That was really funny! According to the test, I am a free-spirited, artistic, creative type who would do best as an artist, architect, musician, decorator...
Your comments are absolutely on target. I did this for 18 months, counting up the savings from careful grocery and drugstore shopping: using coupons, shopping sales. I also put aside $2 every time I did laundry. In that time, I saved close to $3,800.00. Tthat was enough for three round-trip airline tickets (one of them a senior fare) to Oregon, plus a rental car, meals spending money and hotel rooms, for five days. We used coupons and discounts for the hotels and car, at big breakfasts at the hotels (food was part of the room rate). I did not miss the money on a daily basis at all.
My car is 20 years old and still going strong. The repair bills are much lower than the outlay of cash to replace it.
One of my sisters once commented on the state of my dishcloths. She thought they were too old and she even purchased more for me. Years later I finally broke out the ones she bought for me.
Great post and a lot for nomads to think about. As you've probably learned over the years, while everyone thinks romantically of the idea of being a digital nomad, sometimes its just a pain in the butt.
Cesar Torres just posted a story on some of the challenges of working remotely and the growing trend of coworking, working alone...together. Cesar is co-founder of Austin-based Conjunctured. Take a look at it if you get a chance.
As another son of a professor, I also grew up witnessing how amazing, and how much hard work, the sabbatical can be. At my father's university, they offer the option of taking one semester of leave with full pay or a full year with half pay, something that anyone planning a personally funded sabbatical might want to consider.I think that the proposition of a sabbatical, the expression of a desire to work intensely on a personal project of value and merit, instantly shows that you are a valuable employee. It demonstrates you have interests that extend beyond your 9 to 5 day and the passion to pursue them. If they tie into your day job, all the better. Unfortunately, I don't think many managers see it this way. I guess the challenge is to convince them.
One more thing: I could't agree more that the intention of a sabbatical should not be to take a long vacation. I am a huge proponent of, as an example, extending transition periods between jobs in order to spend several months traveling, but this is different than a sabbatical.
A permanent sabbatical--early retirement, semi-retirement, whatever you want to call it--is great. But it's hard. It's even harder than regular retirement.
It is, roughly speaking, 20 to 25 times harder than funding a 1-year sabbatical.
Part of my point in this piece is to urge people not to dismiss the idea of a sabbatical simply because it isn't permanent. There's a lot of value in taking a year (or even six months or three months) off to do a single project that's worth doing.
What a wonderful post! It made me think about how my habits change during relationships...and that is often as I am a serial serious dater. Only once in my adult life have I gone months without being in a relationship, and not too surprising I dropped weight as though I had cancer (a saying my grandmother once she was diagnosed with cancer years ago). I didn't lose weight because I was depressed or at a loss; it was because for once I was only concerned with feeding me.
I always struggle with extra pounds once I am settled in a relationship, a common issue for people. Many plausible theories exist as to why, but after reading this I am reminded that for me, I just plain eat less when I am alone.
My boyfriend and I both work in theatre and work irregular hours each week. We managed to gain weight by trying to eat together and eat the same things, which means whoever is waiting on the other person to come home snacks quite a bit before actually eating dinner. We are both trying to focus on making healthier choices, and I think this post may remind of some basics. Thanks so much!
You might think about buying a home warranty. For a fixed price -- we're charged $35 a month, but that's higher than normal because we have a rider for our pool -- American Home Shield provides us with insurance for all of our home's systems and major appliances.
If something acts up I visit the website and report it. Within 30 minutes I get an email with the name of the service company that will be contacting me. When the tech arrives I pay him a deductable of $55, and he goes to work. All parts and labor are covered, as are return visits if the problem isn't resovled, and if the tech is unable to fix the problem, AHS buys a replacement.
In the last year, I've used the service four times, one for the heating, once for the air conditioning, once for the stove, and once for the pool filter. So that was $220 in deductables and $420 in premiums, $640 total. If you had used the service and one of your four uses had been for the refrigerator, it would probably have been fixed the first time (AHS makes sure all its partner repair services are qualified), but if it hadn't been you would have gotten a new one and still come out $360 ahead on the year with three (perhaps major) other problems solved into the bargain.
