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animalsatwildlilac · 4 years ago

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Power Outage with Bearded Dragon

This beardie has a job. His name is Stripy, and he is a working lizard. His life is full of adventure at Wild Lilac preschool. But he does get weekends off, vacations, and even mental health days, just like me. I think he is lonely when we are not together.

On Thursday, when WL announced an early release because of the winter storm warning, I got the whole day off because I only teach in the afternoons. But I still needed to go in, briefly -- to tend to the animals before the roads got messy.

On the way there, I stopped for supplies at my local pet store, Tropical Hut. I bought 100 crickets and a package of frozen bloodworms.

When I parked in front of the school, rain was falling and the temperature was dropping. Masked parents were picking up their unmasked kids. I left 50 of the crickets in my car with plans to take them home for Stripy, my bearded dragon, and then I went to the animal room.

I fed and tucked our critters in –

Two cubes of bloodworms for the Axolotl;

Cucumber and carrots for the just-hatched baby snails;

Fresh pinecones and toilet paper rolls for the gerbils;

Hay for the new-found guinea pigs (see previous post);

Crickets in with the animals that eat crickets: the tarantula, the geckos, and the cane toad;

And food for the crickets themselves (some apple, some dog food);

The Madagascan Hissing cockroaches still had food;

The walking sticks are all out of bramble – I’m sorry, but they will be okay for a few days without food.

I headed home.

As I brought the deli container of crickets into my house (they had been in my car for about 45 minutes) I realized something was tragically wrong -- all 50 of them were on their backs, heels to heaven. My first though was carbon monoxide. How could they all have DIED in such a short time? Then I realized maybe they weren’t dead – they were cold! Or did they freeze to death? It just hadn’t been that long. Such drama! I set them on a table and watched them, and as they warmed, they started to move. First a leg twitched, then another, then one flipped over. I was thinking how cool is this! Definitely something to explore with the kids – the freezing and warming of crickets.

And then, as I was deep in contemplation watching the flipping crickets, it’s 3 in the afternoon and -- the power goes out! There was no accumulation of ice or snow. The storm had hardly started. PGE said the power would be back on at 5pm. But at 5, they said 6, and at 6, it was 8.

When the temperature in Stripy’s tank dropped to 65 degrees, I had lifted him out and put him on my chest, zipped up a fleece vest over him, and put a fuzzy blanket around my shoulders.

My husband ventured out into the cold night to find a restaurant with power. He arrived home with salted peppered cod and garlic broccoli and kung pao shrimp from Powell Seafood, and the news that there were now 100,000 people without power in the greater Portland area.

At 8:03 our lights came on! Stripy was glad to get into his warm tank and eat some crickets. The humans were glad to catch up on what we had missed electronically in the past five hours.

Stripy poops biweekly, and does so in a predictable way – pretty much every time I put him in the bathtub; warm water brings it on for him like coffee does for me.

His poop in interesting. Part of it is white and rubbery, part of it loose and greenish brown.

At 2 in the morning my partner woke me. The power is off again, he says. PGE says the cause is under investigation and there is no estimated time for the power to return. In my Ambien induced slumber, I mumbled, “Please … bring me Stripy…”.

Stripy settled on my chest and closed his eyes. He clung to my nightie like a bur on a wool sweater, both of us covered with the duvet. Our dogs are not happy about Stripy joining us in the bed, and they move as close to my head as they can.

My partner kept checking on Stripy, to make sure he was staying on me, not straying into the sheets. But he needn’t worried. Why would this lizard leave the best heat source in the house -- a woman going through a menopausal transition?

Flanked by dogs, a lizard, and my partner who at this point in the pandemic has not just a beard, but a full wizard’s beard, we sleep. But not well. Our thermostat now says 54 degrees. I am worried about the crickets -- they are no longer chirping. but I am not going to snuggle them.

It is windy. My neighbor's roof is covered with snow and smoke is coming out of her chimney. Branches come down from the weight of ice. A car explodes and burns when a power line falls on it. All over Portland, people are lighting candles and caressing their reptiles, trying to keep them warm.

Stripy has two tanks – one at school, and one at home. His at-school tank is what I think of as his studio apartment; it’s furnished with a doll’s bed covered with a patchwork quilt, a hammock, a tiny ceramic toilet, and a small, hard copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. At home, he has a “desert” tank where I’ve built him tunnels and hillocks out of excavator sand.

In the summer, at the end of the day, he likes to join my family on the patio. We have cheese and crackers and glasses of chardonnay, and Stripy gets his own glass platter of mealworms. Yes, I know the mealworms are fatty and are supposed to be a treat, not a regular staple, which is why I’ve been trying to transition him to crickets. I want Stripy to chase crickets like how the beardie in the YouTube video chases blueberries, but he doesn’t.

