I've got good credit and my baby does too!

So a few months after finding out about an old collection I never knew about, I checked my credit and found that my score has since rebounded for the most part.

My Experian score is in the 740 range or 'Excellent'

My Equifax score is in the high 670's or 'Fair' mainly because for some reason the collection is still showing.

My TransUnion score is in 700 range again because for some reason the collection is still showing.

- I will have to contact Equifax and Transunion obviously though because they are getting some bad information and my Equifax score actually dropped from last time.


My fiance on the other hand appear to have things more than under control - she pulled only one score but that score is in the 720's - so not bad at all.


After, I talk to/contact Equifax and TransUnion I think I might just take the asterisk (*) away from 'Reggie, another kid with good* credit' - cause it just about is 'good' again now.

Quote of the Week #28

“The greatest obstacle to being heroic is to doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.”

-Nathaniel Hawthorne quotes
found on thinkexist.com

Screw an I-Phone...I don't care how much it costs...

...I want THIS phone!

I hope Verizon takes Nokia phones - do they? I checked out CNNMoney.com earlier today and read this article about the above phone.

What can I say - screw an I-phone I want a phone that turns into a watch and gets re-charged by the sun - I mean com'on it's about time right?

I guess I won't say I completely don't care how much it cost but, if it's in the low 4 digits I might make a layaway plan for it. If it's in the 5-digits for some reason forget about it.

White house pledges to veto oil company tax hike

God, again, I'm just the messenger but, if this doesn't make you want to get upset about high gas prices and high oil industry profits - I'm not sure what will:

Bush to veto bill rolling back tax breaks for oil

Honestly, I don't care who replaces the man in the White house today - any of the remaining candidates would be a great fit for the position but, Jeez - who in the world voted the incumbent into office and then re-elected him too?

Not place to ask I guess. I'm not looking forward to the $4 oil that will surely come though.

I got a job!

Finally, after weeks of worrying I found another job within my company.

I am so excited. The new job pays less but that will be a non-issue in the short term due to the 2nd job. In the long term I look to do something on the side instead of the 2nd job - so I won't have 2 bosses. The something on the side may very well be literary-related, only time will tell.

The new job is also less stressful so I'm almost welcoming the cut in pay for the comparative relief in stress.

Progress report - for the week ended 2/24/08

I haven't been slacking - I swear but working two jobs while your looking for a new full time job can be tiring.


Goals by the end of February 2008 -

1. Apply to 10 full time jobs that have a starting salary at at least 90% of current income - I think I'm still at the 7 range but by the time the day is over I might have reached the goal of applying to 10 jobs.
   
2. Go to 1 or more job fairs - SUCCESS - I did go to a job fair two weeks ago to mixed results. There were only about 10-15 booths there with only one employer I would consider working for, Another that i already work for.
   
3. Interview for at least 3 jobs at current company or similar-sized company* - I'm still at 2 interviews for the month. I keep getting feedback that their may be a position within my current employer but, weeks later - no one has told me anything definite about the position I'm asking about.
   

This week I think I'm going to take breather from stressing - or at least try to because I think my anxiousness to find a new job very well may have scared off a potential future employer when I called (and called again) to follow-up. I guess finding a new job is liking finding a girlfriend or boyfriend - you'll get nowhere if you look like you're too desperate - this very well may have been my mistake this past week.

Quote of the Week #27

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."

~ Confucius
from Emory U wesbite.

$100 oil...

Or at least, $100 a barrel oil.

Man what can I say, we need to switch power sources and or at least power-dependency.

Today's headline:

Oil prices hit record in New York


On BBC brings up an unfortunate precedent - the realization of $100 a barrel oil.

Hopefully they make solar powered cars that can go 100 mph real soon.

A credit card for your debt-freedom?

So, I got a credit card solicitation in the mail over the weekend.

What made me actually open it is how ironic the the wonderful offer is. On the window portion of the envelope it says:

"Apply for your Debt-Free Plan* account today"

Little do they know - I am debt free. However, it was nice that a big bank, whose initials spell a rather large snake, had the thoughtfulness to offer me more debt in order to get out of debt. How quaint.

I love how the big banks watch out for me. They even added:

"Upon approval, we can deposit the money directly into your checking account so you can use it right away."

That's the way to do it - put a ton of cash into the checking account of someone who doesn't know how to manage there money in the first place. real good, I wonder if they would approve the maximum $50,000 credit limit for me...

Progress Report for week ended 2/17/08

I had some computer issues yesterday so I wasn't able to update until now. Here's my progress so far.

