Friday we both helped Brandon move out of the house and move into his new home….Immaculata University. Every other week now Kathy and I will be all alone at the house (unless she’s traveling for work of course.) As you know, Joe is at is dad’s one week and our house 1 week…..so we’ll have him every other week at least.

I gotta tell you guys…I was really excited that Brandon was moving out. Him and I haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately….I won’t get into why, but his last week here in the house I was really impressed with all of his initiative that he took and I think he found a new maturity and sense of responsibility that last week. (I think a part of him was doing it to say to his mom “I’ll be ok, don’t worry about me.”)

Anyway, I gotta tell you….Kathy is away now and I’m home with the kitty cats and it is Q-U-I-E-T around here. I mean seriously. It’s crazy….I mean Brandon and I may not have gotten along a lot lately but darn at least we were both here to talk to one another lol This is definitely gonna take some getting use to for sure. He stopped by today and I was all excited to see him lmao He didn’t stay long tho but that’s ok….he’s having fun. He starts school tomorrow.

Oh and on a Joe note….I drove Joe and Kathy to the airport Friday nite and I kept saying how I was tired. Joe was psyched to get on a plane (he’s 10, remember?) Anyway, Saturday morning Kathy tells me that Joe was worried about me last night (friday when I dropped them off) and I asked her well how do you know he was worried about me?

Kathy said Joe just started crying and Kathy’s looking at him like wtf? lol And she asked him what was wrong and he said “I’m worried about Carey. I”m worried about her driving home, she said she was tired. And I wanted her to come with us.” So Kathy told him not to worry that I’d be ok and that she told me to text her when I got home. He said “ok, well make sure you let me know when she texts you she’s home.” lol Cute kid, huh?

Ok now on to the Motivated Multi-Family Seller…..when I get to work I’m there an hour before the sales guys get there so I read all of the papers that we have delivered to us. Well I found an ad where a few places were listed for sale. I called and they have single family houses and smaller multi’s for sale….duplexes up to a quad.

Anyway, I got an appointment to check out 3 of his buildings tomorrow after work. Hey maybe we’ll have another “What would YOU Do” post.

On the eating and drinking end…..I just made a smoothie with Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Banana, Grapes, Blueberries, Raspberries and Almond Milk in it….and let me tell you it looked like shit, but it tasted absolutely AMAZING. Yummmmmmmy.

Blade ended up spending 6 nights and 7 days in the ER Vet. He was getting IV fluids and IV nutrients, along with antibiotics, pain meds, pepcid, etc. etc. He’s been home since Monday afternoon and he’s doing wonderful. (Below is Blade chilling in a baby crib lol pre-ER visit.)

He’s drinking water like a champ, he’s eating wayyyyyyyyyyy better now (for the most part he eats the “required amount” a day, even tho he still won’t eat his wet food yet. Grrrrr! But hey, I’ll take what I can get, ya know?) And he’s already “chasing” birds through the deck window lol

At this moment he’s laying next to me purring up a storm. (that’s definite music to my ears.) I try to sleep at least 2 days a week with him (we have 4 cats and he has to be separated from the others cuz Mr. Bladeypants is actually a bully lol) So 2 nights I sleep with him and let the other kittys chill.

So now that Blade is home safe and sound and he’s working towards 100% and I’m not working all day or all night and then traveling back and forth to the ER vet to visit my baby (and yes, I went to see him every day or night after work to spend time with him and to check on him. Sometimes I had to try to see if he’d eat for me cuz he wouldn’t eat for the vet and other times it was well that’s what we parents do….whether you got real kids or furry kids, you know!) And on Saturday and Sunday I’d go twice to see him! Needless to say the week he was in the hospital I was worthless as I was B-E-A-T.

Now it’s back into high gear. I’m getting use to the work schedule again and we’re gonna make it happen….soon. I feel it.

