#hustling and saving like crazy since november but i just had to get this.

[dayvan]

last week our first irresponsible purchase of the year arrived home

[shadowofmytime]

>> some of my absolute favorites ! like and reblog if you save and enjoy ! happy reading and give some kudos to these amazing writers ! always feel free to send me some of your favorites ! ! <<

>> There is a bit so for your convenience they are in alphabetical order ! The ‘s’s are some of my all-time favorites ! ! <<

>> min yoongi x park jimin <<

All the seasons of your love - 5k+ [college au]

The movement in the library was still slow in the first week, so Yoongi could easily remember the few people who came by. That's why he pays so much attention to a certain dark-haired freshman who walks in on a Wednesday afternoon - or at least that's what he tells himself. He goes over to the front counter and asks Yoongi for directions to the Economy 101 session and, God, his voice is as sweet as his eye-smile.

Or how librarian Yoongi fell head over heels for cute freshman Park Jimin who, unfortunately, was very much straight - or so Yoongi thought.

Bon Voyage - 47.9+ [tourist! au]

Yoongi was meant to be taking the trip of a lifetime with his boyfriend. But now he's in Paris, alone and miserable. That is until he collides - quite literally - with one Park Jimin.

Boys who talk shit - 26k+ [college au]

When Yoongi enrolled in BTS (aka Boys who Talk Shit) Boarding School, he wasn't really expecting to be the only 'straight' (to be read sarcastically) guy in a room of seven geniuses (aka children aged five to ten, honestly). Plus four pet spiders. Yes, plural.

Chaotic episodes in A Place of Love and War, where Yoongi learns all about True Love via Park Jimin, Music and Marriage. Sort of. Brain bleach and earplugs are strongly recommended.

Conflicting arrangement - 162k+ [fake boyfriend au]

"Absolutely not," Yoongi deadpanned. "Namjoon-ah. I value you as a friend, and I think I'd even go as far as to say that you're my best friend, but absolutely fucking not."

"You owe me," Namjoon pleaded. "Come on, Yoongi, it's not a big deal."

"Your boyfriend's best friend's best friend needs a fake boyfriend to come out to his family this Chuseok, all the way in fucking Busan," Yoongi repeated drily without pause, making Namjoon wince. He flipped a page of his textbook, picking up his highlighter. "Not a big deal, Namjoon. Amazing."

Cotton Candy - 240k [high school rock band]

"He could get used to sitting next to Yoongi like this. To have him around. To have the band around. To smile and feel happy. To see Yoongi sitting in front of an instrument and having him play just for him.

'If this was my happy ending,' Jimin thinks, resisting the urge to lean his head on Yoongi's shoulder, 'if I wasn't who I am, I'd just let you have me whenever you want. You could have me anytime.'"

As spring turns into summer, school band Cotton Candy unexpectedly loses its singer and the members are forced to look for a new vocalist. Six boys find one in the form of the promiscuous pink-haired boy Park Jimin who makes a home in their hearts and finally finds a place he belongs

Daegu drift - 53k+ [motorcyclist / playboy au]

Jimin stops in Daegu for a big motor show and gets caught up with the locals. Specifically one Min Yoongi.

Sneak Peek:

Yoongi has his arms folded as he stares Jimin down.

“Are you going to join the rally, or not?”

Jimin takes his time answering because he likes the way Yoongi is looking at him. “Sure. I guess it could be fun. But you do realize none of you have a chance against a Bugatti, right?”

“It’s not the car that wins the race,” the other man says. “It’s the driver. You could have the fastest, best-equipped car in the goddamn universe, but if you’re a shit driver, it doesn’t make a difference.”

Goodbye from lonely - 65k+ [uncle yoongi!]

Park Jimin works two jobs that he loves and is going to college to get his teaching degree.

Min Yoongi is a personal assistant who hates his job and spits in his boss' coffee every day.

Kim Taehyung has been infatuated with his clueless co-worker for the better part of a year.

Jeon Jeongguk has a three-year-old daughter that he'd do anything for.

Somehow the tiny human brings them all together.

Or

Tae is in love with Kookie -> Kookie's daughter takes Jimin's ballet class -> Yoongi is Kookie's stepbrother -> Jimin and Yoongi meet because of Kookie's daughter.

In your eyes (it’s where I wanna be) - 5.5k [coffee shop! au]

Jimin pauses with his marker inches away from the cup, because — is he really going to do this? Isn’t it a bit old-fashioned to write something flirty on a coffee cup? But no matter what his churning gut says about the danger and what the hell are you doing do you want to die, this guy is — with no better way to put it — totally Jimin’s Type with a capital T.

(Or: Jimin accidentally starts a nickname war with the cute blonde who likes his coffee way too bitter.)

Inked flowers - 6.4k [tattoo artist / florist au]

Something stopped him. A sound of a piano. He looked around and saw a light coming from the window on the other side of the street. On the third floor was an open window. A light and the sorrowful sound of a piano flew out of the room. Jimin looked closer and saw a figure or at least a top of someone's head.

The melody was so sad and sorrowful that Jimin wanted to cry. He started thinking, what could possibly go inside that person’s head? What were they thinking? Jimin just hoped that they weren’t sad and alone.

(let me see you) get high then low - 4k+ [photographer/model au]

"The light-haired model is the kind that fascinates Yoongi, and at the same time, he prefers to steer away from. He's all smiles and flowers, drawing you in with his cuteness until he's not anymore. Suddenly, he’s something else entirely; he's that false calm, the ocean that looks smooth on the surface but will drag you down to its depths if you dare to touch it."

or

Min Yoongi works in a photography studio with some (very questionable) friends that can't get any work properly done without making a bit of a fuss.

Park Jimin is a model handcuffed against his will and bored. Also a little bit horny, maybe.

Math Tutor - 11.7k [bad boy! yoongi]

Min Yoongi is the school's resident Bad Boy™. He's covered in tattoos, is pierced, curses like a sailor, smokes like crazy, doesn't give a shit about anything, possesses a hot temper that has people steering clear of him, and is desperately in love with Park Jimin, the adorable math nerd. When Jimin is tasked with tutoring Yoongi in math, who is in danger of failing the class and being held back a year, both boys are hesitant. Yoongi because he can't think straight around the boy with startling red hair, and Jimin because Yoongi is scary as hell and looks like he can easily kill someone. Gradually, though, the two grow closer, and Jimin finds that Yoongi is nothing like how he'd imagined.

Maybe I hate you can be our always - 35.9k [enemies to lovers]

When Yoongi thinks about it, really gives it genuine thought, it's possible that Park Jimin isn't the worst person in the world.

//

(Or, Yoongi and Jimin get off on the wrong foot.)

Ode to yoonmin - 4k+ [texting]

yoongi and jimin are in very much in love but they're the only ones who don't know it

OR

chat fic with a bunch of bad jokes and memes ¯\_(ツ)_/

Out of my system - 101.6k+ [one night stand]

Yoongi likes one night stands and he understands how they work. What he doesn’t understand, however, is how he ended up in bed with a probably-not-legal kid crying in his arms about his broken heart, because he’s pretty sure (and correct him if he’s wrong) that a babysitting job was not what he was looking for when he went to the opening of his friend’s new club

Standing on the brink of 376 - 42.9k+ [street racing]

When Taehyung woke him up at three AM to go to a street race—an illegal one, no less—claiming it would help his social anxiety, Jimin never actually expected it to do much for him, except maybe make him cry hysterically. He found that he really wasn't too far off-kilter with that assumption, but it was only after he'd suffered through countless bouts of insecurity that he realized, hidden behind each stuttered breath, every inevitable tear, every spark of unavoidable fear, and even the customary cloud of cigarette smoke itself, lay a tremendous amount of affection for a certain platinum haired street racer that he can't even begin to justify. But when his opinion of fact, fate, and even life itself continues to blur with each push of the gas pedal, he thinks he just might be able to forgive himself for falling in love with a criminal, when the nonsensical moonshine of the present mutes the anxiety that had been a constant within his heart up until this November.

Strawberry lube - 82.7k+ [college au]

Yoongi remembers little to nothing of their crazy drunken night out. But of two things he's absolutely sure, one: he's not gay, two: he just slept with Park Jimin

The Paradiso Lounge - 192k+ [photographer/stripper au]

“Do I have to pay you for that service?”

This isn’t a dream (let me love you) - 26k+ [highschool au]

As captain of his high school’s basketball team, Min Yoongi dedicated all of his attention to his team and their games. His focus on the game never waned, not once for anything or anyone.

Well, until head cheerleader Park Jimin flashed his abs during a solo cheer and made him fuck up his shot

Trying to Behave (but you know we never learned how) - 329k+ [non-idol! au]

It's been years since Yoongi's last seen him and the younger boy is a shell of his former self in a way that makes his heart twist in his chest. And yet, after all this time and countless days of convincing himself to let him go, he's still unconditionally, head over heels in love with Park Jimin.

(Jimin and Yoongi grow up together.)

Valentino Summers - 657k+ [‘80s gangsters]

Whether or not Jimin was smuggling drugs really didn’t matter. He was hustling, and these days that was all there was to it.

Hustle and survive or struggle and die.

Y/N masterlist  << check it out !! xoxo

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep7: Mai Gets a Day Job (Killing People For Sport)

So, I looked at the calendar and realized, if  I don’t get this post up this week then you’ll only have one update from me for the whole of November since I’m leaving for over a week again. :/ So I’m just gonna get right to the good stuff because it has taken just a crazy amount of time to get to episode 7.  How great would it be if I also got to episode 8. Real great, right?

So lets do this, I can do this, I can write a recap without getting insanely distracted, watch me do it: This episode starts with Tristan sticking to the fatal flaw of his character sheet and seeing listed at the very top “low key toilet obsession.”

Ah Tristan.

And when you think “well, OK, they’re stuck by some historic Mesas, this is fine,” suddenly they are beset by the world’s most random biker gang of like 20 full grown adults/biker assassins.

And it’s not super clear if their driver died out there in the Arizona desert, or if he just put on a different outfit and joined this gang, but it won’t matter because like...it’s a filler arc in Yugioh so there’s gonna be some deaths.

This season seems to change genre like every 10 minutes, and so for right now we are in a Mad Max post-apocalyptic territory and PS every one of these bikers uses a lead pipe?

I feel like this is way more violent than a gun???

(read more under the cut)

And so, out the horizon comes another biker, like a masked cowboy on horseback, except she shoots these things instead of bullets.

These are trained assassins, by the way, just completely incapacitated by paper.

I just love the marketing team working alongside of this show that’s like “and what else can Yugioh cards do? destroy biker gangs. That’s right, one single card will absolutely destroy a biker!” and the writing staff was like “yeah, we can work that in. That totally works in universe, you don't even know.”

It’s Mai! Back from murdering the hell out of Pegasus, I guess she decided to ninja these 20 bikers, and did it so devastatingly, that they somehow blew up a motorcycle next to a live fuel tank? Like we’re talking Oliver Queen precision throwing here and like...

...Mai’s only been gone like a year right???

And so, seeing that this card is a harpy, which I dunno...doesn’t seem like it’s all that rare in comparison to a Blue Eyes or a God Card or I dunno any of the other signature cards we’ve heard about, Joey immediately recognizes Mai. Despite the fact that everything she is doing right now is completely out of character, and despite the fact that they are in freakin California.

RIP to all 20 of the people in that gang of bikers, because no one followed this limo away from the scene--everyone was, I assume, hella dead.

Youknow, I never expected Mai to kill more people than Bakura. I would have predicted Joey before Mai. I would have predicted Rebecca before Mai. Literally anyone else on this show before Mai.

Seto, crawling out of this oversized castle that I guess...is back on the real estate market now...decides that the irresistible pull of dragons printed on paper cards is stronger than listening to his brother’s needs to put down the damn cards and make a contractually obligated theme park.

I mean Mokuba kept him off the cards for nearly a whole year. What a healthy year that was for Seto.

Back in Arizona, apparently they didn’t make it more than a mile before Tristan busted the car. Not really clear why or how this happened, but they’ve decided to argue with eachother about it despite the fact one of them is clearly magical and does not really need to eat or drink or even maybe sleep?

Like we’ve seen Bakura basically survive off of one plate of tacos and 2 pints of blood, so just make Pharaoh push the car all the way back to California. Or just make Pharaoh use his millennium AIM to call up His tomb keepers and be like “Marik, we need a lift.” or maybe summon a very real monster because that’s a thing now?

Course this would rely on Pharaoh remembering that he has superpowers, which, somehow after 4 seasons, he always forgets how to use the moment he uses them. It’s like reverse Sailor Moon--Usagi tends to level up her Super powers, Pharaoh kind of tosses them out of the window and goes “oops” and becomes more and more mortal every single season.

So instead of magic they will just use Tea.

Amazing how none of them are really willing to date Tea seriously but they will acknowledge, out of the four of them, Tea is the best looking. So their strategy, bear with me, wasn’t to use the fact they’re children to get help from adults driving by, instead, the boys hid behind a rock so they could really make sure they were getting a hella pervy truck driver that would only stop for a single teenage girl stuck in the desert.

Only this group of kids would be like “Hey lets make sure the guy who picks us up is statistically most likely to be a serial killer” and then, weirdly enough, this horndog pedo truck driver ended up being the only person who didn’t try to kill them this entire episode.

So, lets go back to SF but coming from the north side...which makes no sense...but then again, they put Mesas in Napa County.

So last episode I assumed Rex and Weevil were dropped off in Oakland, but Rex informs us this episode that they are in “the worst part of town”

Where they get robbed twice, only to be saved by Duke Devlin, who I guess just lives here now because maybe it’s the only place he can afford in this expensive as hell city? Maybe he isn’t bothered by the crime-rate after that week he spent on Kaiba’s blimp/Seaquest mmo adventure?

Anyway, for some reason Duke--who is a game shop owner/developer by day--is wandering around the Tenderloin as a vigilante and saving people by throwing dice at them as some sort of side hustle and this is never discussed at all.

I would watch that spinoff series. Religiously.

