#to put toward my student loans when those start up again. and my computer went 'lol thats cute'

[crimmson]

between my computer deciding to rebel, and work, and life, and I feel like I have a perpetual minor cold with that kinda slightly stuffy feel and that taste in the back of my throat,

I am kindly requesting someone to just Old Yeller me at this point

[trillian-anders]

first blood

pairing: ransom drysdale x reader

warnings:  angst, general asshole-ness.

word count: 4.6k  

description: part 3 of 5. how did you become ransom’s glorified babysitter? and why the fuck are you keeping this job? who knows. you hate it, you hate him, but... the money. 

note: tumblr is being super shitty rn so I can only post on mobile, but I really wanted to get this off my desk! will add a read more and properly link later 💕

prequel to the assistant && four christmases, spoiler free loves. 

You have to do this.

You have to do this.

You have to do this.

You don’t think your eyes will ever feel normal again. They were dry and scratchy. There were no more tears to shed. You’d buried your Mom two months ago, but you didn’t know how it would ever feel okay. She did everything for you and Julia. Everything. She worked hard, made pretty good money, allowed you to have a part time job and just focus on school. Julia was in this really nice private school, she played the cello now for fucks sake. She had friends and was talking about maybe starting soccer soon, but after funeral costs and your sister’s tuition the life insurance money was running out.

You had to sell the house.

You’d moved the two of you into a small apartment right outside of Chinatown. Not the safest area, but not the most unsafe either. You’d be fine. You had each other, and she needed you to do this. You had to do this.

For her.

You sat uncomfortably in the cheap office chair, sitting across from a woman with too many papers on her desk, everything sloppily arranged around a couple of potted succulents and a framed picture of her and her three kids, no spouse.

“So your last job was in tutoring?” She asked you. You shifted nervously in your seat, nodding your head,

“Yeah, I tutored a high school student in English and Math.” You needed some water. The cheap pencil skirt and blouse you were wearing made your skin itch. She types into her computer some more.

“So why are you here?” She asked, “Why not continue tutoring?” A few more clicks and then more typing.

“The family I worked for paid me pretty well,” You admitted, “But she’s graduating this year and they didn’t need me anymore, I don’t really,” You cleared your throat, “I don’t really have much job experience outside of that and I need to start making money now… I’ve put out job applications but haven’t really gotten any luck.” Not with the income you needed anyway. The woman nodded. The plaque on her desk said her name is Stacy Chandler.

“Alright, here you are.” A printed page, address, date, and time. A job. Clerical work. Data entry. You have to do this...

-

“How was your last day of school?” Julia sat heavily at the kitchen table, backpack slumped on the floor next to her. She buried her face in her arms.

“I’m never going again.” Came muffled from her mouth. She lifted her head to look at you. The beginnings of puberty. You’d recently gone bra shopping for the first time. Real ones, no more training bras. You’d recently taken her to the dermatologist for her acne, but she’s not good at remembering to put on the expensive creams you bought. What a hard time. You don’t envy her.

“Luckily for you,” You smiled, placing a fudgy brownie in front of her, “You don’t have to go back for three whole months!” She rolled her eyes heavily, taking the brownie and disappearing into her room presumably to sit on her computer until dinner.

She was feeling the absence of your Mother just as you were. You weren’t sure what to do here. You loved your sister and you know she loves you too, but in the last few months it’s just been closed doors and a few parting sentences. Only because you had to work so much. Only because she spent a lot of time at friend’s houses where you’d think she would feel normal for a while. It would help ease the burden of being in your mid-twenties and suddenly feeling like a single mother. Of course you can sleep over at Mila’s house, her family is going to their cabin for the weekend of course you can go!

You didn’t know what to do other than keeping her in school and alive. You weren’t ready for this. But the only other option was your estranged aunt who reeked of mothballs and was constantly asking you if you were married, or dating, or ‘You’re Mother wouldn’t have wanted this’. No. It was very clear that your Mom wanted the two of you to stay together, and that’s how it’s going to be.

This summer she was going to spend with her friend Mila at their family’s lake house. Mila’s mother was a stay at home mom with six kids under the age of 12 and would be planning to spend the summer pintresting activities and projects with them while simultaneously getting out of her stuffy-old 10 bedroom, 8 bathroom mansion. Lucky her. Lucky Julia.

The apartment would be empty without the 12-year-old pre-teen for three months, but Julia has really been looking forward to it. Her bags were packed and ready by the door.

You hugged her tightly in front of Mila’s house, burying your face in her hair, partially not wanting her to go, but otherwise knowing that she’s going to have a better time than you could ever provide her. “Okay, you can let me go now.” She shifted in your arms, trying to pull away.

“Just another minute.” You mumbled, pulling her in tighter. “I’m gonna miss you.” She laughed,

“I’m gonna miss you too.” The two of you pulled apart and you tucked her hair behind her ears, cupping her sweet face.

“I love you,” You said very seriously, “If you ever want to come home just-”

“I’ll let you know.” She was getting impatient, the car Mila’s mom was taking to the lake house, a beautifully large black Range Rover sat packed next to you, they were waiting. “I love you too.” She slowly backed away towards the car.

“If she gets homesick, my husband still comes back every week for work so he can bring her home if need be,” Andrea was her name, Mila’s Mom. “She’ll be fine.” Andy was really nice. She made a lot of the food the two of you had eaten in the early days after your Mom’s death. Her gentle reassurance soothed you slightly. It made driving away a little easier, but it didn’t stop the tears that fell as you entered your apartment, alone. For the first time in a while. You didn’t have to hold it in anymore.

You sunk down against your front door, staring out into your living room, tears rolling down your cheeks in the silence of the home. Dirty shoes lined up against the wall, throw blanket hanging halfway off the couch, dirty dishes from breakfast still in the sink, and somewhere you’re sure under all of it was the will to pick yourself back up.

You just didn’t know if you were ready for that quite yet.

But you did it anyway.

More clerical work. More data entry. More bills going half paid and others being ignored all together. Student loans you didn’t even want to think about from a school where you hadn’t even graduated. Medical bills you didn’t even know where to begin paying back, itchy stockings, and uncomfortable shoes. With every day that passed you reexamined your life. How did you get here?

A new job, a new office. Temp assigned, but you knew who worked here. The building that housed it stood tall against the Boston skyline. Contemporary. You sat comfortably in a cushy office chair. The plaque on the desk read Linda Drysdale, CEO. And you waited.

You hadn’t seen the Thrombey’s, let alone the Drysdale branch of the family, for five months. Zero contact. Joni had talked to you last, thanking you for helping Meg, but also trying to sell you eye cream. “You really should invest in taking better care of yourself.” Which was her kind way of trying to tell you that you look old. Thanks.

You couldn’t imagine what Linda would want you for. You’d been doing some filing, they were transferring all of their documents to digital and hired extra help to do so, you were one of three hired from your particular temp agency, but yesterday she had called you personally and asked you to come in for an appointment today at 3 pm. And here you are.

Waiting.

There was a portrait of her family on the wall. Linda herself sitting in a high backed intricate chair, her husband Richard standing to her right, and to her left was her son, Hugh. He went by his middle name Ransom. They were stone faced, serious looking. This painting seemed ridiculous. If you didn’t know the Thrombey’s you’d think it was there to be ironic, as a joke, a play on what rich families were like.

But they were a rich family, and this is what they were like.

Linda was self-serving. She only ever talked to you when it suited her own interests and as soon as she was satisfied she would quickly direct her attention somewhere else, to someone more important. She used you to get what she wanted and when you served her purpose you were gone. She had no time for anyone, only her father. Anything for Harlan.

Richard was a predator. He was always making an uncomfortable comment about either your body or your face. He stood uncomfortably close at times and liked to settle a hand on the small of your back. He was a well kept man, throwing his wife’s money around like it was his own. He kept a money clip of hundreds in his pocket.

Ransom was a piece of shit. He was a self-centered egotistical asshole who was sure to make your life a living hell every time he saw you. There was always a comment, a jab at your clothes, your hair, the fact that you are poor. He once ‘accidentally’ threw your cardigan away because, “I thought it was one of those fucking rags you dust with, I didn’t want it touching my burberry.” He, like his father, felt predatory. Something about being a rich white man just really got them going, and the money clip with the hundreds… a learned habit.

“Alright,” Linda’s voice came from the doorway, you turned slightly in your seat. She was on the phone, “Well we will send Michael out to show them the properties instead, I’m sure we’ll find something they like.” She gave you a finger, hold on, even though you’d been sitting here patiently waiting for her for close to twenty minutes now. “Okay,” She continued, “Sounds good.” Sitting down in her chair, tapping a few keys to illuminate her computer screen. “Alright now, bye-bye.” She took her phone from her ear, looking down at the screen before placing it face down on the desk and smiling at you.

You knew that smile. She wanted something.

“So, Y/N right?” You nodded, “I see you’re looking for work.”

“Well, I’m with a temp agency right now but-”

“Would you like something a little more permanent?” A permanent job? The Thrombey’s had paid you very well to tutor Meg, better than you were making now. Granted you had only worked 15 hours a week when you were tutoring her, so $20 an hour didn’t seem like that big of a deal, but if they were looking for something, anything full time…

“Absolutely,” You smiled, shifting in your seat, “I’ve had trouble being hired because my-”

“Okay so you’re going to need Ransom’s number, and you’ll start tomorrow.” Your smile dropped.

“Ransom needs a tutor?” You asked skeptically. She laughed.

“No, he needs an assistant.” She gestured towards herself, “I can’t keep telling him when or where to be for family events and he has a fairly active social life so I’m gifting him an assistant for his birthday.” Oh.

“I uhm,” You really didn’t want to work for Ransom. You REALLY didn’t want to work for Ransom. “How much would it…?” You trailed off nervously.

“My father paid you $20 an hour to tutor Meg, yes?” She asked, typing something into her computer, no longer looking at you.

“Yes, he did.” You moved trying to see what she was typing without bringing too much attention to it. She was drafting an email.

“So I’ll pay you the same. Ransom will set hours for you and decide what days of the week he’ll need you and what else he wants you to do,” She waved her hand dismissively, “Cleaning, cooking, whatever.” She scribbled on a post-it before peeling and handing it to you. “Here’s his number and address, you can go over the particulars of your job tomorrow morning.” You opened your mouth to speak again, ask her the million and one questions you have but before you could say anything she dismissed you, “That is all.” She said. And she was done with you.

She got what she wanted. And now she wanted you to leave.

So you did.

“Well,” He grinned, “Linda really scooped you up from the bottom of the barrel, huh?” You stood on Ransom’s front porch. The only texts you sent and received last night were ‘What time do you need me to be there?’ and an hour later the reply of ‘11’. The scumbag was standing in the doorway, leant against the frame, looking down on you. In more than one way.

“Can I come in?” You asked. You really didn’t want to do this. But a $12 an hour temp job versus $20 hour stability… hard to beat. He smirked, pushing off the frame before looking you up and down, turning to disappear into the house.

“Take off your shoes.” What a fucking joke. His house was a mess. Clothes thrown haphazardly around, a pile of dishes not in the sink, but on the counter. Abandoned cups, tv was rolling on in the background, some political documentary. The house, while contemporary and clean, well kept on the outside. The inside looked like a frat house during rush week. You didn’t want to take off your shoes in fear that you’d step in vomit or something worse.

He grinned off to the side, “Had some people over last night.” He explained, drinking what looked like orange juice from a coffee mug. The vodka bottle that was capless on the counter led you to believe that orange juice wasn’t the only thing in the cup. “You can start by cleaning up.” He gestured around, sinking back down into the sofa. “I’m sure I’ll think of something else you can do when you’re done.” The fucking prick.

You shut the door a little heavier than intended, slipping your sneakers off and placing them by the door. “You’ve got a laundry room?” You asked, he didn’t look away from the television,

“Basement.” And he was done with you too. The tone was very, don’t talk to me. Which honestly you were grateful for.

You cleaned up his messes, the red solo cups that littered almost every surface in every room, laundry was running in the basement, dishwasher working hard to sanitize the first round of plates and cups that could fit, the others waiting patiently in the sink as you wipe counters and dusted picture frames, the thick film of unappreciation. He didn’t care about his house, his furniture, the art that cost more than your apartment that lined his walls. His clothes, while having an extensive closet, some were threadbare and with holes.

He didn’t care.

And it made you angry.

You thought of the furniture you were able to keep from your Mother’s house, well oiled and kept. No scratches. The fabrics of the couches and chairs carefully cleaned and maintained.

His sheets were stained and you were unsure when the last time he had washed them actually was. The dampness made you gag. It wasn’t long before you were cleaning under his feet. His ankles crossed and feet resting on the coffee table as you straightened the area around him. You felt his eyes on you, briefly, but ignored it.

“Do you have any real clothes?” He asked suddenly. He stood from the sofa, rounding it to pull the vodka bottle back out from the cabinet you’d placed it in, pouring heavily into the coffee mug before leaving the bottle and the orange juice carton he followed with next to it.

“These are real clothes.” You stated, coming behind him to put the items away. He scoffed,

“I’m important,” He claimed, “I go to parties, events.” He took a large mouthful of the screwdriver he’d just made, “You can’t wear clothes like that if you’re gonna be babysitting me the whole time.” You rolled your eyes,

“I don’t have to go. You set my hours, I don’t-”

“As much as I love the whole, ‘I’m poor and don’t care what I look like’, thing you have going on,” Ransom laughed, “You’re gonna be around me, and as a reflection of me, you need to look presentable.” He gestured to the demin shorts a t-shirt you were currently wearing, mismatched socks on your feet. You felt your face flush. “And slap a little makeup on.” You rolled your eyes at that. Fucking dick. He smirked when you didn’t reply, turning back around to leave you and disappeared upstairs.

He didn’t come down for a while. In that time you’d finished cleaning the living area, the house looking a complete 180 from where it had been when you’d originally entered, it was nearing dinner time. Your stomach was growling and you’d realized you had been cleaning for five hours without stopping.

You didn’t get to enjoy the sense of accomplishment because Ransom came down the stairs not a moment later, dressed for his evening. If you didn’t hate him so much you’d drool. He looked good. Patterned slacks, chelsea boots, a lightweight white button down, blazer over one arm. “Let’s go.” He said, not stopping on his way towards the front door.

“Where are we going?” You felt gross, covered in grime from cleaning, sweat dried on your skin you knew you probably didn’t smell amazing, hair frizzed up in a bun. He didn’t answer you, continuing outside. You sighed heavily, throwing the pair of socks you’d just matched back into the laundry basket before slipping your shoes on and following him outside.

“C’mon!” He yelled from the front seat of his beamer, sunglasses on his nose, he was annoyed with you. Whatever. You sat heavily in his passenger seat, the dickwad not even giving you time to close the door before he was speeding down the driveway.

“Where are we going?” You asked again. One hand on the wheel, the other’s fingertips brushing against his lower lip he looked at you from behind his sunglasses.

“To dinner.” He smirked, looking back towards the road as you merged onto the interstate.

He was a fucking asshole. If you hadn’t thought he was before you definitely knew now. You were surprised the hostess even let you into this place. It was expensive, and you were very, very underdressed. Point taken Ransom. Thank you. Fucking prick.

He took glances at you ever so often, seated a few feet away from him at the long banquet style table that housed all of his ‘friends.’ Gorgeous women and equally as gorgeous men who had money to burn. You weren’t sure any of these people have ever worked a day in their life, much like Ransom himself. You’d met a few of them before, briefly, when Ransom would show up and ask Harlan for money before disappearing for a week, one or two of them would be in tow bragging about going on some guy’s yacht or flying out to some private island.

Regardless, they weren’t talking to you. You were a strange interloper, easily ignored, but only after a few poked fun at the stray dog at Ransom’s heels. It only stung a little bit when he laughed with them. You were wildly uncomfortable. You poked at your deconstructed salad, the little bits lined neatly up on the plate, a smear of salad dressing beside it. This menu was ridiculous. Why were you here again? You were so hungry and this was not your speed at all. Ransom’s booming laugh met your ears and you could feel the anger rising in your chest.

Fucking asshole. You hoped he would choke on one of the olives in his martini. His eyes met yours momentarily and he smirked. He fucking smirked, cheersing you with his martini before it met his lips again. You could kill him right now.

The money.

The money.

Technically you were still working. As the sun set behind the horizon. You’d been at work, technically, for about 10 hours. That’s $200. Okay, you can do this. You can do this.

You know he did this to embarass you. He made it clear when you’d pull up to the restaurant to give you a taunting look. Whether the dinner was already planned or he had planned it after the conversation about clothes and makeup earlier was anyone’s guess. You had the feeling it was the latter.

He’d paid the bill after all.

The entirety of it.

You’d wished you’d ordered more.

Afterward a giggling girl took your place in the front seat, you glared at the back of her head from the back seat,

“Ransom.” She whined, leaning over in her seat to press her lips to his neck, “I want you to fuck me.” Lips around his ear, sucking the lobe into her mouth. You shifted your gaze to the window, the city landscape passing your eyes as you’d pulled into another valet parking, a bar this time. A nice one.

Ransom and the bubbly girl from the car ride over slipped hastily into the bathroom, he’d sent you a dark look before leaving you to your own devices. Looking over the cocktail list while sitting uncomfortably on a bar stool while your boss was fucking a girl who’d laughed at you for being a ‘dog’ earlier in the bathroom of a bar that had a $20 old fashioned and their most expensive wine came with a thousand dollar price tag.

“You lost?” Another smirking asshole, sidled up next to you at the bar as you took a sip from the beautifully balanced old fashioned you’d tacked onto Ransom’s tab. He was handsome, the guy bothering you, almost everyone in this room was handsome. The lights low and romantic, candles on every table and across the bar, soft music played from the piano across the room where a man sat gently stroking the melodies to create the ambiance of the room. Close, cozy, romantic, and dark enough to forget yourself in.

“Oh c’mon honey.” The man slipped onto the barstool, thighs spread wide around you as you face away from him, his hand meeting your back. “I can help you find what you’re looking for.” His breath reeked of alcohol. You glanced over at him,

“I’m fine thank you.” Another sip, damn this drink was good. He chuckled, moving in closer, drifting a hand down to your thigh.

“Don’t be like that.” He laughed, “You obviously don’t belong here honey.” His hand traced your bare thigh, “You’ve gotta be wanting some company.”

Ransom had returned face flushed and you could almost see a tiny bit of white on his nose, but it was quickly rubbed away. He sat on the opposite end of the bar, the girl from earlier taking his lap. He looked down at you briefly, he had to have seen how uncomfortable you were, how this guy was breathing down your neck. He ignored it, ordering a drink from the bartender.

“I don’t want any company,” You shoved the man’s hand away, “Have a great night.” He leaned back in his seat, downing his drink before leaning back over to put his face in yours.

“Fucking ugly bitch.” He spat, standing from the stool, “Tryna give you a little charity here, you could've at least been grateful.” You wanted to leave. He shoved your shoulder slightly as he walked away from you, no doubt going to bother some other unsuspecting woman in his radius.

