Aunty first met Joe Taxpayer years ago while google searching about United First Financial’s Money Merge Program.  Aunty had plopped down $3,500 for this fantastic sounding program that calculated that it would take 8 years 11 months to pay down our mortgage debts using sophisticated algorithms, money back guaranteed!  (PS don’t tell Uncle that I bought this.)

After about 3 months of struggling with their system and juggling several accounts with the increased number of transactions required giving me a headache as well as dangerously affecting my credit because of a few near missed credit payments, Aunty wanted out.  Screamingly out.  After all, I gave it my 100% attention but it was taking much too much time, and the program was not capable of accommodating more than one mortgage – and we had 3 at the time.  I kept getting told that they were working on a beta program that would be able to, and it would be available soon.

Well, they lied.  They lied about what the program could do for me, they lied about the beta program, and they lied about the money back guarantee.  The guarantee, in very fine print, was IF after the entire program was followed to a T, and the sophisticated algorithms didn’t work, THEN they would refund my $3500.  So, in other words, 8 years and 11 months from that point in time, if I could show that it didn’t work, then they would refund me.  Hmmm.  Aunty smelled a rat, and went searching to see if others smelled a rat.

One of the best rat smellers I found was at JoeTaxpayer.com.  Aunty posted as “SallieMae” and had a grand time putting the squeal on this unethical company.  Long story short, Aunty did get refunded after contacting the Utah Better Business Bureau (yep, it was a MLM of the worse kind), and Aunty became a loyal reader of Joe’s excellent info site.  Aunty did an updated rewrite of the program, which has changed its name to Worth Unlimited.  It should be named Unlimited Worthless, and Joe can prove it with the excellent payoff spreadsheet that he provides free on his website: http://www.joetaxpayer.com/money-merge-account-links/  Click on “my MMA worksheet” for the tool.

And now, short story long, Aunty would like to announce……… A guest post by Aunty on Joe Taxpayer’s site!!!  It is called “Aunty’s Perspective on Real Estate in Hawaii” – okay not the most exciting title, but, being on Joe’s website is SUPER exciting!  And he calls me a “gal”, isn’t that pretty wonderful?

Please check it out, and feel free to leave a comment here or there, or everywhere!

Aunty was in Las Vegas, the ninth Hawaiian island, and very happy to be in a picture with KSSK radio celebrity Larry Price at the McCarran Airport.  Uncle took the picture.

We were there for a Nerium Bash – what a company!  New and improved tools, great training and an awesome new program for non-profits to earn commissions without any start up costs!  Please let Aunty know if you are interested.

Aunty put $6 in a slot machine that took the money and didn’t give back anything, so it was break even on the gambling front.

We are now at home, and it feels so good to sleep on our own bed and be surrounded with our own things.  Going on trips every once in a while gives me a new prospective – also makes me realize what a mess our house is in, yikes!

Aunty is getting back into the swing of building into our retirement goals so will be posting more in the future about cash flow, financial lessons, reviews, etc.   Hope y’all (met a lot of people with that accent at the Bash) are having a great day!!

Aunty signed up for Oceanic’s Business Class internet service and planned to terminate the residential Oceanic internet service.  However, those plans were put to a screeching halt (have picture of road runner) by the inability to transfer over my hawaii.rr.com email addresses because our Hawaii Time Warner Cable does not own or have anything to do with the rrs.

Yikes.  Really yike, yike.  All 9(!) of Aunty’s schizoid email addresses are hawaii.rr.coms, and for this multiple-hat-wearing-blog-happy-aunty, switching over and finding another good email hoster that has a good and easy suffix is a chore.

So, Aunty is now using aunty@honoluluaunty.com as her primary “aunty” address.  The rr.com accounts will be replaced with gmail accounts, or possibly another email hoster.  The problem with gmail accounts is that most of the names that I want are taken, and they must be at least 6 letters or numbers long, so aunty@gmail.com does not work.  However, Google’s email accounts seem to be the best for now, and the slow conversion from rr.com accounts for Aunty is taking place, resulting in juggling double the number of email accounts for now.

If anyone knows of a good email hosting, please let me know in the comments section below.  Mahalo in advance!

Hawaii Women Real Estate Investors is the brainchild of Gail Slawson and Chelli Eich of Ocean Head Investment Group.  This is for HiRei members, and just for the girls (no boys allowed!)

