So this is the revelation I received this morning.

I need to live below my means. LOL I know. Duh, right? However its so depressing living below your means. For example if I make 40,000 I should really be living on 30,000. Why? Because:

1) if I'm really making 40,000 a year, I'm only actually bring home about 30,000 after taxes. its the net not the gross that you have free to spend.

2) uncle Sam thinks anyone without children or a spouse make too much and should pay more taxes than everyone else. So whether I claim 0 and pay the piper all year and look for my big break in April or if I cheat a little during the year, claim 1 and pay at the end, Sam still gets his cut either way.

3) I want to leave an inheritance for my nieces and nephews. Instead of leaving debt, I want to leave a trust and let them live off the fat of the land. Teach them how to manage money at an early age, develop business skills, and encourage them to look beyond their immediate pockets and into the future bank rolls they could hold, companies they could own, land, and royalties earned without working. I saw a show called "The fabulous life of young hot Royalty". There's a family in Germany who is simply rich just because their ancestors were postal workers.

Take 22-year-old Prince Albert Von Thurn Und Taxis. He's heir to a powerful German Dynasty credited with modernizing what we know of as today's postal system. When he turned 18 he inherited one of Europe's largest fortunes and is now worth $2 billion dollars-- making him the youngest billionaire in the world. Oh and the massive 500 room German palace he grew up in? That belongs to him too.

So I'm thinking, I'm not going to invent anything anytime soon so how can I work on leaving an inheritance and not an inherited debt. I must first get out of debt and live below my means so that I can store up funds to buy land, real estate, and start a business. Then I can work on my plan for inheritance building.

4) by watching and hearing various stories of white people, people from India, Mexicans, etc Black people are the only people who do not help one another, who spend more than they make, who buy to impress their neighbors and friends while stockpiling bills, who buy a car they cannot afford while living in an apartment more lavish than the house they should be buying, etc. Because we are so depressed from living on the bottom, being born on the bottom, starting out on the bottom, that when we see light, get a good job, find a piece of money, the first thing we do is spend it and worry about the bills later. I have been spending every penny to the max, not leaving room for mishaps, uncontrolled circumstances, no money in the bank at the end of the month, stretching dollars until they break and cant be sown back together. Living on your own, being independent does not mean asking mom, dad, and uncle for handouts every time I get in a jam. I do not believe it is the White man keeping us down. I believe their are enough intelligent black people to start their own business, hire and fire people, produce a good product, provide quality service, and be prosperous beyond the status quo diddy understands this and he has no talent whatsoever, but he has made his ability to bs and hustle his cash cow. J understands this and so does T.I. and 50 cent. They all came from nothing, out the hood, did their dirt, and saw a way to turn that dirt making ability into an empire. I know this is a far stretch and they are talented rappers but they have other business ventures that are working for them making money when they are doing nothing. How dumb can that be? Not that celebrity success is the basis of my whole philosophy but it has its place.

5) I am tired of living pitiful enjoying a little now and trying to figure out the rest later.

There's more to my ah ha moment but i'm tired of typing, i know you're tired of reading, and I'm distracted anyway LOL my attention has moved on to something else. But I thought I'd share in my revelation which I prayed for when asking God what I should do about my apartment situation. And believe it or not, he actually gave me an answer LOL !

“HAVING A HEART FOR MAN”

On Friday, February 19th 2010 my 39 year old cousin passed away from an aortic aneurysm. In his eulogy on Saturday, February 27th, the pastor repeatedly stated, “Greg was a good man!” He died of natural causes, not by violence or crime but of natural cause, a huge feat to accomplish being a black man anywhere in America. The minister wanted to point out two things. One, he was a good man in that his family and friends loved him. He took care of people and would do anything to help someone out. He always put others before himself. And two, he was not out in the streets provoking mayhem, gambling, dealing drugs, fighting, involved in gangs, or in prison. He was a good man.


At the funeral his friends almost numbered the amount of family members present. His friends loved him so much they paid for the repast to be catered and held at a local café. And because they loved and respected him beyond measure, they extended a hand of shared fatherhood to his only teenage son who is now left without a biological father but plenty of father figures to carry on the torch.
The day before Greg passed; he and his friends were planning a trip to Tennessee from St. Louis to bring his dad a truck. This is a truck Greg purchased for his dad simply because dad said he needed one. Greg purchased the truck, put it in the shop, and was now planning to make the 4.5 hour drive to Tennessee to deliver the truck to his dad who moved to Tennessee to take care of his ailing mother. The trip was planned for Saturday. Greg passed on that Friday. Greg’s friends informed his dad that they would still bring the truck to Tennessee as planned because they treasured Greg and would do anything for someone who has done everything for anybody.


That’s what love is to me. That’s what true friendship is to me. That is what I want my dash to say about me when I am laid to rest. What have you done for someone else? What have you done to change someone’s life, add value to their life? Friends are people we choose to be in our life. If we are chosen to be someone’s friend, it is because we have added something to that person’s life. We are here to enhance one another not tear down and destroy.


When I leave this earth I would like people to say I was a good woman. I gave my all to help someone else. I helped to make them a better person. If I have not accomplished that then I have not fully completed my assignment.
In Bishop Walker’s tweet devotional on Sunday February 28th he referenced Galatians 6:7. You will always reap more than you sow therefore; sow whatever you need more of.


If you need more love, honesty, friendship, and trust then perhaps that is what you need to sow more of. Be a person after God’s own heart. It doesn’t mean we have to be God but we should make more efforts to be like Him.
And that’s Tam’s 2 Cents.

RIP Gregory Peete, Sr
July 17, 1970 – February 19, 2010
“A good man”