While sitting waiting for the bus, I thought I am earning enough to buy a car and open up my job options. You really can't find meaningful work without a car in Los Angeles. Well I decided against it because I wouldn't really be able to enjoy having a car until I found that job. I also didn't trust getting a car I could afford and using it for things like delivering pizza.
So continued to donate and collect plasma....
In the meantime I bought some things I wanted, some things I needed and went on a trip to Mexico City for a couple of days. I went to connect with a Brazilian woman who I found on another forum that discuss meeting and marrying foreign women accept this site is bias towards Latin America.
That connection failed, it's okay.
I have flirted with the idea of a podcast; a podcast that would talk about what I am doing. What am I doing? After trying things the conventional way, I am going to try it MY way and thus far, it has worked. That podcast is still coming but I think I will save it when I make my next move, which I have talked about from time to time, if you have been paying attention.
After 4.5 years of being unemployed and earning about $6,000 a year. I felt the next step was to work on my credit. I've never had good credit. I mess it up originally by buying a car, not taking it all that seriously and getting it repo'ed. In fact, I've had two cars repo'ed. Two taken by the police because they weren't registered as well. I have tried hard to learn from all these costly mistakes, but the key was to find a job I could tolerate and fix my credit.
The one job I could tolerate where the ones I didn't have to work weekends. The only job in the last decade I had that didn't require working on weekends was Merchandising.
I was already employed by Footprint, but the original project I was hired for was cancelled and accept for a Wal-Mart project late in the summer of 2014 I missed I wasn't contacted by them for any new projects.
Around that time I started spending less time here and more time at myFICO.com. I read as much as I could about repairing my credit and how to build credit. Once I formalized a plan, I went too it, that was Oct 2014.
I started with inactive credit report, an EX score of 635, TU of 550 and a EQ of 530. It could have been worse but the last repo wasn't on my report because it wasn't under my name. The only other negative I taken care off back in 2008 when I used some of the life insurance money to pay off the Capital One credit card I had.
I found I could get a secured credit card without any income verification. There are a couple of them now, but at the time I know found that the State Dept Credit Union offered this with the lowest interest rates and lowest secured deposit. I had to re-apply for GR (General Relief) anyway and usually get a lump sum when I do. So I did that and got my lump sum. I took the majority of that and got the secured card from SDCU.
If your interested in getting this card go here - https://www.sdfcu.org/
They report to all three Credit Agencies. For me it's the about 7 days after my due date (which is the 15th) my payment shows up on my all three CR's.
The theme that kept coming up while reading myFICO was to get maximum scoring on my credit reports, I needed three revolving lines of credit, IE credit cards and at least one installment loan.
So after getting one card, I was told (great forum) to get Capital One secured card. Since I had paid off my other Cap One card, I knew I wasn't black listed. When I first applied, I stated I didn't have a checking account. I was denied, I waited for the letter stating why. Turns out it was because I didn't have a checking account. First I wanted to confirm I was not in the Chex System. This is easy to do, just call them up https://www.consumerdebit.com/consumerinfo/us/en/index.htm and ask for them to send you a free report.
I got my report about 5 days later and there was nothing on it which is a good thing. I immediately took my own advice as since Occupy Wall ST LA I have supported banking with credit unions. I looked around for a suitable CU in my area, I decided on Logix which is the former name of the Lockheed-Martin Federal Credit Union. I deposited $50, $5 of which went into the savings account which is what the bank uses for investing it's on portfolio.
I asked on the myFICO forum if I should re-apply to Capital One, I was told to wait about 90 days. Well a few days later I said screw it and called the number on the letter I was sent and applied over the phone. I told them I had a checking account and was instantly approved to put $99 down for $200 secured card. I deposited $129 actually to get ahead of the annual fee.
By the time I got my second credit card, it was late Nov 2014.
Spent Dec seeing if I could really buy a car. Since I didn't have much cash (it was wrapped up in the secure cards) I had to find a way to get a reliable card without any money down.
I figured with both cards reporting now that I would give it a shot, stay tuned for that.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Short Story, My Life from 2009 to Now - Part 1
As we head into September, I thought I would share what has happen since I stop posting here regularly.
