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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
Is Lending Club More Risky Than the Stock Market?
I’m a little worried about investing in anything, period right now because the first time I did…when I finally took the plunge…I cashed out the stock after making a 100% return. I put it into another stock that I know within the next year or so will do the same thing.
Because, in my opinion, we’re going into a place where it’s going to be difficult to pick losers in the market. Simply because homes will be built again, the world will turn and no matter how poor any of us are, the sun will come up tomorrow.
I need to do an interview with a stock expert, I think. I hear pundits and read blogs about finances and the stock market and I just don’t understand. Unless you go into futures or weird crap like commodities, you can’t lose more than you put in – there aren’t any S&P500 thugs that come to your house with brass knuckles because you bought stock in a company that went out of business.
Hmmm…I wonder if there are any stock experts that talk to mommybloggers. Even though I don’t know if I’m a mommyblogger in anything but name only since my focuses are mostly on business growth, debt elimination, and investing. That’s not very mommyblog of me, is it? Except I am a mom that happens to blog.
But back to Lending Club…
One of my favorite charities is ModestNeeds.org – it’s a place that gives microloans to people that have (you guessed it) modest needs. A guy who needs his alternator fixed or he can’t drive to work – that sort of thing.
Lending Club works on kind of the same premise, except you don’t have to be totally philanthropic about it. Because you get a return on your investment of 9%-16%-ish … unless you don’t get paid back at all, in which case you lost your money.
Kind of like if a business goes out of business that you bought stock in.
So I’m not sure which way to go on this one. Any stock experts out there willing to help out a marketer-mom with a knack for picking decent stocks?
The DBA is Done!
So we’re almost legal-eagle here.
We have the DBA taken care of, and hubby is on his way to pick up the girls from preschool.
Wow, I remember when we worked like this before – pregnancy changes so much – and I’m looking forward to getting back to it.
Does this make me a glorified secretary for my husband? Yep. Am I okay with it? I’m working on it.
I also get to be the accountant, graphic designer, copywriter (of course!) and bookeeper…so my talents don’t go completely to waste! LOL
I’m starting to get to the place where I’m less scared and more excited. That’s a good sign, right?
I’ll Leave The House Again Someday
Still sick.
I have got to get right, I’m telling you, this is just a lingering feeling of awful that keeps me from focusing and I want to sleep it off but I’m afraid that might take a couple more weeks.
In the meantime, here’s what’s going on in Casa de G today:
- Submitting a DBA to the local county.
- Revamping and ordering business cards.
- Writing a plan to get to the people we’re targeting. (Aim…ready…LOL)
- Hounding hubby to finish his white paper and case studies (Aim…ready…NAG! haha)
It doesn’t seem like a lot, maybe, but it is a heck of a list and if I’m doing my job we’re going to get some serious traction on that white paper and those case studies. Both are very important to the new business plan. On the bright side, white papers and the like are hubby’s specialty.
You know me, I only write fun stuff. I don’t do well with dry writing. It’s not my bag.
But it’s Monday, and I’m feeling physically bad but mentally great.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, yadda, yadda, yadda…the bottom line is it’s time to kick some butt.
In the meantime, if you’re in cook county, and need to download the forms to file a DBA you can go to the Cook County Clerk’s webpage to download and print a DBA form.
Going Back to My Internet Marketing Roots
I’m back in bed after being up for a while, and I’ve had an epiphany.
It might be a fever-dream, but you know, sometimes those are good, too.
I’m going back to basics. Anytime I see a site where someone is selling Internet marketing services, I always think, “If they know so much, why aren’t they doing it for themselves instead of for someone else?” Because, you know what? If you’re good enough to be SELLING Internet marketing services, you should be using them yourself for more than getting people to your website. You should pick a niche and put your skills to the test.
So that’s what I’m doing. Not to prove a point, but because that’s where the profit is, my friends, and mama is turning over a new leaf in 2010. How much money can I make without having a client to answer to.
I’m not going to do it for anyone else. I’m going to do it for me. Treat myself like the best. client. ever and follow my own directions to the letter – and it’s going to rock.
Honestly, I’ve given away so much free advice in the last few years it could fill a book. A book I don’t want to write and that will become outdated too quickly. But, I will continue to give out advice to people who ask for it that probably have no idea that I’m handing them something that could change their lives.
But this year? It’s time to:
- Double the savings account.
- Pay off the student loans.
- Start working on paying off the house.
