If I had a million dollars...

What would change if I suddenly had a million dollars?

• I would probably keep working to try to avoid letting it get to my head
• I'd probably pay off my debt and start acquiring some fixed income investments
• I'm not sure if I'd pick up a netbook yet, but I probably will when the next atom hits the shelf, other than that, I don't think I'd really make any serious computer upgrades
• I probably still won't drive
• I'll spend more time looking for a new place to try out
• I'll be happier

I'd probably put off most of the major changes in my life. Though I'm not looking at a million dollars on the horizon, I'm still trying to figure out what to do when my inheritance frees up. Fixed income investments needs more study. Of the six points listed, one, four and five are the only ones I think I'll be sure of.

Whoo free monitor

well, was putting off replacing my monitor for a while and sure enough, someone throws out a working monitor while I'm trying to decide what to do. It's roughly comperable to my existing monitor, I just hope it doesn't have any intermittent problems that I don't know about yet.

Interesting thought while shopping

I was wandering around and ran into an item that I didn't expect to see. It was a package of plastic balls, kids play in big pits of them. It was an interesting moment for me, I was laughing and arranged them in a stack a few different ways trying to estimate the volume of them. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it would take about a week's pay to create a modestly sized personal ball pit. More importantly though, I came to the conclusion that I really can have what I want, no matter how eccentric it is. Nothing would have stopped me from pouring pack after pack of those into a kiddy pool, or for the depth I was eyeing, putting four pillars on a piece of ply and surrounding it with a tarp. I just have to figure out what it is that I want and as long as priorities are covered, most things aren't too outrageous.

Month End

Before I begin, 31 days worked so far this year. I've been falling behind on my regular postings. Anyway, what did I bring in this month and what did I spend it on? Two paydays this month, there's only two months with three. Anyway:
gross employment income: 2680
deductions: 563.61
take home pay: 2116.39
spending: 273.32
sales tax: 1.29
Loan payments: 225.91
Spending is a little higher because I didn't buy my bus pass in the previous month. 40% of my gross income goes somewhere, so I guess 60% was saved by the definition of saved that doesn't include the principal portion of loan repayments as saving. 10% of my gross income, 13% of net, was actually spent on stuff, not loans and taxes.
Until I'm in an actual independent living situation, I'm not sure what to think of my data.

Tragedy of the Commons?

I had an interesting thought while watching a documentary on consumerism in kids today. It got me thinking about two things, one is the tragedy of the commons. The general story is that there's some grazing land, open to everyone. Nobody has any incentive to go easy on it. The more livestock you have, the better off you are. It turns into a competition for resources where the more that's cornered the better you are. However, split the commons into private ownership and people then limit their herds to avoid over grazing and the land thrives again. We also see this in fish stock. When the catch is a quota open to everyone, it turns into a mad scramble to get as much fish in before the quota is filled. It winds up being not safe for the fishermen and floods the market resulting in lower returns for all.
While collectively every company and thus the economy as a whole will be better off with a wealthy consumer base, individually every company benefits from taking as many dollars as possible. Like the over grazing, the consumer base becomes over spent and everyone suffers.
This is an over simplification to the point of absurdity though since corporate profits pays payroll and investors. This personal income then becomes the consumer base that everyone is chasing. Also, the idea of splitting up the consumer base into privately owned blocks is absurd. Though if you ever felt like you live in a world of advertising, the consumer base being a common resource is one reason. In situations where there are exclusivity arrangements, those extend to venues, not individual consumers so marketers have an incentive to go nuts in hopes of influencing off venue spending patterns as well as overall total consumption.
The other thought. It talked about how marketing now pitched lifestyle to sell products. Individuality, acceptance, popularity, I wonder what my social values are. I should spend some time thinking about that.

Decluttering

Last night, I was reminded that before my infatuation with small boats, I wanted to compress my life down into two pieces of luggage and a carry-on item. Then airlines started changing their rules. Now I'm fixated on this idea of an open-10 cruiser. Granted open-10 never really took off after the around-in-ten race fizzled out. I might build one later on as a learning experience.

Interesting day. Went out to do laundry since my work stuff is too dirty and making the washing machine dirty. Forgot to bring detergent with me but hey there was a london drugs next to the laundromat and a big sale on laundry detergent. This brings forth the question of do I really get 42 washes out of a jug that says it has 42 washes of detergent in it. Maybe I should measure the cup and find out.
Anyway, cheap hobby, coin collecting. Due to a miss understanding at the laundromat, I got $8 of quarters as opposed to 8 quarters. 7 of them were Olympic quarters. I guess I can consider it a cheap hobby. The cash is still there and liquid, it is after all cash. Granted, doesn't exactly make me more amused or entertained. The novelty died well before my laundry finished.