Owning Your Land

  Hello all, well here's the story for the week. Owning your own land is the right choice. Why do I say that property? Taxes, especially here in New York, are killing people. Me especially. I got my property tax bill for the year, which was over 10,000. the city was nice enough, if you want to call it that, and said I could pay $2375.00 over the next couple of quarters until I make up the full amount. Whether way, the price is too high for a small piece of land I don't own. I must have paid the city millions through the course of the years for property taxes. If I were smart, I would have purchased a small piece of land in the south and kicked property taxes to the curb.

You know this is the moth that all the bills seem to get higher and come in at the same time as I mentioned above the property taxes came with the con ed bill and medical lab bills that I just can't seem to get rid of Since I have a illness that won't let me stop taking test. My medical bills will be ongoing for the rest of my life, so I have accepted that. Has long as my insurance covers the cost of it, I'm good in that area.

Did I mention that it was also my mother's birthday, so I treated her and a few people to dinner and other things that will cost me a bit when the visa bill gets here. Pray that extra money comes my way, or someone willing to sell me a piece of land dirt cheap!

                                                     That's my story, what do you think? 

Happy June

  Hello, all Happy June! well, here's the story so far for the week. June is becoming expensive for me. I had a mall party for my mother; it was her birthday this week. It was small, I took my aunt to see her since they don't live to close. They hung out for a couple of days and we all celebrated her birthday with her. It felt good that I could get them together since they are getting up in age. For the time I spent with them, nobody came out of their pockets for anything it was all on me, and it was expensive. But hey, who can put a price on family right?

 The summer's here, and I'm not looking forward to the dreaded property tax bill that will be here soon. In New York, where I live, I pay around 10,000 for property taxes for the year, and what do I get from that payment? Nothing!! that worths while. I looked at all the tax exemptions that I could get. I did manage to get some and others for some silly reason I don't qualify for. One thing I will say is never move to New York, it's a greedy city, always taxing or finding you for silly stuff. Oh, yeah, almost forgot to tell you I was happy this month only got one Con Edison bill it was expensive, but at least I'm not paying two bills for two different properties since I sold my rental. I look at it as a win, win it comes to saving some money since my rental con Edison bill was about $200 or more a month for an empty house. See, I told you New York was expensive. 

                                      Well, that's my story so far So what do you think?

Collection For How Much?

  Hello all, here is the story for the week. First, Happy June 1Th. Now here's my story. I got called yesterday from a medical office that I deal with. The woman was nice. She told me that if I didn't pay them, they had no choice but to send me to collections for the payment. I asked her how much I owed because I normally paid all my medical bills on time. she said $21. I said, really, you're going to send someone to collection over 21 dollars. I said by the time collections get their fee, you're lucky to get about $5-10 of the bill if that. The paper and phone calls cost more.  I told her I didn't get the bill, so if she would send it to me, I had no problem paying it.

Have things gotten that bad where companies have to send you to collections for such small amounts of money when they are making millions of dollars a month in medical services. Is it me, or is this crazy?

Trying to plan my mother's birthday since she will be in her 80s this year. I have a fear that time with her is fleeing. So, I try and spend as much time with her as I can. You know life is way too short. You just pray that you don't take it for granted or the people in your life for granted. Because, like they say, tomorrow is not promised to anybody. It's a gift

                                                 So that's my story what do you think? 

I'm A idiot!!

  Hello all, well here's the story for the week. I'm an idiot! Here's why I have alerts on my credit cards and bank accounts if something is wrong. I get an alert that says my credit card balance is over, and the balance is about $2000. When I read that, I panic, thinking I didn't spend that much on stuff with my credit card for the month. So, I called the credit card company, and they went over my charges. The way they were saying things to me, it looked like someone got my car number and started charging stuff on it. Because I had not gotten the statement, I could not see the actual charges. So, what I did was tell the credit card company that certain things on my credit card were fraudulent and to issue me a new card right away. They did that and froze my old card until I got the new one. Oh, I was good, right? Wrong, once I got the actual credit card statement t it wasn't fraud that charge all that stuff, it was me. I forgot that I had the car repaired and other stuff I had charges, which made the bill over mu limit. I'm an idiot. What I should have done was wait until I got the statement and then reported what items were not mine. Has this ever happened to you? 

Moving on, I realize I don't miss having my second home that I would have used for a rental if not for Covid and all. Because we have been having a lot of heavy rain. When it rains, the basement of my rental home always seems to get water in it for some reason No matter how hard I try to fix the problem, it always comes back with heavy downpours of rain. Well, that's not my problem any longer. Am I wrong for thinking this way?

                                              So that's my story. what do you think? 

