maritalbliss86

Hello ENA'ers, 

I have already created and set up with the IRS an LLC for our fix and flip properties we'll be acquiring, but even though an LLC is great for protecting one's personal assets, I think I still need more business insurance, correct? 

Does anyone here have knowledge or experience with running a small fix and flip side business?  

Do you have extra insurance on top of the LLC I'm assuming you created to protect your personal assets?

Thank you in advance!

MB

I recently got a copy of When Money Dies, about the insane inflation in Austria and Germany and surrounding areas after WWI, when their currency slowly became worthless.

What's interesting is that it has diary entries of what it was like on the ground.  Here is an excerpt:

Quote

 

Although the misery of Austria was more immediately and directly the result of war, the pattern was to be repeated almost exactly in Germany.  In both countries rapid inflation caused homegrown produce to be withheld from the urban markets, with hunger and anger the inevitable result.  All Austrians, but especially those with savings, watched horrified as the value of their money fell, Frau Eisenmenger among them.  She noted in 1919:

"The State has been obligated to put 10,000 kroner notes into circulation - each equivalent to two years' income from my capital.  A suit costs about six times what it was in 1913, but some things like food are a hundred or two hundred times as much ...  Paper clothes are being sold.

Never had I dreamed it possible that one could purchase so little for 10,000 kroner... 

Jealousy and envy flourish in this atmosphere, and if one has procured some harmless article of food, one is careful to conceal the fact from one's fellow men.

Hunger reigns inexorably and selects its dumb and uncomplaining victims above all from the middle class."

There are other diary examples... one woman selling her beautiful piano for a sack of wheat flour to feed her kids.  People dropping dead in the street from hunger, mostly elderly men because they were too proud to ask for help and couldn't live on their meager retirement pay.  

Quote

In November, a year after the Armistice, Frau Eisenmenger wrote that her position was alarmingly worse, the financial situation beyond her understanding.

The krone, at 25 Swiss centimes the previous Christmas, was now quoted at 1/12th of a centime.  Her shares, however, were going up.  Gambling on the stock exchange had become the fashion - the only way to avoid losing all one's money and perhaps to add to it.  Many new bankers were giving people advice, the flight from the krone governing all transactions.  

Meanwhile, Frau Eisenmangel wrote, "the large numbers of the unemployed, their passions fermented by the Communists, are seeing with discontent ... a mob has attempted to set the Parliament building on fire.  Mounted policemen were torn from their horses, which were slaughtered in the Rignstrasse and the warm bleeding flesh dragged away by the crowd ... the rioters clamored for bread and work ...

Side by side with unprecedented want among the bulk of the population, there is a striking display of luxury among those who are benefitting from the inflation.  

New nightclubs are being opened.  These clubs have the further effect of greatly intensifying the class hatred of the proletariate against the bourgeoisie."

18 hours ago, Pleasedonot5 said:

The date who cancelled called and explained that she is dealing with personal/mental health issues and is not in a good place for a relationship. I responded I think well, empathized with her, and then after a minute or two we hung up. She seemed thankful that I responded the way I did, but I cannot be sure. Of course, the issues are probably genuine, and I don't wish that on anyone. But if it was also just an excuse to let me down easy: yeouch. 

There have been very few people showing interest, then out of nowhere there is a person showing initial promise, reciprocating, etc., we set a coffee date... And then now there is no opportunity even to see if we're compatible. 

I'm really bummed out. Life is difficult, dating now is difficult -- and especially in that sphere -- it is like one let-down after another.

I hope I can find my person at some point 😞

Dating was awful even over a decade ago.  It seemed like it was probably easier in the 80's 90's but that may just be my fanciful idea of what it was like, rather than experienced reality.

It does seem harder now, though.  Although vetting should be easier because with social media, people put everything out there now it seems, good and ugly.  Granted meeting in real life is a necessity so you can see if they're filtering pictures 😉 

On 5/14/2022 at 2:09 AM, dias said:

but I believe alcohol makes me feel more anxious and more emotional than usually without any valid reason. I can't explain it.