Fun fact, there is definitely sketchy and bad parts of the Tenderloin you will know not to go to (you can smell it actually), but like a third of it is part of the best shopping district in the city and we used to just shop there unsupervised when I was a kid. It has an Anthropologie.

Not saying the parts that are bad aren’t bad. Whenever I drive through the non-shopping parts, I see at least one super sketch thing making me thankful I’m in the car. But I just don't know how Rex and Weevil managed to get robbed twice in one day. Just go five blocks in literally any direction.

Bro and I were like...HOW did this shot happened from this angle on the freeway...and then I only just now realized it. Something I forgot about because it’s from my parent’s generation...maybe the animators weren’t aware that the Embarcadero fell down after Loma Prieta?

So this was the SF landscape before the quake of 89′ (Which I have no memory of since I was a baby when this happened)

and after 89.

Like maybe the animators they had on this team remembered an SF from their youth that had a huge iconic raised street wrapping all the way around one part of it and just...never got the memo that an Earthquake made the entire thing fall down?

Either way, Duke is either driving these two directly out of SF, or he is driving them into 1988 and is taking a lovely drive on the Old Embarcadero, an experience which does not exist anymore, and which makes a lot more sense since Duke has to be somewhat near downtown, going by the skyscrapers and the vicinity to the Tenderloin.

Man. In the Yugioh Universe, Loma Preita just never actually happened. How is that factoid alone not the weirdest part of this episode?

(I am so glad Serenity is not here now that Duke’s back)

Welcome back to the show Duke, glad you’re bringing...Rex and Weevil...

To be fair, Duke has absolutely no idea who is and isn’t Yugi’s friends. Duke just kind of shows up and pretends like he’s part of the gang, and the gang has lost so much brain matter from all the cards and all the dark magic, they just assume he’s been here the whole time.

So at first I was like “this has to be a pun on Industrial Light and Magic” since there’s virtually no other film studios in the city--but ILM moved to SF 3-4 years after this season came out. So it’s just a weird coincidence, I guess. Or maybe it’s just a really uninspired name?

And so Mai, who I guess has been just waiting on this ledge for 8 hours decides to drop in.

Mai has evolved a lot since S1.

But, although Mai is just...straight up evil now, at least we get to see it taken out on Pegasus who, as far as this show is concerned, is a pretty evil bastard.

A pretty evil bastard who took like 3-4 episodes to beat in S1 but Mai could just do it off-screen.

It’s just funny that the entire time on the island Pegasus was probably pretty sure everyone there was trying to kill him EXCEPT for Mai and then the moment his back is turned he’s like “oh whaaaat?”

Like Bandit Keith is already in America. But rather than use Bandit Keith for this, lets use Mai to give Joey something to angst about. We can’t put her in a coma again--so lets instead get her vaguely possessed. Although seriously, if someone I liked did this to me I think I’d be over that crush really fast.

And then, speaking of Bandit Keith, we get to have a Greek Chorus this duel from the minibosses. Valon and the other guy with the handlebar-muttonchops.

I looked up “where does Valon’s accent come from” and literally there is no consensus, as far as I know.

And that’s where this episode ends.

Now I’m gonna go out of town for a week and then will need another week to make more of these so I’ll be on another hiatus. Holding out if I’ll maybe bring a laptop or something to where I’m going so I can type out recaps when I’m bored.

The problem is having the uhhhhh photoshop to do the caps. I can’t bear to do this in MS Paint because hell will freeze over before I lose all of my actions and hotkeys I made specifically to reduce the time it takes to make these. But we shall see.

anyway, if you want to see these from the beginning, click here.

[guillemettekaylee]

Lesson 15, Task 2: What has influenced me?

     In all of my years of high school, the other children used to make fun of me because I had an IEP (Individual Education Plan). My parents always told me that letting go of toxic people in your life will be your biggest step in loving yourself. They laughed at me because I’m different, but I laughed at them because they're all the same. I am Kay-Lee, and here's the story of how I overcome my challenges and stopped thinking about what my purpose in life was, but simply realized that all I needed to do was value what was right in front of me. My life is full of experiments and achievements. I have got success many times, and many times I have failed. I've learnt that I am not my mistakes, and that everyone makes mistakes, has struggles, and sometimes even regrets doing things in the past, but there's no limit to what you can do or accomplish except the limits you give yourself. I believe that our challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what make life worth living. I'm addicted to hustling, and I get depressed if I feel like I’m not being productive. I continue to update myself to be a better version of myself. Some days tend to be better than others. We all have a dream. But in order to make these dreams come true, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self discipline, and effort. I say follow your instinct and let your dreams come true, we all have our own unique destination, don't let the pressure of others determine how to live your life, you are the only one who has to access it. Some may say it's crazy, but anything is possible in life. If you think of it, it will come your way. It is the willpower and positive thinking that will bring blessings. I did not just learn this from reading a book, I have been thrown through a lot of obstacles in life, but they've made me realize that for self achievement you need to distance yourself socially to improve in yourself mentally, and to always keep a positive mindset. 

     I was born and raised in the city, but my parents grew up in a small town called Sturgeon Falls. That means that all my relatives were up north. I'm a single child, who was given three incredible half siblings. My parents got divorced when I was around the age of one, it was a blessing because I now have a stepfather, who has stepped up and took the role of taking care of me. He has a huge impact on my life and decision that I've made till this day. He always encouraged me to work hard for the things I want in life and to never give up or take things for granted. Within the last three years, things have changed a lot. We sold our house in Mississauga and moved to a small, country farm town called Alliston. This really prompted my isolation. A lot of my friends started to lose contact with me, because we no longer stumbled upon each other in the hallways anymore. Moving to a different school was hard due to the fact that I was the new girl. When you grow in a small town, you usually have experienced a childhood with most of your friends, so accepting a new person to the group was very unlikely. I’m not saying that I didn’t have friends, I can consider them an acquaintance. School hours were the only time they would talk to me, meaning when I got home my phone wasn’t blowing up with texts, asking to hang out. I really only kept two close friends with me throughout grade 11, and with this all this extra time I had on my hand, I scored myself a position as a junior banquet server at the nearby Golf course across the street from my neighborhood. Let me tell you, that was definitely an amazing experience. I met and worked with the best group of people, this made my time go fast and mostly everyday we worked together to serve functions for business parties, weddings, birthdays & etc. Everyday I would see a handful of new faces and new foods, but would work long exhausting hours on the weekend, this one time I worked a 12 hour shift because someone called into the sick and they just simply forgot I was still there. The problem with this job is that it was inconsistent with weekly hours, you never knew the exact time you would be going home. So making plans in advance was foolish. Most nights I would come home at two o’clock in the morning and had no time for anything else. This stopped quickly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I lost my job, because of social distancing because people were not booking in events anymore, therefore there was no source of income. I applied for unemployment benefits and this really sparked my creativity to come to mind. The beginning of March break, I took a visit to my fathers house in Sturgeon Falls, and thought of being closer to my siblings and cousins, and the factor of having no ‘true’ friends, I decided to move. 

     I knew this was going to be a super big step to take, but I was afraid that if I sat around and did the same thing everyday, that I wouldn't get nowhere in life. Choosing this really opened me up to new advantages, because I was no longer the new girl. I have been coming here almost every summer since I can remember. I applied to No frills, and thankfully I got the position as a front line cashier. Now, this might sound over dramatic, but being a cashier in a grocery store is honestly one of the most stressful jobs I have ever had, and that’s even considering my previous job, Chuck E Cheese. Where loud children were screaming and shouting all over the place and the guilt I had because I knew the eggs arrived in bags, instead of cartons. As soon as summer ended, it was when things started to get hard. I choose to work full time, while doing remote learning. I would have on average 35-40 hour a week, and teaching yourself after coming home from a 9-5 shift on a beautiful day to just sit in my room was very stressful. Not only that, I lived in a household of six, so it was always chaotic and someone always had a friend over bothering me. There were so many things distracting me from handing in assignments and reviewing lessons, but one of the major reasons was how depressed I have gotten. 

      I mentioned before, my parents are divorced. My whole life, my family has been constantly covering my fathers mistakes to save me from getting hurt, but having the chance to live with him, showed me how someone can be so persuasive but manipulative at the same time. I never knew my father had depression, nor did I know of his addiction. We always had a good relationship, but a distance one. Conversations were not consistent and sometimes we could go months without communicating. It's sad to say, but I’ve witnessed and confessed about his issue and he is constantly in denial. Do you know that saying, no matter how hard it gets, never turn on family? Well, I say this is full of bullshit. I am an extremely forgiving and mindful person, I always put the well being of others before myself. Although on November 29, 2020. Is where I snapped into reality, and now know that I can not trust no one but myself. The reason for this is because I spent so much time thinking about what I want to do with my life that I came up with an extraordinary idea to move to Australia for a year. Just for a new experience, I have never been out of Ontario, not even to Quebec. So in 2022, in October, I was going to leave and go on an independent study to capture the insights of Australian beauty. I was extremely close to my goal of hitting 10,000, before I got robbed in my house, and lost 1848 hours of hard working money. 6,000 was stolen from my room, and the only one to blame is my father. Sometimes people can’t stand to see you thrive, so they sabotage in hope it will bring you down. The last thing he told me about that situation, is that “it was your fault for leaving it here”. 

     After this I immediately moved back to my mother’s house, as an alternative to being sad and all crooked up in my bed. I dived into thinking “what makes me different from everyone else” and why this situation had to happen to me. They say that life throws the hardest challenges at those who can deal and cope with it, and I can proudly describe myself as being a very strong independent young lady, who has no idea how to cook. I like to tell people I know how too, when deep down, it is a big fat lie. I love trying new dishes and meals, and hate keeping it plain. My mother and I tend to make a lot of pastas, salads, dough's and soups. Also a lot of desserts, but for some reason I have a huge passion for baking but no stomach to eat it. Everyone has certain characteristics that make them unique from each other. Mine include, my beauty marks on my nose, my baby blue eyes, my fat fingers and my super addictive and loud personality. My special talent is doing a lot of over thinking before I go to sleep, I play scenes in my head. I practice the things I want to say. I make plans for the next day. I think about all the people I miss, I think of the ones I hate, I just ask myself a lot of questions. How do you explain to someone that you sometimes get sad for no reason and that you don’t even know the reason for your sadness that keeps you constantly up at night, I just can’t get things straight throughout my head. Sometimes the worst place to be in, is in your head, I've gained an understanding that my constant overthinking has just led to negative thoughts, so instead of forgetting about it, I’m just creating problems that weren’t there in the first place. I now take the time to deliberate and let it flow naturally and this has helped me discover my hobbies. 

     I have a strong love towards music, I cant play any instrument but I sure know every lyric in my playlist on Spotify and that is over a hundred of songs. Music never stops playing, I connect to it so much because the artist has no boundaries or limitations and they freely just speak about anything. People are always challenged by the fact that no one understands them or no one knows how they really feel but music allows them to capture these emotions and have the opportunities to share with people who may be going through the same thing, but is too afraid to open up. Music is my escape, but not only one. I've gained an interest in fashion recently, and went out and bought a sewing machine, and a full size body mannequin. I also went out and bought all the necessities to become a producer in clothing. I only started a month ago, but I've seen major improvement by just educating myself more on the type of snitches and just by searching up new techniques. I have a problem with painting, within the last couple of months, the color of my room has changed over six times. I feel like it just helps me become less anxious and allows my inner personality to stand out. Anything along the lines of crafts, sports, and just trying out new things, and exploring new places will attract me. Throughout my life I will continue to develop new hobbies and just find new ways to distract myself, from the society we live in. Looking at myself six months ago, I can say that I was not in a good state of mind, and was really just overthinking the littlest things. I've criticized myself over and over again, instead of rewarding myself. This is my biggest problem. I just need to believe a little more in myself. Nobody is worth stressing about, move forward. It's okay to leave people behind. Go make yourself the number one priority, and see where life takes you. 

[restlessmaknae]

Sandglass of Time

I would like to contribute to the @mydayimagines September task (with autumn as my chosen prompt) and the @day6writers Myth event with this little piece of mine. The whole universe is based on my imagination. Hope you like it though! <3

2814 // angst, drama, slice of life // gods of the seasons AU // OT5 

Park Sungjin always liked autumn the best. He couldn’t quite put a finger on the reason why, he just felt most comfortable during autumn.

The season represented rebirth for him. He adored watching the carpet of the colourful leaves that resembled a whole colour palette because not even two had the same shade. He adored watching the sunset above the ever-growing Seoul skyscrapers that looked like giant monsters amidst the green parks filled with the lovely chirping of birds and the smell of untouched nature. He adored the taste of the freshly roasted coffee that he always purchased on his way to work accompanied by a pumpkin-spiced cookie. He adored the warmth of hot chocolate that was never complete without marshmallows and a movie night. He adored the touch of his girlfriend, it was tender like silk yet fragile like glass.

It was the season when he met the love of his life and it was the time when he really started living his life. After the accident, he started to appreciate every single one of his days, he really lived like it was his last.

Thanks to autumn, a part of him died but another part of him awakened.

 Yoon Dowoon hated nothing more than autumn, so of course he was chosen to become the god of Autumn.

He always hated the cold morning and hot afternoon combo. The weather was so changeful in Korea that he didn’t even bother to bring a jacket with him, not even after he was told that gods could still feel the same way as humans. They could feel the warmth and the cold, yet they couldn’t freeze to death, nor get burnt by the sun. They were immortals, so their bruises and injuries healed right away. They didn’t age, they stayed forever young, and for some, it may have been a blessing but he disliked his curly, black curls and childish face so bad that he wanted to strangle Younghyun whenever he called him cute. Luckily, unless the gods wanted to, they couldn’t be seen by humans, so he didn’t have to go through the same when it came to people other than the gods of seasons.

He always hated how it darkened sooner in autumn and how the falling leaves made a mess on the pathways. The city buzzed again with running people who tried to catch their train, with toddlers who started their first year at kindergarten and with students who didn’t want to go back to school.

He hated how he couldn’t do anything to cheer those kids up, even though he tried his best. He made some leaves fall onto the ground with a wipe of his hand, so that youngsters could find beauty in their colour, yet they seemed indifferent to what was happening around them. He played with classroom doors, opening and then closing them like he was trying to be a creepy dude from a horror movie, but nobody could care less about the doors.