I was getting really frustrated with with I can't do anything about my life attitude around here. It continues with visiting stupid sites like Slut Hate... Also assumptions of White Supremacy based on the fact a few men like White women, which I am a member of that club.
I'll address these things some other time, both are stupid on the surface, underneath and all around it.
So grab your favorite beverage and on with the story -
Sept of 2009 my car was repo'ed but not under the usual circumstances that his occurs. It's a tired story I get tired of explaining, the point is it's on my credit report as a charged off amount of just over $2,000.
That was the start of the fall from grace. In Jan of 2010, I had been fired by Pep Boys who I had worked for since late 2005. It was just as well, I wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to take on more responsibility for slightly more money.
Luckily I was still living at home otherwise I would have a serious problem on my hands. Now some would say, you allowed yourself to get fired because your single, suffering from peter pan syndrome and have no responsibilities. Funny, this is almost exactly what my friend Steve said before his long time GF left him. He was jones'in so bad for a relationship in a moment of weakness, he fell for a divorce single mother of three girls... To further understand the context of what he was saying; he was forced to do something when his mother and her husband (step father) told him that they were moving into the her mother's house after she had passed away, which was paid for already. Yet another example of Baby Boomers throwing Gen X and Gen Y under the bus.. Anyway he lived with a short time with his father, but never really got along with his father, so he and his GF decided to move to Garden Groove for those of you familiar with Southern California, to be closer to her family.
So he had been living on his own for the last decade or so, while I lived at home and only briefly lived outside of my parents house with my ex-GF a total of about two years.
I've had other friends lob this criticism at me which is why they have slowly moved away from maintaining contact. I am not going to continue to communicate with people that don't make an effort to return messages, email or phone calls.
I should mention that none of these people are particularly successful. None of them own any real assets IE housing. My buddy Steve just shacked up with his new wife in the house she got in her divorce, don't we talk about sh*t like this all the time?
Anyway, with no car and no job in the City of Los Angeles = Death?
After my savings had run dry (completely) and I closed a credit card I got just a few months earlier that I still owed money on, I decided to look at my options. To keep my parents off me, I decided to enroll in the local occupation center (job training) for A+ training. My friend suggested I should apply for disability. I was eventually refused/denied but during one of the phone calls from a social worker, she asked how I was making any money. I said, I was selling stuff (which I was) she countered with didn't you know about General Relief? I said no, she explained to me it was offer from the same office I got EBT from. But what I didn't know at the time was that the branch office I was using didn't offer GR, but the office 12 miles away did. I wouldn't have ever known without this person telling me.
Initial I only got $110 a month but got a lump sum of $330 at first since they back dated my claim. Around this time my mother offered to add me to the Family plan that her and my sister were on. I got a decent feature phone (Java Browser + A-GPS) and started to attend classes (Jan of 2011).
While in class one day, one of my classmates came in with a bandage around his arm. I asked him what happen and he said nothing that he was donating Plasma. I was like, doesn't that hurt? He said no and that they offer you $30 for your first donation and then you call to confirm nothing was wrong with your donation and that you would be scheduled for a second visit and given $50 for donating again. Apparently they have a problem with retention....
I asked him where did it and told me there are two places in the valley but one is much better/cleaner than the other and that's the one he used. I decided why not, if it didn't hurt. Initially I thought I would just do it, so I can have some money to attend Long Beach GP. I succeeded by donating twice, getting $80 and went to the race.
I continued to go after that however. I figured, add this to my merger GR amount and I could start to make some things happen. Since my basics were taken care of (food, shelter) but I was cash poor. If I donated twice a week I got $70. Eventually I a tetanus shot (I needed one anyway) and got additional $5 a week and $10 when on my sixth donation.
So 4 weeks in a month, I would make $385, in Feb I would make about $310.
I was donating all the way up a few months ago, because I couldn't alternate arms like some people do, I developed quite a bit of scar tissue that started to clog the needle when it was inserted. I am suspended from donating indefinitely, it's possible I could return, I may...
By the end of 2011, I had two sources of income. My GR had been increased as I attended mandatory job training and hit $221 + another $75 for transportation during my "job search". I was getting $380 or so a month from donating Plasma. As long as I ate a low fat diet and drank about a gallon of water a day, I had no side effects from donating six, seven, eight times a month.
