Libraries yes they are still around

One of the best things you can do is use your library.  It provides endless enjoyment for your kids through books,  music, and movies.

Another thing is most libraries let you rent the latest tech gadgets. If you want to try VR you can rent it.  If you want to 3d print something you can build it and submit it to be printed.

If you love movies or audio books you can get them from the library.  My local library has a streaming service.  True be told as long as I'm patient my library is like Netflix.  Any movie I want just look it up and order it.  Browse the streaming and watch it.


Endless books digital or physical.  It's all out there.

If you haven't yet; go check your local library out. 

All the small things

Life is full of all the small things.  Some of these are good and some of them not so much. Things like "I love you" from the kids. The Dog wagging his tail when you walk in. Sport team wins. Fixing a whole in the wall.  A stock you picked goes up. Lots of small things that can happen to you in a day, week, or year.  These small things make you happy and enjoy life.

Damage a tire. Get home late. Argument at work. Not enough sleep. Made a purchase you regretted.  These small may not seem to effect you, but each one is like a drop of water enough drops and you feel like your drowning.

All these things can effect your emotional state, but there are small things that effect your finances as well.  I was thinking all about all the small things that add up for me.

All the subscriptions for streaming service (Disney+ & Prime). All the subscribe and saves on Amazon. Toll roads. Dinning out. Fees on investments. Misc. expenses you signed up and never cancelled. 

It feels like there is a whole in the bucket and all the money is slowly dripping out. To help plug this hole I am writing down all my expensive that are paid monthly, quarterly, or yearly.  This way I can catch them to cancel.  Give it a try I think you will be amazed by the things you've been paying for and not knowing it.

To my teenage self

Your teenage years is a time to learn and a time to fail.  Honestly it will be rough in many ways and in others it will be great, but the good thing is as all things do it will end.  This will be a time to learn the value of money and hard work. 

A little about my Middle School and High School years.  From 13-15 my sources of income came from babysitting and mowing lawns.  I did not contribute much to my savings. At 15 I started working at a fast food restaurant making minimum wage $5.15 ~$400 every weeks.  At 15 I could only work a few hours a day and one weekend day.  This brought in good money for someone who had no expenses.  I opened a checking account and had my paychecks direct deposited. I had no saving goals except seeing my account get bigger.  Parents and I bought a car when I was 14 $3500. My dad drove it until I was 16.  I paid for roughly half of the car before I started to drive it.

Here is a good place to tell you a little about myself or more who I was around this age.  I am an engineer and have been interested in computers my entire life.  Grew up middle class in the Mid-West.  I don't spend money unless I can help it, but when I do I like to buy the best I can afford.  I was a big gamer PlayStation and PC Games around this time. Diablo, War Craft II, Diablo  1&2, Star Craft, Lara Croft, Final Fantasy, etc.  I wasn't someone who partied. I choose to build computers and play games. I also played sports outside of school and hung out with friends.  Normal nerdy mid-school/High School stuff.  

At 16 I quit my fast food job and took a warehouse job.  Advice: What I should have done was look for internships sophomore - senior year of high school.  I took the warehouse job because it paid $8.50 plus $0.50 bonus if you came into work on time. Easy money.  I would go almost full time in the summer and earned overtime on the weekends.  I quit this job going into my Senior year mostly because I saw what I didn't want to be in life and second I got hurt playing baseball and they wouldn't let me lift the 200lb boxes with a cast.  Working in Fast Food or in a Warehouse really teaches you what life it like for people who don't graduate high school, don't go to college, or have made some poor life choices along the way. In both cases at my previous jobs I was the best worker they had and at 15/16 my friend and I were running the fast food place.  At the warehouse job I was twice as productive as everyone else.  So much so when I hurt myself my manger wanted me to work without the cast on. When I didn't he just put me on a leave of absent wanting me to comeback.  I did for a couple of months before I quit. 