He hated how he had the less tools to make people fall in love with autumn because any other gods could do better.

Jae, the god of Winter, was a playful one. He adored playing snowball with little kids, creating blizzards and coming up with ice tubes. He could light a fireplace if he wished or warm up a cold mug. He was just as festive as the parties during New Year’s Eve and sentimental as those late-night conversations during Christmas time. Not to mention that he was sweet as a piece of a warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and no one liked to bake more than he did. From time to time, he even made an attempt to offer some cookies to the other gods but they always had an excuse to say no to him. Wonpil had his spring rolls, Younghyun always found a new ice cream flavour that he wanted to try while Dowoon never went anywhere without his life-saving Earl Grey tea.

Wonpil, the god of Spring, was a tender one. He was the one behind all those gorgeous flowers growing and the cherry trees saying goodbye to their blossoms. He could warm up the morning with a flick of his hand and make everything bloom wherever he went. He was refreshing like a bowl of veggie soup and soothing like a trip in the forests. He was just as beautiful as falling stars on the clear, spring skies, small wonder why people enjoyed gazing at the stars during his season.

Younghyun, the god of Summer, was a pretty wild one. He was really a hot tissue, small wonder why he adored walking in his favourite Hawaiian shirts and colourful shorts. He was full of energy like a fruit bowl and unpredictable like a sudden downpour in the middle of a hot summer night. He was always restless like sunny beaches filled with excited surfers but nobody could deny that he was just as full of surprises as a sightseeing tour in a hidden city in the middle of Europe.

Frankly, Dowoon had no idea what he was like. Was he like the oh so beautiful sunrise after a stormy autumn afternoon? Was he like a crowded school yard filled with the hustle-bustle of the youngsters? Was he scary like a Halloween night or boring like the greyish skies of November? Was he dull like weekdays or sparkling like the atmosphere of Chuseok?

He didn’t know but he knew that he had plenty of time to find it out for himself. He was immortal after all. What could he possibly do rather than finding out who he was?

 Kang Younghyun felt a bit odd wearing his knitted jumper for the first time after those long, hazy, crazy days of summer.

He may be biased but he reckoned that summer was the best season of all. He absolutely hated wearing warm clothes, so he wasn’t really happy when Dowoon decided to bring a sudden cold front.

“Oh well, he’s just a kid after all,” he mumbled to himself as he looked at the race of the raindrops on the window. Jaehyung was also beside him but kept quiet. It was rare that he stopped talking but what had happened left a huge impact on everyone.

Whenever one season came to an end and another arrived, it was time for a little rest. Younghyun always had this longing feeling when summer was over, he wished that it lasted longer. He never counted days as he really lived in the moment, so when his time was over, a hollow pang invaded in his chest. He didn’t feel like he wanted to conquer the world anymore. He felt more at ease, his heart wasn’t beating so loudly. He was calm again.

Even though he loved nothing more than being the god of Summer, watching the sunsets first thing in the morning and staying up long after the sunrise, he also needed time to recharge his batteries. The life of a god wasn’t as easy as one would think. He was basically in charge of the weather, the nature and people’s moods at the same time. He could be everywhere and anywhere anytime in any form. He could be seen if he wanted to or he could hide and watch the humans enjoy the waves licking the sand off their feet, his eyes adoringly gazing at those honest and joyful smiles. There wasn’t any better music for his ears than the laughter of the kids who chased after one another in the garden, enjoying the first rays of sunshine after a summer rain.

To keep the story short, there was definitely a huge weight on his shoulders and despite the fact that he seemed like he was having the time of his life, he didn’t have an easy job. Especially not this year when he had to prepare Dowoon for his season.

“You can’t blame him,” Jaehyung tore off his gaze from the city that was soaked up in rain and turned to face Younghyun. “It’s his first time. I was just like him when I started.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I remember like it was yesterday,” the god of Summer giggled and looked at the sandy-haired young man beside him. He looked back at him with a smile, or to be precise a trace of a smile. Even the always carefree Jaehyung was uncharacteristically reserved and calm after the past events.

The gods of the seasons had been through a lot together as they were there since humans existed. No matter what happened, the four of them could overcome anything.

However, as one pearl fell out of the jewellery box and ended up in broken little pieces on the floor, all the other three were forever scarred.

 Park Jaehyung was said to be the god who was the least like a god.

While it’s true that he didn’t take his job seriously (who would take snowball fights and drunk people on New Year’s Eve seriously?), it didn’t mean that he didn’t care. He cared. A lot actually. Deep down, hidden under the sarcastic jokes, behind the big rounded glasses and hiding in wide smiles, he cared about the humans, the world and the other gods beside him. He cared about everything and anything but he found a different way to show it.

When it was his first time as the god of Winter, he was someone with little to no experience, therefore he was really afraid that he would mess up something. He was constantly worrying, stressing out and he burned out easily. Only after several seasons did it finally dawn on him that he either enjoyed what he was doing or obsessed over his flaws. He couldn’t do both at the same time. So he chose the first option and didn’t even want to look back since then. He had learned a lot during the journey, he had stumbled many times but he had also got up so many times.

Never once did he forget about caring. If it weren’t for his big heart, Younghyun wouldn’t have overcome his first mental breakdown. Jaehyung was there for him when he had an existential crisis and to make matters worse, his tears created a flood in Busan and letting out his emotions took innocent lives. Even though none of them expected Jaehyung to wake up from his dream and help out a wandering soul, he was there for Younghyun.

Since then, he didn’t even go to sleep once his season came to an end. He sat in a dusty warehouse and reflected on the previous months. Occasionally, he met up with the guys when he didn’t miss the opportunity to tease them.

Nevertheless, this autumn was different. Even humans felt that something was off but they blamed it on the global warming. They couldn’t possibly no what was going on behind the scenes. The weather was so changeable, sometimes Younghyun had to assist while Wonpil was already there because Dowoon couldn’t bear the weight of being the god of Autumn. He couldn’t be blamed though.

“I wish he hadn’t become a god under such circumstances,” Jaehyung took a seat beside Younghyun who was quite an amusing sight with his knitted jumper. He didn’t usually wear warm clothes but as the season changed, so did the weather and the atmosphere of their conversations. Even if it wasn’t usually that cold during autumn, the pain and misery in Dowoon’s heart spread through the world like an invisible virus.

“The worst is that he wasn’t there when it happened. He doesn’t even know him,” Younghyun let out an agitated sigh as his eyes followed the line of the little raindrops on the window. Jaehyung had a hard time believing that it was the some guy who was happily munching on one banana after another, innocently and childishly making approving noises as he was eating. The last month definitely changed him. It changed everyone.

“And Sungjin doesn’t know him either.”

 Kim Wonpil looked like he couldn’t lose his temper easily.

As the god of Spring, he was usually a light-hearted and tender creature. He didn’t like arguments as he tried his best to focus on the growth and rebirth of the world and not the wars that could start up any minute. Spring was the season of hope, new chances and beginnings. It was also the season of light. After the sometimes long and not-so-gentle winter (the severity depended on Jaehyung’s mood swings), he was there to heal the wounds, warm the humans’ hearts and show them a road full of flowers instead of thorns.

However, what had happened to Sungjin was unbearable, especially for him. On top of being the gods of seasons, Sungjin was the one who was the closest to him. Frankly, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they didn’t even talk a lot. In the beginning, Jaehyung liked to sleep through the other seasons and not until December arrived, did he actually wake up. This way, he didn’t even interact with them, let alone make friends with them.

On the other hand, Wonpil and Sungjin were always like a tree and its leaf; they couldn’t be without the other. Jaehyung and Younghyun were the seasons of total opposites while Sungjin and Wonpil were more like the bridge parts. They connected the two ends, they weren’t too cold, nor too hot. They represented rebirth and death, resignation and fighting spirit. Without them, the sudden change between summer and winter could even take lives. Even though their presence seemed insignificant, they had an important role.

Wonpil liked and respected Jaehyung and Younghyun as well but Sungjin was different. He was more like the type to whom he could talk. The god of Spring felt most comfortable around the god of Autumn. As peculiar as it sounds, it was the truth.

Small wonder why his pain was twofold when he learned that Sungjin had to give up his immortality. All the gods knew that he met a human and fell in love with her. The only thing that they didn’t know was that the girl shouldn’t have figured out who he was because that was why he had to start a human life. As a human, Sungjin couldn’t see them unless the gods themselves wanted to.

Wonpil wanted to see his friend after what had happened and tell him about the new kid. Sungjin was immediately replaced by Dowoon because they couldn’t waste another day. The clock was ticking, it was already September and the world was left without the god of Autumn – only for mere minutes though.

He wanted to talk to him casually like they used to do. However, he wasn’t prepared for Sungjin’s reaction.

“I’m sorry. You must have mistaken me for someone else. I’m certain we’ve never met before,” Sungjin told him with an apologetic smile, his big doe eyes shining with honesty. He looked like he really didn’t know who he was.

“You really don’t remember?” Wonpil’s jaw dropped while his heart sunk. He couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. He didn’t want to think about the consequences.

“No, sorry,” Sungjin shook his head. “How do you know me?” he inquired as he eyed the god from top to bottom, probably aware of that otherworldly aura that every god possessed.

Something in his guts told him that it was over. Sungjin’s life as a god was over - he didn’t remember any of it. Wonpil was too naïve to think that the universe would let him keep his memories when he was sent back to humans and no human should know about the existence of the gods of the seasons. Yes, they could be seen; Jaehyung could play with little kids, Younghyun could surf along some cool dudes, Dowoon could steal chocolate croissants from a counter and Wonpil could sit down and talk with a homeless man.

However, people didn’t believe in them, they were too preoccupied with their lives and problems, they didn’t have time to think about supernatural creatures. So a secret like Sungjin’s would definitely leave an impact on the balance of the world.

“Oh, don’t mind me! It’s my bad, I remember now. We definitely don’t know each other.”

The words left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. He couldn’t believe that he had just lied to his best friend. His best friend who was now a human and didn’t remember him. How was he supposed to bring hope and light to the world when he felt like everything was grey and gloomy? How was he supposed to move on when he didn’t know how to deal with the loss of his friend?

Because that was the case. Sungjin didn’t die but it felt like he did. And a part of Wonpil died with him, too.

[dcnativegal]

Another autumn behind the sagebrush curtain

Something I’m getting used to in Christmas Valley is body odor. I don’t want to embarrass my smelly clients but I also need to breathe, so I regularly plug in one of those melted wax aromatic thingamajigs, and it does help. But I was in line at the Chevron, which is also kind of a fast food joint and a grocery store, and the gentleman before me was quite odiferous. Wow, phew, ack. A lot of my clients and perhaps a significant part of the population up in North County is without running water, sewage hookup, and/or electricity. Maybe you’ve heard of that zen saying’. Before Enlightenment: chop wood, haul water. After Enlightenment, chop wood, haul water. Well, all that chopping and hauling is the day to day reality here with no pretensions for spiritual edification.

I did a couple’s counseling session recently and one point of contention was who does the dishes. Sounds familiar to most couples, amiright? In this case, it’s a matter of hauling water and sometimes but not always heating it to do the dishes. Good grief. Same with gardening. You want vegetables? You gotta haul the water.

When money is tight, and a felon and his disabled girlfriend are living on her disability check, and sometimes his phone is out of minutes and sometimes hers is, and they haul water, and sometimes pay for a shower at the RV park ($4. Not sure if shampoo is provided), and the laundromat is 40 miles from your homestead…. Body odor will result. Me and my nose will adapt.

**

Winter is on its way. We’ve already had several frosts. The outdoor potted plants are now indoor. We never did plant the azaleas that Karen gave us to prove that azaleas are possible to grow in the high desert. (I remain skeptical.) One just up and died, and the other one is on a window ledge by the wood stove. I’m back to keeping a warm coat in the car just in case the car breaks down and I have to wait in the cold for help. I have an emergency kit, a spare tire, bottled water and protein bars. I don’t plan to break down any time soon or to hit a deer or god help me an elk, but you never know. I’ve learned from last winter to be prepared. Cell phone reception is an iffy thing, and we all depend on the kindness of strangers in bad weather.  At the beginning of November, I’ll have my studded tires put on and then I’ll be ready for whatever ice and snow gets tossed on us humans in these high altitudes.

I learned recently that for every 1000 feet in altitude, it is 5 degrees color than at sea level. So at 4,000 feet up, it’s 20 degrees cooler. Lakeview, the county seat, is the highest altitude town in Oregon. That doesn’t seem right, since there are the Cascades and all. Maybe the highest county seat.

It’s gonna be in the 80s today in DC. A bit warm for early October but by no means unusual. It was 29 last night in Paisley.

**

I’ve graduated a bunch of people with Substance Use Disorder since I started in February, giving them a certificate, notifying their probation officer, closing out their treatment plan, changing their diagnosis to say, in remission, making a compliance note, and then a service conclusion note. They are so happy not to have to call in every morning to see if their random urinalysis color is on for the day. If their color is called, they have to get to our offices during the day, and if they work a job during the day, it’s a hassle, although most employers are cool with it.  I’ve been flexible with my clients since I started practicing in North Lake, allowing the clients to come in for a spit test (for guys because I’m a gal) or a pee test or UA (for gals because I’m a gal so I can watch them pee. Oh joy.) when they are already in town, saving them gas and another trip to come in between 4 and 5 when we’re supposed to be most available for drug tests. And I’ve been happy to oblige. However, I’ve been informed from people above my pay grade that I’m not supposed to be that flexible, ‘cause then everyone will want to come in whenever. So new clients are going to have to come in from 4 to 5pm when their color is called. Gas or no gas. If they ‘no show’, they have to start the 90 days over again.

I have an ambivalent relationship to the punitive aspects of drug treatment. Sometimes I think, just have abundant available treatment options, people, and come on, taxpayers, pay up. And other times I see that, in one case or another, threat of jail and even brief time in jail scares them sober. I’m particularly worried about the poverty around here. A gallon of gas is beyond some folks some days. I do encourage my clients to quit smoking because you could buy gas with that cigarette money.

