TheRedHare's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

TheRedHare's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

Seeing how I've committed myself to ERE, I figured I'd might as well start a journal to document things, and to look back and see my meanderings. I'll also try to keep things pretty concise, even though I enjoy contradicting my own thoughts, and rambling on about some random crap I've become obsessed with.

Who am I: Why, I'm The Red Hare!!, at your service. *makes elaborate bow. I was born in the northeast mountains of Georgia. The youngest of 5 children; although my mom and dad both had previous marriages where they had kids. Mom had 3, Dad had 1, and I'm the middle child who got all the attention. This is true, I was spoiled as a child, but we never had a lot of money. My mom has a small bed and breakfast that she still works tirelessly at (this is a very, long and somewhat sad, and heroic story that I might save for another day). My dad is a "retired" plumber who did well for himself, but never saved anything. In fact, my parents don't have any sort of retirement for them....at all. They are both in their mid 60s.

Here are some quick stats about me:
-Age: 23
-Height and weight: 5'10, 155lbs, lean and athletic build.
-Graduated from military college with a BS in Business Admin

Where am I going: I don't know!! Nah, I'm still figuring this out. But, atm I'm working for my former college, writing their information security polices. This has really sparked my interest in the cyber industry, and I think I might have a very good opportunity to grow, and make a decent income. Currently, I make $13 an hour and work 37.5 hours a week. It's not bad, but I'm definitely working on ways to increase my future income. I pretty much spend a large majority of my free time reading about cyber security, Linux, Programming languages, and anything else computer related....I must learn all the things! I don't mind spending so much time on this because I actually enjoy it.

Financial status:
No credit card debt- I actually don't even own one right now. I've just been paying cash, check, or a debit card. Looking to get one eventually.

Student loans- oh yeah, I've got one of those! Personally, I've got about $30,000 in student debt. But the rest of it is hanging over my parents which is over $70,000....yeah I know. And I'm really going to do all I can to relieve as much burden on them as possible...they shouldn't be paying for all that. It's all my fault for going to such an expensive college....I digress.

Current savings: about $1,350 This is mostly from me selling stuff on ebay, working before my actual job, money from family and other random things

Current spending:
Rent $510 (includes everything and internet)

Food budget (about $50 - $60 a month) -this is my first month, so we will see what it turns out to be

Transportation: I have a 1996 Ford Ranger that is paid for. I'm not paying for the car insurance atm. I mostly walk to work (3 miles each way), but I'm probably going to buy a 24'' BMX cruiser that one of my friends is selling.

Misc: So far I haven't spent anything, other than the couple of times I went out to eat with friends.


Hobbies:
-Break dance
-Guitar
-Reading
-Weightlifting
-Video Games
-Browsing the internet....I do this a little too much

Future (Wannabe) Hobbies
-Jujitsu
-Computer Programming
-Cycling
-Writing


Current Goal: Learn as much as possible about the cyber security industry, reach out to other companies to market myself (working quite well so far). Make this my craft, and throw a large amount of time into studying cyber in order to maximize my income. Earn Security + certification, Know, love, and learn Linux, understate material for CISSP, Know TCP/IP protocols, learn PHP and Python
Last edited by TheRedHare on Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Farm_or
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Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2016 8:57 am
Contact:

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by Farm_or »

Welcome. You sound a lot like me twenty years ago.

After getting brown belt in tae kwon do and switching to American kenpo full contact, I gained a real interest in jui jitsu too. I bought the Gracie six tape series and learned some with buddies. That was before mma popularized it...

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by distracted_at_work »

Posting to follow!

I'm surprised you do not get some form of tuition forgiveness through the military? I have no idea about the specifics of this though.

Too bad about your parents retirement savings... does the United States have a form of public pension? For example, I have to pay into the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). We're eligible to take it, penalty-free, at 65.

Sounds like you are killing it so far expense wise! Keep that low and watch your income rise :)

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

distracted_at_work wrote:Posting to follow!

I'm surprised you do not get some form of tuition forgiveness through the military? I have no idea about the specifics of this though.

Too bad about your parents retirement savings... does the United States have a form of public pension? For example, I have to pay into the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). We're eligible to take it, penalty-free, at 65.