When it wears off, your brain *does* feel more anxiety and out of control.  

From a medical website:

Quote

Alcohol changes levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain, which can worsen anxiety. In fact, you may feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off. Alcohol-induced anxiety can last for several hours, or even for an entire day after drinking.

I can't drink very much at all because of this... like half a bottle of beer LOL

On 5/8/2022 at 10:12 AM, Jibralta said:

I wonder if they earmark certain areas for their subsidiary companies to invest in. Banks have become very clever that way. For example, after graduate school, my student loans had a 6.8% interest rate. I was not able to take out a loan with a lower interest rate to pay them off--the bank actually prohibited it. I could however, get a 2% loan to pay off my 4% car loan. But I couldn't use that loan to pay off my student loan. Obviously, the banks benefit from this somehow. I ended up paying both loans off in cash. Screw them lol.

So I ended up convincing a private money lender who uses all cash, they were able to see the value in flipping a house out in a rural area. It's still waiting on appraisal though, and I'm not sure the seller will accept my offer, but we may be very close to getting one because I was able to make a cash offer this week. Fingers crossed 🤞.

18 hours ago, MissCanuck said:

It won't end well.

All that needs to be said.  

10 hours ago, Jibralta said:

Would you be ok with this?

Definitely no, is my gut reaction.  I'm finally embracing the freedom of our last baby getting a little easier and having time to do even small things like read a book 😕.  Let alone the big things we're undertaking.  We were very happy to be done.  

We'll have to see what happens and IF it comes to that.  I cried telling my husband the dream.  But I've seen things like that work out....  It could just be a dream, but we'll have to see.

8 hours ago, Seraphim said:

I am so sorry to hear about your brother . 😓Hugs. 

Mental illness is just so hard.  He was doing SO well for awhile... and then I can't tell which is illness and which is own decision-making/disregard/lack of empathy etc.  

I had a dream I was pregnant again also.  Which of course is impossible (I've actually had my tubes taken out!).  But my same, personal Dr. was telling me I was definitely pregnant, that this birth would be especially painful because somehow I was sewn up - which again is nuts since that's illegal.  I took it to mean symbolically this birth will be especially painful, like having to be cut open/ripped open.  The Dr. let us know that someone was presiding over all of it, and that it was going to be OK.  

I think the dream was trying to warn me that we may be getting another baby... his baby.  Which is possible if she drinks and drives (the woman he suddenly married and got pregnant). Child protective services usually take the children away when that scenario plays out... so my husband let me know that is actually a possibility that we could end up being CPS's safety plan.

Awful update about my brother... in a relatively short amount of time (kind of) he's made a series of horrendous decisions that are going to impact him for the rest of his life (and mine by default).  😞 

His mental health has gone extremely downhill... he's basically f*cked up his life big time and I'm genuinely scared how my husband and I are ever going to help him / or if we do, how that would impact our kids etc.

I've gone back and forth considering the different sides of all of it.  The immense grief and what his life could have been (that was years ago when I went through that depressing period), then moments where he handles it really well, and everything seems wonderful, but this is quite different 😞 I don't know how it will end for him, but I'm pretty sure it will end in some kind of death.

On 5/9/2022 at 1:01 PM, Seraphim said:

I have a wide varied eclectic viewing taste. 😉 if you want to know anything about a topic I’ve probably watched a channel about it. 

That's wonderful, Seraphim... and you do have great taste in channels - I always seem to find the best ones through your suggestions, so thank you very much for making them!

On 5/9/2022 at 12:58 PM, Seraphim said:

Here are two channels that I watch about Nigerian goats that are awesome. 

 

They are just So. Cute. ❤️  We just got two more that look just a little bigger than those in the video... very cuddly, and even therapeutic.  

20 hours ago, Jibralta said:

I ended up paying both loans off in cash. Screw them lol.

