As I said in my previous installment, I am looking to kill time more productively.
I'm failing miserably. I'm still stuck following certain things that are wastes of time. Twitter is a time bandit... but I only have myself to blame.
I shouldn't follow sports.
I shouldn't follow the stock market closely.
My reading topics that I perused were: solar power, home repair, and being a land lord.
Solar power is way too unrealistic for my current situation. Buying stuff from Harbor Freight always looks cool and affordable, but the kit you buy doesn't set itself up and lacks some of the essentials. I'm probably too lazy and lacking of funds to set up something worthwhile.
Home repair is an open ended matter. I have a number of unfinished projects that simply need me to focus my energy. I find excuses for not doing things... like not having a mitersaw or money to pay someone else.
Investment property isn't going to land in my lap, so it's foolish to pursue entertain the thought, right?
I wish I was wired differently. I just lack the drive to finish stuff and get distracted by unrealistic interests and things that aren't important in the grand scheme of things.
Moments like now, I hate free will for I can only blame myself for the majority of my shortcomings.
Theorectically, I put stuff out here to say I looked into things, and affirmed my home and existing personal stuff need focus before thinking of other matters such as solar power and investment property.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
summer reading - exploring better hobbies
Having spent considerable time avoiding being productive or advancing my skill set, I decided to do some cheap self-investment through reading library books.
Given my previous post, I am exploring real estate investment. I have always had interest in houses. Much like reading job postings, I enjoyed reading house listings. Given that I do not have the funds nor time to invest into such endeavors, I need to focus on my current home before moving onto pipe dreams.
I'm cutting sports from my time consumption diet. I should cut my 401(k) obsession along with following the news cycle that seems stuck since November 8, 2016.
Speaking of pipe dreams, I have dreams of making my shed a man cave. It's a small barn, which we currently use for storage, but I'd like to have electricity out there. I would like to have it be solar powered, hence off the grid.
I got a book out from the library that appeared relevant, Do It Yourself 12 Volt SOLAR POWER, but 17 pages in, I find it comical. It's translated from German with an idealistic premise of living off the grid in a van or yurt. Probably not going to do me much good to read the whole thing, but I find solar power intriguing. I doubt I will be less knowledgeable, so it should have benefit, right?
Given my previous post, I am exploring real estate investment. I have always had interest in houses. Much like reading job postings, I enjoyed reading house listings. Given that I do not have the funds nor time to invest into such endeavors, I need to focus on my current home before moving onto pipe dreams.
I'm cutting sports from my time consumption diet. I should cut my 401(k) obsession along with following the news cycle that seems stuck since November 8, 2016.
Speaking of pipe dreams, I have dreams of making my shed a man cave. It's a small barn, which we currently use for storage, but I'd like to have electricity out there. I would like to have it be solar powered, hence off the grid.
I got a book out from the library that appeared relevant, Do It Yourself 12 Volt SOLAR POWER, but 17 pages in, I find it comical. It's translated from German with an idealistic premise of living off the grid in a van or yurt. Probably not going to do me much good to read the whole thing, but I find solar power intriguing. I doubt I will be less knowledgeable, so it should have benefit, right?
Monday, May 7, 2018
Time's take on making side money to quit your real job
Read this old article Time tweeted about making enough side money to quit your job.
It made me chuckle.
It made me chuckle.
- Real Estate investment takes money.
- Writing a book is easy. Finding someone willing to pay for it is another story. I actually started writing a book in '96, but I stopped because I lacked worldly experience to properly develop characters.
- Sell a product on Amazon?
- Sell your skills?
- Blogging!
Seriously, I've tried to blog for money, but I have nothing anyone wants to read it seems. My tweets aren't worthy of getting followers, beyond a static 80. I have stuff that isn't being said, yet nothing catches on. I guess I don't trash Trump, so my feed isn't going to catch on. Suppressed? Perhaps the shadow ban is real enough that there's a pre-shadow ban? I know I'm not dumb, yet I must be missing something key beyond interacting with strangers. I'm joking. Dale Carnegie said in his book, people only care about themselves, so you have to indulge their ego if you hope to be successful in getting anything in return.
