The last post was added because, here in retirement at my grand old age, I have found numerous older people who are still firmly embedded in the impossibility of it all, regardless of evidence right in front of their eyes.
I can speak, but apparently they do not hear a sound.
Jimmy once spoke about how annoying people could be when they heard about "the plan" or news of where you were in that plan, and their reaction was "oh, you are so lucky" which irritated the man so, as luck has nothing to do with the process.
A magician brings a hat onto the stage and pulls out the aforementioned animal, no luck there, no magic, no miracle, in fact, that man planned to pull his thing out and dazzle the crowd. It was part of his plan, gosh.
The key thing here is that, your plan is not intended to dazzle the audience, it is meant for you, you really don't have to tell anyone (the impossibles) along the way, as they won't believe you anyway, just be sure to be watching when you grab the ears and pull.
Gosh, how did he do that?
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Cult of Can
It's been a while, but the blog is still here and I suppose blog entries are, on occasion, required.
The other founder member of the millionaires club, or as we call him here on the blog "Jimmy" had said to me numerous times before retirement "If we canney doo it, nobody can" which was spot on.
I'll call this the Cult of Can, the opposing faction to the Impossibles, who, rightly in their own world, believe that they cannot. Good luck to them all.
If you read this, then maybe you are in the Cult of Can, a group of people who believe they can do it, well, belief is a vaporous substance, we don't believe, we know we can do it. There is no reason to make a list of all those things that you can save money on, you already know it, you already live it.
Another thing that Jimmy once said:
"If you don't write it down, you will never do it"
Perhaps it should be called the Cult of Plan.
The other founder member of the millionaires club, or as we call him here on the blog "Jimmy" had said to me numerous times before retirement "If we canney doo it, nobody can" which was spot on.
I'll call this the Cult of Can, the opposing faction to the Impossibles, who, rightly in their own world, believe that they cannot. Good luck to them all.
If you read this, then maybe you are in the Cult of Can, a group of people who believe they can do it, well, belief is a vaporous substance, we don't believe, we know we can do it. There is no reason to make a list of all those things that you can save money on, you already know it, you already live it.
Another thing that Jimmy once said:
"If you don't write it down, you will never do it"
Perhaps it should be called the Cult of Plan.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Purple Balloon Monkey
I have talked about this on previous blogs, I feel I must continue to talk about it.
There are sharks out there, looking for you to give away your nest egg, often in return for something trivial, perhaps as trivial as a Purple Balloon Monkey.
The so called Reverse mortgage has gone mainstream – they are no longer sold as something for seniors who are house rich and cash poor and need money to make ends meet. Today, they’re marketed as a way for homeowners 62 or older to crack open a giant (yet imaginary) piggy bank.
The pitch is attractive, “Isn’t it time you started to enjoy retirement your way?” and "Why sit on thousands of dollars in unused equity when you can buy stuff?" or something along those lines.
The truth is that all reverse mortgages are costly and complicated. Clearly, they’re a godsend to some seniors who have no other way to pay their bills. But they can be an absolute nightmare for people who don’t understand how they work.
The reverse mortgage, sold on a promise of unlocked wealth and happiness, can often destroy a safe future for the elderly, money that perhaps should be used for residential care in your later years, squandered on consumer products, far too late in the game.
I would encourage anyone considering this method of entering back into the world of debt to do more research, talk to people who do not have a vested interest in stealing your house in the autumn of your life, and as usual, do not fall for a flawed pitch based on the shiny objects game.
There are sharks out there, looking for you to give away your nest egg, often in return for something trivial, perhaps as trivial as a Purple Balloon Monkey.
The so called Reverse mortgage has gone mainstream – they are no longer sold as something for seniors who are house rich and cash poor and need money to make ends meet. Today, they’re marketed as a way for homeowners 62 or older to crack open a giant (yet imaginary) piggy bank.
The pitch is attractive, “Isn’t it time you started to enjoy retirement your way?” and "Why sit on thousands of dollars in unused equity when you can buy stuff?" or something along those lines.
The truth is that all reverse mortgages are costly and complicated. Clearly, they’re a godsend to some seniors who have no other way to pay their bills. But they can be an absolute nightmare for people who don’t understand how they work.
The reverse mortgage, sold on a promise of unlocked wealth and happiness, can often destroy a safe future for the elderly, money that perhaps should be used for residential care in your later years, squandered on consumer products, far too late in the game.
I would encourage anyone considering this method of entering back into the world of debt to do more research, talk to people who do not have a vested interest in stealing your house in the autumn of your life, and as usual, do not fall for a flawed pitch based on the shiny objects game.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Loosen the grip
In my retired world I am reminded, almost on a daily basis, of how important some of the habits I acquired over the last fifteen years of my working life were.
Although, I suspect some of those latent habits had been there from my parents influences, one such thing was that in 1952, when they married, they did not sell the farm to do so.
I'm watching a cute TV show at the moment called "Rich bride, Poor bride" that demonstrates some of the absolute stupidity that brides, and grooms, indulge in for the special day.
In life, staying together and working at happiness has to be more important than that one day, and one of the things that tears couples apart is money and the constant tug of war that the substance can bring in a relationship.
So, if you are planning that special day, remember that it is just one, in potentially twenty thousand days to experience together so don't start the process with a wallet flush, or worse, debt, to attempt to prove to your friends how much you love each other.
Although, I suspect some of those latent habits had been there from my parents influences, one such thing was that in 1952, when they married, they did not sell the farm to do so.
I'm watching a cute TV show at the moment called "Rich bride, Poor bride" that demonstrates some of the absolute stupidity that brides, and grooms, indulge in for the special day.
In life, staying together and working at happiness has to be more important than that one day, and one of the things that tears couples apart is money and the constant tug of war that the substance can bring in a relationship.
