Came across this post http://www.punchdebtintheface.com/2010/11/emergency-fun.html and wrote up a nice long comment, but in the end decided to be a little more modest. Seemed like a shame to throw it away though, so here it is.
I was just browsing around for blogs to read and came across this. I must say, I love that first commenter's style. Similarly:
1) I don't exactly have an emergency fund, but I do have a general consolidated car/house/wedding/emergency/retirement/small-business-startup/baby/education fund. I've been keeping my costs down to a bare minimum and once I position the latest piece that I want, investment income will be larger than living expenses. Then it becomes a toss up between volatility, security, growth and inflation.
2) About four years ago. I was able to save up so much because I was foolish/lucky/brave/stupid enough to be dumping virtually all my earnings into the stock market when it was pretty close to the bottom
3) Haven't had an "emergency" yet. My life depends on very little and I wouldn't have been able to do the above if I didn't feel remarkably comfortable in terms of job security. While looking into insurance options, I realised that my place could burn down and counting lost work time and security deposits on a new place, I could be going again for about $2k. Usually, I have that much money or more sitting around waiting to get into my general fund. Maybe I can cross the word emergency off that list. Though maybe it would be a good idea to cross baby off the list till there is a wedding and now that I think of it perhaps a wedding doesn't make sense without a partner.
4) Where does it start? Where does it end? Money moves fluidly to me. It's just there. I have a central hub that everything passes through, a savings account, a back-up hub, two investment accounts, and two retirement accounts, which I started before I realised that I could retire a few decades before I'll be able to touch that money. None of these are particularly set aside for emergencies. I run my hubs down to the dollar, the savings account just runs up and down. Flow into the investment accounts have been strictly one way. I guess that would be a no.
Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Waterloo info session
So it turns out that one of the schools that I want to go to is holding an information session and it is also within comfortable walking distance to my place.. How convenient isn't it? I'm looking forward to this and hopefully getting some of my questions answered. It's disappointing that the website says that I'll only be considered if there is room left after considering all the other candidates. Though does that mean before or after people accept the offer of admission. It is generally recommended that people apply to several schools. Several of those offers get turned down. How they allocate that pool of spots is of interest to me. I need some honest information about my chances of getting back into school for what I want.
Monday, March 30, 2009
What do I want in a dwelling?
I'm trying to answer the question of what I'm looking for in a place. Thus far, I just want to stay portable. I suppose some place that doesn't take much looking after. I'm not interested in having pets, but I'm ok with living with them. I suppose when you don't intend to stay for very long, not much really matters as long as getting to the next place goes quickly. Of course, location always matters. After much prodding of bus schedules, I figured that the north east line of the LRT works best for me.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
House hunting
I took a small step today. Thus far, I've kind of been ignoring that I need to move eventually and not doing anything about it. I finally let someone know that I'll be needing a place eventually. Very nervous and scared about this.
Monday, December 8, 2008
I think I found a decent hobby I can take up, news satire. I don't expect to displace The Onion or anything, but it seems like a good reason for some chuckles. Anyway, I found myself obsessing again, trying to figure out what to say to my brother. I'll have to admit that it would be nice to go back to school next year, but it'll be even nicer to actually be able to finish school. Obsessing seems to happen a lot to me, I don't think that's healthy. Most of the time, it's about what I want to say to my brother. Maybe it's time to simply declare a break and forbid talking about my future till February or so. Plans look good on paper, though I still have to live through a few years of working there, and even more painfully, watch as a few more years of my life slip by.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
New in 2009
There maybe times when it's premature to plan for the future, like I wouldn't start planning for 2050 now, but it's never too early to dream. There's still a lot of unknowns though I'd like to conjure up some vision of what I feel 2009 might be like.
I'm going to make it a goal to record and categorize my spending. Hopefully put together a summary on the last weekend of every month. I don't spend on days that I work, so that should do for the month. Recording and categorizing for my income too.
I'd like to get my brother off my back about going back to school when he things I should and focus on when preparations are going to be ready. There's no real plan for doing this.