Or food. One of my clients just had kids taken by DHS and now the client is not eligible for food stamps. Apparently, when single years ago, this client could get food stamps for a month near to $200. Not anymore. Do folks realize that it is Democrats who shore up the ‘safety net’ and increase food stamp allowances? Not these folks. If they vote, they vote Republican. Do I point this out in session? No, I do not.

**

I wish I could tell you some stories from my clients’ worlds but I can’t. I will share themes, instead.

One theme for people with ‘substance use disorders’ is about cannabis.  I have at least 4 clients who have stopped using methamphetamine, and good on them. Seriously. But they still smoke pot. Weed. A bowl. Now and then or several times a day. And they object to the fact that their body fluid drug tests (spit or pee) are ‘dirty’ with THC. They stopped using meth! They aren’t drinking whisky or beer. Why can’t they have weed? It’s LEGAL. It’s NATURAL.

If you’re under 18 it is NOT legal.

If you’re on probation for a drug offense, and sometimes if it is not a drug offense but you’re on probation, or you lost your kids to foster care for domestic violence, then YOU CAN’T USE POT. PERIOD.

I tell them, I’m so sorry, but that’s the rules. And my job is to help you get off probation. I did not make the rules. Neither did the probation officers. If they want to lobby Oregon state legislature, get on to Salem, and knock yourself out. Meanwhile, YOU CAN’T USE IT.

So then I hear, but I can’t sleep without it. I get so angry without it. It helps me cope with my PTSD. Which is for real.

It’s MEDICINAL.

Do they have a medical marijuana card? Nope. And even if they did, most judges say, tough, no THC in the drug test. No nothing in the drug test. Not a single beer.

Okay then, let’s look at the options for treating the PTSD. Nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks, hypervigilance. There are options. Some of them has to do with talk therapy, and that’s where I come in. but there is help from medications. There really is. I’ve seen it work since I got here. We have a psychiatric consultant who is a nurse practitioner. He treats half the rural counties in Oregon, and does it remotely from The Dalles. Thursday is Lake County day. He looks like Arlo Guthrie, and recently failed to kill a single elk with his bow during a 10 day vacation.

Okay, so these clients then say, drugs aren’t natural. Pot is natural.

My retort is that arsenic and uranium are natural, too.

They don’t want to be dependent on a drug. Excuse me, what is cannabis? They don’t want to have to pay for a drug. They grow their own medicine in the form of pot and why is that a problem? I mention again, it’s against the terms of probation.

But, but, I once was on a drug and it made me crazy. Did you try another drug? Nope.

I don’t believe in drugs. So if you had an infection in your leg and it was either take an antibiotic or have it cut off, what would you do? Stuff it with herbs and wait.

See what I’m up against? Those clients who kicked meth but work daily on 6 bowls of pot, chopping wood, hauling water, hustling cigarettes, bartering for hay for the goats and feed for the chickens are going to be on probation forever. I’ve had clients on probation for 7 years. Alrighty then. I’m taking your spit and meeting with you and your probation officer looks at you with the stink eye and Oregon Health Plan pays for me and the spit, and taxpayers pay for the probation officer, and here we are.

For the folks who finally get clean of all of those substances, gosh they are my favorite clients. I miss them when they graduate. They are so glad to be done, to be off probation, to have a simple life with a job and their kids at home, and church on Sunday. I give them their certificate, tell them to stop by to visit if they’re nearby, lend them movies for free, and remind them to be nice to gay people. (Especially at church.) Off they go.

At some point they made a decision to get clean and stay clean. For most but not all it was residential rehabilitation that did they trick. Removed them from their day to day, sat them down with a counselor and with a group of fellow ‘substance use disordered’ folks, and forced them to gaze at their navel. After a month or 3 months, boom, they are clean and sober. They return to 90 days of random testing and weekly visits with me in what is called aftercare. And then, they are DONE.  And their sweet simple life is so sweet and so blissfully simple.

Mostly I sit and listen to their stories. I am grateful to be a witness to their transformation.

**

I wish I could do a study of all the gay people who grew up in Lake County. I’d like to know how they survived high school at one of the three schools (North Lake, Paisley and Lakeview). When did they came out to themselves, to one other person, to their parents, and what happened then? Where did they move after high school? How out are they now? And are they okay. (Did it get better?)

I have pretty darn good gaydar which I keep refining over the years. I’ve been wrong a few times, because effeminate men can be straight, and butch women can be, too. But I knew the first few minutes of the movie Juno that the actress, Ellen Page, was gay, and that was years before she came out. I just knew it by how she marched to the convenience store for yet another pregnancy test. I said, lesbian. Queen Latifah is gay, too. I don’t think she’s ever coming out. Jody Foster. Most definitely, and finally out. Anyway, there are two boys in Paisley that I think are gay. And I don’t know for sure. But I wish I could cast a protective aura around them. Because whatever they evolve into, (gay, bisexual, trans) they could be targeted because they are gentler, more creative, and have emotional intelligence.  We’ll see. I’m not close enough to either of them to offer protection. And one is related to a very conservative family. So I’m just watching. I’m not sure what else to do. I go to the same church as these boys (when I go to church in Paisley). So that’s something. My mere presence as an out gay person must mean something.

Maybe next June I’ll hang a rainbow flag on the house. I fear a stray bullet. Or rather, an intentional bullet coming from a 12 gauge.  I know, from good authority (Valerie’s daughter), that ‘nobody cares.’  But I don’t quite believe that. I still don’t have the nerve to put on my car, in defiance, the brilliant bumper sticker: I don’t mind straight people if they act gay in public.

I miss gay people. There is Valerie. And a few lesbians in Klamath County that I located with the help of google, the Herald and News (out of Klamath Falls) and one lesbian in particular who hooked me up with the others. I am ridiculously glad to see my one gay male friend who works with some of my clients, and now that another of my clients has moved to a third foster home, he is no longer the client’s worker so I see him less often. But he stopped by last week in Christmas Valley and is investigating a former client so maybe I’ll see more of him. Not that I ever wish anyone to be investigated because some kid is neglected. But sometimes kids need to be rescued and parents need a wake up call. He’s an awesome social worker, and all around great husband and father to four kids (who were born to substance use disordered cousins). Gay men make perfect friends for women, gay or straight. They have emotional intelligence. They don’t want to get in your pants. And sometimes, they share your interests, like knitting. Or social work. Valerie’s first husband’s husband knits AND crochets.

**

It’s dusty out here. Sometimes it’s alkali dust from the dried patches of the lakes, when the wind is just right. Sometimes it’s dirt dust. This weekend I’m staying in a tiny town in Deschutes county where Valerie is cow and puppy sitting. The ranch house is full of flies; she says it’s because of how close the leppies (baby calves whose mother rejected them) are to the house. But when I visited her here when she was the main ranchhand, a few summers ago, there were piles of dead flies in the window sills. She was just now talking to her sister on the phone and walking around killing fly after fly. I am amazed at her deadly skill. And then there’s dust. On everything. Thick layers of it. She apparently mopped thoroughly ever single floorboard just yesterday. Today I can write my name in the dust with my be-socked toe. The views from the house are beautiful. The house itself is adorable, with a lovely porch, decorated in Rustic Cowboy. But I am having trouble with the dust. Val says, at least it’s not bus exhaust and city soot. Yea, true. But when I close the windows in the city, the soot stays outside. She says it’s because of the wind here. And the dirt is just real dry. The dirt can go wherever it wants to! I just don’t want to live in it.

I didn’t realize I’m such a prissy butt.

**

I’m near to Bend while visiting Brothers, which is a proper city, with stop lights and everything. I have a ‘must visit’ list now every time I approach a city: If it’s Sunday, I attend church. I check out the ethnic food. (I highly recommend the salmon pho with the cheerful all-male waiters at the Vietnamese.) I check out the local yarn shop and make a bee line for the sale bin. And I see a movie.  If I’m lucky I can do all four.

Tomorrow, we’re going to an episcopal church, and sing hymns with multiple verses that I recognize. Alleluia. Not sure where we’ll eat. I’m voting for Indian. I have enough yarn (for the rest of my existence) so I’ll pass on the store this time. On Monday when I’m heading back south, I’ll go into Bend again and I’ll probably see Blade Runner 2049. I loved the first version, and I’ll love this one, too. I’ll have had my fix, and head south into a food desert, conservative churches, and zero movie theaters. Although the chili and cornbread at the Sage Hen Café is pretty good and I love the chicken and avocado Caesar salad at ‘erry’ restaurant. It used to be Jerry’s, but the J and the s are missing.

**

Dallas is not in Texas. Springfield is not in Massachusetts or Ohio. Lewisburg is not in Pennsylvania.  Florence is not in Italy. Newport is not in Rhode Island. Bridgeport is not in Connecticut. Warrenton is not in Virginia. Oakland is not in California.  I’ve mentioned before that Albany is not in New York, and Ontario is not in Canada, either. They are all in Oregon. The ocean, known as the coast or the beach, is West, not East, of wherever I am. Do not under any circumstances pass a snow plow on the right. That’s just dumb. And never go into a rural area without a full tank of gas. I started out at the edge of a reservation on the way to Portland recently and figured there was a gas station. WRONG. I spent about 30 miles wondering what I would do if I ran out of gas. With no phone signal. And way past the age where all I had to do was show a little leg (a la It Happened One Night.)  I figured maybe I write a big sign that said OUT OF GAS, and pray. But I finally made it to a gas station just in time.

Also in Oregon: Sweet Home, Bonanza, Remote. Halfway, Paradise, Pendleton, Aloha. Eightmile, Thirtymile, Tenmile and Friend. Chiloquin, Keno, and Paisley.

**

One benefit of living in a frontier outpost is that there are virtually no chain businesses, with the exception of a couple of gas stations and the one Safeway in Lakeview. One Dollar Store and a True Value. Everything else is a small business. You can buy almost anything from a store that has only one location. I can buy excellent quality yarn at Willows in Christmas Valley. There are at least 3 thrift shops with big selections. I bought a little bit of furniture for my office at a store in Lakeview. Many stores serve multiple functions, like the Chevron/fast food/grocery store. The True Value sells toys. You can buy clothes and rent movies at Santa’s Hardware in Christmas Valley. Ammo, knickknacks, milk, nails, and deodorant are available at the Paisley Mercantile. If you’re into quilting, there are shops in Lakeview and Paisley. The county could use more pharmacies—there is only one, called Howard’s, in Lakeview. And there is the one hospital, of which I am an employee since they took over the county mental health service. Folks in north lake county go shopping up in another county, Deschutes, where there is Costco and Walmart and BiMart, which has a pharmacy. Is BiMart only for bisexuals? No. Bisexuals are the largest category of not-straight, though you’d never know it by popular culture. I guess I’d have to dust off my official bisexual card. Kidding. No such thing. I’m a lesbian-identified bisexual, based on my history, and a persistent crush on Ryan Gosling. Anyway, we support small businesses out of necessity here in the Oregon Outback because we have no choice. And I gladly pay a little more for gas at the Summer Lake General Store and the Chewaucan garage to thank them for persisting and existing.

**

Since I moved out here, I’ve been especially interested in stories in the news about people who are building bridges, across class and race and political party. Black friends on facebook encourage all their white friends to be a proactive ally against racism in all its forms. I do speak up when there is an opportunity, which is a tricky thing to recognize. Speaking up in a way that communicates, and builds a bridge. I listen to a bunch of podcasts which are focusing on studies of bias (Hidden Brain, Invisibilia, Freakonomics.)  A recent story from Sincerely x was narrated by a black woman who was told repeatedly by her mom and her teachers that she ‘ain’t nothing, and ain’t gonna BE nothing.’  She has proven everyone wrong. I listen to This American Life, Moth Radio Hour, Strangers, Terrible Thanks for Asking, and a couple with funny names like “Conversations with People who Hate Me.”  There’s a podcast called Home of the Brave, and the narrator interviews Trump supporters hoping to understand them better, and another called Strangers, same thing. Us & Them is a podcast out of West Virginia. It had a recent episode called Hillers and Creekers which described the bullying that upper class (Hillers) did to working class (Creekers) residents. Wow. To make sure I don’t lose touch altogether with black culture, I listen to 2 Dope Queens and Historically Black. I’ve subscribed to Reparations but haven’t listened yet. There’s Still Processing from the New York Times, which focused on biracial folks in the most recent episode. I fill my ears and mind with hours of podcasts every week, what with all the driving I do beyond the reach of radio. I am the better for it.  I may work less than 30 hours a week, but I drive another 8 hours for my commute.

I confess I wish someone would like to build a bridge to me. A friend of Valerie’s invited us over for dinner early on, and included one of the resident gun-worshipping, trump-supporting curmudgeons. She proceeded to start a conversation about racism. It did not go well. Of course, the curmudgeon did not have a racist bone in his body (where are those blasted racist bones, anyway?) And, naturally, he’d had one unfortunate encounter with a black person in which the black person was mean to him and so, that’s it: black people had a chance and they blew it. It was too vast a territory to traverse over tri tip. He didn’t trust me. And I don’t know what our host intended. Self-described as a moderate republican, she is a decent person, and noble to the point of saintliness in some of her activities here in rural America. But I felt put on the spot, and discouraged. I’m game. But I do not desire to be put on a hot seat and ask to explain 400 years of white supremacy, and why it is still real and still important, as a sort of freak show. I had an idea about starting an anti-racist book group when I first arrived. Let me get my health together first; i just don’t have the energy right now.

**

Have I mentioned how gorgeously beautifully picturesque this place is? How happy I am to snuggle next to my beloved girlfriend in the fake brass bed I got off of the DC Craigslist? How much I enjoy all the wool I am collecting? I am one prolific lap blanket maker right about now. How glad I am that I made this move?

[alingpoleng]

Life lately (changes, challenges)

I haven’t written anything recently aside from the usual fragments I try to grasp as it floats around my head.

I haven’t meditated for at least two weeks because of too much work and partly because my free trial to Headspace is over. I am really tempted to go with a paid subscription but I stopped myself.

