I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Where are you and where are you going?
Post Reply
Jason

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Jason »

I see the four horseman of the apocalypse tossing your money into a pit of fire. So it might just be how you're looking at it.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

@Jason, if I tilt my head to the side and squint I see it to, oh no!

Reading

29. Debt: The First 5000 Years
30. Moneyland

This was basically a long investigatory journalism piece about how the ultra-wealthy take advantage of jurisdictional loopholes that allow them to hide their assets. His writing was a little too narrative for my liking. I don't think I need to know the hair color of every person he quoted in the book, but maybe that's just me.

31. This Immortal - Roger Zelazny

This is a short vintage sci-fi book that was originally serialized under a different title before being put together under "This Immortal". I'm halfway through it and still don't have a clear idea what the central conflict is going to be. Had hi hopes going in so hopefully it finishes strong.

Nephew

My GF's older sister (S) has a kid (K) who just entered sixth grade. S is not what you'd call stable. Our armchair analysis is borderline personality disorder. Whatever it is she's an extremely domineering personality, hard to get along with, with a healthy dose of pride and lack of humility. Her latest marriage dissolved in the spring. She was able to make it for a while by using her mentally disabled war-vet half-brother's VA check to pay for an apartment. Once that was put to an end she tried moving back in with the ex, which of course didn't work, and so she left to work at a GSA camp all summer and left K with Grandma, G-Grandma, and various aunts.

S's MO is to shacking up with a man for stability. She isn't stable enough of have any work qualifications enough to support them both on her own. Currently S and K are living with her parents and sharing a room. Thanks to all the grandmas and aunts providing a pretty thick safety net K is not doing as bad as one might suspect, but he's definitely gonna have some issues. He's had 3 dads in his twelve years and all this moving certainly isn't helping things. He's 12 and needs a damn place to masturbate at least.

I like being around to try to give K a positive male role model to look up to who isn't a grandpa or uncle. He thinks I'm the coolest. I'd like to get more involved in his life one way or another but I'm not sure how. He loves playing video games, but I don't have the stamina or skill to play most things with him. So I need to figure something out we could do together. Places I could take him, activities we could do. I'm a distanced enough authority figure I think he'll think I'm cool throughout his upcoming angst-y adolescence, so I want to be there for him if he ever needs someone to confide in or ask questions of and such.

Speaking of that, I do not know if he's had "the talk" yet. I don't think it's exactly my place, but I don't trust his mom to have done it and she already isn't setting the greatest example in her own life. His father is a dirtbag of the finest vintage who I definitely don't trust in that area. Basically I need some ideas on how to handle this situation as a whole. K has not had that great of a childhood so far and I'd like to do whatever little part I can to make it a little better for him.

Riggerjack
Posts: 3182
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Riggerjack »

I just read your journal, and I am impressed. I traveled a similar path. Full referral union job, back at the start of my career. You are so far ahead of where I was at your age, though.

So, first, the path to advanced income runs side (plumbing) jobs, then getting a contractor's license/bond, and bidding on small jobs. When you get enough business to hire help, things take off. From what I have seen, you can make a nice living, keeping 5-6 plumbers busy. Bid the jobs, order the materials, farm out as much paperwork as possible to a bookkeeper. Work from home.

You get there by getting a guy at work to help you out with a side job, then building from there.

As for the guys at work being unrelatable, that's your fault. Notice that they can all get along, even though they don't agree, sometimes loudly. Figuring out how to get along is part of the game.

It'll help, if you can get into your head, that they could be right, and you could be wrong. It's not an easy thing to do. We all want to be right, and to see complicated scenarios in a light that highlights exactly how right we are.

A rule I try to keep in mind: Knowledge is rarely in the company of Certainty. I have often been sure I understood an issue. Certain that I was right, and anyone who disagreed must be stupid, ignorant, evil, or just dishonest. Or uncompassionate, as you put it. In each case, I had something to learn.