Standing in the way of my success for those plans?
- Me. (More specifically, my utter lack of consistent focus.)
I am my only hurdle.
Okay, me and the really loud kids I have. Sometimes I swear if the two older ones aren’t being loud the baby is crying. That hurts focus. But I will find a workaround.
I’m determined.
I’ve picked a few niches, some new, some old…all are totally unlike any from anyone else I know that has niche sites so we’re not double dipping or competing against each other…and I’m going to start writing tomorrow.
It is, in fact, game on like Donkey Kong.
New Workspace – New Priorities – Old Stress
Right now I’m blogging from my living room – a huge change from being in my office environment doing office-y type things. I’m trying to find a good balance between getting stuff done and being a good parent. I’ve really enjoyed the past few months where my focus has been a lot more housewife and a lot less breadwinner. My kids get into less trouble, there are fewer murals of crayon love on my walls, and they seem to be bonding with their little sister faster than I could have hoped. There is no jealousy because I’m more available – even with a new baby – than I have been for them in the past couple years. They’re thrilled to have this kind of access to mom, so they don’t notice that a lot of that attention is going to the newborn.
But even with all the enjoyment and happiness there is this little hint of a feeling inside me. It’s like a churning kind of feeling. The paranoia that comes with not actively working. Sure, I should be working soon…but I’m not right. this. second. and that worries me on a deep level.
It also worries me that I may never be happy being a housewife unless I have some way of bringing in income. This probably comes from my great-grandmother who raised me with a few primary beliefs:
- Don’t rely on anyone else to take care of you. Marriage is about partnership, but if something happens, you need to be able to take care of yourself and your family solo.
- Women weren’t meant to sit around taking care of babies. They will never be truly happy unless they can provide for those children with more than hair and makeup and a pleasant attitude to make sure they get fed. (Sounds a lot like #1 now that I write it down – she was an ace at reinforcing her beliefs!)
So I’m trapped in this place where I don’t know if my feelings are my own or if they are just a remnant of my childhood teaching. Great-gramma also taught me that nothing is ever good enough – things can always be improved or done in a better way. So, even if I am taking care of my children and making an income it probably won’t feel like enough.
But how do you recalibrate your soul for the proper definition of “enough”? I don’t see how that’s even possible.
I’m torn. Thrilled to be a great parent to my children, enjoying letting my husband take the lead and letting him support the family…but feeling a serious lack of great businesswoman in the mix.
The laptop in the living room is a start. Now I plan on using it to create something good that will quench the junkie-like craving for money/security that I can’t seem to shake. Sure, I could pick a number and when my savings account gets to that tell myself that’s all the security I need…but that would be so arbitrary (I know there are guidelines – 8 months of income … 6 months of expenses … but how do you REALLY know how much savings is enough?? You can’t!) So I just set the goal higher and higher every time we get to one.
There are worse things to crave than financial security, I guess.
Going To The Bookstore Today
Luckily my friend is only a little worried my water may break in the store, creating an embarrassing situation that causes us to leave shrieking and laughing out the door.
Honestly, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen. She feels like she’s in there for the long haul and I won’t be even mildly worried about water breakage until Thursday (due date #1) – but even mild worry won’t keep me from leaving the house!
I wonder how many women have public water breakage.
The book I’m going to get is 48 Days To The Work You Love
Updated to Add: Ended up looking at 48 Days and realized it was NOT the book for me. It was 1% “What should I do?” and 99% “How to get a job doing it.” My problem is the WHAT not the HOW. (I could figure out how to get a job shoveling dung if that’s what I really wanted to do when I woke up every morning.)
So while going through the careers section, I ran across a different book… Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design
While I generally avoid anything religious like the plague, Zen isn’t actually a religion but a philosophy, so I sucked it up and glanced inside. WOW! This book is over 500 pages, and a huge chunk of that is exercises and questions and lists that help you figure out what you want to do. Exactly what I need.
I’m not intimidated by the length of the book, because I plan on working through it slowly during new-baby time. There are sections on careers, independent/freelance, starting a business, and even starting a non-profit! While I know how to do three out of four of those, connecting that once I know what the heck I want to do might be really helpful. It certainly can’t hurt. I’m only on page 61 right now, but already feel better than I have in weeks about potential future careers or business plans. The book is not only informative, but calming.
Because one of the basic points of the book is that I already know what I’m on this earth to do, I just have to match up what that is with my brain that keeps screaming, “I don’t know!”