That's great!  Cash is king, as they say 😉.  

Something else I thought of...

Our landlord is just such an admirable lady, I asked her to mentor me into getting properties to either rent, or fix and flip.  So together with her and our wealth manager, I went to my first auction where they were auctioning off foreclosure homes and land lots.

So exciting!  Wow it blew my mind how interesting these people were.

I wanted to badly to get one particular house/property I had in mind that was up for auction, but my wealth advisor told me to just go and watch these people the first time.  Watch how they act and what they do and see just how high that property ends up going for.

He ended up guessing almost he exact amount it sold for (which I would have had a hard time flipping to be honest).  So his expertise was RIGHT!  It got too close to a million, which is what it would have resold for anyway.  I'm glad I listened to his wise advice (this is why he's one of the top wealth advisors right?  LOL because he should understand know what he's talking about).  

But we're trying to get funding to do our first Fix and Flip.  We just had so much fun flipping our house, and netting all that profit, I think I can do this on the side along with the other things I'm managing like homeschool and our little backyard hobby farm stuff.  

I've been approved for funding, but having a hard time getting anyone to allow us to do a rural property (in the area where we are).  The house prices here are exploding because it's just such a desirable area, so I'm confused as to why they're approving me for funds for Fix and Flip in the city, but not here (where people are dying to move)?  

I'm sure I'll get approved at some point, but we have to take advantage of this while the market is still high obviously, so time is of the essence.  

I can't wait though!  I'm loving this side business and my husband is excited about the possibilities too ❤️ 

I wanted to update here about all our changes and the crazy new life we've got going on!!!!!   Ugh it makes me so happy - ridiculously happy everything we've done in a very short amount of time.

First... we sold our house and netted a huge profit.  I'd been trying to get my husband to do this for a couple of years, since I could just feel the times and seasons changing (mystically I mean - in a spiritual sense), and wanted to get the heck out of anywhere close to chaos.  We were outside the main city, but I wanted to get much further away.

We are now surrounded by hills that look more like mountains, cliffs and just amazing beauty everywhere.  The mom group I was in mostly all live in a different area (outside the city but still far out like we've moved).  We wanted to live there, but it's an area that looks like devastation and poverty... yes, the prices of land are cheaper, but you pay for that in other ways ascetically and safety-wise.  There are almost not trees, and so much dust and thorns and then all the poverty around you on top of that 😞.  It just wouldn't be uplifting, all of that, coupled with how it's not even a safe area crime-wise, it was an easy decision for both of us to make.  

I'm VERY happy with the area we chose, the land is lush with green as it even gets more rain, as much as Seattle, which is a big thing for Texans.  We're planning on doing a rain collection system ❤️.

So we sold and didn't have a place secured yet to go to, but I *knew* one rental would show up with exactly the price I had in mind... and it did a day later!  My mom told me, "You'll NEVER find a rental in that price range and with enough room..."  Next day, I found it - God provided.  My mom has always had less faith, and is typically more pessimistic about God providing things in general.  She even admitted (before this event) that I had more faith than her.  Makes me so sad.  She makes all her decisions based on fear, which means she cuts off family, frequently promises major gifts only to go back on her word, and in general, just makes bad life decisions based on that fear.  She would TELL you she doesn't do this... but I look at her actions and she's double-crossed more people that were close to her and loved her than I can count right now.  It's sad and sucks.

Anyway... our life is incredible right now!  The rental is HUGE for what I was thinking would open up.  I was worried we'd be stuck in something small, but still grateful.  But no!  God provided a HUGE double wide mobile home - 4 bedroom 3 baths, for only $1,000 per month!  That is not normal for this area, it should be at least 2,500 or higher, so this was DEFINITELY a God thing where He provided exactly what I had in mind (to the dollar) so that we'd continue to build up savings easily and without stress.  AND to top it all off... the landlord is this amazing Grandmother type of woman who owns many properties and manages the rent for all of them herself, and is a Christian and kind and wonderful!!!!  UGH!!!!!  It all just worked out so impossibly well.  She's even offered to help me figure out how to can everything!  Just such a nice person... we are truly blessed.  

