So here we are. I have already received emails on how to travel for the cost of $61.00 round trip to Europe. So here are the facts of life. No one should get into credit card debt. That my friends is a no brainer. I have studied very carefully how to make my money work for me in marvelous ways.

I have taken course in prosperity and taught classes in how to prosper. One of the basic principles in developing wealth is to believe you deserve to live the best life ever. Wealth can mean various things to various people. To me being prosperous means having (and not in this order) good health, good family,friendship, spirituality,  transportation, housing, food, tithing, savings and the ability to pay my bills.

How to accomplish these things. I would like to say that I did not work and just said a few magical phrases and everything appeared. Well, that did not happen. What I have learned is that you must harness your mind. You cannot waste your time or thoughts on things that will get you nowhere. You must become definite in your goals. You must be committed to live life large and settle for nothing less. Hold onto your thoughts and watch them come to fruition. This means working hard.

I remember I wanted to be able to publish my books and work for myself. I have published my books and will publish again. I do work for myself on a part-time basis. I have a full-time job that provides me with health insurance and paid vacation. The fact that I have my Masters degree is quite an accomplishment. I was working two jobs and going to Graduate School full-time plus doing an internship when I found out I had cancer. Talk about a show stopper. Well, being the type of person I am I thought to myself,”How hard is this going to be? Work, university, cancer, hey it will be a breeze.” Ah the joy of denial.

Needless to say I went on disability. Seems as if you cannot treat individuals with diseases while you are in treatment. Hmmm did not see that one coming. Then the issue of my graduate studies. The Dean at Fordham University suggested I take the time off to go to chemotherapy /radiation and then resume my studies. I had other ideas. Being a part of the university system is exactly what I needed as a distraction. I stayed with the program and managed a 3.89 average. As a single mother I was determined to continue with my studies. My son was all of 11 at the time and it was a frightening time for him. I was undaunted. I could not die and would not let this thing called cancer get the best of me. Funny, at the time I did not realize the physicians at Sloan Kettering thought I was not responding to treatment. They did not think I was going to make it through my treatment thankfully they did not share that with me until my treatment had been over for six months.That was 9 years ago.

It is all about attitude. Belief. Determination and hard work. I researched every medical library I could get my hands on. I looked up what I knew best holistic treatment. I treated myself with amino acids, minerals, vitamins, diet, exercise and prayer. Painted many rooms in the house. Worked in the garden. Stayed at Fordham. Continued  my internship at The Morris County Sexual Assault Center. Thank God for Julie Roebuck LCSW. She believed in me and helped me along. I pretty much did everything that I was told I should not do. Yes I did rest and yes cancer treatment kicked my butt. However, I made the best of it and this is where I discovered the beauty of my credit cards.

Chemotherapy is not a picnic. My experience with it is that is leaves a metallic taste in your mouth. It also cooks your brain. Your memory becomes lost. Short term and long-term. I call it chemo brain. Some of that never leaves. The day of chemotherapy the nurses are great. They come in and start the IV. (I chose not to have a port). After a while its harder to find a vein. The drugs are so toxic that your veins become necrotic. So I was a pin cushion. If the IV infiltrates it hurts like hell. One medication turned my arm black for a while. It burned like someone poured drano into my veins. I would sit for hours and they brought in medication after medication. My regime was AVDB. It’s for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. You can look it up if you like I will talk about this some other time.

To continue the first couple of days after my chemo treatment I would have lots of energy. Good thing because chemo was on Thursday and I had a full day University on Saturday. By the time I came home on Saturday I was on the couch for two or three days just beat. Never became nauseous. Lost my hair little by little. Kind of looked like Pigpen in Charlie Brown. Decided to wear a bandana instead of a wig. Kind of made me look like a biker chick. I looked good. Except I had cancer. Humor is everything.

So back to the credit cards. I was always one to save a little at a time. I had forced myself to save around $50.00 a week in my bank account.( I had been doing this for 6 years. My grandmother’s advice again is if  you work and save $50.00 you made $50.00. If you save nothing for yourself you made nothing). A little more in my mutual funds. I was forced to use my mutual fund reserves. Believe me it was a God send. When you are off work you have to go on disability. (I highly recommend disability insurance it saved my home. It is not super expensive and you never know when it might come in handy. I still have it.)Not only that  you must pay COBRA for your health insurance. So the bills continued to come in and I had the cash to pay for everything. Lots of planning over the years saved my home. I was out of work for 7 months.