Life lately has been going crazy up and down. It started out late August when I felt like my system is failing again and my life was falling apart. You know that feeling when you are just tired and your life is not going anywhere? I had a couple of episodes of that before and then again.

I reall wanted to quit my job but I got no Plan B. I knew I needed a break that time so I skipped work a couple of times. I started meditating, and subscribed to a life coaching blog because I knew I needed it.

So far it helped get through another round of even crazier workload last September. Man, paperwork + meetings + people whom I just want to punch on face for being extremely asshole and inconsiderate and all the events on my side hustle (which I really love) really cramped up my September.

I’ve been panicking silently since August because of my upcoming trip this November and the fact that I haven’t save much for it. I really don’t want to think about money.

Honestly, I am in the brink of collapsing again– and I mean it. I can feel it coming and I may not make through the month if I don’t take break. Luckily, my team will be celebrating the first anniversary of our business so we’ll be heading up north next week! Thankfully, my boss allowed me to go. So that gives me something to look forward to despite the stress.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned (and still learning) about meditation that is mindfulness. I’ve been observant of my mind and health amd what my body tries to tell me. This is the point where I learned the important of rest, of taking a break and knowing how to breathe. (Signs of aging, #yaaass lol)

My body or health in general is changing, I noticed. Gone are the days when 19-year-old college self can survive weeks of production with only two hours of sleep in transit and instant noodles and copious amount of coffee. I get tired easily these days. The commute and work exhaust me most of the time.

I’d like to blame it to not being athletic or being active in sports or even exercise. I should not be feeling this now right? I am only 22. But health knows no age.

I really want to focus on my mental, physical, and spiritual health. #Adulting is such a draining phase. It’s dreading just to even think that this is just the beginning and this will take a long time. Good Lord, send help.

This is also an important time to learn and set my priorities straight, I really hope health does not fall last on the list.

Everything is about work, work, and work these days. I hope we all find time to just breathe.

This is the longest personal post I’ve ever written in a while. With this I also decided to install new theme for the blog and hopefully help me to find time to write. Wow. What a concept.

I guess this is also my first *first draft challenge*

xx

P.S. no edits :)

[thedeskside]

Women Who Work: Content Strategist, Jen Sabillon

Jennifer Sabillon is a content strategist who focuses on copywriting and social media content. She helps entrepreneurs strategize their content and personalize their message. Let's get into her journey! What made you want to start your business? What inspired you to do so? I was an English teacher for 7 years before starting my own business. What got me into teaching English was my LOVE for writing! I have literally been writing since I was old enough to hold a pen/crayon/marker/whatever. When I got pregnant with my second baby boy in July of 2016, I realized that I wasn’t spending my time doing something I loved that was worth being away from my babies. Having small children really fuels a person to go for their dreams and have more time to spend with them. So, I decided to go for my dreams of being a writer and create amazing content for people who might not have the time or the desire to write for their businesses! How do you explain what you do to others? In this crazy world called copywriting/content creation, I have found myself doing all types of copy work from website copy to social media content. It is truly amazing the time that a business owner can save by having someone create their content FOR them rather than stress themselves out trying to do it themselves. I create a social media content plan, write the content, implement (schedule), and watch it produce! On the copywriting side, I write newsletters, email sequences, landing pages, etc… If it has writing on it, I’m your girl! How long have you been doing this? I have been working in my own business for 7 months! What is a day for you like? What is your routine? My routine is centered around my sweet boys (2.5 years and 3 months).

I get up and get my 3 month old fed and changed.

The two boys and I head downstairs where I get my 2.5 year old breakfast and MILK (of course) while getting my youngest situated for playtime.

I get myself some breakfast (usually a Pop Tart and a Coke… don’t judge).

After we’re all settled, I get comfortable at my desk and start cranking out the content!

I take some client calls, make connections, network, socialize on FB because why not, and work on my own business material.

Around lunch time, we have lunch and then the boys take a nap!

During their nap, I work on more content and client calls.

After they wake up from nap, we all head back downstairs to get a snack and wait for daddy to come home.

Once my husband is home, we eat dinner and get ready for bed.

The boys go down around 7-7:30 pm.

Once they’re down, my husband and I spend quality time together just enjoying each other’s company!

Then, it’s my favorite time of the day: BEDTIME!

How did you go about starting your business? What were some of your initial steps that you took? So, I started looking at ways a stay at home mom could make money. I began that journey back in November/December of 2017. It was scary to think I might actually capitalize on the opportunities I found, but I was still not sure of my next steps. In January, my husband I spoke about what it would look like if I stayed home, and he encouraged me to start trying out some of the methods of staying home and making money that I had found. I was 30 weeks pregnant, working full time, caring for a 2.5 year old, and still trying to be a good friend and wife! In March, I decided to stop doing the “side hustle” thing and move to full time! My initial steps started with researching the industry, getting my website up and running (as scant as it was), and making connections with the right people! What has been the hardest part of your transition? The hardest part of my transition has been fully trusting myself that I can do this and make the money I was making as a teacher. Having a family with two small children makes any major life transition super scary! I always worry about whether or not I’m going to end up hurting our family or putting us in some hole that we can’t get out of and that’s just not true. Trusting myself and knowing that I CAN do this is what has been the hardest. What has been the easiest part of your transition? Finding support! There are so many amazing and talented and SUPPORTIVE people out there in the online business world that have stepped up to help me in any way possible. What do you think is the most important characteristic to have for someone who wants to take a similar career route to yours? The most important characteristic to have for someone to take a similar career route as me would be perseverance. They must must must be able to push through all of the negativity and downfalls that may come about when they’re in this industry. If they can get through those times, they’ll be golden. What do you wish you knew before starting out on your own path? I wish I would’ve known how much I was going to doubt myself AND how much some people don’t truly value your work. There a lot of people in this world that think everything should come to them for free (or very cheap price), and when you create work that is amazing and you gave it everything you had, it is hard to accept that some people will never be happy! I just wish I would’ve known that before starting so I could prepare myself. Did anyone help you in developing your own business or side business? YES! I have had some amazing and incredible mentors throughout this process. Eva Kalvig is an amazing online business manager (OBM) who was the very first person to believe in me and see my potential (even before I did). Safia Sattar was the first coach I worked with who provided me AMAZING support and guidance in an industry I was completely foreign to. And now I have a group of ladies in the Fearless Sisterhood with a coach, Eveline Traxler, who help me develop and grow each and every day! What is your favorite thing about the industry you work in? I just love the flexibility, connectivity, and creativity that flows from this industry. I have the chance to do what I want pretty much whenever I want! The connections that are made in this industry are second to none, and everyone is always there to cheer you on! And the creativity I feel flowing from not only myself, but from others is something that I haven’t experienced in a very long time! What are some tools that you can live without?

Trello - the FREE version is amazing! There are “Power Ups” you can purchase, but the free version is amazing on it’s own! Organization = awesomeness.

Drift is super cool scheduling tool that has a bot who interacts with the potential client that really makes the process easier and more personable (in my opinion). Plus, not a lot of others are using it, so it’s unique! The one that I use is FREE, and it is great!

CANVA - from an inexperienced graphics creator’s standpoint, this is an amazing tool. There is not much of a learning curve, and the graphics that are produced are great for the purpose I need them. I do have the paid version for magic resizing, but the free version is amazing, too.

Google everything! Let me tell you, without Google Drive, I’d be LOST!

What do you have on your desk or working space right now? My computer, papers, supplies (tape, stapler, pens, etc..), fake flowers in a pretty little vase, a Coke (I told you), and some Cheez-its. What do you want other women in similar situations to know about your chosen career path? That while this might not be the easiest thing they’ve ever done, it is totally doable! Trusting in yourself will you get a long way! But, know that everything you see on social media about going from $0 to six figures in one month is simply not realistic! It might happen for a very small percentage of people, but the average person won’t see that! So they have to remember to turn off the blinders and see the realistic side of this business - success takes time! Do you have any other additional key points that you think would be beneficial to readers? Please notate them below! This entire process is SCARY, but it is really rewarding. You’re going to get clients that don’t like your work, don’t like your working style, or vice versa. But that’s okay because they’re not meant for YOU! Keep rockin, find your core group, and get yourself a mentor! You’re going to do fabulous things, and believing in yourself is the FIRST step! You can learn more about Jen on her website. You can also contact her through Twitter or Facebook.

[kennethherrerablog]

The Day We Went Completely Broke

This is our debt free success story.

I will never forget that phone call. I knew this moment would eventually be here, but in the back of my mind I pretended if I didn’t think about it, things would eventually work out. We would just make more money. Someday we would pay off that balance. We could start saving next year. What’s the worst that can really happen, right?

Just a few minutes before the phone call, my wife Andrea was at the grocery store with our 10-month old son. Whenever she is out in public, people immediately recognize her as the morning-show news anchor from our city’s local news stations. Today was of course no different.

At the checkout, Andrea waited for each item to go across the scanner and into the bag. The total came to just over $150, which for our family of three was the standard going rate for a week of groceries, diapers, and formula. She handed her credit card over to the cashier and it was DECLINED. The second card DECLINED. The third card DECLINED.

The day was February 23rd, 2011: The Day We Went Completely Broke

Our Debt Free Success Story

Before I share with you our story, please understand that we were absolutely crazy about getting out of debt. We we “those” people who maybe took it to the extreme (okay, we did).

Paying off $52k in 7 months is not normal and we wouldn’t expect anyone to think it is.

However, we are sharing our story in hopes of one outcome: you make the decision to become debt free forever.

Going Broke

The next day when I came home from the fire station, Andrea and I sat down at the kitchen table and began to unravel this dirty little secret we were not only keeping from everyone else, but we were also keeping from ourselves.

It started the moment we left college and entered the real world. I joined the fire department and Andrea landed her dream job with the local television station. Not to brag, but the reality was we were young, we were making a six figure salary, and we didn’t have kids (yet). Life was easy…or so we thought.

As you can imagine, we started off life completely normal according to society standards. We bought a brand new truck, a luxury car, a new home, and all the bells and whistles to go inside.

Traveling was our kryptonite and we said “yes” to everything.

Whether it was lavish vacations, cruising the Caribbean, buying expensive jewelry – the answer was always “yes”.

After four years of living paycheck to paycheck, overspending, overindulging, and not paying attention to our money, we financially hit rock bottom. We had maxed out our credit cards, overdrafted the checking account, and had never thought to build up a savings account. All we had left to show for our financial stupidity was $52k of debt and a ton of shame.

“We Will NEVER Live This Way Again”

I remember sitting there at the kitchen table staring down at the floor in disbelief. Did we really let it get this bad? Were we so foolish to think the debt would never catch us from behind? How did this happen? Why did it seem like everyone else had it figured out, but yet we were sitting here flat broke?

To make things worse, we started worrying about the reaction from our friends and family. What were they going to think of us if they knew the truth? Would we tell them and how would they react? What about our son Carter? If we couldn’t even afford our family at this point in our lives, what would happen as life progressed, became more complicated, and much more expensive?

All of these emotions came crashing down into our pseudo-perfect world and that was when we finally had to face reality. It was now or never.

That was the moment when we both said:

“We will never live this way again”

Never again will we make this much money and be this broke.

We will never again be unable to buy groceries.

The days of us sitting here at this very kitchen table completely out of money, out of hope, and without a plan will NEVER happen again.

That day would be known as day one of our own debt free success story.

We Created A Plan

The only good thing about hitting rock bottom is you have nowhere else to go but up. One of my favorite quotes by John Maxwell is this:

“Everything worthwhile in life is uphill.”

This saying became our motto. If living paycheck to paycheck, going deeper into debt, and overspending was easy, then the opposite would have to be true. Taking back control of our life and money was going to be hard. Period.

A Cash-Flow Plan

The first thing we needed to do was to figure out how to manage the money coming in and going out each month. Many people call this a “budget”, but we preferred to call it a cash-flow plan.

Why?

It’s simple really: budgets sound like prison food and water and a cash flow plan sounds like something Andrea and I would be willing to do together.

The Envelope System

We knew our spending habits were out of control. It was almost as if we had to order new credit cards throughout the year because we wore out those magnetic strips from overuse (not really, but you get the point).

We decided we would go to an all cash lifestyle.

Andrea and I became one of those weird people who carry around cash in envelopes and only spend what was inside each envelope for the month. When the envelope ran out of cash, we stopped spending.

I believe they call this “common sense”

Stop Borrowing Money (Forever)

We realized it would be impossible to dig our way out of debt so we decided at that moment we would never borrow money again. Never. Not for a couch, a car, a vacation, or even a house (luckily we already had a mortgage).

We were done playing with debt. We had been told in the past debt was a tool. Well, I believe it can be a tool for some people, but for Andrea and I, debt was a tool that created a disaster in our lives. We can admit it – we don’t manage debt very well. The choice became ours: we would never play with debt again. Period.

Sitting at our kitchen table, we one-by-one cut up every single one of our credit cards. It was scary, we were a little freaked out (okay, really freaked out), but it was also one of the most freeing moments I can remember in our little debt free story.

Since that day we haven’t once used a credit card, we haven’t once borrowed a single penny from anyone, and contrary to what society will tell you – we are still here to talk about it!

Cut Back Our Life(style)

When you’re completely broke, it doesn’t really make sense to have wants over needs. One of my favorite quotes from Seth Godin is this:

“Once you have enough money for beans and rice and taking care of your family, money is a story.” 

– Seth Godin

I hadn’t heard this quote until just recently, but it struck a nerve with me right away because money was our story. We had to decide what our story would be. Would it be a story of struggle or a story of freedom? Would it be a story of stressing over every bill each month, or would it be a story of financial peace?

We made the decision to change the ending to our story. Things were about to go from wild to almost out of control.

We sold (just about) everything

From clothes, to furniture, to pictures on the walls, shoes, textbooks, and even Andrea’s luxury SUV.

We turned off our cable and purchased this HD antenna. We cancelled subscription services we had forgot we subscribed to and we began saving money in any areas we could think of.

Lowered The Interest

We had spent so long ignoring the reality of our debt, we really had no idea how much we were paying towards our debt or how much we had been paying in interest.