Some decision needs to be made about how much contact I want to maintain. Right now, I think what we had earlier with him calling and me deciding not to answer might be the best solution for the time being. I don't really expect to need these decisions finalized till I move away.
I think I'd like to end the year with a net worth of 50K or more. I suppose this means that my goals are rather distant at this point.
Do I see myself getting a new computer? I'm not sure. I've put it off this long already. I think the thing that'll push it for me is when my monitor finally dies. I'm certainly getting my money's worth out of that used laptop I bought so many years ago.
I see myself going to a wedding in the USA around November. That's going to be my big budget thing this year. I'm kind of already preparing for that, I started the first steps in opening a new bank account at citizens bank. They have no fee US debit. Also starting a savings account there. As of the last adjustment that Canadian tire made to their interest rates, they have a better rate. Granted, that might only last a week or so. Part of me is tempted create an array of savings accounts at several different places, but I think I have enough as it is. I wonder if it'll be necessary to link that to everything else and make it a hub as well or if I can keep it as a branch. Now I'm tempted to create a web diagram showing how all my accounts are linked. It'll probably look more complicated than it actually is. When everything is linked to everything else, money can simply move directly instead of hopping through an intermediary.
Not sure what else to say about next year yet. It's simply going to be more of the same for about half a year or so.
I'm going to make it a goal to record and categorize my spending. Hopefully put together a summary on the last weekend of every month. I don't spend on days that I work, so that should do for the month. Recording and categorizing for my income too.
I'd like to get my brother off my back about going back to school when he things I should and focus on when preparations are going to be ready. There's no real plan for doing this.
Some decision needs to be made about how much contact I want to maintain. Right now, I think what we had earlier with him calling and me deciding not to answer might be the best solution for the time being. I don't really expect to need these decisions finalized till I move away.
I think I'd like to end the year with a net worth of 50K or more. I suppose this means that my goals are rather distant at this point.
Do I see myself getting a new computer? I'm not sure. I've put it off this long already. I think the thing that'll push it for me is when my monitor finally dies. I'm certainly getting my money's worth out of that used laptop I bought so many years ago.
I see myself going to a wedding in the USA around November. That's going to be my big budget thing this year. I'm kind of already preparing for that, I started the first steps in opening a new bank account at citizens bank. They have no fee US debit. Also starting a savings account there. As of the last adjustment that Canadian tire made to their interest rates, they have a better rate. Granted, that might only last a week or so. Part of me is tempted create an array of savings accounts at several different places, but I think I have enough as it is. I wonder if it'll be necessary to link that to everything else and make it a hub as well or if I can keep it as a branch. Now I'm tempted to create a web diagram showing how all my accounts are linked. It'll probably look more complicated than it actually is. When everything is linked to everything else, money can simply move directly instead of hopping through an intermediary.
Not sure what else to say about next year yet. It's simply going to be more of the same for about half a year or so.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Are the Indexes Cheap Again?
Prices have declined considerably lately. Though what has been declining faster? Personally, I questioned whether or not energy and material prices would really stay high. When there was a big run up, they started occupying a larger portion of the indexes. The more you pay for stuff you don't particularly want, the more expensive the indexes are. If I were interested in oil, I suppose the indexes have become more expensive lately, though for what I'm interested in, it seems that buying index funds might make sense now. Dividend yields are also getting higher. Question is, what are earnings like?
I've tentatively decided to wait until the next quarter to make investment decisions, it's amazing how much things have changed since I last sat down and did some brain storming. That as only a few weeks ago too.
I've tentatively decided to wait until the next quarter to make investment decisions, it's amazing how much things have changed since I last sat down and did some brain storming. That as only a few weeks ago too.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Playing with My Own Index
I decided to make my own REIT index since it seems like a good way to get some more income and I wasn't really happy with my current options in that sector. The iShares ETF tracking the S&P TSX REIT index gets a lot of talk for a lot of things. One is for having very few securities, 12 reits and t-bills. The other is for having roughly 25% of it's funds in Riocan and what used to be about 15% in H&R, or about 40% in two securities. Granted, it's not the number of ticker symbols you have in your fund, it's really about what they represent. I can justify having a large position in Riocan simply because it's hard for me to think of a place I lived where they didn't have a very nice looking property nearby and they were always pretty much fully rented out. H&R is also another big name, though they don't proudly post their name on every property they own. In terms of spreading investment dollars amoungst sqft, the two of them do a fairly good job.
