Thursday, May 29, 2008

Passing the torch? Maybe?

Someone convinced my dad to start preparing to pass on his business and I seem to be the most likely candidate at this point. My brother is out of town now and neither my mom or my sister seem interested. Though up till now, I haven't heard him say it even though everyone says that responsibility for that place is going to start transferring over to me. I guess it's kind of nice to have the experience, even if it's going to be brief. I don't really want to get tied down here.
I wonder if my family sees me as actually looking to stay like this for a long time and unloading stuff onto me. It sucks, and well, I don't like the way things are, but most of everything just leads back to repeating this situation later. Oh well, my brother seems to like the business and he says he's probably coming back after his one year contract.
Anyway, feeling lost and that's never good.

Monday, May 26, 2008

No goals this week

Strange, I thought I was getting better sleep, then I realized that I'm waking up every two hours or so. That can't be good, though now I actually have a sense of how bad it is. Work is cutting back on overtime, which doesn't directly affect me since I'm not doing any overtime at present. Though it does raise a bit of concern over whether or not this is a bad sign for the business. I manufacture cosmetic building supplies, moulding. The kind of stuff that's pretty much only found in residential properties, which is also the kind with the speculators and bubbles. Then again, I'd say that it was incompetently managed to start with. Before, people would just walk in and walk out for overtime all the time. There were people going at it upwards of 70 hours a week, several of them. Some people were even there more often than they weren't. My area probably wouldn't have functioned without overtime workers. Management got yelled at for having higher labour costs.
Anyway, today I wonder if my life feels enriched by sleeping through most of the day. I think I should find a few games to play to fill the time or something. Maybe read something.
Oh and in other news, I just found out that my dad doesn't have any insurance. He got my mom to opt out of his pension benefits and has no life insurance, which I find kind of silly. My mom is ten years younger and is in much better health than he is. Well, all I can say is, way to be a team player. I suppose it's just a sign of how things are in this family. Oh well, I really don't want anything to do with this family. It's just too much of a mess.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

week in review

This week went ok for me. I still feel pretty good about things. I also came to a rather necessary realization, so many of my weekly goals seem to fall through, I may as well stop setting weekly goals and push for a longer time scale. So, by the end of next month, I hope read through all the material I picked up on my vacation, start recording all my transactions again, and try to make my Thursdays more enjoyable. I feel an incredible disconnect when I can't find people and exchange a few words before disappearing for work. That sounds like a pretty reasonable step.
On a side note, I think I've been getting better sleep lately. Though keyword there being think.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Steps to Wealth

So, what should be the first step towards wealth? Personally, I feel that understanding and defining your objective should be the first step. It's a good first step towards anything. Though that brings to mind the question of what is so much of a mystery about money? Haven't most people got a good idea of things by the time that they have their first job and first stable income stream? Only having had once chance to live life, and haven't not stopped to make observations on this topic along the way, I can't really say.
I'm not sure what the key point that so many people miss is. Though I'm sure people are missing something. That's why there's so many people struggling with debts. Understanding what you're doing and defining what you want seems to be an increasingly vague first step. I guess most people understand the basics, but they just don't realize how quickly all the little bits add up. Small payments make things easier, though they're often spread out so far that a sizable amount of the total is interest, something else catches your eye in the mean time and the small amounts add up, or they're spread so far that there seems to be no end to it.
We all largely understand that borrowing costs money, likewise, there's an understanding that having money can bring money. There does however seem to be a disconnect somewhere. Well, my thoughts are scattered so best to move on.
Just as large amounts can be broken down into smaller payments that result in more money leaving your pocket, the reverse is also possible. Taking a large amount and using it to obtain smaller payments works as well, however you don't get anything cool for doing it and it takes a much larger amount. It does indeed take some very large amounts before you start getting big pay offs.
I suppose step two should be bringing spending under control, in general the more that a person earns the more that gets spent, though sometimes there'll be a delay between increased income and increased spending and sometimes spending will increase in anticipation of income increases. Also, I suspect I spend more when I'm not recording every transaction, though since nobody is filling in for me, I really can't say. Most of the time, we don't really think about where all the money goes and try to decide on making major changes.
This brings me to what I suppose step three should be, deciding on sacrifices to make. Someone once asked me when I was going to get a car. The first thing that came to mind was the life cycle cost of having a car. If I got a car now, I think I'd be working about one month a year for it. Not really something that I want at this point in my life.
Then I suppose we can start thinking about increasing income. Now if I could organize my thoughts, maybe I could write something sensible.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Goals for the Week