Once we realized we were overpaying interest with both credit cards and student loans, we started to look at ways we could lower the interest rate. One of they key things we quickly learned was debt consolidation didn’t really do much for our money except make it convenient to have only one payment with an average interest rate and a small fee tacked on.

If you get out a calculator, it is obvious debt consolidation is a CONsolidation.

But, we knew we could save a ton of money with a lower interest rate.

We lowered the student loan interest rate by 3% and dropped our credit card interest in half with a personal loan.

Make More Money (Side Hustle)

Since we were no longer using our free time to spend money, we decided we would spend our free time making money.

I started a pool cleaning service in our neighborhood and was able to generate $1,000 – $1,500 extra every month.

Cleaning pools during the Phoenix summers of 118°F was not at all fun, but neither was remaining in debt. I did other odd jobs and worked as much overtime on the fire truck as they would allow. The best place to go when you’re completely broke……to work.

If you’re not into cleaning pools in the hot summer (I don’t blame you at all), there are plenty of ways to make money from home! Here a list of over 80 different side hustles to start making extra cash right now.

  November 17th, 2011

There are four days I will always remember for the rest of my life. The first is the day I watched my beautiful wife walk down the aisle. It’s still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

The second and third days were when our kids were born. No dad will ever forget that moment.

The fourth day was November 17th, 2011. This was the day we paid off our debt.

We jumped in our slightly used Kia and drove down to the Bank of America near our home. Our remaining balance was $1,272 and we had the money in our account to finally pay off this last chunk.

I remember pulling up to the bank and my heart was racing.

I grabbed my checkbook, Andrea’s hand, and we walked in side-by-side just like we had been doing over the past seven months. There was a small line to see the teller and both of us were standing in line, huge smiles from ear-to-ear, and giggling like a couple of school girls on the playground.

The teller waived us over and it was time.

It was our turn.

All the sacrificing, all the eBay and Craigslisting, all the overtime, all those days cleaning pools in the summer heat, all the whispers from the family, and not to mention the overflow of straight up rude comments from our friends, would all be coming to an end.

This was the moment Chris and Andrea would become debt free.

I opened my checkbook, put my pen to the paper, tore out the check and handed it over to the teller. She handed back our receipt with our new balance: $0.00 PAID IN FULL.

#boomshakalaka  (you won’t see that anywhere else…)

What is Life Look Like Today?

My amazing wife Andrea was able to retire from her career as a television news anchor and be home for her family more than she ever thought possible.

She took her passion of journaling and turned it into a thriving business. 

I still work for the fire department, however I don’t work overtime anymore because we don’t have debt payments anymore.

Instead, we are investing heavily and have even taken up on passive income strategies.

None of this would have ever been possible if we had remained in debt.

Period.

  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t….you’re right”

-Henry Ford

  Obviously there is much more to our story, but we would need a book and a publisher to put it all in writing. However, if you’re looking to get started, my best piece of advice is this: don’t wait another second. Just get started.

If you don’t know where to start, I would encourage you to take the first step.

Start with a Cash Flow Plan.

It’s step-by-step, easy-to-follow, and something I promise you will get a ton of value from.

And it’s free.

What is the one thing you can do today to move your life in the direction you want to go?

It starts with that first step.

Life is good awesome my friends,

-Chris Peach

  The Stuff They Forgot to Teach Us About Money

In 2015 Awesome Money Course was created. Since then over 500 students have graduated the program with a system that shows you exactly how to:

Create a REAL monthly budget that doesn’t feel like rocket science

Pay off debt using a simple, yet proven method, that takes away all the guessing work

Save for the what-ifs in life 

Save for the big purchases and the “fun” that life should be

Make sure you’re saving your hard-earned money in the right place

Build wealth so your future self thanks you when it’s time to retire to the next chapter

Money shouldn’t be complicated and it’s our mission to show people how to save money, pay off debt and build wealth without needing a Masters in Finance.

See all Money Peach Courses

The Day We Went Completely Broke published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

[darcyfarber]

The Day We Went Completely Broke

This is our debt free success story.

I will never forget that phone call. I knew this moment would eventually be here, but in the back of my mind I pretended if I didn’t think about it, things would eventually work out. We would just make more money. Someday we would pay off that balance. We could start saving next year. What’s the worst that can really happen, right?

Just a few minutes before the phone call, my wife Andrea was at the grocery store with our 10-month old son. Whenever she is out in public, people immediately recognize her as the morning-show news anchor from our city’s local news stations. Today was of course no different.

At the checkout, Andrea waited for each item to go across the scanner and into the bag. The total came to just over $150, which for our family of three was the standard going rate for a week of groceries, diapers, and formula. She handed her credit card over to the cashier and it was DECLINED. The second card DECLINED. The third card DECLINED.

The day was February 23rd, 2011: The Day We Went Completely Broke

Our Debt Free Success Story

Before I share with you our story, please understand that we were absolutely crazy about getting out of debt. We we “those” people who maybe took it to the extreme (okay, we did).

Paying off $52k in 7 months is not normal and we wouldn’t expect anyone to think it is.

However, we are sharing our story in hopes of one outcome: you make the decision to become debt free forever.

Going Broke

The next day when I came home from the fire station, Andrea and I sat down at the kitchen table and began to unravel this dirty little secret we were not only keeping from everyone else, but we were also keeping from ourselves.

It started the moment we left college and entered the real world. I joined the fire department and Andrea landed her dream job with the local television station. Not to brag, but the reality was we were young, we were making a six figure salary, and we didn’t have kids (yet). Life was easy…or so we thought.

As you can imagine, we started off life completely normal according to society standards. We bought a brand new truck, a luxury car, a new home, and all the bells and whistles to go inside.

Traveling was our kryptonite and we said “yes” to everything.

Whether it was lavish vacations, cruising the Caribbean, buying expensive jewelry – the answer was always “yes”.

After four years of living paycheck to paycheck, overspending, overindulging, and not paying attention to our money, we financially hit rock bottom. We had maxed out our credit cards, overdrafted the checking account, and had never thought to build up a savings account. All we had left to show for our financial stupidity was $52k of debt and a ton of shame.

“We Will NEVER Live This Way Again”

I remember sitting there at the kitchen table staring down at the floor in disbelief. Did we really let it get this bad? Were we so foolish to think the debt would never catch us from behind? How did this happen? Why did it seem like everyone else had it figured out, but yet we were sitting here flat broke?

To make things worse, we started worrying about the reaction from our friends and family. What were they going to think of us if they knew the truth? Would we tell them and how would they react? What about our son Carter? If we couldn’t even afford our family at this point in our lives, what would happen as life progressed, became more complicated, and much more expensive?

All of these emotions came crashing down into our pseudo-perfect world and that was when we finally had to face reality. It was now or never.

That was the moment when we both said:

“We will never live this way again”

Never again will we make this much money and be this broke.

We will never again be unable to buy groceries.

The days of us sitting here at this very kitchen table completely out of money, out of hope, and without a plan will NEVER happen again.

That day would be known as day one of our own debt free success story.

We Created A Plan

The only good thing about hitting rock bottom is you have nowhere else to go but up. One of my favorite quotes by John Maxwell is this:

“Everything worthwhile in life is uphill.”

This saying became our motto. If living paycheck to paycheck, going deeper into debt, and overspending was easy, then the opposite would have to be true. Taking back control of our life and money was going to be hard. Period.

A Cash-Flow Plan

The first thing we needed to do was to figure out how to manage the money coming in and going out each month. Many people call this a “budget”, but we preferred to call it a cash-flow plan.

Why?

It’s simple really: budgets sound like prison food and water and a cash flow plan sounds like something Andrea and I would be willing to do together.

The Envelope System

We knew our spending habits were out of control. It was almost as if we had to order new credit cards throughout the year because we wore out those magnetic strips from overuse (not really, but you get the point).

We decided we would go to an all cash lifestyle.

Andrea and I became one of those weird people who carry around cash in envelopes and only spend what was inside each envelope for the month. When the envelope ran out of cash, we stopped spending.

I believe they call this “common sense”

Stop Borrowing Money (Forever)

We realized it would be impossible to dig our way out of debt so we decided at that moment we would never borrow money again. Never. Not for a couch, a car, a vacation, or even a house (luckily we already had a mortgage).

We were done playing with debt. We had been told in the past debt was a tool. Well, I believe it can be a tool for some people, but for Andrea and I, debt was a tool that created a disaster in our lives. We can admit it – we don’t manage debt very well. The choice became ours: we would never play with debt again. Period.

Sitting at our kitchen table, we one-by-one cut up every single one of our credit cards. It was scary, we were a little freaked out (okay, really freaked out), but it was also one of the most freeing moments I can remember in our little debt free story.

Since that day we haven’t once used a credit card, we haven’t once borrowed a single penny from anyone, and contrary to what society will tell you – we are still here to talk about it!

Cut Back Our Life(style)

When you’re completely broke, it doesn’t really make sense to have wants over needs. One of my favorite quotes from Seth Godin is this:

“Once you have enough money for beans and rice and taking care of your family, money is a story.” 

– Seth Godin

I hadn’t heard this quote until just recently, but it struck a nerve with me right away because money was our story. We had to decide what our story would be. Would it be a story of struggle or a story of freedom? Would it be a story of stressing over every bill each month, or would it be a story of financial peace?

We made the decision to change the ending to our story. Things were about to go from wild to almost out of control.

We sold (just about) everything

From clothes, to furniture, to pictures on the walls, shoes, textbooks, and even Andrea’s luxury SUV.

We turned off our cable and purchased this HD antenna. We cancelled subscription services we had forgot we subscribed to and we began saving money in any areas we could think of.

Lowered The Interest

We had spent so long ignoring the reality of our debt, we really had no idea how much we were paying towards our debt or how much we had been paying in interest.

Once we realized we were overpaying interest with both credit cards and student loans, we started to look at ways we could lower the interest rate. One of they key things we quickly learned was debt consolidation didn’t really do much for our money except make it convenient to have only one payment with an average interest rate and a small fee tacked on.

If you get out a calculator, it is obvious debt consolidation is a CONsolidation.

But, we knew we could save a ton of money with a lower interest rate.

We lowered the student loan interest rate by 3% and dropped our credit card interest in half with a personal loan.

Make More Money (Side Hustle)

Since we were no longer using our free time to spend money, we decided we would spend our free time making money.

I started a pool cleaning service in our neighborhood and was able to generate $1,000 – $1,500 extra every month.

Cleaning pools during the Phoenix summers of 118°F was not at all fun, but neither was remaining in debt. I did other odd jobs and worked as much overtime on the fire truck as they would allow. The best place to go when you’re completely broke……to work.

If you’re not into cleaning pools in the hot summer (I don’t blame you at all), there are plenty of ways to make money from home! Here a list of over 80 different side hustles to start making extra cash right now.

  November 17th, 2011

There are four days I will always remember for the rest of my life. The first is the day I watched my beautiful wife walk down the aisle. It’s still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

The second and third days were when our kids were born. No dad will ever forget that moment.

The fourth day was November 17th, 2011. This was the day we paid off our debt.

We jumped in our slightly used Kia and drove down to the Bank of America near our home. Our remaining balance was $1,272 and we had the money in our account to finally pay off this last chunk.

I remember pulling up to the bank and my heart was racing.

I grabbed my checkbook, Andrea’s hand, and we walked in side-by-side just like we had been doing over the past seven months. There was a small line to see the teller and both of us were standing in line, huge smiles from ear-to-ear, and giggling like a couple of school girls on the playground.

The teller waived us over and it was time.

It was our turn.

All the sacrificing, all the eBay and Craigslisting, all the overtime, all those days cleaning pools in the summer heat, all the whispers from the family, and not to mention the overflow of straight up rude comments from our friends, would all be coming to an end.

This was the moment Chris and Andrea would become debt free.

I opened my checkbook, put my pen to the paper, tore out the check and handed it over to the teller. She handed back our receipt with our new balance: $0.00 PAID IN FULL.

#boomshakalaka  (you won’t see that anywhere else…)

What is Life Look Like Today?

My amazing wife Andrea was able to retire from her career as a television news anchor and be home for her family more than she ever thought possible.

She took her passion of journaling and turned it into a thriving business. 

I still work for the fire department, however I don’t work overtime anymore because we don’t have debt payments anymore.

Instead, we are investing heavily and have even taken up on passive income strategies.

None of this would have ever been possible if we had remained in debt.

Period.

  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t….you’re right”

-Henry Ford

  Obviously there is much more to our story, but we would need a book and a publisher to put it all in writing. However, if you’re looking to get started, my best piece of advice is this: don’t wait another second. Just get started.

If you don’t know where to start, I would encourage you to take the first step.

Start with a Cash Flow Plan.

It’s step-by-step, easy-to-follow, and something I promise you will get a ton of value from.

And it’s free.

What is the one thing you can do today to move your life in the direction you want to go?

It starts with that first step.

Life is good awesome my friends,

-Chris Peach

  The Stuff They Forgot to Teach Us About Money

In 2015 Awesome Money Course was created. Since then over 500 students have graduated the program with a system that shows you exactly how to:

Create a REAL monthly budget that doesn’t feel like rocket science

Pay off debt using a simple, yet proven method, that takes away all the guessing work

Save for the what-ifs in life 

Save for the big purchases and the “fun” that life should be

Make sure you’re saving your hard-earned money in the right place

Build wealth so your future self thanks you when it’s time to retire to the next chapter

Money shouldn’t be complicated and it’s our mission to show people how to save money, pay off debt and build wealth without needing a Masters in Finance.

See all Money Peach Courses

The Day We Went Completely Broke published first on https://mysingaporepools.weebly.com/

[misbahashraf-blog]

Dear Hustle, Happy 5th Year Anniversary!

5-year long roller coaster ride.

It started back in my high school days. I belong to a very small town, Biharsharif, a few kilometers away from the land of learnings, Nalanda. After my class 10th, my parents sent me to Bansal Classes, which is situated at “so called” hub of engineering coaching centres, Kota. I had never heard of IIT till class 10th. But, my parents sent me there so that I can get into the best IIT and have a good career ahead.

I faced first failure in my life when I was not able to crack IIT JEE and couldn’t live up to my parent’s expectations. I felt bad. So bad that I got depressed.

