Trying to Find Other Income

You know like many of us we try and find some kind of legitimate way of increasing our income or maybe replacing the income we currently make. But, withal those affiliate programs on the net, Avon, Amway, and other business opportunities…it seems that once you find something that is real…bam…it turns south. Now, I have tried everything…for the past 20 years, yes…placing little ads in newspapers, to selling in the swap meet, to vending machines to Amway, to Real Estate to loan Processing…well the later two actually do work and I am active, but of course times are rough and that doesn’t come in as easily as before.

But the thing is whenever you find something…that really feels good or that you researched for months and feel man this could work…then you go head in and a few months down the income starts to dissipate, making you wonder what is going on.

Now, I found a few online opportunities that I believe the concept and business plan made sense, the thing is if you don’t have the money to start your own business and you try and piggy-back on someone else business…that seems to always never work for us trying to find something.

So yah the business concept looks solid, but you need 50 to 100 thousand dollars to get started…so how many of us have that laying around. So you entrust yourself and spend say 1500 dollars to get into the business, the thing is you need to count on someone else for the majority of the process…then you really can’t see what you are really making…it becomes tough and all of a sudden you are left with the short end of the deal…you thought would make you some money.

I am currently running an affiliate business, and I started about 3 years ago, you know what…it has taken me just a little over three years to even start seeing some kind of checks in the mail. Yah the affiliate program is actually paying for the marketing and I have a little left over…ok…nothing to write home about…but I am talking about 300-500 dollars a month…but maybe by the time I retire I will be able to have at least 600-1000 dollars a month..Not rich but that little income can sure come in handing when I am living in a 1 bedroom apartment…ok…well you know what mean.

So my point here is there are some programs out there that do work, but they certainly are not going to get you rich quick and possibly not rich at all, but you will see some income…why…because 97 percent of the people that try it out give up after the first 6 months to a year…so unless you stick it out like I did, you won’t see a dime, but if you set it and forget it…you could eventually see 300-500 a month after 3 years on a 60 dollar a month marketing budget…yah that’s what I was spending up until recently…I now spend 300 a month and some months I am left over with 150-200 dollars. I am eventually going to put that back into the marketing and see if I can also increase the income coming in.

The thing is I really want to make certain I have money when I retire, sure I have a job now, I have a 401(K), I have my Real Estate license, which I do close 1 or 2 transactions a year, yah I am have this business online and yes it is giving me some income, but I would really like to rest easy that when I retire I will have some nice income. Ok, I am not asking to be living in a 10,000 square foot home or vacationing every year to an exotic location, but just having income for something. And most importantly I really do not prefer to have to work when I am 70 years old…not looking for that.

I just wished if someone did find something that could be shared among individuals and still make a nice income…say 3000 a month…and yes it should take work on our part, but if you put in the time…you should see a return on your investment and time. Having a business that works, and sharing to the world, but then really only allowing them to make smitten while their business makes even more money off of your hard work…really sad and well it happens, which it shouldn’t.

Ok I sound like a huge complainer and probably only venting, but you know…over these many…many years I come to find I am not the only one. People are wiling to work if they can truly make some residual income. Where can we find a business like that, or where can we find an individual that is willing to take on 5-10 people and their money and make it work…that would be fantastic…and possibly a great way to make money.

In the meantime, right now the business I have, is working….slowly but it is working and I would highly recommend it…it’s free and with a shoe-string budget of 60 a month you can begin building…I say building the business to eventually provide you with residual income. If you are interested, click on the Tab above named Income and read about it…it doesn’t cost a thing and only takes a few minutes to read…plus I tell you about the marketing I use and works for me.

Hey I appreciate you reading my blog and till next time Latino Man signing off. Remember it’s out there, we’ll find it…things will be ok.

Hard Times – “2K Depression”

So, here we are another day, gone by and of course the market is nearing 11,000, so sunny days are here again, house prices are once again soaring, we all have 100K or more in equity in our house, no debt and well very low interest rates…what more can we ask for…Yah I mean we now have a great new health Reform that is here to help everyone…you…me…your neighbor…I mean come one…what more can be said…we are out of this runt…right.

Well, not sure where the news is getting their information, because my house is still under $85,000 and I just got my hours cut at work 6.25%, and the last raise I got was in 2008…so I am not sure where all this news about we are recovering is coming from…I mean the Banks won’t help anymore because, guess what…we are in recovery…so why would I or you need any help. We should all be happily employed, and happily making our low interest rate mortgage…right…well…once again…I don’t know where these guys are getting their numbers or news…because sooner or later, probably sooner I will be one of those many statistics of foreclosure…because as soon as they raise the those rates and you know that will happen since we are on the road to recovery and well we need to start making those bonds more interesting for our foreign friends…so let’s start raising those interest rate…and BAM…a myriad of new foreclosures…that’s what I see…hey…that’s what I believe is going to happen…of course I hope I am wrong.

