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Jerry Loggins Notes

Notes on life, family and friends by Jerry Loggins

Island Properties Bahamas would be a dream come true

Posted by J L on April 12, 2013
Posted in Friends and FamilyLifeMoney and FinancesTravel  | Tagged With: , ,

Every now and then my wife and I like to talk about what we would do if we came into a log of money. We talk about whether we would even tell our extended family that we had won. I don’t know if any of them would be aware of the good fortune if we did not tell them about it, so we haven’t decided on a yes or no answer. We agreed that it would probably depend on the amount of money, and on the circumstances of receiving the money.

For example, a winning scratch ticket, if the amount was really large, might result in a news story in the media, and that might be difficult to keep quiet! But then again, I don’t think anyone in the family pays any attention to that kind of news, so maybe they’d never know if we told them! We talked about whether we would change our telephone number to a non-published number, and we agreed that would probably be a smart thing to do. Then we would probably set up a few trust funds for our kids, to make sure that they would be taken care of the rest of their lives.

Then we’d probably purchase an annuity where we would be able to get payments immediately every month to survive on. We’d definitely either pay off our house or sell it and move to one we like better. That would depend on where our kids were living at the time, as we’d like to stay close to them if possible! We’d make sure that all of of credit cards and bills were paid off, then we’d fly down to the islands and try to find a Island Properties Bahamas ocean view cottage to spend our winter months in the years to come.

One of the things that has always annoyed me about college is the fact that the students have to pay an arm and a leg for their assigned college books. Being able to buy used textbooks can help to save money on the expense, but even those are expensive, and often the used books aren’t even available to purchase!

A lot of colleges will say that their book store will “buy back” the textbooks at the end of the semester, but in my own experience about half of the time when I have taken my books back to the bookstore for their “buy back” program they end up telling me that they don’t want to buy that particular book back, and so I end up with a text book that I don’t need or want anymore. I hate the thought of throwing it away, so I have kept them on my bookshelves to use as reference books. Some of them have actually ended up being used a few times for that, but much of the time they just take up space and collect dust.

I imagine that it will not be much longer before many of the college books will be available on Kindle, which would be a great way to handle that storage problem. I think that it could save the students some money, and be much more convenient than having to schlep all over the place looking for the book that they need.

Finally found some time to look online to research, as I promised at Easter dinner last night, and find the best cheap postcard printing options for my kid sister’s boyfriend. He is starting his own landscaping company and wants to try various marketing attempts in order to get the word out and get some business drummed up as soon as possible. There is a lot of money out there in this type of business, but a lot of competition to try and get over, around and/or above and I will help him (for my kid sisters sake) in any way that I can.

They have managed to stay together (without a lot of unnecessary drama) for over two years, so this just might be the one. He is a good enough guy to get along with when I see him on occassion. A step up from previous relationships, in the whole families opinion. With that said I guess I better sign off and get my butt in gear and send him the links that I have come up with and see what he says about that before proceeding. The weather is getting nicer with each day that arrives and there a tons of landscapers taking advantage of it.

 

Last night I had the opportunity to attend one of the local Elk’s Lodges meetings, with one of my neighbors that has been trying for years to get me involved in one or more of the local civic organizations that he has faithfully belonged to for most of his adult life. It runs deep in his family and the community, which I think is pretty impressive. I am envious of people that can and do devote so much of their time and energy to the numerous charities and organizations that have been around for a good amount of time all across the country.

This particular Lodge is having a rough time recruiting enough members to keep all their positions filled and to head all of the various committees, etc… From what I hear that is happening with just about all the organizations, they are all in need of new blood and they seem to like the scent of my blood. They were all over me the minute I walked in the door. Don’t get me wrong, they were all very nice and no one invaded my personal space, which is something that I’m a real stinker with the older I get.

I came home with a nice stack of business cards with names and contact information. The one gent that I will give a call to works for the CSI Tech Staffing Agency and I know several professional people that are looking for employment and I’m always trying to network and advocate for them when I’m able to. And last night was the perfect time for that. It was an interesting evening, I’ll go back a few more times and see if it might be something that I would want to commit to.

In this ever-growing world of technology, people are going to need to learn more than your basic math skills.  The business world is getting more complicated, and the employers are expecting their employees to come to them with a good solid education.  It’s getting so that it is hard to get even a basic job with only a high school diploma.  Largely, I think, because the public schools are not doing their jobs in preparing the children for employment nor to further their education, it’s more like bring them in and get them out as soon as possible for new ones to fill their spots.

Having said that, I think that many schools are trying.  My friends have been telling me that their kids have been coming home from school in fourth grade asking them for algebra help on their math homework.  Many of my friends have forgotten how to do it, or never learned it in the first place!  So there seems to be a growing need for algebra tutoring services.  Not every parent is able to help their kids with these kinds of problems! So I think that it’s great that people can access an online algebra tutor and get both algebra 1 and algebra 2 help for free.