One critism that I don't hear all that often is that its holdings aren't adjusted to remove what may not be considered REITs anymore after the big "let's kill off the income trusts" tax change. There's some worry going on over whether or not things like senior's housing and hotels where much of the money comes from the services provided as opposed to the lending of the property. I would like to stick to what is definately going to still be considered a REIT afterwards and still an income trust/mutual fund investment trust.
So, why build my own index? Well, I'm not going to deny that fun is one of the reasons. Also, while those two REITs might spread money over large amounts of rental area, they do not spread money around different management styles, and acquisition philosophies. They're also still only two ticker symbols, so I should be able to reduce volitility with a larger basket. Granted in the bigger picture it's like saying that you don't feel the waves as much, but you're still stuck in the current. So in hopes of getting better returns, I started going about deciding how I'll setup my indext.
XRE is based off an index that uses market share weighting. I am interested in returns and it tends to be a bit of a pain to calculate total returns. Complexity is not something that I'm interested in, keeping things simple is one of the general philosophies of indexing. I decided on a simple scoring process involving yield plus a four year average growth rate. The general idea being if I had a two percent higher yield, I can simply reinvest the difference and wind up with two percent better growth rate, so the two are really interchangable, at least in a taxless world. Four years was kind of an arbitrary decision. The current year is included and counts as a full year even though it's not over, this advantages reits that don't wait till the end of the year to adjust distributions. It's a fudge I'm ok living with. Also many REITs are less than four years old. So I did a simple average of whatever the distribution growth rate was over the age of the REIT. Notably absent is any capital appreciation. I'm less concerned about capital appreciation than I am income. So I now have a MK1 Return Rated REIT index.
It's also getting late, so I'll stop now and leave this post nicely about what I did and follow up tomorrow with a post on what my spreadsheet suggests I do.
One critism that I don't hear all that often is that its holdings aren't adjusted to remove what may not be considered REITs anymore after the big "let's kill off the income trusts" tax change. There's some worry going on over whether or not things like senior's housing and hotels where much of the money comes from the services provided as opposed to the lending of the property. I would like to stick to what is definately going to still be considered a REIT afterwards and still an income trust/mutual fund investment trust.
So, why build my own index? Well, I'm not going to deny that fun is one of the reasons. Also, while those two REITs might spread money over large amounts of rental area, they do not spread money around different management styles, and acquisition philosophies. They're also still only two ticker symbols, so I should be able to reduce volitility with a larger basket. Granted in the bigger picture it's like saying that you don't feel the waves as much, but you're still stuck in the current. So in hopes of getting better returns, I started going about deciding how I'll setup my indext.
XRE is based off an index that uses market share weighting. I am interested in returns and it tends to be a bit of a pain to calculate total returns. Complexity is not something that I'm interested in, keeping things simple is one of the general philosophies of indexing. I decided on a simple scoring process involving yield plus a four year average growth rate. The general idea being if I had a two percent higher yield, I can simply reinvest the difference and wind up with two percent better growth rate, so the two are really interchangable, at least in a taxless world. Four years was kind of an arbitrary decision. The current year is included and counts as a full year even though it's not over, this advantages reits that don't wait till the end of the year to adjust distributions. It's a fudge I'm ok living with. Also many REITs are less than four years old. So I did a simple average of whatever the distribution growth rate was over the age of the REIT. Notably absent is any capital appreciation. I'm less concerned about capital appreciation than I am income. So I now have a MK1 Return Rated REIT index.
