy lottery tickets at every 7-eleven along the way, buy a $4,000 Cartier wrist watch just cause you know bosses gotta be on time, visit a psychic who says my lucky numbers are 4,5, and 6, and then bet it all on black.

Nope. I have not given any of that any thought at all.

Except maybe that the color of the S-Class Mercedes with a 3-layer fabric top is impeccably crafted for coupelike comfort, sleekness and outward views when it’s up, or vanishes in under 20 seconds, even as you accelerate to 30 mph should be silver.

Other than that, no thoughts whatsoever!

See my posts

Finance Lessons From Flipping Vegas

Mega Millions Win Or Bust

At age 17, I was a teenage waitress.

It would be six years before I began my career working in finance, banking, and loans.  

And a full decade after that waitressing job, before I got hired to work at a top-tier private university with excellent benefits.

But first I had to pay my dues.

SLINGING HASH TO MAKE A BUCK

I looked down at my bank receipt.

I had about $10 bucks in my bank account. I was BROKE!

I needed a job.

Being only 17 didn’t provide me with too many options, but as they say, “beggars can’t be choosers.”

I heard the local Shoney’s was hiring wait staff. To my surprise, I applied and got the job.

We went in for training at around 9 am the next week after being hired.

My uniform was black pants, white button shirt, sneakers, a small bow-tie and a black apron.

I only worked there for one summer.

That was long enough to realize I did not want to make my career in the food service.

I knew this was going to be the first, last, and only job I ever took that dealt with serving or making food.

See my post Fast Food Nation

After reading the book Nickel and Dimed, I felt that the author expressed my views on how she and I observed the treatment of low-wage workers was pretty spot on!

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The job: take orders, greet customers, keep the restaurant clean, and serve food.

Sounds simple right. Wrong.

We had a busy body manager. Chaotic shifts. And lulls in customers.

Shoney’s was an eat-in restaurant (mostly was a buffet place) that started in Tennessee, but had restaurants in the Mid-Atlantic region.

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So many people opted for the breakfast mostly leaving afternoons and dinner times pretty sparse inside. 

That means little to no tips!

Not something I was told upon being hired.

Some of the food on the menu looked better than it actually was in-person, but all the food was at least good.

And no matter how hard I worked, it never felt good enough to our nitpicking manager who was always so concerned about how she looked in the eyes of the suits at corporate.

She was too busy kissing their a$$ to worry about us lower employees on the totem poll.

Little good it did her.

She was a ball of constant worry and stress, a chain smoker, and overweight. This was our manager. Our fearless leader?

Is this what management is supposed to look like in America or was this just her issue?

There has to be better ways for her to almost be eligible for food stamps and make a buck, but what do I know.

My lunch break was the only thing I looked forward to because it was the one-time no one could give you any orders and you could get off your feet and rest.

I usually ate a Philly cheesesteak because it was just so good. Calories be damned!

Even some of the cooks seemed disgruntled. They liked to flirt with waitresses and I think one was dating one of them! Whatever.

I just needed the cooks to be happy so that I could get food out piping hot and fast so I could make this money.

I need those tips!

After calculating the $2.39 an hour, working 40 hours a week would only get me $95.60! And that’s gross not net! 

Anyway, I now had to deal with the situation.

The goal was to have spending money to hang out with my friends and buy all the cool stuff I always wanted but could never afford.

To be so young and naĂŻve. If I would have been thinking, I should have started tucking money into a Roth IRA. I would probably have had less anxiety when I got my first REAL job!

If I would have saved just $2,000 a year from ages 16-26, without adding another penny, in 40 years that money could have turned into $1,586,894.95 at a 10% return with compound interest! That would have required me to only stash away $22,000!

Just some food for thought right there. Start investing young!

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF TIPPING

Like the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” I was welcomed to how cheap people really are.

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Tipping is the holy grail of waitressing and bartending.

See my post on Money Tips From Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Make that money honey.

I had a wide range of tips, as anyone who works for tips can tell you.

My range was this: $0 to $27.

The highlight of my night was always counting up my tips when I got home. I think the highest I ever got was $100 bucks in one day!

I know that may not sound like a lot, but to a high school kid in the 90’s that was good money.

Things were also cheaper back then as well.

You bought the item, like a pair of shoes or video game, and then the transaction was over.

Not like subscription mania that has now swept across the nation.

See my post America is the land of subscriptions

One of the smallest tips I ever got was from 2 girls I went to high school with. We were not friends but I didn’t expect to only get a $1.17 tip! That was basically the change from the meal they just ate and paid for. Maybe they should have put in an application to work here too!

I remember one time in college when I got a ride home from a weekend class I was taking (I was doing 6 classes that semester), telling me she worked at her brother’s restaurant and she made sure to be on point in order to get that $20 tip!

My days at Shoney’s was long gone by then, but I remember thinking it is far better to work at a higher end restaurant like her because you can make more money.

Lesson Learned: Focus working or catering to high-end clientele that can afford to pay for your services.

SAVE LIKE YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER

Have you ever heard the saying “Live like tomorrow is your last day on earth?”

Well, I like to save like I am going to live forever.

I learned this lesson, like James Brown said, you have to Pay the Cost to be the Boss.

That song and The Payback made me want to get my act together.

I put a plan into action. I was going to save money out of every paycheck.

It took years to make happen, but I went from saving nothing to putting aside 9% of my income. Then from saving $1 a day to $13,000 a year!

The plan had been to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. 

That was okay, but I needed a goal. Something to aim at.

So I picked a number. $13,333 was that number.

I chose it for a few reasons: 1) The number 3 is my favorite number; 2) I saw that another blogger was saving that amount per month so I aimed to duplicate that, but started smaller; and 3) I did the math and discovered I could have over $100,000 cash if I did this for about 7.5 years.