I'm giving all the credit to God here...  Yes I technically found it myself, but I *knew* it would open up and knew God would provide.  Sometimes I swear He waits to see the obedience (selling our house) before He provides... and that takes Faith, something even a lot of Christians (like my poor, sad Mom) just don't have.  I wonder if they ever look back and, "see," the blessings they missed out on because they didn't have that faith that it would work out?

We definitely had to have faith when we were pregnant with our first baby.  Faith God would work it out.  Faith not to be tempted by abortion because even though we were married, we were in poverty and college and just not wanting a baby at all.  

Well that baby just made me breakfast in bed this morning (UGH!!!  *tear*!!!) He's incredible... arguably the most brilliant person I've ever known (and will know *tear*) - so smart and kind and humble and yet ambitious for his own dreams.  If I hadn't had faith that God would work out this inconvenient pregnancy, even though it made our finances a million times harder and my schooling, work etc, all of it took a major hit and was, "sacrificed," so he could live - I'd take that all again over sacrificing my own firstborn just so that we would have had an easier financial life.

He went fishing yesterday and brought back a bouquet of wild flowers for me, too!  Just so thoughtful and amazing.  It is scary that in the US women have so. much. power. over innocent lives like this, that his very existence would have been eradicated if I felt so inclined.  It's hard to imagine how the other siblings, who all benefit immensely from him being such a wonderful older brother (!) would have missed having him there (missed in the way of not having of course because they wouldn't have known anything different).  He's such a huge part of the family, especially for the siblings who arguably all love him the best LOL, and I think for me personally I would have always wondered, or felt that feeling of potential guilt at some point.

Anyway... So we sold our house, got into a cheap but amazing rental that has more room I expected and with a landlord who genuinely cares about us, and then the REAL FUN has started.... We started accumulating animals ❤️❤️❤️ 

So I now have 3 hens all egg-producing 

2 Nigerian Dwarf goats, one that I'm about to breed so that she has milk (for milk, cheese, yogurt, and soap making)

I'm getting 2 MORE Nigerian Dwarf goats this week or next ❤️ more girls for milking ❤️

4 Meat Rabbits - two I bred immediately last month and we JUST had our first litter born a few days ago - 6 little meat rabbits that will produce somewhere between 30 and 40 POUND of MEAT once I cull them.

2 Pet bunnies that are tiny dwarves  for the kids to play with (and so that they don't get attached to the baby meat rabbits since those are going to be a good food source).  

So I basically... in a short amount of time, turned our lifestyle into a homesteading one where we are almost self-sufficient for most food sources (I'll have to get back into gardening... it's just hard right now with knowing we'll eventually build or move elsewhere, it's hard to invest even more into the rental like building garden beds etc.).  I think I'll just wait until after we move to our final homesteading site, and then plant the Biggest Garden I've Ever Done LOL... it will be epic, and it will be self-sustainable with lots of good food.

Next is figuring out what to do long-term wise.  And the water issue.  Wells are so expensive in this area, because of how high up a lot of the land is and how far they have to drill... so rain water collection may help, and getting water trucked in to help create reserve storage.

17 minutes ago, HemispheresX1 said:

Don't encourage the guy to build muscle just to attract women. I'm not trying to be a *** but he needs to learn to be comfortable in his own skin. That's what my post was all about. Replacing negative thoughts with positive affirmations. 

In my opinion, building more muscle is the number one thing to do for overall health and wellness. Even mentally it helps people dramatically.

And my advice was technical. If he's not eating enough protein then he'll actually get *skinnier* and lose more weight, because weightlifting burns more fat and for a much longer time than cardio. This will harm his mental health over time, because it makes him feel defeated or like it's not working. 

I agree with Blue.... I think you're over complicating things and over generalizing human behavior.

