Love it! I too am addicted and love coffee and am always one to share the positive side of coffee! Glad to have found someone else that does the same! My first experiences with coffee and my fondest memories are when my grandma would take me to our local grocery store and let me have a small cup of coffee from the free coffee counter :-)
A real estate agent moved in next door to me last year, and she has been trying to take our property we have had since 1975, sell it for us or buy it from us or buy a piece of it. I don't trust her one bit! She confesses she can't pay for her own house and hasn't made a sale in a year, and then she actually thinks we are stupid enough to sell to her!
I like the tip on keeping an eye out for detail. This includes having a good memory. But really you want to know what you're looking for, prior to going into a shop. :)
-Kat
Really great post. I did the list-thing myself. And It's so liberating, just that feeling that there is more to life than feeling stuck and unsatisfied. I also made a blog about it, something I would recommend everyone who wants to put their thoughts about changing in words. Your dreams of travel sound amazing and I bet you never thought before you made that list, that you would ever pursue them.
You are an inspiration!
For some reason my comment got cut short: so heres the rest.
...Of course Brain surgeons make too much money. ((Tongue in cheek)).
My advice:
(Please take it, I charge people good money to travel to their towns and help them make Real Estate decisions ;-))
Spend your time looking for a good Honest, experienced, team member (agent in this case) for things that can really have a major impact on your life if things go haywire.
1. EVERYTHING is more complicated than it looks...do stuff yourself and those complications may not be apparent immediately, but at some point you’ll learn that it was.
2. If you want to do something for the education, go ahead, although your savings (education), will probably turn out to be fairly expensive in the end, and if you never use that education again, seems kind of useless to me.
I'm a skeptical person by nature, but I've learned that if you look at mostly eveyone as crooks with,a good guy or gal mixed in every once in a while, instead of the opposite, you'll probably be very limited in your success in life, will probably be very busy all the time with very little to show for it, and you'll be a lot more stressed.
I've been through many Real Estate deals, some with representation, and some without. I've been through the hard knocks, and gained a lot of experience. (Which is good in my case because that’s what I do). But if I were just going to be involved in a Real Estate deal a very few times in my life, knowing what I know now, you'd better believe I'd be looking for a good Real Estate Agent to bounce things off of, and help me navigate through the process.
The elixir of life! Have you noticed the all too frequent "its bad for you" runs against coffee - always negated by the ever increasing health benefits claimed for it.
I run a sweepstakes site (http://www.dailysweepstakes.org) - so many people don't understand that they have a much larger chance of winning smaller prizes. On my site they can win $5 a day but your odds are about 1 in 50. If you enter via FB and twitter and use some points you can up those odds to about 1 in 5 with about ten minutes work.
I appreciate the sentiment of this article but like other commenters wanted to point out that libraries offer e-books for free. Overdrive, Netlibrary, and ebrary are just three vendors libraries use. Also, you can often read magazines & newspapers for free since libraries subscribe to databases that include them (Consumer Reports, Wall Street Journal, New York Times).
Usually you just need to go to the library once to get the card. Some libraries offer online registration so you don't even need to go to the library to get a card!
Sounds like a typical scenario where two parties entered in to a relationship with different expectations. As the relationship progressed, neither party gave the proper feedback about how the others expectations were not being met. I would have also been offended by the "just between you and me" comment but it seems like you had an experience with someone who had allowed a lot of resentment to build up and didn't know how to deal with it. Personally I would had spoken up and clarified my expectations at a much earlier time, (the realtor should have) but I also have a lot of experience. May be he's just a jerk or maybe he isn't hard to say reading about this here.
That being said I'll get to the issue of hiring a Realtor.
I am very aware of technology and how information is changing the whole world; it impacts way more than just professionals who hold licenses. I don't think it will replace experts.
Example: I know a lot of poor to middle class people who use Quicken and other ways to do their own taxes heck software is everywhere.
I know a lot of rich people too. Every one of those people, have a good experienced tax advisor and or accountant.
The first time I paid an attorney 200.00 and hr to sit and chat with me about a Real estate deal I was doing, I thought WOW he just saved me thousands of dollars. Not because he was smarter than me, but he was looking at contracts and lawsuits all day, every day. Same goes with my accountant.
My eyes were opened wide: People who are poor or middle class normally do things differently than the rich. Mostly they look at what someone is charging, ASSume that they know everything and then decide that person is charging too much for what they do, and think "heck I can do that myself". BAD IDEA!
Rich people search out the best professional they can find, pay their price, and then go play golf and get richer, and enjoy their free time.
The way I know that lesson so well, is that I used to be the guy that knows it ALL I did everything myself, I mean heck things aren't brain surgery....we'll except for brain surgery. Of course brain surgeons make too much money.
I saved a bundle getting flowers wholesale. If you're in St. Louis, there's a place called Floral row. I got all a sweet deal on roses. You have to have an account and it takes some elbow grease- they don't put everything together. You can rent workspace for the day before the wedding and they provide the tools and advice when needed. You and some willing helpers (in my case, my three sisters and my mom were gracious enough to help) put together the centerpieces. I had them do my bouquet and we put together everything else. We even got some extra flowers for the cake. It looked amazing.
I don't have a smartphone at this time, but I love the idea of the bird sounds app (I'm cardinal-song blocked) and I also like the idea of a price book app for sale shopping.
Love it! I too am addicted and love coffee and am always one to share the positive side of coffee! Glad to have found someone else that does the same! My first experiences with coffee and my fondest memories are when my grandma would take me to our local grocery store and let me have a small cup of coffee from the free coffee counter :-)
The floating invisible bookshelf is fantastic! Thanks for sharing that.
Its not her fault your husband is in grad school...times were much worse then with the great depression compared to now.
