My son Arturo is a genius. He’s always on the computers and says he wants to be an astronaut. One day I caught him looking up out of the window, half his body hanging out.  I asked him why and he said “I like to stick my head out the window and smile for a satellite picture.” Then he showed me that on the Internet, but I didn’t see his head.

He sure didn’t get his brains from his father. That man completely spent his last paycheck on lottery tickets. I said, “Xavier, how are we going to pay for our car and health insurance this month” after none of the tickets won. He didn’t have an answer and good thing he didn’t.

I had to find some money for the insurances so I had my daughter help me find a car title loans company.  We went to Waukegan Title Loans, which got us our cash in two days.  That was exactly what we needed.  If I’m going to raise an astronaut, I have to keep the bills paid!

By the way Waukegan is near Gurnee, Lake Bluff, North Chicago, Wadsworth, Waukegan, and Wintrop Harbor.

My grandmother always said, “never answer an anonymous letter.”  That’s the kind of advice we need here in the Internet era.

My sister never listened to grandma.  She is one of those people who got an email from some guy in Kenya who convinced her to give him her bank account numbers.  She thought she was getting $10,000; instead, she lost $670.  Loser!  I barely feel sorry for her, everyone’s heard about that scam.  Oh wait, maybe not if you spend every waking moment watching American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter than a 6th Grader (she’s not).

So that little problem cut her short on cash, boo hoo hoo.  My concern was she already owed ME $300 (yes, stupidity runs in the family). And she needed to fix her car so she could hold onto her job.  So I told her she needed a car title loan.  Of course that took some ‘splainin, but she went online herself (shocking) and found North Chicago Title Loans, where she got $900 for that old Saturn of hers.  She paid me back, got her battery replaced, and kept working down at Gurnee Mills.

And I think she learned a lesson in all of this.  We can only hope.

By the way North Chicago is near, Waukegan, Lake Bluff, Gurnee, Wadsworth, and Beach Park.

My brother the psychologist once told me to borrow money from a pessimist, because they don’t expect the money back.

My problem is I only seem to know these annoying, happy optimists. Oh well. Anyway, that was a problem for me last year when I needed some cash and didn’t have reserves. A storm in the summer knocked a tree down on the garage, which just so happened to be my man cave with refrigerator, TV and old furniture hangout place. Insurance covered the building but not the TV and fridge. And my wife seemed to lack an understanding that this place had a serious impact on my psychological well-being (I even tried to get my brother to vouch for me on this). I needed about $1000 and wifey made a big deal about the economy blah blah blah kids’ tuition blah blah blah new dining room table blah blah blah …

So I realized I was going to have to find the money in my own way, on my own terms. My pickup is mine, all mine, mine mine mine. And I knew I could get one of those car title loans somewhere. I searched online for one, thinking I might drive to Waukegan for one (you don’t exactly see any in Mundelein or Steeple Chase or the Colony of Long Meadow). That’s when I found Mundelein Title Loans on the Internet. Perfect! I got the cash in one day from their website, just filled out the application and had the money transferred to my checking account (MY checking account). A car title loan on a pickup truck is a great solution for fixing a garage with the proper man cave accoutrement.  So I guess I’m an optimist too.

By the way Mundelein is near Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Gurnee, Grayslake, and Hainesville.

There are three things about myself that I’ve noticed lately that say I’m not a kid anymore:

1. My back goes out more than i do.
2. I quit trying to hold my stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
3. I am proud of my lawn mower.

And that’s just the beginning of it. But I really knew I am not a kid anymore because I’ve been dealing with the kind of financial worries that my parents and grandparents used to talk about. Not only do I see my 401K account getting ripped to shreds, but with no home equity cash left and maxed out credit cards – thanks kids – I have to scratch around to take care of basic expenses.

I work and so does my wife, but we’ve found our emergency cash is in our cars. It’s true — when we need some money to handle a particular problem, we go to a car title loan firm, Libertyville Title Loans, which gives us emergency money based on the value of our autos. This might seem like an unorthodox way to finance something, but hard times make you think a little harder. We always pay the loan back in less than a month, and the interest rate hardly looks bad compared to what our credit card companies are charging.

Yeah, not a kid anymore. I’m a grown up with financial challenges that need to be tamed.

By the way, Libertyville is near Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Grayslake, Gurnee, and Hainesville.

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive. I learned that not only on the Tri-State Tollway, but also every time I drive to my girlfriend’s house in Libertyville. It’s like these people never saw snow before.

But my car is the most important thing I own.  It gets me to work, up to Wisconsin to fish, down to Chicago to party, and lately I learned it can help out with a shortage of cash.  How?  My credit has been bad for several years, and then I had a car accident.  Some babe out of Hunt Club Farms, wouldn’t you know it.  My insurance deductible is $500, and I didn’t have that anywhere.

So I went online, searched around, and found out how car title loans work.  You can use your car’s value to finance anything, and a car repair made a lot of sense to me.  I used Gurnee Title Loans, a car title loan company that works entirely online.  You fill out a form, get approved almost instantly, then get your cash sent to your checking account.  I didn’t have a reason to swear at anyone on that.

By the way Gurnee is near Waukegan, Grayslake, Wadsworth, Milburn, and Antioch.

Here’s my definition of marriage: A very expensive way to get your laundry done free.

Because since my divorce, I’ve lost my house, my boat (and therefore, fun on the Chain O Lakes and all chances of ever catching the Batman fish on Loon Lake) and my credit worthiness. And if I think back to those hazy days in the 1980s, I actually did start dating Angie because she had laundry in her high rise on Lake Shore Drive while I had to go to a laundromat in Wrigleyville. See, what sometimes looks like convenience is anything but.

It’s not all bad. I was able to keep her paws off my Range Rover, and that has come in handy lately. I made a bad investment last year (who didn’t???) and was short of cash for various things I needed in my new apartment. So since the Rover was paid for, I was able to go to Antioch Title Loans and get a cash advance on the vehicle. It was easy to do online, I got my money in a day, and I now know so much more: do your own laundry, and leverage your physical assets when necessary.

By the way Antioch is near Lindenhurst, Millburn, Gurnee, Grayslake, and McHenry.