Totals -
$200 in EBT
$221 in cash assistance
$385 donating plasma
All non-taxable income or credit.
I was getting really frustrated with with I can't do anything about my life attitude around here. It continues with visiting stupid sites like Slut Hate... Also assumptions of White Supremacy based on the fact a few men like White women, which I am a member of that club.
I'll address these things some other time, both are stupid on the surface, underneath and all around it.
So grab your favorite beverage and on with the story -
Sept of 2009 my car was repo'ed but not under the usual circumstances that his occurs. It's a tired story I get tired of explaining, the point is it's on my credit report as a charged off amount of just over $2,000.
That was the start of the fall from grace. In Jan of 2010, I had been fired by Pep Boys who I had worked for since late 2005. It was just as well, I wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to take on more responsibility for slightly more money.
Luckily I was still living at home otherwise I would have a serious problem on my hands. Now some would say, you allowed yourself to get fired because your single, suffering from peter pan syndrome and have no responsibilities. Funny, this is almost exactly what my friend Steve said before his long time GF left him. He was jones'in so bad for a relationship in a moment of weakness, he fell for a divorce single mother of three girls... To further understand the context of what he was saying; he was forced to do something when his mother and her husband (step father) told him that they were moving into the her mother's house after she had passed away, which was paid for already. Yet another example of Baby Boomers throwing Gen X and Gen Y under the bus.. Anyway he lived with a short time with his father, but never really got along with his father, so he and his GF decided to move to Garden Groove for those of you familiar with Southern California, to be closer to her family.
So he had been living on his own for the last decade or so, while I lived at home and only briefly lived outside of my parents house with my ex-GF a total of about two years.
I've had other friends lob this criticism at me which is why they have slowly moved away from maintaining contact. I am not going to continue to communicate with people that don't make an effort to return messages, email or phone calls.
I should mention that none of these people are particularly successful. None of them own any real assets IE housing. My buddy Steve just shacked up with his new wife in the house she got in her divorce, don't we talk about sh*t like this all the time?
Anyway, with no car and no job in the City of Los Angeles = Death?
After my savings had run dry (completely) and I closed a credit card I got just a few months earlier that I still owed money on, I decided to look at my options. To keep my parents off me, I decided to enroll in the local occupation center (job training) for A+ training. My friend suggested I should apply for disability. I was eventually refused/denied but during one of the phone calls from a social worker, she asked how I was making any money. I said, I was selling stuff (which I was) she countered with didn't you know about General Relief? I said no, she explained to me it was offer from the same office I got EBT from. But what I didn't know at the time was that the branch office I was using didn't offer GR, but the office 12 miles away did. I wouldn't have ever known without this person telling me.
Initial I only got $110 a month but got a lump sum of $330 at first since they back dated my claim. Around this time my mother offered to add me to the Family plan that her and my sister were on. I got a decent feature phone (Java Browser + A-GPS) and started to attend classes (Jan of 2011).
While in class one day, one of my classmates came in with a bandage around his arm. I asked him what happen and he said nothing that he was donating Plasma. I was like, doesn't that hurt? He said no and that they offer you $30 for your first donation and then you call to confirm nothing was wrong with your donation and that you would be scheduled for a second visit and given $50 for donating again. Apparently they have a problem with retention....
I asked him where did it and told me there are two places in the valley but one is much better/cleaner than the other and that's the one he used. I decided why not, if it didn't hurt. Initially I thought I would just do it, so I can have some money to attend Long Beach GP. I succeeded by donating twice, getting $80 and went to the race.
I continued to go after that however. I figured, add this to my merger GR amount and I could start to make some things happen. Since my basics were taken care of (food, shelter) but I was cash poor. If I donated twice a week I got $70. Eventually I a tetanus shot (I needed one anyway) and got additional $5 a week and $10 when on my sixth donation.
So 4 weeks in a month, I would make $385, in Feb I would make about $310.
I was donating all the way up a few months ago, because I couldn't alternate arms like some people do, I developed quite a bit of scar tissue that started to clog the needle when it was inserted. I am suspended from donating indefinitely, it's possible I could return, I may...