Oh and on an atm note….we just got a cash only ice cream place tell us they want a machine in both of their locations (one of the locations is near that slamming cash only restaurant we have in a college town. Actually, the owner of that store referred this ice cream store guy…they are good friends.) So Kathy and I are putting our heads together to try to figure out how in the hell we are gonna pay for not just one but two Atm’s!!!

Uhhh remember I was saying I’m gonna have to wholesale a house to pay Blade’s vet bill? Well maybe I’ll have to wholesale 2 houses so I can pay Blade’s bill and buy 2 atm’s! lol

Besides that I made 2 promises. 1 to Blade when I was driving him to the vet the Tuesday night I took him to the ER and I told him that I’d get on the ball so I can be home most of the time and therefore I would have been able to know sooner that there was something wrong with him (as I didn’t get home until 10pm that evening) and then of course also, so I could spend all day hanging and playing with him and the other kitty’s.

And then I made a promise to Joe. He was upset one morning because I had to take him to the neighbors house so she could watch him and he wanted to know why he had to go. Unfortunately, I had to tell the kid that I had to go to work to take care of some things right now but that his mom and I are working on building passive income so neither one of us has to work and he can always stay here instead of going to a babysitters. He was thrilled…so he made me promise that we’d work real hard at buying apartment buildings so he wouldn’t have to go to the neighbors so much. (And Joe is actively looking for a location to put an atm that HE wants to partner with his mom and I on.)

So….if I was serious before, well I’m more serious now…I made a big promise to one of my cats (well all of them in a sense) and to a 10 yr. old. That’s serious stuff folks…can’t let them down!

This week I’m gonna start analyzing some deals that have been in my inbox for a few weeks now. And making some more calls to brokers and management companies. Plus, I’m going to try to get in touch with a friend from high schools father, who has $$$$ and try to set up an appointment with him next month. Things are looking up and I’m feeling good about my situation.

I love that saying that Dave Lindahl says that I’m sure he got from someone else but it goes like this:

I think I’m gonna print that out and hang it on my bathroom mirror (I’m sure Kathy will be thrilled to read that every morning hehehehe)

Btw, thanks again for all of the support with Blade. I, well we, really appreciated it. When one of my kids is sick the world pretty much stops for me. I’m a big worry wart and I’m not right until they are home and doing well. Blade is doing wonderfully. He’s on 3 meds right now; an antibiotic, pepcid and another antibiotic but 2 of his meds are almost done……and trust me, we BOTH can’t wait for that day. Medicine time is the worst part of the day for both Blade and I lol If you have pets, especially cats, and have had to give them a couple of medicines well then I’m sure you can relate lol

Lastly, I got the book “The Power of Focus” by Jack Canfield (affiliate link) as recommended by Shae from Good faith investing in her article “Living Life on My Terms.” I’m super excited to get cracking on that book…so thanks Shae for the good recommendation.

Well folks I’m off to bed as I want to get up bright and early so I can work out, fill an atm and get some reading in and make a couple of calls.

Btw, I’ll be blogging again sooner rather than later………peace out g money’s!

Well Kathy and I were in Boston, Massachusetts last week for a Private Money Lender seminar. We spent all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with Dave Lindahl for his Private Money/Syndication Bootcamp. (It was $2997 for those who are wondering.)

Anyway, with the bootcamp we got his private money course in hard format prior to going to the bootcamp. I had read it before getting there and we got new, different materials when we arrived. I’ve been to many real estate seminars before and as always, one of the best parts about the seminars is the networking with like-minded folks. It’s just awesome.

Overall, I really liked the Private Money/Syndication Bootcamp. At the end we had a strategy session with one of Dave’s coaches (of course they try to sell you the coaching program i.e. $8,000 to $10,000) but we don’t have those funds at this time but the coach spent an hour with us (it was only suppose to be 20 minutes) and gave us a great deal of information and action steps to take.

