I am not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of widths.

Yup, this is a fat girl story.  I’ve been up and down in my weight, more up lately than down. And entering into a recession is not a good time to be fat. First, if you lose your job you’ll be home all day snacking. Then when you go on a job interview looking like Kirstie Alley (after she got fired by NutriSystems), it’s a ding against you.

So while I hold onto my job at Motorola by the skin of my teeth, I hope, I hired a trainer and went on a prepared meals diet program.  All told, it’s costing me $2000 per month.  Which is $1000 more than I can afford. But I think it’s an important investment. So I had to find a good source of the additional money – this is a three month program, and it’s already working – so I went on the Internet and found Vernon Hills Title Loans.  I’m borrowing against my Cherokee, which is paid off now, and I’ll pay it off by the time I’m down to 135 pounds.

And I promise not to celebrate by ordering a Deerfield cake.

By the way Vernon Hills is near Buffalo Grove, Indian Creek, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, and Mundelein.

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.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

That’s something my father taught me years ago. I’ve never felt the need to be first. Just be the smartest.

Which is not a common approach here in Hawthorn Woods, where you have a lot of people used to winning. It got particularly difficult during my divorce, when it seemed the walls were crashing in and I wasn’t sure where I’d find money for the heating bill a few times. Things were tied up in court for months and while I knew everything was going my way in the long run, I found myself literally looking for money for food.

So I talked to my sister who has gone through her own challenges. She said one of my most usable assets is my car – my Mercedes – which I could use for a car title loan. I thought she was crazy at first because no way was I going to go to a scary store where you talk to someone through bulletproof windows. She laughed and told me about online car title loans, specifically at Hawthorn Woods Title Loans, where you do everything from your personal computer. Perfect – I filled out the forms and got my money the next day.

Just two months later I had full title on my house, a monthly alimony check and that title loan was paid off quite easily. It was a terrific bridge loan.

By the way Hawthorne Woods is near Lake Zurich, Barrington, Wauconda, Mundelein, and North Barrington.