FINANCIAL TROUBLES ??
It is frightening to see the finanacial troubles many individuals or family has found themselves in over the years for trying to catch up with the Joneses. Yeah! Mortgages, car loans, home furnishings loans, credit cards debts...did I miss any? Many of the persons in these types of predicaments don't understand the full impact of penalties, high interest charges, and other fees involved for late or non payments of their committments. And they just keep burying themselves without hope; believing that filing bankruptcy is a way out. Well my friends I have bad and good news for you. Please take your time and try and understand what I have to say very carefully.
Nothing is for free. Most times when it sounds too good to be true. It ACTUALLY is too good to be true. What that means? There is no truth in it! You are just a fish who is being bated to a hook that will grab you and never let go! Who ever is offering what seems too good to be true just wants you to be burdened for the rest of your life to them, paying accelerated interest and fines and penalties and whats not!
Imagine sometime ago I wanted to purchase a suite and did not have all the money. The bank through the merchant willingly lend me the money at 24% interest per annum. I took the loan but paid it off in full within too months. I save myself over $400 in interest. whew!
Credit card debt? Worst yet. MasterCard, Visa, Capital One, name them. Hidden conditions after you are trapped becomes their bullwhip to drain your financial blood out of your life. They beg you to take their credit cards, then when you buy a few things, interest jumps as high as 24 % too. Just imagine if your debt is $5000.00 at 24%. Good God! That is $1200 per annum in interest charges alone if you failed to make any payment on such a debt.
How can you avoid all these debts, and burdens?
Rule # 1 - buy only what you planned to buy! Everywhere are bargains knocking at your heart. It don't matter. There will always be bargains. Get a grip of your mind.
Rule # 2 - Only have one credit card. Have you ever seen some folks at POS (point of sale) in frustration trying one card after the other without success? Save yourself the emabarrassment.
Rule # 3 - Live within your means. Stop day dreaming about the lottery! If you can't afford a Lexus don't go and take it on credit. Why? Because you WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT! Buy a second hand car and sleep well when the night reach. Keep your blood pressure in check and avoid stress that can kill you. Don 't follow "catch-up" with Thomas, Dick and Harry! Swimming against your grain will sink you quickly. In other words. Buy what you can afford when you can afford. Do you really need all those cable channels? Do you find time to watch all those channels? If no, cancel your cable premium subscriptions and settle for the minimum or just a settle for your local channel.
Rule # 4 - Pay any debt you have as quickly as possible. In fact pay off your credit cards IMMEDIATELY!!!(within a month.) Mortgage will have to run its course. But whenever possible double, triple up your monthly payments.
Rule # 5 - Why buy a 60 inch plasma when a 19 inch will show the same news, shows, etc? Some debts are unneccessary. And some debts can be totally avoided. Buy a substitute rather than burden yourself with financial problems and woes. So always ask yourself is there a substitute? You bet there is!$100 jeans? What about $10 and $15 dollars jeans?
Rule # 6 - Save the least 10% of your wages or salaries! I have seen a friend who followed this simple rule and owns a very beautiful house today! Treat your savings as a committed expense. It is compulsory! It MUST be saved no matter what!
Rule # 7 - Give something no matter what to support the work of God. Charities. TBN. Local church. There is joy in giving. Giving is sowing. Sowing will result in reaping a harvest. It is the basic principle of sowing and reaping. Always rememberGod will provide. Trust Him.
If you follow the 7 rules given above you will save yourselves unneccessary burdens and heartaches.
Let me hear your comments! And good luck
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Best-love-ever
Best-love-ever High School
Cummings Lodge Secondary is a large L shape two story wooden structure located in Sixth Street Cummings lodge. Inside the L and at the two sides is a large field that we usually play cricket, football and swim in during rainy season as kids. Anyway I started out at CGLSS in 3 D. This was a rough class consisting of students who prefer to play than learn.
Studying was foreign to me. No one in my home said "where is your home work?' or "what did you learn in school today". Or as a matter of fact my mother had no interest in what happened at school. I remember her always however promising me a bicycle if I ever got first in class since back in the days of Primary school. I got first place all through Primary school. And never had a cycle. (No wonder when my kids were born after a year I bought them geometry sets). I can hear you say "crazy s.o.b.". Anyway as I said; studying was foreign to me.
Would you believe it if I told you that seven days a week in the evenings were spent at church either playing table tennis, running a department, teaching, preaching, or something else. Hence I had no time for books. In fact being home in the evening was foreign. Due to the chaos in the home I choose not to go home until after 10.00 each night. I was only 14 years old at that time. So I did not revise school work or did any homework. I was a lost soul at sea when it came to studying.