By the end of 2011, I had two sources of income. My GR had been increased as I attended mandatory job training and hit $221 + another $75 for transportation during my "job search". I was getting $380 or so a month from donating Plasma. As long as I ate a low fat diet and drank about a gallon of water a day, I had no side effects from donating six, seven, eight times a month.
Totals -
$200 in EBT
$221 in cash assistance
$385 donating plasma
All non-taxable income or credit.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Another Update, More Income Stream News and Income Report
Well, its Memorial Day (Federally) and I thought while listen to Dr. Gary Null on one of my various rides on the bus I would update the blog.
The Podcast is sort of coming along. I have come to the conclusion that I need a co-cost but that does not mean I will not do any solo shows. Indeed there's plenty I have to say and rather than talk to (and sometimes answer...) myself, I believe some people would like what I have to say. So development is coming rather slowly but compared to when I first had the idea for a radio show back in 2007-2008, I have made some progress.
It has been suggested that you give your potential podcast subscribers plenty of content when first starting out, so that has slowed its debut. I have interviews lined up, the problem is getting schedules to match so we can conduct Skype calls.
Once that is sorted out a bit more, I will make the investment in the other parts of the podcast to make it work.
My nine months on General Relief has ended. Ideally, it would have ended with a job and it sort of did. Given my desire to develop my blogs so they will generate income, I wanted much of my time to remain open. I decided not to pursue any IT related work, I may revisit that, but right now its too late in the planning stages for my trip.
But as I said, I actually do have a job, working for a merchandising company, part-time. The problem is while I have been hired, the job I was originally hired to do was cancelled, so there's no work for me at this time. I hope it changes soon, but until then all I have is reduced GR and my previous income stream.
GR has been reduced to $111 to cover transportation cost.
I am having problems with Citi's web site so I can produce an actual income report, so I'll just give my totals.
As of May 27, 2013 -
I could have easily gone under my $500 self-imposed budget if I had to do it again. This includes loads of sight seeing I might add and the rave I went too, which I didn't pay for by the way :)
The Podcast is sort of coming along. I have come to the conclusion that I need a co-cost but that does not mean I will not do any solo shows. Indeed there's plenty I have to say and rather than talk to (and sometimes answer...) myself, I believe some people would like what I have to say. So development is coming rather slowly but compared to when I first had the idea for a radio show back in 2007-2008, I have made some progress.
It has been suggested that you give your potential podcast subscribers plenty of content when first starting out, so that has slowed its debut. I have interviews lined up, the problem is getting schedules to match so we can conduct Skype calls.
Once that is sorted out a bit more, I will make the investment in the other parts of the podcast to make it work.
My nine months on General Relief has ended. Ideally, it would have ended with a job and it sort of did. Given my desire to develop my blogs so they will generate income, I wanted much of my time to remain open. I decided not to pursue any IT related work, I may revisit that, but right now its too late in the planning stages for my trip.
But as I said, I actually do have a job, working for a merchandising company, part-time. The problem is while I have been hired, the job I was originally hired to do was cancelled, so there's no work for me at this time. I hope it changes soon, but until then all I have is reduced GR and my previous income stream.
GR has been reduced to $111 to cover transportation cost.
I am having problems with Citi's web site so I can produce an actual income report, so I'll just give my totals.
As of May 27, 2013 -
- General Relief Balance (last payment on May 3rd) - $245
- Plasma Donation Balance (missed two donations) - $44
Ah, but I spent $524 on a recent trip to Mexico City
That cost included $322 round trip ticket from LAX to Mexico City. I spent $16 to get to the airport, $21(4.5 days) for a great hostel which included breakfast every morning and WiFi. Also Metro was $4 and I spent too much money on the initial taxi from the airport (because I couldn't find the metro station) for $21.
Next post I will go into my detail about my major trip and what going to Mexico City had to do with it.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Income Report
From this point forward, I will be adding an income report to my blog. I think its important to share my financial status with those who are in a similar position.
If you always thought traveling was only for the rich or upper-middle class, you are sadly mistaken. Armed with the proper tools and information, traveling abroad is in reach of the average person.
You just need to prioritize, its really that simple.
