Well my Diamond did come back with a few responses

But i told him that i have bills to pay and I cant be losing money at the end of the month. Honestly i thought that i failed in the business till i found out home much money was made by tapes and seminars. I understand you have to spend money to make money and how to get 3000 dollars fast. I never seen any distributor make money unless they are on the stage speaking. I’ve started a few juice bars in town two years back….and spent some money but i’ve eventually gotten a profit after a few months. In VTL nobody ever seems to be in the profit and always in the negative.

So are you saying that they may have been receiving some kind of cash payment from the Company for every person in their downline that attended? Hmmm…that never occurred to me…do you know if this has actually ever happended before within other ExtLoans VTLs (best in long term)?

For others of you who have given me helpful words of advice, I’m in need of more encouragement

First things first, DD went to the doctor last week and we found out she’s going to have a girl. She’s right at 20 weeks gestation and so in about 20 more weeks a bundle of pink and green joy shall attach itself permanently to my heart :). I did ask the doctor about drug testing, in front of DD and they both agreed. Happy to report that my daughter isn’t on any negative substances for her or for baby.

I guess I should be happy to report that DD has moved in with me. She has moved away from the father of the child, but that is only because the 21st of the month the Sheriff or his representative would displace them from the apartment. She packed up her clothing and I went to pick her up on Thursday. I fairly insisted that she make this move as she was calling me non stop about not having food and being hungry and frankly, I couldn’t take my child (or anybody else) being hungry. Last week I had been there on Monday to feed her, she called me on Wednesday to come but I was out of town and couldn’t and the fact that she said she had nothing to eat the entire day on Wednesday BOTHERED me so I told her that I was coming but that she would have to be prepared to come back with me. Funny now, the boy’s family seems to be more helpful to him. He had an unpaid ticket which they now seem agreeable to pay, he didn’t have a cell phone, but yesterday they were able to get him one so I’m glad to see that they are finally stepping up and seem to be inviting him back into the fold of their family.

There is still no talking sense into my daughter – she decided to let him continue to have use of her car, reasoning that he needed to be able to get around. Mind you – she’s stuck in my house because I have work to do and she’s not driving my car when I have need of it. I’ve stressed to her that my house isn’t one of ill repute so I hope NEVER to catch boyfriend in my home. The one thing I have in my favor is that she never knows when I’m coming or going which hopefully will keep him at bay. I did tell her however that its ok to date. Should he find some employment and have the money to take her to dinner and the movie, by all means go. See if they have a relationship beyond procreation… but that is the best I can do at compromise. I’m not paying for dates, or suggesting date locations, if she wants to see the boy – then try to do so under more conventional channels. Probably too much to ask, but…

Meanwhile, she is applying for jobs but as we discussed earlier, she’s at a disadvantage being pregnant and job hunting – while an employer can’t say pregnancy is a reason for not hiring her, who would willing put a pregnant woman on their insurance? She does have insurance of her own, but a potential employer can’t inquire and would naturally make an assumption. So I’m not necessarily stressing the fact that she find a job – I probably should. I don’t want her sitting around for 20 weeks though. So I’m open for suggestions on paths to steer her in a positive manner. What does a pregnant 19 year old do? Besides eat…. (Been to the grocery store AGAIN and spent 150 bux…, I’ve cooked full course meals and she definitely has an appetite).

I did stress to the boy that his primary objective is to be working on a place to move his family and a means of supporting them – he looks like a deer caught in the crosshairs but really, while she’s incubating, he needs to be making the nest ready.

Oh we have paid stupid tax on this one on and off since the 1980’s

We paid it off with each use for awhile with it. We were free of it in 1997 entirely when we moved here and then in probably the spring of 1998 we went back to charging, paying off and finally building it up to around $10,000 taking care of dmil after dfil died in January of 1999—started out helping with the funeral and then little bits here and there to help her through “rough patches” and finally all out assault build up starting in 2006. They really got us on stupid tax on it.

Yeah, I know

Most insurance co are trying to get out of FL. State Farm dropped ocean front years ago–my own sf agent couldn’t insure his own house. we are already on a high deductible–state law and also a “storm” deductible of 5% of the value of the house. We’ve taken steps to stop the possibility flood waters to come into the house, but only time will tell. we’ve been here 21+ years and haven’t had a problem even when we got 18″ rain in 24 hrs.