Kathy and I have been talking about the need for a coach/mentor and we’re thinking of going with a gentleman that was referred to us by someone who I met recently from Scott’s Struggling Investor blog. I plan on giving this fella call and chatting with him a few times to see if he’ll be a good fit for us.

I’m super psyched to hit up some private money lenders….or folks that I feel have the potential for being private money lenders for us. We are still practicing our pitches (I practiced mine while laying in bed last nite, while driving home last nite, while in the shower this morning and while driving to my mom’s this afternoon!) I also practiced it on some lady in a New Jersey Turnpike Service Area bathroom lol I did awful by the way….but better to screw up with her then someone I really don’t want to screw up with, right?

I said to Kathy, “I just practiced on that lady.” She said “I know, I heard you.” I said, “I sucked.” Kathy said “I know, but that’s ok.” lol

We got a lot going on right now. 2nd direct mail campaign is out, already getting calls (no fax backs yet tho) and we’ve got a whole lot of action items to tend to and that verbal offer I made?? Remember?? Well the broker told me that he’s trying to get the seller to see reality and thinks he could get him to my price within 3 to 4 weeks. Yikes I say! Not because I’m scared (well maybe a touch) but because we actually saw the property #1 (which it’s in a C area and is a C property with lots of deferred maintenance) but #2 because I messed up when I was figuring out the numbers and the offer should have been way less You live and ya learn right?

Luckily, I called ChrisBuysApartments and asked him what to tell the broker so I don’t sound like a complete idiot. Thanks Chris!

Moving right along…a lot to do and oh yeah, Kathy’s away this entire week and I have the kids. And Joe…oh my gosh, has shit to do all this week…baseball then karate then baseball then karate. I swear the only day he doesn’t have something is Monday. Oh and to top it all off he has a religion project due for school lol Definitely my strong suit, right? (For those that know me, know that’s sarcasm!)

Oh and his friends were telling him to make sure he wakes up on time so he earns easy money in the morning and suggesting other things for him to do (they saw his list.)

So last night for the first time ever….and I mean ever…..Joe got in bed, had is tv on for only 10 minutes (cuz we got home from cub scouts late) and when the timer went off on the tv he did not turn it back on (as I told him he would lose mom money and certain privileges for that cuz he needs to go to sleep) and he actually laid in bed without shedding 1 tear because it was time to fall asleep without the tv on. I was amazed. He just needed the hallway light on and he was good to go.

This morning, he came into my room at 7:10am dressed and ready to go down stairs to the kitchen table (he has to be there by 7:20!) He saw his 2 mom dollars sitting on the table and he was like “YESSSS, I should wake up like this more often.” He then said “I’d like cereal for breakfast please. I’m gonna feed the cats now though.” I said “no problem.” So because no one asked him to feed the cats he earned 4 mom dollars!

Plus, I gave him 5 mom dollars for answering our Secrets of The Millionaire Mind card right this morning. It was about Getting Paid Based on Results and Not Time. He gave a suitable answer for a 9 yr. old. I told him to study the card and perhaps I’ll ask him again later so he can earn another 5 mom dollars.

He learned yesterday about counting your money and making sure you receive the proper amount that you’re suppose and also to make sure you count to ensure you have the correct change. He definitely learned about responsibility this morning and he’s learning that he’s getting paid based on HIS results and not by time. We discussed that on the way to school. I let him know that if take this mentality into the grown up world then you’re income is endless. He is also learned about money management…..because this morning he said “I have 12 mom dollars, so I have enough to have 2 friends come over after school, but I’m not so sure I’ll spend it on that quite yet.”

I’m very happy with his progress so far and we’re only on day 2.

As for Brandon,. the 17 yr. old. Kathy and I decided that come February 1st that we’re no longer going to be on his ass about money or getting a job or paying his bills or any of that. He knows that he’s got bills that are due, he knows when they are due and he is smart enough to know that if you make $140 a month and owe at least $250 a month that mathematically it doesn’t work out. He also knows that his truck is in the shop again (inspection) and that he needs to fix and sell his 4-wheeler to do get it out.