I need to create better twitter content, or at least dumb it down. Substweeting seems more necessary than I ever could guess. Nothing piques interest than being left out of a conversation. Obviously, I need to follow the biggies and comment on their inane stuff if I want to generate an opening. Sounds fake. Perhaps most people are fake, and that's why I have trouble following their point.
I have multiple Twitter accounts. I could have multiple profiles to experiment with traffic flow. and such. If I were to be anti-Trump, I'd get the most followers quickly, I'm afraid. That said, I can be deranged in the tongue in cheek sarcastic way that would make Scott Adams proud. I really don't get TDS, but I never got the Obama stuff either.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Money isn't everything
I could have gone for a full-time position, but I don't want to have the full-timer's obligations to work whenever called upon. I can say "no" to over-time or changes in my schedule, which I do when it comes to my family coming first.
I took the job with the intention of being part-time. I get double the hours I am guaranteed, so I'm working as much as a full-timer.
When I got promoted from handler to courier, my wages exploded. I have another raise coming in a couple weeks. I won't notice it. I've bumped my 401(k) contributions up to 35%. I'm not at the point of maxing out, but I'm higher than I ever anticipated a year ago.
Trying to keep our AGI under $63K and pay off all our credit card debt before accruing significant interest. I opened a new card with a 0% interest rate for 18 months with $0 transfer fee.
Can I pay off $15k in 18 months without accruing fees? Probably, but it's tempting to bump up the 401(k) contributions to the max and taking it out as a loan and paying back the loan ASAP.
Biggest reason to not take out such a loan is the burden of paying it back if you lose your job. I'm not fazed by the missing out on market advances given the up and down movement of the market and the interest I'm paying on the loan is means to contribute beyond max out, I think.
Tempting to try to pay off the mortgage the same way.
I took the job with the intention of being part-time. I get double the hours I am guaranteed, so I'm working as much as a full-timer.
When I got promoted from handler to courier, my wages exploded. I have another raise coming in a couple weeks. I won't notice it. I've bumped my 401(k) contributions up to 35%. I'm not at the point of maxing out, but I'm higher than I ever anticipated a year ago.
Trying to keep our AGI under $63K and pay off all our credit card debt before accruing significant interest. I opened a new card with a 0% interest rate for 18 months with $0 transfer fee.
Can I pay off $15k in 18 months without accruing fees? Probably, but it's tempting to bump up the 401(k) contributions to the max and taking it out as a loan and paying back the loan ASAP.
Biggest reason to not take out such a loan is the burden of paying it back if you lose your job. I'm not fazed by the missing out on market advances given the up and down movement of the market and the interest I'm paying on the loan is means to contribute beyond max out, I think.
Tempting to try to pay off the mortgage the same way.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Easy money
How much extra money is there to make without actually working?
We started Ibotta back in May and have slowly gotten $210 in our account.
I've made over $250 in cash back from my Discover card since last March. We're getting a double bonus come April.
I have cash back deal with my Sam's credit card and my American Express card as well. I made roughly $200 cashback combined from those two cards.
All the cashback and rebates add up, but they'll always be correlated to an imposed debt, so I'm not getting rich.
There's got to be a way to earn easy $ without spending money in the first place.
We started Ibotta back in May and have slowly gotten $210 in our account.
I've made over $250 in cash back from my Discover card since last March. We're getting a double bonus come April.
I have cash back deal with my Sam's credit card and my American Express card as well. I made roughly $200 cashback combined from those two cards.
All the cashback and rebates add up, but they'll always be correlated to an imposed debt, so I'm not getting rich.
There's got to be a way to earn easy $ without spending money in the first place.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
MAGA
The more I see "impeachment" talk, the more I find myself thinking the internal polling regarding President Trump must be scary.
Seriously, the Trump-Russia collusion investigation keeps pointing to the Obama administration colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Obama is still popular, regardless of his failure to accomplish anything permanently worthwhile for those who believed in him.
President Trump needs to expose the corruption of the previous administration without explicitly mentioning Obama's name.
Trump has an opportunity to mold all of Obama's failed good intentions into a GOP-friendly message.
Imagine if President Trump only said positive things and left all the negatives to his opponents.
Famed trained hypnotist Scott Adams isn't a republican, but he sees the Black Lives Matter movement as having tenets of the GOP message.
I agree, but I'll go in a different direction.
