Where the Walls are Soft…

I Wants It

Turns out,
the
smart money
is on the
lump sum
payout, since there’s
no guarantee I’d live
long enough to pull in all my installment payments.Who doesn’t want it? Really? Liar.

I spent years not giving a damn about money. It’s true, I did. I couldn’t care less, as long as I was “getting by”, and it never took much for me to “get by”. Still doesn’t.

The difference now, is that I look at “getting by” a little differently. I was in and out of debt, for years. I’d finally get out, and I’d be right back in up to my ears again. I was one step ahead of bankruptcy, and I called that “getting by”.

For the past year, I’ve been out of debt (well, I now have a small amount of debt again, but it’s been to move toward a dream, so I’m going to forgive myself. Ahem…*) and in control of my bills, but I’ve also been concentrating on things other than accumulating money. I’ve still not really cared about money, per se, as long as I could “get by”.

I’m changing the way I think about that, now. I want money. So that I can leverage it, and get those dreams into the here and now instead of the future.

Sounds real bright coming from The Great Unemployed One, doesn’t it? LOL! Yeah.

I had a different kind of dream last night, the kind that embeds itself in your psyche while you sleep (thank you, Patch-on-My-Arm). I dreamed I had won the lottery. Millions.

And I couldn’t decide whether to take the “pay-by-the-month” option, or take a lesser amount all in one lump sum. It was a huge problem deciding, in the middle of my dream, but when I woke up, all I could think of was, “That’s the kind of problem I’d like to have, right now.”

It got me thinking about how I’d deal with it if I did win millions, so I decided to google some answers.

I figured, since I’ve heard of bzillion-dollar lottery winners burning through their money because they don’t know what they’re doing, and it feels like they have a never-ending supply, suddenly, that it would be wise to take the “pay-me-by-the-month” option.

Turns out, the smart money is on the lump sum payout, since there’s no guarantee I’d live long enough to pull in all my installment payments. Studies tend to show, too, that the average lottery winner is more likely to blow through that money faster, rather than do the smart thing and invest or save the bulk of it. Good intentions tend to fall by the wayside without a plan.

Yeah, but what if you already won the lottery and took the monthly payout instead of the lump-sum option? Are you regretting that one? No problem! I found out that there are companies that will buy your future payments from you.

You can do the same with settlement payments if you sued and won for an injury, too. Me, I don’t intend to want money enough to stoop that low, but, then again….

The bottom line (ha ha) is, though, that I don’t know enough yet, about how to handle a large amount of money once I do have it. Yeah, yeah, I haven’t won the lottery (yet), and the chances are slim that I ever will… maybe, I’d be better off getting into real estate, and learning about mortgage notes? Hmmmmm.

I think I’ll keep dreaming for awhile, before I make any decisions. I’ve still got seven weeks worth of patches left to dream on, after all.

Yes, folks, I am in my second week of Smoke-free Success. I have traded my tar-filled lungs for wicked weird, Patch-induced sleepy-time entertainment.

So far, the dreams are the biggest pay-off, but I think the money I’m saving may hit me soon. I’ll let you know.

Random Song for the Day: “Emptiness Inside” - Green Monkey Music Project

… so
far,
at least,
none of my
regulars has
complained to me
that I’ve gone all
Retail-with-
a-Hard-Sell at y’all.I’ve been asked to write a post about Blogsvertise. Yes, it’s one of those services that pays bloggers to write about products, services, and websites. I’ve long been looking for a way to monetize Where the Walls are Soft, partially because I once was heavy into online marketing, proving to myself that it is possible to make some money (assuming you’re willing to put in the 36-hour days to do it), and partially, because the last several years have been a merry-go-round of contract J.O.B.s, followed by unemployment, and I can use all the income streams I can get.

So, why Blogsvertise, and not one of the myriad of other “Blog This” sites? I guess, because it seems to be the closest to the way I’m already blogging for free.

I absolutely hate the idea of shoving product after product in the faces of my readers. I love sharing blogs and links and products I do like and use and read and buy with everybody, and my stats prove that a lot of my readers click those links. Some even actually buy stuff based on my weird little reviews, believe it or not… and so far, at least, knock wood (er… formica, in my case….), none of my regulars has complained to me that I’ve gone all Retail-with-a-Hard-Sell at y’all.

And, truthfully, the idea of three square meals a day again kind of appeals to me…

Also rather appealing to me, is the fact that I don’t necessarily have to endorse any product I blog about. The rules are fairly… hmmm… word..? “Fair” to the blogger, comes to mind. The main rules seem to be that my blog has to be established (they say 2 months - I’ve been around for nearly 3 years, despite the fact that I’ve “minused away” a year or so of this blog’s history, so I’m good there…), I must write at least 2-3 paragraphs (like I’m able to write less than 12-15 paragraphs?!), and that I’d have to link to the client at least three times in the post. I figure I’m creative enough to manage that without ticking you all off in the process.

Guess we’ll find out, huh?

PS – Ya gotta love this one…I clipped it from “My Big World of Crap”.

clipped from www.mybigworldofcrap.org

A would-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say.

I can see the merits in using the local village idiot as a suicide bomber. No point wasting more skilful and valuable resources on such missions. However, evidently there is an intelligence threshhold below which the idiocy endangers the mission’s objectives.

Random Song for the Day: ”Can’t Stop” – Red Hot Chili Peppers