The smart advice here would be to invest your money, but at this age learning to save in a saving account was great.  During my junior year a friend was investing and I though wow that is cool I should do that, but I had no clue about anything.  My Dad always listened to financial radio stations, but for the most part they talked about the latest hot stocks and these things called Spiders.  Advice: What I should have done; At 18 took the money I saved in my savings account at this time it was 5,000-8,000 and open an account with Vanguard and put it in a low cost Mutual Fund tracking the S&P 500 index.

My senior year and what was next after school was all the buzz around the lockers.  In my family and in my high school; the talk wasn't about are you going to college, but which one.  College was just something you did and the hard part was trying to decide on where and what to study.  I looked at multiple schools and I choose one close to home for two reasons.  One I liked the program a little better then others, and second the job market was much better in the bigger city that wasn't just a college town. 

If I had to sit myself down during this time I love to tell myself to study harder and apply for scholarship etc..  The thing is I remember exactly who I was at this point and it wouldn't work.   What I would tell myself is to not work during the school year their is going to be plenty of time to work. Continue to play sports and look for an internship with a related company out of state or another interest in the summer.  Use the summers to build your talent stack not just work because you think it is something you should do.  

Good luck.

Careers or life

At some point in your life you will have to make a choice in your career.  Do you changes jobs? Do you move? Do you change projects in the same company?

There can be many reasons to get to this point.  Boss, money, growth, or simply change.  When you hit this crossroad you have to not be scared of change.

Go on the interview. Take that opportunity.  Talk to your Boss.  Change can't happen unless you take it.

Even though you have been at the same company for years doesn't mean it is the same company when you started.  The people have changed the companies goals have changed and you have changed.  Financially these are big decisions and will have an impact on you and your family. On the path to being financially independent you will make turns along your path.  Have faith and stay the your course. 

Choose life and what makes you happy.

DYI life

1. It amazes me how much tasks people pay others to do.
   
   Here is a list of shockingly simple task you should try to do yourself.
   Some of the criteria for these tasks are they take very little previously experience. They can be done in a few hours and will save you money.
   
   Here is a list I've done myself all in the last few years.  These are all fixes that don't require many tools or very long to do, but will save you hundreds of dollars.
   
   
   1. Painting whole room or patch repair
   2. Mowing the lawn - I have a small yard so I use a rotary push mower so 100% free to operate 
   3. House cleaning - it's your mess just pick up after yourself
   4. Installing ceiling fan
   5. Sprinkler repair
   6. Wall hole fix
   7. Hole in cushions 
   8. Hole in clothes 
   9. Minor leaks in the roof
   10. Fix toilet leaks or replace parts
   11. Turning on your sprinklers
   12. Minor repairs with appliances
   1. Washer
   2. Dryer
   3. Oven
   4. Refrigerator
   5. Dishwasher
   Here is a list of basic tool you should own to repair all these things.
   1. screwdrivers multiple sizes of regular and Phillips
   2. Hammer
   3. Socket set
   4. Wrench set
   5. A pair of pliers 
   6. Ladder
   7. Thread and needles
   8. Leaver
   9. Tap measure
   10. oil pan

   Now you can get fancier with power screwdriver, but really you don't need to.  For most of these all you need to do it try.  You can either just open it up and follow the direction or get out the trusty YouTube and follow another DIYr for direction.  You will be amazed how much you can do just by trying and the satisfaction you will feel.  
   
   
   The more small projects you try will lead you doing more and every project you do will save you money and will push you to try more new things.  

Whats a Bond? Whats a stock?

What is a Bond?   Simply it is a loan to a company for a certain time; which they give you a agreed upon amount while they have your money.  Basically like asking your friend to barrow $20 and you will pay them $21 when you pay them back in 3 months.  A 5% return.Where did bonds start?  Well first general government bonds were issues by the Netherlands in 1517 and national government by England in 1694 to fund a war against France.

What is a stock? Simply it is ownership of a company.  Why would you do this? The idea of owning a stock is you believe in the company and as part owner the company shares it's profits with you through dividends.  Companies do this to raise more money to grow, expand, or pay off debt.  

