01.07.09
What difference would lots of money make?
It's all about the Yukichis.
It’s an old question that most people have heard many times, but I still think it’s a useful one to ask from time to time: “If I suddenly became independently wealthy, what would I change about my life?”
The answer I’m always hoping for when I ask this question to myself is “Not much.”
But any other answer always reveals stuff I should probably be doing/working on anyway.
I recently bought my first Japanese lottery ticket. The drawing is tomorrow, January 8th. Statistically, the chances of me winning are so small that the money I spent on the ticket can only be rationally seen as “entertainment expense”. Kind of like renting a DVD or something.
But I like asking myself what I would do with a few extra million yen.
I would absolutely keep writing/blogging. I know that much.
12.09.08
Better Than A New Year’s Resolution: Zero Basing
I found a cool word in a book I was reading this week: Zero Basing.
The word originally comes from accounting. It seemed to perfectly describe a process I’ve used for years to think about my life — without ever naming it.
The idea is that you start from ZERO and then have to justify everything, rather than starting with assumptions about how your life is or should be.
You start with the minimum you need to survive — food, a roof over your head in a safe part of town — and build it up from there. After these absolute essentials, you must justify every other expense or thing you spend time on — not based on their HISTORY but on their PRESENT VALUE.
It’s saying, “If I could start at zero, with any possibilities available, what would I keep and what would I do differently?”
It’s an interesting thought experiment – especially when life gets complicated – to start at zero and think about what’s really important. “Which things really serve me and make my life better?” “Which are just routines, self-imposed shoulds, or unchallenged assumptions?”
Zero Basing is a tool to override our natural tendency to consider sunk costs when making a decision. Sunk costs are the time and energy we’ve already invested in something — time and money that is now gone forever. In economics theory, a rational actor doesn’t consider sunk costs when making the decision whether an expenditure is worth continuing to spend time, money, and effort on.
Read the rest of this entry »
04.03.08
Woman Sells House For $100 On Ebay
From WCBS-TV:
“Looking for a house in New Jersey? How about four bedrooms, a huge living area, cathedral ceilings and a stone fireplace for, say, $100?
‘One hundred dollars, yes,’ owner Sharon Hart said.
Say hello to Hart and her 2,900 square-foot ranch home in Willingboro, which admittedly could use a coat of paint, but is now available on eBay, she says, for the rock-bottom price of $100.”
Link (including video)
04.02.08
Another Great Depression… what are the signs?
Today on Salon.com:
“Most economists are no longer debating whether there will be a recession in 2008. Now, they’re arguing over when the recession started — was it last November, or December? — and how bad it’s likely to get. While they bicker, however, a far more terrifying economic specter from the distant past has sent a chill through the infosphere.
‘We have not seen a nationwide decline in housing like this since the Great Depression,’ said the CEO of Wells Fargo late last year. ‘It is now clear that the U.S. and global financial markets are experiencing their worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,’ wrote economist Nouriel Roubini last week.”
04.01.08
The Great Depression ?
From today’s The Independent:
“We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.
Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.”
Link (Thanks, Steph!)
03.16.08
Finding Income In Retirement with Annuities
Here’s an article about buying lifetime annuities as a retirement income option:
In its simplest form, a fixed annuity is an insurance contract that promises you a set amount of annual income for life–no matter how long that might be. Think of it as your own pension plan. In exchange for a lump sum of $100,000, say, an insurance company promises to pay you $7,000 to $8,000 a year for the rest of your life. That’s great if you buy one at 65 and live to 90 or older, since you will receive far more in payments than you put in. But should you die earlier than expected, the remainder of your initial payment belongs to the insurance company.
Are annuities a good idea? I honesty don’t know enough about financial planning to make a judgment, but they do sound like an interesting option — one I didn’t know about until reading the article.
Opinions on annuities for retirement? Please comment.
Link (to “Finding Income in Retirement” in U.S. News and World Report)
