No major changes in my life really but thought I'd make my monthly post.
With it being the new year and all I thought it would be a good time to review 2012 and the past in general and think about 2013. I read some thread on here a while back that people wanted to read about non-financial goals people were setting in order to become "Renaissance people", etc. That surprised me because I usually have a few initiatives going at one time and generally they aren't financially related. I didn't think there would be an interested audience here but maybe there is. So I guess I will post some more about my general goals instead of just the financial ones.
One thing I am trying is to limit dessert to 62 servings per year (1 per week + 10 for special occasions) and booze to 104 servings per year (averaging two per week). I feel these areas are weak spots for me and I am trying to be more conscious on when I eat sweets or drink booze. So far so good, it does make me question "is this worth it" before I go for it beforehand, which I never did before, but of course we are only one week in to the new year
I keep a running tally on a post it note on my wall calendar, which I keep in the bathroom. Yeah it's weird but I see it multiple times a day, first thing in the morning, last thing before bed, it's really an ingenious location so I am surprised more people don't do it. I also track my weight daily and the boxes are all there ready to go, I just have to write in the number. Pretty slick. I try to stay away from carbs but I have noticed that I am quenching my sweet tooth by imbibing too much heavy cream instead, so the cream is not going to be replaced once it's gone. I'll probably go back to Almond or Coconut Milk. I tried making my own coconut milk from unsweetened coconut flakes... the labor involved compared with the quality of the product (kinda crappy), I probably won't do that again. I guess those are 3 health-related resolutions I have undertaken, limit dessert, limit booze, limit carbs.
I read the new Permanent Portfolio book. While I definitely recommend it to people new to the PP, I didn't find much new (to me) information in it. If you extensively read the Crawling Road blog and the Gyroscopic Investing forum at any point, you probably have all of the basics. It did cover geographic diversification of Gold well though, that information I hadn't come by in such a neat little package before.
My free bus pass expired :\ and without the subsidy it is not at all realistic to pony up for a new one so my transportation expenses might go up a bit, like $20 a month or something.
My net worth is pretty stable. It is about what I predicted it would be at this point. I had a delay in getting my unemployment benefits started (didn't start getting paid until around Thanksgiving) and so I should be eligible at least through May and possibly through this next Thanksgiving. I spend less than my unemployment so I'm good there. I think I am around a 0% return with the PP since I bought in around August or something like that. I haven't calculated my return manually, but assets look about where I bought them at, or perhaps slightly lower. However, Mint.com thinks I am like 99% in the hole since it is miscalculating the worth of my Bonds at purchase (If only they used to be worth $1 million, sheeeesh). Annoying. I should just set up Google to track this shit for me. Another to do. Anyway, so hopefully I will get something better this year. NW is down about 1.2% from October 1st, and that includes my withdrawals/living expenses. So I guess I am on track to around a 5% WR, and unemployment will help me this year keep that much lower for the first year.
I also recently read The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe and someone here links to their blog which I also really like.
http://blog.lifecourse.com/ Anyway, they are claiming 2008 is the "catalyst" year (first stage of fourth turning) and in their book they make some predictions for what the "crisis" in the Fourth Turning might be. On their blog they claim major changes are likely to happen within the next four years, probably.
http://blog.lifecourse.com/2012/03/dati ... h-turning/ Frankly most of the possible futures are scary and so I feel very very good about being in the PP and holding 25% Gold. More than that is too Doomer for me and less than that may not work enough as a hedge/shelter if SHTF soon.
I am still pondering what I will do for $ in the future but I am not really ready to talk about it yet; I am still in the thinking/researching/trying it out stages. akratic said that I probably only have a handful of years left of required work ahead of me, and that nothing says that those need to be the next few years... very true, so I am taking that to heart and trying not to rush anything or stress out about anything. It's hard though
I feel this deep down urge that I should be "doing something" with my life and I'm not and it's very unsettling. Anyway, I help with marketing and technical stuff with my dad's business so I can always put that down on my resume to fill in the time gap. I would really like to find a way to make money that I enjoy and so for the time being I am waiting to see if I can make something like that comes up. I am just enjoying my time off, slowly crossing things off my to do list (verrrrry slowly) and just taking it one week at a time.
I spent like 2 months washing my hair with just baking soda. That worked pretty well. It had enough moisture to have lots of body (it's naturally kinda flat on top) but not greasy. I did try a few days just water... that did not work at all and there is no way I am going to sit and wait for 2 months with no cleansing agent at all to see if it ever does.
I keep the thermostat on 55 most days and sit with an electric blanket (throw size) that I got at Walmart for $18. It works.
Firecalc says I have a 95% chance of survival with my current assets for 30 years if I spend $11912 each year. It's a 4.3% withdrawal rate. I plugged in 3% inflation, 7.1% annual growth with SD of 5.6%. I think I can clear $1000+ in banking/CC bonuses each year. I will probably jump on that in Feb, since my last application-o-rama was in August. I can probably clear about $200 a year in mystery shopping before it gets onerous. I can probably clear about $360/year on mTurk before I start getting bored. I effortlessly clear about $200 a year from Bing Rewards. That adds up to about $1139 per month... which I might be able to work out. Maybe I am ready to come back to the table and start tracking all of this again. I guess it has only been about a 3 month break, eh? Then anything additional/extra earned after that might be "fun money". Hey this whole time I thought I didn't have enough $ to be ERE but mTurk for 10 min a day is a small price to pay to release my worry and guilt. I think I'm actually in the ballpark here, but I haven't been doing the mTurk. Maybe I should start.
Anyway if you read my rant this far, thanks for putting up with my longwindedness
I plan to re-read my journal and post more soon so more again later if I have something to say about it. Happy new year all!