Example:  You start a company and put in $20,000 of your own money and you get 2 friends to put in $10,000 each. You now have 3 share holders of your $40,000 company.Where do stocks come from? Stock have been traced back all they way to the Roman Empire.  Basically the same reason as today, build income for the company to expand.

How are stock and bonds related?   Bonds are considered a safer investment and safer usually brings smaller returns.  Stock are consider riskier investment and can give a bigger return.  So when the market is going well people invest more in stocks and less in bonds.  This can increase inflation (stuff cost more) which eventually causes the government to raise interest rates.   As long as companies are making money stock prices increase, while bonds may continue to fall if rates continue to be lowered.

Eventually the good times stop due to the economy slowing down or the market is worried about it slowing down.  Bond prices usually rise because investors jump from stocks into bonds for a "safer" investment.  This usually leads to interest rates falling and prices of bond raise.  Bond and interest rates are inverse of each other one goes up and the other goes down.Remember this is life and not a contest.  Some risk is good to much will lead to disaster.  Your finances don't fall into the "Go Big or Go Home". If you do it could be "Trade often and retire broke."

Hitch Hikers Guide to Ultimate Investing

This is the ultimate guide to investing.  I have discovered the secret to fulfilling your goals and living the life you want to live.

• Step one stand up and walk into the bathroom.  
• Step two look at the person looking back at you and introduce yourself. This person you are looking at is you. Yes you are your worst enemy when it comes to investing.
• Step three make an agreement with that person in the mirror that next time the market goes down and someone gives you a hot stock tip you will walk into that bathroom and tell that person no. Surprising they will agree with you and tell you no.  😜

I know it is silly, but you can really be your worst enemy to your investments. The point of that exercise is to get to know yourself.  The better you know that person in the mirror the better you will be able to stick the course.

Most people’s core does not change from when they were young to adulthood.  Investing is as much about emotion as it is about knowledge.  I mentioned the above as reflection on one’s self to help understand your short falls.   At my core I am a conservative person I like to hedge by bets.  A perfect example to this is how I played video games when I was younger.  I played games like StarCraft of War Craft II they are RTS games.  The object of the game is to build a base and destroy your opponent’s base before they destroy yours.  The way I played was to build a big enough base with a strong defense and build an army that would overwhelm my opponents defenses.  A very safe approach.  The aggressive approach would be to avoid building defense and build your offense quickly to catch your opponent off guard.  A very aggressive approach.  In short know yourself. This is very important to know about yourself. If you invest against your nature it will not go well and you will constantly makes changes.    If you are a conservative person and you invest aggressively i.e 100% stocks 0% bond when the market goes down you will be checking you phone all the time and will probably sell at the low then buy back at the rebound high.  If you are an aggressive investor, but feel you should be well balanced with bond and invest say 60/40 stock/bond you will always feel like you missed out and probably will keep buying and selling.

I follow the Boglehead/Buffet/FI philosophy which is stick to index funds that capture the stock market and invest for the long term.  I prefer to stick to the 3 fund portfolio for diversification reasons.  I don't invest in individual stock much anymore when I do it is the buy and hold forever. The three fund portfolio is allocation in index funds of  US Total Stock Market, US Bonds, and International.

I will now change your life.  Invest in indexed mutual funds either Total Stock market or S&P 500 100%-60% then bond 0-40%.  If you are aggressive with a long time until FI/retirement then go closer to the 100%, otherwise I think a good bond % allocation is your age - 10. Jake Bogle says you should have bond allocation equal to your age.  I believe that maybe fine for over 60, but for the FI road it is very conservative.   All you need to do it put money in these funds and keep putting money in and ignore everything else.  Don't look at the performance just keep adding.  Then one day in the distant future it will be a whole bunch of money and you will feel like a genius.

The market will fall and the market will go up. It will feel like a roll coaster.  If you know yourself you can stop yourself from making the mistake of buying that hot stock or bitcoin or selling because the world is coming to and end.

Good luck and enjoy the ride.