May 24, 2008

linklings, an end to freedom on the horizon edition

“Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used” -Hunter S. Thompson

You always have to wonder about the way the world works when it has one of those random burps of synchronicity. My problogging days are numbered now. A Fortune-single-digits company hurled out a six month consulting contract; a neighbor put me on the fast track to an interview for an officer position with an investment bank; and a financial software company that’s very close to some of my expertise asked me if I was interested to come on board to help them obtain seed capital to launch a significant expansion. All of this happened today. To show how messed up my brain is, all I could think about was how sad it was that today, after four weeks of staying home, the weather finally turned nice enough to go to the playground… and it’s almost over.

I’m certainly not in a position to blow off all of these feelers. I’ll probably stick with contract consulting; it’s easy, it’s good money and it’s generally compatible with my desire not to work til all hours. I know jobs in investment banking or start-ups are going to be insane hours, and I have minimal desire to go back to being an employee. Nonetheless I sometimes feel that you can do yourself a disservice not to at least hear people out, and the start-up, in particular, has the intriguing possibility of getting me in on the ground floor of something semi-big (the company has a single shareholder and two employees right now, so obviously it has some big room to grow). We’ll see. But since problogging didn’t exactly pay for my mortgage – although it certainly has started to pay for my electric bill – I have to go back to consulting, at least, in order to keep accumulating cash for investing and paying our quite-minimal-bills. Oh, and I got my stimulus rebate. La-di-da. Money well spent, Mr. Government. I’m sure that’s going to solve our problems.

On to the links! No particular order… Money Writers and around the web, all mix’d up.

How Much More Work Are Two Kids Compared To One?

Dead on. Having just added squirmy person number two to the clan, this guest post from Mike of Quest for Four Pillars hit the nail right on the head. “I believe that for the mother, it’s more difficult to go from zero to one kid than from one kid to two. For the father, it is the opposite – it is harder to go from one kid to two than from zero to one.” Could not be more true!

67 Year Old Advised by Accountant to Not Enroll in 401k – Should He Find a New Accountant?

Sounds like this 67 year old guy has two problems: one, his accountant doesn’t know his stuff, and two, he’s 67 and still working. Granted, maybe he loves his job, yada yada – but I would hope that by 67 I’m secure enough in my retirement savings that I’m either (a) actually not working or (b) not sweating investing in my 401(k) plan. Ouch.

I Borrowed Money On Zopa. Here’s Why…

In the category of walking-the-walk, Lazy Man is borrowing money on a P2P site. He has a good rationale and he’s asking his readers to pitch in and lend to him at a nice fat interest rate. Check out his reasoning – it sounds too good to be true but hey, so did Google….

Free Trial of Blockbuster Total Access Can Save You Money this Summer Movie Season

Other than a completely unnecessary diss of Batman, this article points you in the right direction: avoid the theater, get a home delivery of DVDs. You can avoid the idiots who go to theaters (like the subhumans who brought their toddlers to Alien-vs.-Predator when I went to see that in a not-rare-enough-moment-of-stupidity) and watch from the comfort of your own couch. Seriously.

Why your Retirement Account is NOT an Emergency Fund

Er. Uh. Yes. This reminded me of the conversation I had with a CPA, who was moaning about his credit card debt. Read that again. A CPA. Certified Public Accountant. A CPA with consumer debt, to me, seems like a doctor who smokes. Crazy.

How I Save Money With My ING Direct Checking and Savings Accounts

If you aren’t already using online banking, hop to it. I looked at ING and decided it didn’t offer a great enough benefit over my current setup, but if I was starting from scratch I’d definitely go with Big Orange.

Capital One Online Savings Account Opened

On the other hand, if you’re looking to squeeze every possible last tenth of a percentage point out of your online savings, Capital One’s slightly better than ING.

Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 4

Reflecting on your priorities and values is a critical part of any life planning. If you don’t have a core set of values it’s hard to steer the ship, so to speak. You need to have some guiding priorities, too. Write them down.

Elder Care Costs – A Total Black Hole?

