A Short Story

[djfourmoney]

As we head into September, I thought I would share what has happen since I stop posting here regularly.

I was getting really frustrated with with I can't do anything about my life attitude around here. It continues with visiting stupid sites like Slut Hate... Also assumptions of White Supremacy based on the fact a few men like White women, which I am a member of that club.

I'll address these things some other time, both are stupid on the surface, underneath and all around it.

So grab your favorite beverage and on with the story -

Sept of 2009 my car was repo'ed but not under the usual circumstances that his occurs. It's a tired story I get tired of explaining, the point is it's on my credit report as a charged off amount of just over $2,000.

That was the start of the fall from grace. In Jan of 2010, I had been fired by Pep Boys who I had worked for since late 2005. It was just as well, I wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to take on more responsibility for slightly more money.

Luckily I was still living at home otherwise I would have a serious problem on my hands. Now some would say, you allowed yourself to get fired because your single, suffering from peter pan syndrome and have no responsibilities. Funny, this is almost exactly what my friend Steve said before his long time GF left him. He was jones'in so bad for a relationship in a moment of weakness, he fell for a divorce single mother of three girls... To further understand the context of what he was saying; he was forced to do something when his mother and her husband (step father) told him that they were moving into the her mother's house after she had passed away, which was paid for already. Yet another example of Baby Boomers throwing Gen X and Gen Y under the bus.. Anyway he lived with a short time with his father, but never really got along with his father, so he and his GF decided to move to Garden Groove for those of you familiar with Southern California, to be closer to her family.

So he had been living on his own for the last decade or so, while I lived at home and only briefly lived outside of my parents house with my ex-GF a total of about two years.

I've had other friends lob this criticism at me which is why they have slowly moved away from maintaining contact. I am not going to continue to communicate with people that don't make an effort to return messages, email or phone calls.

I should mention that none of these people are particularly successful. None of them own any real assets IE housing. My buddy Steve just shacked up with his new wife in the house she got in her divorce, don't we talk about sh*t like this all the time?

Anyway, with no car and no job in the City of Los Angeles = Death?

After my savings had run dry (completely) and I closed a credit card I got just a few months earlier that I still owed money on, I decided to look at my options. To keep my parents off me, I decided to enroll in the local occupation center (job training) for A+ training. My friend suggested I should apply for disability. I was eventually refused/denied but during one of the phone calls from a social worker, she asked how I was making any money. I said, I was selling stuff (which I was) she countered with didn't you know about General Relief? I said no, she explained to me it was offer from the same office I got EBT from. But what I didn't know at the time was that the branch office I was using didn't offer GR, but the office 12 miles away did. I wouldn't have ever known without this person telling me.

Initial I only got $110 a month but got a lump sum of $330 at first since they back dated my claim. Around this time my mother offered to add me to the Family plan that her and my sister were on. I got a decent feature phone (Java Browser + A-GPS) and started to attend classes (Jan of 2011).

While in class one day, one of my classmates came in with a bandage around his arm. I asked him what happen and he said nothing that he was donating Plasma. I was like, doesn't that hurt? He said no and that they offer you $30 for your first donation and then you call to confirm nothing was wrong with your donation and that you would be scheduled for a second visit and given $50 for donating again. Apparently they have a problem with retention....

I asked him where did it and told me there are two places in the valley but one is much better/cleaner than the other and that's the one he used. I decided why not, if it didn't hurt. Initially I thought I would just do it, so I can have some money to attend Long Beach GP. I succeeded by donating twice, getting $80 and went to the race.

I continued to go after that however. I figured, add this to my merger GR amount and I could start to make some things happen. Since my basics were taken care of (food, shelter) but I was cash poor. If I donated twice a week I got $70. Eventually I a tetanus shot (I needed one anyway) and got additional $5 a week and $10 when on my sixth donation.

So 4 weeks in a month, I would make $385, in Feb I would make about $310.

I was donating all the way up a few months ago, because I couldn't alternate arms like some people do, I developed quite a bit of scar tissue that started to clog the needle when it was inserted. I am suspended from donating indefinitely, it's possible I could return, I may...

By the end of 2011, I had two sources of income. My GR had been increased as I attended mandatory job training and hit $221 + another $75 for transportation during my "job search". I was getting $380 or so a month from donating Plasma. As long as I ate a low fat diet and drank about a gallon of water a day, I had no side effects from donating six, seven, eight times a month.

Totals (monthly) -

$200 in EBT
$221 in cash assistance
$385 donating plasma

All non-taxable income or credit.

Stay tuned for Part II

[Ghost]

.

[djfourmoney]

Is anyone really worried that you like white women? I thought one of the points of this site is that white girls are bad for dating, sex, relationships.