I also knew it was possible that if I invested $100k in the stock market that after 30 years without adding another dime, I could have $1 million shored up for retirement.

Considering that about 20% of Americans have $0 saved for retirement, I knew that I better prepare because tomorrow does come.

The future is going to happen.

If I was going to bet on anything, I would bet on that. Forget Vegas. You can bet the farm the future is coming. And it’s coming fast!

Remember that 9% I mentioned earlier. Well that small sum turned into a small nest egg of $25,000!

And most of that sum is invested in just a few stocks!  

The power of compound interest baby!

Pro Blogger IRA # 1 of 3 (Personal Finance)
Traffic Estimate: 50,000 pageviews
Pinterest Estimate: 48,000 monthly viewers
Stock Price Stock Quantity Current Balance
AAPL $201.35 37.256 $7,501.50
AMZN $1866.86 5.000 $9,334.30
Total
    $16,835.80

Source: GreenbacksMagnet.com

I hope this post inspires people to understand the value of a dollar and that paying off debt and saving are far better than blowing all your money on things. 

Invest and watch your money grow!

How to get Bigger Pockets: A Review of How to Invest in Real Estate

How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started by [Turner, Brandon, Dorkin, Joshua]

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. -Ayn Rand

Many of you out there I am sure have heard of Bigger Pockets. It is the place to be for anyone interested in Real Estate (RE). Basically, they are the Facebook of Real Estate.

Bigger Pockets (BP) is the real estate social network. You can find out all types of things such as how to finance rental properties, find property management companies, and how to invest in real estate.

While on my journey to learn ALL THINGS MONEY, I came across an interesting post called House Hacking.

For readers of my blog, you know I am a fan of Millennial Money (MM). Grant Sabatier is the money genius behind that site and because I was a fan of his is how I came to learn about Bigger Pockets. I learned so much from Grant that I wrote a blog post about how he inspired me to save more money.

See my post How Millennial Money inspired me to save $13,333.06 a year

It was on his website that I read about House Hacking, which is when you live in one of the multiple units of your investment property as your primary residence, and have renters from the other units pay your mortgage and expenses.

Like I stated on my last post, one of the biggest expenses in any budget is housing. The trifecta of expenses is housing, food, and transportation. If you can cut your expenses in this area, you are g2g (Good to Go). 😉

It just so happened that he did an interview with Scott Trench from Bigger Pockets. I am not the best when it comes to listening to podcasts, as I prefer to read books! However, the podcast is transcribed so I read through that. Great idea there Grant. The transcription was so good that I listened to the podcast and just like that a fan of BP was born.

Here is the link to that post HOUSE HACKING USING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY

That is what made me decide to pick up the book How to Invest in Real Estate from Bigger Pockets authored by Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner.

I just so happened to post a tweet and saw FINCON ask what books am I reading? So I answered and tagged the authors of the book. To my surprise, Josh Dorkin replied to my tweet and said thank you for reading and asked if I would post a review on Amazon.

https://twitter.com/jrdorkin/status/1102676122624356352

Since he was polite in asking for this small request, I not only did the Amazon review (still pending as of this writing), but I also decided to review the book on my site. They say ask and you shall receive. So, I gave him a 2-for-1 and posted a review and did this blog post. One tweet did all of that.

So, without further ado


How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

THE #1 QUESTION

The reason Brandon and Josh wrote this book was to help people. One of the most asked questions they get is, “How Do I Get Started in Real Estate Investing?”

Well, guess what? They say ask and you shall receive, right? Then Brandon and Josh answered.

They wrote this guide to help people along their way. Although, the Bigger Pockets forum and blog is filled with tons of information, it can be overwhelming. Where do you begin?

This book packs many of the interviews they do on the podcast and brings it together in one place as a reference guide.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

The guide contains eight chapters but my three favorites are: Chapters 1, 4, and 7.

The book will show you the following:

  • How to get started in Real Estate?
  • How to invest with no money, bad credit, and with a full-time job?
  • Why you should save cash reserves?
  • What is an LLC? Do you even need one?
  • Real Estate Niches (as the riches are in niches) 😉
  • 12 Ways to Finance your Real Estate Deals
  • Real Estate Exit Strategies

I think the reason people choose to invest in RE is not only to get rich (obviously), but to have more financial control over their lives.

In addition, real estate is tangible. Unlike stocks, bonds, and CD’s you can drive by and visit with your investment. Have a cup of coffee in it. Heck, you can even live in it!

THE REAL WORLD OF INVESTING

Remember the television show “The Real World” on MTV. Well, that was a lot of fiction and made up drama for ratings. This book provided insight directly from RE investors with real world experience.

One of my favorite stories actually came from Chad Carson of the Coach Carson blog site. Chad decided the go big or go home route to RE was the best route for him. His niche was house flipping.

See my post on Finance Lessons from Flipping Vegas

He tested this hypothesis and decided to change courses. Instead of trying to flip 50 properties, he then decided to do less for the sake of his sanity. This method worked.

This taught me that flipping is NOTHING like the television shows portray. We are getting the Campbell Soup version (condensed). I need the 💯 real.

You must find out what works for you. Although, you can learn from the mistakes of others, usually trial and error will show you the way. Fail fast, early, and hard. Then you can start to profit from your knowledge and experience.

The book is filled with tons of stories. I just shared one.

If you want to learn more about Real Estate, then hop on over to Bigger Pockets. You can also look up some real estate blogs and books. Just like I did with this one.

Have you recently wrote a book? Are you looking for a review? Do you want to be Greenback’d? Tweet me. I’ll be here @mjp2520