I'm from Seattle, and I have some of my favorite places wish to share:
If you're looking for: __________, you might want to check out: _________
Pho / Pho Viet Anh (Roy& 4th)
Spring Rolls / Lemomgrass (12th and Jackson)
Dishes / Greenleaf (yeah, the restaurant beats Tamarind Tree about food, but it doesn't have a Bar as Tamarind)
Best Vietnamese Restaurant / Rainier BBQ (MLK & Graham, off 161 I-5)
Vegetarian / Moonlight
Steaks / Jimmy Mac Roadhouse (Renton)
Nightlife / Broadway (Broadway grill on Broadway is good too)
Dessert / B&O Esspresso (Olive & Bellevue Ave)
Korean Grill / Restaurants in Federal way and Aurora Ave (WA-99)
Please, don't do "House of Hong" or "New Hongkong" - they suck, as well as all other small restaurant in Chinatown. Check out TopGun for Dim-Sum or if you're so im love with Chinese food, check out V-Garden at Jackson and 4th.
I would like to take a permanent sabbatical from my job. From any job period. So I am working hard and taking risks in order to accomplish that goal of living the life I truly want. One where I am in control of when I work, how I work, and what I work on. Something I am passionate about. My own Boss. Yes I need a sabbatical.
Yes the test was pretty accurate for me as well besides the fact that I would like to work for myself, adn be in full control. Though it did hint at it stating I am the type to seek power and be a leader. Interesting...
I think that Facebook can be a useful tool for managing connections and your online life if you put in the time to figure out how it can best suit your needs. Really, it is what you make of it.
To emdoozie: glad I could help a bit. I know that when you are trying to save up for a trip, or anything, every little tip and trick can help out.
Of course, you won't know if you made a wise decision by spending that $200 for sometime now. If in three months it breaks down again and you need to pay another $200 etc.. etc.. then your decision may not be wise. Sometimes the decision to repair or replace is difficult just because there are so many unknowns.
That's a good question. In some cases, yes, but you will have to pay a higher premium. Depending on the type of cancer and if it was fully eradicated, any life insurance company will consider your application if a certain number of years has passed and a pathology report is produced during the application process.
Mortgage Life Insurance varies in their ability to accept cancer patients. Some will decline the application outright, and others will consider the application as above. Check out your options - you may be insurable.
Great list! Now I've got some great date ideas...now just need to find the date...
I would add the new sculpture park to this list as well. It's down near the north part of the waterfront. It's free, and while some of the "art" is a little strange, most of it is really quite impressive!
My wife and I have both had shoes and boots repaired.
My birkenstocks are are their third soles now. The rest of the sandal is in fine shape--it would have been a shame to throw them out and buy new sandals.
My wife sent her Finn Comfort boots in to be completely refurbished, and was very pleased with the results--at less than half the price of a new pair of boots.
But shoes get worn out gradually enough that you can easily make the mistake of waiting too long. Shoes that hurt your feet are no good. Whether you repair them or replace them, you want to do it as soon as it's necessary.
I have a retail account that was put into collections late last year. I have made substantial payments and have reduced the debt by 1/2 (at least). I continuted getting calls from the collection agency so I called the institution (HSBC) and asked them if I could simply begin making the payments to them again since I had reduced the debt considerably. After some hesitation, they agreed to this and I discussed my minimum payments and the next payment due date. After speaking with them, I called the collection agency to inform them that I would no longer be going through them to make payments. They informed me that the account was still with them and that they could still pursue legal action against me for collections. Is there any truth to that? What do I need to do?
The Freddie /Fannie problems is not well understood, by the public, by congress, or by the experts..
The total amount of Mortgages outstanding in the US is about 12 trillion dollars, of which Freddie and Fannie have guaranteed about 5 Trillion.