This was always a failure to understand, on my part. Sometimes, it was that I didn't consider the issue from the other side (perspective is worth 90 points of IQ). Sometimes, I was caught up in my idea of Truth. Which often is contradictory to other's ideas of Truth.

Example: I'm not religious, and I am nearly certain that the old testament is not True. There are hundreds of millions who disagree with me on this. Using my default idea of Truth, literal, and objective, it's easy to make my case. But what I wasn't understanding, was where I thought I was arguing with someone about the objective truth of the old testament, in fact I was arguing about what truth meant, often with someone else who didn't understand that was what we were arguing about...

You have been educated. This comes with a certain amount of indoctrination. You see things in the way you have been trained to see them. (For what it's worth, I think you have the better set of ideas.) But other people (such as supporters of our Cheeto in Chief) don't need to be wrong for you to be right.

Learning to let go of my righteousness has been a huge challenge for me, and is the biggest step in accepting people as they are. If you can do that, making deep friendships is much easier.

I found Scott Alexander at Slate Star Codex (search for in-group) to be very helpful in this regard. He wrote a lot about group dynamics, and the ways people relate to concepts. How someone can feel the need to defend a position they clearly haven't thought through.

Good luck!

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

Thanks for your thoughts Riggerjack.

You're right that my income potential could really take off if I had the gumption to build up my own plumbing business. As it stands right now I'll be making 70K this year and I've got another 15 to go before I reach journeyman rate. After that if I ever wind up getting foreman rate that'll put me into 6 figures and at that point I'm not sure the effort (spread across multiple years) of building up my own business would be worth it. It is something I think about sometimes, though.

Mainly I don't see how starting a union plumbing business is viable considering the high wage package. One cannot ever work non-union or start a non-union shop in this industry without the union suing you to oblivion. The only other union shop in our area started around 10 years ago with the two now owners obtaining service contracts at the local hospitals/mills and then not billing for the amount of time they actually spent working on those calls. Working for free to get the business off the ground (and probably not even cash flow positive) isn't something that interests me haha.

Not to shit all over your idea, because my income ceiling would skyrocket if I did such a thing, I'm just not sure I've got the motivation for it.

---

I think there might have been a few things lost between my scattered bloviations on my social problems and issues with my coworkers. Everything you said applies to me with the exception of
Figuring out how to get along is part of the game
because we actually get along great! I have just about nothing I can relate to my coworkers on, politically or otherwise, but I don't have a bad working relationship with anyone at the company or other apprentices at the hall. I show up on time, follow direction, am a team player, find things to do, take on responsibility and tasks without direction, and am generally easy to work with. We've all just learned that they can't talk about shooting immigrants in front of me and I can't talk about more nuanced immigration policy in front of them (that is the post I assume catalyzed some of your thoughts).

However, you're dead on with everything else. I do agree that it's my fault, reason being I don't really find anyone relatable, whether they're pro-immigrant-shooting or not. I'm not really sure I want to find the pro-immigrant-shooter relatable, which as you point out is really me not wanting to let go of my righteousness. At the same time you could take someone that's 90% similar to me in all the most important ways and it's very unlikely I would actually find much relatable about them. I'd either latch onto that other 10% as a means of distancing myself or I wouldn't know what to do with all the other ammunition I've been given to build a relationship with.

Your thoughts on knowledge and certainty are interesting because I would mostly consider myself a very uncertain person. I'm constantly thinking myself in circles, arriving right back where I started. Yet, you're correct, I'm very certain that shooting immigrants is not only wrong, but also not an actual solution to any problem. I think my certainty on that issue stems from my need to constantly distance myself from people. Being certain in the opposite and opposed directions from immigrant-shooter acts as a very nice wedge to latch onto to that end.

Riggerjack
Posts: 3182
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Riggerjack »

And that is why I recommend slate star codex. Understanding the motivation of a union plumber, who has never seen the border, probably doesn't own or know how to operate a firearm, speaking of shooting immigrants he has never seen, is pretty simple, with the right models.