I currently have two income streams; General Relief which last for nine months and Plasma donations which I do twice a week.
Gross earnings for a month average to $450. I try and net $400 savings per month.
My other income stream that isn't cash based is EBT or Food Stamps. Yes I am one of 46 million Americans on the SNAP program, sue me.
This allows me to save the majority of money I earn from my activities.
Current GA balance - $487.54 (3/9/2013
Current Plasma Debt Card balance - $233.53 (3/9/2013)
I am lucky enough to not have any additional cost since I live with my parents.
My goal is to hit $2,000 by May with some additional income from getting rid of stuff. I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.
If you always thought traveling was only for the rich or upper-middle class, you are sadly mistaken. Armed with the proper tools and information, traveling abroad is in reach of the average person.
You just need to prioritize, its really that simple.
I currently have two income streams; General Relief which last for nine months and Plasma donations which I do twice a week.
Gross earnings for a month average to $450. I try and net $400 savings per month.
My other income stream that isn't cash based is EBT or Food Stamps. Yes I am one of 46 million Americans on the SNAP program, sue me.
This allows me to save the majority of money I earn from my activities.
Current GA balance - $487.54 (3/9/2013
Current Plasma Debt Card balance - $233.53 (3/9/2013)
I am lucky enough to not have any additional cost since I live with my parents.
My goal is to hit $2,000 by May with some additional income from getting rid of stuff. I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.
Monday, January 14, 2013
2013 is here!
Its amazing how we move from one year to the next. The news since Obama's first term has been coming fast and furious as we continue the "he said, she said" nonsense that has become normal in American political discourse.
I recommend that you pick up the book (or audio book) Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. This book will explain what the term "Disaster Capitalism" means. I also highly suggest you watch Chris Martenson's "Crash Course" video that is available legally from various sources from torrent to You Tube.
*I have linked to the condensed version above
Both of those pieces of information will clear away any fog left to explain why we are in the situation we're in.
From now on I will view any planning like businesses do. Currently we are in the 2nd quarter of 2013 which started January 1st. Meaning the 1st quarter of 2013 started Oct 1st 2012 and ended December 31st 2012.
You'll notice that 1st quarter earnings contain Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas earnings by retailers and other companies. So I will say that I had a income "glitch" from Oct 1st till just after the first of the year. For some reason my GA was cut off starting with the final payment Sept 3rd. I was never told it would be cut. So when I didn't get a check (electronically) Oct 3rd, I was concerned. When I didn't get a check Nov 3rd, panic mode started and I contacted DPSS (Los Angeles Dept of Social Services) and asked what was happening. It turns out my claim was stopped because of some form I didn't fill out, but I'm positive I never got. In any event, I had to re-apply. So I did that Nov 10th. I was paid for Jan, Dec and part of Nov.
I ended 2012 with the cash amount of $389. I should mention that I paid for a Sony PS3 Super Slim during Black Friday. I have wanted a PS3 for awhile and was waiting for a price drop to $199. This happen around holiday time in 2011, but this time I figured no price drop will happen until the announcement of PS4. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I also tried to upgrade my current laptop with an SSD. That failed as I bricked the laptop. After returning the SSD and spending almost a month trying to un-brick my laptop, I decided to purchase another one. I will eventually fix that one, plus the other one I have from my father's estate, maybe when I return from my trip.
By the end of 2nd quarter I should have at least $1700. That's if I do nothing else but what I have been doing. If you didn't know I have been working on a podcast version of this blog since the end of summer 2012. Well that podcast is about to start. Stay tuned for some changes to the blog's layout to make it easy to download the podcast, read show notes and visit the links provided to what I am talking about.
To make my trip work and give myself maximum possibilities I need at least $2,000. If you noticed $1,700 is not $2,000. I would be $300 short or about a month's worth of donations. So the second part of my plan in 2013 is to launch my Sell It All campaign. I had previously thought about this but had put it to work. As a debt reduction tactic its been used by many followers of the blog Man Vs Debt. So I will be using Ebay, Craigslist and Amazon Marketplace to sell items I no longer need or frankly have been saving up to this point. I think its more important to get my media empire off the ground that to keep various anime related items and other stuff I have laying around here. My goal is to earn $1,000. I may earn more, but that's the target.
