My New Job

This past weekend I earned $50 in just two hours! Honestly, did any of you think I could make $25 an hour with a Philosophy degree? It didn't even feel like work. All I had to do was sit thru a timeshare sales presentation. When Bethany and I went to Branson for New Year's, Grant and Brenda turned us on to a sure-fire money making opportunity. All we had to do was listen to the salespitch and the timeshare folks would give us 50 bucks. I have stumbled upon a new career. Grant's advice- "Just say 'no' a lot."

The salesman was a man in his 50s and was very nice. He made his pitch and asked us what we thought. Sticking with our gameplan, we told him "No thanks." Seeing that we were going to be a tough couple of eggs to crack, he got his manager to come over and close the deal. I smiled to myself having the feeling that I was about to win the national championship of "Just Say No" when I saw my competition. The "Closer" was about 70 years old and obviously too tired to put up much of a fight. He came to the table with "a better deal" and asked us if those figures would work better. I told him that it was a great deal, but we had decided recently to pay cash for everything and incurr no future debt until we paid off all of our current debts. I sensed fear and confusion in his eyes. He told his cohort, "I think they would do well with a sponsorship." He left to retrive another printout as the primary salesman excused himself to go to the john. Bethany and I became giddy with anticipation as we sensed the blood of our foe in the water. The combatants returned to the arena with their "best deal". A sponsorship was a no obligation, one year trial timeshare that we could use to see if we were interested in buying the full package in the future. Again I said, "This is a great deal, if we had any money at all and were debt-free we would snatch that up in a heartbeat. Unfortunatedly, we just can't do it." I was practically apologizing to them for not being able to give them thousands of dollars. They seemed as if they actually felt bad for us. Utterly defeated, the men said that they understood and respected us for trying to free ourselves from our self incurred bonds of indebtedness. They had no more pre-scripted responses for our objections. They had no "better deal". They had lost. We shook hands and walked out the door with a feeling of accomplishment that only the winners of competitions of the highest calibur could experience. And we had fifty bucks (Our superbowl trophy.)

The deals? Offer #1: We pay $29,000 one time and get three weeks of vacation per year (which we would never have time to take anyway). Plus pay $700 a year for maintenence fees.
Offer #2: We pay $9,000 for one week a year. Plus $700.
Offer #3: We pay $875 dollars for about three weeks worth of vacation for a one year trial period, with no obligation. We could even apply that money to our down-payment for the full package at the end of the one year period. Now, that's a heck of a deal there. If we were debt-free and had some cash, I think we might have taken that and ran with it. I have been a salesman, so I understand the game. I heard "no" a lot from my potential customers. Now I've found a way to get paid cold hard cash to say "no" myself. "Where are we going next time, honey? Orlando, this summer? Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!"