Money vs Happiness

I'm listening to a very fascinating discussion right now on money vs happiness? Would you give up money to get happiness? These are definitely not mutually exclusive by any stretch of the imagination and someone raised an interesting point that I'd love to share with the world. You can only ask this question if you have money to start with. People in the lower or middle class never discuss how much better life would be if they only had less money.
This question is really more a release from obligations and a rebalancing of life. I'm over due for one. Where to from here though?

On Risk

I listen to a lot of audio about finance, one of the books got me thinking about risk. It specifically questioned a few definitions of risk, being an entrepreneur vs having one source of income. Risk is really the probability of an event multiplied by the severity of the consequences. Whether you're employed, self employed or unemployed, diversity helps. Working three jobs in the name of security is probably a stupid thing to do no matter how you cut it, but we can buy diversity through investments. Why we should has been demonstrated a number of times by people such as the former employees of Enron, Lehman brothers, and other collapsed companies. As a Canadian, I don't know much about the 401K system in the USA, but I'm told that employers exert some influence over the investment choices that people can make within the plan. I think that's largely to blame for that.
Anyway, back on topic, what are the risks for me? Well, I could get struck by a meteorite, lightening or more realistically, a car. That would be very bad for me. The first one, I really can't do anything about but the probability is so remote there really isn't a point in thinking about it. Avoiding large metal objects in lightening storms and looking both ways before crossing the street, sure that's simple enough. Then there's food poisoning, store foods properly and not for too long. All of this while very important is not really exciting discussion. As was discussed in the book I was listening to though, job loss, that's something that is somewhat exciting to talk about.
What causes job loss? Some of the causes are entirely up to you and entirely preventable, like the people who get fired for not showing up, showing up intoxicated, or act like a jerk. Other causes are hard to defend against, like if you were an Enron or Lehman Brother's employee and got swept away when the company collapsed. From what I've observed at my current job, job security happens in three stages.
The first stage is to be a learner. If you're going around learning about your job, your company and your co-workers and their job responsibilities, you're going to stick around. While learning is ongoing, the amount of time you spend learning drops significantly quickly.
The second stage is to be a doer. Show off your new skills and stay active. When the ax falls, it's going to be the less productive employees that go first.
The third stage is seems to be the one that people fail to transition to most often, becoming a teacher. Being the only one who can do your job isn't necessarily the key to job security. If you can get everyone capable of doing your job, you've clearly demonstrated a skill that others don't have, you can train employees. This typically also gets you a raise.
As for the other side of the coin, minimizing the severity of the consequences of loosing your job. You should probably keep a resume up to date, beyond that I wouldn't regularly browse job sites. Maybe keep a list of resources that you can use to look for work, but 20 minutes of looking will probably find enough to keep you busy for a while. Oh yeah, and having enough money to keep you afloat helps.

You can't live life without any luxuries

In another one of my talks with various co-workers one of them told me about how he was contemplating buying a new HD tv. He told me that his concern wasn't so much the cost, but it was all the extras that were with it. You need the HDMI cables to get the most out of it, the bluray as well. Then there's the digital cable that will get you over and over again every month. It all adds up. The thing that struck me about it was not so much that I was having a casual conversation about money, but it made me realise something about myself. Life to me is not so much about the day to day things as it is about the bigger things. Most of my life has been about throwing all my resources at a single objective. I suppose this is easier done when you're young and haven't been out of school for too long. Homework kind of helps create a very focused life. For a while, things are very focused, specially around major deadlines and exams.
I'm not necessarily saying that it's a healthy way to live, but for now it's just the only way I know how to live my life. It has rather violent ups and downs. I don't think that this is the sort of life that leads to longevity, though I suppose that's something that can be sacrificed, like so many other things, to meet an objective.

Sheep, everyone, everywhere, sheep

Today, I can't help wondering if it's in our nature to view the bulk of the population as a herd of uneducated ignorant sheep. People seem to follow the same trends and hold the same views based on the same biased set of facts that they don't bother to truly learn about. For the most part, many of us live our lives going through the same cycle day by day, week by week. Many of us long for change or improvement. Few of us ever achieve much success at changing things. For the most part, we don't know how or we can't seem to bring ourselves to do it. Many of us just go on hoping that somehow through some wise shepherd we'll wind up where we want to be. As much as I want to be different, it's still too early for me to really feel confident that things will work. When its done, I'll now.