Let's start with the premise that prisons are failed institutions. Locking people up and letting them fester into hardened criminals seems to be the current standard.
Should a junkie be in the same institution as a psycho killer?
It's probably wrong to say, but what would Jesus do to our criminal justice system?
It seems punishing crime makes sense until you realize punishment doesn't end the cycle. It seems wrong to give opportunities for redemption through education and skills training when there are law-abiding working poor who aren't being given equal assistance. I say provide working poor opportunities while forcing those would be career criminals into structured training that is geared towards their aptitudes and giving them a second chance.
Criminal justice system should be color-blind. Bias exists... so how do you exterminate the roots of bias? Law enforcement should reflect the communities they protect.
Just as police seem to have a bias against minorities... black communities have a justifiable bias against police.
When I was a librarian, I once had a job interview at a liberal arts college, it was an all day affair. I met with the search committee. I gave a presentation that was open to the student population. I met with faculty as I toured the campus and the various departments. I ate lunch in the cafeteria with the student population. I knew what I was getting myself into if I were hired.*
Why not hire our police officers in the same fashion with community involvement and say in how they want police relations? When you are arresting a citizen, regardless of the crime, you are arresting someone's friend or loved one.
Families and friends should take an active role in keeping troubled young adults on the right side of the law, but these same people may have their own problems with drugs, alcohol and motor vehicle operation.
Human brains aren't fully developed until 25... which is why auto insurance rates drop drastically when you turn 25.
I propose that anyone under the age of 25 should be given special consideration when implicated in a crime relating to drugs, alcohol or traffic violations.
Prisons house and feed at great costs, just think of the various ways those resources could be utilized with a more positive outcome.
Throwing money at a problem helps, but having structure and guidance makes the money have a better chance of being used efficiently.
Nothing in life is free of cost of dollars or personal time, and people will only give so much of themselves to help others.
Funding for pro-active preventive programs will need to be generated, but funding must have a long range reality unlike the Child Health Insurance Program that was dependent upon the existence of smokers and cigarette taxes.
Perhaps lowering the legal drinking age and raising alcohol related taxes is one avenue... there's a lot of things we buy that we don't need that could be taxed while there's a lot of things like Facebook and Google that should be taxed for creating the allusion of unbiased search results or news when they are pushing paid rankings.
The GOP tax overhaul has received a lot negative press. Jenna Fischer panned it by saying teachers won't be able to deduct the money they spend on poor kids' school supplies. Ms. Fischer neglected that the law doubles the child tax credit which should easily allow for parents to buy their kids' crayons, folders and such, thus giving the poor teachers an indirect raise when they don't need to buy the supplies anymore.
President Trump needs to stay positive and spin the potential for greatness of his policies rather than getting trapped in the weeds of Obama's carried over failures. It's easy to attack critics like Jenna Fischer, but I say use their own criticism as a means to highlight the good.
Seriously, the Trump-Russia collusion investigation keeps pointing to the Obama administration colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Obama is still popular, regardless of his failure to accomplish anything permanently worthwhile for those who believed in him.
President Trump needs to expose the corruption of the previous administration without explicitly mentioning Obama's name.
Trump has an opportunity to mold all of Obama's failed good intentions into a GOP-friendly message.
Imagine if President Trump only said positive things and left all the negatives to his opponents.
Famed trained hypnotist Scott Adams isn't a republican, but he sees the Black Lives Matter movement as having tenets of the GOP message.
I agree, but I'll go in a different direction.
Let's start with the premise that prisons are failed institutions. Locking people up and letting them fester into hardened criminals seems to be the current standard.
Should a junkie be in the same institution as a psycho killer?
It's probably wrong to say, but what would Jesus do to our criminal justice system?
It seems punishing crime makes sense until you realize punishment doesn't end the cycle. It seems wrong to give opportunities for redemption through education and skills training when there are law-abiding working poor who aren't being given equal assistance. I say provide working poor opportunities while forcing those would be career criminals into structured training that is geared towards their aptitudes and giving them a second chance.
Criminal justice system should be color-blind. Bias exists... so how do you exterminate the roots of bias? Law enforcement should reflect the communities they protect.
Just as police seem to have a bias against minorities... black communities have a justifiable bias against police.