We used to meet on the 3rd Wednesday of every month in the Nextage office from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at 98-029 Hekaha Street, #44 in Aiea/Pearl City.  Currently HiWire is looking for a new home and I will update when that is found.

I thoroughly enjoy this group of women and look forward to each meeting.  It is more informal, and we get to interact with each other and meet new friends as well as see old friends.  Sharing is the common element here.  Bringing some food to share is not required, but greatly appreciated and consumed.  A guest speaker takes the stage around 7:00 and most of the time it generates interesting and lively discussion, giving us much to ponder.

I’d like to thank Gail and Chelli for arranging these meetings that nurture and grow us into successful investors/entrepreneurs.  It’s my favorite meeting every month.  To join, pay the HiRei membership dues (tell them Aunty sent you), and get the details on the website or attend a monthly HiRei meeting on the 1st Thursday of every month at JCCH (Japanese Chamber of Commerce) on Beretania Street.  Hope to see you there!

Aunty met Minesh Bhindi, a young mature wealth builder from England at the recent Wealth Summit here in Honolulu.

On the first day, he explained how the billionaires keep getting wealthier with the concept of the wealth triangle.  In short, they buy assets below market value, they cash flow those assets, and then they rinse and repeat (compound) with the cash flow without blowing the profits/cashflow/income.  Aunty will soon be posting notes under Reviews later.

Here is a link to Minesh’s Gold For Life site.  Much of the subject matter that he covered at the Wealth Summit is found on his site, as well as a promo video he made from his Kahala Hotel balcony overlooking the Waialae Golf Course:

Aunty joined his program.  I’ll review it once it gets going.

Aunty and Uncle were invited to the Opening Day Ceremony of the Hawaii State Senate by the new Senate President (sweet!) Donna Mercado Kim on January 16, 2013.

Aunty never attended an opening before but had heard about the ono and plentiful food, so rsvp:ed with gladness with Uncle dropping me off in front.

Well, it was a pretty nifty event, and I was very proud to say I knew Donna, especially after she did a really wonderful address.  The lone Republican Senator Sam Slom also did a great minority address and Aunty’s wish is that bipartisanship and personal agendas are put aside and new laws that benefit our Hawaii are adopted and implemented with foresight, speed, and wisdom.

Aunty saw many old and new friends there – all very pleasant surprises!  I wish I took a picture with the now retired Marian Higa, former State Auditor and I said hellos (as if I knew them, lol) to former and current governors and mayors.

One wonderful memento is a picture of Aunty and Willie K that new friend Doris snapped for me on our way into the Senate Chambers.  Even looks like Willie K is my friend!

All in all, going to the State Capitol was a wonderful new experience that Aunty highly recommends to everyone.

Uncle is in Auntie Teresa’s Fishing Club – a VERY socially oriented club of “fisher” people with our cousin Teresa and friends.  I put quotes around “fisher” because sometimes fishing is not the end game or plan.  Sometimes, instead of choosing a spot based on being good grounds for catching fish – comfort, bathroom accessibility, ease of path and parking win out after a few sips of good wine and pupus.

Each “fisher” puts in $1 for the evening’s pool – and the person who catches the biggest fish gets to scoop the pot.  At the very first ATFC (Auntie Teresa’s Fishing Club) gathering, cousin Teresa actually won – catching a 2″ opu which probably weighed 1 ounce.

For Uncle, who is an avid fisherman with poles, reels, tabis, lead, hooks, and bait buckets taking up precious real estate near our front door, NOT catching fish and being beat with a 2″ opu was a blow to his “I’m a FISHERMAN” ego.  He could not stop shaking his head that whole week.

So, tonight, just before 7:30 pm, Uncle had me drop him off in Waikiki (secret spot) all by himself since Auntie Teresa’s Fishing Club members were doing their own non-fishing activities.

When I picked him up 3 hours later, Hana pa’a!!!  Sweetest words to a fisherman!

Aunty will make fish cake after Uncle cleans and spoons the meat.  Ono!!!  (yummy!!!)

This fish will give Uncle bragging rights when ATFC meets for their next dinner, potluck, beer/wine pupus fishing expedition.   Even though this catch does not count as a ATFC win since Uncle struck out alone and unsupervised, it was a long awaited win for Uncle, and possibly (since there are only 16 days left in the year) the biggest fish of the year.

Congrats Uncle!