Goals by the end of February 2008 -

1. Apply to 10 full time jobs that have a starting salary at at least 90% of current income - So far this month I've applied to 6-7 jobs that meet this description.
   
2. Go to 1 or more job fairs - I did go to a job fair last week, unfortunately there were not that many positions I would be interested in there. The one location I was interested in wouldn't take any resumes. They said "apply online" -which, in my opinion defeats the whole purpose of making the effort to go out to a job fair.
   
3. Interview for at least 3 jobs at current company or similar-sized company* - I've had about 2 job interviews within my current company so far this month. One of those positions unfortunately has already verified they picked another candidate.
   

I have been in communication with a hiring manager for a company job that I believe I have a good chance of getting however, I was under the false impression that an offer would have been made last week. Another co-worker who lost her job as well, DID receive an offer from this same hiring manager last week. I was bugging him all last week and hopefully my impatience did not ruin my chances - but, maybe it did.

Guys, don't be a cheap-@$$ on V-day

Take this from someone who learned this the hard way this week:

So a few weeks ago - I was looking online for flower shops in my fiance's area in order to get a discount for buying flower's early. I talked to a lot of shops but, one shop in particular promised me a price about $10-20 below the rest of the market BUT - they didn't have the exact prices and wouldn't have them until the next day. The lady on the line literally begged me to wait a day so they could get prices for V-day. Mind you every other shop I talked to already had their prices ready and available.

I waited for a phone call back the next day that never came so I called the shop again (cause, I did want to be a cheap ass and save that $20 bill) - I talked to someone at the flower shop who said they still didn't have the prices but they would in about an hour. So an hour went buy and called and go the price which was about $15 cheaper than every other shop. I asked them if I could put the bill on my credit card (which I would immediately pay off) - Surprisingly they said 'we don't take credit cards'

I paused and asked what they do take - they replied we take cash or check. This caused a dilemma with me being 2 hours away. They offered to send an invoice, I agreed. A week went by and no invoice in the mail, I decided to send the money anyway.

So this week, still no invoice - I freaked out and went online and bought another Dozen roses for my fiance. So today she did get both set of flowers today - much to her delight.

But, if I would've just stuck with the online order or paid a little more - I would've saved $60-70.

Lesson - don't be a cheap ass when it comes to V-day. Pay a little extra for your sweetheart if you have one - for those guys that don't have a sweetheart: psst be, thankful - you are saving yourselve's ton's of money!... By the way, did I mention i love my fiance!

Quote of the Week#26 -Happy V-day!

“To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy”

-Robert Louis Stevenson
found on Thinkexist.com

Is the $600 rebate really a post-poned Goverment IOU?

I was shocked and appalled today when I overheard a co-worker mentioning how the $600 rebate will really be owed back in 2009's taxes. I've tried to dig a little to find a few grains of truth to this accusation and found one:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/TheFedIsntFoolingAnyone.aspx

Not that I need the $600 bucks - well if I go jobless, I just might - but, I feel a little scammed if this is true.

I haven't seen anything on any major news source but, I have a feeling there may be some actual truth to this rumor.

Does anyone know more about this? Let me know.

Warren Buffett to the rescue!

So the Oracle from Omaha has struck again:


Blue chips rally on Buffett

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Blue chips rallied Tuesday as investors welcomed news that Warren Buffett has reached out to ailing bond insurers and major lenders have announced a plan that they say will help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

...Buffett reaches out to bond insurers. Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett has offered to insure about $800 billion in tax-exempt bonds, according to reports Tuesday. The offer was made to the three big bond insurers, MBIA (MBI), Ambac Financial (ABK) and FGIC."

Apparently the markets took Mr. Buffett's offer for bonds as a good sign. If only the rally can go on until at least Valentine's Day - the economy might not look so bearish.

Is Bush insane, or is Wall St. just overloaded with cynics?

So I checked out this article today:

US economy 'will avoid recession'

Found on the BBC.com. The article states the following:

"The country will see growth of about 2.7% despite the housing slump and credit crunch, the annual Economic Report Of The President said."

and then later in the article mentions:

"The economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.6% from October to December, the Department of Commerce said.

In the previous three months, between July and September, the economy was growing at an annual rate of 4.9%."

To be honest, I'm not sure who to believe anymore, although I have a serious aversion to believing anything that comes out of our current president's mouth - on a certain level, the reports that have been coming in through the major news media have been very much 'oh woe is we [Americans]'. News Analyst and especially Business news analysts have been using the words
'recession' and 'economy' like they were using the words 'the' and 'a' - peppering them everywhere.

