The More Money You Have The Less You Pay

I've noticed this lately. If you have money, you pay less for everything. One example that comes to mind is getting braces for your kid. At my local orthodontist, it costs about 6k for a set of braces, but if you have the money to pay in full, you get them for 5k. Thats one thousand bucks difference! ANd if you are buying a new car and can put a chunk of cash down on the new vehicle, you can negotiate a better interest rate, which means overall you pay less. If don't have enough money in the bank, they charge you fees for going below the minimum amount, and overdraft charges are huge. It seems like the more money you have, the less you pay across the board. So...the only solution is to become financially free and learn to make more money.

Affiliate Income

I got my first affiliate check! It was only for $7.19, but I was surprised to get it in the mail. It was from LinkShare.com which is one of the largest online affiliate managers. If you don't know what affiliate income is, it is passive income (great!) earned by promoting the products of others, ususally, and in this case, online. Linkshare manages hundreds of advertisers and affiliates. Its free to join, and easy to create links, which are embedded with a tracking ID that relates back to the affiliate. (me, in this case). So how did I do it? A long time ago I created a page on squidoo on my passion for growing iris. You can check it out here: www.squidoo.com/iristalk. Well, someone managed to land on my page and purchased some bulbs through Dutch Gardens, one of the companies manaaged by Linkshare, and whose link I placed on my iris page. So...buoyed by the realization that I acrually can make some extra money to pay for my vacation home, I created another page that you can check out here: www.squidoo.com/ThePretendersChrissieHynde . Its really fun to make pages, or a "lens" as they say on squidoo, and what the heck, if you can make a few bucks, why not? Check it out. Also, I found a good site on affiliate income. http://www.affiliateconfession.com/

Visiting the 800 Pound Gorilla

I am starting to feel guilty about calling my vacation property an 800 pound gorilla. I mean, what did any gorilla do to deserve a designation as a problem? They are just gorillas, after all, peacefully chewing bamboo and contemplating the demise of Diane Fossey. Anyway, so we went up to visit the money pit, and its such a beautiful place, I get inspired when I am there. Inspired enough to think I can hang on despite the endless stream of bills and the mounting debt I am continually trying desperately to pay down so I can stick to my financial freedom plan and become job free. I know HOW to do it, but I am sort of stuck because of this property. BUT....I am trying to stay positive and new agey about it. Maybe there's a reason it has not sold! Maybe that 115K check I wrote to myself from "Universe Title Services" is going to happen! Next spring! Yeah!! Next spring!

Can't Get Rid of My 800 Pound Gorilla

So the saying goes. If you have one of these that is bringing you down financially, you need to get rid of it! My 800 pound gorilla is a vacation home that was supposed to be my ticket to job freedom, but instead has become a money pit. But as Jack Canfield would say, ask myself "What is the opportunity in this?" I suppose I have learned NEVER TO BUY A PROPERY THAT DOES NOT CASH FLOW, but I can't really be held responsible for the mortgage meltdown that has driven prices down and created a nearly impossible lending climate. So I just rented it on a ski lease, and really, the tenent got the better end of the deal. But he will pay all the bills for four straight months, and help out with the mortgage, and I will try to sell it again next spring. And I guess the opportunity in this is that I am now forced to think of really really creative ways to make more money. Having a huge mortgage on a home I don't even live in has forced me to acknowledge that short of foreclosing on it, I just need to make more money. Money making ideas anyone?