But any how, you see, read and hear that the market is up, the economy is moving forward, companies are not laying of as much as they use to…but what is the truth…come on…I can barely afford to buy groceries, I mean…ok…I may not be at the worst position, but I grew up poor…there came a time in my young life…where I had to dumpster dive…oh yah…cold nights…no food…I have seeing oh many things…but one thing I have learned is to keep on fighting, but you know…as you start to get older…your body doesn’t handle those type of things as well as before…so I am getting tired and all this talk about Health reform, loan modifications…come one Loan modification…have you heard the statistics on that…only 3% of the outstanding loans have been modified…there are millions of people like you and me out there trying to get some help and all we do is fill out paperwork, and try to justify why I can’t make my payments, then you banks telling you what you need to do in your life…ok…no piano for your kids, cut back on the second cell phone, maybe you should not have cable television…or wait…shoes…you should maybe cut back on that spending as well…then well then you can pay the banks nearly all the same mortgage payment you were paying before…all they did was debt consolidate for you…using your money…there is no help in that. That’s why they want to know exactly where your money is going…if you send an extra 20 or 50 dollars to your credit card…stop, reroute that to your mortgage payment…you see they move things around for you…to buy time…and hope when your house has equity they can refinance into another loan and of course charge you all those closing costs…wait roll that into the new loan…yah…buying time is what I think that Banks are doing.

Anyhow, Many of us maybe did not see the great depression…and could not make comparison only read about it, but you know…I times are hard right now and we need to let our government officials know this…see this…before making foolish decision, that affect our lives.

In recovery…I don’t think so, just wait for it…you’ll see…next Commercial industry will fall…small business closing…yah…

My perspective:

Banks need to simply lock everyone to a 2% interest rate, eliminate all seconds…any new mortgages well that should be determined as it always has been, sorry to say…but buyers today are getting bargains…more house for their buck…so fair is fair…if I was new coming into the market…I would certainly be ok with paying the fair interest rate that I deserve according to my credit rating…simple…but for those that had perfect credit and build a life, and now do to no fault of their own their house is less than what they owe…yah…we should get a locked rate of 2% and have our seconds eliminated.

Thanks again for reading…Latina Man signing off…till next time.

The Plan to Assist Mortgage Borrowers: Loan Modification

I thought this would be a good piece of information for home owners.

by Jack M. Guttentag
Posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 12:00AM

My previous articles in this series criticized the administration's new program for Making Home Affordable (MHA) because it ignored negative equity -- which is the major factor underlying the currently horrendous foreclosure rate -- and because it offered refinance relief only to borrowers lucky enough to have their mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This article is about the loan contract modification part of the program, which covers loans owned by any investor.

Like the refinance program, the loan modification part of MHA ignores negative equity and offers help only to owner-occupants. Investors are not eligible. Those negatives aside, the modification program is well designed. Its architects have taken note of a number of problems that have bedeviled existing modification programs, and have fashioned sensible remedies to deal with them.

Shortages of Trained Staff: The shortage of qualified staff by servicers, as well as the high cost of modifying loans, has resulted in many needless foreclosures that timely modifications could have prevented. The MHA remedy is to provide financial incentives to servicers to do more modifications.

Under the program, servicers are paid $1,000 for each eligible loan they modify, provided that the modified loan remains current through a trial period of at least 90 days. In addition, the servicer collects $1,000 a year for three years if the borrower stays current for that period.
High Incidence of Redefault: In the past, many borrowers with modified loans have subsequently defaulted. Many early modifications, however, did not reduce the borrower's payment, and in some cases the payment increased.

Under MHA, the interest rate is reduced to a level where payments for principal, interest, taxes, and insurance make up no more than 31 percent of the borrower's gross income. In addition, a borrower who stays current will receive $1,000 a year for up to five years in the form of balance reductions.

Restriction to Borrowers in Default: For the most part, servicers have limited modifications to borrowers who are two or more payments behind. This rule assured compliance with investor requirements that modifications were allowed only to avoid more-costly foreclosures, and it also helped servicers allocate their limited staff to the most urgent situations. But it had the unfortunate effect of encouraging borrowers to default so they could get help.

The new program attempts to remedy this by establishing "hardship" criteria for eligibility that does not require the borrower to be in default in order to qualify for a modification. In addition, bonuses of $1,500 to the investor and $500 to the servicer are offered for each modification that is executed while the borrower facing hardship is still in good standing.

Multiplicity of Modification Standards: Different servicers have applied different standards to the modification process, both in terms of assessing eligibility and in establishing the type and scope of modification. The result has been vastly different treatment of borrowers, depending on who happened to be servicing their loan. The new program attempts to remedy this by setting out standards for determining eligibility, the type and amount of assistance provided, the documentation required, and other factors.

In brief, eligible borrowers must be able to document financial hardship, defined as a monthly housing expense (mortgage payment plus taxes and insurance) in excess of 31 percent of gross income. If borrowers who qualify under this rule have a total expense ratio, which includes all other debt payments, of 55 percent or more, they must agree to obtain counseling. The mortgage payment of eligible borrowers is reduced to 31 percent primarily through temporary interest rate reductions, following procedures detailed by the government.
Unfortunately, on modifications that are not MHA eligible, the multiplicity of standards will remain.

The Second Mortgage Problem: Second mortgages are a potential barrier to modifying first mortgages because of the threat that the second mortgage lender can always foreclose if the second mortgage payment is not made. Some servicers work with second mortgage lenders, while others require the borrower to make a deal with the second mortgage lender that gets them out of the way. Under the program, "incentives will be provided to extinguish junior liens on homes with first liens that are modified under the program." No detail is provided on this part of the program, which is one of several loose ends that await clarification. It is hoped that, in tying up these loose ends, the Treasury will also reconsider its exclusion of investors from the program, which could be easily remedied, and think about developing another program directed to the problem of negative equity.

Thanks once again...till next time...hang in there.