You just have to WANT to become one.

Geez, if only I had know it was just wanting it bad enough that made one well off, I wouldn't have wasted all these years working my ass off to make other people rich.

I crack up every time I hear the commercial at work, trying to get me to sign up to sell some useless crap on the Internet so someone else can make money off me. Usually you have to pay for the information their selling and it's some pyramid get rich quick scheme. I'll go with what my grandpop always taught me. "If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is."

The " transferring your debt into wealth program". Got my 30-day listen and decided the best way to start that, was to send it back. ($300 for the program) I can tell you pretty much the gist of it if you want to know. Just shoot me a PM. 

Everyone acts like this is the first time this has ever happened. You'd think the government would be better prepared since it's only been happening every so many years since we got here.

It happened after the civil war when everything changed and they phased out a way of life. I keep thinking of Scarlett and Ashley's conversation about being "winnowed" out and wonder where the chips will fall with the lot of us when all is said and done. The Great Depression, The 80's etc.  Some where, someone should have caught on and learned how to fix it.

The rich may have money, but I think those of us down here on the bottom will fair much better off through all of this then they will. After all, we're used to not having much of anything. When you don't have a lot, there isn't much to lose is there now.

I recently heard the head of a very large quarry threw himself in front of a train this week due to the economic problems his company is facing. That's sad. There's always some way out. Sometimes you just have to wait. Stop panicking. Take a deep breath. And look down a different path.

For instance. 

I used to live in NJ. I was a single mom for 10 years. I rented a house that my father inherited from his sister (who inherited from their mom). I paid the taxes for my rent as the house was paid off. 

5 years ago, I started dating my High School Sweetheart. He moved in and we lived together for a few months before my family went crazy. Actually, it was my mom. She decided since she got married at 16 to my dad. That she never really had a "choice" in her marriage and she packed up over a 6-month period stole some money and moved out. (I did remind her that she had left before when she as 32 (pretty sure that made her an adult) but that she choose to come back, apparently, this didn't count) My dad never noticed. I think that's sad to say you love someone so much, but you never noticed their things missing.

Over 6 months, he never noticed her taking her stuff out of the house a little at a time. Never noticed her writing checks against their escrow. She went so far as to write a check out to me for my "wedding" for $10,000. (Yeah we still aren't married)

When she left my dad got all, "Oh, Pity Me!” Don't get me wrong, he had good reason, they'd been married for 36 years. But he also did the play side’s thing. Now mind you, I'm 35, my sister is 32 and we're not little kids that have to choose who you love better. He put us and his friends at work through the wringer.

Well after everyone going round and round and my mom finally getting bored with living on her own. (She used the funds to clean up her credit and pay for an apartment for 7 months) she decided to move back in with my dad. (See her boyfriend left her because she kept going on and on about how she was going to soak my dad) She had "conditions" though. This part I couldn't figure out as SHE left HIM and yet, SHE had conditions that needed to be met before she'd come back home..yeah, lots of issues there. (see he didn't know about the boyfriend)

So she moves back home and some how, I'M the bad guy in the whole thing. The house I live in MUST be sold to pay back the money she took.

I offered to pay them $60k for it; she took $50K total so I figure it's a fair deal. I mean, he didn't pay for the house, so it's all "Free Money". Now mind you, it's ticking me off that I'll be paying off my mom's debt. It's also ticking me off that my dad has $50k in a savings account, but what can you do. (He ended up giving me 15k guilt money. I reluctently took it and used it to put a down payment on my house and pay to move)

Enter the realtor. My dad wamts gets to "get a fair price on the house" realtor says $178K is what he can get for said house. I laugh. This house needs a lot of work. Has NO kitchen space what so ever, and the bathroom has a lovely claw foot tub, but no shower. No closets. No upstairs bathroom. It's not updated. No we've been living in it fine, but someone moving into a house, is not going to want to pay that much and still have to fix it up.

I went crazy. I have bad credit. I have pets. I have a son. I have a car payment. Where the hell am I supposed to go? I snapped for a week. Thankfully, I was on vacation between jobs when the guy put the For Sale sign out in front of the house. My son was at school and came home to see it.

When I called my father to ask "What the hell was going on?" He blamed the realtor. It was all their fault. They weren't supposed to put the sign up yet. He wanted to tell me over the weekend. I told my dad I hope his money keeps him warm and night and takes care of him when he's old. Because I'm not going to be around to do it after all of this.

Now mind you I worked for the same company as my dad. My boss new he was doing this to me before I did.

After the initial panic.

First, I tried to stay in NJ. Looked for places to rent. If I rented, I'd have to lose my pets. Which was certain death for them as they're all older and my dog is a spaz. I know it sounds stupid. By they'd spent all this time with me struggling while we were poor. We'd been through so much together. I couldn't do that to them.

So then, I looked in PA. Still nothing I could afford. Owning a home in that area was out of the questions. Unless I wanted to live in a crack house. Bad areas. No way was I putting my kid through that.

So, while at the new job I started looking for places that they had branches. I stumbled on NC. I busted my butt, cleaned up my credit and fought long and hard to find a house I could afford and LIVE in it. (There’s a trick)

Realtors told me I'd never find a house in my price range. Lenders didn't want to lend my so little money. In the end, I won. I spent weekends driving 500 miles Friday night to NC. Looking at houses and 500 miles back to NJ to get to work on Mon. Morning.

Finally, we found our house! 

In the mean time, my parents felt " I wasn't serious about moving" They offered me to stay in the house I was in but double the rent. (house didn't sell like they thought it would, this of course was my fault too) I told them NO WAY! Why should I pay more to live in the same house? Just to they could fix it up with my money and do this to me again when it was sellable?

They still didn't believe I was moving until I called to tell them I was gone and the key was in the mailbox. (All my dad worried about was the key and my paying the damn water bill) They didn't care.

I still don't know how I became the enemy to my family. I'd done nothing to them. I tried to stay out of it. Yet I was treated the worse of my sister and I. In fact, once I was gone, they took done the sign and moved her and her kids into my house. (I wasn't supposed to call it my house anymore at the end, as it wasn't my house it was my dad's and I just rented it from him.) I told him he called his house, his house and technically, it was the banks until he paid his mortgage off. He didn't like that too much. 

We are now doing very well in NC. I love it here and am glad we made the move. I do on occasion, talk to my mom. I refuse to talk to my sister or my father. Dare I say I hate the whole lot of them really. I know you're not supposed to, but I do. There was no reason for them to come at me and attack me like that as far as I can see. 

Any way the thing is. Sometimes you need to stop and breath. Look for a new path. Even if it means you, have to move to where jobs are. Or where you can afford to live. I admit. I could have done many things. I could have stayed and paid the double rent. I would have never felt "safe" though. I would never be able to play their "ostrich" game. Where we put our head in the sand and pretend nothing happened. (Although my mom still plays it, now and when she talks about my sister or father. I tell her I have to go)

I could have put all my pets in a shelter and left them to God knows what end and rented an apartment. I could have bought a bad house in a bad neighborhood and put my son through that hell. I didn't though. I kept going and looking and searching and fighting until I found what I could live with.

I hope. That some of you will also be able to find the will, the gumption, that whatever it takes. To get what you need to survive the times that are here, the times that are coming.

Sorry for the ramble. Hope someone gets something out of it.