Elder care is a crisis waiting to unfold as the Spawn-of-the-Greatest-Generation aka the Boomers start aging. I have watched my parents deal more or less successfully (but not without huge amounts of stress) with my grandparents. It’s a tough cycle in a country where people move away from “their village” and the traditional pattern of elder care (living near enough your parents to care for them) breaks down.

Will you ever put a penny in your 401k again?

I’ve had a raging debate in my head as I watch my limited-choices-but-decent-match 401(k) plan sputter and die during the soft market here – could I do better putting that money in a Roth? I hate dumping my money in some mutual fund that’s losing money each month just because (a) I don’t have enough choices to get something better and (b) I think I’m doing myself a favor with pre-tax money and a moderate match. This post crunches the numbers on a bad-return 401(k) versus a slightly better return non-tax-advantaged account, and the results will unsettle you.

25 Ways to Help a Fellow Human Being Today

Simply put – nice thoughts. Not all of them will apply to everyone, but nice nonetheless. I’ll say this on #10: good luck. I used to do this when I was straight out of college and living in a fairly depressed major Southern city in a downtown area. I used to offer to buy sandwiches for homeless guys who would approach me for money late at night when I’d stop to get fast food or gas or a Coke or whatever when I was coming home from another beat-down day working for my accounting firm. It’s an interesting experience. Most of them weren’t bad guys, and usually they seemed happy to have someone talk to them, so from that point of view I helped, I guess. But my observation would be that 9 times out of 10 I would get a stream of complaints about how the food at Location X just didn’t suit them and could I please just give them the cash? It wore me down enough that I gave up, and now I just give money to charities like this one…for children. I’m not saying that so much to discourage anyone from offering to buy food for the homeless, I’m just offering my opinion – as someone who’s done it – that’s it’s tougher to do than it sounds.  People who do it are better, and more patient, than I.

Creative Commons License photo credit: billypalooza“


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  • Curmudgeon
    Steve, I appreciate the relatively easy money and low stress of the consulting gig. But at some point before you finish, you're going to ask yourself "What are my limits?" (or more positively, "What am I capable of?"). Perhaps you think you are over that after your years on the Big 6 circuit, but the need to test yourself will arise again. That's not to say that either of the other opportunities today are the answer to that question, but you should start analyzing these opportunities as they arise to determine which one offers the challenge you will need at some point.

    I've been through several economic slumps, and I continue to be amazed at how much opportunity is available in a weak economy (in fact, I personally seem to have much greater opportunity in a weak economy than a strong one). I am convinced that things are never as bad as the media makes them out to be, nor as good as they are protrayed duing a supposedly strong economy.

    But the opportunities presented to you today did not happen in a vacuum, but are rather a local inflection point that you laid the groundwork for over a number of years. With a varied and robust resume, a network culled over multiple employers and clients in different fields, a personable and professional demeanor, and likely a reputation for taking on difficult or unwanted jobs and doing them well, you have made your own opportunities.
  • Steve, I had to make similar choices years ago ... as it happens, I lucked out. But, part of that 'luck' stemmed from first realizing that if my 'product' is my time (as in 40 hours a week for salary, or 40 hours a week billable time) then my supply - hence income - is limited:

    http://7million7years.com/2008/04/24/what-is-th...

    Of course, you still need to bring some bucks in the door ... multiple mouths to feed, and all that :) AJC.
  • It's great to have options, isn't it?
    I've got several "spoons in the pot" myself right now. Though I make a very healthy 6 figure income, I'm really not happy with what I do. I want to move more into an entrepreneurial role and have a couple of things working that direction. The biggest problem with having a job is that it gets in the way of actually making the big money.
  • All good things come to an end...

    I'm glad you enjoyed the 'baby' article!