I believe he doesn’t chase his food because he doesn’t have to.

He waits until a cricket crawls up on his hillock and then -- a quick snap nom nom nom -- he chomps on them. A drop of cricket juice spatters from his mouth.

But I know he still has his instincts, because I have watched him shoot across the patio to catch and eat a bee.

At school, the kids touch Stripy with one finger, and they know not to pet his head. Heads are personal spaces, and plus, that third eye! The first time I saw his third eye, I thought a child had drawn on him with marker.

When not roaming about the animal room, or sunning himself under a UV light, Stripy is carried in a woven sea grass basket filled with silks. He has castles built for him out of Magnatiles. The children pick fresh arugula for him from the garden and hand feed it to him. They sketch pictures of him that are pinned to the wall. The kids love him. They tell him this on a daily basis. They don’t imbue him with meaning, they just recognize him as sentient being.

The kids marvel at how his spikes look so sharp but are actually soft. They touch him and talk about his textures and colors, the orange rings encircling his eyes, his soft belly, his pointy tail. We watch his torso expand as he sighs, relaxing into his body.

What are those holes in the sides of his head?

What do you think they are?

Can he hear me? Why aren’t his ears on the outside like mine?

Will he lick me?

He might.

Why did he lick me!

He is tasting you. He’s finding out who you are.

This bearded dragon, does he know how to fly?

Not yet.

Well, his mommy needs to teach him!

I ask him questions in front of the kids … Stripy, do you want some dandelion greens? Oh, you do! Oh, Stripy, I can see you don’t want to be held right now. You want to move across the floor on your own!

I regularly give animacy to inanimate objects, too.

What is he saying now, Teacher Nikki?

What do you think he is saying?

Caring for animals helps us to build compassion. I want the kids to know that the animals are communicating with us, we just have to listen.

Sometimes, on my way home from work when I stop at Trader Joes, Stripy tells me that he doesn’t want to be left alone in the car, so I set him on my shoulder and he lies very still (but is supremely alert and watches everything) as I walk around the frozen foods and the wine aisles. Kids always notice him and want to connect. The crew usually notice him, too, and greet him with a wink. My sister, who likes animals but doesn’t have any, when I tell her about my experiences in Trader Joes with Stripy, says “Oh, Nik-Nac, you’ve become one of those people.”

And yes, I guess I have, it’s true. I have become that lady with the bearded dragon.

No, we are not supposed to have a lizard in a preschool -- because of the salmonella risk. However, I believe that risk is an inherent and natural consequence of childhood. Our preschoolers take turns on a broken seesaw that was homemade to begin with. They build with crates and cardboard boxes we scavenge from the furniture store on the corner. There is sometimes a sprinkling of nails in our sandbox. We have earthquakes here, and floods, and ice-storms. Our children breathe harmful air from wildfires. We have lockdown drills to prepare us for potential active shooters in our schools – a little salmonella isn’t going to shut things down for us!

In my more than 30 years of teaching with animals, I have probably exposed thousands of children to salmonella. It will be okay. For those of you who are still worried, let me tell you a little story.

I hosted a special COVID sleepover for some school-age kids recently (the kids were all from the same pod) and when it was discovered that one child had forgotten to bring a tooth brush, I said, “that’s okay, just borrow someone’s toothpaste and brush with your finger.” I mimed a demonstration and all the kids made faces of disgust. “I would never brush my teeth with my finger,” I heard. “I put my fingers in my butt too much!”

We do wash our hands as often as possible.

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prodigyduck · 6 years ago

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That Time I Almost Got Mercedes Lackey Killed...

So let me tell you about Gen Con 2018 and how I almost got Award-Winning novelist Mercedes Lackey killed...

To get the story started, you'll need to know that I am acquainted with New York Times Best Selling Novelists Larry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey. If you are unfamiliar with their work:

* Misty is the author of over 100 fantasy novels. She also has a successful superhero series under her belt. And despite being in her 60s, does not look like she is going to stop writing anytime soon.

* Larry is also an author, who has collaborated with Misty on several Valdemar novels. He is a fantastic illustrator. Both are avid bird enthusiasts. Remember the giant eagles from Lord of the Rings? Those are thanks to the film and footage taken by Larry. The same footage has been used by Weta Workshop to create the griffons in the Narnia and Warcraft films.

So, anywho...