So I had a talk with him the other night and let him know that come Feb. 1 all of his responsibilities are 100% his and we will not be on his butt anymore about money. He no longer has any consequences from us in regards to his bills. His car insurance will be in his name by Feb. 1, he’s got his own checking account, and his mom will send him a monthly bill, which will include penalties if not paid on time (he owes her a lot of money for paying to get his truck fixed when he first got it.)

I told him that he’s going to be 18 the end of this month and he’s going to be graduating in 5 or 6 months so he’s going to experience the real world of responsibilities now and what happens if you don’t take care of yours. I told him he will be fielding calls and letters from his insurance company if he doesn’t pay his insurance on time and he will deal with the consequences if they cancel his insurance mostly meaning you can’t drive ANY car and your rate will most likely be higher the next time around. And he will be dealing with NSF charges if the money isn’t in his account when it’s suppose to be.

He’s also aware that he’s only allowed to use his mom’s car to get to and from school and work and that’s it. If he wants to go anywhere extra he needs HIS truck so therefore he needs to be motivated on his own to fix and sell his quad because we aren’t going to push him anymore. We’ve been doing it for over a year now and he’s obviously not listening. I said it’s up to you now….if you want to drive your girlfriend to the movies or the mall or whatever then you’ll fix and sell your quad so you can get your car out of the shop. It’s that simple. You KNOW what you have to do, it’s up to you whether you want to do those things or not.

He was thrilled that we weren’t going to bother him about money anymore lol but he still is a little confused about his future. He doesn’t know what he wants to do, which is fine, he’s only 17 but I told him you have to figure something out because we’re giving you until you graduate and then you’ll either have to have a F/T job and pay rent for an apartment (and go to school if you want) or you can have a F/T job, if you want, and/or go to school if you want but you’ll have to pay rent for living HERE too. This is the real world now. (Btw, he doesn’t know that we’ll be saving his rent money that he pays to us for living at home and giving it back to him. So, shhhhhhhh don’t tell him.)

I informed him that he still has his normal rules, i.e. curfew, girlfriend not allowed over when we’re not home, etc. but we just won’t bother him about money. I did let him know that we still will be on his butt about school and finishing his eagle scout thing though.

I think our talk worked though. When I came home from the store yesterday he was following up on jobs where he sent in his resume and he had been working on his 1 badge for Eagle Scouts. He actually finished that one and did the first 2 questions of his NEXT badge. I was like “hmmmmm, that’s odd.” lmao Usually, I have to be on his butt constantly getting him to do his scouts stuff. But hey….I’m not going to complain.

I feel so much better knowing that we’re not gonna be on his butt about money. I’ve been getting so frustrated and angry with him that I couldn’t stand to be around him. It was really frustrating to Kathy and I how he’s been so lazy and unmotivated about everything. So the other day I asked my mom for advice and she mentioned the plan above. I told Kathy about it and she said let’s try it cause nothing else is working!

I love my mom! I think she’s an amazingly, smart, wonderful woman! I get a lot of advice from her now that I have kids in my life. I tell me mom often how wonderful I think she is. Funny how things change from when we were kids to now that we’re adults and we realize “gosh, mom did know what she was talking about!”

Here’s some homework for everyone….if you’re lucky enough that your mom is still in your life, take some time out of your day RIGHT NOW and call her and tell her Thank You and that you Love Her!

Joe decided to negotiate with me this morning and I was kinda happy about it. For xmas I got “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” cards in my stocking from Santa. Now they’re not playing cards, they’re 50 cards with different insights from the book printed on them. Like on one side of a card it will say: “Be Accountable for Everything in Your Life” and then if you turn the card over it says: “Rich people believe that they create their lives. Poor people believe that life happens to them. If you want to be wealthy, you must believe that you’re the one causing your success, mediocrity, or struggle.”