Mortgages are debts, that come due over a period of time, thus, when you buy a home, for let's say $200,000, over the thirty year period, the total amount that will be paid, including interest at 7.5%, would be $504000.
The $504,000. Is debt. Fannie Mae buys this debt from banks that issued the mortgage. In effect, the bank transfers the mortgage that is owed, to Fannie Mae... but realizing that there is risk involved (that the mortgage will not be paid off in full), they will sell the debt for an amount less than the total amount due.
For instance, a mortgaging bank may sell the $504000 owing, for $480,000... to Fannie Mae.. Fannie Mae now, can take the full amount of the debt, and hold it on its books, or in turn sell it off to others. (The mortgaging bank, is then free to reinvest the amount it received for the mortgage).
Some people think that the stockholders own this debt. That is not so. They own shares in the company. The Debt is separate.
The "others" that Fannie sells the debt to, include, but are not limited to: .1. Sovereign Wealth Funds owned by Foreign Nations . (China alone, owns approximately $300 Billion of this debt) . 2. Pension Funds... Private and Public. 2. Banks and Brokers. 3. Endowment Funds, 4. Insurance Company funds, 5. Private individuals. This debt is usually sold at "auction".
So far, so good. Initially, the operation of Fannie Mae was governed by strict rules, requiring the Corporation to adhere to accounting standards, to maintain operating liquidity, and to maintain assets using valuation assessments that looked at the true conditons for the debt according to time and present value (mark to market).
As a result of financial firms' lobbying efforts, the rules were eased... eroded by Congressional action... That allowed Fannie (and Freddie) to operate with more freely, and to make risky decisions that now have resulted in the reported book assets being valued at much more than they are actually worth.
That in a nutshell, (without explaining CDO's, Credit Derivative Swaps and a few dozen more exotic financial instruments) is about what happened. Because the mortgages were sliced, diced, insured, re insured and revalued by questionable mathematical formulas, the actual value is almost impossible to fairly evaluate.
Almost for certain, the amount at risk is many times the $500Billion that the government has estimated. Some of the Conservative economists who really understand the situation have estimated the actual loss to be about $1.3 Trillion . Depending on the length of time before the markets begin to agree to trade the questionable assets ... the actual losses could possibly reach as much as $3 Trillion Dollars... and that is just for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac .
Now for the final nail in the coffin... With the Government now having agreed to "back" the assets, so that the Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, and Brokerage Houses won't have take a loss on their investment... The final result could be debt of $1 to $2 Trillion dollars to be paid for by the US Government... That's you and me.
At this rate, the individual personal debt of each and every American (our part of the Federal Debt), could go from today's $32,000 to somewhere between $34,000 and $36,000.
Yes... In order for Uncle Sam to pay off in full on those investments in Freddie and Fannie (which normally would be at risk to the investors...), every US citizen (man woman and child) is going to have to kick in $2,000 to $4,000.
For the next big dollars that you're going to have to pay out of your future, watch the FDIC, which will pay off when the banks go belly up, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund,both of which are already "Broke".
No one has yet estimated either of these losses, though a year ago, the Pension Funds were in the red by about $600 Billion Dollars. It looks as though about 100 banks may close by the end of this year, and I've heard that as many as 1,000 are on the near time "watch list". Wouldn't dare estimate these losses
.. and that doesn't even take into consideration hyperinflation, depression, or global warming... :-) :-) :-)
Thank your congressmen for the way they've protected your interests.
That was really funny! According to the test, I am a free-spirited, artistic, creative type who would do best as an artist, architect, musician, decorator...
I'm actually an engineer. 16 years and counting.
Dont use video for everything.
ma insscriu si eu
Your comments are absolutely on target. I did this for 18 months, counting up the savings from careful grocery and drugstore shopping: using coupons, shopping sales. I also put aside $2 every time I did laundry. In that time, I saved close to $3,800.00. Tthat was enough for three round-trip airline tickets (one of them a senior fare) to Oregon, plus a rental car, meals spending money and hotel rooms, for five days. We used coupons and discounts for the hotels and car, at big breakfasts at the hotels (food was part of the room rate). I did not miss the money on a daily basis at all.
