From: anxiety, fear, and
resistance
To: change, prosperity and energy
Dear List,
I know I've been more of a ghost than a real
presence on the list for awhile now, which I regret. The good news is that my
being super-busy stems from prosperity and energy and not from the old
sources--anxiety, fear, and resistance to change.
The DA program has changed my life
profoundly, and it's important that I say that where newcomers--and
not-so-newcomers who are struggling--can hear and see my story. When I came
into DA in 1990, I was halfway through owning a business that was funded by
unsecured debt and hemorrhaging money. I ended up, one year later, owing the
IRS $40,000 for unpaid payroll taxes--the most serious kind of tax fraud an
individual can commit, b/c I was only the custodian of that money and, in
effect, embezzled it. (The original amount was $12,000, but by the time they
finished adding interest and penalties, it was more than $40,000).
I was also in debt to 5 or 6 credit cards,
student loans, the man who had lent me the $$ to start the business (which I
sold in June 1991), my parents, a couple of employees, and the man I'd sold the
business to (turned out the unpaid payroll taxes also took the form, later on,
of delinquency of other federal employment taxes, which he had to pay on my
behalf). The total was over $100,000.
I'm going to fast-forward now to my life 15
years into DA. I now have a day job I enjoy and that provides a salary I can
(almost) live on and **excellent** benefits. I own a home I cherish, and b/c I
rent out the main part of the house, I live there rent free. My vision is to
write full time; in the meantime, I do regular freelance writing I thoroughly
enjoy and which brings in $300-$500 a month.
So many parts of my life have been
transformed that I can't describe them all in one sitting. This hasn't just been
a result of DA; I got sober in AA in 1984, and have been abstinent in OA/HOW
for six years (I've been continuously active in OA since 1985, but finally got
abstinent when I joined HOW in 1999). The combination of the 3 programs has
been magical.
That's it for now. Soon I'm going to tell the
list how I managed to buy my house for no $$ down. What I'll say now is that
all my life I've wanted a house to remodel, and now, thanks to money I
inherited when my father died last May, I'm doing that. That's one reason I've
been so busy: I'm living a vision, every single day, by making that cherished
home even more wonderful.
To everyone here who's struggling, scared,
worried that things will never change: IT WILL, IF YOU WORK THE PROGRAM AND LET
THE MIRACLES HAPPEN.
Thanks to all of you for being here and for
being a powerful force in my recovery!
Barbara
Dear
XXXXX,
I think that's an *excellent* vision, (purchasing
a house) and one that will prove to be helpful in lots of ways to work toward.
As I said in my post yesterday, I bought my
house with no $$ down b/c I could guarantee that I'd be renting out part of the
house for at least $900 a month. That plus my other income allowed me to SQUEAK
past the minimum income requirements for a GMAC Mortgage program for first-time
homebuyers.
What really made things easier, however, was
that by then I had a really good credit rating.
So--what can you begin doing, today, to
improve your credit rating? Have you made sure that everything on your current
report is correct? How long before each
negative entry is removed due to age?
Etc., etc., etc.
The last time I checked on my report (when I
was buying the house, presumably), two credit-card companies *volunteered* to
me that their entries should be removed due to age (I'd paid both accounts in
full, which took years of steady monthly payments).
I'll bet there are lots of good books for
people looking to buy real estate in your situation.
I always urge people to consider doing what I
did: Buy a duplex (in my case, it's an under/over duplex rather than
side-by-side). That way it's producing income from the first, and makes it
easier to meet the requirements for the mortgage.
Good luck!!!
Barbara