I studied the female brain fairly extensively, and yes hormones and certain times of month cause women to have feelings of wanting one thing and then the opposite, but it demonstrated it had little effect on them actually going out and acting on the hormonal fluctuations.

For example, women when ovulating DO or are at more risk to be attracted to a more masculine type. But what I found through research and studies was that they preferred to be around gay men the rest of the month!

I mean you can't base all your life decisions on hormonal fluctuations that happen to help the population reproduce. People are still able to make rational decisions and do so.  Just because it's been shown they prefer to be with a gay man the rest of the month (temperament wise apparently) it doesn't mean all or *any* women would ever act on that and ditch their husbands. It just means that they are attracted to different types of men at different times of the month.

Think about it this way... A woman marries an average guy she is decently attracted to, and then has lots of sex with her long-term partner and oxytocin hormones flood her brain (the strong bonding ones that produce huge emotions of satisfaction and love etc) then her average guy would have to destroy the relationship to get her to that place of wanting to cheat. Even if he's just a regular man. 

If you find a woman you is decently attracted to you, and you have regular intense sex (!) you will start producing more testosterone naturally and that bonds her to you even more at a pheromone and hormonal level. Her attraction can or will increase if it's the right relationship. She'll even be more fertile with you if you up your testosterone ... that's been proven scientifically. Then her ovulating time of month will cause her to crave you intensely which is what you want. You don't have to look anything remotely like a celebrity to have that. A lot of it comes down to testosterone and natural personality matching with someone.

A way to decrease her attraction would be to worry too much about these things. 

It's really not a lost cause 👍 you are producing testosterone already, increasing it during a relationship (or also through weightlifting naturally) will have good benefits all around for you.

On 4/1/2022 at 11:28 AM, ProfessorSunflower said:

None of what I linked were brainwashing sites. I included studies and brought up content aimed at women.
I have been trying to get in shape for over a year and nothing works. I have joined clubs. As I said, I have start casually seeing a woman. The issue is that I worry they will just be settling for me. Again, all of the links I have provided include women partnered to men like me and even they still want somebody more conventionally masculine.

This is random, but if you're weightlifting and not eating enough protein you'll actually lose more weight! Just make sure you're eating enough to actually *build* muscle.

It's really hard to build muscle for some body types 😕. But it can be done, you may want to see a nutritionist if you can though.

There are lots of YouTube vids on what and how much to eat, too, and they're free!

On 3/10/2022 at 10:00 AM, boltnrun said:

Bottom line, it's not hurting anyone if someone chooses to wear a mask. If it makes them feel comfortable then why not?

I think people are more upset about the mandates.  Forcing people to do things they don't agree with, or even see any sense in.  If there weren't so many mandates, no one would care.

On 3/10/2022 at 10:00 AM, boltnrun said:

Bottom line, it's not hurting anyone if someone chooses to wear a mask.

It is though.  It's very much affecting kids negatively.  They're even getting tooth decay in some cases and all kinds of things.

Plus, most kids aren't wearing N95... this is a recent pic from Los Angeles (one of the strictest places since you mentioned your area)

That's not preventing the illness and it's actually more detrimental to their health, teeth, lungs, etc.

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"Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations and should not be considered an acceptable form of face covering.”

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/589573-cloth-face-masks-wont-cut-it-against-omicron

18 hours ago, Angelle said:

I agree. I'm still masking up, and doing everything as I have been.

Didn't the CDC just admit like last week, what most people understood from the beginning?  That cloth masks don't work at all (I get it that maybe you're talking about the higher medical grade masks).  

Look at where the most illness has occurred, and you'll find that the places with the highest mask mandates have had the worst rates of illness and deaths.  It could also be due to people trusting in only their cloth masks (that the CDC has finally admitted don't do sh*t), as well as people not regularly washing their masks and breathing in dirt, contaminated air, bacteria etc. straight into their lungs (which happened in the Spanish flu of 1918).