Larry recently succumbed to an old shoulder injury he received during his days as a volunteer fire fighter. It was pretty bad. He had limited mobility, had to wear a sling, and could not lift more than 5 pounds for risk of tearing his shoulder out of its socket. As it was only three weeks from Gen Con, and they had already promised their fans they would be there, Larry asked if I could drive Misty to Gen Con and watch over her during the convention. They were also going to be sharing a booth space with my favorite independent film crew Zombie Orpheus Entertainment; for whom Larry has been doing script writing recently.

Previous to this, I was not planning to attend Gen Con this year. Financially, 2018 has not been a good year for me. I have been making enough money to pay my share of the household bills and groceries. But I have not been making enough to save up for extra fun things like vacations or conventions. Ah, the life of a freelancer! So, getting asked to go to Gen Con was made me very happy. Knowing that the room and expenses would be covered helped greatly! All I really needed to do was acquire a badge and save up as much money as I could for the next three weeks to have a little extra spending cash for the dealer room.

In the three weeks leading up to Gen Con, I had managed to accumulate about $300 of extra spending cash. Not bad, but not nearly as much as I usually have to spend in previous years. However, the week before we leave, Rogue Genius Games drops $1,500 on me for recent sales of my newly-released Super Powered Legends Sourcebook. Suddenly, all of my financial worries for Gen Con vanish! Yay!

Sunday -- four days before Gen Con -- my friends marc and Tom drop me off at Larry and Misty's home so I can spend the next day helping with packing and sorting. About 10 AM Monday morning, we have a tsunami roll through the area and it knocks out the electricity. Given the rural area, the power does not get turned back on until 4 AM the following day. Needless to say, we were able to get nothing done with no power available. Tuesday is a mad rush to get everything done that we had not done Monday. Books are packed, posters and art prints are signed, Larry is trying to put EVERYTHING in the Ford Flex -- and I do mean everything! He wants us to take a giant printer, camera tripods, and several Go-Pros for ZOE to use. My foot goes down at 3 PM. Nothing more is going in that vehicle and we are leaving. Larry is literally trying to give us more stuff as we are backing out of the driveway. Bye, Larry... bye!

Once we get on the road, everything goes smoothly! We have driven through St. Louis, Missouri around 9 PM and stop at a Motel for the night at 10 PM. The next morning, we awaken at 11, get some breakfast, and go. According to the GPS, we are only three and a half hours from Indianapolis. And, thanks to smooth traffic, we get there in that time. Check in to our hotel, I go and grab my badge from the VIG Lounge, deliver some buttons I made for BJ Hensley, and all is good!

Thursday, everything goes great. I escort Misty to all her seminars. At the first one, I get to meet the authors of the Expanse! When we get to her autograph signing time, she lets me know that I am free to do what I want for the rest of the day, and I go through the dealer room. First day of Gen Con done! That evening, Misty lets me know that she only has one seminar to attend at 4 PM the next day and that she will otherwise be at the ZOE booth until then. I am otherwise free to do what I want until 4.

Then Friday...

Misty's 9:00 alarm goes off and she re-sets it. But she does not get out of bed. Seeing she wants more sleep, I make quick use of the bathroom, dress, and make my way out. It's 10:00 Misty is still asleep, as far as I can tell. I am standing in line to sell some miniatures at the CoolStuffInc booth when Larry calls me at 11:30 to tell me that Misty has had a stroke and my stomach drops to my feet. She is currently at the hospital. I run back to the room, and try to answer all the doctor's questions that I can. I pack an overnight bag for Misty, which is grabbed by her ZOE handler, Judy, and taken to the hospital. Otherwise, I am in the hotel room alone for most of the day, fretting and worried. I get calls every couple of hours for updates. At 4, I am coaxed out of the room by Larry, who convinces me to put on my game face and help show the con that we are still there for the fans. The show must go on.

I still can't help but feel like shit because I was not there for Misty when she needed me.

I finally get some food -- my first in the day -- about 9 PM.

Saturday, I am awoken by a phone call. Misty is okay. I was NOT a stroke. In fact, it was a toxic reaction to the outgassing of the new room we were staying in. The hotel wanted to impress Misty with its newest-refurbished room, not realizing they needed to let it vent from all the paint and redecorating. And given we were 11 stories up, none of the windows are able to open for outdoor ventilation. But, Misty is otherwise okay. I am up and out to the ZOE booth. The show must go on. We are here for the fans!

I have a curtain call for the Gamers: LIVE! show at 11:40 AM. At 11:20, Misty calls me to say I should gather my things in the room, as the hotel will be moving us to a room that is not so... newly refurbished; one that has already undergone its full outgassing period. I am internally screaming my entire way to the room, throw everything into my suitcase on the bed, and run all the way back to ICC 500, where the show will be. I am pouring sweat from what should have been a 30 minute round-trip done in 15 minutes. But I am there for the show!