Awesome to provide info on this

I’ll second the notion this doesn’t just impact folks near the coast. We’ve seen a lot of noise on this here too, because the PNW has so many major rivers going through metro areas which are prone to floods in the winter. Not only are the floodmaps being redrawn, which is an issue in and of itself, but we have seen a new issue out here and I’ll bet others have seen it as well. As Suburbia pushes out into new areas, and clears off more land for more houses, the flooding pattern of downstream creeks and rivers is changing dramatically. In short, flooding is getting worse for many communities downstream of new residential development. There are several lawsuits pending here because multi-million dollar damages occurred to communities (both rural and suburban) during flood events which in previous years would not have caused so much damage, thanks to land-clearing activity upstream. It’s a huge problem and only going to get more pronounced. So for the folks here, the flood maps are being redrawn not merely because of new geological information, but also because properties which were above historical flood levels are now being impacted.
We personally are only peripherally involved in this issue. Our main property is perched up on a ridgeline that sits 500ASL and is well above the valley floor. But our rental property, and the farm we’ve talked about buying, are only 30’ ASL and behind a dike that contains the nearby river. While the current property owner has never seen it flood (and he’s been there 50 years), I myself saw floodwaters come up to being level with the top of the dike, two years ago. That was a long, LONG night watching that river crest. Had it breached the dike, that land would have turned into a big lake and production that next year would have been for nothing other than tadpoles. So while our house is in good shape, this is an issue we also take pretty seriously. I’d suggest folks contact their county planning dept and see where the NEW floodplain lines have been drawn in their areas. Mo’ info, mo’ betta’.

See my previous post for a lot of information!

There are people like us who are paying about $335/month who could go to $25,000/year. Yeah, the number of zeros is correct. That is why something must be done. You are right, most people cannot absorb that cost increase. I mean if your house is valued at $150,000 and your rate goes to $25,000/year you could buy a new house in a few years if everything else stayed the same. With the expected rates, property values will drop like a lead balloon. We just think Detroit has had problems. Stories and scenes like we see coming from Detroit are just the beginning.

I went to the flood insurance/maps meeting last night

It was very informative. EVERYONE on this list should find out more about this because it DEFINATELY affects many, many states, not just coastal states. About the only states without much affect are the states where the Rockies are located. I am dead serious and not exaggerating. All the flood maps have been redrawn and people who have NEVER, NEVER, EVER flooded are now in a flood zone according to the newest maps. I cannot answer questions about specific areas because I am not an expert at all. Consult your local officials about this.

ALL FLOOD INSURANCE is through the NFIP, national flood insurance program. I know the initials are right but it may be “premium” instead of “program.” No matter who sends you the bill it all comes from the NFIP. That is almost word for word from our parish president.

In my particular case, in the past we have not resided on a flood plane but had flood insurance anyway. Thinking that if a Katrina hit our area we would be taken care of. I am pretty sure that now we would be in a flood zone. We have changed nothing about our property (none for the worse, only improvements) and it has never flooded. Others across the country are finding the same thing. They have done nothing wrong and many have never had a claim and many have never flooded but now they are in a flood zone. Our insurance currently runs about $335/year, paid annually.

Accourding to the reports last night this will affect residential and commercial property just the same. There are families who are currently paying about what we are and in very smilar situations that could pay in the 10’s of $1000’s. No, I did not put too many zeros. There is Microtel within 30-40 minutes of us that currently pays about $6000/year in flood insurance and theirs will go to about $100,000/year if something is not done. For the examples they gave they used real addresses, showed pics of the house, the physical address, and real current flood insurance rates to compare to the potential future rates.

If rates go to what they project, it will end up causing an economic downturn like we have never seen in recent years. Why? When you’re in a flood plain and you have a mortgage, you are REQUIRED to have flood insurance. No flood insurance? Your mortgage is called. Many people will walk away from the rising rates, just turn the keys over to the bank. Banks will end up with alot of bank owned homes. No one will want to purchase homes with such outrageous flood insurance rates, no one will bea ble to sell them. This has a big domino affect on the whole economy of local communities. If houses don’t sell, the real estate industry bites the dust. Then all the industries that feed off that bite the dust and on down the line. Eventually the tax base of the whole community dwindles, services from the city/parish (county) dwindle, and so on.

All this got passed as part of the transportation bill last year. Louisiana reps are not the only ones caught off guard. There are reps in Florida, New York, New Jersey, California, etc. that are beginning to realize what is going on. There is a big coalition that is beginning to form between leaders (local community people/leaders up to members of congress) to begin to address this issue. I won’t bore you with more but do encourage you to attend any local community meetings about this to get informed on your community and the impact it’ll have.

I hope y’all will really look into this for your community. It is definately worth it. Much of what I shared came from that meeting last night. Some states are more affected than others but many more states than you can imagine are affected.

I’m curious, is this the flood insurance you’ll pay through FEMA?

We own a riverfront property on a five acre peninsula. We’ve been looking into procurring insurance through FEMA on our land and we’re not even on a flood plane. It’s just us wanting to cross our t’s and dot our i’s if you know what I mean. Reading this, I’m wondering how much it’ll end up costing us. My husband is doing the leg work , but so far he hasn’t been able to receive any concrete numbers as for what coverage would run us.

My other plans today include adding products on my website

Tweeting and posting to FB about my website. I hope you’ll stop by and check out what is going on at one or more location.

This evening we are probably going to a meeting at the library about new flood maps that are supposed to be coming out soon. They have delayed putting them out once already this year. If they come out the results will be devastating for most people. It is not just in Louisiana that new maps are coming out. Check your local region to see what is going on. You don’t have to live in a coastal state for this to be an issue. We have heard that on a $150,000 home that flood insurance could go as high as $20,000/year. We fear that if this is true that it’ll kill our economy and the housing market. As many of you know this has all sorts of ripple affects. More on that later after the meeting.