For me, understanding the motivation, is critical to letting go of my internal need to correct others.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

I'll need to spend more time with that website, but the initial glace around was definitely enough to spike my interest. Thanks for the rec.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

End of September update

Spending

Rent - 250
Groceries - 112.49
Gas - 111.45
3 gifts for bro - 80.92
Credit card fee - 69*
Project materials/tools - 52.64
Safe deposit box fee - 35
Internet - 35
Phone - 17.90
rice bowl - 8.50
5 books - 5
Subway - 4.89

*I Didn't play the game right and payed the price

Readings

31. This Immortal
32. The Secret People - Wyndham
33. Age Of Miracles - Brunner

Local bookstore was going out of business so I got five old sci-fi paperbacks for 5 bucks. Decided to read three of them. Didn't like This Immortal so much, loved The Secret People, and Age of Miracles was okay.

On to...

34. Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot
Last edited by Cheepnis on Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Scott 2
Posts: 2825
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Scott 2 »

Have you called your credit card company and asked if they can waive the fee? In my experience, they can be optional with a phone call. Interest, late fees, overdraft fees, annual fees, etc - all can be reversed.

Something like - "Hi, I was charged a fee for X on Y date. I'd like to see if it can be waived.... Yes, I understand that is the policy, but I made a mistake and am upset. I'd really appreciate any help you could provide... Are you sure something can't be done? Could customer retention help me?... This creates a financial hardship for me, can you make an exception this time?

You get the idea. Service reps need high customer surveys. The companies themselves don't want to lose you as a customer, because acquisition costs are so high. I've not abused the system, but I've found it very accommodating. They'll even eat the cost of small credit card disputes, in the name of customer service.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

Good to know that calling works for the future, unfortunately it's already been paid this time around. Technically when I redeem the points I'll still be money ahead, just $69 shorter than could have been.

2Birds1Stone
Posts: 1596
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:20 am
Location: Earth

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

How long ago did you pay? I recently did this was an annual $69 Southwest Airlines card and Chase just gave me a $69 statement credit despite already paying it several weeks prior.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

Reading

34. Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot

Stockdale was quite an amazing human. The middle of the book got a little heavy with Vietnam related politics, but the beginning and end were great.

35. Superintelligence - Bostrom

My brother got me this book for my birthday. It's one giant thought experiment about the rise of computer intelligence and what the future could look like. Bostrom admits in the beginning that the book will likely be entirely wrong in most cases, but he did take seriously what little predictive power we currently have. His word usage is a little pretentious throughout. I'm of the opinion there isn't much use for a big word if there's already a small word (or short set of small words) that already capture the meaning.

36. Catch A Falling Star - Brunner

For being a short 200 page sci-fi story these last couple dozen pages are being a slog. The back synopsis sounded interesting enough, but it turns out the synopsis didn't particularly pertain. Age of Miracles was very good, though it ended abruptly. Catch A Falling Star is definitely a step or three down from there. I'm working my way through his second tier books before I read Stand on Zanzibar, which I'm excited for.

on to...

37. can't decide between another Brunner or The Four Pillar Of Investing

Engine Projects

I've drug a couple little 1 1/2hp engines over in the back of the Subaru as projects. Neither of them have run since before I was alive. So I've been preoccupying my time on those the past month. Here's a before -> complete teardown -> partial reassembly pictostory of the 1920 IHC Model M.

Image

Image

Image

I also have a head and cast-iron carb that are rusted up pretty bad off an 3hp engine (too large to bring the whole thing). I'm working on building an electrolysis tank to de-rust them. The last piece of that puzzle is getting a car battery charger, but everyone I've contacted on CL and FBM are being flaky.

October Spending Forecast

Outlook: high

6-month car insurance premium is due, gonna have a medical bill come in from a trip to urgent care last month, and I just ordered a big batch of parts for my engines that came out to almost $300! Good news is that those are all the most expensive parts I'll need to get three engines running.

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by jacob »

That looks like a Listeroid to my untrained eye. Are they related?

