I’ve just realized, just this moment, one of the things I find frustrating about having only a couple of days off. It takes at least one, usually two, day to get the internal alarm clock to shut off. I have the whole weekend off and I would love to sleep in but here I am at almost 7am, awake drinking coffee, and doing one of the things I love the most: writing. Overall, this isn’t really such a horrible thing since all of the right elements are there, but it would be nice if this were happening at, say…9am.
I had to walk away from listening to Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing yesterday. I’m most of the way through the audiobook, but I found myself getting frustrated, moderately depressed while listening yesterday. I am finding it a little difficult to listen to how I can do all the things listed in the audio and change my financial situation while I’m trying to figure out how I am going to afford to fix the things that are starting to present themselves with the van. I hate that my financial security at this point in my life is dependent on a 15-year-old vehicle with almost 250,000 miles on it.
I think that is one of the catches of being on the lower end of the financial scale. I haven’t figured out, yet, how to afford a newer vehicle with a ton less miles on it so I am stuck with what I can find in my price range of not much. Even that wouldn’t be so bad if, when anything went wrong with the vehicle currently in my possession, I could just have it fixed or fix it myself. The thing with fixing it myself is, since I am at the lower end of the financial scale, I work a lot just to survive and, by the time I have time off, I’m exhausted. Then, there is figuring out how to afford whatever parts I may need. Ugh.
Yeah, I’m whining a bit this morning. The van’s issues are starting to present as problems. Some of them I can fix, others of them are beyond my skill set. I guess I’m feeling overwhelmed and a bit stuck. Then I listen to Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing and feel even more stuck.
It’s not that I don’t think I can do the things mentioned in the audiobook, because, as I said yesterday, I believe I could do the things mentioned in the book quite well. It really is the money part that causes me to start feeling trapped in the financial situation I am in. Despite what Robert Kiyosaki says in this book about it not taking money to make money, I still feel like, where I am at, it would most definitely take money to make money. At the very least, it would take an extremely better credit rating than I possess.
In the book, Kiyosaki talks about keeping your day job and starting a part-time business. Ok. I’ve done both of those things. Sure, painting curb address numbers is a seasonal thing and relies on the Pacific Northwest having late spring, summer, and early fall be not so rainy, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, but it is something that I can usually schedule in around my cleans during those months. Since I’ve gotten a budget in place, I am anxious for it to be the time of year when we can paint curb numbers so I can see just how this could be a better financial gain. Have I mentioned my relationship with patience?
Now that we have a business license for our curb painting business, I will be adding a different approach to getting curbs to paint. We have always had it set up with Lance knocking on each door and selling our services, and I follow behind, painting the curbs that he sells. With the business license, I can approach the different HOA’s (Home Owner’s Associations) with our services and present them with a sales pitch, in writing, complete with pricing and available discounts based on volume.
Lance is also working on a Seahawks (positioned to be at the SuperBowl again this year) stencil that can be added to the address numbers for a little extra cost. After seeing the response to the Seahawks winning the SuperBowl last year, we would be crazy to not have this stencil available. We only wish we could have had it ready for this past season of curb painting. We had made one, but we/I couldn’t figure out how to get past/how to fix the issue with the mouth stripe disappearing when sprayed. Seeing as we are on foot, we have to have something that can be sprayed because carrying around paint that needs a brush or whatever to apply the mouth stripe is not really a great plan. I see paint everywhere, potentially ruining the other supplies or, at the very least, turning it all into a complete mess. We will figure it out and definitely welcome suggestions/tips.
Can you see the anxiety I’m having? If not, I’m grateful for that. I can’t sell anything to anyone if I am coming across as anxious.
*Deep breath* I can feel the anxiety rising just writing about all of this. I want to be doing things now to change my finances. Sure, working has changed our finances, especially since I have gotten a budget into place, but I am also looking at how easily we can be knocked down in our current position. It wouldn’t take much. I think I need to temper the path of financial learning with other things to try to keep my anxiety level down some.
Cernunnos
Ok. I need to go. I’ve thrown enough of the inner chaos I have circling around my head onto the ‘page’ for one day, I think. Besides, Cernunnos is waiting for me to give him his morning lovings. Have a great day, Everyone!!!
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 