You needed some air, taking the last sip of your drink you’d scooted back from the bar, walking by Ransom to take your exit, walking out into the summer night. It was early summer. It was still only 60 at night. A chill went through you. You hadn’t expected to be out so late, the comfortable denim shorts and old ratty t shirt you’d chosen to wear had obviously been a mistake for this day. Ransom made sure to make you see that.

The bar was on the harbor, and it brought in a breeze that caused goosebumps to rise on your skin. You checked your phone, the battery almost dead. Julia had been texting you periodically, but not as much as you would have liked. You scrolled through the most recent messages, you asking how her trip was going and what she was up to and her stilted replies. She was busy you supposed. She didn’t need you, but right now you really needed her.

This night has been a massive blow to your self-esteem. You’d never felt more ugly and unwanted in your life. You just wanted to go home, but Ransom wasn’t done yet. You looked at him from the window, his fingers were gone between that girl’s thighs, they were both drinking expensive cocktails, completely oblivious to you.

He’d watched you exit, not giving it much thought it seemed, because he hadn’t made any motion to bring the night to a close, but you weren’t really expecting him to. It was Ransom’s world and you were just living in it. You worked for him. And you wondered if this is how every day is going to be from here on out. You really don’t know if you could do this forever, but you knew you didn’t want to go back inside.

So you didn’t.

Thankfully Ransom stumbled out about thirty minutes later, girl from earlier on his arm. “Let’s go.” He said. Valet pulling the beamer around he threw you the keys, “Take me home.”

He sunk down in the back seat, high and drunk. His words almost incoherent. Her’s were no better. They sloppily attacked each other in the back seat, indecently. And you were pointedly looking anywhere but in the rearview. Soft grunts and moans made you uncomfortable for the fourth time that night. Your skin crawling in unease as the girl’s giggles turned into breathy moans. Your foot sunk against the gas pedal in hopes you’d get back to his home faster, tears welling up in your eyes. The cry on the way home was going to be so good. So cathartic.

The gravel crunching against the wheels of the car was a sweet relief, so was the haste in which you left the keys in the car, running and skipped to your own car. His eyes met yours through the darkness as he was leant up against his car door, slacks loose around his hips, the girl’s lips attached to his neck as her hand worked quickly between his thighs. He smirked, waving a sarcastic ‘good-bye’. You turned your eyes to the road, cranking up the radio as you began to cry.

You didn’t want to do this anymore.

A text came through right as you finally laid down in your own bed, snuggling into the covers, ready to forget the night.

See you at 9.

.

.

.

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[woodedcove]

Coincidence or Miracle?

At the beginning of my third year at CalArts, I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to afford the fourth year. I needed to graduate at the end of the year and get a job. This was in the late 1980s. The places to work in animation at that time were Disney, Marvel, DIC, and Film Roman. There were some small commercial houses but I wasn’t aware of them at the time. There were also places to work in Korea or possibly Japan. But there weren’t any gaming studios and computer animation was still in its infancy. So, jobs were limited and not easy to come by.

I was worried. I had a lot of school loans I would need to pay back after leaving CalArts and, without a job, making payments was going to be pretty hard to do. So I prayed about it. In my prayer, I told Heavenly Father, “Please, I will work as hard as I possibly can this year. Please, will you get me a job at the end of the year?” I admit, deep in my heart I said: “at Disney’”. That was where I really wanted to work, but I figured I shouldn’t be picky when asking for divine intervention. I wanted to be willing to take whatever job the Lord would give me.

Before I go any further in my story, let me explain a few things. At CalArts, students were expected to start and complete their own personal film every year so that by the time they graduated, they would have made four films. This meant that the student would have to come up with a story, design the characters, storyboard their idea, draw all the backgrounds, record voices and sound effects, splice the soundtrack together, do something called “read” the sound which was a way to transfer dialog to a sheet of paper so the animator could sync the mouth movements of the character to the dialog. Then the student would animate the characters and, on a special camera called an Oxberry, shoot the animation one frame at a time on to 16mm film. These bits of film would then be spliced together and made to sync up with the sound by using a machine called a flatbed. The final step was to send your sound reel and your picture reel out to a compositing company to have the sound and picture put together as one film. It was a lot of work. Most of the students found themselves living in their cubicles by the time the composite deadline came. Some wouldn’t complete their films but would get their films composited anyway. Then at the end of the year, they could put their films in the CalArts Producer’s show. Producers, animators, and directors from anywhere in the US would be invited to the show and this was how many students had their work seen and received their first jobs.

Now back to my story. After having prayed, I got to work. But a lot of things went wrong that year. The new Director of the Animation Program, Bob Winquist, had decided that unless the student's film was completely finished, he was not going to show it in the Producer’s Show. But that year my story ideas just weren’t working. When I finally thought I had my story figured out I showed it to my animation teacher who told me that he wasn't interested until I introduced a little kitten towards the end of the story. He encouraged me to build my story around the cat and the main character, a burglar. That night, while walking back to my dorm room, I just so happened to see a couple of upperclassmen, Bruce and Russ, and we had an impromptu story meeting right in the parking lot. The story was rewritten on the spot. The next day I boarded it out and started working on character designs.

My next challenge was to find a voice for my burglar. Several weeks went by and but I couldn't find a voice for the character. Then one evening, my animation teacher did an imitation of the character he was animating at work. I knew the instant I heard his voice that it was the one I was looking for. The next day I got up the courage to call my teacher at work and ask him if he would be willing to record the voice of my character. He agreed and that night, me and a couple other students got together with him and he recorded the voice in one complete take. It was perfect! He added so much to the character and I could just see what the animation needed to be in my head. I sent the recording out with all the other student's recorded sound to be put on 16 mm mag. But when everyone’s sound came back, mine wasn’t there. I had checked it before I sent it out. The recording was perfect. But somewhere between the school, the transfer place and back, my sound had been lost. I had to call my animation teacher and ask him if he would be willing to come back in and re-record the sound. He did, but this time it just wasn’t the same. To make it worse, I kept trying to get my animation teacher to give the same performance he did the first time by reminding him of what did or said. Well, that just ended up getting him really frustrated. After five or six takes he was ready to leave. That was when it came to me to ask him to forget everything I had said and do just one more take but have fun with it. He did and the take was perfect.

I don’t remember how the first semester and part of the second had flown by so quickly. I remember that I animated like a fiend the last month or so of the school year, I remember shooting the animation on the gigantic Oxberry camera in the middle of the night and I remember reading all my sound during spring break. I remember working and reworking my animation as my teacher critiqued it. (My animation teacher looked at one shot I had done, then set it aside and said “let’s start over”. Sadness. ) I remember the composite deadline looming over me and then passing me by and I was still nowhere near done. I was discouraged. How was I going to get a job now? My film wasn’t complete and so it wouldn’t be in the Producer’s Show. I thought about giving up. But when I had prayed, I had told Heavenly Father I would work as hard as I could. So I clung to that and kept working though it looked like no one would ever see my film.

A couple of weeks after the composite deadline, and just a couple days before the Producer’s Show, while everyone else was taking a well-deserved break, I was still busting my butt, working on the flatbed, piecing my film together. The Associate Director of the Animation Program, Dale MacBeath, just so happened to walk by outside the flatbed room and heard me working. He came in and asked what I was working on. I rewound my little film and played it for him. He seemed kind of touched by it. He told me to wait there, he would be right back. When he came back, he had the director of the animation program, Bob Winquist, with him. They asked me to play my film again, so I did. The director of the animation program liked it so much that he decided the film had to be in the Producer’s Show. I told him that I had missed the composite deadline and my film still wasn’t done. I didn’t know how they would be able to include it in the show. In the same room was a pencil testing machine that had a huge old video camera on it. Dale grabbed the video camera and videoed my little film off the tiny screen on the flatbed. My film was shown in the Producer’s Show and I was invited to apply for an internship at Disney that summer because of it. I threw together a portfolio in one night, sent it to Disney, and that was how I got my first job.

There were quite a few “just so happens” that happened that year. Dale “just so happened to see my film and tell Bob about it. I "just so happened" to run into Bruce and Russ in the parking lot and have an impromptu story meeting. My animation teacher just so happened to have the voice I needed and the performance abilities I needed for my film. But one of the biggest just so happens was the animation teacher I had that year was Glen Keane, who just so happened to be one of the finest animators in the industry. A talented and knowledgeable man the Lord provided for me for just that one year. As far as I know, Glen, though he has since given many inspiring lectures, has not taught a full class again. I was one of the very few that received the full benefit of having him as my animation teacher for a year.

The Lord knew what I needed, and knew what it would take to get me where I needed to go. What’s more, I think it was the place the Lord wanted me to go at that time as well. He knew even before I prayed, what I would pray for. Perhaps He even inspired me with what to pray. I was able to pay off my school loans and work in the animation industry for the next ten years because the Lord gave me these blessings, these ”just so happens”. It took me a while to recognize that those "just so happens" were actually God's miracles, giving me the help and guidance that I needed in order for him to answer my prayers. I can’t express my gratitude enough for what he had done. 

Have you had any "just so happens" in your life? If so, take a closer look and you may see the hand of God working in your life as well. If you do, bow your head and give Him a prayer of gratitude!

P.S. Yep I’m in all of these pictures. Good luck finding me!

[prorevenge]

EPIC INTERNET CAFE STORY 1 : READERS DIGEST

Here is another story from my youth, a good 20 or so years ago when I went to university I got a summer job during semesters at a local internet cafe. I've posted other stories under other subs so check them out.

Backstory:

I went to university in a large town, town mind you not a city. Situated in the valley of two rather large hills, either way you walked was uphill at some point.

I had just completed my first year and suffered a bereavement in the family, I lost my sister to cancer and took some time out from studies to gather myself before entering the 2nd year.

Needing money to survive I ended up getting a job at a local internet cafe. Yes this is the time of internet cafes. High speed broadband was super rare in the country.

Domestic broadband was barely reaching 1Mb in speed and this is the time of the infamous NTL acceptable usage policy(an ISP of the time which eventually got brought out by Richard Branson's Virgin)

This internet cafe had a T1 line. It was super-fast and had a special gaming floor usually filled with local children who loved to play CS. Unlimited use per hour paid. The floor was sticky, it smelled of BO and smoke. But it was the best games floor you could imagine. 20 odd high specced computers running lot of multiplayer games from Counterstrike to Red Alert. Heaven for a guy like me.

I started this job as a regular employee, it was just me and the manager. He and I got on really well, we had fun hosting late night and sometimes all-nighter gaming sessions.

Much of the time we would just goof around on the internet and help ourselves to some chocolate bars and these new things call energy drinks. Man those were good.

Business rules allowed us a couple of snacks and drinks during our shifts as long as we didn't take the piss and eat the whole store.

Various things happened here over the time I was employed in this establishment, a lot in a little over 8 months.

This is just one of those stories, it's the main one involving my Start of employment and interaction with the Owner and my ultimate parting with the company.

There is some overlap in the future stories, so you can refer to this when I write them. There will be some timeline post so you can read them in order.

Cast:

Cool Manager: CoolManager

Ass hole manager: ManagerA

Owner: OwnerJ

Owners Sister: SisterO

And Me, dear reader if you don't know who this is then stop reading now.

TL:DR at the end.

Various people come and go as I tell this, I shall just refer to them as and when they arrive.

Part 1: Changing of the guard.

I had been working in the cafe for a couple of months now. Let’s call the shop "Particles"

On this day CoolManager and I worked a full day and were just closing the shop. I went to get the signs from outside the store. One was located right outside the shop and the other 2 were at each end of the alleyway where the store was located. Jeffery, if you are reading this you know who you are.

I bring the signs into the store and CoolManager tells me he has something to tell me. So I sit down and he tells me that he is quitting and has given his 1 months’ notice.

Bummed by this news, I ask why but all he will say is that he wants to move on. Little did I know at the time was that he was suffering abuse from the Owner of the store, OwnerJ, regarding the owners sister. They had been dating, unbeknownst to anyone else and OwnerJ had found out and threatened to fire CoolManager or at least make his life hell as he was very protective over her.

OwnerJ was an ass, he owned 3 stores, called "Particles" , in total and would visit each one on a rotating weekly basis, taking the 4th week each month to go on holiday or some other task.

One of OwnerJ's best "motivational" tactics was to tell the store that he was currently visiting that the other 2 were doing better than this store was. He did that to all 3.

We knew this was a lie as CoolManager had found the performance report one time and saw that our store was consistently the best, we had the largest gaming floor and this attracted a lot of gamers from the Uni and college. The other 2 stores took it in turns to be the worst as their main focus was the cafe aspect which would generate less revenue based on other factors. Not heavy gaming revenue for them. They were more café than internet.

So OwnerJ was making CoolManager's life hell and CoolManager wanted to move on. I could understand that and we had a couple of adventures before he finally left. More on that in another story.

One fateful day I turned up at the store for my shift, I was on later than CoolManager and so he was the one opening up. I walk down the passage to the store and see a long queue of people. It's about 11am and the store opens at 8am, people start complaining at me for the long wait, I ask if CoolManager has not turned up and no one knows where he is.

CoolManager only handed in his notice less than 2 weeks prior, he had another 2 weeks to go so I opened the store, got the customers settled, made a few coffees and gave them to people on the house as an apology, I wouldn't charge them.

I tried to call CoolManager but he wasn't answering his phone. I tried all day to call him but he never answered. I was left to run the store the whole day.

He was supposed to work the split shift, work the morning and then take midday to afternoon off and come back for the evening till close at 8/9pm. So I end up doing the whole day. I log my hours and at the end of the day I close the shop.

When I got home I got a call from SisterO, she apologised for the mess that happened that day and said that CoolManager would not be coming back. I was in charge till they could find a replacement.

I would need to open and close the store each day but she would step in and take the afternoon shift. I was upset that CoolManager would leave me in a position like this but I was also happy as she said I could put it down as overtime. I needed the money, my student loan company had messed me around and I really needed the cash. So I accepted.

Thus began my new appointment to "manager of the store".

Part 2: The devil is in the details.

I worked with SisterO for about a month and a half, she was nice to be around but not as fun as CoolManager. She never mentioned CoolManager, even though I knew those two were still seeing each other, I never brought it up. We took on another member of staff about 5 weeks after I became manager and SisterO stayed for a week more to train them before moving on. each week she got more and more depressed. I later found out OwnerJ had been threatening her with her job and making her life hell as she wouldn't stop seeing CoolManager. he would say he would get the board of directors to fire her and her assets with the company would be forfeit.

So there we are: Me and the new guy, hence forth NewGuy. He doesn't play much part in this but you know there is someone else around now. I'm not a one man band anymore.

The summer is a hot one, and we are very, very busy, new games are coming out and it was my responsibility to ensure we had the correct number of CD's to run them. Licences are a bitch.

OwnerJ had been in the store this week and he tells us that we will soon be getting the new console from Microsoft, the XBOX. Wow, this was a big deal. we had only really been a PC game kind of store, to get something this big would be awesome. New signs had been brought to reflect that we would stock the machine for our gamers to play.

The weeks roll on and so do the questions regarding the Xbox. we had not received a single console, OwnerJ kept telling me that we would get them soon , but non ever materialised.

Our signs outside still advertised them, and I was getting pissed off with the constant customer complaints. So one afternoon I took some black electrical tape and covered over the parts of the signs that had anything Xbox related.

A couple of days pass and I get a call from OwnerJ. he demands that I take off the tape and advertise the Xbox again. I tell him that we are advertising a service we don't have, it's not good and all the complaints are just making the store look bad. He sticks to his guns and tells me to take off the tape. gritting my teeth I agree and he ends the call.

I could not help but think we were breaking the law somehow, we had nothing of the sort in our store, no Xboxes, no games for the Xbox and it had been weeks since we were promised them, all the posters and signage was there with XBOX in big letters. but no XBOX.

So I roll into the store the next day, I’m really tired the long shifts are starting to take their toll on me. I inform NewGuy of the rule and like me he thinks it's crazy. but we do as we are told. It is then that I get an idea in my head, I print out a bunch of "coming soon" signs and stick them over the posters for the Xbox just like a movie theatre would do.

I thought I had solved our issues but no, I get a call from OwnerJ and he tells me to take those down as well. I can't get a break, I had to do something about this... justice had to be served but how....

Part 3: Don't go towards the light T3chn0G1bb0n

Another week rolls by and I host an all-nighter with the local kids, CS and AVP2 (alien vs predator 2) and Unreal Tournament. Much fun was had at this, it was a welcome break from the rest of the time there recently. The only complaint I had is there were a couple of kids who insisted on using their own keyboards and mice. I offered to go get a torch so they could see under the desks to plug them in. It took a little longer to find than normal as the kids had chucked their bags in the cupboard and I could not reach the toolbox without moving them.

I find the torch and walk half way up the stairs to the gaming floor to hear the room in a panic, someone had the bright idea to use a cig lighter to illuminate the underside of the benches to plug in their mouse, not waiting for me to bring the torch.

They allowed people to smoke indoors back in those days. The game floor always stank of stale smoke. The poor air con unit barely coped to purify the air. With all the dust, grime and nicotine stains and cig ash I would regularly keep it going over night and all day to clear out the smell and ash particles, yes this floor got pretty dirty during the week and we only had one cleaner, once a week.

I tried my best but there wasn’t enough time in a day to monitor the store and clean it , it really needed a deep clean and our cleaner did the bare minimum.

Something sweet and sticky that was around suddenly decided to catch fire. Like I said I’m about halfway up the stairs when I see a kid grab the fire extinguisher at the top of the stairs.

My first thought was oh shit fire, but then I realised that the particular fire extinguishers we had in the store were not Co2 but H2O. Fuck, fuck , fuck……

I move at close to the speed of light and grab the fire extinguisher off the kid before he has the chance to pull out the safety pin. Water and electricity don't mix don’t ya know!

I grab the fire blanket off the wall and use that to put out the fire. in hindsight it was not a very big fire but 14 year old kids don't know any better. being only 18 myself this was a shock. I give the kids a bollocking for using a lighter and put the fire extinguisher back on the hook.

We end our gaming session early after a couple more hours, with all the excitement, it has worn us all out. I make a note to call OwnerJ about this issue in the morning and go home.

Much to my surprise the following day OwnerJ is in the store, I had completely forgotten about it being his week in the store as he hadn't turned up recently.

I walk over to OwnerJ and ask him about the fire extinguisher and tell him about the accident that happened the night before. OwnerJ isn't really giving me much attention to my complaint.

I tell him we really should have Co2 and not H2O extinguishers for the exact reason I prevented last night. He scoffs and tells me we don't actually need to have them as the store is exempt from needing extinguishers. I thought to myself that this can't be true, surely there is one thing to have no fire extinguishers as you are exempt, but another to have the complete incorrect ones for the business purposes. I offer to remove them and put them in the cupboard for staff only use and explained to him that a customer was the one who grabbed the water extinguisher and could have gotten electrocuted with its use. Again he scoffs and tells me to not touch them, we are exempt from needing them so they can stay.