Riggerjack
Posts: 3182
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Riggerjack »

I'm working on building an electrolysis tank to de-rust them
This isn't something I do often, so I don't have a dedicated tank. I just use a plastic trash can, with a liner, when I need to.

And as a side note, don't let copper concuctors touch the electrolyte. My broadaxe now has some very light copper electroplated on the surface. Very cool looking, but not the way to go if trying to eliminate corrosion... :oops:

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

2b1s, Chase has been playing hardball with me. I've talked to 4 different people across a couple days and nobody has given me the credit back. I think they know they've got me by the balls and that I won't cancel since I haven't spent the points yet.

---

Jacob, you're correct, they are not all that far apart. In fact they're quite similar in some ways. The large flywheels are quite distinctive, of course. I don't know my Lister history that well, but most Listeroids are modern reproductions of an engine Lister started producing, I think, in the late 20's/early 30's and for whatever reason kept producing for several decades. Smaller sized consumer one-lung flywheel engines such as pictured above had fallen out of favor by war time as electricity was becoming more widespread and most were melted down to help supply iron for wartime production.

Listeroids are diesel and, while diesel wasn't a common fuel for these types of engines in the 20/30's, kerosene was much more common. Many engines (including the IHC Model M above) and tractors of that vintage were made to run on kerosene which, like diesel, burns hotter and has greater energy density than gasoline. The M above would have been primed with gasoline to start, after the engine was warm you'd have switched to kerosene, then after you'd had a load on the engine for a bit and it was really warm you could open a secondary needle valve on the carb and start allowing water from the waterhopper (the big square tank on top, filled with water for cooling) to be mixed in with kerosene during fuel draw. The water would vaporize during combustion and your fuel consumption would drop by about a 1/3. Kerosene was already much cheaper than gasoline in those days even before accounting for a 1/3 decrease in consumption.

---

Riggerjack, yeah I'm just making it out of a 5 gallon bucket, perhaps not as fancy as "electrolysis tank" implied. The copper advice is good to know. I was planning to have the entire carb submerged during the process and the leads wrapped around a couple port holes. I could always re-tap the holes if anything happened to them, but best to be safe. I wonder if aluminum wire would be better? Looks like I need to go learn a little more chemistry.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

On Emotional Experience

Work has been somewhat stressful lately. Lots of weird hours: going in for 4 hours at night between between two regular 8's, starting at 4am, working a few hours on Sat or Sun here and there. The general on the job isn't a very good communicator or listener and is hard to coordinate with for those reasons. This week was particularly stressful with him and I tried my best to use that environment to practice some light stoicism.

I've been thinking much about our (read: humans') subjective experience of emotions. Rarely do I decide to feel a certain way, I just do. Realizing I'm in control of my own mood struck me quite a few years ago, but I'm still working on actually being able to float above the negative emotions I find myself experiencing. I think I did pretty good this week. I could feel myself getting stressed out, anxious, and frustrated and I was able to mostly let those things float over me, observe them from above, and get on with my day.

The past 6 months of so I've really noticed how my external reactions to emotions compound my internal experience of them. If I follow feelings of frustration with acts of irritation or short-temper my feelings of frustration grow. I used golf as a good practice ground for this when I was playing more in the nice summer weather. Refraining from grimacing, negative vocalizing, or negatively connotated physical exclamations really helped me keep my head during a streak of poor strokes. I also practiced the same discipline in reverse; I kept euphoria down during streaks of great shots.

How little control we have over the emotions we feel has become very fascinating to me. In so many situations we seem to only be in experience mode and temporarily lose all sense of control. For example: in a few days a team win the world series and I'll watch the intense on-field excitement that follows. That level of euphoria experienced by those players will totally dominate their existence for a few minutes before dropping off at and steadying at a elevated level for the comings few days/weeks.