My car is 20 years old and still going strong. The repair bills are much lower than the outlay of cash to replace it.
One of my sisters once commented on the state of my dishcloths. She thought they were too old and she even purchased more for me. Years later I finally broke out the ones she bought for me.
I do believe in using things until they are dead.
Yes, that's a great blog; I've been following it since it started.
Great post and a lot for nomads to think about. As you've probably learned over the years, while everyone thinks romantically of the idea of being a digital nomad, sometimes its just a pain in the butt.
Cesar Torres just posted a story on some of the challenges of working remotely and the growing trend of coworking, working alone...together. Cesar is co-founder of Austin-based Conjunctured. Take a look at it if you get a chance.
http://www.digitalnomads.com/2008/09/10/working-alone-sucks-stop-it
Bruce Eric
As another son of a professor, I also grew up witnessing how amazing, and how much hard work, the sabbatical can be. At my father's university, they offer the option of taking one semester of leave with full pay or a full year with half pay, something that anyone planning a personally funded sabbatical might want to consider.I think that the proposition of a sabbatical, the expression of a desire to work intensely on a personal project of value and merit, instantly shows that you are a valuable employee. It demonstrates you have interests that extend beyond your 9 to 5 day and the passion to pursue them. If they tie into your day job, all the better. Unfortunately, I don't think many managers see it this way. I guess the challenge is to convince them.
One more thing: I could't agree more that the intention of a sabbatical should not be to take a long vacation. I am a huge proponent of, as an example, extending transition periods between jobs in order to spend several months traveling, but this is different than a sabbatical.
Thanks for this great post Philip.
A permanent sabbatical--early retirement, semi-retirement, whatever you want to call it--is great. But it's hard. It's even harder than regular retirement.
It is, roughly speaking, 20 to 25 times harder than funding a 1-year sabbatical.
Part of my point in this piece is to urge people not to dismiss the idea of a sabbatical simply because it isn't permanent. There's a lot of value in taking a year (or even six months or three months) off to do a single project that's worth doing.
I can not recognize me in this test results. Also the results are opposite from other personality tests I did.
What a wonderful post! It made me think about how my habits change during relationships...and that is often as I am a serial serious dater. Only once in my adult life have I gone months without being in a relationship, and not too surprising I dropped weight as though I had cancer (a saying my grandmother once she was diagnosed with cancer years ago). I didn't lose weight because I was depressed or at a loss; it was because for once I was only concerned with feeding me.
I always struggle with extra pounds once I am settled in a relationship, a common issue for people. Many plausible theories exist as to why, but after reading this I am reminded that for me, I just plain eat less when I am alone.
My boyfriend and I both work in theatre and work irregular hours each week. We managed to gain weight by trying to eat together and eat the same things, which means whoever is waiting on the other person to come home snacks quite a bit before actually eating dinner. We are both trying to focus on making healthier choices, and I think this post may remind of some basics. Thanks so much!
You might think about buying a home warranty. For a fixed price -- we're charged $35 a month, but that's higher than normal because we have a rider for our pool -- American Home Shield provides us with insurance for all of our home's systems and major appliances.
If something acts up I visit the website and report it. Within 30 minutes I get an email with the name of the service company that will be contacting me. When the tech arrives I pay him a deductable of $55, and he goes to work. All parts and labor are covered, as are return visits if the problem isn't resovled, and if the tech is unable to fix the problem, AHS buys a replacement.
In the last year, I've used the service four times, one for the heating, once for the air conditioning, once for the stove, and once for the pool filter. So that was $220 in deductables and $420 in premiums, $640 total. If you had used the service and one of your four uses had been for the refrigerator, it would probably have been fixed the first time (AHS makes sure all its partner repair services are qualified), but if it hadn't been you would have gotten a new one and still come out $360 ahead on the year with three (perhaps major) other problems solved into the bargain.