I was livid at this, no concern what so ever for the customer or my safety. this didn't sit well with me at all. I was determined to do some research into this as it couldn’t possibly be true.

A plan began to formulate in my head....

Part 4: Bay leafs

Two days later, I am sitting at home as it's my day off, A sunny Saturday and NewGuy is taking the shift for the day. I needed some R&R, working 7 days a week was hard.

My phone rings. it's NewGuy.

"Umm", he says, "You need to get here now, there are 3 big fuck off bailiffs here demanding to see OwnerJ and they won't leave. I cannot reach OwnerJ on his phone and they are making all these threats about taking stuff away. customers are leaving the store over it."

I tell him to lock up the gaming floor and any other door and hide the keys, the less they can access the better. I make it down to the store like a student who ate a vindaloo the night before and now needs the toilet. Gasping for breath I enter into the store and ask WTH is going on.

“We want to see OwnerJ”, they keep telling me. And I keep telling them “he isn't here”.

The bailiffs disappear outside when their phone rings. OwnerJ had returned their call and they spend the next 20 minutes on the phone to him. He must have been in his car when he called them back as he appeared at the front door some 20 minutes later hence.

Hushed mutterings and waving of arms are all that can be seen and heard from where NewGuy and I are standing, behind the staff counter looking out the window.

Then suddenly it all stopped and the bailiffs left. OwnerJ came into the store and said that they had gone and we were to tidy up and open the store again. The bailiffs had begun to take things when they were taking inventory, not caring where they put stuff when they moved it.

I asked OwnerJ what had happened only to have him respond with , "mind your own business", ooooh you are going to meet my wrath soon OwnerJ.....

OwnerJ leaves and NewGuy and I do as we are told, does not take long for the store to open up. I reminded myself that I would get the last laugh, I should just wait and bide my time for the right moment to spring the trap...

I found out that OwnerJ had not been paying the council his business rates and taxes for months, he had been going on all these holidays with the money that should have been spent on council tax and rates.

The council were in the final stages of court proceedings and if nothing was done that day, we would have had the store stripped of goods to pay off the debt. not good.

Couple of hours later when the store is open, a few kids had heard of the events from earlier on and were making a lot of fuss out on the shop floor trying to ask me questions.

I take them out the back with NewGuy and explain what was going on and how OwnerJ had screwed the pooch with the council. I apologised to NewGuy for the horrible experience, those bailiffs were really rude and they were very intimidating, I told NewGuy he could go home early and I would finish up. I was upset at OwnerJ, not only had he not apologised for what had happened he was just out right rude and there was not even an excuse from him. I was not happy with OwnerJ and I expressed that fully in front of NewGuy my thoughts on the matter. I thought being outside in the alley was safe to speak.....

Out of the corner of my eye I see a lady get up out of her seat and leave the store... I rush after her as she has not paid, but I fail to catch her. Who was she? I would find out a few weeks later.

Part 5: Out with the old in with the new.

It wasn't long after the incident with the bailiffs that things began to change. I was hard at work trying to find any legislation on the regulations for our store. those fire extinguishers were on my mind all the time. Hitting brick wall after brick wall, back then government and local council websites were short and very brief, not much more than a geocities style website. good old web rings.

OwnerJ walks into the store and introduces a guy who was going to be the new manager, this is our ManagerA ladies and gents. He was tall , skinny and had a crew cut hair style.

I move out of my chair to shake this guy’s hand and welcome him, he was cold and uninterested, and I had a weird vibe about him, couldn't place my finger on what it was at the time.

Demotivated at the loss of my role as manager , I knew deep down it wouldn't last. I was due to go back to University in a couple of months so I could not maintain the position for ever.

ManagerA and I never seemed to get on, there was no chemistry between us, he just wanted to do his job and go home. for the most part he was ok but this was about to change.

One day, one of the computers failed, hdd failure or something, it was constantly crashing. I was diagnosing the problem when ManagerA asks me what is wrong.

“It's being Ghey” (read: gay) I said.

Now at this time gay in our kid slang "gay" didn't refer to anyone of the homosexual persuasion but rather it was more akin to "lame". times were changing and to use this word in a derogatory sense was quickly becoming wrong speak then but it wasn't fully mainstream yet. Now whilst I don't condone homophobic slurs, it wasn't the same back then, language was changing and I would not intentionally use a slur like that, and today I refrain from it totally. But back then, it was common slang, it was acceptable and we didn't mean anything bad to those of the homosexual persuasion by using it. Just as Gay originally was synonymous with "good, happy", the kid thing of using opposites to mean something was common, like wicked to mean great etc. A friend had dodged a bullet recently from a GM in an online game recently where he said "gay" in voice chat, he received a complaint followed by a temp ban, it could have gone worse if it was 2019

ManagerA flipped his lid, "what did you say?".

Remembering this with some rapid thinking, the word "Ghey" could be just another play on words. quickly reacting…

"Ghey, I said the pc is being Ghey, G H E Y, it's not doing what it's supposed to do"

This got the side eye from ManagerA at me, daggers pointing in my direction. I technically had not done anything wrong. he just misheard me, /click. And thus began the quick and sudden downfall of our relationship. He changed into the ass hole manager of this story. Turns out he was gay. He was keeping it hidden in case of any trouble, it was a student town, but being out and gay was still quite unheard of back then. Many encounters following this, saved for another story.

Later that week I was due to host another all night gaming session, it was a tournament I had been planning for a while when ManagerA tells me that he will be hosting the tournament. I said I was actually going to compete and that I would want to host it. he said no and that I was “not going to host it let alone compete on company time”. He would run the store and stay down stairs surfing the web etc. whilst it went on.

Bullshitting liar he was. I found out that he took part in the tournament and was not downstairs once ever during that night. mother fucker screwed me over. his smug face will forever be etched into my mind.

I never spoke a word to him about it. To this day I hate his guts for it. He wasn't going to be the target for my revenge but I would make sure he suffered in the fallout.....

Part 6: the end of an era

I turn up for my shift, it's mid-week, and a busy one, kids will be going back to school soon so things should quieten down. I would be due to go back to uni for the 2nd year come end of October and I had just celebrated my birthday. I had booked the day off and had a great time at Pizza Hut. Refreshed I walk into the store. I greet Manager A and get to work.

ManagerA is sitting at the customer side of the store browsing the web. When someone piques my interest, there’s a tall bald guy, built like a brick shit house sitting at another desk deep in thought staring at his screen. He’s new it’s normally the usual regulars about this time of day.

I had been drafting my resignation recently and was going to give my 1 months’ notice in the next couple of days, so I sat at the staff computer and began to finish up its final details. I printed out the document when the Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy, got up and requested ManagerA meet him outside for a chat. I shrugged and gathered my recently printed document.

ManagerA walks back into the store and says to me, "hey T3chn0G1bb0n, ummm, I don't know how to say this but, you're fired, gather your things and leave"

Quicker than I’ve ever reacted before, I reach for my paperwork and hand it to him, to this day I don't know why I reacted this way, instinct I assume, and I gave ManagerA my resignation.

"you can't fire me, I quit" I say.

Puzzled, ManagerA looks at me, looks at my paperwork for a while and slumps back on his heels. I grab my bag and leave. In my letter of resignation I had spilled the beans on everything, all the shitty things that went on whilst I was there that I have not detailed in this story and how I was treated. I had enough evidence to shut the business down for all the dodgy practices and the health and safety violations. My time spent researching had paid off.

I get a call from ManagerA a couple of days later, inviting me for an exit interview and to pick up my last pay cheque. I'm intrigued because I was expecting my cheque in the mail like all the others.

I turn up at the store, expecting it to be packed with customers, but no, it was empty. ManagerA gestures for me to follow him up to the gaming floor.

Who should be sitting there but none other than Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy. What was he doing here? Remember the woman who ran out when I was in the alleyway talking to NewGuy and the kids? She was OwnerJ's wife! She had heard my rant to NewGuy about the time with the bailiffs and had blabbed to OwnerJ about it. Without any more proof than her words they would have to have taken time to gather evidence to fire me, Bringing in ManagerA was a stop gap to make sure the place didn't fall apart in my wake. And the Ghey remark was at the top of the list of reasons for my dismissal. How petty.

Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy and ManagerA grill me for an hour, in my naivety I stayed and listened to it all, but I know now I should have left there and then. They referred to my letter and how they had evidence that I was behind the dodgy practices as I was the manager at the time. Telling me they had cctv evidence. Knowing enough even back then that they were bluffing I called their bluff. They backed down. They didn’t have any cctv and they knew I knew. I'm not sure what the real purpose of the meeting was but they were very nervous, angry nervous, you could tell the anger was a cover.

In the end they let me go, with a veiled threat of court action if I pursued any complaint against them on the things I listed in my resignation letter. Telling me they would bankrupt me in court as they had more money than I did and it would take me everything I had to defend myself.

As it happened, my plan was already coming to fruition. I had been meeting with CoolManager, remember him? Since the incident regarding the fire extinguishers. I found out he had left early due to getting in a punch up with OwnerJ the day before mentioned earlier in this story. He had to lay low for a while.

He had let me in on some regulation that did stipulate the store required fire extinguishers, and not just any fire extinguishers, but specifically CO2 because we had so much electrical equipment they had to be the correct type to deal with the very incident with the lighter on that games night.

I had reported the company to the council around the time after the bailiff visit. An investigation had then been triggered and they had started to investigate the other stores before mine.

They had found several health code violations in the stores for food safety, the stores had very bad hygiene and it was found that a few cases of food poisoning of customers had come from those stores. Although they had not been subject to the fire extinguisher problem, they had the correct ones, our store definitely had the wrong ones per some regulation I forget. They already had concerns over the store following the problems with the council tax and rates. but this was the icing on the cake and they used their full powers to……..

My store was shut down for 2 months whilst they brought it up to code. They had electricians in who found many code violations with the wiring. they found small burns in the cables under the desks, kids had been using lighters all the time to light up the area to see, even from before I started working there, and that the fire I experienced was not the first in the place.

Long ago fire engines had to be called out after a kid did exactly the same with me , and the games room was apparently damaged by the resulting fire, blackened with smoke, it was repainted to all black and blinds were put up to cover the burns on the walls etc. I never noticed the smoke smell because of the cig smell.

All the desks had to be ripped out and replaced with fire resistant wood. they were originally some form of chipboard which was a major fire hazard because of the glue they used.

It cost OwnerJ a small fortune in repairs. On top of that OwnerJ was slapped with a very hefty fine by the council, they had to let NewGuy and ManagerA go (told you ManagerA I would get the last laugh!). But I feel sorry for NewGuy and when I saw him I apologised when he told me all the details I now provide to you dear reader.

SisterO cut ties with OwnerJ, she had sold her shares of the company to Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy and had married CoolManager. They moved out of the town to start a new life. Explains why Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy suddenly came on the scene.

I ended up completing my 2nd year of Uni but suffered a mental break down due to the death of my sister the year before which caused me to leave and move back home. I had buried myself into this job the right after her death to block out the anguish and grief I felt.

But on this day , I was the one who triumphed.

Fuck you OwnerJ. Fuck you Big Bald Brick Shit House Guy, fuck you ManagerA and fuck you Particles.

TL:DR, just read the story, it’s great.

T3chn0G1bb0n

(source) story by (/u/T3chn0G1bb0n)

[buckeverlasting]

Wine and Dine Me

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem librarian!Reader

Summary: You don’t normally date library patrons, but Bucky has been a very special regular lately. You finally go out on a long-awaited date.

A/N: This is my entry for @stanclub’s writing challenge! My prompt was “Where are your manners?” Prompt is in bold.

Warnings: a little fluff but mostly a great deal of smut; it’s really, truly filthy

Word count: 2.6k

It was a gray day in the beginning of February. James Barnes strode into the library with a blast of cold air. He stopped at the Black History Month wedding cake display by the doorway and picked a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. off a stand. His eyes flitted over the cover, his brow knitted in concentration. He flipped the book over and scanned the writing on the back. He nodded his head in appreciation. Then he looked up and caught you watching him. A grin creeped across his face, and he approached the reference desk with the book in hand.

Patron James Barnes had been such a regular visitor to your reference desk over the last couple weeks that you had his library card number memorized: 2276141405. God only knows how many times you’ve scanned it to reserve or check out books for the man. Actually, you know how many books he’s checked out. You pulled up his account on your computer by searching the system for his library card number. Since he started visiting your branch, he’s checked out over one hundred books and movies. He’d been coming here for a while, but it was only recently that he started specifically asking to see you on his visits.

“Good morning,” you said. “That’s a good book you have there.”

“Oh, really?” he asked. “I actually want to know more about this man. I was hoping you could help me find more books about him.”

“I can certainly help with that.” You took a seat behind your computer. “Let me check and see what we have on the shelves right now.” You accessed the library’s catalog. You performed a search, typing in commands to limit the search to what was available only at your branch.

“I’m surprised you don’t know of a few off the top of your head,” he said.

“I think it’s a common misconception that all librarians do is read.” You laughed lightly.

“You mean you don’t sit around and read all day with your cats?” he asked.

“Don’t get smart, Mr. Barnes.” You smiled at him.

“You can call me Bucky.” He returned your smile.

“You can call me Y/N, Bucky. It looks like there are ten biographies on the shelf right.” You turned the computer screen to show him the titles. “Do you want me to to take you over to see them?”

“Sure. Please, lead the way.”

You got up and waited for him to circle around your desk so you could walk through the stacks together. When you had passed the 300s (social sciences), Bucky asked, “So what do you do when you’re not reading with your cats?”

You gave him side-eye with a smirk. “I actually don’t have cats. I like to dance, go hiking, and I paint a little. I have to admit, though, I do like reading. I also like going on dates with handsome men who come into the library regularly to research history.”

He stopped in front of the 500s (natural sciences). “Are you asking me out on a date, Y/N?”

You looked up at the ceiling and rocked on the soles of your feet. “I’m just saying what I like to do, since you asked.”

You kept walking along, with Bucky trailing a little behind.

“Hold on,” he said, stopping in front of a display of poetry and plays next to the 800s *(literature). “Are you saying you’d go out with me on a date if I asked you?”

You turned on your heel. “I’ve been waiting weeks for you to ask me out. I’ve had a crush on you since my freshman history class. I know what you’ve been up to on your visits to the library. You’re trying to catch up. I admire that.”

“I guess you also picked up on my stalking you.” He grinned. “What are you doing tonight?”

“Finally, going out with you.” You brushed his arm with your hand.

“Of those things you mentioned liking to do, would kissing strange men in the stacks be one of them?” he asked.

You gave him a little shove. “Are you out of your mind? Do you know how hard it was to get this job? I have benefits and a retirement plan. There’s no way I’m giving that up for anyone, no matter how good he looks right now.”

“I’m a decorated war vet, too.” He shrugged.

“I still have student loans to pay off.” You crossed our arms. “Plus, call me old fashioned, but I’d like to be wined and dined a little first.”

“Fine, fine. Fair enough,” he said. “Just show me where the biographies I’m looking for are.”

“Can you pick me up at eight tonight?” you asked.

“Yes.”

“Then follow me.”

- - -

This was going to be the most important date of your life. James “Bucky” Barnes was going to pick you up in a matter of minutes. You checked your eyes for smudges and your teeth for lipstick. You patted down stray hairs and tested your breath against your palm. You smiled at yourself. You looked great.

The doorbell rang. You looked out the peephole. Bucky stood there with a bouquet of flowers. You opened the door for him.

“I hope this isn’t too old fashioned.” He handed you a bouquet of pink roses.

You breathed in their scent. “These are beautiful. I’ll have to put them in water. Do you want to come in for a second?”

“That’s fine.” He stepped into your home and looked around. “You have a lovely place.”

“Thank you.” You rushed into the kitchen and began opening cabinets looking for your vase.

Bucky appeared in the kitchen. “Need help?”

“No.” You popped up with the vase in hand. “Found it!”

“Do you mind if I just sit for a moment?” “Go right ahead.”

Bucky pulled his arms out of his jacket and draped it over a chair. He took a seat.

“You don’t need to take your coat off. I’m just going to be a second.”

He patted his knee. “Why don’t you sit for a second?”

“Okay.” You left the flowers and vase on the counter, walked over to him, and lowered yourself onto his lap. You could feel how warm he was through both your clothes. You looped an arm around his neck to help balance yourself. He bounced his knee, and you fell into his chest, which was solid as a wall.

“Can I kiss you now?” Bucky asked. His ocean blue eyes were soft. “I’ve waited for so long.”

“It’s only been a couple hours.”

“No,” he said. “It’s taken me a lifetime to find someone like you.”

“Like me?”

“Yes. Someone so smart and beautiful and kind.” He brushed the hair from your eyes and held he side of your face. “Can I kiss you?”

You didn’t bother answering his question. You went for it and captured his mouth in a deep kiss.

You broke the kiss. “How’s that for an answer?”

“I didn’t quite catch what you said.”

You kissed him again, and while your slid your tongue against his, he scooped you up bridal-style, and stood.

It was his turn to break the kiss. “Where’s your bedroom?” He pressed his forehead to yours as you caught your breath.

You pointed down the hall. “Second door on the left.”

You held onto his neck as he carried you into your bedroom. You flipped on the light. He threw you onto the bed. He began unbuttoning his shirt while kicking off his shoes. You pulled your dress over your head and tossed it on the floor. You rolled down your tights until you were in just a bra and panties. Bucky’s eyes lingered on you as he fumbled with the buttons on his pants. You got up to help him, but he pushed you back on the bed, not roughly or in a mean way. Just a gentle little shove to the shoulder, and you tumbled back to the bed.

Now Bucky was naked. You scooted on your butt to the head of the bed. Bucky crawled toward you, his erection bobbing between his legs. You took in a sharp breath when you saw how hard he was already and how large he was.

He slipped his hands down the front of your panties. “Let’s get you really wet for me. Take those panties off.”

You slipped them over your hips and kicked them down your legs and tossed them over the side of the bed. You also unclasped your bra and pitched it after your panties.

“Lay back for me, babe,” Bucky said. “Let me see that pussy.”

You did as you were told, and gently taking your knees, he parted your legs.

“Beautiful,” he murmured.

In an instant, you could feel his warm, wet tongue on your clit. You closed your eyes. He was lapping and moaning, and the combination had you balling the sheets up in your fists. You rolled your hips to press yourself against him harder. He slipped in a cold metal finger, and you gasped.

“Is that okay?” he asked.

“It’s fucking amazing,” you wheezed. “Don’t stop!”

“Where are your manners?” He grinned.

“I’m sorry. Please, continue.”

This time he slipped in two metal fingers, scissoring them as he pumped them in and out of you. You were writhing against his hand. He flicked the bud of your clit with his tongue as he continued to torment you with his fingers, curling one against your G-spot.

You cried out. “Oh god, I’m gonna cum!” The pressure had been mounting, and you felt like you were going to erupt.