How real is money

I read an interesting personal finance article in one of the local papers while I was at work. It talked about rising debt levels and a lack of financial planning. One person talked about how money just didn't seem real while he ran up about $4k of credit card debt. Money definitely doesn't seem real to me. I don't think of it in terms of the work I did, or what I can buy. I have trouble visualizing sums of physical money.
To me, money is numbers on a screen. I go some place every now and then, they put some numbers on one screen and I move it to another where it slowly grows. Maybe it has something to do with playing too many video games when I was younger. Money always exists as numbers on a screen. It usually gets off to a slow start in games, but quickly picks up. Then in most games, with the exception of real-time strategy, it seems like there's hardly a shortage. Hopefully money will be plentiful in my future. For now though, it's slow and waiting for things to pick up.

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?

Grounding Myself in The Art Of War

In troubled times or when making tough choices, people often turn to old books and documents for guidance. For many, the books they happen to turn to are religious in nature. The book I happen to turn to is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It's been said that many different people have sought guidance from this book and how true it is since the principals of waging war bear striking resemblance to so many things in life.
A good portion of the book happens to be on the topic of deception and what steps to employ when there is an opponent. For now, I don't have an adversary, but there's still sound advice in the book regarding preparations that need to be made to achieve my goals.
One of the things that I learnt from the Art of War is to focus on achieving victory, and little else. It is not about winning battles or protracted campaigns, but to try to achieve victory quickly and with minimal use of resources.
Another important thing I learnt from the Art of War is that you've got to secure victory before engaging in combat. All is lost if you fight first and then look for victory. While my main focus is simply to buy enough time to lick my wounds, I'm lost. It'll be like the USA going into Iraq with the objective of taking out Saddam Hussein and then trying to define victory. I need to have an afterwards defined before I have victory.
Additionally, the book promotes the use of the advantages of heaven and earth. It's about working with what's around you rather than relying on sheer strength. This is nothing profound here. It means I should pay attention to what seems to be a good investment for the current times.
Another point that seems to be general common sense is not to march a hundred li to gain a tactical advantage. Forced marches put a severe hardship on an army. There's no advantage in being worn out. While this sort of thing is not an absolute no, it should be limited to short distances, hasty retreats and surprise attacks. Where I work, we have people who seem to never leave. I think the record is 88 hours, which doesn't include unpaid lunch breaks, commuting or other preparation. There only are 168 hours in a week. To keep going relying on pain killers and energy drinks to keep moving often proves to take more of a toll than the prize is worth. A lot of people there also have second jobs. While some can make it work, for others, the result is that neither are taken seriously and performance is poor at both.
"There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested and commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed." Although my family is a cause of much trouble in my life, I suppose a confrontation doesn't really advance my goals. Therefore, even though it is my desire to fight, it must not be done.
Not sure what else warrants mentioning here. The important thing is that I have a sense of where my efforts should be focused.

Living wages and week's goals

While idly resting and listening to the radio, I heard something about a living wage campaign. Due to high growth, inflation and what not driving the cost of living up here. Searching for more information, I came across this fact sheet on living wages. Apparently, we're looking at needing to make $12/hr with benefits or $13.25/hr without, based off working 35 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. That works out to $24115/year. It sets a new and much higher benchmark for what I want to accomplish.
One step at a time though. For now, I'll stick to thinking about my starter goals. Then I suppose, minimum wage, living wage and I don't know, median wage? For now, I'm just focusing on starting. It's been a long time since I reviewed the communist manifesto. It's the latest thing on mind lately. One of the key concepts in the manifesto is that your quality of life is dictated by your relation to the means of production. A while ago, the land was the must have thing. There was class struggle between those who owned the land and those who worked the land for food. Then mechanization started and the thing became factory. Now what is the thing that defines the gap between the ruling class and the working class? The price of ownership over the means of production, is now parceled out in some reasonable and affordable increments. Granted, it does take a lot of those to make a difference. At the same time, we have more families with two working parents struggling to make ends meet.
I feel that it might be interesting to review what was said in that book, but last time, it only succeeded in putting me to sleep.
Anyway, to do list for this week, file taxes, clean my room a bit more and get everything setup so that I can shuffle more money around, try to get out.