One of my favorite expressions is “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Not that I’ve ever entertained buying a cow. After all, I’ve only lived in large cities and vapid, strip mall-laden nearby suburbs my whole life. In none of those fair burgs did I once see a cow….
Governing Principles
The Missus and I have been working in full-time jobs since the beginning of time it seems for about 25 years. We’re likely in the upper class. For purposes of this blog post, I’m considering the mix of income and assets any individual/household has, and dividing the classes up as such: lower/upper class = poorest/richest…
May the Odds Be With You
Recently, I’ve seen a bunch videos of of people doing CRAZY EXTREME!!! things. First, on a TV station I randomly clicked on. Then at the beginning of a livestreamed Stacking Benjamins podcast. Stunt, man I admit to usually finding these stunts pretty amazing. And fun to watch. But, often when I watch these videos/shows, other…
As Luck Would Have It
For better or worse, I’ve “played by the rules” my whole life. Better, because it’s probably best that I’m no scoundrel. Worse, because probably maybe I’m a terrible bore. I also drank the Kool-Aid followed the advice that my parents, schools, and society generally imparted. Do well in grade school. Go to college and maybe…
How to Run a Crappy Business and Piss People Off
Those who know me personally would probably universally agree that I am a cynic, with a natural tendency to not just see the glass as half-empty as opposed to half-full, but maybe empty instead of half-empty. I do not project that on this blog. Or at least I’ve tried not to. Rather, I try to…
Must Be the Season of the Switch
If one were to make a visual of my brain in the form of a road map, it’d look a lot like President Dwight Eisenhower’s interstate highway system program leader got an extremely time-limited crack at redesigning some ancient city. Picture a few super highways piercing through a latticework of untold numbers of small, crooked…
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
A while back, I wrote about that it’s OK to be dumb, but not stupid. The gist of that is that ignorance (“dumb” in my crude personal parlance) is excusable, but consciously hurting yourself and/or others—physically, mentally, or even financially— (“stupid” in my personal parlance) isn’t. I make no bones on this blog about my…
YOLO. O.
One of my favorite dumb movies from the 1980s was a film called Johnny Dangerously. It starred Joe Piscopo. For my younger Dear Readers who may never have heard of Joe, he was a rising star in the mid-80s. Also starring was Michael Keaton 1.0. If you know Michael Keaton from Birdman or later movies,…
Time out of Mind
Notwithstanding recent events that . . . ummm . . . show the United States in a hair-raising, house-is-on-fire, sound-the-alarm-bells poor light, I’m incredibly proud and privileged to be an American. But while I think that we Americans as a group have any number of traits to be admired and that distinguish us (hello, creativity,…
Headphone Lessons
FIRE bloggers often warn against sacrificing things that bring you real joy (so long as they’re not harmful to others, of course). Maybe you can be creative and hack the expense. Or enjoy the item/service less often but more intensely. But it can be counterproductive to give it up altogether. I agree. Unfortunately for me…