“Cum for me, babe.” He began lapping at your folds again, as you felt the white hot heat blazing out of your core. You could feel yourself flooding his mouth as you came hard. He lapped and sucked hungrily.

“Wow, you’re really skilled,” you said, lying flushed and limp on the bed.

“Are you ready for me?” He sat back on his heels, lazily stroking himself.

You bit your lip, reached between your legs, swiped at your wetness, and tasted yourself. “I think I’m very ready.”

“Goddamn, that was hot,” he said.

You reached for his flesh hand and stuck two fingers in your mouth, gently sucking and swirling your tongue around them.

“I’d like to know what else that tongue can do,” he said.

“Why don’t you lie down and find out?” You got up on your knees.

Bucky rested his head on your pillows.

You knelt between his legs, grasped the shaft with both hands, and lowered your head. You licked his length in long, slow swipes before plunging it in your mouth. You sucked and bobbed your head, dragging your tongue around the head. Bucky moaned and placed his hands on either side of your head. He began thrusting up into your mouth as he held your head still. You moaned and the vibrations caused him to grunt. You could taste precum. He released your head, and you sat upright, gasping.

“Do you have a condom?” you said.

Bucky got off the bed and searched his clothes for his wallet. He held up a little square. “Found it.”

“Well, you were pretty sure you were going to get lucky,” you said. “I don’t know what that says about me.”

“Nothing, babe.” He kissed your cheek. “I just like to be prepared. Get on your hands and knees, please.”

Without a word, you obeyed, turning your back to him and bending over, putting yourself fully on display.

He smacked your ass with his flesh hand. “Gorgeous.”

You gasped when you felt him rubbing the tip of his cock along your folds. He teased your clit for a moment before lining himself up and pressing into you. You yelped a little as he stretched you.

“Are you okay, babe?” he asked.

“Yup.” You turned and gave him a thumbs up. “You’re just enormous. That’s all.”

He smiled at you. “You’re fucking tight.” He thrusted and almost knocked you down. He gripped you by the hips and pulled you to him, spearing you on his cock. You fell into the bed, cheek on the sheets, ass in the air. You reached back and spread your ass.

Bucky groaned. “That is a beautiful sight.” He placed a cold, metal thumb on your asshole, and you cried out. He applied a little more pressure, and your eyes rolled back into your head, as he continued to fuck you into the mattress.

“Fuckmefuckmefuckme,” you muttered.

He smacked your ass again and, grabbing you by the hair, he pulled you up off the mattress. He reached around and played with your clit with a metal finger. You were going to lose it soon. You could feel the ball of pressure within you expanding, the heat spreading from your core. You began to shake.

“That’s it,” he said. “Cum for me again, babe. I want to feel you dripping down my balls.”

His words made you shudder, and you let yourself go with a moan you were sure your neighbors probably heard. Once again, you fell face first onto the sheets, and all you could do was shake with the tremors of your orgasm as Bucky continued to fuck you as your wells clenched around his cock.

With a few last thrusts, he reached his own climax, and you could feel his cock pulse inside you as he emptied himself into the condom. When he pulled out and released your hips, you completely collapsed to the bed and shut your eyes.

“Mmm, that was fantastic.” You opened your eyes, sat up, and turning around, saw Bucky holding up the condom, which sagged with his huge load.

“Want to taste?” He gently held your jaw and tipped your head back. You opened your mouth, and he emptied the condom into your mouth. His cum was thick, salty, and still warm. You swallowed quickly and wiped your mouth with the back of your hand.

He stroked your hair. “Good girl.”

You smiled and blinked sleepily. Bucky pulled back the sheets for you, and you slipped under them, nestling your head on the pillow. He got in behind you, pulling you close to him, your back to his chest.

“That was amazing,” he whispered.

“That was fucking amazing.” That was the last thing you remember saying before you drifted off to sleep in Bucky’s arms.

- - -

Morning sun and bird song woke you in the morning. The room came into focus slowly, and you realized you were alone. Bucky’s side of the bed was cold. Perhaps he left a note somewhere, you thought, as you got up and put on your bathrobe. You wandered throughout your house, calling his name. He was really gone.

A knock on your front door. You dashed to the peephole. Bucky was standing on your stoop with a grocery bag in his arms. You let him in.

“Where the heck did you go?” you asked.

He leaned down and kissed our cheek. “I had to pick up a few things. Some fixings for omelettes and some champagne for mimosas.”

“What’s all this for?”

“Well, you said you wanted to be wined and dined a little before you would kiss me, and I guess we never really got a chance to do that. So, I’m going to wine and dine you a little belatedly.”

“That’s really sweet.” You got up on your toes to kiss him on the lips.

“Oh, it’s the least I could do to thank you for the night of my life.” He put the bag down on a chair and pulled you close. “So, what’ll it cost me for a rendezvous in the stacks?”

“Keep on dreaming, pal.” You rested your cheek against his chest. “I’m nothing if not professional.”

Thank you so much for reading. I’d love to hear your feedback! Also, if you’d like to jump on a tag list, just send an ask.

Permanent: @reniescarlett @captain-winny @gottalovekidding @trashpanda-barnes @buckychrist @itsbuckysworld @marvelous-avengers @sgtbucketbarnes @loki-superwholockin @mywinterwolf @petersshirts @the-canary @whiskey-cokenfanfic @coffeeandpies @buckyofthemyscira @jamesbuckybarnes13 @tina8009 @queenofkings121 @heartssick @xxloki81xx @jewelofwinter @darcia22 @achishisha @imboredsueme @libbymouse @fitzsimmons-is-forever

Bucky: @gamorazenn @38leticia

[maxerikson]

My Career Troubles

Throughout my life I have had trouble with my career choices. During my early elementary school years, I obviously had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was only around the fourth grade that I began taking my own aspirations somewhat seriously. Throughout the rest of my time in elementary school and middle school, I had a lot of different career aspirations: Detective, archaeologist, music producer, photographer, cook, restaurant manager, and seaman. Those last two were the results of taking a career aptitude test. However, it was not until late into my second semester of the eighth grade that I thought I realized what I should be: a video game writer.

Well, not exactly. I wanted to be the person who came up with the ideas for video games, but I had no idea what title that person went by. I eventually learned that they were called a “game designer,” but then I found out that “designer” is what every member of the development team is called, and then I found out that the person in charge of a game’s development is called the “director”. However, the idea for a game doesn’t always come from the director—it can come from any member of the development. Besides, “video game director” is a position you have to be promoted to, so I would have to start as something else.

Unfortunately, I did not learn most of this until the twelfth grade. I think I was late into the school year too by this time. I tried finding as much information as I could throughout high school, but it was not until I was about to graduate that I found anything that was actually helpful. Also, there are barely any video game companies in the state I grew up in. The number one problem is that this type of career goal requires a good fallback or backup career; although I feel like everyone should have some sort of backup for their primary career goals, regardless of what those goals are. This lack of a secondary career path led to one of the biggest mistakes in my life: rushing into college.

I graduated from an online high school in August 2010, and then enrolled in college the very next month. I chose retail management as my major, thinking that I could pursue a career in selling video games as my backup for a career in creating video games. However, I badly needed a job to pay for tuition, and I eventually stopped doing my assignments to focus more on the job hunt. I really should have thought it over more. By the way, I promised myself that I would never, ever take out a loan in my entire life, so student loans were not an option for me. I loathe the idea of having to spend the rest my life paying back money.

Over a year after I first enrolled in college, I enrolled in a career school, choosing hotel/restaurant management as my major. This time, I did put a good amount of thought into this decision before going through with it, and I had help from family to pay for tuition. Then I had my first lesson. Right there, in the very first text that I was assigned to read, I was told that a diploma in hotel/restaurant management did not mean anything without some work experience. I should have switched majors right then and there, because it was basically telling me that this entire course was pointless, but no, I didn’t; I stuck with the course, earned my diploma, and then failed miserable at finding any sort of job at any hotel or restaurant. I think the biggest problems were that I had written that I would not cook meat in my resume, and that I lived in a town full of close-minded people who did not believe in online education.

At some point while reading this, you were probably thinking, “Why not aim for a degree in computer science? That way you could get a job as a video game programmer, and you would have computer skills that could get you jobs in several other industries as well.” That is because I hated computers, and did not want any job that revolved around them. However, in late 2012, I realized that computers are just going to become more and more important in every job out there, so I had to get more used to them. I decided to go all-in with this and re-enrolled in college for an associate of science in graphic design.

On December 3, 2015, after almost three years of College Take Two, I earned my degree; but there were two problems. Halfway through my course, I realized that I care way more about the stories and characters from my video game ideas than I did actual gameplay, and that I should be trying to turn my ideas into TV shows instead of video games. That’s actually how they started out, by the way. During the second half of elementary school, I began coming up with ideas for TV shows. Late into middle school, I imagined those shows getting video game adaptations. I then exclusively imaged them as video games. As a result, when thinking about what I should do for a career, I decided I should turn these imaginary games into reality. The second problem was that there was way less demand for graphic designers than I thought, at least where I lived. I pretty much had to apply to jobs out of state, but no-one was willing to do interviews over the phone or webcam. I couldn’t even get jobs in cities I could drive to, because I never got my driver’s license! I couldn’t, there was no-one to teach me and I hate driving!

It took so long to get hired for a job that was related to my field. I eventually got a work-from-home contract job as a photo editor, adding new backgrounds to pictures of cars and trucks so they could be used for advertisements. I hated this job. At first, it was OK. I was fine with it. Over time, I got better at it; but at some point, I peaked, and there were just not enough tasks for me to take. Not only was I never able to make enough money to move out and live on my own, but I eventually got worse at the job, which got more and more stressful as the solitude and monotony got to me.

After a year of working at this job, I decided that I needed a change in career. After three months of carefully thinking about it, I enrolled at my local community college to get a degree in therapeutic massage. Unfortunately, I was unwilling to ask my relatives to help me cover tuition again, and my photo editing job wasn’t paying enough to help, so I had to take out a student loan. I promised myself I would never take out a loan, and I broke that promise. To this day, I hate myself for doing that.

Towards the end of my first semester, I quit my job as a photo editor, which was negatively affecting my health. I got one A and three B’s for my first semester, but I dropped two of my second semester classes before it ended. I could no longer get a degree in massage therapy, but I could still get a vocational certificate. However, I had to transfer to another school in another state. I was homeless during my time at this college, and the massage therapy class was in danger of shutting down due to a lack of students. I liked massage therapy, but I had to drop out.

Now I’m living in Canada with my birth family, working another job I hate while waiting out a pandemic so I can find a job in retail or entertainment. There is a lesson here that I want everyone reading this to take away from my story: do your researching and think very carefully about what you want to do for a career. Do not rush into college before knowing what you want to study or what you want to do once you graduate. If you don’t know what to do by the time you finish high school, then take a year off; take two if you have to! Just don’t rush into your post-high school life, or you may just regret it.

[erikismybitch]

Waiting In Vain: Chapter 9

Long Distance

The bar was extremely packed this night . Marley had finally cashed out her drawer and collected all of her tips. Becky , who kept checking up on Marley every five minutes was worried. She knew about everything, even the police raid . Becky insisted that Marley come and stay with her and her husband but she declined.

“You can save more money that way , I’ve already talked to Pedro about it , he’s fine” Becky rubbed Marley’s lower back and forced her into an odd hug.

“I won’t be in this hotel too much longer , I got some places in the works” she blinked hard , lying .

“Fine!” Becky was outraged by Marley’s stubbornness, she cursed some things in Spanish and started stocking the empty bar .

“I’ll call you in the morning, let’s get brunch” Marley started to make her way out of the bar , knowing that food always pleased Becky.

“You better!”

She clocked her surroundings on the journey to her car . Last night Hakeem had popped up and scared her nearly half to death . After she cursed him out, he left her alone . Besides him, she never knew what other creeps roamed out there, especially after midnight .

Marley locked her doors and blasted the car heater when she got inside . She drove off to the hotel that she had been calling home for three weeks . It was an okay place. It had a kitchen , a bedroom that was closed off and the maids made her bed every day . The pricing was around six hundred a week, so she needed to find an apartment sooner than later .

She entered inside of the hotel lobby, and said hi to Chadwick. The concierge that knew her by her name , helped her bring up groceries and told corny jokes that she laughed at only because he was nice. Marley went into her room, took a much needed shower and put some left over soul food in the microwave. The TV channels at the hotel could be better , so instead she used her laptop . She sat on the bed , ate and caught up with some vloggers she’d been behind on. She thought about vlogging her horrible life , but those never got views . She had to be some semi rich girl , living in the city who went on makeup company sponsored trips. Like Tiana. Marley rolled her eyes at the thought of her cousin. Who at last she heard had landed her an NBA baller boyfriend and was living in his mansion.

Marley sucked on the bone of her smothered pork chop and let out a loud burp . She was full and satisfied . After placing the plate on the night stand, she rested back into the pillows .

Just as she thought she’d would be falling asleep , her phone rang. It was a number she had never seen , an area code she didn’t recognize either . At first she wasn’t going to answer it , it was really late and it was probably a robo call . But whatever.

“Hello?” She pretended to sound tired and unamused.

“Aye” A male baritone spoke through the other line . He didn’t have to say another word, Marley knew it was Erik. “I can’t get you the fuck off my mind”

“That a bad thing ?” Marley sat up, fully alert now.

“I’m tryna’ figure that out” his voice full of contemplation. It was low, the two of them said nothing for a while . The small break had Marley flustered, she put the phone on speaker and laid back down. “You still there?” He asked . Absolutely

“I’m here, where are you ?”

“You know...Around” he seemed amused at his response.

“Not with this scammer ass area code you called me from”

He laughed at her joke, she had never really heard him laugh before . It was low pitched and short . She found herself liking the sound of it . Almost as much as the sound of his actual voice .

“I’m no scammer , baby girl”

“Yeah, okay”

Marley got up, she placed the phone under her chin and grabbed her glass and plate to wash. Erik could hear the clinking of dishes over the line .

“You eating huh?” He asked . Marley cut the sink off , expecting him to hit her with one of his classic jokes .

“Yes , cause I’m fat” Marley was full of sarcasm. figuring she’d beat him to the punch , that way he would maybe back off.

“You not even fat , you not skinny either you just straight”

“So all the jokes about me eating...” She asked for clarity , she didn’t know exactly what he meant.

“ Compared to me, you small. I just like getting under your skin”

“Why though ?” Marley maneuvered herself towards the living room couch, she sprawled her body across the arm .

“I don’t know, to see how much you could take” Erik didn’t laugh after his statement, the way Marley thought he should have.

“So now you’ve seen how much I can take?”

“Trust me, I don’t know any girl who can take all of me”

Marley cleared her throat , unprepared for the sexual innuendos. She thought it may have just been her mind hearing dirty things until Erik laughed again.

“Well...Your dreads are ugly , is it a fade or not ?” She took a jab back at him, hoping to battle it out .

“You know you like them , come harder than that” Eriks arrogance, encouraged her.

“You have weirdly chubby hands”

“I knowww you ain’t talking about chubby!”

“Fuck you!” Marley shouted and released all the bottled anxiety she had pent inside . She laughed , she didn’t know why but she laughed hard . And it felt good . “Oh my god” she took a deep breath and came back down .

“See you can take a joke” .

“You sound like you’re trying to train me” Her feet stretched against the wall , while her body laid against the couch . The phone sat on her chest , still on speaker . Her body positions moved in different ways , similar to the flow of their conversation.

“I’m training you for me”

“Boy please” Marley let out a shocking blow of spit and sat upright now.

“You know you wanna be on my team”

“You called me, sounds to me like you wanna be on mine”

He groaned at her sassiness , that was something he liked about her . If he pushed her enough, she’d bite.

“Marley” He spoke almost too soft , then let out a pause . She eyed the phone . Just watching the phone time add up by the second. She had been on the phone for almost fifteen minutes with Erik. Her face was getting hot from just anticipating what he might say next . The way he said her name , like he needed to get something off his chest . “Nevermind” he said almost too quickly.

She frowned and changed the energy with a new topic . “So..” she settled back into the bedroom. “Our little strip club stunt got me kicked out of my apartment”

“Good” he replied

“Good ?” Marley repeated as if she made a mistake.

“She kept talking about how she didn’t want you there anyway , you needed to get out of there”

“Oh yeah , what else she say ?” Marley was curious to know . She pulled back her comforter and sheets and got into her bed . With a click of her night stand lamp, the room was pitch black.

“We not here to talk about her , fuck her”

“She called you her boyfriend , you know”

Erik sucked his teeth loudly and let out a groan, Marley’s smile was like a Cheshire Cat now. “Tiana has never even seen me in the daylight ”

“Really?” Marley said in disbelief, she had this perception of the two of them totally wrong. Marley told him about what had happened. Erik has no idea on account of the fact that there were no traces of him online. He went into a whole debacle about how social media was dumb and unnecessary. He even suggested Marley deleted hers. She told him she was considering a break anyway.

“You moved into your own spot ?” He asked .

“I’m in a hotel right now , still looking but it’s hard” Marley didn’t even hesitate to tell him she lived in a hotel. She had come to a point where she was shameless.

“Finding a spot is Hard ?”

“My credit is shot from student loans” she admitted.

“Didn’t your mama teach you about credit?” Erik joked

“She passed when I was twelve ,so no”

“Let me teach you then”

“Teach me”

“Credit is everything” Erik said, then stopped talking as if he was finished .

“Is that it?”

“Yep”

“I hate you” she laughed hard again and kept smiling even after the funny was gone.

“Where do you want to live ?” He asked her .

She thought about the question. Where did she want to live in the future, or right now . In the future, she wanted to live an island life in some other country. Costa Rica, maybe Belize and grow old on the beach. Her thought process was taking a little to long so he asked her the question again, louder.

“There’s this small vintage apartment complex near my sports bar job. It’s so cute, with a little garden in the front and a fountain. A lot of old people live there so they take care of it . They had a vacancy, I put in my application a week ago”

“You work at a bar . I thought you did nerdy computer shit”

Marley wondered exactly what else Tiana told him about her. “Both , and what I do is not nerdy computer shit . What do you do ?”

“Nerdy computer shit” Erik couldn’t finish his statement before he let out a laugh . He looked at his phone screen, realizing that he had been on the phone for almost an hour with Marley. “Marley”

He did the thing again, where he said her name as if he wanted to get something off his chest. So she waited again for him to speak .

“Yes?”

“Pick up when I call , aight”

“Okay”

He hung up the phone , with his peculiar way of saying goodbye. Tiana may have had a new baller boyfriend, but the one she was crying over was in Marleys world.

(Sorry for typos)

[i-have-a-wonky-eye-too]

SB - Sugardaddy!Chris Evans x Sugarbaby! Reader part 12

Check out Wattpad @looploulongley for the other parts of the series SB!

Dear Miss Y/L/N,

We are happy to report you have successfully completed full repayment of the Department of Educated student loan. Congratulations on reaching this exciting goal!

You wanted to be annoyed with Chris, angry even but you just couldn't. Your debts were finally cleared, plus the money you wouldn't have to spend on them would get put into your savings and for the first time in, well ever, they were healthy.