So along with Joe’s new incentive program with the mom dollars I decide that I’m going to let him pick one of these cards every morning while we’re eating breakfast and we can discuss it. I fan out the cards this morning while he’s eating his Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and tell him to pick one. He got all excited and didn’t even know what they were yet lol

He started talking about if you’re going to buy a chair you want to make sure it’s comfortable! lol I told him that he’s definitely right about buying a chair and that’s what comfortable normally means but not so much in this context that we’re using it. So then I went on to explain to him how people say they want to just be “comfortable” when it comes to money and what that means and how they usually end up, etc. And that the card is saying you don’t want to be just comfortable.

He said so having a lot of money is bad, right? I said oh no…what this card is saying is just the opposite. You want to not shoot for “comfortable” you always want to shoot for having as much money as you possible can and if you aim for that, then you’ll turn out to be very comfy in life and not have any worries, plus you can buy or do what you want whenever you want because you’ll have the money to do so.

He was like “hmmm ok.” Then he looked at me and said “why do you guys always do this to me?” And I said “what?” He said, “you know make me read these cards or learn about money and stuff like that.” I went on to explain to him that no matter what school he goes to that they don’t really teach him to be financially educated. They don’t teach you about money or investing or passive income or how to make sure you never have any financial worries ever again in your life….so that means your mom and I are left to teach this to you.

And that’s why I’m doing this cards with you in the morning now and that’s why your mom bought you “Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Kids: the comic book version” and that’s why we’ll continue to teach you a lot of other things as well. I said “Joe, we don’t want you to ever have to worry about money in your life….ever.”

He then looked at me and real serious said “well then when we read these each morning if I get one right when you ask me what I think they mean by that can I get 2 mom dollars?” I laughed and said “you absolutely can!” I went on to tell him that he may not get any of the answers right yet, but I’ll let him try but that after we get through them once, he’ll have all of the answers and as long as he can keep remembering them he’ll earn lots of mom dollars. He said ok!

He then, of course, reminded me to add this to his chart as ways he could earn money! While I was doing that I said “tell you what, for right answers to these cards I’ll give you 5 mom dollars instead of 2!” He said “yessssss!!” and then looked at me and asked why I’ll give him 5 instead of 2? So, I, of course, went on to explain to him that learning about money and finances and making sure you understand all of the different ways you can make money in the future is extremely important to your future and it’s so important that we’ll reward you even MORE for learning it. That seemed to be an acceptable answer for him lol

It’s called Mom Dollars (well the person who I read about it from calls it Dad Dollars but since there ain’t no dads in this house, it’s called mom dollars.)

Anyway, it’s a simple program. Each morning Joe has things he needs to do like a) wake his self up with the assistance of a brand new alarm clock b) dress himself for school without be told to and c) be at the kitchen table by 7:20am. If he does these things he gets 2 mom dollars.

Then if he’s done his breakfast and has brushed his teeth and is ready to leave for school at 8am he gets an extra mom dollar. He can accumulate extra mom dollars throughout the day by doing little extra chores. For instance, if he scoops the cat litter pans he’ll earn 1 mom dollar per cat litter pan (there are 5!) or if he loads or unloads the dishwasher he’ll earn 2 mom dollars. If he feeds the cats he’ll earn 2 mom dollars but if he feeds the cats without us asking him to do it he’ll earn double mom dollars. A lot of chores if he does without being asked he earns double.

Ohhh and he earns 2 mom dollars per chapter for any book he chooses to read, but my personal favorite is he earns 4 mom dollars per chapter for any book on business, money, real estate, or personal development (I need to find some kid versions of these types of books.)

Of course you’re wondering what the heck does he do with these mom dollars? Well he’s got rewards he can spend them on. For instance, if he wants a friend over after school that is 5 mom dollars. If he wants to do his homework after dinner instead of after school that’s 5 mom dollars. If he wants to earn 1 hour at the batting cage that’s 10 mom dollars. He can earn the entire family a night at pizza hut if he wants for 20 mom dollars. If he wants to play video games for 2 hours on Thursdays that’s 30 mom dollars (we have a No Video Game rule on Thursdays.) Or he can earn 60 mom dollars to go to a fun place of his choice like chuck e. cheese, laserdome, monkey joes.