Hi guys,
I'm from Seattle, and I have some of my favorite places wish to share:
If you're looking for: __________, you might want to check out: _________
Pho / Pho Viet Anh (Roy& 4th)
Spring Rolls / Lemomgrass (12th and Jackson)
Dishes / Greenleaf (yeah, the restaurant beats Tamarind Tree about food, but it doesn't have a Bar as Tamarind)
Best Vietnamese Restaurant / Rainier BBQ (MLK & Graham, off 161 I-5)
Vegetarian / Moonlight
Steaks / Jimmy Mac Roadhouse (Renton)
Nightlife / Broadway (Broadway grill on Broadway is good too)
Dessert / B&O Esspresso (Olive & Bellevue Ave)
Korean Grill / Restaurants in Federal way and Aurora Ave (WA-99)
Please, don't do "House of Hong" or "New Hongkong" - they suck, as well as all other small restaurant in Chinatown. Check out TopGun for Dim-Sum or if you're so im love with Chinese food, check out V-Garden at Jackson and 4th.
I would like to take a permanent sabbatical from my job. From any job period. So I am working hard and taking risks in order to accomplish that goal of living the life I truly want. One where I am in control of when I work, how I work, and what I work on. Something I am passionate about. My own Boss. Yes I need a sabbatical.
-doozieUp
http://doozieUp.com
Yes the test was pretty accurate for me as well besides the fact that I would like to work for myself, adn be in full control. Though it did hint at it stating I am the type to seek power and be a leader. Interesting...
-doozieUp
http://doozieUp.com
Yeah Myscha,
I think that Facebook can be a useful tool for managing connections and your online life if you put in the time to figure out how it can best suit your needs. Really, it is what you make of it.
To emdoozie: glad I could help a bit. I know that when you are trying to save up for a trip, or anything, every little tip and trick can help out.
Turns out I'm in the perfect job for me. Who knew?
My depression era surviving grandmother taught me the saying a little differently: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Just patched the holes in my husbands work jeans.
Of course, you won't know if you made a wise decision by spending that $200 for sometime now. If in three months it breaks down again and you need to pay another $200 etc.. etc.. then your decision may not be wise. Sometimes the decision to repair or replace is difficult just because there are so many unknowns.
That's a good question. In some cases, yes, but you will have to pay a higher premium. Depending on the type of cancer and if it was fully eradicated, any life insurance company will consider your application if a certain number of years has passed and a pathology report is produced during the application process.
Mortgage Life Insurance varies in their ability to accept cancer patients. Some will decline the application outright, and others will consider the application as above. Check out your options - you may be insurable.
Great list! Now I've got some great date ideas...now just need to find the date...
I would add the new sculpture park to this list as well. It's down near the north part of the waterfront. It's free, and while some of the "art" is a little strange, most of it is really quite impressive!
My wife and I have both had shoes and boots repaired.
My birkenstocks are are their third soles now. The rest of the sandal is in fine shape--it would have been a shame to throw them out and buy new sandals.
My wife sent her Finn Comfort boots in to be completely refurbished, and was very pleased with the results--at less than half the price of a new pair of boots.
But shoes get worn out gradually enough that you can easily make the mistake of waiting too long. Shoes that hurt your feet are no good. Whether you repair them or replace them, you want to do it as soon as it's necessary.
Paying attention helps.
Everyone's a critic. In the land of democracy, how we love to pounce on "others". I enjoyed your article; particularly, your wit and writing style.
I have a retail account that was put into collections late last year. I have made substantial payments and have reduced the debt by 1/2 (at least). I continuted getting calls from the collection agency so I called the institution (HSBC) and asked them if I could simply begin making the payments to them again since I had reduced the debt considerably. After some hesitation, they agreed to this and I discussed my minimum payments and the next payment due date. After speaking with them, I called the collection agency to inform them that I would no longer be going through them to make payments. They informed me that the account was still with them and that they could still pursue legal action against me for collections. Is there any truth to that? What do I need to do?