Watch Yourself

  Hello all, well here's the story for the week. First, Happy May. Time is flying, right? Anyway, first thing I went on a mini vacation to the beach and casino, a short 4-day trip. The hotel room was complimentary except for the resort fee, so the bill should have been around $150. Why did they try to bill me $285 for a four-night stay? I had to re-read my bill to see what happened.  You know the hotel, he and I had talked about it, but end up giving me my complimentary nights anyway.

My lawnman that comes once a week to take care of my lawn presented me bills stating that he was charging $180 for one day of lawn maintenance for spring clean up, as he would call it. I had to explain to him that he didn't show up on the day he said he did and that I didn't see anything on my lawn to say that he did any spring cleaning. He removed the price from the bill, saying he had made a mistake. Yeah right!

I always check my bank statements to make sure the bank or anybody else is not taking my money. I caught a bank error where they failed to credit me for interest. I quickly called them and pointed it out to them. They apologized and made the correction after having me sit on the phone for a good half hour.

These are some of the things that you have to pay attention to . Which basically means any bills that come your way that  you have to pay, check and double-check them, and question anything that doesn't look right,

                                      Well, that's my story What do you think?  

I Suck!!!

  Hello all well here's the story for the week, I suck at stuff some of it anyway. For instance, I tried doing the budget gambling thing. You know where you go to a casino and have a set amount to spend on gambling. that was me I had $200 so why when I left the casino I found out that I had given them $400 of my hard-earned money and not the $200 I budgeted for.

 I am trying to write short stories to make a few dollars and I like to write. Started creating short stories to sell on  Kindle shorts and I am still in the writing and creating stages and it's only been 1 year already, see I suck.

Trying to order books from the library through their interloan procedure and the books that I wanted they already had in stock in their libraries.

Most of the time when I have coupons for something that I need I seem to either let them expire or leave them at home.  Or I don't take advantage of the things that are free.

Almost letting my car registration expire because I forget to check on it from time to time. So now I have to run around at the last minute to get everything done with a time limit of like two days.

                           These are some of the things that I just suck at. 

                                         That's my story what do you think?   

Cars?

                                                                       Hello Family

Happy April 1th. Here's the story for the week. Cars why do we have them again? The reason I say that is because I had my car fixed to the tune of 1700 dollars this month before that it was $500. Mind you this car is not that old it's a 2020 car. It's almost costing me in repairs more than the car. Things are so expensive I need the car but if I had a choice, I would take mass transit since I live in New York and the buses run regularly around her. But because of my various doctor's appointments, I need a car. I can't win for losing sometimes.

Do you worry that you won't have enough to retire someday? I do. I worry all the time. I don't want to be homeless in New York City if I can help it. Besides that, because Of my medical expenses, there are enough of them. I need to make sure I have enough for my medical bills which by the way I have co-pays every month of twenty dollars or more for the device I have to monitor my heart. if I didn't have insurance the motoring system would cost me $1100 a month. which I don't have. So being in New York is not only expensive it's scary to live here if you don't have enough money.

Also stuck between a rock and a hard place my partner is up in age and wants to enjoy life I'm the one who wants to save money for my medical expenses he wants to spend some of it to enjoy life. So, I have to work out a balance where we both get what we want Got any ideas?

                                 So that's my story for the week what do you think?  

Decisions

 Hello all, well here is the story for the week. I am making a few decisions, one of which is to go on a cruise. It's been about five years since I've been on one and can I tell you I love the water. It's so nice and calm and pretty at night. But the price is crazy for two people, it's about $5000. and I have it, but the decision is do I want to give a cruise company that much money for a 5-day trip on the water?

Second decision is, since I sold my house, and the money is in CDs, did I do the right thing? The good part is since I sold my house in 2025, I don't have to pay Uncle Sam on the sale until 2026. Which I will owe him a nice piece of change. Right now, I'm trying to make as much money has I can off the sale of the house. So Uncle Sam will get his money next year and I still have some interest left over for myself. I know you're probably saying, but the money in the stock market you will make more than CDs, right? Well, I feel safer with it being in CDs for now until I decide where I want to put the money.

Third decision, trying to find ways to downsize, I used to do flea markets and church sales, and I purchased a lot of vintage toys, Barbie dolls were my specialty. Now I need the money for other things and people are not buying like they used to. So now I am stuck with a house full of  vintage toys that I can't get rid of. So, I am donating a lot, selling at rock bottom prices, and trying to figure out how to get rid of all my inventory, and let me tell you it's a lot.

         I have so many decisions to make it's not funny and that's not even half of them. 

                                            That's my story what do you think?