It's also getting late, so I'll stop now and leave this post nicely about what I did and follow up tomorrow with a post on what my spreadsheet suggests I do.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
plotting the future of the family business
It's just another chaotic day. Wow that mall has a lot of issues. I'm only just discovering the extent to which maintenance has been neglected on the air conditioning units. It's also drastically under insured. Right now coverage is about half what it should be. The record keeping is also incredibly poor. It's something I would like to change. We were recently approached with a hand written note, something that supposedly resulted from a lease renewal negotiation that nobody knew about. I don't have a copy of anything. Things seem to be very old school.
If things were entirely up to me, I'd run the company more formally. Heck, I'd go wit three mandates, running more formally, expanding the business holdings and providing actual shareholder return. Right now we've been ignoring all the shareholders and well, it's been running at very modest gains, a lot of it going into repaying the mortgage. If things were entirely up to me, I'd expand first. Probably either get a franchise or a second property. Right now there's been little incentive to repay debts outstanding to shareholders. We're not on any repayment schedule and there hasn't been any interest payments. If we had to pay that at the same rate as the mortgage we'd have never made a profit. Taking more control would come second. I'd offer to exchange some of the outstanding foreign held shares into an interest bearing debt with a repayment schedule. Then if I think the company will support it, I'll try to clear the balance sheet of the zero interest, zero repayment share holder debt. It just doesn't feel right having that and not providing any return.
If things were entirely up to me, I'd run the company more formally. Heck, I'd go wit three mandates, running more formally, expanding the business holdings and providing actual shareholder return. Right now we've been ignoring all the shareholders and well, it's been running at very modest gains, a lot of it going into repaying the mortgage. If things were entirely up to me, I'd expand first. Probably either get a franchise or a second property. Right now there's been little incentive to repay debts outstanding to shareholders. We're not on any repayment schedule and there hasn't been any interest payments. If we had to pay that at the same rate as the mortgage we'd have never made a profit. Taking more control would come second. I'd offer to exchange some of the outstanding foreign held shares into an interest bearing debt with a repayment schedule. Then if I think the company will support it, I'll try to clear the balance sheet of the zero interest, zero repayment share holder debt. It just doesn't feel right having that and not providing any return.
Friday, June 20, 2008
I keep hearing...
I keep hearing about how expensive restaurants are but the way I see things, they seem rather cheap. It's an age where it's hard to find a home for less than a quarter million dollars, and at first glance it seems like there's a somewhat decent selection of restaurants available for less than that...
Yeah, I know that when people talk about restaurants being expensive, they mean that eating out there is expensive. I'm not all that interested in restaurants, well maybe a fast food franchise. Anyway, one of the things I'm considering doing in the future is buying a small company. Likely a fast food franchise with a big thick instruction book that will ensure smooth, simple operation. I think it's something that I'd like to pursue. For a while anyway...
In general, I don't think I'd want to sell my investment portfolio to buy a company. Though at this point, I think I'd be hard pressed not to keep a substantial investment portfolio once it's established. If I were to go down this route, I think I'd work a bit longer and make some decisions on what I'd like to sell.
Yeah, I know that when people talk about restaurants being expensive, they mean that eating out there is expensive. I'm not all that interested in restaurants, well maybe a fast food franchise. Anyway, one of the things I'm considering doing in the future is buying a small company. Likely a fast food franchise with a big thick instruction book that will ensure smooth, simple operation. I think it's something that I'd like to pursue. For a while anyway...
In general, I don't think I'd want to sell my investment portfolio to buy a company. Though at this point, I think I'd be hard pressed not to keep a substantial investment portfolio once it's established. If I were to go down this route, I think I'd work a bit longer and make some decisions on what I'd like to sell.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Layoffs: Round 1
Well, I survived a round of unspectacular layoffs where I work. They decided that they couldn't keep producing at current levels due to lower demand and the weekend shift was cut. Unofficial accounts say that all but one person was given a choice to transfer to another shift. I am now on days, which is much more serious, or so I'm told. I also work with Gord, and I'm told that is quite serious as well.