So, if you are planning that special day, remember that it is just one, in potentially twenty thousand days to experience together so don't start the process with a wallet flush, or worse, debt, to attempt to prove to your friends how much you love each other.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Bring home the Bacon
Convenience food is bad for your checking account.
A few products available today, from a list of thousands I suspect, show that the consumer can be robbed of precious dollars for so called, time saving foods.
I've said before, I don't want the blog turning into a series of lists, but a couple of items have caught my eye in this weeks grocery flyer, the first being bacon.
Fully cooked bacon, 65 grams of it, for $3.49 a package, which on closer inspection has 15 slices of the precious metal. That's thirty cents a slice, and a small slice at 4 grams a piece. Now, call me crazy, but I hear that a whole pound of bacon, a whacking great 454 grams of bacon, can be bought in the same store for $3.99
The second item that riles me, is a new product called purely potato chunks, that can be steamed and mashed, they have been selected, peeled, chunked and all you have to do is defrost and steam them, oh and then mash them. $3.99 for 750 grams, which, by my reckoning is less than two pounds of potato.
In the same store, potatoes can be had for $3.99 for a ten pound bag (and that is expensive).
The point, well, roll up your sleeves and cook your own bacon, peel your own spuds and eat lots of fresh vegetables instead of frozen.
The only thing that will be fatter is your wallet.
A few products available today, from a list of thousands I suspect, show that the consumer can be robbed of precious dollars for so called, time saving foods.
I've said before, I don't want the blog turning into a series of lists, but a couple of items have caught my eye in this weeks grocery flyer, the first being bacon.
Fully cooked bacon, 65 grams of it, for $3.49 a package, which on closer inspection has 15 slices of the precious metal. That's thirty cents a slice, and a small slice at 4 grams a piece. Now, call me crazy, but I hear that a whole pound of bacon, a whacking great 454 grams of bacon, can be bought in the same store for $3.99
The second item that riles me, is a new product called purely potato chunks, that can be steamed and mashed, they have been selected, peeled, chunked and all you have to do is defrost and steam them, oh and then mash them. $3.99 for 750 grams, which, by my reckoning is less than two pounds of potato.
In the same store, potatoes can be had for $3.99 for a ten pound bag (and that is expensive).
The point, well, roll up your sleeves and cook your own bacon, peel your own spuds and eat lots of fresh vegetables instead of frozen.
The only thing that will be fatter is your wallet.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Beware the fine print
I am amazes me that companies like the Brick offer to give their customers 40" Plasma TVs free with mattresses or furniture sets.
Free.
The advert is running on national TV at the moment and there always seem to be BIG FONTS that announce the free deal and then a tiny asterix somewhere on the screen, at the end of the commercial there are very small fonts at the bottom of the screen visible for a microsecond or two.
I can read the big fonts, can't read the small fonts, even if I grabbed my reading glasses those little fonts would disappear from the screen before I knelt before it.
The so called free things, "no money miracles" are not, yet we all, at one point in our lives, fall for this nonsense. After all, I was looking for a mattresses and a plasma TV and here, by coincidence, the Brick are giving one or the other away free.
The warning here, for the up and coming financial masters out there is that, in this life, very little is free, and all these companies are doing is confusing the issues, if you want a mattress, buy a mattress, don't buy an inferior mattress bundled with an inferior TV.
The second point, the "no money down" or "no money miracle" concept.
It isn't.
Free.
The advert is running on national TV at the moment and there always seem to be BIG FONTS that announce the free deal and then a tiny asterix somewhere on the screen, at the end of the commercial there are very small fonts at the bottom of the screen visible for a microsecond or two.
I can read the big fonts, can't read the small fonts, even if I grabbed my reading glasses those little fonts would disappear from the screen before I knelt before it.
The so called free things, "no money miracles" are not, yet we all, at one point in our lives, fall for this nonsense. After all, I was looking for a mattresses and a plasma TV and here, by coincidence, the Brick are giving one or the other away free.
The warning here, for the up and coming financial masters out there is that, in this life, very little is free, and all these companies are doing is confusing the issues, if you want a mattress, buy a mattress, don't buy an inferior mattress bundled with an inferior TV.
The second point, the "no money down" or "no money miracle" concept.
It isn't.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Plan
I've been busy, retirement has done that, more time to do things and less done.
An interesting aspect of retirement is that your thought process is modified because of a number of factors. In the work environment, besides the annoying aspect of work itself, there are all the distractions of coworkers, be they friendly or hostile/toxic, they are there to break your line of thought.
In retirement, there is a lot more “me” time and that can result in a lot more in depth analysis of most things, remember that a lot of thought pre-retirement was spent daydreaming about retirement.
There are days, especially in the winter months, where there appears to be absolutely nothing to do, however, I recall days in my cubicle like that, and I know where I’d rather be. There really is no such thing as wasted time when it is time of total choice.
There are really no words to describe the feeling of turning over in bed on a winters morning and investing in another hour of sleep.
And that, is why you should have a plan.
An interesting aspect of retirement is that your thought process is modified because of a number of factors. In the work environment, besides the annoying aspect of work itself, there are all the distractions of coworkers, be they friendly or hostile/toxic, they are there to break your line of thought.
In retirement, there is a lot more “me” time and that can result in a lot more in depth analysis of most things, remember that a lot of thought pre-retirement was spent daydreaming about retirement.
There are days, especially in the winter months, where there appears to be absolutely nothing to do, however, I recall days in my cubicle like that, and I know where I’d rather be. There really is no such thing as wasted time when it is time of total choice.
There are really no words to describe the feeling of turning over in bed on a winters morning and investing in another hour of sleep.
And that, is why you should have a plan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)