MORE TOOLS

So you want to be financially secure. You are a student or just finished college and got a job and have an apartment. You have a few credit cards and maybe a school loan. You want the "good life" and don't want to wait forever.  It seems as if you're never "getting ahead". Your car needs expensive repairs occasionally and that sets you back. You'd like to buy a home (a house or condo) but you can't seem to save the down payment money.

     Perhaps you are middle aged and have a house but are tired of making little money and want to make Big Money, maybe you should go back to school and get a further degree (MBA, etc.) or even change careers and go to nursing school (RN in 2 years from a community college and make $40,000 / year to start).  These days, it's easy to borrow the money needed to go back to school, just go to the financial aid office of the school and they will hook you up. GO CHEAP an MBA or an RN or any other work degree will be just as good from a cheap college as an expensive one [for all practical purposes].

     Think about getting MARRIED. Two incomes are better than one AND two heads are better than one [everybody knows something someone else doesn't and put them together and they do better than alone].

      Get a Real Estate license and sell houses and condominiums as a "side business" [work weekends]. There are Free real estate courses [see classifieds of newspaper or call real estate offices for info] that prepare you to take the real estate licensing exam(s). You first have to get a real estate salesman's license and then after a certain number of years, get a real estate broker's license. A salesman works for a broker. The broker gets 5% of the selling price of the home and splits it with the salesman [who gets 2 1/2%]. A million dollar home nets (at 5%) the broker $50,000 [which they get at the lawyer's office at the Closing where the "papers are passed"].

     Consider becoming a Foster Parent. These good people provide a home for a foster child in state custody. You must have a spare room, be able to pass a criminal background check and be able to cook, clean, do laundry, take the kid to the doctors and dentist, etc. You will work in close cooperation with a state social worker. The stipend [often tax free] is around $1200.00 / month. See the Classified section of the Sunday newspaper for listings. You can also call your local state office or Department of Social Services to inquire about being a foster parent. Some people take 2 or more such children. But remember, if you adopt them, you will not be paid to take care of them.

     If you get laid off at work, you can collect Unemployment Insurance while you are looking for another job. As long as you didn't quit or get laid off for good cause [improper conduct at work or insubordination], you can collect it. Your employer paid into it [by law] and it just builds up and is retained by the state unemployment office [the employer can't get it back anyways], so you  might as well take it. Just call your local state unemployment office if you get laid off. By law every employer must pay unemployment insurance for every employee [part time or full time].

     If you get injured on the job, you can collect Workman's Compensation. You will have to get a lawyer and be able to prove an injury that's job related [doctor's evaluation] and state that you will now be unable to work for some time [or forever]. You can get hundreds of thousands of dollars from workman's compensation settlements. But any fraud on your part can land you in jail if the workman's compensation investigators find you engaged in activity that shows that you weren't really injured.  By law employers must have workman's compensation insurance for every full time employee.