When Chris had surprised you with dinner after a hard Friday at work you were already quite taken back but then when he handed you the envelope you'd been dreaming of since you left college, tears welled in your eyes and threatened to fall. Chris' face dropped when he heard your voice crack when you asked 'why?', he was worried you weren't happy.

'Because you deserve it, Y/N. These past four months have been the easiest of my life and that's because of you. And, for the first time in a long time I've got someone in my life I'm not scared to... hmm... care about.'

That was it. You had to leap into Chris' lap and wrap your arms around his neck as you crashed your lips against his to stop yourself from (ugly) crying right there in front of Chris and the entire restaurant whom were probably already staring at you. You didn't care, you were happy...

----------

You stood by Chris' side in the elevator as the pair of you went over his schedule for the day. After a long and relaxing (sex filled) weekend the pair of you were back to work.

"Your Skype meeting with Mr Hemsworth has been moved to tomorrow due to technical issues on his end, he sends his apologies."

"Other words he's enjoying the sun too much with his gorgeous wife and can't be bothered to put pants on yet." Chris chuckled, glancing down at you making you smile.

"Isn't that the whole point of Skype, not wearing pants?" you smirked, looking up to meet Chris' gaze.

He began grinning and turned so he was looking down at you. "And what do you use Skype for, Miss Y/L/N?" he asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. You tried not to blush under his gaze as you rolled your eyes playfully, choosing to ignore his question. "Hmm, perhaps I'll not bother getting you a plane ticket next time I'm horny and away on a business trip."

"Chris!" you smacked your hand against his firm chest playfully as you began giggling at his bad joke, making him chuckle. You let the silence fill the elevator for only a minute before you cleared your throat and whispered. "You'd miss having me wrapped around your cock."

"Would I now?" Chris tone became deeper, sending tingles down to your to your core as the two of you just stared at each other, silently challenging the other to make a move.

You sucked your bottom lip in between your teeth, nodding, looking up to him with innocent eyes. "You have a meeting-" Chris rolled his eyes and let out a loud sigh, making you giggle.

As soon as the doors to the elevator opened on your floor, the pair of you stepped out as you discussed Chris' schedule for the day. You had barely gotten half way when you were interrupted by someone shouting your name.

You looked up and smiled when you saw one of the few friend's you'd made since working for Chris. "Hey, Hayley, how are you?" you gave her a quick hug.

"I'm great, thank you." she smiled, glancing up to Chris. "Christopher." she nodded her head before pulling you away from him, smiling as she did.

Chris smiled, greeting her warmly before turning his attention to you. "Come in once you've finished, please, Y/N. I'd like to go over the rest of my schedule before I get started."

"I'll be right in." you smiled up at Chris as he went into his office. Hayley rolled her eyes, calling Chris a loser under breath jokingly, making you laugh at her.

"What are you doing tonight?" Hayley asked with a hopeful smile on her face.

You shook your head, smiling. "Nothing. Why?"

"Great. There's a few of us going for drinks after work and I was hoping you'd join us?" she beamed.

"Oh-"

Other than the people Chris had introduced you to (Robert, Sebastian and Anthony), you hadn't really spoken to anyone else who worked at Downey Industries. You felt out of place when you weren't by Chris' side and you couldn't always be there, as much as you would prefer to be.

If it wasn't for Chris introducing you to Hayley in a restaurant one night whilst the two of you were having a 'business' dinner, you probably wouldn't have spoken to her. You were glad though, Hayley was a lovely person who you got on really well with.

When you and Hayley first began talking you were worried she and Chris had a past, they got on like two peas in a pod, but you learnt she started at Downey Industries the same time Chris and Sebastian did. Even though Chris was a CFO for Downey Industries, Sebastian was a lawyer and Hayley worked Public Affairs, the three of them have always been close friends (even if Chris was technically their boss).

You nodded, smiling a little. "Sounds good."

"Great! We'll meet you downstairs after work, okay?" you nodded your head agreeing before the pair of you said goodbye and went your separate ways.

When you walked into Chris' office you found him sat at his desk working on his computer. You watched him for a moment as you walked towards him, taking in his easy beauty.

God, how had you gotten so lucky to be picked by this Greek-god?

"Y/N?" Chris' soft voice braught you back to your surroundings, causing a blush to creep up your neck and cheeks when you realises he caught you starring.

You cleared your throat nodding. "Yeah, sorry, hmm... just, thinking." you smiled softly at him as you opened up your notebook to carry on. "So, you have-"

"What did Hayley want?" Chris rested his chin on his fist as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes boring into you.

You cleared your throat again as you closed your notebook and wrapped your arms around it and your front. "She, hmm, invited me out for drinks with her and a few other girls. Is, that okay?" you asked, keeping your head down.

"C'mere." was all Chris said.

You moved over to where he was sat and stood in front of him as he turned his chair to the side.

Why did you feel like a school girl in trouble with the principal?

Chris reached up and took a hold of your notebook in one hand, pulling it from your grasp and gently placed it on his desk as he took a hold of your hand in his other. "Y/N, look at me." you slowly lifted your head, biting your bottom lip nervously as you met his eyes. "You're allowed to do whatever you like, okay?" you nodded slowly, taking in a short breath as your eyes moved down to your hands. He slowly ran his thumb over the back of your hand as he watched you. "All I want, is for you to promise you're mine. No one else's, got it?"

You nodded smiling at him. "I'm yours."

"Good. Now, shall we continue?"

---------

You stood at the bar waiting 'patiently' for your drink whilst the others all giggled and spoke together, leaving you bored and wondering what the hell a chaise lounge is. After about an hour of humming and getting an headache, you got up and went to the bar without a word.

You thanked the bartender as he placed your drink down in front of you, then headed back to your seat as was Cobie who had disappeared to the restroom about the same time you had gone to the bar.

"An upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs." she whispered to the you as the pair of you sat down. "I saw you look it up." she smiled at you. Your eyes widened a little, embarrassed you'd be caught. Cobie shook her head with a little laugh. "Don't worry. I spelt it with a 'Z'." she laughed again making you laugh as well.

"What are you two giggling at?" Hayley smiled at you, glad to see you finally having fun.

You shook your head, trying your best not to laugh again as the small group of women looked at you and Cobie. "Oh, hmm, I was just asking Y/N about what she did before being a PA?"

"Oh, yes! Chris mentioned something about you, being an English Lit grad." Hayley said with a smile.

You nodded slowly as you reached for you drink on the table. "So, you were working for what? A newspaper?" Emily asked.

You shook your head, cringing slightly at the thought of your last job. "Hmm, no, not exactly... I, hmm, worked in a bar." you let out a nervous laugh. You watched the various faces being pulled around the table, surprisingly they weren't all of disgust.

"What was that like?" Evangeline asked, sitting forwards in her seat.

"Fun, I bet." Hayley began to speak. "More fun than working in a boring office." she said as she rolled her eyes jokingly, making you all laugh.

You nodded. "It was, yes, well, apart from the drunks wanting to grab a handful of your ass." you joked, once again making everyone laugh around the table.

"So, how'd you go from doing that to being a PA for a COF at one of the biggest industries in the world?" Emily asked with a slight frown on her face.

"Oh, hmm, a mutual friend Chris and I share, mentioned to him I was looking for a job and here I am." you lied, hoping the subject would be dropped.

"Mutual friend? I didn't think Chris had any friends." Evangeline giggled making Emily laugh.

Hayley rolled her eyes at the pair. "Chris has friends. Look at me." she smiled.

"With benefits doesn't count." Emily smirked.

"What?" you were surprised by what Emily had said, turning in your chair to look at Hayley. "Is she serious?"

Heyley shook her head as she let out a deep sigh. "We were young and, it hasn't happened for a very, very, long time." she held her left hand up wiggling her ring finger. "Married."

You nodded slowly. That didn't make you feel any less hurt. Why didn't he tell you? Sure, you weren't a 'couple' and you'd signed a contract that said you weren't to talk about that sort of thing but still, a heads up would have been nice.

"Even so, if you hadn't have slept with Chris all those years ago, you might have never gotten to where you are now." Evangeline added to the story with a teasing tone and her own smirk.

Hayley faked a gasp and slammed her glass down. "That's not true... It just helped." everyone except you laughed at her joke. "God! I should never had told you that."

No.

"Yeah, and how Chris is paying for tonight." Emily quickly covered her mouth. "Oops!" her smirk grew even more before disappearing behind her glass.

Your brow furrowed at her words. "What do you mean? I thought this was just, friends, having drinks."

"Oh good, it's working then." Evangeline muttered under her breath as she looked away from the table.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Ignore the-" before Hayley could divert the conversation in a different direction, Emily explained.

"Your 'close friend' told Hayley you were lonely and had no friends, so he made us do this." she shrugged, sitting forwards. "

"Oh-" you nodded slowly. "So, none of you are here willingly?" you asked, not sure you wanted to know.

Hayley frowned, shaking her head as she reached out and gently placed her hand on yours. "It's not like that, Y/N. I told Chris I was more than happy to come out with you if you were struggling-"

"To make friends? I'm not a child." you quickly stood up knocking your chair back. "If you'll excuse me, I'll get out of your way." you muttered, turning away from the table and left the four women to their drinks.

--------

"Y/N!"

Chris' abrupt shouting startled you, almost causing you to drop your glass of wine, which had spilt a little over the rim and onto your crossed legs as you sat on the bathtub edge, waiting. You clicked your tongue to yourself just as Chris barged into the bathroom.

"What are you doing here?" you frowned at him, taking in his surprisingly laid back look.

Grey sweat pants, plain t-shirt, hoodie, sneakers, baseball cap; a look you fully enjoyed on him.

"Hayley called. She said you ran off and you weren't answering your phone. What happened? She said-"

"You two used to fuck." you calmly cut in, looking down into the bubbles of your bath.

Chris chuckled, shaking his head as he  placed his hands on his hips. "That's what this is, your jealous?"

"Jealous?" you snapped, standing to your feet in front of him, your wine once again spilling a little. "I'm not jealous, Chris. I'm embarrassed... I'm embarrassed that you told her I have no friends. That, you felt you had to pay for someone to be, my friend..." you quickly dropped your gaze to floor as your voice wavered. You were not going to cry. "They were practically laughing at me." you whispered, taking a seat once more in the side of the bathtub.

Chris let his head fall forwards slightly as he let out a long sigh. "Y/N, that's not what I wanted. I just, you've been working so hard and, all you do is work or spend your time with me-"

"Pot calling kettle black." you muttered.

"Y/N-" Chris' tone changed, warning you almost. He sat down next to you; even out of his tailored suits he still had an over powering essence that made you (unashamedly) wet. Although he was sat next to you, his broad shoulders and the way his eyes focused on you made you feel like you were caged in by him. "I know you miss having Liz around. That's, why I did this. Hayley is a good friend, she's put up with me all these years... And FYI, she called me an idiot, told me to stick my money where the sun doesn't shine and said she would ask you regardless because she genuinely likes you..."

You shrugged not bothering to look up. You were still embarrassed, it was like having your mom turn up to school to tell your bullies off.

"Why didn't you tell me about her?" you asked, holding your glass of wine out to him which he gladly accepted.

Chris let out a long breath after taking a sip of wine. "We agreed that stuff wasn't a problem, Y/N."

You nodded slowly, lifting your head to look at him. "I know, but, it would have been nice to have had an heads up... Oh, by the way, the woman who has invited you out for drinks, she's also sucked my dick!" you huffed a little, pouting your lips as you folded your arms across your chest.

Chris began laughing at your little tantrum, he couldn't help it, you were clearly jealous and he thought it was the cutest thing ever. "Yeah, that was probably a dick move on my part. M'sorry, doll."

You shook your head sighing. "No, it's fine... The dick move is probably telling everyone." you frowned at the thought.

Yes, you were jealous. The idea of someone you see every day has been that intimate with Chris and told others about it too kinda pisses you off.

"Everyone?" Chris looked down to you with a frown. "Who?"

"Emily, Cobie and Evangeline... Although, Cobie didn't seem interested." you shrugged trying not to think about, you were still embarrassed.

The bathroom fell quiet as the two of you just sat in the bathtub edge, staring off into space. It was a nice silence that surrounded you and sure, you'd been a little upset with Chris but now you were feeling better after talking to him.

Your eyes fell onto the sneakers that adored his feet, bring a smile to your face. Then you moved up his outstretched legs that were covered in grey sweatpants, after only seeing Chris in his suits (and nothing at all) seeing him so relaxed was a little strange. Your smile dropped when you moved your head and got a rather horrible whiff of him.

"Ugh! Why do you smell? What were you doing before you came here?" you frowned at him.

Chris lifted his head to look at you, a smile already on his face as he shook his head. "Gee, thanks." you began to blush as you looked down, apologising to him before you let out a small laugh. "I was at the gym, to answer your question."

You nodded slowly, satisfied with his answer. "Fair enough... I was just about to have a bath... Would you, like to join me?" you softly asked as you got to your feet and stood in front of him.

A grin slowly began to fill Chris' lips as he reached up for the belt on your silk robe. "Does this mean we're friends again?" he asked as he began to untie the silk.

You bit your lip as you nodded. "Acquaintances."

Chris' eyebrow shot up as he looked up to you, his hands finally pulling open your robe and slowly moving over your hips and waist. "Is that all I am, Sugar?"

You shrugged your robe off so you were completely naked in front of Chris, shivering under his touch as he light rubbed circles over your skin with his thumbs. "You can become my friend in the water." you smirked down at him, moving out of his grip so you could slip into the bathtub, your body disappearing into the bubbles. You looked up to him, biting your bottom lip as you lifted one of your legs out of the water and slowly ran your hands up it. "Strip, daddy!"

[shandragdotson]

How YNABers are Spending Their Stimulus Checks

For those YNABers in the States, many of us recently received a stimulus payment. Finally COVID, you gave us something helpful. With this unexpected inflow of cash, of course we got all up in people’s business and wanted to know: what did you do with it? Well to start, there were still a lot of folks who had yet to receive their stimulus money. For those who did receive their checks, here’s how they were spending it:

Essentials:

“I bought groceries.”

“Health insurance while I’m out of work.”

“We simply covered bills. Our grown son is living with us during the lockdown creating greater expenses in food and utilities.”

“I’m using it to supplement my reduced income.”

“I paid an unexpected health bill.”

Celebrations:

“I paid off my last student loan!” 

“We paid off a credit card!”

“Paid off the last of a credit card!”

Boring but Responsible Expenses:

“It went towards my car payment.”

“I used the entire $1200 to make an extra payment on one of my debts.”

“I’m saving it for my son’s wedding.”

“I’m going to use it to pay my taxes…which is ironic, isn’t it?”

“I refilled my emergency fund.”

“I used it as a Roth IRA contribution.”

“I was able to budget ahead a month.”

Multiple Categories:

“I split it 3 ways—charitable donation, paid down personal loan, emergency fund.”

“Trampoline for kids, paid down some debt, bought a large custom carpet, and padded true expense categories.”

“Some donated, some saved, some spent on takeout from local businesses, some still waiting in Fun Money!”

“$900 to debt, $150 for a VERY nice bottle of Scotch, and the rest in my New Desk Chair category.”

“Safe at Home” Purchases:

“New running watch, a small home office set up.”

“Desk and computer chair for working from home, put in a new flower bed, fitness subscription, rest in emergency fund.”

“Groceries, bills, a pair of sandals and some much-needed face moisturizer.”

“Stress buying, and a new laptop for working at home.”

“I am planning on recovering some old chairs who have developed (large) holes over the pandemic.”

“The check came this past Saturday. But, my credit union requires US treasury checks to be deposited in person, so I haven’t used it yet because I have to look presentable enough to go out of the house…”

Just Plain Fun:

“A takeout dinner!”

“I bought some rollerblades but everything else was budgeted in the future.”

“A wake foil!”

“We adopted a puppy.”

Toilet Paper Alternatives:

“Video equipment for our business and a bidet.”

“A bidet and a video game I was already planning (saving) to buy.”

There Were Some Who Saw Opportunity and Jumped:

“Tesla stock and bought my first cryptocurrency.”

“Actually we did use $1750 for a deposit on a cruise

”

“We refinanced our home.”

Long-Awaited Purchases or Savings:

“We bought a new mattress.”

“A new couch!”

“We put it under an “Income Replacement” category that we always wanted to fund but never had before.”

“I saved it for when my elliptical machine breaks again. I will buy a new one instead of fixing it. My husband bought a lawnmower with his half.”

“Our stimulus check and tax refund helped us pay for much needed maintenance on our cars.”

Giving to Others:

“We paid off $1,000 of debt and bought a flower CSA subscription at a local farm to support a local business.”

“We donated 100% to furloughed family member.”

“I bought dinner for my hard-working, super stressed out, under-staffed team at work.

“We donated the vast majority to our regional food bank. We’ll be fine and there are others that need the support.”

No matter what route you took, whether you got a stimulus payment or not, we hope you’re finding some budgeting peace during this time. Cheers to spending, cheers to saving, cheers to giving, and cheers to knowing what’s right for you.

Still trying to decide how to spend yours? Check out our framework for making the best decision.

The post How YNABers are Spending Their Stimulus Checks appeared first on You Need A Budget.

from Finance https://www.youneedabudget.com/how-ynabers-are-spending-their-stimulus-checks/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[phoenixwaller]

Musings... or why my non-economics ass thinks we’re on the way to another stock market collapse.

Ok, so right up front I’ll preface this all by saying that I’ve never studied economics, so there are likely forces at work here that I’ve never even heard of and don’t understand. 

That said. IMHO, we’re in the car, gunning it right toward the cliff’s edge to another stock market collapse... ESPECIALLY if congress passes this tax reform. 

Today, 11-2-17, at the time of writing the Dow Jones is at  23,516.26. According to Google, on Nov. 9 2007 it was at 13,042. That’s a 10,000 point rise in 10 years, WITH a major scare and recession thrown in. 

Even scarier, on November 2, 2016, the Dow was at 17,930. (it had reached a high of 18,500 in July 2016). It’s come up 5,000 points in 1 year. Why this matters later. 

Google only shows results as far back as ‘77, but that’s good enough for my purposes. So here’s a screenshot, and I’ll explain what my non-economics ass is seeing. 

So early on we have the late 70′s... the Dow isn’t even at 1000 ya’ll. It hits 1000 in 1982. It takes another 13 years, until 1995 before it climbs to 5,000... then we start to get into the tech bubble. (yes, I know I skipped over the scare in 87). Then we get into the tech bubble, and jump another 5000 points to hit 10,000 in 1999. It seems a fast rise, and it was, but at the same time we had the mass introduction of computers etc into the american home, businesses and subsequent increases in productivity as well as purchasing to get all this newfangled stuff. So there’s at least an explanation for it. Pretty much an essential component of the economy was added in those few years.

And there was a market correction in 2001, when all those tech firms that were riding the bubble popped. Stocks were overvalued and the survivors forged on. 