Feeling much better this Monday than most of the Mondays I go through. So, goals for the week, 5S my bedroom. Sort, stabilize, standardize, shine, sustain, going to have the things I use regularly out and put the things I use occasionally on the shelf, things that are rarely used can go in my closet. Everything will hopefully be laid out neatly. This will more likely be an ongoing project. I suppose I'll keep hunting for blogs I like and try to get some links setup. Other than that, things are up in the air again. I thought things have kind of blown over, but I guess I have to be prepared to take on even more tasks.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

First step towards wealth?

It was a nice day, so I stepped out during one of my breaks and spent a little time outside. There was a conversation going on about schooling, second jobs and so on. Someone said that supplementing your income was the first step. He didn't say towards what though. Naturally though, I assume he means wealth.
Supplementing income though probably isn't the first step. There's always the amusing story about the big lottery winner who goes bankrupt. As much as we like to imagine that a bit more money will fix everything, there's no shortage of people who make more and struggle to make ends meet. This can't possibly be the first step, can it?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Week in Review?

Do I need a week in review? I don't know. I was on vacation, no goals were set, there are no objectives to comment on. The major things worth mentioning are that my stuff is a mess. Only it's now a mess that isn't very mapped out and concentrated in a few places. I've got to go through everything and sort it. Life seems to be going on as somewhat normal. There's going to be more demands on me now, which I'm not particularly looking forward to.
I'm somewhat more relaxed now. I can play the wait, see and in the mean time augment my income with investments. Also, kind of wondering if there's some kind of cheap project I can take up for a bit of fun, not sure what yet. For the most part, depression has been keeping me from doing much.

Realistic Long Term Returns

Just an idle thought I have. If I buy a house, it's value should increase by roughly inflation over the long run. Either that or housing will start becoming a disproportionately large portion of the cost of living. If I buy common stock, the growth has the potential to beat inflation because the company can experience real growth and increase the volume of their business. I'm not sure if I expect that to go on for effectively a human life span, but it can certainly go on for a while. If I go for broadly based index funds, will my returns grow at a rate of inflation plus real economy growth? Maybe. Where does the growth of the economy take place? Small industries with firms that have not yet gone public is certainly one. Though with things like the dot com boom and bust, is the trend to form bubbles before returns start or does some growth get missed? Small companies that are not yet part of the index growing into larger firms is another area where things get missed. Large companies that shrinks however are typically included in indexes. Now I've certainly lost sight of where I was going in this ramble, but I was going somewhere wit h it, I think.

Defaulting loans?

Well, I got back from vacation to find that one of the people I lent money to is no longer employed. He was in retail, and apparently stepped on a few toes being nice to people. Something I totally understand. It's one reason I hate jobs dealing with the public. You tend to get too many conflicting objectives. You want to handle things quickly, but at the same time, you want to be nice and have a good sales rate. I've known so many call center agents who've gotten yelled at for having low sales when their sales rate is good, their speed is good, but the hours they work have been bellow average. Somewhat different, but still fairly similar.
In the big picture, it took a month's work to restore someone's life. Would I make the trade again? I still think covering my own ass first is probably the best policy. If it were a few years down the line, I don't think I'd have to ask myself this. Right now though, I do need to ask and honestly, it's a tough call.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Cleaning out the fridge