Not sure if I should start looking for a new job. Apparently, a lot of people are. Others seem to feel that things will probably pick up again. I have no idea where things are right now. A 1/3rd production cut is pretty big and that might make things ok. A lot of people also decided to say, "Screw this," and left voluntarily. At the moment, there's too little data to tell.
Before this happened, I was wondering how I should position my portfolio. I had decided on going for long term growth over more immediate needs. Not sure if this still makes sense. Somehow, I don't think that there'll be any more major changes for another six months or so. There's a seasonal demand factor.
At this time, there isn't enough information to form a decision at the moment. I can wait and see what happens though it seems that now is the time to act if I want to do anything academic. Granted, I'm not really postured to be a really strong candidate for some of the positions I see there. That and they're also a bit of a pay cut.
I'm still not sure what I want to go into. Finance and health are two things I think I might want to go into . For finance, it would have to be credit counciling or bankruptcies. Essentially, helping people where it's needed. For health, I'd lean either towards optometry or becoming a doctor specializing in addiction treatment, or maybe just a small town GP. I'd like to feel some sense of accomplishment every now and then. Right now, my job just drives me nuts.
Whatever I do, I seem to need much more money to enable it. Gonna relax a while. Then get back to work since this is transition week.
Not sure if I should start looking for a new job. Apparently, a lot of people are. Others seem to feel that things will probably pick up again. I have no idea where things are right now. A 1/3rd production cut is pretty big and that might make things ok. A lot of people also decided to say, "Screw this," and left voluntarily. At the moment, there's too little data to tell.
Before this happened, I was wondering how I should position my portfolio. I had decided on going for long term growth over more immediate needs. Not sure if this still makes sense. Somehow, I don't think that there'll be any more major changes for another six months or so. There's a seasonal demand factor.
At this time, there isn't enough information to form a decision at the moment. I can wait and see what happens though it seems that now is the time to act if I want to do anything academic. Granted, I'm not really postured to be a really strong candidate for some of the positions I see there. That and they're also a bit of a pay cut.
I'm still not sure what I want to go into. Finance and health are two things I think I might want to go into . For finance, it would have to be credit counciling or bankruptcies. Essentially, helping people where it's needed. For health, I'd lean either towards optometry or becoming a doctor specializing in addiction treatment, or maybe just a small town GP. I'd like to feel some sense of accomplishment every now and then. Right now, my job just drives me nuts.
Whatever I do, I seem to need much more money to enable it. Gonna relax a while. Then get back to work since this is transition week.
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.
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.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Depressed, but still relaxed
I don't know where to start. I simply feel so lost right now. Life feels so hollow and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. As much as it is enjoyable to sleep a whole week, it hardly makes life feel worth while. While I live in a society that rejects suicide so strongly, I feel entitled to some answers regarding the basic nature of my existence. When I finally finish filling in my core and seeding each of the other segments of my portfolio, I'll feel no guilt about living off the hard work of others for a while. Part of me wants to go to China when that's done so that I can explore my heritage for a while. Another part of me has its heart set on sailing the world for a while. There's so many things I want to see, the polar ice caps, the Canadian seal hunt, the great barrier reef, the amazon river. Then there's a part of me that simply wants to set a count down timer... My friends tell me not to talk about that so...
While I wonder what's next for me, I browse the job market and businesses for sale. A while ago, I found something that seemed to call out to me, a houseboat rental business. It's seasonal, so I have a lot of time off to travel, and I can be close to nature. Though I don't have the money to buy the business, I also don't have the money to grow the business and I don't have anything to cushion myself should the company fail. There were two other businesses for sale that made me click for more details. One was a financing company going for about 100K, 60K of that is the value of the outstanding loans. It kind of makes your head spin when you think about that. If I had enough to appear like a serious bidder, I'd definitely ask to see the financial statements. If that's all they have floating around and their business is thriving like the ad claims, there's something wrong with our society. Though if that's a net value and the company borrowed much of what's been loaned out, that's kind of more believable. The other one that made me click for details was actually a moulding factory of all things. There was no definite asking price, it was just listed as less than a half million dollars. Of course, the capacity is greatly reduced from the plant that I work at and the prime line (where they put paint on) is probably the wrong side of the factory to get relevant experience for running that particular company. They said that they had 20 profiles and worked with 7 different species of wood. I assume that means they do the shaping, which happens on the other side of the plant. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave it a nice wood finish. Or at least I don't see the point of being picky about what type of wood, or going MDF if you're simply going to paint over it.