You are preaching to the choir here :). Although I love hearing about your strategies to keep coffee costs in line (especially at Starbucks).
A real estate agent moved in next door to me last year, and she has been trying to take our property we have had since 1975, sell it for us or buy it from us or buy a piece of it. I don't trust her one bit! She confesses she can't pay for her own house and hasn't made a sale in a year, and then she actually thinks we are stupid enough to sell to her!
I like the tip on keeping an eye out for detail. This includes having a good memory. But really you want to know what you're looking for, prior to going into a shop. :)
-Kat
Really great post. I did the list-thing myself. And It's so liberating, just that feeling that there is more to life than feeling stuck and unsatisfied. I also made a blog about it, something I would recommend everyone who wants to put their thoughts about changing in words. Your dreams of travel sound amazing and I bet you never thought before you made that list, that you would ever pursue them.
You are an inspiration!
For some reason my comment got cut short: so heres the rest.
...Of course Brain surgeons make too much money. ((Tongue in cheek)).
My advice:
(Please take it, I charge people good money to travel to their towns and help them make Real Estate decisions ;-))
Spend your time looking for a good Honest, experienced, team member (agent in this case) for things that can really have a major impact on your life if things go haywire.
1. EVERYTHING is more complicated than it looks...do stuff yourself and those complications may not be apparent immediately, but at some point you’ll learn that it was.
2. If you want to do something for the education, go ahead, although your savings (education), will probably turn out to be fairly expensive in the end, and if you never use that education again, seems kind of useless to me.
I'm a skeptical person by nature, but I've learned that if you look at mostly eveyone as crooks with,a good guy or gal mixed in every once in a while, instead of the opposite, you'll probably be very limited in your success in life, will probably be very busy all the time with very little to show for it, and you'll be a lot more stressed.
I've been through many Real Estate deals, some with representation, and some without. I've been through the hard knocks, and gained a lot of experience. (Which is good in my case because that’s what I do). But if I were just going to be involved in a Real Estate deal a very few times in my life, knowing what I know now, you'd better believe I'd be looking for a good Real Estate Agent to bounce things off of, and help me navigate through the process.
The elixir of life! Have you noticed the all too frequent "its bad for you" runs against coffee - always negated by the ever increasing health benefits claimed for it.
I run a sweepstakes site (http://www.dailysweepstakes.org) - so many people don't understand that they have a much larger chance of winning smaller prizes. On my site they can win $5 a day but your odds are about 1 in 50. If you enter via FB and twitter and use some points you can up those odds to about 1 in 5 with about ten minutes work.
I appreciate the sentiment of this article but like other commenters wanted to point out that libraries offer e-books for free. Overdrive, Netlibrary, and ebrary are just three vendors libraries use. Also, you can often read magazines & newspapers for free since libraries subscribe to databases that include them (Consumer Reports, Wall Street Journal, New York Times).
Usually you just need to go to the library once to get the card. Some libraries offer online registration so you don't even need to go to the library to get a card!
Sounds like a typical scenario where two parties entered in to a relationship with different expectations. As the relationship progressed, neither party gave the proper feedback about how the others expectations were not being met. I would have also been offended by the "just between you and me" comment but it seems like you had an experience with someone who had allowed a lot of resentment to build up and didn't know how to deal with it. Personally I would had spoken up and clarified my expectations at a much earlier time, (the realtor should have) but I also have a lot of experience. May be he's just a jerk or maybe he isn't hard to say reading about this here.
That being said I'll get to the issue of hiring a Realtor.
I am very aware of technology and how information is changing the whole world; it impacts way more than just professionals who hold licenses. I don't think it will replace experts.
Example: I know a lot of poor to middle class people who use Quicken and other ways to do their own taxes heck software is everywhere.
I know a lot of rich people too. Every one of those people, have a good experienced tax advisor and or accountant.
The first time I paid an attorney 200.00 and hr to sit and chat with me about a Real estate deal I was doing, I thought WOW he just saved me thousands of dollars. Not because he was smarter than me, but he was looking at contracts and lawsuits all day, every day. Same goes with my accountant.
My eyes were opened wide: People who are poor or middle class normally do things differently than the rich. Mostly they look at what someone is charging, ASSume that they know everything and then decide that person is charging too much for what they do, and think "heck I can do that myself". BAD IDEA!
Rich people search out the best professional they can find, pay their price, and then go play golf and get richer, and enjoy their free time.
The way I know that lesson so well, is that I used to be the guy that knows it ALL I did everything myself, I mean heck things aren't brain surgery....we'll except for brain surgery. Of course brain surgeons make too much money.
Great idea, but for women, I feel like they would just take your whole purse! How can you do a decoy purse?
I have never thought of carrying a decoy wallet but I like the idea! Thanks for the tip.
Nice roundup.
I saved a bundle getting flowers wholesale. If you're in St. Louis, there's a place called Floral row. I got all a sweet deal on roses. You have to have an account and it takes some elbow grease- they don't put everything together. You can rent workspace for the day before the wedding and they provide the tools and advice when needed. You and some willing helpers (in my case, my three sisters and my mom were gracious enough to help) put together the centerpieces. I had them do my bouquet and we put together everything else. We even got some extra flowers for the cake. It looked amazing.
I'm frugal enough that I don't own anything that uses "apps". Hurray for my basic phone!
Wow i almost got caught up in this one and its 2011 hes still trying...
Amazing... I found the perfect gift thanks Wise Bread! <3 :)
E-books!
I don't have a smartphone at this time, but I love the idea of the bird sounds app (I'm cardinal-song blocked) and I also like the idea of a price book app for sale shopping.
I can't believe "live within your means" didn't make the list! =) ...so many forget that one too often.
if it's good for my brain, then I want more. :P
It apparently fights prostate cancer, as well? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13430219
You are welcome!