Well, on my last lasagna now. Not sure what to make of things. Man, there's quite a rush of emotions as I'm about to leave. For someone who cries quite a bit, I strangely haven't cried yet this trip. Actually, I feel more like screaming in frustration. Now that I've had the chance to change my perspective a bit, I actually feel more lost than before. It's only just hitting me now that my life no longer has a rhythm to it. Life used to be, work hard, earn a good rest, gear up for another marathon. It feels strange.
Also picked up another little tidbit from the art of war that I missed earlier. There must be harmony in the state before military conquest can begin. I have a bit of harmony now. I feel lost in my entirety. Completely utterly lost and directionless. Overall, this isn't all that helpful, it just brings me back to I can't succeed if I can't define my goal.
Hmm, I should probably either pack or sleep.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Random Reflections on Vacation

Well, I'm at the all good things must come to an end point of my vacation, so many things have gone wrong. I wish I could stay longer to get more things straightened out. Though on the plus side, I caught up with a bunch of movies that I haven't seen yet. Forrest Gump was something that really made me think. Sometimes it's better to simply not understand enough to let things drag you down. I am aware though and I don't think trying to change that is a good idea.
Today was one of those days where things didn't go right, high winds, and heavy rains canceled my plans. Did some reading, and watched a lot of TV. Some of what I read made me wonder if there's really decent returns to be had in investing or if it's kind of like the squirrel. Nuts get stored up for the winter, but in terms of real returns, the squirrel never gets back more than what's put in. I'm still betting that there are gains to be had. In any case, it's still better to have a reserve than nothing at all.
That also brings me to another though, some people have been saying that it's not a good idea to use a line of credit as an emergency fund because lending restrictions are likely to tighten during economic down turns when you're more likely to need the money. That is true though I don't know anyone who advocates keeping your emergency fund in another currency in case the even that you run into happens to be hyperinflation or the local government is over thrown. I guess people expect gold to take that spot. Then there's also events that render food and shelter unobtainable at any price, like if you get hit be a mega tsunami. Granted, there's little point saving money for an event like that because the extreme scarcity renders money meaningless. As I start reducing my cash reserves this is a question that I need to address sooner or later. For now though I think I'm happy using credit as an emergency fund. The numbers are still small in my game, I'm not trying to support a family or cling to things like fancy cars and I don't have a mortgage to support.
Oh, and speaking of family, I had an update on the family thing. It seems like things will be back to normal, for a while anyway.
And well, there's location scouting. While parts of this area do have their charm, there are a stunning number of run down buildings around here. I'm not sure what to really make of it. I'm not completely turned off from this area yet. Still going to check out the employment center to find out about relevant opportunities, immigration and wages. While I was here, I've been going to grocery stores, keeps costs down a bit and gives me an idea of the cost of living. I'm starting to really like extended stay hotels. Though this hotel makes me wonder how hard the region got rocked by economic slowdowns. The rate posted inside the room is twice the current rate. They haven't updated the sign in a while. I think I'll still hunt around for a while. This really doesn't stand out as a definite winner.

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Ever Changing Future

I'm not sure what to make of everything at this point, or whether or not this changes my long term goals much. It's kind of strange that I'm affected by this really. I don't have long term plans at the moment, and well, I just found out that the men on my side of the family have an absolutely terrible survival rate. Apparently, if my generation is anything like the previous two, I should be lucky to live till 70. It's still a respectable age.
It's definitely something that needs some digesting. Off hand though, I think it's a good idea to hold some investments unregistered.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Week in Review

So, it turns out that the whole family crisis thing may just simply blow over and have life return to normal for a while. For most of the family anyway. It does rais a lot of questions though. Anyway, it was a busy week involving a good deal of running around. I am pretty drained right now. I prefer quiet weeks to busy ones, much more relaxed. Though man do busy ones feel like something is getting done. Unfortunately, the thing that really needs to progress doesn't go nearly fast enough. Gotta get more money, big time.
No goals were really set, so can't comment on that. Things that needed to get done are largely done, though there's still time for doing a lot of stuff. I think I'll get it done, or rather there isn't really much choice, it kind of needs to get done.