It gives me hope.
Hope that I’ll be able to do something that has meaning once the kids are all in school and out of my uterus. That there will *be* a next and breeding isn’t going to be the be-all and end-all of my life.
Note: Don’t get me wrong. I think raising kids is an important job. I have this feeling that anything I want to do will require either more schooling or different training or something. The plan I’m making now, before and just after this little girl is born, is a long term plan. One that is intended to be an eventual smooth transition between the kids going to full-day school and me at a fulfilling, amazing job or business or freelance career that I will the be able to throw myself into with reckless abandon and joy.
Gosh, that would be nice.
Renovation Time!
I don’t know if I mentioned we received a small inheritance from my great-grandmother’s passing.
So we spent some of it.
We are redoing the floors in the living room and the kitchen. Nothing super-nice. Laminate floating wood flooring, I think it’s called. I call it “stuff that’s easy to clean spills off that looks way better than my uber-stained carpet until it wears out and I have enough saved for real, professionally-installed hardwood.”
We also got the stuff from Menards to redo BOTH bathrooms. Pedestal sinks, WHITE toilets (they are currently robin’s egg blue in the front bathroom and pepto-pink in the back bathroom *yuck*) beautiful white cabinets with glass in the front, beautiful chrome fixtures for the sinks, new lighting fixtures, and paint. Oh, and new, inexpensive-but-pretty laminate peel-and-stick tile. And a new (totally awesome) shower head.
The bathrooms are crazy-small so every purchase was made with the idea of that small space in mind. Trying to use every illusion in the book and every space-saving measure to make it feel less claustrophobic in there!
All that, all brand new, only cost us less than two grand! To redo two bathrooms completely and redo the floor in the living room, kitchen, and small hallway.
We could have done it even cheaper, I know, but I like the fact that everything we bought has warranties because it was new. With the baby coming in a month or less, I did not have the time to start searching craigslist.
So the renovation schedule looks like this:
Today: Living room floor.
Tomorrow: Back bathroom (it’s smaller)
Sunday: Front bathroom
Monday: Hubby has his in-person two-and-a-half hour final interview…which is why we’re keeping him busy all weekend with projects…so he doesn’t go crazy worrying about the interview! (Two birds, one stone…)
Guess Who Went Downtown Today? (plus a credit and job hunting update)
Yep…that would be me.
I did a lunch and learn at Zócalo Group (where I am a telecommuting Senior Analyst) – it was really nice to be able to meet people up close and in person that I’ve been working with for almost a year now!
It seemed like a good plan. Randy went with me because I was a little scared to go alone and be wandering around downtown 36 weeks pregnant. Call me crazy, but I liked having my “assistant” with me. I felt safe and he was a whiz taking care of the Internet connection and working the websites while I did my presentation.
I also came up with a great way to involve mom bloggers with our brands that will circumvent the whole argument of should they be paid in cash or product or giveaways or whatnot. Here’s hoping they listen and at least attempt to implement, because I think what I proposed is going to be the future of how PR interacts with bloggers…
Really, my favorite part was coming home on the train…sitting across from my husband, our legs touching, listening to music on my phone. It was so relaxing and I felt so much love for him – it was kind of nauseating, really.
We came home to find out that his third and final and in person interview will be Monday at 10:45am. It will be two-and-a-half hours long and he’ll meet and talk with five people while he’s there. Talk about an intense interview!
There is a bit of irony involved in the job. You know we’ve been doing the Dave Ramsey program now for the last couple of years, right? Well, it seems that when you get interviewed for a company that basically IS representative of credit cards and credit lending you need to have some seriously kick-ass credit to GET the job.
Turns out there were a couple itty-bitty debts left on Randy’s credit report. Thanks to our emergency fund, we were able to make a couple calls, make a couple payments, and get a couple faxes in less than an hour that truly brought his debt load to zero (not including the on time payments to his student loan).
Seeing the irony? Following the “get out of debt” plan from Dave is allowing my husband to work for a company very closely tied to the credit industry. So awesome!
I reminded Randy not to mention Dave or that we follow his program during any of his interviews.
We don’t want them thinking he’s crazy now, do we?
(Please pray to your various deities for his interview to go well, k? I’d really love to be able to rock some serious stay-at-home-mom time without having to breastfeed with one arm and work on the keyboard with the other…if you’re an atheist, just cross your fingers for him!)