Notice how we’ve got predictable ups and downs, but a gentle overall rise between 2001 and 2007. We hit that low in 2003 at the tailing end of the tech bubble burst, when it was around 7500. By 2007 we’re at 13,000. 

Think of all that happened between 1999 when we hit 10,000 and 2007. We continued to see growing segments of the economy. When I was in high school in the late 90′s like 1 in 20 students had their own cell phone. Even in the early 2000′s in college it was about half and half. It wasn’t until I was getting out of college that it started to be that more people had cell phones than not. 

At the same time gaming systems are getting more robust with better graphics and more frequent releases, and add in computer gaming, and social media, and ebooks, and more stuff that follows the tech trend and is still relatively new markets. It’s a steady rise from new stuff entering the market that people want. 

The stock market came up, but it’s a STEADY rise. It’s fast, but there’s an explanation for it. The economy was doing good. People were BUYING things after the tech scare ended and there were entire new segments of the economy that just hadn’t really existed en masse before. 

Now we’re to the housing bubble burst and subsequent recession. Jobs poofed, people lost homes, retirement accounts were gutted. The government had to bail out the big banks to prevent a full on depression and stimulate the economy. (we’re going to ignore the fact that a lot of the stimulus money went to pay bonuses rather than increase lending)

The economy tanked, and the Dow hit a low of 6,600 in 2009. 

Then things start coming back. We’d hit a low, and the market started to correct in the other direction. BUT, it was a slow recovery for most, and there are places that STILL haven’t recovered. Good jobs are still fewer, and because there are still places where there are more qualified applicants than open positions wages have yet to fully recover. 

Keep in mind that the purchasing power of consumers was already on the decline as wages had failed to keep up with productivity and inflation.

But look at the stock market. it RACES along on that recovery, coming up 12,000 points from that low in 2009 to mid-summer 2016. 

What fueled it? 

Recovery is part of that fuel. It was due for a correction after things settled out. But let’s look at the two previous scares. It took 2 years for the market to recover after 87, it took 4 years after the tech burst bottomed out to reach the previous high. 

It took from 2009 to 2013 for the market to come back up to pre-burst highs. But this is where we see IMHO troubling behavior. 

Where did that money come from?

Were you buying the things necessary for that kind of growth?

Think about it... we BARELY saw that fast of growth during the early years of the tech bubble, when an entire new segment of the economy was added. We didn’t see that fast of growth during the early 2000′s, when the tech industry was still finding its footing. 

Growth like that happens when the economy is doing good. It happens when people are buying things. It was due for a correction back up, but how did it grow so fast when many places are STILL recovering?

It’s cause the money is swirling around outside of the normal market drivers. Companies moved jobs overseas to save on costs, or put in more automation. Stock buybacks give the appearance of higher numbers. There are tricks that are driving up the stocks. 

But there’s no fuel. 

Major retailers are still closing stores because they aren’t selling enough. Some of that is internet related yes, but all of it?

Housing sales still haven’t recovered, because wages are still down and we’ve got an entire generation saddled with massive student loan debt. 

Buying stuff is what fuels the economy. Full stop. 

BUYING STUFF IS THE FUEL. 

You might not have to buy directly, but buying stuff is important. Companies have to buy parts from each other, or services. At the end though, the consumer is the driving force. Because if you’re not buying an end product or service that money doesn’t go up the chain. 

Think about it... what were you buying in SUCH QUANTITY that it rivaled the tech bubble of the 90′s? What new thing suddenly appeared in every home and office between 2009 and 2013, or even through 2016?

I’ll wait...

Yeah... all I came up with was social media. Everything else should have been in maintenance mode. Nothing new or revolutionary in the car department. Home sales maybe on the coasts, but otherwise they’re just now getting back to pre-2008 levels. Tech is now in replace as needed, and line up for the new phones, but it’s not like everybody is rushing to buy the new gadget for the first time. 

Social media is fueled by advertising, which still comes back to sales of other stuff. You’re not buying it directly. 

Now we’re going to circle back around to all those numbers from the beginning. 

Look at the graph above again, steady growth overall until the tech industry gets rolling. Then a sharp increase until we hit the tech bubble. the market corrects, and we’re back to steady growth. 

Then we get that VISIBLE housing bubble. And it pops. 

The government adds whatever fuel it can. It gives bailouts to the banks, and to carmakers, The fed drops the interest rate to banks to effectively 0%. There are incentives to consumers to buy things. Incentives to buy houses, incentives to buy certain types of cars. Incentives to add solar panels. 

We see growth...

But it doesn’t stop once it reaches pre-pop levels. It keeps right on going...

Meanwhile, the government is aware that things aren’t as good as the rising stock market makes it look. I mean the even now, the Federal reserve interest rate is at 1.25%. They’re afraid to raise it because they know that bringing it up could make this bubble we’re in pop. But... that’s a double edged sword, because they also have nowhere to go to stimulate lending when it DOES pop. 

It’s a race, will the spending power of consumers catch up to overvalued stocks before the bubble bursts? Not likely, cause are you buying more stuff?

Now finally circling around to why the tax proposals WILL send us over the cliff IMHO. 

Tax breaks on the corporations make it look like they’re earning more to investors, but without actually selling more products. 

But remember, buying stuff is the fuel... And right now the consumer economy is running on fumes. 

It doesn’t matter how much money the companies “save” in tax decreases, when people aren’t buying more. It’s a stopgap measure. Pretty much the money that’s already in the pot is just getting stirred around. 

Corporations don’t care though. They want the money NOW. And because they saw these tax proposals coming with the Republicans in charge, we saw the stock market come up 5000 points in ONE YEAR!!! 

There is literally no fuel from the consumer end driving that. I don’t see hovercars, or anything new... Remember, it took 4 years to bring the stock market up at the height of the tech boom, when everybody was buying computers and connecting to the internet for the first time. It took 4 years when we added an entire segment of the economy. 

At the same time, there are proposals in this tax plan that HURT consumers. Mortgage deductions down, eliminations for deductions on state, local and property taxes. They’re going to do away with the deduction for interest paid on student loans.  

Taxes will go UP on the people who buy things, meaning fewer things get bought. 

We’re already running on fumes: Fifty-seven percent of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense. 

If people can’t cover a $500 emergency expense, they don’t have the funds to buy buy buy. 

Money goes UP the chain, it doesn’t trickle down though without intervening forces. It goes the other way when there are more good jobs than applicants and they have to use money and benefits to coerce people to become employees. It goes the other way when government takes off a percentage by taxing companies and reinvests at the bottom with infrastructure projects that create jobs.

I’ll say it again. 

BUYING STUFF IS THE FUEL.

It’s a matter of time. Unless people are buying and fueling this growth from the bottom, this is nothing more than a massive bubble. 

Stirring the existing money at the top will make things look good on paper, for a bit. But there’s nothing to sustain it already, and these proposals will make it worse by taking money out of the hands of spenders. 

The cliff is there, and we’re racing for it. Better hang on and hope that somebody has the brains to either turn this car around or build a bridge. 

[interspecieslesbianism]

My Boss’ Son

So I uh...wrote fic. This is the first thing I’ve finished in a while. Just a quick thing I wrote while at work. It’s unbeta’d with no reread because I didn’t want to give myself a chance to hate it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Stiles liked his boss. He knew a lot of people didn’t like theirs, and he knew he was lucky. Talia Hale was beautiful, and could be pretty tough if you didn’t do your job, but Stiles loved what he did too.

Network administration wasn’t for everyone, but Stiles saw doing it for a rapidly growing business as a challenge. The pay was nothing to sneeze at either. At this rate, his student loans would be paid off in half the time, and Talia always listened if Stiles needed something. Especially new equipment.

The only problem with Talia was that she kept trying to set him up with her son.

“Derek’s an artist. He lived in New York, but he moved back home for a change of scenery.” She would say. Stiles didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that it was a lie.

Stiles might even have agreed to it. He hadn’t had a boyfriend since graduation and the guy he’d been seeing had taken off to backpack around China. Stiles was so sexually frustrated, it wasn’t even funny anymore. But…

Stiles was interested in someone else And they had something going. Well…kinda.

About a month after graduation, Stiles had been out with his friends. Somehow, he’d managed to bag a guy way, way out of his league at the first bar, and the rest of the night was a happy blur.

The sex had been amazing, but as Stiles was leaving he saw a beautiful woman pull into the driveway he’d just left. Stiles had very serious rules about not sleeping with married guys. Especially not straight married guys.

But he’d never deleted the guy’s number. Stiles didn’t even know his name. Drunk Stiles had just saved the number under 🍆🍆🍆 and Sober Stiles couldn’t think of anything else to use. And sometimes, when Stiles was drunk and lonely and above all horny, Stiles would send him nudes. And the guy would always respond with pictures of his own. Straight married dude or not, he just had a really, really nice dick.

And they did talk! Sorta. Sometimes Stiles would send him memes and the guy would share IT articles. After bad nights, the guy would send little “you feeling okay?” texts. Stiles guessed to make sure he hadn’t drunk himself to death? Stiles didn’t think he was that pathetic. Not yet, anyway.

So maybe Stiles was carrying a torch for a guy he could never be with on multiple levels. The world wasn’t going to end. Now if only he could figure out a way to tell Mrs. Hale that so she’d stop trying to hook him up with Derek.

XXX

“Derek’s going to be at the Christmas party next week.” Talia said, her voice heavy with implication.

Stiles, on his knees under her desk with a flashlight in his mouth as he tried to hook the new telecommunications system to her computer, could only grunt in response.

“You never know what might happen.” Talia continued. “Those stories about the crazy stuff that happen during Christmas parties exist for a reason. She laughed. “My husband and I were interning in the same law office – long before we were married or even dating, of course. We competed, actually. Each trying to best the other. And it all came to a head during the Christmas party that year. I think that was when we conceived our eldest, Laura, actually.”

She laughed again and Stiles began trying to extract himself, just as a woman cried, “Mom!”

A beautiful woman with long, dark hair was walking through Talia’s office door, grimacing at her mother. Stiles almost slipped back under the desk. “Laura” was the same woman Stiles had seen pull into 🍆🍆🍆’s driveway all those months ago!

Not only had Stiles almost been a homewrecker, he had slept with Talia’s son-in-law? Stiles wanted to die of mortification, but he figured that might give him away. Instead, Stiles stood and tried not to look at Laura.

“Try it now, Talia.” He muttered, pushing her chair back towards the desk for her.

Talia alighted on her chair and navigated to the telecom software. The snowy screen and [Network Access Not Found] message were gone, but Talia wasn’t going to let him escape that easily.

She stood and hooked an arm around Stiles’ shoulders, pulling him forward. “Stiles, this is my daughter Laura. Laura, this is Stiles.”

Laura scrutinized him and Stiles could only pray she didn’t somehow recognize him. “It’s nice to meet you, Stiles. You’re the one mom’s been trying to make go on a date with Der, right?”

Stiles winced and nodded. “Uh y-yeah. But as I keep telling her, I’m not really interested.” Because I would do anything to ride your husband’s cock again. Shame boiled hot in Stiles’ stomach.

“Well, you’re definitely his type!” Laura laughed, making Stiles blush. “Whether or not you want to put up with him is another matter entirely. I guess you can always decide at the Christmas party.”

“Laura! Be nice to your brother.” Talia admonished her, though there was a smile on her face. “Speaking of, you and Aaron will be there, right?” Talia asked, and Laura nodded. Aaron? Was that 🍆’s name? Stiles wondered if it would be rude to change it in his phone. Putting it in as “Aaron (Laura’s Husband)” might actually stop Drunk Stiles from sending him any more nudes though. Provided Stiles could avoid both him and Derek at the party. Maybe he just wouldn’t go.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go. I just wanted to drop off the swatches for Lupe’s quinceañera.” Laura said, moving to dig in her bag. Stiles took the opportunity to slip out and run all the way back to his network closet.

XXX

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, Stiles found himself coming back to work on Friday night, now dressed in jeans and the cheesiest Christmas sweater he could find. The snow walkers had never been Stiles’ favorite part of Star Wars, but there was just something about seeing them in the distinctive crisscross pattern just made them so much better. Plus, showing off the utmost worst of his geekdom might be so unattractive to Derek and Aaron that neither of them would ever mention his name again.

Stiles found the makeshift bar that had been set up in a corner of the largest conference room and immediately added another reason to his list of reasons why Talia Hale was the best boss ever.

The guy in the bright red vest and a pair of light up antlers asked him what drink he wanted and Stiles’ went with the classic brandy and eggnog. Alcohol in hand, Stiles moved through the growing crowd that had spilled over into the main work area.

Stiles was actually starting to have fun talking to a few people that liked his sweater, when Talia found him.

“Stiles? Ah, there you are!” Talia made her way over, the white material of her dress looking even more beautiful under the red and green Christmas lights someone had put up.

There was a tall guy following behind her in the worst Lord of the Rings Christmas sweater Stiles had ever seen. His head was down, but Stiles saw a light beard creeping up over his cheek, so maybe he was Talia’s husband?

“I’m so glad you came!” Talia greeted him, pulling Stiles into a hug. “I was afraid Laura had scared you off.” She released Stiles and motioned to the man now standing beside her. “Stiles, this is my son Derek. Derek, Stiles.”

The guy looked up and Stiles’ jaw went slack. Derek Hale stood in front of him, but there were also had almost a dozen pictures of him on Stiles’ phone in all their jacked, dark haired, and big dicked gory. Those eyebrows were unmistakable.

Derek looked about as shocked as Stiles felt, and Stiles was glad that he at least wasn’t alone. “Y-you’re Derek?” Stiles finally squeaked.

“You forgot my name?” Derek asked, looking both annoyed and hurt.

Before Stiles could reply, he noticed Talia’s same distinctive eyebrows (how had he not noticed?!) creeping up toward her hairline. “You two already know each other?” She asked, voice so curious she almost sounded accusing.

Stiles could see the slight panic in Derek’s eyes and jumped in before he could think better of it. “R-right before I was hired here. We just danced a little at a club.”

Stiles could tell from Talia’s expression that she wasn’t fooled, but all she said was, “Oh. Well then why don’t I leave you two alone to get caught up then?” Before either of them could speak, she disappeared into the crowd.

As soon as Talia was out of earshot, Derek turned back to him. “You seriously forgot my name?” This time, Stiles could just hear the note of anxiety under Derek’s words. Still…

“Obviously you forgot mine too. Stiles isn’t exactly a common name.” Stiles shot back, folding his arms.

“When I peeked at your driver’s liscense after you fell asleep, all it said was Mieczyslaw.” Derek argued, and Stiles didn’t have a good answer to that. “How come I didn’t hear from you for months?” He asked, sounding more accusing with each word.

Stiles flushed and ducked his head in embarrassment. “I thought you were married…”

Derek was so surprised; he let his folded arms drop. “You what? Why?”

“I saw Laura pull into your place that morning.” Stiles admitted, folding his arms and hugging out his annoyance at himself. “You were already so far out of my league, I guess the idea you were married seemed logical.”

“But you still liked me enough to ask for dick pics?” Derek asked with one eyebrow raised.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Drunk Stiles is an amoral dick controlled by his dick. Besides, you always responded.”

Derek’s jaw tightened and he looked down at his shoes. He stayed that way long enough for Stiles to wonder if that would just be that. Just as Stiles opened his mouth to excuse himself, Derek looked up. “Well then, how about Sober Derek takes Sober Stiles out for dinner, and we see what happens?”

Stiles only had to think about it for about two seconds before reaching out and slipping his hand into Derek’s.

[moony-balloons]

Oh hey yeah I was gonna make a “what is up with me lately” post so here it finally is! Under a cut bc I don’t know how long it’s gonna be.

So! Firstly, I have a job. I work full time as a cashier at a grocery store, a major chain one BUT it’s part of a smallish franchise owned by a dude who is very nice and community focused, and we’re treated very well so no complaints on that front. I didn’t -actually- want full time for “I have no energy as it is and will not get anything done towards finding a Degree Relevant job if I am spending literally all of my energy at my current job” but my parents were not real receptive to that? So when I was interviewing and the manager asked me if I wanted full time or part time I said I’d take whatever and they put me on as full time bc boy howdy do they need people. Also honestly tbh I don’t mind making that full-time dough, could use the money to build my savings back up and start paying down my student loans faster / buy myself some of the things I’ve been putting off for forever and a day bc “well it’s not ESSENTIAL and I don’t have a job so lol”. I’ve been there for around..... 6 weeks? 2 months? Somewhere in there, and the Exhaustion from working on my feet 8 hours a day every day is reducing as my body gets used to it so I may be able to start getting things done again, aside from the small organizational irl things I’ve been picking away at bc those just make my life and my brain and everything feel cleaner. Clean is good yknow? And my mom’s house is pretty cluttered (less cluttered than her parents admittedly so step in the right direction, but lordy) so wanting my room to at least be neat is nice.

But yeah, on the topic of getting things done for job searching? The troubles I’ve been having, as always, are that I feel like 1) I need to do Everything Right Now bc I want to get a job that utilizes my degree, but that is overwhelming, so I feel like 2) I should take things a bit at a time bc that is the solution to things being overwhelming but that is Not Good Enough Or Fast Enough bc I should be there Now so as a result of those two things clashing I often just end up doing nothing? Which is even worse than moving too slowly, but? With the fact that I don’t have a clearly quantifiable end point in mind with my “I gotta learn x, y and z languages/skills well enough to be able to get a job” goal, I always feel like I am wasting time when I chip away at it bc, oh, maybe THIS skill isn’t important and my time would be better spent learning THIS instead, or maybe no one even does things THIS way anymore and it’s dumb to even learn it bc I will have to learn a different way anyway. Or other such nonsense and basically what I am getting is that my attempts to learn these things keep failing in part bc I am too damn vague and I can’t feel like I am making progress towards my goal if I can’t quantify what my goal IS, or at what pace I “should” be moving towards it. So I plan to try and.... set things up more like as if I was in school? Like give myself deadlines and homework and reading assignments and shit lmao, and see if that works. I also have to remember what the therapist said when I was speaking to him a while ago when I was first starting medication, which was.... I was having this same issue, and he asks me why I feel like I’m not moving fast enough and it’s because I feel like more is expected of me, by both my family and by society in general, and he’s like well basically fuck what they think, you move at whatever pace you can (in much nicer terms obv lmao). And I gotta like, write that on my forehead in sharpie bc that is the thing to remember, getting there more slowly than someone else is fine if that is what I am capable of and it sure as shit beats giving up and never getting there at all.