We’re trying to teach him about responsibility, earning money plus budgeting your money for things that you’d like some day, plus I want him to never say can’t again because it drives me up a wall. He’ll say he can’t do something that I know darn well he can do then after he tries it he realizes he can do it! And I want him to always get rewarded more so for learning about money and things of that nature. (Note: I’m trying my hardest to ensure that he doesn’t end up financially illiterate like his 17 yr. old brother!)

He just negotiated with me at the kitchen table lol I’ll tell ya about that in my next post after I take him to school. He’s working on being ready by 8 so he can earn 1 mom dollar because he didn’t earn his first 2 mom dollars this morning because I had to go wake him up at 7:05 and tell him to wake up and get dressed (he’s alarm had been going off for 5 minutes lol)

Btw, you can create your own Mom Money or Dad Dollars!

Anyway, I’ve been sooooo out of it since we got back from Cali. Total slacker, but I want/need/and will stop it. I’ve been doing lil stuff here and there, but enough of that…BIG ACTION is coming up, because BIG ACTION always gets us BIG RESULTS!

Kathy and I seriously want our first multi-unit (4 unit or more) by March 1st, 2010. Tomorrow we are starting our direct marketing campaign. I put all of our 5 letter campaigns into my computer today, plus 2 speciality letters. I also got a list of all 4 unit and more owners in our county. I think we’ll start there for now. Then expand out when we need to. I’m psyched about this….and scared at the same time. I was telling Kathy about it this evening, but then again I’ve been scared about mobile homes before and I did them and I’ve been scared about getting into single family homes and I did them and I’ve been scared about rehabbing and I’ve did them and I’ve been scared about subject 2′s and I’ve did them and I’ve been scared about wholesaling and I’ve did them…..so I guess it’s ok to be scared as long as I keep doing shit! Ya know?

Now that’s on the real estate front…on the ATM front, well I have to follow up with 3 pizza shops, 2 hotels and I did follow up with the other strip club tonite. When I called the guy was so nice and said he was just thinking about us yesterday and we talked about our holidays and he said he couldn’t talk too much now because he was on the road and he said he wants to call us before the end of the week to talk about things because his current ATM contract is up then too. We got our fingers crossed but I’m hoping he signs up with us. That will be 2 strip clubs! And that right there folks, is an ATM goldmine. We offered the guy a pretty damn good profit sharing thang if he signed up with us. Our only obstacle was what if he takes our plan and asks his current guy to match it? Soooo that’s why in my follow up thank you letter to him I didn’t really talk about that too much I talked about our charming personalities and how I’m sure we’re wayyyy cuter (mostly Kathy lol) to look at than the guy he’s currently doing business with. Actually, I think I’d be all of my money on the fact that he’d prefer to look at Kathy then his current guy. So, we shall wait and see what happens in a couple of days.

Well I’m off to bed. This is the first night in a longggg time where Kathy and I are actually home alone. Joe is with his Dad and Brandon is spending the night at a friends house. It’s actually really nice. And quiet! (I know some of you make think that sounds mean, but ya know what? I’ve never had kids, never wanted kids, never lived with kids and as you know, when you suddenly have kids in your life your whole entire world CHANGES. Trust me, it’s still a process to get use to for ALL of us, I’m sure. So I don’t mean to come off mean in regards to the kids, it’s just that I was use to living by myself for a long time and just having girlfriends who may have had kids, but didn’t live with me. Whole new ball game when they live with you.)

Well the passive income seminar was pretty cool. A lot of opportunities there and definitely great networking was going on. I may have gotten a new partner or 2 for the ATM biz.