Well, anyway, it sounds like you try. If you can keep the plasma donation and daddygov cash going while adding a few more small income sources you could probably be doing pretty well.

Nobody should be concerned. People believe they know or understand why, for me it's a simple value proposition.

You can try to figure that out.

[Cornfed]

So you are on the state dole then. Not a particularly interesting story.

[djfourmoney]

While sitting waiting for the bus, I thought I am earning enough to buy a car and open up my job options. You really can't find meaningful work without a car in Los Angeles. Well I decided against it because I wouldn't really be able to enjoy having a car until I found that job. I also didn't trust getting a car I could afford and using it for things like delivering pizza.

So continued to donate and collect plasma....

In the meantime I bought some things I wanted, some things I needed and went on a trip to Mexico City for a couple of days. I went to connect with a Brazilian woman who I found on another forum that discuss meeting and marrying foreign women accept this site is bias towards Latin America.

That connection failed, it's okay.

I have flirted with the idea of a podcast; a podcast that would talk about what I am doing. What am I doing? After trying things the conventional way, I am going to try it MY way and thus far, it has worked. That podcast is still coming but I think I will save it when I make my next move, which I have talked about from time to time, if you have been paying attention.

After 4.5 years of being unemployed and earning about $6,000 a year. I felt the next step was to work on my credit. I've never had good credit. I mess it up originally by buying a car, not taking it all that seriously and getting it repo'ed. In fact, I've had two cars repo'ed. Two taken by the police because they weren't registered as well. I have tried hard to learn from all these costly mistakes, but the key was to find a job I could tolerate and fix my credit.

The one job I could tolerate where the ones I didn't have to work weekends. The only job in the last decade I had that didn't require working on weekends was Merchandising.

I was already employed by Footprint, but the original project I was hired for was cancelled and accept for a Wal-Mart project late in the summer of 2014 I missed I wasn't contacted by them for any new projects.

Around that time I started spending less time here and more time at myFICO.com. I read as much as I could about repairing my credit and how to build credit. Once I formalized a plan, I went too it, that was Oct 2014.

I started with inactive credit report, an EX score of 635, TU of 550 and a EQ of 530. It could have been worse but the last repo wasn't on my report because it wasn't under my name. The only other negative I taken care off back in 2008 when I used some of the life insurance money to pay off the Capital One credit card I had.

I found I could get a secured credit card without any income verification. There are a couple of them now, but at the time I know found that the State Dept Credit Union offered this with the lowest interest rates and lowest secured deposit. I had to re-apply for GR (General Relief) anyway and usually get a lump sum when I do. So I did that and got my lump sum. I took the majority of that and got the secured card from SDCU.

If your interested in getting this card go here - https://www.sdfcu.org/

They report to all three Credit Agencies. For me it's the about 7 days after my due date (which is the 15th) my payment shows up on my all three CR's.

The theme that kept coming up while reading myFICO was to get maximum scoring on my credit reports, I needed three revolving lines of credit, IE credit cards and at least one installment loan.

So after getting one card, I was told (great forum) to get Capital One secured card. Since I had paid off my other Cap One card, I knew I wasn't black listed. When I first applied, I stated I didn't have a checking account. I was denied, I waited for the letter stating why. Turns out it was because I didn't have a checking account. First I wanted to confirm I was not in the Chex System. This is easy to do, just call them up https://www.consumerdebit.com/consumeri ... /index.htm and ask for them to send you a free report.

I got my report about 5 days later and there was nothing on it which is a good thing. I immediately took my own advice as since Occupy Wall ST LA I have supported banking with credit unions. I looked around for a suitable CU in my area, I decided on Logix which is the former name of the Lockheed-Martin Federal Credit Union. I deposited $50, $5 of which went into the savings account which is what the bank uses for investing it's on portfolio.

I asked on the myFICO forum if I should re-apply to Capital One, I was told to wait about 90 days. Well a few days later I said screw it and called the number on the letter I was sent and applied over the phone. I told them I had a checking account and was instantly approved to put $99 down for $200 secured card. I deposited $129 actually to get ahead of the annual fee.

By the time I got my second credit card, it was late Nov 2014.

Spent Dec seeing if I could really buy a car. Since I didn't have much cash (it was wrapped up in the secure cards) I had to find a way to get a reliable card without any money down.

I figured with both cards reporting now that I would give it a shot, stay tuned for that.

[djfourmoney]

So you are on the state dole then. Not a particularly interesting story.

Look idiot, it's a story of how I went from being on the dole to off it, it's not finish.

[zboy1]

It's a good story, Djfourmoney. We've all struggled at one point in our lives. When will you post part 2 of your story?