While I wonder what's next for me, I browse the job market and businesses for sale. A while ago, I found something that seemed to call out to me, a houseboat rental business. It's seasonal, so I have a lot of time off to travel, and I can be close to nature. Though I don't have the money to buy the business, I also don't have the money to grow the business and I don't have anything to cushion myself should the company fail. There were two other businesses for sale that made me click for more details. One was a financing company going for about 100K, 60K of that is the value of the outstanding loans. It kind of makes your head spin when you think about that. If I had enough to appear like a serious bidder, I'd definitely ask to see the financial statements. If that's all they have floating around and their business is thriving like the ad claims, there's something wrong with our society. Though if that's a net value and the company borrowed much of what's been loaned out, that's kind of more believable. The other one that made me click for details was actually a moulding factory of all things. There was no definite asking price, it was just listed as less than a half million dollars. Of course, the capacity is greatly reduced from the plant that I work at and the prime line (where they put paint on) is probably the wrong side of the factory to get relevant experience for running that particular company. They said that they had 20 profiles and worked with 7 different species of wood. I assume that means they do the shaping, which happens on the other side of the plant. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave it a nice wood finish. Or at least I don't see the point of being picky about what type of wood, or going MDF if you're simply going to paint over it.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
When the most logical course of action is to sit still
Life might not be getting anywhere right now, but I try to remind myself that change for the sake of change is a futile process. I often find myself wondering if I am doing the right thing. Emotionally, it doesn't sit too well. Keeping with the space travel analogy that I started this blog with, if all you had was all the fuel in the world, it's exceedingly easy to put yourself in the middle of nowhere. Let's face it, space is called space because there's a heck of a lot of vast open space out there. I'm also not fond of the setting out with little more than the clothes on my back feeling that I had when I started university. Besides accumulating resources, I've also been:
One of the things I looked into was going into air traffic control. I was told that I was crazy for even considering it and that I can't waste money training for something that there's little demand for. Then they waited till my brother was over to ask him about the demand for air traffic controllers. It's not a mishmash of different agencies where you have to convince someone to hire you afterwards. Everything is controlled by one agency, the employer. Parts of the process are contracted out, but they have a good process set up that weeds out practically anyone who wouldn't be at it for life, they'll also only train as many people as they think they'll need and they'll only train the best of them. It costs $1000 for training, which includes room and board. You'd probably be hard pressed to find four months of food for that much, let alone a place to stay and job training. I'm not totally convinced that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Something else I looked into was teaching English overseas. Mainly looked into it because something had me wanting to see what life was like in china where my parents come from. My dad was real excited about this idea. My mom kept pressuring me to make a quick decision on it. Neither of them seemed to show any appreciation for the fact that, it's almost a 1/3rd pay cut from the job I have now and I can expect to make about 1/2 of what I'll be making at the position I'm currently training for.
An idea put forward by my dad was to go into dentistry. Another idea that I had was to go into optometry. The prerequisite for both is fairly similar to a premed program. When I told them how the entry process for optometry went, my parents immediately tried to discourage me away from it. After I pointed out that they thought dentistry was a good idea and the dust settled for a few minutes, I was told that I didn't need another degree because I already have one and they lectured me again on doing research instead of just dreaming. So I looked up the entry requirements and read them out to them.