Before I started donating plasma as regular income stream, I had sold a few things on Ebay totaling about $105. So I know with the rest of the stuff I got, I can make at least $500, but I though why stop there? $1,000 seems like a reasonable target.
Next blog post, I will show you my earnings from donating Plasma in 2012, which is my first full year of donations. I will also show you how to link all this to Mint to keep track of all your spending.
I recommend that you pick up the book (or audio book) Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. This book will explain what the term "Disaster Capitalism" means. I also highly suggest you watch Chris Martenson's "Crash Course" video that is available legally from various sources from torrent to You Tube.
*I have linked to the condensed version above
Both of those pieces of information will clear away any fog left to explain why we are in the situation we're in.
From now on I will view any planning like businesses do. Currently we are in the 2nd quarter of 2013 which started January 1st. Meaning the 1st quarter of 2013 started Oct 1st 2012 and ended December 31st 2012.
You'll notice that 1st quarter earnings contain Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas earnings by retailers and other companies. So I will say that I had a income "glitch" from Oct 1st till just after the first of the year. For some reason my GA was cut off starting with the final payment Sept 3rd. I was never told it would be cut. So when I didn't get a check (electronically) Oct 3rd, I was concerned. When I didn't get a check Nov 3rd, panic mode started and I contacted DPSS (Los Angeles Dept of Social Services) and asked what was happening. It turns out my claim was stopped because of some form I didn't fill out, but I'm positive I never got. In any event, I had to re-apply. So I did that Nov 10th. I was paid for Jan, Dec and part of Nov.
I ended 2012 with the cash amount of $389. I should mention that I paid for a Sony PS3 Super Slim during Black Friday. I have wanted a PS3 for awhile and was waiting for a price drop to $199. This happen around holiday time in 2011, but this time I figured no price drop will happen until the announcement of PS4. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I also tried to upgrade my current laptop with an SSD. That failed as I bricked the laptop. After returning the SSD and spending almost a month trying to un-brick my laptop, I decided to purchase another one. I will eventually fix that one, plus the other one I have from my father's estate, maybe when I return from my trip.
By the end of 2nd quarter I should have at least $1700. That's if I do nothing else but what I have been doing. If you didn't know I have been working on a podcast version of this blog since the end of summer 2012. Well that podcast is about to start. Stay tuned for some changes to the blog's layout to make it easy to download the podcast, read show notes and visit the links provided to what I am talking about.
To make my trip work and give myself maximum possibilities I need at least $2,000. If you noticed $1,700 is not $2,000. I would be $300 short or about a month's worth of donations. So the second part of my plan in 2013 is to launch my Sell It All campaign. I had previously thought about this but had put it to work. As a debt reduction tactic its been used by many followers of the blog Man Vs Debt. So I will be using Ebay, Craigslist and Amazon Marketplace to sell items I no longer need or frankly have been saving up to this point. I think its more important to get my media empire off the ground that to keep various anime related items and other stuff I have laying around here. My goal is to earn $1,000. I may earn more, but that's the target.
Before I started donating plasma as regular income stream, I had sold a few things on Ebay totaling about $105. So I know with the rest of the stuff I got, I can make at least $500, but I though why stop there? $1,000 seems like a reasonable target.
Next blog post, I will show you my earnings from donating Plasma in 2012, which is my first full year of donations. I will also show you how to link all this to Mint to keep track of all your spending.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Work? What work? - The social safety net and you..
I will not detail what is happening in the background, but I will say this; I will be able to complete my mission with a combination of public assistance, unorthodox income stream, passive income and draconian cuts in spending.
I could argue having a regular job may allow you to have more resources (money) but less time. Doing it my way allows you to have more time and slightly less money. One problem with being near the bottom of the middle class, you are usually unable to save money. That is if you want to live a typical life.
The Los Angeles area is one of the more expensive places to live (but has one of the highest min wage). A recent study found that it takes just under $30,000 a year to have a comfortable life with the usual trappings. If you're earning less than that, then you're simply doing without. For some its a car, for others its living at home and for other still its no social interaction; You simply can't afford it.