[djfourmoney]

It's a good story, Djfourmoney. We've all struggled at one point in our lives. When will you post part 2 of your story?

It's an ongoing story -

As of Dec 2014, I had just received my Capital One secured card in the mail with a credit limit of $200, I put down $100. I mentioned earlier that I had to re-apply to get GR again as it ended in June of 2014 and I had to wait at least 90 days before applying again.

About the same time, the problems with scar tissue build up started to become a real issue and I would get deferred from the donation center. GR was my only source of income.

But to make more money I needed a car. Around that time I had started to listen too Dave Ramsey's podcast. I was listening to the free version which is only an hour. That's fine because honestly I couldn't tolerate the ring wring, religious bent theme of his show. But like many things in this country it gets you into the belly of the right wing beast; not that I didn't know why conservatives believe the stuff they believe it just was interesting to see the machinations play themselves. This is why radio is popular with ring wingers because they calling up Dave or Tony Perkins about your personal crisis.

IE it' a look into White America's middle class that is largely unseen by most of the mainstream media. You also get "This country is great" from Christian immigrants as you hear story after story of them starting with nothing to owning a home and having money in the bank.

This is why when you confront these people overall they believe nothing is wrong really and that minorities, especially Blacks are playing the victim card and lazy.

As I said very interesting...

I highly suggest you take his Five Baby Steps to heart though. I haven't strictly follow this path because it's based on having no credit cards; I have more credit now than cash...

So how did I get there?

Okay back to Dec 2014, I had two credit cards but little cash.

I wanted a Ford Fiesta ST, I had seen some people get the car for way under MSRP ($18,800 is the lowest I've seen, MSRP is $22,100 with destination). Yet I couldn't get a bank or Ford Credit to sell me this car. It was suggested by somebody on myFICO that I go to Car Max. Well to cut that story down a bit, I found my ceiling was about $16,000; it was all a bank was willing to let me have with my CR the way it was at that point.

With that knowledge I went looking for a new car I wanted for that amount. I zeroed in on the Hyundai Accent. I wanted a stick/manual trans car; it was January 2015 so 2014's with manual were becoming rare and 2015's at least in California were fairly rare. I found a car up in Washington state, a 2015 Hyundai Accent Sport. I flew up to Washington and drove the car back.

On my way back the week before Footprint had contacted me about doing a Walmart reset in Paso Robles, CA. So I detoured off the 58 and showed up on-time. I made $128 that night with overtime and drive time factored in, not bad.

Since Jan 2015, I have been full bore and it only slowed down a little bit this past Sept.

I was working for three companies all in the merchandising space. I came up with that idea reading a story on Forbes.com - http://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2 ... -shopping/

From Jan to Sept, I was constantly busy. I made anywhere between $1,200-$1,300 on the low end to just over $3,000 in 45 days.

As of Oct 17th, I was just approved for a credit card from local credit union, Logix. They recently re-financed my car, so with that single credit pull I can apply for other services.

I only got $500 but that's okay. I now have two unsecured cards and two secured cards. I am working out what my next move is, but it looks like I will keep the secure cards open for a bit longer and just replace them slowly with unsecured cards that will grow largely credit limits.

Checking Account - $1006
Cap One Quicksilver 1 - $1,500 Credit Limit, $650 available
Cap One Platinum secured - $529 Credit Limit, $250 available
SDFCU Platinum Rewards secured - $275 Credit Limit, $100 available
Logix Platinum Unsecured - $500 Credit Limit (just opened)

I will report back in Dec when it will be one year with both original cards as I am not quite done applying.

The Capital One QuickSilver 1 I have to mention really quick. When you start getting mainstream cards like this, the credit increases are more dramatic, example. When I applied for the card, I got $500 opening credit limit. I started using it aggressively (I use it instead of cash). I was told on myFICO that I should hit up Capital One for a Credit Line increase after my 3rd statement which was Sept. I did and was given a $1,000 increase.

I am in their credit steps program so I will get automatic line increases anyway. The originally planned increase is set to happen in either in Nov or Dec, I don't remember, I have to call them.

But with my continued use, I will hit up Capital One again after my automatic increase for another one and hope to hit $3,000 or more by Dec. This is what I am trying to convert all my secured cards to unsecured mainstream cards.

If you have any questions about credit or credit cards let me know, via PM.

[Teal Lantern]

Why manual trans?

[Eightfold Path]

Why manual trans?

Why NOT manual transmission?

[djfourmoney]

Why manual trans?

I like to drive?

[djfourmoney]

I figure this is a good moment to update.

Capital One did give me my credit steps upgrade from $1,500 to $2,000.