My whole Kota Journey gave me the real experience about Life and Success through my coaching teachers. I found awesome friends like Prashant Kumar, Sagar Patidar and Irshad Alam.

First Year :

My life was full of adventures and accidents. I met with an accident in 2011 and got few stitches on my head. It gave me the freedom to pause in life and think how I wanted to go ahead.

Life is a rat race. And, we keep running without knowing where or when to stop. I think everyone should take a break and rethink from scratch as to what you want to do in your life.

Stop. Think. Learn. Analyse. Restart.

I discovered “Entrepreneurship” using this time and decided not to get any degree anymore. But, my parents convinced me to continue studies while working to take a degree.

My bug of discovering entrepreneurship lead me to meet Imbesat Ahmad, and help them in organising events for students preparing for iit. It helped me to meet a lot of awesome entrepreneurs like Saif Khan.

The best advice I’ve been given was to ‘never stop learning’, because the moment you give up and think you know everything, you end your journey of becoming a leader. At that point in life you should just quit.

Second Year :

From the first day of college, I knew where I wanted to go in my life. I started HUSTLING every single day since then, for my dreams, for innovation and for change in the society.

I have been bankrupt many times. Many times I had to skip meals to save every single penny. I started living on my own. Attending college from 9am–5pm and then working from 6pm to 6am, till the sun came up. The sunrise was my hope for a better tomorrow and a desire to learn something new.

I heard a story in my childhood in which a guy carved a road between mountains through regular and authentic hard work. This story always helped me to keep my motivation up and flying when I was about to fall. You just have to keep going till you can, see the beauty of never giving up .

Being authentically passionate about what you do.

I got to meet two amazing entrepreneurs Prasad Ankit and Mohd Waseemwho were building Touchtalent at that time. My desire to learn pushed me to take that leap and I started helping them with marketing and building community. It was my first attempt at learning basics of marketing.

Third Year :

From that day, I have never stopped. I got lucky and worked with some amazing people in the first 2 years of my journey through college. From a content venture to selling t-shirts to colleges and corporates, I have never left the chance to learn and grow. Being with early stage startups, I had to wear multiple hats, and which pushed me harder to learn multiple things from operations, talent management, finance, and marketing.

Your mind is like a rubber band. The more you stretch yourself, the more you can learn.

You have to keep working hard till you attain escape velocity fueled by your will power to fly away. And, HUSTLE is the only key to achieve this in your life.

This year was full of ups and downs. I met another road accident and again had to take bed rest for few weeks. But I got to meet this amazing entrepreneur cum brother Abhineet Kumar, who is always ready to push you ahead when you are at it. We started The UnConference, a platform to bring global change makers on a single platform. We worked together on few projects. Learned and improved from every mistake we made.

I also met a sales HERO who can sell anything to you. Veer Mishra started out by selling parathas and now he caters the best available technology to the world.

Fourth Year :

After 2 years of painful HUSTLE, I took a year gap to start a payment venture Cibola with the best people in my life.

I am a strong believer in serendipity and Pulkit has described it in the best possible way here. I have met one of my co-founder Utkarsh without any expectations of starting something together soon.

I have met awesome mentors like Shamir Karkal and Prateek Gupta because of serendipity, they became mentor cum friend and helped me to learn a lot of things about life. Even meeting this crazy Hustler Nikunj Jainhappened without any expectations, who later became our first investor. He writes some awesome stuff on brutal truths of Life here

I wrote about my learnings from First 100 days of building Cibola with the coolest people on this planet here.

We had to shut down our venture in November 2014. It was very painful to see my creation die. As a Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in, Man’s Search For Meaning, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

I had decided to move on and search for new quests of my life.

Benjamin has taught us that relentless entrepreneurs have an internal locus of control, which means they believe they are personally responsible for the outcomes of their lives. Lou Holtz has famously said,

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

I have written about this year’s experiences and learning more in detail here.

Fifth Year :

Tim Grover has said “Pressure can bust pipes, but it also can make diamonds.”

“Implementing extreme ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”―Jocko Willink

You miss gold with every shot you don’t take. And most people don’t want to take that shot. Fear of failure paralyzes them.

I started with my hustle while trying to make good relationships with best people around me. It helped me to learn a lot of things and opened a lot of new dimensions for me. The satisfaction of overcoming challenges and obstacles is sublimely greater than any momentary pleasure.

If you want to create something powerful, you must be willing to fail in all of your nakedness. There have been times when I used to send emails and wait for months to get answered by my recipients. Every time I failed at something, I tried to take lessons from that and kept trying till I got the right result by doing improvements in my efforts. And, Eventually, they used to reply, after seeing my consistency and HUSTLE.

The concept is: Do something and don’t stop until it’s complete, no matter how long it takes.

Patience is the key behind the success of most people.

I always knew that If you haven’t had your big break yet, keep going. Consistency is the most fundamental virtue to becoming the person you want to be.If you want it bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. If you don’t, you won’t. Almost everyone can sprint for a while. But most burn-out and quit. Everything meaningful in life is a marathon — meant to test your commitment and it will. And, I know I am running a marathon and I can’t burn out.

Starting my sleep with Sunrise leading to few or no hours of sleep made me achieve a lot of things. I got to work with the best people around me and made some good friends during this journey.

From working with early stage startups like Spangle to working with 100 M USD Fund, Hatcher. I have learned the ethics and discipline of running a business more than all skill sets from these places.

I will write my next post on How I made 100,000 USD in a year while attending college and how can you do it?

I Learned how to scale user base from zero-100k in a month without spending a penny. I’ve made some amazing friends like Supriyo, Rabi, Amitt , Aman and Dhruv who have always motivated me during my ups and downs of my life.

Friends like Payoj and Abdul became my moral support during extensive HUSTLE days. Serendipity has always helped me to meet most amazing people. And, I made friends with Diwank because of this lifestyle. A person with whom you can talk about anything. A genius who has answers to any query you have. This crazy hustler I met through acquittance, Akshay Pruthi, who helped me to learn how to run your startup like bootstrap after raising funds.

Met this amazing guy Ayush Shukla, 5 years back on Orkut and finally, got to spend some weeks with him. This guy helped me learn ethics of finance management.

I always wanted to have a mentor who can challenge me daily. And, I have found that in Amit Agrawal. It took us a whole year of talking, sharing and brainstorming before we got into any professional contract. He made me learn the art of building businesses from 0–100 M USD in revenue by learning the hacks of doing sustainable businesses.

We have recently launched a campaign at India Goes Global, a mission to help entrepreneurs to take their ventures further and faster using our experience of scaling businesses. India Goes Global is an initiative that lends strategic advice to Indian internet startups to maximize their potential in a hyper-connected world. It helps driven entrepreneur teams with working products to scale up by leveraging global business trends.

If you need any help, just ping us here

[militaryspouse101]

New Post has been published on Military Spouse

New Post has been published on http://militaryspouse.com/military-life/pcs/5-pcs-must-haves-you-didnt-know-you-needed/

5 PCS Must-haves You Didn’t Know You Needed

For the most part, we all remember the basics of what we should be packing to stay with us when we’re moving from one duty station to another. Of course we’ll have all the paperwork for our new duty station, our important family documents, our kid’s toys and clothes.

But there are those few small (yet important) items that always seem to get left behind or packed on the moving truck anyway.

When you find yourself knee-deep in the PCS crazy, chances are there are a few things that may slip your mind. That’s expected to a certain degree, but if I can help anyone avoid them I’d be glad to put my mistakes out there for the world to see! Here are 5 things you might want to keep with you as you journey towards your new adventure!

1. A ‘Parts’ Box.

When the movers took apart our kid’s bunkbeds, I thought it was really smart that they put all of the nuts and bolts into a zip-lock baggie and taped it to the undersides of the bunks. That is, until they were trying to put it back together at our new home. Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of the move, the zip-lock bags came untaped and were strewn about the truck. They never found all the pieces and we ended up just getting new beds. Sure, we could’ve found a hardware store and tried to do it ourselves, but by that point my ‘give-a-damn’ was busted. Now we put all nuts, bolts, screws and tools into labeled zip-lock bags and keep them with us in our vehicles.

2. Portable Hard Drive.

Since my milspouse side-hustle as a freelance writer requires me to have access to PC devices on the daily, it’s absolutely necessary for me to have all of my files backed up on a portable hard drive. I learned this the hard way during our last move. I was so caught up in making sure that all of our physical documents were in order that I completely forgot about our digital ones! It wasn’t until we were on the road that I realized there were several saved documents on our desktop that I never printed out! So instead of being able to whip out the info I needed to pick up the keys to our new place, I had to jump through so many hoops before we reached our destination. Thank GOODNESS my husband was driving!

3. TOILET PAPER.

I know, this one seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, I just figured we would make a store run when we got to our new place and pick it up then. Unfortunately for us, we were traveling during July 4th weekend and traffic was a hot mess! We didn’t reach our destination until 1 a.m. and no stores were open (not even Walmart)! We ended up having to use the leftover Taco Bell napkins we saved from our last pit-stop! Needless to say, our moods weren’t the only things left a little raw!

4. Seasonal Clothing.

10 years ago, we PCS’d from North Carolina in the month of November. When we left for the airport, the leaves were changing and there was a chill in the air. All of our summer attire was with the rest of our belongings on its way across the Pacific to our new duty station … in HAWAII. I’m sure you can imagine some of the looks we got when we arrived in tropically humid Honolulu wearing long pants and hoodies!

5. The Coffee Pot.

This one is a must. This one, RIGHT HERE is the one item (in my life) that will ultimately help determine the success or failure of a PCS for my family. Coffee is truly the ONLY constant in my life. It acts as my mood stabilizer, my respite and quite honestly my lifeline no matter where I am. This last PCS my husband drove his vehicle and I drove mine. My teenagers were in the backseat, my toilet paper, portable hard drive, summer clothes and parts box were in the trunk. My Keurig (and 3 boxes of K-Cups) rode shot-gun with me up front…seatbelt and all. #Priorities

What are YOUR ‘Must Haves’ when you PCS?

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[darcyfarber]

The Day We Went Completely Broke

This is our debt free success story.

I will never forget that phone call. I knew this moment would eventually be here, but in the back of my mind I pretended if I didn’t think about it, things would eventually work out. We would just make more money. Someday we would pay off that balance. We could start saving next year. What’s the worst that can really happen, right?

Just a few minutes before the phone call, my wife Andrea was at the grocery store with our 10-month old son. Whenever she is out in public, people immediately recognize her as the morning-show news anchor from our city’s local news stations. Today was of course no different.

At the checkout, Andrea waited for each item to go across the scanner and into the bag. The total came to just over $150, which for our family of three was the standard going rate for a week of groceries, diapers, and formula. She handed her credit card over to the cashier and it was DECLINED. The second card DECLINED. The third card DECLINED.

The day was February 23rd, 2011: The Day We Went Completely Broke

Our Debt Free Success Story

Before I share with you our story, please understand that we were absolutely crazy about getting out of debt. We we “those” people who maybe took it to the extreme (okay, we did).

Paying off $52k in 7 months is not normal and we wouldn’t expect anyone to think it is.

However, we are sharing our story in hopes of one outcome: you make the decision to become debt free forever.

Going Broke

The next day when I came home from the fire station, Andrea and I sat down at the kitchen table and began to unravel this dirty little secret we were not only keeping from everyone else, but we were also keeping from ourselves.

It started the moment we left college and entered the real world. I joined the fire department and Andrea landed her dream job with the local television station. Not to brag, but the reality was we were young, we were making a six figure salary, and we didn’t have kids (yet). Life was easy…or so we thought.

As you can imagine, we started off life completely normal according to society standards. We bought a brand new truck, a luxury car, a new home, and all the bells and whistles to go inside.

Traveling was our kryptonite and we said “yes” to everything.

Whether it was lavish vacations, cruising the Caribbean, buying expensive jewelry – the answer was always “yes”.

After four years of living paycheck to paycheck, overspending, overindulging, and not paying attention to our money, we financially hit rock bottom. We had maxed out our credit cards, overdrafted the checking account, and had never thought to build up a savings account. All we had left to show for our financial stupidity was $52k of debt and a ton of shame.

“We Will NEVER Live This Way Again”

I remember sitting there at the kitchen table staring down at the floor in disbelief. Did we really let it get this bad? Were we so foolish to think the debt would never catch us from behind? How did this happen? Why did it seem like everyone else had it figured out, but yet we were sitting here flat broke?

To make things worse, we started worrying about the reaction from our friends and family. What were they going to think of us if they knew the truth? Would we tell them and how would they react? What about our son Carter? If we couldn’t even afford our family at this point in our lives, what would happen as life progressed, became more complicated, and much more expensive?

All of these emotions came crashing down into our pseudo-perfect world and that was when we finally had to face reality. It was now or never.

That was the moment when we both said:

“We will never live this way again”

Never again will we make this much money and be this broke.

We will never again be unable to buy groceries.

The days of us sitting here at this very kitchen table completely out of money, out of hope, and without a plan will NEVER happen again.

That day would be known as day one of our own debt free success story.

  We Created A Plan

The only good thing about hitting rock bottom is you have nowhere else to go but up. One of my favorite quotes by John Maxwell is this:

“Everything worthwhile in life is uphill.”

This saying became our motto. If living paycheck to paycheck, going deeper into debt, and overspending was easy, then the opposite would have to be true. Taking back control of our life and money was going to be hard. Period.

  A Cash-Flow Plan

The first thing we needed to do was to figure out how to manage the money coming in and going out each month. Many people call this a “budget”, but we preferred to call it a cash-flow plan.

Why?

It’s simple really: budgets sound like prison food and water and a cash flow plan sounds like something Andrea and I would be willing to do together.

The Envelope System

We knew our spending habits were out of control. It was almost as if we had to order new credit cards throughout the year because we wore out those magnetic strips from overuse (not really, but you get the point).

We decided we would go to an all cash lifestyle.

Andrea and I became one of those weird people who carry around cash in envelopes and only spend what was inside each envelope for the month. When the envelope ran out of cash, we stopped spending.