Granted, I am a casualty of the 'horrible economy' but more recently I'm beginning to get some indications that my firing/lay-off might possibly be divine intervention to a certain degree [I might touch on this more if a few cards fall the way I'm hoping].

I think I heard or read somewhere recently the idea that we may be 'talking ourselves into a recession' - all the media is saying that there are all these problems with the economy and the people are agreeing and thus not buying as much - which in turn causes the economy to get worse since people aren't buying as much and it becomes a vicious circle.

By no means do I think Bush is an economic genius, obviously you don't have to dig too deep to see this is just economic propaganda to make his administration not look so horrid. But (sigh, I hate to say this) maybe he has the right idea...

OK I can't say that without feeling like I'm supporting some sort of evil so, let me correct that and say - Maybe someone smart in Bush's ADMINISTRATION has the right idea...(ok much better)

Progress report - for week ended 2/10/08

So, I am ready to begin the job search again tomorrow. Here's my progress so far.

Goals by the end of February 2008 -

1. Apply to 10 full time jobs that have a starting salary at at least 90% of current income - This past week I applied to about3-5 jobs that meet this description.
   
2. Go to 1 or more job fairs - There is a fairly large job fair this week I plan to attend.
   
3. Interview for at least 3 jobs at current company or similar-sized company* - I had a job shadow/informal interview on Friday at my company. I also have an internal interview set up tomorrow so hopefully it will all be for the best.
   

*on a side note, a e-mail conversation I had last week leads me to believe I may be in the running for an internal job I already applied for. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and plan to do some follow up tomorrow - hopefully I hear some good news soon though!

Blogging envy...[rant]

I guess it's not right to have blogging envy as we all have our different story to tell but, man, one of my favorite blogs just got me really envious of them recently.

I won't say which blog but, I will say that it was not so much the content that they posted - it was just a "monthly net-worth update" - as much as the ads they have running.

They had my current employer (possibly) soon to be 'former' employer posting an add with them. Let's just put it this way - my current employer is Fortune 500 company!

In other words this blog must be getting some decent dinero for just being such a long-standing blog.

I admit it, I've been slacking but, as soon as I resolve the lack-of-full-time-job issue I will be doing my best to post and publicize my blog more regularly.

My company doesn't have enough money in the budget to pay my salary anymore but, does have enough money to advertise on a great (however not insanely huge) blog. Something has got to change here and hopefully for the better.

So I'm in debt ...18 dollars

Oh man, I'm slightly upset. I made the mistake of using my 0% credit card yesterday to pay for lunch with a friend. (I hadn't balanced my checkbook yet for the week)

Luckily the card is one of my bank's card so I can go into the bank and pay off the whopping $18 on Monday. I'm annoyed about the fact that I used a credit card again in the first place though.

Hopefully I'll confirm a full-time job soon so I can start saving enough to where I'll have cash available at all times. My checking account is getting kind of low lately.

Quote of the Week #25

"Investors... should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

- Warren Buffett
found on Askmen.com

January results/February goals

I've been sick and busy (in no particular order) the last couple of days. Here come the goals - obviously the job loss in the middle of the month changed some of the priorities a tad.

Goals by the end of January 2008 -

1. Apply to 20 full-time jobs (using cover letters) - SUCCESS - I have more than exceeded this goal in my search for a new job. At last count it was around 70 or so.
   
2. Save $1500 in Me & fiance's joint (wedding expenses) savings account - FAILURE - Due to circumstances the account is hovering around a Grand currently.
   
3. Re-send query to two books agents, send query letter to 10 new agents - FAILURE - I didn't even really try this one. Once some stability returns I shall revisit it.
   

Obviously the main goal for the coming month (if not months) is gainful employment. I've already picked up a part-time job in the interim but, the hours and the work kind of sucks:

Goals by the end of February 2008 -

1. Apply to 10 full time jobs that have a starting salary at at least 90% of current income
   
2. Go to 1 or more job fairs
3. Interview for at least 3 jobs at current company or similar-sized company
   

I really hope that I'll be able to find a decent job so I don't need to stress as much as I have been. I have a good feeling though that it will all work out for the best.

January 2008 - Net Worth

Despite the impending job loss it appears that I am making headway in the Net Worth department. I would say I can thank the lack of debt especially for this.



Hopefully, I'll be able to get a decent paying job in the next month or so so I can continue the positive trending. With the stock market on the Fritz these days though, who really knows.

Plastectomy - '4 INCHES OF PLASTIC!'

Although, I'm not really a big fan of fox/fox business it is the only place (so far) where you can find debt-hating videos like this from Dave Ramsey's viewers:

4 INCHES OF PLASTIC!

Hope you Enjoy it!