High School had all kinds of characters. There was Ramzan Ali a fat fair skin guy that everyone took advantage of. We sang songs making laugh of him. There was Terrence from Liliendaal who was a master story teller. He made us Laugh all the time. You had students with weird names like "Baku" a short excellent athlete. The girls were really pretty. Lizanna Sherrett. Debra. Rita. Then you had the matured girls. "fry egg". "club-foot". and a few others. These girls were really hot.
Anyway the teachers were great. Mrs. Rose, she taught English. Mr. Blackman who made me did 40 push-ups for sitting on the school rails was a body builder that taught us woodworking. He had the size to back him up. You dared not argue with him. There was "Rabbit" who taught maths but would whip the hell out of you in a jiffy for little or no reason at all. He scared the daylight out of us as students. Once he was in the classroom it was deadly quiet. However soon as he leaves all hell broke loose. I can still picture him in doorway swinging his arms as if he was exercising.
During the 3 years I spent in High school I did reasonable well... Our Chemistry teacher whom we adress as a "Shambach" lectured us on time wasting and the regrets we will have for not studying. He was right.
Yardram and myself use to slip out of class with a few others and buy fudge and other stuff and lime at the backdoor stairway of the school for many classes. Our life was wasting away without comprehending the seriousness of it.
It was not till the end of High school that I finally decide to go through a textbook that I got from the school. It was the chemistry text. I covered 17 chapters during the Easter Holidays. Result was I passed O'level chemistry.
My conclusion: for you to be succesful you MUST study your texts. In all I can say High school was a wonderful experience. I had a great time.
Oh there was Michael Ali, today a doctor residing in Canada. Boy could he study? Friday nights a few of us would go by his home and watch television(13 inches black and white) the whole night whilst he use to be studying till 5.a.m sometimes. He also use to be studying his text in the bright sun in the school corridors. Enough of that.
So it pays to study.
Cummings Lodge Secondary is a large L shape two story wooden structure located in Sixth Street Cummings lodge. Inside the L and at the two sides is a large field that we usually play cricket, football and swim in during rainy season as kids. Anyway I started out at CGLSS in 3 D. This was a rough class consisting of students who prefer to play than learn.
Studying was foreign to me. No one in my home said "where is your home work?' or "what did you learn in school today". Or as a matter of fact my mother had no interest in what happened at school. I remember her always however promising me a bicycle if I ever got first in class since back in the days of Primary school. I got first place all through Primary school. And never had a cycle. (No wonder when my kids were born after a year I bought them geometry sets). I can hear you say "crazy s.o.b.". Anyway as I said; studying was foreign to me.
Would you believe it if I told you that seven days a week in the evenings were spent at church either playing table tennis, running a department, teaching, preaching, or something else. Hence I had no time for books. In fact being home in the evening was foreign. Due to the chaos in the home I choose not to go home until after 10.00 each night. I was only 14 years old at that time. So I did not revise school work or did any homework. I was a lost soul at sea when it came to studying.
High School had all kinds of characters. There was Ramzan Ali a fat fair skin guy that everyone took advantage of. We sang songs making laugh of him. There was Terrence from Liliendaal who was a master story teller. He made us Laugh all the time. You had students with weird names like "Baku" a short excellent athlete. The girls were really pretty. Lizanna Sherrett. Debra. Rita. Then you had the matured girls. "fry egg". "club-foot". and a few others. These girls were really hot.
Anyway the teachers were great. Mrs. Rose, she taught English. Mr. Blackman who made me did 40 push-ups for sitting on the school rails was a body builder that taught us woodworking. He had the size to back him up. You dared not argue with him. There was "Rabbit" who taught maths but would whip the hell out of you in a jiffy for little or no reason at all. He scared the daylight out of us as students. Once he was in the classroom it was deadly quiet. However soon as he leaves all hell broke loose. I can still picture him in doorway swinging his arms as if he was exercising.
During the 3 years I spent in High school I did reasonable well... Our Chemistry teacher whom we adress as a "Shambach" lectured us on time wasting and the regrets we will have for not studying. He was right.
Yardram and myself use to slip out of class with a few others and buy fudge and other stuff and lime at the backdoor stairway of the school for many classes. Our life was wasting away without comprehending the seriousness of it.
It was not till the end of High school that I finally decide to go through a textbook that I got from the school. It was the chemistry text. I covered 17 chapters during the Easter Holidays. Result was I passed O'level chemistry.