    Mike
  • @ Ron - we share the same income! That is, anywhere from $100k to $999k ... I guess that covers quite a slice of middle- to upper-America ;)
  • @Ron: And it's taking that jump that's the tough step, isn't it? I could do it - I know I could - but the consulting money is easy and good and time-consuming, and it's hard to shake it off.
  • @AJC: You've hit upon my struggle: do I content myself with devoting my time to "pretty damn good" or go for more? It's tough - I have an upper middle class income, an easy consulting gig and no pressure - but I think I could do more.
  • Wow. Zopa... looks downright brilliant. It completely makes sense to me now that I've walked through the "learn more" link. See, the borrower has already qualified for a loan. You're not actually lending them anything. You just siphon off a portion of the interest rate you earn off your CD to go to paying off their loan. That's it. You are lending them nothing. This is an even better idea than Prosper. I would say Prosper still has a place for high-risk lenders and for borrowers who don't have good credit, but if a lender doesn't tolerate risk well or if a borrower has good credit, I would totally go with Zopa first.

    And hey, what a great way to preserve friendships, right? :)

    Don't know what to tell you about the opportunities you have. If I were offered something similar to your present situation and it was guaranteed I'd get it, I'd take it, because my current situation is completely sub-optimal. If you're already in a good situation, though, and you have the chance to be with your kids and so on... I don't know that it really becomes a question of mediocrity versus excellence. Aren't you in an excellent situation now? Is your life really supposed to center around your career? I mean, I don't think you really intend your life to be that way, or you wouldn't be consulting now, but sometimes these things spiral out of control and next thing you know all your time is eaten up.

    Dunno, it's a really personal decision to make. Good luck, whatever you choose.
  • Oh, and the thing about the homeless person. I have my own weird little thoughts about that. So often the general consensus seems to be, "What an idiot, he shouldn't be so picky, he should be grateful someone's giving him any food at all." Being grateful for whatever someone gives you is a sign of desperation and can set you up for being abused. Is it really too much to ask that in the process of helping the less fortunate, we take our egos out of the equation for thirty seconds, step back, give them some room and let them tell us what they need?

    I remember when I first moved to Ohio and things were really shaky for me, a friend of mine gave me his old car. Now this sounds like a really awesome thing to do, and in a way it was, and I know he did it to be kind to me. On the other hand, it was a clunker--I mean, it sounded like a giant Harley when I started the ignition, it put off clouds of white smoke (which, by the way, I learned is worse for your lungs than soot is), and it was finicky and broke down on me several times. I was not making a high income and certainly could not afford extensive auto repairs. He would have been better off selling it for scrap and handing me the money, and so would I have been. I wound up abandoning the car.

    And hey, there are sure to be homeless people with food allergies, homeless people with specific religious beliefs about food, homeless people who are diabetic (it never ceases to amaze me how many food charities expect poor people to exist on starch and sugar--how are they ever going to overcome their problems if they're so sick from malnutrition that they can't work?), and so on.

    So I would not just hand a homeless person a sandwich. I *would* rather give them the money. If they spend it on drugs, maybe they feel like that's meeting their needs right now better than anything else would. As long as they're not high around random strangers and small children and don't commit drug-related violence, there is no reason I should care.

    But I think the best option of all would be to donate to your local homeless shelter. And don't just reserve your pity or compassion or whatever for the kids--at bottom, people are homeless because they do not have a home, and everyone who is down and out deserves the reasonable amount of help. And donating to a shelter means completely ruling out the possibility that the person begging you for spare change isn't a professional panhandler.
  • Dana ... also, it's the whole "give them a fish" or "hand them a rod and teach them to fish" thing. There was a documentary where a homeless person was handed a briefcase with $100k in it.

    Of course, he spent it all within weeks ... back to homeless. Why?

    I don't know, but a combination of whatever mind-set made him homeless in the first place, together with a lack of guidance as to what to do with his 'windfall'.

    The same thing has happened even with 'rich' people who won a huge payout in the lottery and suddenly became MUCH richer ... it's the 'suddenly' but that usually does them in ...

    AJC.
  • In regards to the dollar plan, it is amazing how many people I know who have big dreams but no goals. When I ask them how they are going to achieve something (i.e. retire at age 30, break a habit), they say something broad, like "I'll work hard". I love the optimism, but we really need goals. I like that plan, because you can track monthly how you are doing with that goal. Thanks for passing it on!

    Bryan
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