I've always been somewhat even keel, my highs aren't in the stratosphere, my lows aren't in the gutter, and I've had very few experiences where I completely lose myself like those players on the field will. This is because I'm always aware and watching myself. In some ways I think this has been a very good thing for me, in others I think it's been bad. I think the most accurate description for it would be anxiety because despite thinking on/watching myself as much as I do it's taken me until my late 20's to use that power for good and start to get a grasp on my day to day, moment to moment, mood. Lots of progress to still be made still, but there's a little wind in my sails right now.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

Thoughts on Buying A House

My thoughts on a better place to work on my projects, as detailed on the previous page, leads me to keeping an eye on the real estate market in the areas I'm interested in. Doing this pretty much continually convinces me that this is NOT the time or place to buy. This week an 812sq/ft house on a <6000sq/ft lot with a detached two car garage went on sale again after a pending sale fell through. They dropped the price from 245k to 199k, so I called to see what the catch was: active termites and severe structural damage.

The thing is, this house is going to sell. Other completely run-down sub 1000sq/ft houses on ~1/8 acre lots sell for 160-200k regularly, and this is one of the cheaper neighborhoods in town! This house has been updated, so it's the opposite of many of the houses I see sell in that it doesn't need a facelift, but it needs a... bonelift (to stretch the analogy). with the big price drop this house is now in the price ballpark for the area. I just don't think I could stomach paying 200k for an 800sq/ft house that needs 50k worth of work.

So for now I think the best bet is to still wait it out and see what happens. My rent situation is too stellar to stop milking. Maybe in a couple years after I reach lean-FIRE I could more seriously house-hunt and then spend a couple years throwing 3-4k/m at a mortgage before actually quitting full time work.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

End of October update:

Spending

Rent - 250
Engine Parts - 238.25*
6 Month Car Insurance - 209.8
Tools/Project Parts - 117.89
Groceries - 95.06
Eating Out - 91.99**
Gas - 85.72
Box Set Of A Favorite Band - 59***
Internet - 35
Bicycle Repair Parts - 31
Phone - 17.9
MISC - 2.47

* Was able to return the most expensive part, would have been almost 300 as referenced above
** Atrocious month for eating out. Encompasses 9 meals total.
*** My only true impulse buy this year. First 3 records issued for the first time on vinyl. I have no regrets.

Reading

37. The Four Pillars of Investing - Bernstein

Like most investment books I've read I feel like I understood it but only to the extent of the surface the author was skimming. Lots of detail about nothing all that actionable. He did bring up Gordon's equation and the Discounted Dividend Method, which are two concepts I hadn't encountered before. This read has really convinced me I should do some more poking around under the hood. If I'm motivated enough I'll probably pop into the ERE Investment Curriculum thread. I just can't see myself staying focused through an 800 page textbook though, peer support or no.

38. City of Illusions - Le Guin

Quick little read I'll finish today.

On to...

Gotta figure that out.
Last edited by Cheepnis on Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Mister Imperceptible
Posts: 1669
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

The Washington Nationals are hardly able to contain their emotions.

Riggerjack
Posts: 3182
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Riggerjack »

Just make sure that everything that touches the electrolyte is iron/steel, or insulated. Welding wire works, as does insulated copper wire with a soldered/ heat shrink connector. Aluminum wire would just mix some aluminum in with the iron you are plating.

This process is charging an anode, so molecules will detach, cross the electrolyte, and attach to the surface of the cathode. (Or maybe give versa? :oops: )

So just keep everything touching the surface or below, of the metal you want to work with, and don't worry about chemistry. Or enjoy the cool patterns that a light copper patina adds. ;) Up to you.

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: I Saved Some Money, Accumulated So Good

Post by Cheepnis »

@MI, not exactly sure what you're getting at, but seems like a jab. I do hope the above nonsense I attempted to type out doesn't imply that I think there's never a good reason to experience an emotion... I would like it to imply that I would rather my emotional experience be something that is within my control than something that's out of my control. What's worse, stubbing your toe or being in a foul mood the rest of the day because your toe hurt for a few minutes 8 hours ago?

@RJ, I'll definitely check back in once I'm actually able to get my hands on a battery charger, CL and FBM are really letting me down right now! For this piece it isn't super critical so I'll probably experiment with a few different setups and see what happens.

Post Reply