House Hunting & Other New Adventures

Ok, so the title of this entry may be somewhat misleading but it's fun to dream, right?  Actually, I said earlier this year that one of my next goals is to buy a house or condo and that's still very much on my radar.  How soon it will happen, is probably a little farther off the radar than I would hope.  Ever watch Suze Orman?  She's that financial analyst/guru and does a great job on her TV show of picking people's financial situation apart and telling them "no" when they want to buy something that's just not 1) smart 2) feasible and/or 3) realistic.  *Sigh*.  Well, Suze would pick me apart for my desire to own a home without the lump sum to put down or the 8 month "emergency fund" you need in case something goes awry.  However, I digress.  How can you NOT dream when the housing market is at an all time low?  I mean, houses in the area I'm looking at easily went for $350k+ a few years ago.  And now...listings for those same houses at $200k or less!  Talk about crazy exciting!  We'll see what I conjure up over the next 6 months or so...

In other related news, my mom has enlightened me on a business opportunity that is worthy of further investigation.  Through a contact of hers at work, she learned a little about running, owning and operating a private Courier service.  Since her company (and so many other companies out there now) are downsizing, hiring less, cross-training employees to other positions, "leaning" out their resources and people etc., many businesses have turned to external Courier services as a means for transporting their documents, equipment, people and more.  It's a simple premise, really.  You drive said items from one location to another, from client to recipient's destination.  The start-up for this is nearly nothing.  Literally, all that is needed is a reliable vehicle, a cellular phone and access to a computer/printer.  Needless, to say, the room for profit and the next-to-nothing start-up cost is very appealing.  I've purchased some resources that give further instruction on how to start-up a Courier service and where to go from there.  With school still looming (for another couple of months, anyway) and work, I may put this on a short hold but after that, I really plan to go full steam with it.  It's exciting to me and well, doesn't everyone want to be their own boss?  I sure do!

That's about it for my latest news.  Of course, I'll come back and revisit these two main topics on the agenda in a few months and see where I'm at with each of them.  As one of the world's worst procrastinators, you, my readers must cattle prod me and see me through!  

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, I had a photo shoot with Southern California's greatest, most talented photographer and friend, Amy.  Meeting her, her husband Mike and sweet baby boy Jackson was the highlight of these past 6 months or so.  I'm so thrilled I got the chance to meet up with her and take some amazing photographs that I'll treasure forever.  I'll post a glimpse of those when I receive the CD so stay tuned!