It's all a retelling of the story of the path I made down the side of the house. When I started, I started under the assumption that they had measured things and started spacing the stones fairly close together, like most stone paths. I got about half way down and went looking for more stones. When it became apparent that was all I had to play with, I tried to decide between even spacing and roughly one pace spacing. Then I set off to space the stone one pace apart. There were a few stones left over, which now level the garbage can. For months, I was pestered to finish the path. I had no idea what they wanted me to do to it. When asked to clarify what they wanted, I was told that the minimum requirement was to get from the front to the back. This puzzled me further as I could do it with my eyes closed. After all, I had spaced them one pace apart based off how I walked. They yelled at me, called me lazy and what not and I couldn't figure out what they wanted me to do. Then one day, "Thanks for finally finishing the path." "Umm, it doesn't look any different to me." "So it's been like this all along?" "It's been like this for months You've had me going crazy trying to figure out what you wanted done with it because you've been too lazy to look at the side of the house?" "Well, you never do any work, I never see you doing any work." Sure, yell at me for not slaving away at something because I finished it months ago and you've simply been too lazy to check on it.
I'll get to watch this again when their attitude bites them in the ass one more time when it comes time to pay for my sister's schooling. I don't know enough about their employer pension plans to guess when the discrepancy between their idea of what's going on and how things really are bites them hard. There's still a chance that it might not, but I'm leaning towards impending doom.
- researching different parts of the country that I might want to move to
- looking into the requirements for moving to the USA
- examining the costs and potential returns of buying a small business
- doing a feasibility study for a business idea that I have and might want to take up
- exploring the entry requirements and long term prospects of different career paths
One of the things I looked into was going into air traffic control. I was told that I was crazy for even considering it and that I can't waste money training for something that there's little demand for. Then they waited till my brother was over to ask him about the demand for air traffic controllers. It's not a mishmash of different agencies where you have to convince someone to hire you afterwards. Everything is controlled by one agency, the employer. Parts of the process are contracted out, but they have a good process set up that weeds out practically anyone who wouldn't be at it for life, they'll also only train as many people as they think they'll need and they'll only train the best of them. It costs $1000 for training, which includes room and board. You'd probably be hard pressed to find four months of food for that much, let alone a place to stay and job training. I'm not totally convinced that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Something else I looked into was teaching English overseas. Mainly looked into it because something had me wanting to see what life was like in china where my parents come from. My dad was real excited about this idea. My mom kept pressuring me to make a quick decision on it. Neither of them seemed to show any appreciation for the fact that, it's almost a 1/3rd pay cut from the job I have now and I can expect to make about 1/2 of what I'll be making at the position I'm currently training for.
An idea put forward by my dad was to go into dentistry. Another idea that I had was to go into optometry. The prerequisite for both is fairly similar to a premed program. When I told them how the entry process for optometry went, my parents immediately tried to discourage me away from it. After I pointed out that they thought dentistry was a good idea and the dust settled for a few minutes, I was told that I didn't need another degree because I already have one and they lectured me again on doing research instead of just dreaming. So I looked up the entry requirements and read them out to them.
It's all a retelling of the story of the path I made down the side of the house. When I started, I started under the assumption that they had measured things and started spacing the stones fairly close together, like most stone paths. I got about half way down and went looking for more stones. When it became apparent that was all I had to play with, I tried to decide between even spacing and roughly one pace spacing. Then I set off to space the stone one pace apart. There were a few stones left over, which now level the garbage can. For months, I was pestered to finish the path. I had no idea what they wanted me to do to it. When asked to clarify what they wanted, I was told that the minimum requirement was to get from the front to the back. This puzzled me further as I could do it with my eyes closed. After all, I had spaced them one pace apart based off how I walked. They yelled at me, called me lazy and what not and I couldn't figure out what they wanted me to do. Then one day, "Thanks for finally finishing the path." "Umm, it doesn't look any different to me." "So it's been like this all along?" "It's been like this for months You've had me going crazy trying to figure out what you wanted done with it because you've been too lazy to look at the side of the house?" "Well, you never do any work, I never see you doing any work." Sure, yell at me for not slaving away at something because I finished it months ago and you've simply been too lazy to check on it.
I'll get to watch this again when their attitude bites them in the ass one more time when it comes time to pay for my sister's schooling. I don't know enough about their employer pension plans to guess when the discrepancy between their idea of what's going on and how things really are bites them hard. There's still a chance that it might not, but I'm leaning towards impending doom.
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