I believe they call this “common sense”

Stop Borrowing Money (Forever)

We realized it would be impossible to dig our way out of debt so we decided at that moment we would never borrow money again. Never. Not for a couch, a car, a vacation, or even a house (luckily we already had a mortgage).

We were done playing with debt. We had been told in the past debt was a tool. Well, I believe it can be a tool for some people, but for Andrea and I, debt was a tool that created a disaster in our lives. We can admit it – we don’t manage debt very well. The choice became ours: we would never play with debt again. Period.

Sitting at our kitchen table, we one-by-one cut up every single one of our credit cards. It was scary, we were a little freaked out (okay, really freaked out), but it was also one of the most freeing moments I can remember in our little debt free story.

Since that day we haven’t once used a credit card, we haven’t once borrowed a single penny from anyone, and contrary to what society will tell you – we are still here to talk about it!

Cut Back Our Life(style)

When you’re completely broke, it doesn’t really make sense to have wants over needs. One of my favorite quotes from Seth Godin is this:

“Once you have enough money for beans and rice and taking care of your family, money is a story.” 

– Seth Godin

I hadn’t heard this quote until just recently, but it struck a nerve with me right away because money was our story. We had to decide what our story would be. Would it be a story of struggle or a story of freedom? Would it be a story of stressing over every bill each month, or would it be a story of financial peace?

We made the decision to change the ending to our story. Things were about to go from wild to almost out of control.

We sold (just about) everything

From clothes, to furniture, to pictures on the walls, shoes, textbooks, and even Andrea’s luxury SUV.

We turned off our cable and purchased this HD antenna. We cancelled subscription services we had forgot we subscribed to and we began saving money in any areas we could think of.

Lowered The Interest

We had spent so long ignoring the reality of our debt, we really had no idea how much we were paying towards our debt or how much we had been paying in interest.

Once we realized we were overpaying interest with both credit cards and student loans, we started to look at ways we could lower the interest rate. One of they key things we quickly learned was debt consolidation didn’t really do much for our money except make it convenient to have only one payment with an average interest rate and a small fee tacked on.

If you get out a calculator, it is obvious debt consolidation is a CONsolidation.

But, we knew we could save a ton of money with a lower interest rate.

We lowered the student loan interest rate by 3% and dropped our credit card interest in half with a personal loan.

Make More Money (Side Hustle)

Since we were no longer using our free time to spend money, we decided we would spend our free time making money.

I started a pool cleaning service in our neighborhood and was able to generate $1,000 – $1,500 extra every month.

Cleaning pools during the Phoenix summers of 118°F was not at all fun, but neither was remaining in debt. I did other odd jobs and worked as much overtime on the fire truck as they would allow. The best place to go when you’re completely broke……to work.

If you’re not into cleaning pools in the hot summer (I don’t blame you at all), there are plenty of ways to make money from home! Here a list of over 80 different side hustles to start making extra cash right now.

  November 17th, 2011

There are four days I will always remember for the rest of my life. The first is the day I watched my beautiful wife walk down the aisle. It’s still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

The second and third days were when our kids were born. No dad will ever forget that moment.

The fourth day was November 17th, 2011. This was the day we paid off our debt.

We jumped in our slightly used Kia and drove down to the Bank of America near our home. Our remaining balance was $1,272 and we had the money in our account to finally pay off this last chunk.

I remember pulling up to the bank and my heart was racing.

I grabbed my checkbook, Andrea’s hand, and we walked in side-by-side just like we had been doing over the past seven months. There was a small line to see the teller and both of us were standing in line, huge smiles from ear-to-ear, and giggling like a couple of school girls on the playground.

The teller waived us over and it was time.

It was our turn.

All the sacrificing, all the eBay and Craigslisting, all the overtime, all those days cleaning pools in the summer heat, all the whispers from the family, and not to mention the overflow of straight up rude comments from our friends, would all be coming to an end.

This was the moment Chris and Andrea would become debt free.

I opened my checkbook, put my pen to the paper, tore out the check and handed it over to the teller. She handed back our receipt with our new balance: $0.00 PAID IN FULL.

#boomshakalaka  (you won’t see that anywhere else…)

What is Life Look Like Today?

My amazing wife Andrea was able to retire from her career as a television news anchor and be home for her family more than she ever thought possible.

She took her passion of journaling and turned it into a thriving business. 

I still work for the fire department, however I don’t work overtime anymore because we don’t have debt payments anymore.

Instead, we are investing heavily and have even taken up on passive income strategies.

None of this would have ever been possible if we had remained in debt.

Period.

  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t….you’re right”

-Henry Ford

  Obviously there is much more to our story, but we would need a book and a publisher to put it all in writing. However, if you’re looking to get started, my best piece of advice is this: don’t wait another second. Just get started.

If you don’t know where to start, I would encourage you to take the first step.

Start with a Cash Flow Plan.

It’s step-by-step, easy-to-follow, and something I promise you will get a ton of value from.

And it’s free.

What is the one thing you can do today to move your life in the direction you want to go?

It starts with that first step.

Life is good awesome my friends,

-Chris Peach

The Day We Went Completely Broke published first on https://mysingaporepools.weebly.com/

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The Day We Went Completely Broke

This is our debt free success story.

I will never forget that phone call. I knew this moment would eventually be here, but in the back of my mind I pretended if I didn’t think about it, things would eventually work out. We would just make more money. Someday we would pay off that balance. We could start saving next year. What’s the worst that can really happen, right?

Just a few minutes before the phone call, my wife Andrea was at the grocery store with our 10-month old son. Whenever she is out in public, people immediately recognize her as the morning-show news anchor from our city’s local news stations. Today was of course no different.

At the checkout, Andrea waited for each item to go across the scanner and into the bag. The total came to just over $150, which for our family of three was the standard going rate for a week of groceries, diapers, and formula. She handed her credit card over to the cashier and it was DECLINED. The second card DECLINED. The third card DECLINED.

The day was February 23rd, 2011: The Day We Went Completely Broke

Our Debt Free Success Story

Before I share with you our story, please understand that we were absolutely crazy about getting out of debt. We we “those” people who maybe took it to the extreme (okay, we did).

Paying off $52k in 7 months is not normal and we wouldn’t expect anyone to think it is.

However, we are sharing our story in hopes of one outcome: you make the decision to become debt free forever.

Going Broke

The next day when I came home from the fire station, Andrea and I sat down at the kitchen table and began to unravel this dirty little secret we were not only keeping from everyone else, but we were also keeping from ourselves.

It started the moment we left college and entered the real world. I joined the fire department and Andrea landed her dream job with the local television station. Not to brag, but the reality was we were young, we were making a six figure salary, and we didn’t have kids (yet). Life was easy…or so we thought.

As you can imagine, we started off life completely normal according to society standards. We bought a brand new truck, a luxury car, a new home, and all the bells and whistles to go inside.

Traveling was our kryptonite and we said “yes” to everything.

Whether it was lavish vacations, cruising the Caribbean, buying expensive jewelry – the answer was always “yes”.

After four years of living paycheck to paycheck, overspending, overindulging, and not paying attention to our money, we financially hit rock bottom. We had maxed out our credit cards, overdrafted the checking account, and had never thought to build up a savings account. All we had left to show for our financial stupidity was $52k of debt and a ton of shame.

“We Will NEVER Live This Way Again”

I remember sitting there at the kitchen table staring down at the floor in disbelief. Did we really let it get this bad? Were we so foolish to think the debt would never catch us from behind? How did this happen? Why did it seem like everyone else had it figured out, but yet we were sitting here flat broke?

To make things worse, we started worrying about the reaction from our friends and family. What were they going to think of us if they knew the truth? Would we tell them and how would they react? What about our son Carter? If we couldn’t even afford our family at this point in our lives, what would happen as life progressed, became more complicated, and much more expensive?

All of these emotions came crashing down into our pseudo-perfect world and that was when we finally had to face reality. It was now or never.

That was the moment when we both said:

“We will never live this way again”

Never again will we make this much money and be this broke.

We will never again be unable to buy groceries.

The days of us sitting here at this very kitchen table completely out of money, out of hope, and without a plan will NEVER happen again.

That day would be known as day one of our own debt free success story.

  We Created A Plan

The only good thing about hitting rock bottom is you have nowhere else to go but up. One of my favorite quotes by John Maxwell is this:

“Everything worthwhile in life is uphill.”

This saying became our motto. If living paycheck to paycheck, going deeper into debt, and overspending was easy, then the opposite would have to be true. Taking back control of our life and money was going to be hard. Period.

  A Cash-Flow Plan

The first thing we needed to do was to figure out how to manage the money coming in and going out each month. Many people call this a “budget”, but we preferred to call it a cash-flow plan.

Why?

It’s simple really: budgets sound like prison food and water and a cash flow plan sounds like something Andrea and I would be willing to do together.

The Envelope System

We knew our spending habits were out of control. It was almost as if we had to order new credit cards throughout the year because we wore out those magnetic strips from overuse (not really, but you get the point).

We decided we would go to an all cash lifestyle.

Andrea and I became one of those weird people who carry around cash in envelopes and only spend what was inside each envelope for the month. When the envelope ran out of cash, we stopped spending.

I believe they call this “common sense”

Stop Borrowing Money (Forever)

We realized it would be impossible to dig our way out of debt so we decided at that moment we would never borrow money again. Never. Not for a couch, a car, a vacation, or even a house (luckily we already had a mortgage).

We were done playing with debt. We had been told in the past debt was a tool. Well, I believe it can be a tool for some people, but for Andrea and I, debt was a tool that created a disaster in our lives. We can admit it – we don’t manage debt very well. The choice became ours: we would never play with debt again. Period.

Sitting at our kitchen table, we one-by-one cut up every single one of our credit cards. It was scary, we were a little freaked out (okay, really freaked out), but it was also one of the most freeing moments I can remember in our little debt free story.

Since that day we haven’t once used a credit card, we haven’t once borrowed a single penny from anyone, and contrary to what society will tell you – we are still here to talk about it!

Cut Back Our Life(style)

When you’re completely broke, it doesn’t really make sense to have wants over needs. One of my favorite quotes from Seth Godin is this:

“Once you have enough money for beans and rice and taking care of your family, money is a story.” 

– Seth Godin

I hadn’t heard this quote until just recently, but it struck a nerve with me right away because money was our story. We had to decide what our story would be. Would it be a story of struggle or a story of freedom? Would it be a story of stressing over every bill each month, or would it be a story of financial peace?

We made the decision to change the ending to our story. Things were about to go from wild to almost out of control.

We sold (just about) everything

From clothes, to furniture, to pictures on the walls, shoes, textbooks, and even Andrea’s luxury SUV.

We turned off our cable and purchased this HD antenna. We cancelled subscription services we had forgot we subscribed to and we began saving money in any areas we could think of.

Lowered The Interest

We had spent so long ignoring the reality of our debt, we really had no idea how much we were paying towards our debt or how much we had been paying in interest.

Once we realized we were overpaying interest with both credit cards and student loans, we started to look at ways we could lower the interest rate. One of they key things we quickly learned was debt consolidation didn’t really do much for our money except make it convenient to have only one payment with an average interest rate and a small fee tacked on.

If you get out a calculator, it is obvious debt consolidation is a CONsolidation.

But, we knew we could save a ton of money with a lower interest rate.

We lowered the student loan interest rate by 3% and dropped our credit card interest in half with a personal loan.

Make More Money (Side Hustle)

Since we were no longer using our free time to spend money, we decided we would spend our free time making money.

I started a pool cleaning service in our neighborhood and was able to generate $1,000 – $1,500 extra every month.

Cleaning pools during the Phoenix summers of 118°F was not at all fun, but neither was remaining in debt. I did other odd jobs and worked as much overtime on the fire truck as they would allow. The best place to go when you’re completely broke……to work.

If you’re not into cleaning pools in the hot summer (I don’t blame you at all), there are plenty of ways to make money from home! Here a list of over 80 different side hustles to start making extra cash right now.

  November 17th, 2011

There are four days I will always remember for the rest of my life. The first is the day I watched my beautiful wife walk down the aisle. It’s still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

The second and third days were when our kids were born. No dad will ever forget that moment.

The fourth day was November 17th, 2011. This was the day we paid off our debt.

We jumped in our slightly used Kia and drove down to the Bank of America near our home. Our remaining balance was $1,272 and we had the money in our account to finally pay off this last chunk.

I remember pulling up to the bank and my heart was racing.

I grabbed my checkbook, Andrea’s hand, and we walked in side-by-side just like we had been doing over the past seven months. There was a small line to see the teller and both of us were standing in line, huge smiles from ear-to-ear, and giggling like a couple of school girls on the playground.

The teller waived us over and it was time.

It was our turn.

All the sacrificing, all the eBay and Craigslisting, all the overtime, all those days cleaning pools in the summer heat, all the whispers from the family, and not to mention the overflow of straight up rude comments from our friends, would all be coming to an end.

This was the moment Chris and Andrea would become debt free.

I opened my checkbook, put my pen to the paper, tore out the check and handed it over to the teller. She handed back our receipt with our new balance: $0.00 PAID IN FULL.

#boomshakalaka  (you won’t see that anywhere else…)

What is Life Look Like Today?

My amazing wife Andrea was able to retire from her career as a television news anchor and be home for her family more than she ever thought possible.

She took her passion of journaling and turned it into a thriving business. 

I still work for the fire department, however I don’t work overtime anymore because we don’t have debt payments anymore.

Instead, we are investing heavily and have even taken up on passive income strategies.

None of this would have ever been possible if we had remained in debt.

Period.

  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t….you’re right”

-Henry Ford

  Obviously there is much more to our story, but we would need a book and a publisher to put it all in writing. However, if you’re looking to get started, my best piece of advice is this: don’t wait another second. Just get started.

If you don’t know where to start, I would encourage you to take the first step.

Start with a Cash Flow Plan.

It’s step-by-step, easy-to-follow, and something I promise you will get a ton of value from.

And it’s free.

What is the one thing you can do today to move your life in the direction you want to go?

It starts with that first step.

Life is good awesome my friends,

-Chris Peach

The Day We Went Completely Broke published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/