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/health/cloth-masks-covid-cdc.html

On 3/7/2022 at 7:10 AM, Jibralta said:

I came across these three wonderful films on Amazon, by Jean Aspen and Tom Irons. They are compilations of a family's photographs and film about building and staying in a cabin in the arctic wilderness.

In chronological order, they are: Arctic Son: Fulfilling the Dream (2013), Arctic Daughter: A Lifetime of Wilderness (2018), and ReWilding Kernwood (2019). They are very simply made, no bells and whistles. Yet they are all beautiful films and I keep finding myself at the edge of tears as I watch.

Jean Aspen is the daughter of explorers. She first visited the arctic with them when she was a small child. Her parents divorced, and when she and her sister were about 14, her mom took them back to the arctic to spend a summer. When she was in her early 20s, Jean returned again to the arctic with her then-boyfriend and built a cabin with him. They stayed in it for at least one winter.

She returned for a fourth time with her husband and young son. Along with a friend, they built another cabin, which they returned to frequently over the years. 

I'm about midway through the last film right now. I've been watching it slowly, over the course of two weeks, because I don't want it to end. It is so beautiful.

There's so much I'd like to write about it, but I can't find the words. I highly recommend these movies to anyone who likes watching these sorts of films. They really make you think.

The arctic is magical.

Harsh and unforgiving, but magical. Out oldest just finished reading Call of the Wild and he read several parts out loud to me. I love the author's background and how he used his real life experiences to create a masterpiece of truth.

And I love how it showed certain kinds of people could never make it there. The reality was so stark, as you read the different ways people die mostly due to their ignorance and lack of being prepared.

Maybe it's because we're a survivalist family 😁 I don't know, but my son and I loved it!

On 3/6/2022 at 8:20 AM, Seraphim said:

I watch her all the time . She is getting married and moving to her new home. ❤️

That's wonderful ❤️ what a great reason to move.

On 3/4/2022 at 8:50 AM, Seraphim said:

 

Aw I love this girl!  I've only watched a handful of videos since you posted a few months ago I think, but she's made her life so peaceful ❤️ 

On 3/1/2022 at 5:46 AM, Batya33 said:

I dated a man who was unattractive looking (not to me -although to be honest sometimes!) - and was a wonderful person in every way and so intelligent and ambitious, compassionate, thoughtful.  I brought him to a company event as my date.  We were in our late 20s/early 30s. This coworker of mine who was very pretty and dating our very handsome coworker saw me with him and basically her jaw dropped and she had this look like "how could you be with someone so ugly" (like I could do better I guess??).

I thought that made her ugly and I remember making eye contact with her with a big smile like "yes I am with him!!!".  I was pleased when her handsome boyfriend ended their engagement (he and I were good friends) as he saw her for who she was, finally.  

I actually had that happen to me, too, but in high school (which makes sense lol).

But I get it that people want to see other people making what appears to be, "equal," matches.  If you take the appearance factor out of this, and just look at the intellectual factor, then it makes more sense logically that people tend to actually marry/pair up within their, "league," kind of.

You won't find a *smart* man marrying someone dumb, to put it bluntly.  And he shouldn't!  Because it'd be a liability long-term.  I'm sure some men do, thinking that sexual attraction alone can make up for that, but if she's dumb (or if a man's dumb) they'll sabotage the relationship in a myriad of ways that sex can't make up for.  A truly wise, perceptive person of either sex understands that naturally... it's common sense.

So the tendency to see people pair-up or marry, "within their league," there's a practicality to it and some common sense in that people should not do something that is ultimately not in their best interest long-term.  This is why a rich man can generally get someone much younger/more attractive, because they both bring something valuable to the table (and he obviously tries to vet for her having logic and common sense and not being an idiot).  The younger women are within his, "league," so to speak because his money has propelled him there, and so on. 

It's a lot more complicated than merely believing people are shallow and vain.  They are often looking for the best overall, "deal," and, "match," and that means shopping within their means to do so, and, "league."