For the last few years I had not earned more than $25,000 and not gotten anywhere. So when I got fired from my last job, instead of jumping right back into the job market making about the same amount of money, I opted to do everything differently. As the financial crisis deepen it became clear that hurrying back into the job market or waiting a year or two will not make much difference. Of course there's a risk, especially if you're my age (41) but I think the risk is minimal. There has been all sort of tactics used by companies to hire workers from other companies or younger, desperate workers who will take just about any job to start paying down student debt (currently at 1.2 Trillion Nationally). This is openly discriminating against the long term unemployed.
In the face of that reality, I decided I wanted to train for IT. But a secondary plan was hatched a bit later.
I started thinking as I was waiting for the bus one evening; I had just finished donating plasma which I started at the suggestion of a classmate. I figured, if I could earn between $280-$320 dollars a month, I could parlay that into something useful like a trip or a car. I decided buying a car was fruitless. $300 a month is barely enough to run any car, but its possible. You'll need to find a cheap, reliable car of course.... But that is so secondary at this point, that I can make do without.
One of the first things I did after becoming unemployed was apply for Unemployment, for which I was denied. Funny, I just had UI supplemental income after my hours had been cut at old job and now I can't get full insurance? I could have applied for an appeal but I said screw it and screw them.
I also applied for food stamps. I got those but something funny happen here. I was offered food stamps and medicaid, but not general assistance (cash). I assumed that was just the way it went since I lived at home with my parents and paid no rent. But recently (yesterday in fact) I was applying for something else that I will talk about in the near future, I was informed at the location for where I applied for social services does not offer general assistance (cash). I was told where I needed to go to get it. Imagine, I had been working on this plan for the better part of the year and could have gotten cash from the county (its provided by LA County) to stack for this.
Oh well, better late than never right?
I am just at the start of my public assistance aspect of this journey but I will leave this post with a sort of earnings report from donating plasma this year as of July 2012.
Plasma Donation Log
First Post and Some Information
I have spent the last decade looking for a woman suitable to be my wife. Now before the feminist attack me, I am not basing that strictly on physical beauty. I do have standards that are deal breakers, however they are not out of line with mainstream western thinking.
That is not what this blog is about however, it’s about proving that under even extreme economic circumstances you can find an attractive woman to marry and have a family with.
What you have to do is diffuse the importance of money to a relationship. That goes for even the richest men reading this blog, if you don’t diffuse the importance of money, you’ll find yourself in divorce court sooner rather than later. This is especially important in the United States and part of the reason why I no longer consider women here suitable for long term relationships.
Why? Because too many women are looking to upgrade. If she’s poor, she wants to reach the middle class and the easiest way to do that is to marry some schmuck which automatically will double her income.
70% of American households women control the money supply. I should also mention though the stat is a bit hard to find, 92% of formerly married women gained their wealth via divorce court.
In a depressed economic environment with a sometimes generous but hard to access social safety net (I'll talk about this in the next post), this restricts a man's options for marriage and relationships. If you don’t fully understand that last sentence, read this article by Dr. Harriet Fraad or if you’re not the type to read very much, you can listen to this podcast.
This blog will cover the ups, the downs, the major failures, triumphs and success.
Stay Tuned More To Come....
That is not what this blog is about however, it’s about proving that under even extreme economic circumstances you can find an attractive woman to marry and have a family with.
What you have to do is diffuse the importance of money to a relationship. That goes for even the richest men reading this blog, if you don’t diffuse the importance of money, you’ll find yourself in divorce court sooner rather than later. This is especially important in the United States and part of the reason why I no longer consider women here suitable for long term relationships.
Why? Because too many women are looking to upgrade. If she’s poor, she wants to reach the middle class and the easiest way to do that is to marry some schmuck which automatically will double her income.
70% of American households women control the money supply. I should also mention though the stat is a bit hard to find, 92% of formerly married women gained their wealth via divorce court.
In a depressed economic environment with a sometimes generous but hard to access social safety net (I'll talk about this in the next post), this restricts a man's options for marriage and relationships. If you don’t fully understand that last sentence, read this article by Dr. Harriet Fraad or if you’re not the type to read very much, you can listen to this podcast.
This blog will cover the ups, the downs, the major failures, triumphs and success.
Stay Tuned More To Come....
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