Baltimore HUD Homes Blog

Have you heard of the Olympics Hangover? It’s when you stay up way too late watching “just one more event” and end up being red-eyed and unproductive the next day. So to counteract this, I used the public library for the first time in a long while. Funny thing: childless friends and co-workers had no idea where the library was. Only the parents did, since their kids use them. Why do we stop using the library as we grow older?

It was a productive visit, helping me to complete both a few short-term and lifetime goals:

1. Read one financial book per week. Obvious one first. I put the following books on hold: Work Less, Live More and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Retiring Early. Hope to find some good nuggets.
2. Visit a Bank Foreclosure - REO auction. In most areas, listing notices are required to be in the newspaper. I don’t have a subscription anymore, but I was able to look through the last 3 days of papers at the library for free. Looks like there will be one on September 9th at Noon at the county courthouse. Also, I found an announcement that a local self-storage place is also auctioning off the contents of the lockers that have been abandoned and unpaid. That might be interesting to go to as well.
3. Learn more about financial analysis of potential rental property. Also found the Landlord’s Survival Guide and The complete guide to your first rental property. To judge the quality of books I’ve never heard of, I consider both Amazon.com review (if any) and also the number of copies in the city-wide system. I simply assume (right or wrong) that the better books will have more copies.
4. Plan international travel. The in-branch pickings were slim, but I found a nice book on Spain. I should be able to find many more online. I’ve actually brought library travel books with me on international trips. (Well taken care of and returned on time, of course!)
5. Learn a Foreign Language. Borrowed a few Pimsleur language audio CDs (intro to Cantonese and Spanish). The full sets of these often cost over $200. These will go great in the car and in my iPod while jogging.

Of course, not all goals can be done at the library. I also recently signed up for a 3-day PADI scuba diving certification course over Labor Day weekend that will cost around $400 altogether. I’m really looking forward to it.

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