My conclusion: for you to be succesful you MUST study your texts. In all I can say High school was a wonderful experience. I had a great time.
Oh there was Michael Ali, today a doctor residing in Canada. Boy could he study? Friday nights a few of us would go by his home and watch television(13 inches black and white) the whole night whilst he use to be studying till 5.a.m sometimes. He also use to be studying his text in the bright sun in the school corridors. Enough of that.
So it pays to study.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Best-love-ever
Best-love-ever How I schooled my Children!
Before I continue with the father and son conversation which was more of a lecture that I had with my two sons, I would like to take you on a journey way back when I was a teen.
For those of you who might read this and don't know much about Guyana, let me say it is about 83,000 square miles. And majority of the populace live along the coastal land which is under sea level. A map of Guyana from the web will greatly help in understanding what I am about to say.
One of the most unfortunate thing in life for a kid is when his or her parents divorce. My parents were no exception to such an ugly experience. Due to their instability of marriage we had to be moving constantly. As far as I could remember as a kid we moved from Leguan a large island at the mouth of the Essequibo river to Bartica a Town about 28 miles further down river on the West bank of the Essiquibo mainland. Next we then moved to Vergonoegen a small village on the East Bank in the county of Essequibo. Not long after that as I remember, whilst my mother went to Georgetown to live and work, we moved to Meten Meer Zorg another village further east where we stayed with my grandmother. To avoid giving location description and to summarise quickly here are some of the other villages we moved to whilst I was still a small child: Newtown-Kitty,Campbellville, Cummings Lodge, Industry Front, Ogle Front, Industry Back Dam and finally to Cummings Lodge again where we are to this day.
In all this moving from one place to the next I lost 2 (two) whole years of schooling. For a young child to be forced not to attend school for nearly two years is very unfortunate. But that did not deter me from learning. At 8 (eight) years old if I remember correctly I could read the newspaper almost fluently. My cousins who were older than me could not do this and their mother whipped them terrible for them to learn.
Anyway as a result of missing school so often I did not get a chance to write common entrance an exam that would determine which High school you attend in Guyana. Nevertheless through perseverance I got into Cummings Lodge Secondary School through another exam called SSPE.
What was High Schoool like in my days? I will tell you in my next blog.
Before I continue with the father and son conversation which was more of a lecture that I had with my two sons, I would like to take you on a journey way back when I was a teen.
For those of you who might read this and don't know much about Guyana, let me say it is about 83,000 square miles. And majority of the populace live along the coastal land which is under sea level. A map of Guyana from the web will greatly help in understanding what I am about to say.
One of the most unfortunate thing in life for a kid is when his or her parents divorce. My parents were no exception to such an ugly experience. Due to their instability of marriage we had to be moving constantly. As far as I could remember as a kid we moved from Leguan a large island at the mouth of the Essequibo river to Bartica a Town about 28 miles further down river on the West bank of the Essiquibo mainland. Next we then moved to Vergonoegen a small village on the East Bank in the county of Essequibo. Not long after that as I remember, whilst my mother went to Georgetown to live and work, we moved to Meten Meer Zorg another village further east where we stayed with my grandmother. To avoid giving location description and to summarise quickly here are some of the other villages we moved to whilst I was still a small child: Newtown-Kitty,Campbellville, Cummings Lodge, Industry Front, Ogle Front, Industry Back Dam and finally to Cummings Lodge again where we are to this day.
In all this moving from one place to the next I lost 2 (two) whole years of schooling. For a young child to be forced not to attend school for nearly two years is very unfortunate. But that did not deter me from learning. At 8 (eight) years old if I remember correctly I could read the newspaper almost fluently. My cousins who were older than me could not do this and their mother whipped them terrible for them to learn.
Anyway as a result of missing school so often I did not get a chance to write common entrance an exam that would determine which High school you attend in Guyana. Nevertheless through perseverance I got into Cummings Lodge Secondary School through another exam called SSPE.
What was High Schoool like in my days? I will tell you in my next blog.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Best-love-ever: How I Schooled My Children
Best-love-ever: How I Schooled My Children
Thanks to all of you who responded to my blog.
I have two teenage boys going to school in New York where I considered one of the toughest place on earth to live in. The youngest one comes home and talks to us in Spanish then switches over and talks like a Bangladeshi. He has the rare potential of being a very good actor. He is an A student whom you have to force to study his books.
Now you wondering how do I schooled my children. So I begin with last night. I let them know that a teacher role is only to guide the students to complete the curriculum for each class not to teach them everything in the text. Each student has a responsibility to study and learn everything in the text book.
