Outcast

I'm feeling like an outcast. Defying the norm does kind of distance you from people. Reading some other blogs right now talking about emergency funds and trying to control spending. I don't have an emergency fund and can justify my not having one. I have enough in investments to cover a good portion of my expenses and usually have enough cash on hand to not have to worry about jobloss. Also there's a stunning lack of high end stuff in my life. Most of what I have is fairly basic, granted I have a lot of things that other people don't. A blog for one, a computer, a camera, granted not high-end ones. I'm contemplating a digital SLR though. For now my high end luxury item is my fork. There is just about enough metal in that fork to make a regular quality knife-fork-spoon place setting. The things that actually affect my livelihood though are few.
Also, trying to control spending... I don't have trouble with that. Stuff was just simply hard to replace and I've had to learn that I don't need to stress over little things, I can simply replace them.
So, do I comment on those blog posts, or do I come across as bragging?

Different perspective on yields and interest rates

While I was idly thinking about things at work one day, I came up with this simple idea. Why don't I stop thinking about interest in dollars and start thinking in terms of hours of work?
That lead me to 40hr x 3% = 1.2hr/year and eventually, I got to
100% of employment income = 1 year's pay/3% = 33 1/3 years
70% of employment income = .7/3% = 23 1/3 years
50% of employment income = .5/3% = 16 2/3 years
and in the last category, what I mean by 33 1/3, 23 1/3 and 16 2/3 years isn't that I'll need to work that long. I need to have the equivalent of that much money put away. Clearly this simplification does not include any investment growth or compounding of interest or that I won't be saving 100% of my income. So the point of all this math is that it looks interesting on screen. Whether you think in terms of dollars or how much hard work you put into getting them, the end calculation really doesn't tell you much. At least I sure hope I can get this all done and over with in less than 16 years.

Financial Literacy

There's something that really bothers me about financial literacy. People can't seem to distinguish between debt and deficit. Debt is money that's owed to someone else. Deficit is the amount of shortfall you have in your budget. Far too often, I see these terms used interchangeably. It annoys me.
Another thing that bugs me is the misuse of the term barter. To quote wikipedia, "A Trade Exchange or Barter is a type of trade in which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and/or services, without the use of money." If you're looking for a term referring to negotiating prices, the word you want is haggle.
Well, there's two pet peeves of mine.