Sounds like you are killing it so far expense wise! Keep that low and watch your income rise :)
Yeah, well the school I went to is a senior military college which is different than an academy where you basically go to school for free. The school is a public one so I had to pay out of state tuition. I was going to get a 2 year navy contract and scholarship that would have paid for 2 years of my schooling, but I turned it down after I had a combination of an identity crisis, and a really bad relationship that convinced me to drop the scholarship in order to try and keep the relationship...which didn't last much longer....very dumb decision, but I learned quite a bit about how not to have a relationship lol.

I'm not sure about my parents and any kind of pension plan. My dad is on medicaid, so thankfully all of his medical issues (he had a heart attack in his mid 50s, and then a stroke about 6 months ago). I'll see if I can find anything that might help them.

And I'm trying to do the best I can with the amount of income. I thought about picking up a small part time job where I could work evenings, but I think that would take away my ability to use the time to study and learn for my certifications in order to increase my income. There is one job I found that pays $13 an hour which is like a local trash pick up, but I'd have to use my own truck. I'm still considering this, but it starts at 8pm, and lasts for about 2-4 hours and it's Monday through Friday.

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by distracted_at_work »

TheRedHare wrote: Yeah, well the school I went to is a senior military college which is different than an academy where you basically go to school for free. The school is a public one so I had to pay out of state tuition. I was going to get a 2 year navy contract and scholarship that would have paid for 2 years of my schooling, but I turned it down after I had a combination of an identity crisis, and a really bad relationship that convinced me to drop the scholarship in order to try and keep the relationship...which didn't last much longer....very dumb decision, but I learned quite a bit about how not to have a relationship lol.

I'm not sure about my parents and any kind of pension plan. My dad is on medicaid, so thankfully all of his medical issues (he had a heart attack in his mid 50s, and then a stroke about 6 months ago). I'll see if I can find anything that might help them.

And I'm trying to do the best I can with the amount of income. I thought about picking up a small part time job where I could work evenings, but I think that would take away my ability to use the time to study and learn for my certifications in order to increase my income. There is one job I found that pays $13 an hour which is like a local trash pick up, but I'd have to use my own truck. I'm still considering this, but it starts at 8pm, and lasts for about 2-4 hours and it's Monday through Friday.
Unfortunate circumstances with school, identity and the relationship all converging at the same time. It's so hard to be logical and objective when it comes to relationships especially.

Someone with more knowledge of the U.S would be able to help I'm sure.

Personally, I would focus on getting your main job/career off the ground before looking into side hustles. Unless, of course, you need the cash to live. I think the time spent studying and learning in the evening is more valuable right now. Be leery of jobs that require you to drive, the IRS $/mile is "54 cents per mile for business miles driven". I use that as a benchmark for the cost of driving. Apply that against the trash pick up?

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

Personally, I would focus on getting your main job/career off the ground before looking into side hustles. Unless, of course, you need the cash to live. I think the time spent studying and learning in the evening is more valuable right now. Be leery of jobs that require you to drive, the IRS $/mile is "54 cents per mile for business miles driven". I use that as a benchmark for the cost of driving. Apply that against the trash pick up?
Thanks for the advice, I thought the same way.

And the IRS cost of gas is useful to go by, I'll keep that into consideration whenever I need to drive somewhere.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Thinking about quiting current job and moveing

Post by TheRedHare »

It's been about 2 months since I start my first job on Jan. 9th and I'm already extremely bored. Not only am I really bored, but also frustrated by the income for it all. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. The work that I'm doing should be done by an experienced security professional such as a CISSP. Writing these IT security policies is a pain because every time I try and meet up with managers and executives they just blow off my meetings....and so nothing gets done. I'm assuming they expect me to just figure out how to write a custom policy without knowing any of the details on their infrastructure. Also, the polices that I've already passed on to the CIO takes FOREVER to be passed by the board of directors for the school.

I mean....for some people this could be a pretty sweet gig bc I don't really do much expect read blogs and dick around while occasionally trying to look productive. But who am I kidding, no one seems to care....most people here have been working here for a long time and don't plan on changing anytime soon.


Anyway, this brings me to my recent opportunity. I reached out to my cousin who is a back end developer. He recently start his own contracting firm, and said he could use help bc the current contract he is working on is a lot of work for him. He makes $100 an hour :shock: I didn't believe him, but that's actually quite normal for well seasoned developers. He said if I worked for him he would train me and in exchange I would do some of the grunt work like documenting the software he is building. Once I get good enough he said he would start billing me out at around 35-40....much better than 13 lol. What's also cool is that I wouldn't have to go into any office...I would just be visiting my cousin a few hours a day and then I can do my own thing as long as I get my shit done....sounds awesome! What is also nice is that he lives in Atlanta which is close to where I'm from, and so I get to be around all my family a friends. Having a support system like that is very nice.

