Harry Potter and the Child Support Payment from Hell
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Well, here's just another in a long line of setbacks. Yesterday, I had to go to court to set up my child support payments.
When Jen and I split up, we decided to use arbitration (which is definitely the cheaper, more peaceful way to go). They have the full force of law behind them, and can make legally binding decisions.
We agreed that child support would be 25% of my net income, which I have been paying. I would get a check, figure what I owed, and write a check.
Unfortunately the office of the Attorney General doesn't do the math the same way. They base it on 25% of your projected total income for the year. A number which is total crap, because if you have a slow period at work or get laid off, you are just screwed. It doesn't fluctuate. It keeps going until the court decides to let you adjust it.
And that, my friends, is total garbage. Not to mention, I'm required to pay 50% of the children's insurance. Right now, that's about $80, give or take.
The problem is that this is on top of the child support.
Which means I'm not paying 25%. No sir. I'm paying closer to 1/3 of my "we-pulled-this-figure-up-by-magic" income.
The funny part is that the OAG really doesn't have the authority to override the decision of the arbitrators from what I understand. I'm thinking about seeing if I can set up an alternate method of payment. I doubt that I can do that, but I'd rather deal with the hassle of doing it myself rather than be screwed by fuzzy logic.
But there is good news this week! I finally, FINALLY set up an online savings account. I figured that if I was going to be completely beaten down by my finances, then I would have to act if I wanted to make it in the future. No more apathy. It's time to live how I want...or at least start working for that.
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PTC Sites are a Total Waste of Time
I felt that I needed to rant about something.
A while back, I made several posts touting the benefits of Pay-to-Click (PTC) sites. Now, there are a few good ones out there. In fact, there are some great ones out there, I'm sure, but I don't plan to have anything to do with them, thanks to Pay2Surf.
Aside from the site shutting down and not paying people, one of their requirements (to be paid) was that you couldn't spread 'negative talk' about the site around the web. If you were caught talking bad about the site, you would be banned and forfeit all of your earnings and investments made in the site. Pretty crappy, huh?
I've sent numerous emails to the admins of the site, talked to them via their SSANZ support site, and have been promised that they were working on version 2.0 and would verify and pay me. Guess what? The domain name is for sale, the site isn't coming back, and I'm not getting paid.
I've sent an email to the admin letting them know that I would most likely be seeking legal advice in this matter.
I don't like scammers. I really, really don't like being lied to.
Thanks, Pay2Surf, you've made me an angry blogger. Oh, the same goes for Visit4Cash as well (same admin).
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It’s Valentine’s Day. Again.
Once again the world is faced with a decision: chocolates which will induce the 'does this make me look fat' genes into firing off a slavo of loaded questions, or flowers...which will die? Either way, if you want to save a few bucks this year, why not get her something that will be far more valuable in the long run (and less troublesome)? Yes, you should buy her some gold.
I'm not trying to sell you any gold, although I probably should. I'm just doing my job to point out the idiocy of this whole VD debacle. You have one day out of the whole freaking year to tell/show someone that you care about them by spending your hard earned cash on something that will be absolutely devoid of value in days, if not minutes, and they raise the prices on you poor suckers who think that you can just get buy with showing affection once per year!
This is the part where I throw my head back and ROFL.
Of course, I'm not always doom-and-gloom. It just happens that VD is my least favorite day of the year. Yeah, it's a tradition.
But this year, thanks to those wonderful people at NeverblueAds, I have something positive for you. Actually, it's in their 'daily news' box, right there on the left when you sign in to your account.
What? You don't have an account with NeverblueAds? Perhaps you should check them out. Here's a link to NeverblueAds for you!
Anyway, here's their thing. Oh, and do sign up with NBA. They are a great affiliate program.
Neverblue's Valentine's Day Tips!!
1. Don't Forget!
2. Don't buy any kitchen appliances (or anything practical).
3. Do NOT do the same thing you did last year!
4. Don't break up with your significant other on this day.
5. Don't brag about how good your gift is, and DON'T get her a panic gift (she will know.)
6. Don't ever talk about your ex and what you did with them last Valentine's Day.
7. Have Fun!
8. Cook for her!
9. Anything personal is better than something material, because you don't have to spend a lot of money for it to mean something!
10. Always remember, be with the one's you love!
If you like these posts and want to stay in the loop, please subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. And if you really like this stuff, you can buy me a coffee! Oh, and if you like being an insider, be sure to join the mailing list...I never spam, but you will get some insider specials!
How to Tell When Things are Bad
Well, Ike didn't get too bad here. Got some high winds, but fortunately the power only blinked once, so I was able to post updates to Twitter all night. Needless to say, between keeping the twits updated, the refugees that stayed with us, and the coffee, I didn't sleep much this weekend.
Fortunately, the decision to live-tweet a hurricane helped improve my follower count!
That's all the good news I have.
I've been out of work for three weeks now. I DO have a job, but I took my physical Friday and I have to wait for them to mail the results to the company. Not only that, my unemployment was denied. We are staring right down the barrel of losing our phones, internet, cars and maybe electricity.
This is not a place I ever want to be in again.
We can't sell the car because it's not paid for. And it's not in our name. Can't cut the cable off, because the internet is tied in with it and my wife needs it for school. Can't cut the phones for obvious reasons (they are cell phones - we don't have a landline...and they are locked in a contract).
I really hate being down. I especially hate the incessant flow of bad news.
Suggestions?
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Recent Posts
- Multiple Income Streams – Getting Pumped!
- Setting up my savings goal.
- Harry Potter and the Child Support Payment from Hell
- Reinventing myself – setting goals.
- It’s time to do some house cleaning.
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Dealing With Spam Comments
Photo by cookipediachef
This is a post that I'd like to dedicate to my dearly beloved comment spammers.
Just because you leave a comment that does not contain a link does NOT mean that I will let you have the link in the URL field!
That's right. I may keep your friendly comments, but I do manage to kill off your links. If you want legitimate backlinks from me, feel free to ask me how you can get them. Until then, I'm glad that my true, unadulterated words* make your day, but you still can't have a backlink to your non-english spam blog.
Ever.
*from an actual spam comment...I'm not sure what the heck it means, but whatever.
If you like these posts and want to stay in the loop, please subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. And if you really like this stuff, you can buy me a coffee! Oh, and if you like being an insider, be sure to join the mailing list...I never spam, but you will get some insider specials!