When I was a kid for many years I went to school without owning a text book. Simply because my mother could not afford it. (My parents separated and once every two or three years I would see my dad for a few hours). If I wanted to read I had to borrow a book from a teacher and had to return it in a few minutes when the teacher was ready to teach. At Graham's Hall I got a book called the Student's Companion. I got to know the stuff in that book very quickly.
As I grow older I became a readerholic. Everything I could put my hands I read. Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Louis L'amour, Sudden, J.T Edson, Allistair MaClean, Harlequins, Mills and Boons, Sydney Sheldon, and hundreds of series and other authors. When there was no electricity I read with candles late in the night. My sister and I fought over who should read the books first. My grandmother used to be enraged with me for locking myself up in a room reading my life away. Mind you in those days we did not own a television set. Only the wealthy did. My grandmother rediculed me for reading. She thought I was too quiet and my wife would "eye-pass" me. I felt my grandmother hated me. But sadly I did not had text from which to study until I entered High School. I will tell you more of my High School experience later on.
Anyway back to the issue of how I schooled my children. I reminded them that as a student at the seasoned age of twenty-eight years was when I burrowed some cash from my sister about $17,000 Guyana dollars (equivalent about US$122) and commence my journey of really studying. I studied my text without a teacher or lecturer. Labouring some days over 15 hours through my text in order to sit for my Professional exams for AAT and later on ACCA. When the University library closed at 6.00pm on Saturdays I would joined a few friends in Cummings Lodge Secondary School form 7.00 p.m. and studied till midnight. The security guards at the school use to harrass us and made it difficult for us to go into the school and study. They wanted us to provide them with a pass authorised by the headmaster. Anyway after midnight I had to tug my heavy halversack through a pitch dark school yard (pasture) where shadows loomed at you like hidden ghost ready to pounce on you. Sometimes in the dark I would bump into stray animals such a cow or horse. It scared the hell out of me!
The results I was successful in my exams.
I will tell you about my high school experience next.
Thanks to all of you who responded to my blog.
I have two teenage boys going to school in New York where I considered one of the toughest place on earth to live in. The youngest one comes home and talks to us in Spanish then switches over and talks like a Bangladeshi. He has the rare potential of being a very good actor. He is an A student whom you have to force to study his books.
Now you wondering how do I schooled my children. So I begin with last night. I let them know that a teacher role is only to guide the students to complete the curriculum for each class not to teach them everything in the text. Each student has a responsibility to study and learn everything in the text book.
When I was a kid for many years I went to school without owning a text book. Simply because my mother could not afford it. (My parents separated and once every two or three years I would see my dad for a few hours). If I wanted to read I had to borrow a book from a teacher and had to return it in a few minutes when the teacher was ready to teach. At Graham's Hall I got a book called the Student's Companion. I got to know the stuff in that book very quickly.
As I grow older I became a readerholic. Everything I could put my hands I read. Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Louis L'amour, Sudden, J.T Edson, Allistair MaClean, Harlequins, Mills and Boons, Sydney Sheldon, and hundreds of series and other authors. When there was no electricity I read with candles late in the night. My sister and I fought over who should read the books first. My grandmother used to be enraged with me for locking myself up in a room reading my life away. Mind you in those days we did not own a television set. Only the wealthy did. My grandmother rediculed me for reading. She thought I was too quiet and my wife would "eye-pass" me. I felt my grandmother hated me. But sadly I did not had text from which to study until I entered High School. I will tell you more of my High School experience later on.
Anyway back to the issue of how I schooled my children. I reminded them that as a student at the seasoned age of twenty-eight years was when I burrowed some cash from my sister about $17,000 Guyana dollars (equivalent about US$122) and commence my journey of really studying. I studied my text without a teacher or lecturer. Labouring some days over 15 hours through my text in order to sit for my Professional exams for AAT and later on ACCA. When the University library closed at 6.00pm on Saturdays I would joined a few friends in Cummings Lodge Secondary School form 7.00 p.m. and studied till midnight. The security guards at the school use to harrass us and made it difficult for us to go into the school and study. They wanted us to provide them with a pass authorised by the headmaster. Anyway after midnight I had to tug my heavy halversack through a pitch dark school yard (pasture) where shadows loomed at you like hidden ghost ready to pounce on you. Sometimes in the dark I would bump into stray animals such a cow or horse. It scared the hell out of me!
The results I was successful in my exams.
I will tell you about my high school experience next.
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