On the first day Harv spoke for a pretty good portion of the day. He was funny. I enjoyed him a lot. I learned a lot of things and will be definitely implementing some changes in a lot of ways.

Kathy and I bought an apartment course (we’re such suckers sometimes lol) Actually, we had already been talking about multi-units so it was kind of timely and Dave Lindahl actually offers your money back on the course if you buy a 2 unit or more within that 90 days. Kathy is determined to get our money back and I’m like “well if we buy our first multi-unit and are making decent cashflow then don’t you think he deserves to keep the money?” lol Does anyone know what I mean?

So, since Kathy will be working intently over the next few months and will only be home on the weekends..it’s MY job, apparently, to find our apartment deal. I’m super excited about it.

I know, I know….Scott and others have told me to focus and I know in my heart focus is the key, but I’m really psyched about multi-units. I really am. I really want the passive income to exceed my expensive and then I will be at least FREE. After I’m free I can work on becoming rich. Does that make sense to anyone?

Btw, the first day as Mama C (as Kathy calls me lol) went well. I filled 3 of our atm’s by myself (well Brandon helped me with the chinese place,) I went food shopping for the kids and I (damn boys eat a lot!) and while I was gone the 2 of them only called me 4 times (2 each.) Ya know to tell me what the other one was doing to them And let’s see it only took me like 15 minutes to wake Joe up out of bed…he was late to school. I had to forge Kathy’s name on his report card and Brandon and I had a talk about money.

This month, he’s -$482 but I overheard him talking on the phone about getting his girlfriend a jacket. I had a chat with him after that and it turns out the jacket is like 60 bucks! I try to explain to him that if he doesn’t get a handle on this now that it will only get worse and he will end up like most of the people out in the world and that he should not want to be like most people.

The poor kid gets stressed out but he just doesn’t let shit sink into that lil noggin of his too much. He is a good kid tho…..while I was grocery shopping he made dinner for us all. I just wish he’d get the whole money thing down. I’m taking him to my bank tomorrow to open up 2 bank accounts (one checking for bills and one account for him to PAY HIMSELF FIRST!)

Anyway, I’m exhausted…gotta hit the hay. I did no real estate today except I did accept 2 bpo’s in my area. I wish I didn’t now, I didn’t realize they were from a different company and it’s more work than I normally am willing to do for them grrrrrrrr

Flippin’ Carey

Then when we were about an hour or 2 from the airport there were all of the warnings on the radio and on the roads that the highway that we were on was CLOSED due to…are you ready for this? Snow and Ice!!! Who friggin knew it snowed in California????

We then had to re-route and drive along the coastline to get to the airport because this main road was closed. This took another 4 to 5 hours!!!! So by the time our trip started at 12:30am, we finally arrived at the airport 11 frickin’ hours later!!! We both missed our flights.

Ohhhh but wait, there’s more. It gets better.

So I’m waiting for my next flight. The plane gets there a lil late. No biggie. We board. We are sitting there for a whileeeee then the captain comes on and says we’ll be leaving shortly as they are looking into some “maintenance” issue. Now it’s an hour later! Mind you, I am now for certain missing my connecting flight!!! They had taxied us out to the runway to take off but then the captain comes on again and says “they are checking some figures and will take off shortly.” Thennnn he comes back on and says we have to go back to the gate. This is way over an hour now. We’re all like WTF???

We get back to the gate and then, you ready? This gets soo much better. Our plane is now surrounded by cops and K9 units!!! Yes, my plane was surrounded by cops and K9 units!!! Talk about shitting yourself. Then a cop boards the plane.

The flight attendant gets on and says “will muhammad ackabakar and abdul balbhalk and ackamha sahama and bubkam madrima please step to the front of the plane and bring all of your belongs with you!” Btw, those weren’t their real names. They were Arab type names tho.

Then the airline people started taking a few bags from under the plane off the plane!