Moving On

  Hello all well here's the story for the week Happy Belated Valentine's Day. Hope you had a nice one. For me it was nice I ran a lot this week. Had the closing on my rental house. I must say it went fast I listed it in November, and it closed in February. I will miss it but realized that I had that house for over 50 years and for the last three years it just sat there empty with me paying all the bills and no money coming in for it. It was time to let it go. I was too scared and old to rent it out again to many problems with being a landlord. so, my best bet was to sell it. Too many things started to go wrong with the house, and I didn't want to put the extra money into it just to sit there empty for God knows how long. I can see if it was out of state and a summer home that would be different, but it was 15 minutes away from me so what kind of summer home is that?

So that's it on to my next project. Let me tell you about my Con Edison bill which is the (energy company in New York) well part of New York anyway. I called Con Edison to tell them to give me my refund for the house that I no longer own. They told me they have to give me a final bill and they will use my refund money to pay it. Final bill I just paid Jokers $300 for an empty house about two weeks ago there should be no final bill to pay. That's another way these energy companies get out they hold your money not wanting to pay you back for anything. I can't stand Con Edison. They robbed people legally.

                Well, that's my ranting and telling for today what do you think?

Stuff Happens!

  Hello all well here's the story for the week. Why does stuff happen when you don't want it to? Ok, so I might be going to closing for my rental house soon. I said might be not sure when it would be. But I check on the house every week just to make sure I don't have squatters or anything living there. When I went to check on the house last week there was water damage on the walls and in the basement. I said shit that must be from the roof it leaked, and water dripped down the walls. Thank God the damage wasn't that bad but still. I just got a brand-new roof on my house like five years ago. Anyway. I called the roofing company not the roof. So, I called a contractor to fix the minor damages it will cost me $1400 for everything. My question is why is it that when I need to sell here come repair bills that I need to take care of all of a sudden???   This is why I am getting rid of the place too expensive and I am too old for all this crazy stuff.

In other news have you seen how much eggs are going from I saw some that were $32 bucks that's crazy or is it you can get a live chicken and get your own eggs cheaper? 

So that's my story so far not much else is happening I am focusing on getting my rental sold so I can move on to the next thing which is getting the house I live in repaired and getting an alarm system in it because the cops in my area are here way too often for me. People are starting to break into homes and that's not nice.

                                                So that's my story what do you think?

Just Cold

  Hello all, Well, here's the story for the week. It's cold in New York—19 degrees—and nothing is moving except me sometimes.  I got an interesting letter from Environmental Protection Services. This is where I pay my water bill. They said they needed to come in to inspect the water meter. I was surprised since the water meter in my rental is not that old like ten years maybe. I called them and they said I had to make an appointment since my real estate lawyer wanted a final bill. I'm like what? So, I called my lawyer who's helping me sell the house and he told me the bank required that I have a new water meter put in before I sell the house. Really? So, guess who got stuck waiting for the water meter man today, yep me. Also, I had to wait for the survey man another day since the real estate people couldn't do it. I thought that's what we pay them all this commission for. So I don't have to do all this waiting for people who have to service the house before I sell it. Go figure.

Anyway, since the cold weather has me inside and the snow, We got the last couple of days ago had me shoveling. That's what I have been doing keeping warm and trying to get work done around the house. Boring I know but that's my story so far what do you think?

                                                         Stay Warm & Be safe

                                      https://coinqueensyardsale.ecrater.com/

   

Happy 2025

  Hello all I know I am a little late with the Happy part. But how is your 2025 going so far. Me It's cold in New York. Somedays its 50 degrees and sometimes it 16 degrees go figure. Welcome to winter. What I have been doing so far for the new year is cleaning and going over inventory in my house.  So, I can either sell it, donate or dumb it. I have a lot of stuff that needs to go, and this year is the year for that. I used to do flea markets and church bazaars selling vintage toys and stuff. So, you know I got a lot of stuff that needs to go somewhere besides my house.

I think my rental house will finally be out of my hands and in someone else's hands this year. My real estate guy called me today said the survey guys for the house was coming over. today. My real estate guy asked me to meet them since He  had an appointment, and he couldn't be there. So, I said what the heck if we can get all the things done in time. I think my rental home will be off my hands by March of this year. And I get to save around $10,000 in expenses from it. So, I'll let you know how that goes.

You know when there is so much that you have to do but don't know where to start? That's me I need to get an alarm system in my house. Since I have seen the neighborhood where I live getting a lot more police calls then normal. I think having an alarm company monitor your house is about $50 bucks a month . But for a piece of mind it will be worth it. Don't you think?

Also, I forgot to mention when did smoke and carbon monoxide detectors become so expensive? Had to buy two for them, they cast me about $60 bucks. I know you can't put a price on safety but darn $60 dollars!

                        Well that's my story for the week what do you think?

                                https://coinqueensyardsale.ecrater.com/