Here's a copy of an email I had sent to my friends on the same subject, from a little different perspective...
I read Xin Lu's article with a sense of deja vu
...........................................................................................................
The Freddie /Fannie problems is not well understood, by the public, by congress, or by the experts..
The total amount of Mortgages outstanding in the US is about 12 trillion dollars, of which Freddie and Fannie have guaranteed about 5 Trillion.
Mortgages are debts, that come due over a period of time, thus, when you buy a home, for let's say $200,000, over the thirty year period, the total amount that will be paid, including interest at 7.5%, would be $504000.
The $504,000. Is debt. Fannie Mae buys this debt from banks that issued the mortgage. In effect, the bank transfers the mortgage that is owed, to Fannie Mae... but realizing that there is risk involved (that the mortgage will not be paid off in full), they will sell the debt for an amount less than the total amount due.
For instance, a mortgaging bank may sell the $504000 owing, for $480,000... to Fannie Mae.. Fannie Mae now, can take the full amount of the debt, and hold it on its books, or in turn sell it off to others. (The mortgaging bank, is then free to reinvest the amount it received for the mortgage).
Some people think that the stockholders own this debt. That is not so. They own shares in the company. The Debt is separate.
The "others" that Fannie sells the debt to, include, but are not limited to: .1. Sovereign Wealth Funds owned by Foreign Nations . (China alone, owns approximately $300 Billion of this debt) . 2. Pension Funds... Private and Public. 2. Banks and Brokers. 3. Endowment Funds, 4. Insurance Company funds, 5. Private individuals. This debt is usually sold at "auction".
So far, so good. Initially, the operation of Fannie Mae was governed by strict rules, requiring the Corporation to adhere to accounting standards, to maintain operating liquidity, and to maintain assets using valuation assessments that looked at the true conditons for the debt according to time and present value (mark to market).
As a result of financial firms' lobbying efforts, the rules were eased... eroded by Congressional action... That allowed Fannie (and Freddie) to operate with more freely, and to make risky decisions that now have resulted in the reported book assets being valued at much more than they are actually worth.
That in a nutshell, (without explaining CDO's, Credit Derivative Swaps and a few dozen more exotic financial instruments) is about what happened. Because the mortgages were sliced, diced, insured, re insured and revalued by questionable mathematical formulas, the actual value is almost impossible to fairly evaluate.
Almost for certain, the amount at risk is many times the $500Billion that the government has estimated. Some of the Conservative economists who really understand the situation have estimated the actual loss to be about $1.3 Trillion . Depending on the length of time before the markets begin to agree to trade the questionable assets ... the actual losses could possibly reach as much as $3 Trillion Dollars... and that is just for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac .
Now for the final nail in the coffin... With the Government now having agreed to "back" the assets, so that the Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, and Brokerage Houses won't have take a loss on their investment... The final result could be debt of $1 to $2 Trillion dollars to be paid for by the US Government... That's you and me.
At this rate, the individual personal debt of each and every American (our part of the Federal Debt), could go from today's $32,000 to somewhere between $34,000 and $36,000.
Yes... In order for Uncle Sam to pay off in full on those investments in Freddie and Fannie (which normally would be at risk to the investors...), every US citizen (man woman and child) is going to have to kick in $2,000 to $4,000.
For the next big dollars that you're going to have to pay out of your future, watch the FDIC, which will pay off when the banks go belly up, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund,both of which are already "Broke".
No one has yet estimated either of these losses, though a year ago, the Pension Funds were in the red by about $600 Billion Dollars. It looks as though about 100 banks may close by the end of this year, and I've heard that as many as 1,000 are on the near time "watch list". Wouldn't dare estimate these losses
.. and that doesn't even take into consideration hyperinflation, depression, or global warming... :-) :-) :-)
Thank your congressmen for the way they've protected your interests.
my opinion only