But I did have a mental health slump recently bc, well, it doesn’t feel great to have a bachelor’s degree and still be doing retail stuff, and getting turned down by countless actual tech jobs in the meantime. Being rejected by the most recent one hurt the most because it was one of those “oh we’re looking for more of a personality fit than a skills fit!” type positions, and it was an internship (a new position they were still in the process of working out even what that entailed, but even so) and they liked my personality and invited me to take a skills test...... and I didn’t complete it in time, and they were basically like uh yeah we’re gonna pass. Like, not looking as much for a skills match but my skills disqualified me anyway. And then on top of that! The weekend before last I went to help my grandpa put in his new air conditioner (he still uses the kind you have to mount in a window) and he had a nice snide comment about “6 years at [school] and all you can say is, do you want fries with that” which, A, 4 and a half years, thanks, but also B, can you not??? He’s very much of the opinion that college is a waste of time and computers are on their way out and have overstayed their welcome and I should learn a SKILL (anything that doesn’t result in physically building something with your hands is not a skill in his book) bc only people with SKILLS are useful/valuable/etc. I know that he’s wrong about that and that his “if it wouldn’t help you in the apocalypse then it’s dumb and not worth knowing” attitude is not anywhere near the norm, but the fact that it echoes the insecurities I already have about myself re: being dumb and useless just made it REALLY hit home. Bc like...... idk. I can combat my own bad things I think about myself with, well yeah, you have depression and are definitely not as bad as you think you are, you’re just looking at yourself with poop-tinted glasses bc mental illness. But if someone ELSE says it, well, clearly they must be right! Which is dumb af but that’s what my brain does. BUT after spending time with my very pissy grandpa I went over to my dad’s house and got to pet my dog a lot and Dad made burgers on the grill which was excellent (my stepdad considers himself a grillmaster but honestly tbh keep this a goddamn secret but I like my dad’s burgers better) and they showed me the house they bought, which has 4 bedrooms and would theoretically have space for me to stay with them should I ever need it, unlike their current house which is small af and causes some inconveniences if I end up having to stay the night lol. Also the new house has a fireplace and a loft area above the living room which I am SO sure their cats are gonna love.

Artwise I’m in a similar spot to where I am career-wise, which is “I would love to do a fancy finished detailed thing but I definitely won’t have the energy to actually do it to my satisfaction so I should work on just practicing little things but that is not good enough and I have to be able to do awesome cool things right now” and the fact that I don’t have a good, comfortable drawing space doesn’t help. I keep meaning to work on it and I do believe that in bits and pieces, I will, it’s just one of those things where I want to draw and then if I do start, I immediately hate it and want to stop, and lately haven’t had the energy to push through it. XD Just weh.

[paulckrueger]

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it)

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it)

The world of credit scores can be confusing. It’s filled with esoteric jargon like “credit risk” and “FICO.”

I want to help you cut through all the BS and get down to one really important question:

What is a bad credit score?

The answer? Anything less than 670.

Anything below 670 and you’re at risk for higher interest rates on loans (if you get approved at all), getting denied an apartment rental, or even passed up on a job application.

But there is hope. You can improve your credit score even if your score is less than 670.

We know because we talked to someone who has been there.

How this entrepreneur crawled out of debt and escaped her bad credit score

Credit score then: 600 – 650

Credit score now: 789

Debt owed: $12,000 in credit card debt and $35,000 in student loans

Meet Kelsey Jones.

Kelsey is a writer, entrepreneur, and founder of a marketing company called Six Stories. Though her business is thriving and she and her husband are on solid financial footing, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, her credit score took an absolute beating after college due to a problem that happens to many college students: They don’t understand how credit cards work.

This put her in a prime position to fall into debt and kill her credit score before she even graduated.

“I got one of those credit cards you get at a tent with a free t-shirt,” she says. “My parents told me nothing about credit card debt and managing money as I’m sure most don’t, so I had no idea how to manage a credit card and use it to my advantage.”

Due to her inexperience with cards, she didn’t understand the dangers. Like many people with bad credit, she was drawn in by flashy sign-up offers and bonuses. She wound up opening credit cards at stores such as American Eagle and Victoria’s Secret, as well as the major card companies like American Express and Discover.

This behavior eventually led to a sizeable amount of credit card debt. Kelly wound up owing roughly $12,000 in credit card debt when she graduated in 2008 on top of the $35,000 she owed for student loans.  

Her credit score soon plummeted — and was further exacerbated by late payments.

“I sometimes paid my bills late because I just didn’t have enough money,” she says. “I was so broke when I graduated! I vividly remember my paychecks every two weeks were only $730. Meanwhile, I had to pay for my one-bedroom studio, car, cell phone, and all the other bills that come from truly being on your own.”

She adds, “My rent was almost the equivalent of one entire paycheck!”

I felt like I was “less than”

Being in debt and having your credit card debt can take a mental and emotional toll on you as well as a financial one. In fact, researchers have found that there’s a strong correlation between debt and mental health issues.

Debt can be both the cause and symptom of depression and anxiety — and it’s only exacerbated by the fact that many just want to ignore their financial problems.

“I buried my head in the sand for a long time,” she says. “I justified it for a while so I didn’t have to confront the angry feelings I had at myself for getting myself in that situation — specifically from credit card debt.”

For anyone who has ever been in debt, this feeling of anger and guilt should be familiar. When combined, it creates a potent mix that can be debilitating leading to inaction.

That’s why the first step in our system to getting out of debt fast is simply finding out how much you owe. When you confront your debt head-on, you provide yourself with a powerful mental boost that can help you eliminate it completely.

For Kelsey, though, that was easier said than done.

“I felt like I was ‘less than’ because I couldn’t get my shit together well enough to really take care of it,” Kelsey explains. “I felt so out of control of my life and wasn’t ready to be so broke after college. For some reason, I thought things would automatically get better, without me actually having to do anything.”

The wake-up call

It wasn’t until one day when her husband sat her down that she finally had a frank discussion about her finances: Something needed to change.

“Him coming to me about my debt was a wake-up call for me,” she says. “I couldn’t hide anymore.”

Debt is one of the biggest and most common barriers to living a Rich Life. And in their discussion, Kelsey realized that it was getting in the way of everything she and her husband wanted in their lives.

“I wanted to stop being a victim,” she says, “and dreading everything to do with money.”

Credit score improvement game plan

Kelsey’s plan to improve her credit score and escape her financial advice was threefold.

Step 1: Set a goal

First, Kelsey made the conscious decision to escape debt.

“I decided that this was it,” she says. “I was done being in debt. You have to make the conscious decision that you are done being ‘that person.’”

Though it may seem like a no-brainer, many people still put their heads in the sand and avoid their situation entirely — but that’s exactly what your lenders want you to do. They want you to avoid your statements. They want you to just pay off the minimum every month so you owe more interest. That’s how they make money.

Which is why one of our first steps in our credit score improvement system is to find out how much you owe. Once you do that, you’ll know how you can approach paying off your debts.

For Kelsey, the decision to confront her debt was a game changer.

“I went to Staples and bought a huge piece of poster board and bright markers and hung it up in my office,” she says. “I created a bar chart with months at the bottom and debt amount on the side. At the end of every month, I updated the poster board with different colors. It was awesome to see the bar graph trend down.”

Kelsey began to obsess over crushing her debt. She even leveraged this debt calculator spreadsheet whenever she made a financial transaction.

“I constantly updated it when I made payments and even made extra copies of it to test scenarios like ‘What would happen if I paid extra on my Discover card payment?’ or ‘What if I paid off this loan versus the other one?’” she explains. “Just knowing I could be debt-free in X number of months kept me going.”

Step 2: Pay down the debt by any means necessary

Kelsey also made sure that every piece of extra money she received went towards paying down her debt. This meant sacrificing a few things she loved in order to do it.

“We didn’t go on any trips and I didn’t go out to eat with friends as often as I used to,” she explains. “I still didn’t deprive myself, I simply cut down a little.”

She continues, “Any additional extra money, like tax returns, birthday gifts, and even the brand new MacBook I won in a contest, all went toward debt. It was extremely sad to ship that new MacBook to its new owner after I sold it on eBay — but I was obsessed.”

Step 3: Earn more money

Kelsey also leveraged a tried-and-true IWT method of attaining a Rich Life: Earning more money.

“I had my own digital marketing business at this time,” she recalls. “So the amount of money I made was completely up to me. I went into overdrive mode. I asked existing clients for more work and I sent pitch after pitch to potential new clients. I worked probably 50 hours a week … often until 9 or 10 at night and on the weekends, to hit my goals.”

The results

This diligence and hustle ultimately paid off when nearly two years later, she found herself debt-free.

“I still vividly remember sitting on my bed and submitting that last payment to Sallie Mae,” she says. “I promptly had a dance party in my bedroom for a few minutes, and then immediately started making my credit cards work for me.”

That meant putting in place a proven system of (say it with me):

“I set all recurring bills I could to be paid via credit card for the points and I paid off the balances completely each month,” Kelsey says. “Knowing how hard I worked to pay off that debt, I never wanted to get into that situation again. Now, about five years later, I still have never carried a balance over on a credit card more than one time.”

And to people with a low credit score, Kelsey has three pieces of advice:

Stop lying to yourself or justifying it. By confronting the uncomfortable truths about your credit score, you can take the steps to improve it. “Put yourself on an all cash budget or open a new checking account that only has your spending money for groceries, fun, etc.,” she suggests. “Your other checking account can be used to pay your credit card balances and other bills like rent.”

Ask yourself, “Where do I want to be a year from now?” It’s easy to make bad financial decisions when you don’t keep the end goal in mind. “Think about if going into more debt is worth it,” Kelsey says. “Will that new computer really make you feel better or will you feel worse because you’re even more behind on your debt?”

Think about your loved ones. Often times, debt doesn’t only affect you. It also affects your loved ones. “Having a child with our income and debt I had would’ve been irresponsible […] Think about how your debt could impact your spouse and your freedom as a family to make decisions and move forward in life.”

Now that Kelsey’s out of debt and she has a good credit score, she’s now in a great position to live her Rich Life.

What is a bad credit score?

Just like with Kelsey, a bad credit score can be emblematic of many financial issues. To understand why a credit score like 670 is bad though, you need to understand how credit scores work.

Your credit score is a number that lenders use to determine how much of a risk it is to lend to you.

This number will typically be between 300 and 850. The higher your credit score, the better you are situated for things like home and car loans.

The actual number is determined by the following information and their associated weight in relation to your score (credit score formula courtesy of Wells Fargo):

Payment history: 35%

Amounts owed: 30%

Length of credit history: 15%

How many types of credit in use: 10%

Account inquiries: 10%  

Check out these ranges from Experian, one of the three main credit reporting bureaus, to see how your credit score shapes up:

800 – 850 (Great credit score). I want to take this credit score out to a nice seafood dinner, propose marriage to it, and live out our days in the country. It’s that good. If your credit score is in this range, you’ll have no problems getting a home loan or nailing a fantastic interest rate on your mortgage.

740 – 799 (Good credit score). The credit score you’d be happy to bring home to your parents. This is a pretty good spot to be. Though it’s not the best, you’ll still have no problem getting approved for loans and attaining good interest rates.

670 – 739 (Okay credit score). This credit score range is fine for the short term, but you’re going to want to upgrade soon. At this point, any hit to your credit score will be a bad one.

580 – 669 (Bad credit score). In this range, you’re considered a “subprime borrower,” which means you’re likely not to be considered for a loan at all and will struggle getting approved for simple things like apartments.

300 – 579 (Really bad credit score). Immediate swipe left on this credit score. In fact, delete the app entirely. You are a “deep subprime borrower” and won’t get any good rates and won’t likely get approved for any loans. You’ll want to stick around to find out how exactly you can improve your score.

If you want to be approved for any conventional mortgage, you’re going to need a credit score of at least 620. That’s why any credit score below 670 is a bad credit score. At that point, even the smallest hit to your credit score can affect your interest rates and loan approvals.

Miss a payment? Those missing payments affect 35% of your score.

Close down a credit card? That affects 10% of your score.

Even the lender simply opening up an inquiry to your credit hits your score by 10%.

That’s why it’s so important to be aware of your credit score and improve it when it’s bad.

“I have a bad credit score! What should I do?”

If your credit score is bad, you’re not alone. Nearly a third of Americans have a credit score of less than 600.

Also, there’s a chance that you might even be typical for your age range. Check out the average credit score by age as of early 2017 (courtesy of Time):

Age range

Credit score

18 – 29

652

30 – 39

671

40 – 49

685

50 – 59

709

60+

743 

No matter what your credit score is, remember one thing: No credit score is too low to improve.

We want to help you do just that by taking a look at someone who had a low credit score — and the exact steps they took to improve it.

What is a bad credit score? The one that stops you from your Rich Life.

Debt is the number one barrier to living your Rich Life. If you’re in debt and have a bad credit score, we want to help you.

Check out our resources below to get started improving your credit score today:

How to check your credit score

How to improve your credit score in 4 systems 

How to get out of debt fast

Be sure to check out Ramit’s video on negotiating your debt too so you can pay it off even faster.

To help you even more, we’d like to offer you something: The first chapter of Ramit’s New York Times best-seller “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”

It’ll help you tap into even more perks, max out your rewards, and beat the credit card companies at their own game.

It includes the tools and word-for-word scripts to fight back against the huge credit card companies. To download it free now, enter your name and email below.

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Surety Bond Brokers? Business https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-bad-credit-score/

[samuelfields]

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it)

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it)

The world of credit scores can be confusing. It’s filled with esoteric jargon like “credit risk” and “FICO.”

I want to help you cut through all the BS and get down to one really important question:

What is a bad credit score?

The answer? Anything less than 670.

Anything below 670 and you’re at risk for higher interest rates on loans (if you get approved at all), getting denied an apartment rental, or even passed up on a job application.

But there is hope. You can improve your credit score even if your score is less than 670.

We know because we talked to someone who has been there.

How this entrepreneur crawled out of debt and escaped her bad credit score

Credit score then: 600 – 650

Credit score now: 789

Debt owed: $12,000 in credit card debt and $35,000 in student loans

Meet Kelsey Jones.

Kelsey is a writer, entrepreneur, and founder of a marketing company called Six Stories. Though her business is thriving and she and her husband are on solid financial footing, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, her credit score took an absolute beating after college due to a problem that happens to many college students: They don’t understand how credit cards work.

This put her in a prime position to fall into debt and kill her credit score before she even graduated.

“I got one of those credit cards you get at a tent with a free t-shirt,” she says. “My parents told me nothing about credit card debt and managing money as I’m sure most don’t, so I had no idea how to manage a credit card and use it to my advantage.”

Due to her inexperience with cards, she didn’t understand the dangers. Like many people with bad credit, she was drawn in by flashy sign-up offers and bonuses. She wound up opening credit cards at stores such as American Eagle and Victoria’s Secret, as well as the major card companies like American Express and Discover.

This behavior eventually led to a sizeable amount of credit card debt. Kelly wound up owing roughly $12,000 in credit card debt when she graduated in 2008 on top of the $35,000 she owed for student loans.  

Her credit score soon plummeted — and was further exacerbated by late payments.

“I sometimes paid my bills late because I just didn’t have enough money,” she says. “I was so broke when I graduated! I vividly remember my paychecks every two weeks were only $730. Meanwhile, I had to pay for my one-bedroom studio, car, cell phone, and all the other bills that come from truly being on your own.”

She adds, “My rent was almost the equivalent of one entire paycheck!”

I felt like I was “less than”

Being in debt and having your credit card debt can take a mental and emotional toll on you as well as a financial one. In fact, researchers have found that there’s a strong correlation between debt and mental health issues.

Debt can be both the cause and symptom of depression and anxiety — and it’s only exacerbated by the fact that many just want to ignore their financial problems.

“I buried my head in the sand for a long time,” she says. “I justified it for a while so I didn’t have to confront the angry feelings I had at myself for getting myself in that situation — specifically from credit card debt.”

For anyone who has ever been in debt, this feeling of anger and guilt should be familiar. When combined, it creates a potent mix that can be debilitating leading to inaction.

That’s why the first step in our system to getting out of debt fast is simply finding out how much you owe. When you confront your debt head-on, you provide yourself with a powerful mental boost that can help you eliminate it completely.

For Kelsey, though, that was easier said than done.

“I felt like I was ‘less than’ because I couldn’t get my shit together well enough to really take care of it,” Kelsey explains. “I felt so out of control of my life and wasn’t ready to be so broke after college. For some reason, I thought things would automatically get better, without me actually having to do anything.”

The wake-up call

It wasn’t until one day when her husband sat her down that she finally had a frank discussion about her finances: Something needed to change.

“Him coming to me about my debt was a wake-up call for me,” she says. “I couldn’t hide anymore.”

Debt is one of the biggest and most common barriers to living a Rich Life. And in their discussion, Kelsey realized that it was getting in the way of everything she and her husband wanted in their lives.

“I wanted to stop being a victim,” she says, “and dreading everything to do with money.”

Credit score improvement game plan

Kelsey’s plan to improve her credit score and escape her financial advice was threefold.

Step 1: Set a goal

First, Kelsey made the conscious decision to escape debt.

“I decided that this was it,” she says. “I was done being in debt. You have to make the conscious decision that you are done being ‘that person.’”

Though it may seem like a no-brainer, many people still put their heads in the sand and avoid their situation entirely — but that’s exactly what your lenders want you to do. They want you to avoid your statements. They want you to just pay off the minimum every month so you owe more interest. That’s how they make money.

Which is why one of our first steps in our credit score improvement system is to find out how much you owe. Once you do that, you’ll know how you can approach paying off your debts.

For Kelsey, the decision to confront her debt was a game changer.

“I went to Staples and bought a huge piece of poster board and bright markers and hung it up in my office,” she says. “I created a bar chart with months at the bottom and debt amount on the side. At the end of every month, I updated the poster board with different colors. It was awesome to see the bar graph trend down.”

Kelsey began to obsess over crushing her debt. She even leveraged this debt calculator spreadsheet whenever she made a financial transaction.

“I constantly updated it when I made payments and even made extra copies of it to test scenarios like ‘What would happen if I paid extra on my Discover card payment?’ or ‘What if I paid off this loan versus the other one?’” she explains. “Just knowing I could be debt-free in X number of months kept me going.”

Step 2: Pay down the debt by any means necessary

Kelsey also made sure that every piece of extra money she received went towards paying down her debt. This meant sacrificing a few things she loved in order to do it.

“We didn’t go on any trips and I didn’t go out to eat with friends as often as I used to,” she explains. “I still didn’t deprive myself, I simply cut down a little.”

She continues, “Any additional extra money, like tax returns, birthday gifts, and even the brand new MacBook I won in a contest, all went toward debt. It was extremely sad to ship that new MacBook to its new owner after I sold it on eBay — but I was obsessed.”

Step 3: Earn more money

Kelsey also leveraged a tried-and-true IWT method of attaining a Rich Life: Earning more money.

“I had my own digital marketing business at this time,” she recalls. “So the amount of money I made was completely up to me. I went into overdrive mode. I asked existing clients for more work and I sent pitch after pitch to potential new clients. I worked probably 50 hours a week … often until 9 or 10 at night and on the weekends, to hit my goals.”

The results

This diligence and hustle ultimately paid off when nearly two years later, she found herself debt-free.

“I still vividly remember sitting on my bed and submitting that last payment to Sallie Mae,” she says. “I promptly had a dance party in my bedroom for a few minutes, and then immediately started making my credit cards work for me.”