My own speculation of why only $500 is because my utilization is high right now. This is okay because I am not applying for anything. Once I return from my trip I will pay down all the cards to below 10% utilization ($297 across four cards).

I am starting to get more pre-qualified offers in the mail. I am going to take one from Merrick bank and "soak drawer" it. That means I won't use it, it is only there for occasional use (watch battery, tank of gas, etc) just to keep the account active. The offer is $700 opening the account, then after seven on-time payment they will double it to $1,400.

By taking the offer in Dec (offer ends mid Jan 2016) my first due date should be mid Jan. So by July statement close, I should get an upgrade to $1,700.

I will update my accounts here after my statement closes towards Christmas.

Another change -

I have started to drive for Uber and Lyft, mostly Uber. I will add some screen shots later, but only working three days a week, some times two I've made at least $221 a week. On Halloween I made $230 in one evening.

Overall I like it, it's not dramatically different from the courier work I've done. IMHO there isn't much value in working Sun-Wed even in a large city like Los Angeles. I may try it just to see, but in my research the best days are Thurs-Sat evening despite the majority of drivers being out as well. I am constantly busy if I am in Hollywood, West LA or Downtown.

I will go deeper into it after 90 days. Registered with both back in Jan 2015 when I was making sure I had income streams to pay for the car. However I was busy with the merchandising until August.

My expectations despite the moaning on sites like Uber People were mild. I fully expected to make about $250 a week and that's exactly what has happen. I've made about $70 in tips as well.

Well I'm going to mask one of my R/C bodies and maybe I might have a running car by the end of the day.

[alexmerlin]

So you are on the state dole then. Not a particularly interesting story.

[djfourmoney]

So you are on the state dole then. Not a particularly interesting story.

I'm on the state dole? Where is that mentioned but at the first post?

Look idiot -

1) I don't qualify for GR any longer and haven't collected since my last claim ended in March of 2015.

2) I still qualify for EBT but because I procrastinated I was suspended and have to re-apply. I had some problems with one of my merchandising companies; saying I quit their company when I was let go due to lack of work (so they say). By reporting I quit that would suspend me from EBT for 90 days before I could apply again. So I had to straighten that out.

I will go tomorrow (21st) or Tues (22nd) to re-apply since everything is clear.

As I said this is an on-going story. But be that as it may even with donating plasma and getting GR, I was able to take a trip to Mexico City for a few days, get a new laptop, LCD TV, PS3, upgrade my cell phone and purchase a new DJ controller.

I was still able to purchase a new car without any money down as well.

One of the reasons this site is a major fail is because morons like you and CornFed have nothing good to say or have any ideas yourselves.

I am posting this to prove to people your situation isn't hopeless.

[djfourmoney]

Just a short updated -

I took the pre-approval from Merrick. Given the holidays are upon us, I should get the card in the mail sometime around the first week of Jan 2016.

I've been on a bit of buying binge.

Bought a R/T to Brazil for $549. I will be there 20 days and nights starting Feb 4th. My original flight was $392 for 9 days starting Nov 26th till Dec 8th but I couldn't get a Visa appointment until Jan 5th 2016.

So I took a $140 hit but the rest was refunded so my net cost for the new ticket was $157.

I also reserved a loft in Sao Paulo for the first 8 days but it was recently cancelled as the owner is doing some repairs around the same time I would be in-town. Another request I made was turned down. I put in another one but haven't heard back. I will look into it more that I getting much of this coming week off.

I bought some clothes on Black Friday as Old Navy was having it's 50% off everything in the store sale. I also bought a USB turntable so I can complete that long awaited process of converting my 12" singles into digital files. I have downloaded or bought about half of them but others I can't find so this will help. I also picked up a new digital camera because my old Olympus while still working great is lacking some features like 1080p video, stereo recording for video, larger aperture, more optical zoom, USB connectivity and Wifi which allows me to control the camera from my smartphone both stills and video.

Beyond that I returned back to the R/C hobby with a vengeance. I bought three cars when I meant to buy just one. I will be going racing for the first time too so I have plans to buy a 2WD buggy and a more specialized touring car chassis, likely when I return from Brazil.

I am stopping donating plasma because scar tissue is building up again. The last trip they couldn't get the return cycle going so they kept about half a pint of my blood.

Because of that I am deferred for 56 days. Truth be told, I hope I don't to go back (E-40) the changes I made this year and the ones I have planned for next year I should never have to do it again, but might do it on occasion if I want something and don't want use any of the cash or credit I already have. I will wait at least the 56 days which is basically two months.

But I will see around Summer time.

So that leaves my screen shots of my Uber Partner app. I will do that when I finish 2015, so sometime after New Years.