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[Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Boy, don't I know it! We paid down the mortgage we first had here, and 
that felt good. I now live on a mix of child support, farm income, and 
charity from my (rich) mother. There is no extra money to put toward the 
mortgage. I've been looking for a job for a year now. This has always 
been an economically depressed area with few people and fewer jobs. I've 
applied for every minimum wage job within 25 miles...they inevitably go 
to kids right out of high school.

Being over 50 and not having been employed in 17 years hurts my chances. 
I have a Master's Degree, but there's no work here requiring a degree; 
it's in Library Science, and the library won't hire me because I have a 
higher degree than the director. The government employment agency I 
signed up for suggested that I remove my MLS AND my BA from my resume so 
as not to "scare away" employers. Sigh. The only good jobs here are for 
nurses and mechanics.

I still think I'll have to make my own job, but I haven't hit on the 
right thing yet. I've been self-employed in the past (freelance 
technical writer) and enjoyed it. All the freelance writing jobs seem to 
have gone to India. I've tried a farm stand and crafts, and they bring 
in a little, but not enough. Selling beef is a good business, but I'd 
need 10 'enterprises' as Salatin calls them, to have enough money. I 
can't handle more than 2 or 3 by myself.

If I take on too much, stuff starts slipping through the cracks and it 
all falls down. For instance, I was selling crafts (candles) at craft 
shows, but they are on weekends, so I'd make some money on the candles, 
but I couldn't have the farm stand open to sell meat, so I'd lose money 
there. Plus the kids were left alone all day...they are older now, but I 
still don't like leaving them too much...makes me feel like a negligent 
mother (their father sometimes doesn't see them for months at a time; I 
feel like I have to make up for that). Plus my mother is 92, had a 
stroke, and just had a mastectomy. I do all her shopping and take her to 
doctor's appointments, and check in on her every day. And don't even 
suggest bringing her here...she can't do stairs, and loves her house 
(hates mine). We'd kill each other. Both of our goals is to keep her in 
her own house, but it does take a lot of effort on my part.

I can't take in boarders yet because I still have kids at home. I don't 
want to subject them to strangers living in the house. It's an old 
farmhouse and doesn't offer much privacy. We already fight over the one 
bathroom; adding another person would make it worse. That is my 
long-term thinking, though, once the kids are out, if I could find the 
right person.

Wow; this turned out to be quite a rant. Sorry

Lynn Wigglesworth

isa K.V. Perry wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Lynn Wigglesworth
> wrote:
> 
>> My biggest problem is that I had to buy out my ex's share of the farm,
>> so I acquired a big 30 year mortgage at age 50. I'll need steady (not
>> big, but steady) income until I'm 80. Once the kids are grown, I could
>> raise enough food for myself and live cheaply, but there's that mortgage...
> 
> 
> Lynn, you probably already know this but if you can afford to pay extra to
> the principal each month, you will shorten the life of your mortgage.
> Perhaps taking in a boarder who pays a couple hundred a month (and perhaps x
> hours of labor per month?) might help in this regard.
> 
> Look at your mortgage statement to see how much is paid to principal. It's
> scary to see how much applies directly to interest, so I don't recommend
> doing this often. ;)
> 
> http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/gf.prepay.htm
> 
> lkvp
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