That meant putting in place a proven system of (say it with me):

“I set all recurring bills I could to be paid via credit card for the points and I paid off the balances completely each month,” Kelsey says. “Knowing how hard I worked to pay off that debt, I never wanted to get into that situation again. Now, about five years later, I still have never carried a balance over on a credit card more than one time.”

And to people with a low credit score, Kelsey has three pieces of advice:

Stop lying to yourself or justifying it. By confronting the uncomfortable truths about your credit score, you can take the steps to improve it. “Put yourself on an all cash budget or open a new checking account that only has your spending money for groceries, fun, etc.,” she suggests. “Your other checking account can be used to pay your credit card balances and other bills like rent.”

Ask yourself, “Where do I want to be a year from now?” It’s easy to make bad financial decisions when you don’t keep the end goal in mind. “Think about if going into more debt is worth it,” Kelsey says. “Will that new computer really make you feel better or will you feel worse because you’re even more behind on your debt?”

Think about your loved ones. Often times, debt doesn’t only affect you. It also affects your loved ones. “Having a child with our income and debt I had would’ve been irresponsible […] Think about how your debt could impact your spouse and your freedom as a family to make decisions and move forward in life.”

Now that Kelsey’s out of debt and she has a good credit score, she’s now in a great position to live her Rich Life.

What is a bad credit score?

Just like with Kelsey, a bad credit score can be emblematic of many financial issues. To understand why a credit score like 670 is bad though, you need to understand how credit scores work.

Your credit score is a number that lenders use to determine how much of a risk it is to lend to you.

This number will typically be between 300 and 850. The higher your credit score, the better you are situated for things like home and car loans.

The actual number is determined by the following information and their associated weight in relation to your score (credit score formula courtesy of Wells Fargo):

Payment history: 35%

Amounts owed: 30%

Length of credit history: 15%

How many types of credit in use: 10%

Account inquiries: 10%  

Check out these ranges from Experian, one of the three main credit reporting bureaus, to see how your credit score shapes up:

800 – 850 (Great credit score). I want to take this credit score out to a nice seafood dinner, propose marriage to it, and live out our days in the country. It’s that good. If your credit score is in this range, you’ll have no problems getting a home loan or nailing a fantastic interest rate on your mortgage.

740 – 799 (Good credit score). The credit score you’d be happy to bring home to your parents. This is a pretty good spot to be. Though it’s not the best, you’ll still have no problem getting approved for loans and attaining good interest rates.

670 – 739 (Okay credit score). This credit score range is fine for the short term, but you’re going to want to upgrade soon. At this point, any hit to your credit score will be a bad one.

580 – 669 (Bad credit score). In this range, you’re considered a “subprime borrower,” which means you’re likely not to be considered for a loan at all and will struggle getting approved for simple things like apartments.

300 – 579 (Really bad credit score). Immediate swipe left on this credit score. In fact, delete the app entirely. You are a “deep subprime borrower” and won’t get any good rates and won’t likely get approved for any loans. You’ll want to stick around to find out how exactly you can improve your score.

If you want to be approved for any conventional mortgage, you’re going to need a credit score of at least 620. That’s why any credit score below 670 is a bad credit score. At that point, even the smallest hit to your credit score can affect your interest rates and loan approvals.

Miss a payment? Those missing payments affect 35% of your score.

Close down a credit card? That affects 10% of your score.

Even the lender simply opening up an inquiry to your credit hits your score by 10%.

That’s why it’s so important to be aware of your credit score and improve it when it’s bad.

“I have a bad credit score! What should I do?”

If your credit score is bad, you’re not alone. Nearly a third of Americans have a credit score of less than 600.

Also, there’s a chance that you might even be typical for your age range. Check out the average credit score by age as of early 2017 (courtesy of Time):

Age range

Credit score

18 – 29

652

30 – 39

671

40 – 49

685

50 – 59

709

60+

743 

No matter what your credit score is, remember one thing: No credit score is too low to improve.

We want to help you do just that by taking a look at someone who had a low credit score — and the exact steps they took to improve it.

What is a bad credit score? The one that stops you from your Rich Life.

Debt is the number one barrier to living your Rich Life. If you’re in debt and have a bad credit score, we want to help you.

Check out our resources below to get started improving your credit score today:

How to check your credit score

How to improve your credit score in 4 systems 

How to get out of debt fast

Be sure to check out Ramit’s video on negotiating your debt too so you can pay it off even faster.

To help you even more, we’d like to offer you something: The first chapter of Ramit’s New York Times best-seller “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”

It’ll help you tap into even more perks, max out your rewards, and beat the credit card companies at their own game.

It includes the tools and word-for-word scripts to fight back against the huge credit card companies. To download it free now, enter your name and email below.

What is a bad credit score (and what to do about it) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-bad-credit-score/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[aitian]

February 19, 2018 1:08 AM, Sunday night/Monday morning

I just finished reading 長相守 by tangstory and I feel so full and so empty at the same time. I have really been struggling with my life the past few weeks.

The weekend before last weekend, I went to my last Chesapeake Bay Bowl with Evelyn, Emily, and Jasmine. We turned out a disappointing 4th place, but the trip was fun as always. On the car ride back, I tried to play mafia using swedish fish. I put three full fish in my hands and bit off one half of a fourth, and told everyone to close their eyes and take a fish, and eat it so no one would know who the mafia was. That was a hilarious mistake as no one wanted to eat sweaty fish from my hand or the half-bitted one. It feels bittersweet to finish on a low note. I really only made it this far because of a stupid infatuation.. what a waste.

I skipped half of tuesday, and wednesday through friday this past week. I only went to 1.5/5 days of school. Honestly I am so drained from talking to white ppl at school and everyone is annoying as fuck. Mrs. Rand decided to come for me because I had a health class on my schedule that I thought was online gym but it was an in-school class that I had been marked absent from repeatedly. She told me she didn’t want to help me and to find the counselor to fix my schedule and the office to fix my attendance, and I told her she made me never want to come to school again so she fixed it all for me. feels icky yo! of course I’m not worth valuing as a student or a human until i have a severe illness.

Mom got sick last week which is really why I was able to skip so much school. I know she was secretly thankful those days that she got to sleep in. whenever she’s at home in bed, she just worries about everyone (i mean EVERYONE) though and it is really unhealthy. I know the best favor I can do for her is to be happy so she can be unburdened but I’m a bad actor.

I’m glad I got to celebrate CNY well this year. I watched the entire cctv program, all five hours, with my parents and we folded dumplings even though mom is sick. She didn’t go to the party yesterday, but Alice took me and Eilene and Jasmine to see Black Panther which was a treat. I loved the context but I don’t really know how I feel about the ending. Eilene didn’t question me about skipping school which was nice of her.

Anyway, I feel like I don’t have anything really to look toward in my life. The redeeming moments have been giggling with Evelyn over dumb computer games during class time, laying in bed with mom, and that one time I was able to hang out with Erica and Tracy. Other than that, it is a big black hole full of people mushing together styrofoam pellets. I don’t really know anymore if my medication is working because I had a reasonable sleep schedule the first two weeks, but it all came crashing down this past week. Thinking about spending hours at school with those toxic, proud people, I really could not get out of bed.

Of course I can only turn to fantasy. I spent 80 dollars on books from Amazon and they are all in the mail. I finally got a physical copy of sour heart, and a few more:

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong Cultural Revolution by Norman Wong The Disinherited and Fixer Chao by Ong Han 98 Wounds by Justin Chin

I want to read and read and read and read and forget everyone around me. I am so glad I read Till Death Do Us Part, and I am now so guilty and driven about my Chinese literacy. I want to learn as soon as I can and read the original text instead of the English translation with bad grammar, although the translator was very helpful in providing context for historical places. The time period is really what makes me so emotional. It begins in Tianjin in the 1920′s, an era gripped by colonization and western opulence. The cliched wealthy-heir-meets-average-peasant storyline is cute for a second, and quickly escalates as world war 2 drives them apart and then back together. In a time when sexuality outside of social norms often means unwanted polyamory, it is really a treat to read a historical view on polyamory from my ancestral lands that is overthrown by devotion. They stay together through the end of Japanese imperialism, the civil war, and the Cultural Revolution and I was crying as they showed signs of age. When Shen is diagnosed with cancer I immediately starting crying because of how his partner must feel. In the end, stripped of the opulence from their youth but content to remain unseparated, they watch the first national broadcasting of the Chinese New Year festivities on a color television loaned by a pitying friend. They fall asleep, and Chen Jing’s pleading in his lucid dream as Shen slips away gave my snot and tears second wind. My sleeves were drenched with fluids like a disgusting toddler’s as Shen turns around and they laugh at each other, and the two frail old lovers walk toward one another, regaining their youth in each step, and they leave the world behind together.

I have always rolled my eyes at the question of whether I would travel to the past or the future because of my identity, but maybe that has changed. I would love to see Tianjin in the 1920′s or Shanghai in the 1980′s briefly if I could return as a wealthy elite. However, I know it is all fantasy. No queer love stories actually lasted through the 1900′s in China free from persecution and death. Suffering is tied fast to our history: a history that I largely do not have access to. And I don’t mean the history I can read in textbooks books from my local library about the poor, misguided, dirty Chinese. I mean untainted narratives from the generations of queer people living in China today, or even a more common dialogue about recent Chinese history. I need to improve my literacy so I can have agency and context for my life.

A few months ago, I was ready to graduate smoothly even if it meant staying in State College to attend Penn State but I am now so unsure. It’s silly, but in this moment I want to live in China and find love. Or at least compromise and go to Columbia and find love in Chinatown. I don’t want to be estranged from my roots my whole life. I don’t want to be lost in this unwelcoming land. Ever since my depression kicked into high gear I have been unable to see myself growing by the day, and it scares me. I am in the same place as I was three or even four years ago, and I can not waste myself like this. What do I have to show aside from some lousy friends and a transcript? A semester passed in the blink of an eye, and in another blink I will be farther along in my life than I ever imaged going. There is little I can do now, but I have to hurry. The path stretches before me longer than I care to follow, and I am moving at a snail’s pace.

[foursproutwealth-blog]

Money story: Two broke millennials in pursuit of financial freedom

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/money-story-two-broke-millennials-in-pursuit-of-financial-freedom/

Money story: Two broke millennials in pursuit of financial freedom

This guest post from Claudia Pennington is part of the “money stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity. Today, Claudia shares the steps she and her husband have taken in their pursuit of financial freedom.

Garrett and I were your typical, college-educated millennials (thanks to student loans) who purchased new cars (courtesy of auto loans) and an overpriced, pre-recession home with a 30-year mortgage. We were good consumers, the kind of consumers that lenders love: We spent on credit and we paid our bills on time.

Fast forward to 2014 ⇒⇒ We managed to acquire even more debt. We had a car loan, two car leases, a mortgage, student loans, and credit card debt. Living paycheck to paycheck was exhausting!

It took years for us to realize just how tired we were.

Tired of not having any time.

Tired of not having any money.

Tired of not being able to travel.

After listening to people on the radio talk about similar money problems, we decided it was about time that we get our own finances in order. In 2015, we took a hard look at our spending from 2014. We didn’t like what we saw. We created a plan to get out of debt and change our lives.

Fast forward to today ⇒⇒ We managed to eliminate all of our debt. We’re a one-car family (no auto loan). We paid off our student loans (paid Sallie Mae Navient back). We paid off our mortgage in just over a year.

Let me tell you how we did it.

Home Expenses in 2014: $45,954, in 2017: $7,227

According to Mint, we spent $45,954 on everything “Home” related during 2014. Our “Home” expenses included mortgage, insurance, repairs, remodeling, utilities, and any “stuff” we bought to adorn our home.

Having a 1500-square-foot home was a drag. Between the money going out for heating, cooling, taxes, insurance, and many repairs and the time we spent cleaning it, mowing the lawn, and shoveling snow, we were over home “ownership”.

After spending nearly $46,000, you’d think we might have made a dent in the mortgage. But no, you’d be wrong. At the end of 2014, we still had a mortgage balance of $156,000 because we weren’t paying anything extra. Our house owned us.

Baby Boomers around us were dying to retire but finding themselves handcuffed to jobs in order to pay their mortgages. Neither of us wanted to end up like them. But in 2014, that’s exactly where we were headed.

By 2017, we had sold our 1500-square-foot house, moved into a 500-square-foot house (yes, I’m serious), and managed to pay off the mortgage on the new place. Our $7,227 in expenses included taxes, insurance, utilities, and the “stuff” to take care of the house like soap, rugs, and whatnot.

Auto Expenses in 2014: $10,256, in 2017: $7,466

At one point, both of us had a Volvo and a smart car. That’s right: Our household of two owned four cars.

To acquire four cars, we had two car loans and two car leases, so it’s no surprise that in 2014, we spent $10,256 on debt, repairs, and insurance for four cars.

And you know what’s really crazy?

We had so much stuff in our two-car garage (hobby stuff, home stuff, deck furniture, etc…) that we struggled to park just one car in the garage. The time and money we wasted juggling four cars was obscene.

By the end of 2017, we had become a one-car family. The leases on our smart cars ended in early 2017, so we paid the end-of-leases fees and returned those cars to the dealership. Most of our expenses in 2017 were the result of car repairs and maintenance, like a new computer, fancy synthetic oil, and so on.

Health Expenses in 2014: $14,532, in 2017: $3,726

In 2014, Garrett started seeing a new, out-of-network, out-of-pocket doctor ($$$). It was a last-ditch effort to address a lifetime of chronic fatigue. (He’s doing much better today!)

Also in 2014, I came down with some bizarre symptoms that went undiagnosed (probably tick-borne illness). Thousands of dollars in MRIs, blood tests, and CT scans, no one could explain the difficulty walking, fatigue, and brain fog. (Thankfully, I recovered.)

In total, we spent $14,532 on our medical needs in 2014.

And all of the stress about money certainly didn’t help our health!

Eliminating all of our debt also eliminated much of the stress we felt about money. What a relief it was knowing that we were true homeowners, living mortgage free in our “tiny” house.

Downsizing to the 500-square-foot home freed up a lot of time. No longer were we spending hours each week maintaining or remodeling our home. Instead, we spend our time hiking, kayaking, and doing all the other action verbs we enjoy doing.

Food Expenses in 2014: $15,693.48, in 2017: $7,070

Between our jobs, half-done home remodeling projects, and countless medical appointments, we had convinced ourselves we didn’t have time to cook when we lived in our larger 1500-square-foot home. In fact, we thought that by eating at restaurants every other night, we were actually saving time.

Going to restaurants all the time led to laziness and poor food choices. We weren’t eating well. We weren’t exercising. It’s probably no surprise that our health expenses were as high as they were because we weren’t taking care of our bodies.

Looking back at that year, it’s clear that we were the problem in our lives. The state of our finances was largely due to bad decisions and poor choices. But spending nearly $16,000 on food wasn’t the problem — a lack of accountability was our real problem.

Honestly, food continues to be a struggle — even as I write this in early 2018. When we plan ahead and purchase enough groceries for the week, we’re okay; going out to eat isn’t even a thought. But when we don’t plan portions properly or we forget to go to the store to replenish the stockpile, we run into trouble. Our spending on food is down significantly, but there’s still room for progress.

2015: The Year of Change

In 2015, we started talking about money and what we wanted to do with money in the future. We quickly realized that we weren’t spending money in a way that aligned with our values. Neither of us imagined that we’d be working until 67, but we weren’t doing what we needed to do in order to retire earlier.

I started seeking out online personal finance resources to help us get our financial situation in order. One of the blogs we found was 1500 Days, which is all about financial independence. It was the first time we’d encountered the term; it sounded as if though financial independence would lead to the life we sought.

J.D.’s note: I love 1500 Days. It’s one of my favorite finance blogs. Two of its best features? First, Carl is hilarious. And second, the blog contains plenty of dinosaurs.

By April 2015, we set a plan for getting out of the hole we’d dug, to become money bosses for the first time in our lives. We wanted to achieve financial independence in 1500 days — on 19 May 2019. Having such a lofty goal meant we had to make some big changes.

Since our saving rate was nonexistent, we stopped spending on all non-essentials and started budgeting. We challenged all of our expenses to see how low our spending could go. Each expense we lowered meant more profit margin. But cutting our expenses wasn’t enough to get us out of debt in the timeframe we outlined. We had to take bigger steps to rearrange our lives in order to accomplish our mission.

I left a part-time job in favor of a full-time job. Garrett put extra hours into his W-2 sales job because of the commissions he could earn.

We put the 1500-square-foot house on the market in April 2015. (Sold in May 2016 — $0 in proceeds from the sale.)

We set about the process of building a smaller home. We found our postage-stamp lot — 2500 square feet — and had a small house manufactured to fit on the space. We moved into our 536-square-foot home in September 2015. (We’ve been loving it ever since!)

We sold one Volvo and turned in the two smart cars at the end of their leases. Now, we’re a one-car family. Since I work from home, I’m content with biking around town to run errands or when I just want to hang out by the river.

We started a side hustle and used the income from our side hustle to pay off our credit card debt in October 2015. [J.D. again. Claudia is too shy to say, but I’ll mention it for her. Their side hustle is SEO Audit Guide, a company that helps folks in the online space optimize their websites. I’ve paid for their services myself. Twice.]

We used the debt avalanche approach to eliminate the remaining debts, which we paid off in March 2017. (Here’s a debt avalanche calculator.)

We’re just three years into this journey to FI, and I’m proud to say we are 100% debt free. No mortgage. No car loans. No student loans. No credit card debt.

2018: The Year of Growth

Our purpose for this journey was to create margin in our lives to pursue something purposeful, our “why,” something other than W-2 employment: a life of financial independence colored with slow travel and entrepreneurship.

If you know about the stages of financial freedom, you know we’re working on Stage 4: Security.

In the last several months of our journey to debt freedom, we were able to make monster debt payments — as much as $13,000 toward the end. We were obsessed with getting out of debt, so we didn’t save any money. Sometimes we had as little as $500 in our checking account. Most of the time, we had less than $100 in savings.

In 2017, we made solid progress on Stage 4. We set aside enough in our emergency fund to cover one year’s worth of expenses (about $30,000) and we invested the max in our tax-deferred retirement accounts.

In 2018, we’re focused on growth. We want to grow our income, which will in turn increase our saving rate. This will give us more money to invest. (We’re interested in dividend investing.) After much debate about how we should pursue financial independence, Garrett and I decided that real estate just isn’t right for us. Dividend investing is a better fit. (With real estate, we’d need to invest far too much time and money to generate enough passive income to cover our expenses.)

Pursuing financial freedom changed us for the better. We’ve seen significant improvements in our finances, but also our health and happiness. No longer are we broke millennials living paycheck to paycheck. Somewhere along the way, we became happier, healthier, self-actualizing, wealth-building millennials. And financial freedom is finally in sight.

Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After twenty years of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are. Unduly nasty comments on reader stories will be removed or edited.

The post Money story: Two broke millennials in pursuit of financial freedom appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.