Credit issues

I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised how many commercials I see on television nowadays regarding the issues of credit repair.  There are a lot of different companies out there that offer to help fix your credit.  Some of these bad credit repair services, such as Ovation Credit service give the consumer the impression that repairing credit is easy.  And it IS easy if the only thing wrong is mistakes on your credit report.

But if the issues are that you have poor credit because you haven’t been paying your bills, then these services cannot help you at all.  What you need to do in these cases is to make arrangements with your creditors to get your bills paid!  And that may not be easy if you have lost your income due to some unforeseen situation.  Job loss, sudden health issues, and accidents can all contribute to troubles that will have a negative impact on credit ratings.

Substitute Teaching

My son has been struggling for the past couple of years to find a good job. He has had his heart set on becoming a newspaper reporter, but he can’t seem to find one in the area. So he has decided to look into becoming a substitute teacher for the local school system. There is always a demand for substitutes, and I think he would make a really good teacher. Looking into what qualifications he needs, we were surprised to find that you don’t even need a college degree, only a high school diploma!

Taking care of Mom

My sister called me last night to tell me that when she dropped in on Mom she found he sitting in her favorite chair with an ice pack on her hip.  She had fallen down again and had stayed on the floor for a couple of hours in pain before she could get up.  For the past year I’ve been trying to convince my sister to sign Mom up for a Life Alert service so that when something like that happens the Life Alert service will call for help and she won’t have to be lying there in pain for more than a few minutes.

My sister and mother both have been resisting the idea of subscribing to a Life Alert service.  They just don’t want to spend the money.  But I know for a fact that my mother can easily afford it; she’s just being cheap!  So I’m going to talk to my wife about us subscribing to it on her behalf and paying the fees.  Mom’s life and safety is more important than saving a few dollars!

Crows

I was surprised this morning to see a lot of crows eating some of the over-ripened squash that I threw out in the back yard last night.  I was thinking that the deer would enjoy it!  I mentioned it to my wife that I was surprised to see the crows eating it and she was surprised that I was surprised.  She said “Well, why wouldn’t they eat it?  They are scavengers after all!”

To be honest, I don’t really know why it surprised me.  Maybe I just expected the squash to be already gone by sunrise!  After all, we DO have a small herd of deer that frequent our yard every day!

Managing finances

I can remember when I was a kid my parents gave me a couple of dollars here and there for doing some kind of extra chore.  I was jealous of the kids that got paid allowances!  For me, money was hard earned and I was very upset when I discovered that one of my siblings had raided my little piggy bank and taken all of my money!  The little thief took off with my money and ran off to the neighborhood market and spent all of my money on gum, candy, and comic books!  And my parents did nothing about it. 

I never got my money back, and the thief was never punished in any way at all.  For reasons such as this, and to avoid losing cash due to other unforeseen causes, I suggest that parents dole out their money to their kids in the form of a prepaid visa mastercard.  Using cards like this instead of cash makes the money more secure and helps kids to learn how to budget their money!  And of course, it makes them feel “cool” by having a card to use like a credit card – like the “grownups” do!