The only drawbacks are my concerns for stability. This is of course a startup company so things could go to shit. But, I'd hope to have enough experience by that point to where I could pick up another job quickly....developers are in high demand after all. I'm thinking that the rewards could be much much greater if I go this route rather than stay at my current job which isn't really going to go anywhere any time soon.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Quit old job and started new one

Post by TheRedHare »

Ok so I went through with my plan of quitting my "secure" gov. job, and now I'm going to be working with my cousin on his software company...if you want to call it that. I consider it more of a software firm.

So for now the company consists of just me and my cousin who (as I've said before) is an experienced data engineer. The nice thing is the company already has a big contract with this billion dollar dental/health insurance company where we are building this large commissioning system for the sales team. I hope that we can take on more contracts so that we can start hiring more people and expanding the business.

I'm a bit concerned as to how things might turn out...but I figured I'm young enough and can take this kind of a risk. The work sounds like its more up my alley - creative problem solving. I cannot stand a 9-5....I lose my mind. I usually work in bursts, and switch between being really lazy and being super productive haha. I can't just switch on my creative problem solving mode...it just sorta comes and goes. Also my cousin works from home and says that he mostly answers emails, and does conference calls during the day and codes at night. In the beginning he would want me to work with him at his place, but once I get good enough and feel more comfortable on what I'm suppose to do I can start working from home too. This sounds awesome, but I do worry a bit about being productive as I would be tempted to dick around too much.

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by distracted_at_work »

Well done! The fact he has secured a major contract bodes very well for the survival of the startup, I think.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

distracted_at_work wrote:Well done! The fact he has secured a major contract bodes very well for the survival of the startup, I think.
Thanks man! Yeah, that's the main reason I decided to go for it. I still have my doubts on how this is going to turn out, but I figured why not give it a try while I'm this young. If all goes well I would be able to pay all my debts in no time at all...perhaps within a year.

Another reason for the switch is because of the complex and challenging work. Although writing policy has helped in understanding technology as a whole, I've become very bored and complacent with my work. I was a afraid of falling into the "salary man that does the bare minimum" type, as it seems that my work doesn't seem to matter as much.

I look at working for my cousin as a apprenticeship. In exchange for my cheap labor, he teaches me his valuable skill. I'm sure that within a couple of years I would be able to seek out my own work.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

A bit of the past life pt 1

Post by TheRedHare »

As I've mentioned before, I have had a different upbringing than most. Not saying it was rough or bad in comparison to those who are born to families who don't have any money to feed their family.

First of all I was born a slow learner...still am I guess. No, I'm not retarded, but I was literally put in a special class with other kids that were retarded or who had learning disabilities. I could not read until I was, I guess, 6 or maybe even later than that. If you are a 90s kid and know of "Hooked on Phonics" I was on that shit.

Needless to say I struggled in school as a young kid. Not only could I not learn as quickly as others, but I was picked on intensely. We are talking like 10 dick head kids v. me. My favorite classes were math and computer lab because 1. I was with the normal kids and decent at math, and 2. I became fascinated by technology and computers. My parents got me my very own computer when I finished the 5th grade, and I was on it all the time. Having grown up in the middle of nowhere woods I was pretty introverted, shy, hippyish/nerd (I wore tall white socks with sandals and a flannel shirt), and indoorish. My dad would take me out to camping trips often and taught me some camping skills. He was an eagle scout (back when they were legit), and had me become a cub scout when I was little. I went all the way and got my eagle at 18 too. Although, I don't enjoy the outdoors as much as some people do, but a good break from society is very pleasant to me.

By the time I was in the 6th grade I had managed to break free of the "assisted learning" category and into "normal people classes." I picked up playing the trombone at this age and became really good at it, winning multiple medals and shit. Unfortunately, I was still bullied like crazy, but started to fight back after having taken martial arts. I remember punching some kid in the face on the school bus after he had embarrassed me in front of everyone. Made the little shit cry....felt good too lol.
And in case you were wondering, I started to become a really defensive and angry kid.