When I was a librarian, I once had a job interview at a liberal arts college, it was an all day affair. I met with the search committee. I gave a presentation that was open to the student population. I met with faculty as I toured the campus and the various departments. I ate lunch in the cafeteria with the student population. I knew what I was getting myself into if I were hired.*
Why not hire our police officers in the same fashion with community involvement and say in how they want police relations? When you are arresting a citizen, regardless of the crime, you are arresting someone's friend or loved one.
Families and friends should take an active role in keeping troubled young adults on the right side of the law, but these same people may have their own problems with drugs, alcohol and motor vehicle operation.
Human brains aren't fully developed until 25... which is why auto insurance rates drop drastically when you turn 25.
I propose that anyone under the age of 25 should be given special consideration when implicated in a crime relating to drugs, alcohol or traffic violations.
Prisons house and feed at great costs, just think of the various ways those resources could be utilized with a more positive outcome.
Throwing money at a problem helps, but having structure and guidance makes the money have a better chance of being used efficiently.
Nothing in life is free of cost of dollars or personal time, and people will only give so much of themselves to help others.
Funding for pro-active preventive programs will need to be generated, but funding must have a long range reality unlike the Child Health Insurance Program that was dependent upon the existence of smokers and cigarette taxes.
Perhaps lowering the legal drinking age and raising alcohol related taxes is one avenue... there's a lot of things we buy that we don't need that could be taxed while there's a lot of things like Facebook and Google that should be taxed for creating the allusion of unbiased search results or news when they are pushing paid rankings.
The GOP tax overhaul has received a lot negative press. Jenna Fischer panned it by saying teachers won't be able to deduct the money they spend on poor kids' school supplies. Ms. Fischer neglected that the law doubles the child tax credit which should easily allow for parents to buy their kids' crayons, folders and such, thus giving the poor teachers an indirect raise when they don't need to buy the supplies anymore.
President Trump needs to stay positive and spin the potential for greatness of his policies rather than getting trapped in the weeds of Obama's carried over failures. It's easy to attack critics like Jenna Fischer, but I say use their own criticism as a means to highlight the good.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Wonderful year
2017 has been a very good year. I got a promotion and added hours to my work week, so I can foresee the Trump tax plan being rather interesting... since I can't keep my wages down too much through the HSA and 401(k) routes.
We've always lived check to check it seems, but of late, I'm seeing surplus cashflow that could take chunks out of mountain of credit card debt.
We've had debts since I blindly accepted Jennifer debts when we married. We didn't have jobs straight out of college. I have worked mostly part-time to avoid childcare costs. When I had full-time jobs we paid taxes on money we really didn't use.
When I was collecting unemployment, we seemed to get ahead, somehow.
My last time on unemployment, I made $210 weekly. When it ran out I got a job working 5 nights a week $240. I drove 22 miles each way, but we avoided child care costs. Then I got an extra hour a night and made an additional $48 a week. The job started to cut my hours, so I looked for something else to supplement, for we really needed to have me making $325 a week.
I got a job closer to home working roughly the same weekly hours/wages. Saved money on gas. Saved money when I qualified for their insurance. My weekly hours went from 25 to 35 while my promotion gave me a $5.23 hourly raise, thus doubling my income.
We could theoretically be credit card debt free in a year if we really wanted it.
We've always lived check to check it seems, but of late, I'm seeing surplus cashflow that could take chunks out of mountain of credit card debt.
We've had debts since I blindly accepted Jennifer debts when we married. We didn't have jobs straight out of college. I have worked mostly part-time to avoid childcare costs. When I had full-time jobs we paid taxes on money we really didn't use.
When I was collecting unemployment, we seemed to get ahead, somehow.
My last time on unemployment, I made $210 weekly. When it ran out I got a job working 5 nights a week $240. I drove 22 miles each way, but we avoided child care costs. Then I got an extra hour a night and made an additional $48 a week. The job started to cut my hours, so I looked for something else to supplement, for we really needed to have me making $325 a week.
I got a job closer to home working roughly the same weekly hours/wages. Saved money on gas. Saved money when I qualified for their insurance. My weekly hours went from 25 to 35 while my promotion gave me a $5.23 hourly raise, thus doubling my income.
We could theoretically be credit card debt free in a year if we really wanted it.
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