Soooo the interesting part was 2 of them were in the seats right behind me in the very front of the plane. 1 was on the left side of the plane sitting by himself and the other was on the right side of the plane sitting by himself. Then the other 2 were at the very rear of the plane. Again 1 sitting on the left side and one sitting by himself on the right side!!! Prior to them having to get off the flight attendant went to the guys behind me and said “where did your friends go?” You see they were all together at the beginning. The one guy said they went to the back. The flight attendant then said “ohhh you want me to go get them and see if they want to come up and sit with you 2. There is plenty of room.” So the guy says sure.

She then comes back and says “they didn’t want to. The one guy said he was all stretched out on the seat and going to sleep.”

I think THAT is what sent up red flags to her. She must have told the captain.

Anyway, shortly after the captain comes on and says “for security reasons we’re going to ask everyone to get off of the plane with all of your luggage and personal belongings! The cops are sending in a K9 unit to search the plane.” I was thrilled because I was like I do not want to fly on the this plane. They need to check it out.

So we get off and of course I missed my connecting flight. But American Airlines was awesome. They gave me 2 choices: Wait til the plane is done be searched and head to Dallas and spend a free nite there and leave in the morning. Or stay in Cali for free and leave tomorrow morning. I did NOT want to go on that plane again so I opted to spend another nite in Cali. Btw, I had nothing to use personally, i.e. toothbrush, deodorant, etc. The only thing I had was my laptop. Kathy had all of the luggage and she was already in the air on a different plane. Luckily, the hotel gave me all of the necessary things I needed for free. Plus, they fed me.

UNBELIEVABLE, right? I just wanted to let you all know that I will no longer complain about being “momma” Carey for the next couple months. Cuz the truth is I’d rather be momma Carey instead of dead Carey cuz I was splattered all over the world cuz my plane was blown up by terrorists! Know what I mean? I get in at 5:15 this evening and Kathy texted me telling me that I had to take Joe to Karate and that afterwards he wanted to go to boy scouts so I had to take him there….I was like NO PROBLEM!

Anyway, it went pretty well. Kathy came with me and was my assistant with the power point presentation. There were 4 classes and in each class was anywhere between 7 to 20 kids.

I talked about wholesaling, rental real estate and passive income (cuz I was talking about rentals, etc.) Then I had a jeopardy type game for them to participate in to win the prize. Btw, they loveeeeeed the nasty pictures of the houses and that got them to pay attention and the thing that really got their attention was the checks that I showed them from some wholesale deals. You should have seen their little eyes bug out! lmao

I also talked to them about how real estate investing helps a lot of people and I spoke to them about mindset. I explained to them that a lot of people will tell them they can’t do it and it will never work, yada yada but if they get the knowledge and take action then they will prove to themselves that it can be done and sooner or later the nay sayers will be asking them if they could teach them.

I also let them know that Knowledge is nothing…..without ACTION! I also emphasized passive income……I said if you don’t listen to anything else I say today, please listen to this…….and I explained it. They all really liked the idea of receiving money and not really doing anything for it.

But out of everyone….there was one kid I felt that really, really got it and was paying attention to every single word I said and he actually wrote down every word I said (I was so happy he won the game and got a book!) What I did was gave the 4 winners a mini version of Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens. It was a pocket version.

Then I donated the full version to the school library and told ALL of the kids that they could go down there to learn more about passive income, investing and other things that you won’t learn in school.

Oh I also had a handful of kids raise their hands saying they wanted to learn more about real estate investing. I told them all to copy the websites that I had up on a slide. I told them all of the info was free and sent them to flippinghomes.com, creonline.com and biggerpockets.com I hope we get a post from some 8th grader someday soon.

Well……I have to go and dry the house. Yes you read that correctly. Kathy, I and Joe (the 9 yr. old) decided to have a water fight in our house for some reason!!! Seriously….the house is soaked. Our clothes are soaked. Our hair is soaked. The walls are soaked. The carpet is soaked. Our bed is soaked. Our couch is soaked. But I can tell ya it was a fun time.