In 8th grade I was home schooled with another family because the bullying never stopped and my parents agreed to find a better solution for me. My parents couldn't home school me bc 1. they didn't have the education (they never went to college) and 2. they were working all the time. This family was very religious (traditional roman catholics) and I therefore became more calm.

Highschool was a time of enlightenment in my education and expression. My parents had managed to save and allow me to go into a pretty liberal private highschool. I managed to get in, not because I had scored well on their admittance test, but because they believed that with the school's help I would be able to become a better student, and because they felt I had good character and a desire to learn. While there I became fascinated by the arts. In particular, the school had a "cirque" program. Look it up if you don't know...it's cool as shit.
I got into the program and became a member of the cast after auditions. While there I became much more physical and expressive. I taught myself how to breakdance and got really good at it. If you've watched the robot guy in the step up movie, I can do all the same moves just as good as him. I learned the "german wheel", "silks", and "trapeze"...all were super fun to learn and required a lot of strength and coordination. I still didn't really take my classes seriously and dicked around too much. It wasn't until the end of my junior year when I started to actually try. I did this after our class toured college campuses...I honestly did not think about college what so ever until that point. I did really well during my senior year, but could not make the difference in my GPA because my previous years were really meh.

I will go onto college until present with my next "past life" entry.

TheRedHare
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Location: Atlanta, GA

Anger and Jealousy at myself and ERE people

Post by TheRedHare »

It's not that I hate ERE, but I am just pissed that I didn't discover this shit or had someone guide me to help make smart decisions when I was young and dumb.

I am the very first in my family to ever go to college. So during college I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I thought I did, but I had no idea. I partly blame my teachers because they really sucked at teaching...like they should be fired. Fuck tenor, because some professors get so damn lazy, they don't care or teach jack shit. But why did I care at the moment, I was getting A's with hardly any effort. I digress....

The reason for my anger: Debt and no well developed skillset....yet....that can bring in the $ (dance and art don't really cut it).
Personally I'm in around 30k debt in student loans...that's it. I mean it's still pretty bad, but it could be worse. However my parents have WAY more debt. They took some student loans out (bc they believed I would make it up...more on this in later "past life" posts). They've got about 85k in parent plus loans. My dad is disabled so my mom is the bread winner. She has 2 mortgages. 1 for the house my parents live in, and 1 for her small Bed and Breakfast/ restaurant. She also has quite a bit of credit card debt. I'm not sure what the amount is exactly, but it's A LOT. My mom has worked harder than any person I've ever met in my life. That woman is fucking amazing. That being said, I want to make her proud by finding a profession that's right for me, and helping her pay all that fucking debt off....fuck bankers man. I tell ya, those assholes will do anything to get your money..or in this case lack there of. (sorry too much coffee...) Also, my parents don't ask for handouts. They've worked hard for everything. Like most working class people in their 60s, retirement isn't going to be a thing, especially if they have dependents.

I'm jealous at most ERE people bc they've seemed to start out with very little to no debt at all and majored in something practical that they were good at, had good teachers, practical advice, and make decent money. I'm sorry if those of you reading this think I'm a little shit, but I'm mostly angry at my situation and I'd hope you'd understand.

Dragline
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Re: Anger and Jealousy at myself and ERE people

Post by Dragline »

TheRedHare wrote:It's not that I hate ERE, but I am just pissed that I didn't discover this shit or had someone guide me to help make smart decisions when I was young and dumb.
Jeez, man -- you are frickin' 23! You ARE young. Now don't be dumb. :lol:

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Anger and Jealousy at myself and ERE people

Post by TheRedHare »

Dragline wrote:
TheRedHare wrote:It's not that I hate ERE, but I am just pissed that I didn't discover this shit or had someone guide me to help make smart decisions when I was young and dumb.
Jeez, man -- you are frickin' 23! You ARE young. Now don't be dumb. :lol:

Yeah, I should have said before I went to college instead. That's what I was mostly getting at. I didn't, or thought I did, have a realistic approach to what I wanted to do, or what I was good at.

I think another reason why I seem to come off like I'm an old man or some shit is because I'm feeling like I need to take charge of helping my parents pay off debt. As you can tell, I'm very family oriented, and therefore feel obligated to chip in my share. My parents believed in me having a good education and wanted the best for me, so they were willing to take on the debt.

thrifty++
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Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by thrifty++ »

I spent too much time doing too much stuff at university and graduated at 25 with $62k in debt. For the first 3 months I didnt have a grad job and was working at a restaurant for $16 a hour. Fast forward 10 years and the student debt is $5k and I have lots of assets. You have discovered ERE much younger than I did and will eat that debt up and grow assets sooner than you know it.

I do agree that student loans truly suck though. How I went about my skills training was the single biggest financial mistake in my life. Going back I wish I never studied or that I did some quick one year accelerated course in a specific skill. I would be far richer.

TheRedHare
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:40 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by TheRedHare »

thrifty++ wrote:I spent too much time doing too much stuff at university and graduated at 25 with $62k in debt. For the first 3 months I didnt have a grad job and was working at a restaurant for $16 a hour. Fast forward 10 years and the student debt is $5k and I have lots of assets. You have discovered ERE much younger than I did and will eat that debt up and grow assets sooner than you know it.

I do agree that student loans truly suck though. How I went about my skills training was the single biggest financial mistake in my life. Going back I wish I never studied or that I did some quick one year accelerated course in a specific skill. I would be far richer.
Wow man, congrats on that! I'm sure it was really tough! What did you go to university for and what did you end up doing afterwards?

James_0011
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Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by James_0011 »

@TheRedHare

Im 24, and in the same boat as you. I wish I had better info about ere/retirement stuff when I was younger, I would have spent less time messing around and just picked something practical and stuck with it. Although I have a 65k a year job now with earning potential, I could be in a lot better spot.

Oh well, some people NEVER figure this stuff out, so at least were ahead of them.

The biggest thing that pisses me off is thinking that I needed a job that I 'loved' , when really I just needed something that pays well and doesn't completely suck for ten years or so.

Dragline
Posts: 4436
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Anger and Jealousy at myself and ERE people

Post by Dragline »

TheRedHare wrote:
Dragline wrote:
TheRedHare wrote:It's not that I hate ERE, but I am just pissed that I didn't discover this shit or had someone guide me to help make smart decisions when I was young and dumb.
Jeez, man -- you are frickin' 23! You ARE young. Now don't be dumb. :lol:

Yeah, I should have said before I went to college instead. That's what I was mostly getting at. I didn't, or thought I did, have a realistic approach to what I wanted to do, or what I was good at.

I think another reason why I seem to come off like I'm an old man or some shit is because I'm feeling like I need to take charge of helping my parents pay off debt. As you can tell, I'm very family oriented, and therefore feel obligated to chip in my share. My parents believed in me having a good education and wanted the best for me, so they were willing to take on the debt.
Look, one thing at a time. You may feel guilty about your parents, but I am sure they feel pleased that they were able to put you through school.

Work on paying off your own debt. Then save up and maybe you can swoop in and take what they owe on you out, too.

For perspective, my middle one (18) just got his Eagle and will be heading off to college next year. We are happy to be able to pay for it -- although we made damn sure it was the engineering part of the school.

And I played the trombone, too . . .

You'll get there as long as you have the discipline to keep moving forward. You may need to move to a different part of the country at some point, though, so don't get wedded to your location.

cmonkey
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Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by cmonkey »

@TheRedHare, We paid off a 72K mortgage in under 3 years and then subsequently paid of another 40K in auto/home quity loans in about 1-2 years. So you aren't the only one that discovers this stuff while in debt. I was about your age (24 I think) when I got the mortgage and was debt free at 28. I'm now 30.

So don't beat yourself up too much.

thrifty++
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: TheRedHare's Journal

Post by thrifty++ »

TheRedHare wrote:
thrifty++ wrote:I spent too much time doing too much stuff at university and graduated at 25 with $62k in debt. For the first 3 months I didnt have a grad job and was working at a restaurant for $16 a hour. Fast forward 10 years and the student debt is $5k and I have lots of assets. You have discovered ERE much younger than I did and will eat that debt up and grow assets sooner than you know it.

I do agree that student loans truly suck though. How I went about my skills training was the single biggest financial mistake in my life. Going back I wish I never studied or that I did some quick one year accelerated course in a specific skill. I would be far richer.
Wow man, congrats on that! I'm sure it was really tough! What did you go to university for and what did you end up doing afterwards?
Thanks! Im not too comfortable to be specific on that because wanting anonymity. But some of what I studied wasnt overly practical and some of what I studied was specific and career oriented. But I do think having any degree does make you more marketable and likely to get an ok job - its just not the most efficient way of doing so. But it does at least demonstrate you have discipline and critical thinking skills.

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