Obviously, I sucked, because I have no improv skills -- especially when compared to the comedy talent of the ZOE crew -- which is why I quit acting during my Jr. High School years. But where I missed out on improv, I excelled at artistic comedy; holding up quick illustrations of goblins going "pew-pew-pew" after Owen Stephens suggested the villain of the show was a space ("SPACE!") goblin. Close to the end of the show, Satine Phoenix and Rudy Rootenburg appear, along with the rest of the Maze Arcana crew, and steal the show. This is the first time Satine and I have meet in person. We have spoken many times over private chat; both being fans of tabletop rpgs and both being professional artists. She gave me the biggest hug.

At that moment, I realized something... I was no longer sweating (thank the gods!), but I was no daisy either. Also... Satine Phoenix is a fucking ANGEL! She just... radiates... positively, joy, compassion, love... all the things that are good and wonderful and being a human. I really hope I get to meet her again, maybe for more than 5 minutes.

After the show, I return to the (new) hotel room to find Misty there with several of her author friends. They are laughing and talking about the experience Misty just had. As Misty describes it: "I have never been to Woodstock, but last night I went to Woodstock! Those hallucinations were something!" She went on to describe seeing a woman with brown hair and an astronaut suit standing in between the paramedics who took her from the hotel room. She saw visions of the actors from ZOE, and all the different characters each of them played, having a rave. In the MRI, she saw a sheet of red blood cells covering her. As the MRI machine made a noise, the sheet got closer and closer to her face. Misty was aware that if she blew her breath at the sheet, it would be pushed away...

Yeah... she has new material for her next several novels.

By Saturday afternoon, Misty is back at the ZOE booth, signing books for fans and telling the story of what happened to her to each one. All of them are crying, glad that their favorite author is not dead. I am sitting next to Misty, putting on my brave face and trying not to break down, either... I still feel like crap for not having been there for her when she needed me. but she's safe. She's smiling.

The rest of Gen Con goes smoothly. The drive back goes so smoothly that we get Misty home in one day (apparently I have my father's endurance for long-distance driving). I call my friend Marc and ask if he is willing to pick me up. I really want to sleep in my own bed. It's been over a week, and I want to be home. Marc does, indeed pick me up, and I recall all of this to him on the three-hour drive home.

It's 2 AM on Tuesday when I get to sleep in my own bed. At this point, I am really glad that I had the forethought to wash my sheets before I left for Gen Con. I was tired of smelling my own body odor. I slept so good that night.

#Mercedes lackey #Larry Dixon #Gen Con #Satine Phoenix #Jacob Blackmon #Zombie Orpheus Entertainment #Dead gentlemen #ZOE #storytime #story

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thecatladyknits · 7 years ago

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moving is great but awful pt.2

i know i’ve been complaining a lot about the stress and bad things about moving, but this weekend was 90% great and a positive relationship experience even!

D has TONS of books. like so so many. under normal circumstances, that doesn’t really matter. but for moving, it’s going to be a pain in the ass to move them all. a lot of them are pretty generic titles too, like tons of dean koontz, tom clancy, clive cussler and stephen king (i love king, but he’s so prolific and popular, his books are easy peasy to find).

we sorted through our respective books and he got rid of at least 600 books. he probably still has a good 300 left, but that is HUGE progress. he kept books that have sentimental value, that he hasn’t read, box sets that he just likes, and ones he is pretty sure he will read again. i didn’t force him to get rid of anything; i just helped pack them up and identify duplicates.

i also helped him sort out clothes. he had over 100 pairs of socks, most of which are tall white athletic socks which he almost NEVER wears. he wears black socks if he has to work outside of the house, and wool hiking socks if we walk around a lot outdoors (actual hiking or walking around cities on a vacation). he very occasionally wears the white socks if he does something like walking a treadmill or other indoor exercise. he got rid of 43 pairs of white socks and threw out another dozen that had holes in them. i helped him sort and roll the socks. he also threw out a half dozen pairs of underwear that are too big, too small, or have holes.

i realize how much this sounds like... idk, i’m mom-ing him, but these are big steps for him. he has never needed to downsize anything and he hasn’t moved minimally in probably 20 years. the last few moves he did, he just hired a moving company and they threw everything in to boxes and he didn’t have to look at anything. it’s easy to accumulate random stuff when you don’t have any pressing need to get rid of them. i have moved myself about 6 times in the last decade, no moving company. only the last move in to his place did i use a moving company and that was only bc he wanted to do it for me and paid for it. every other time, i’ve packed up my own shit and moved it. i have not accumulated nearly as much as him. i know what a pain it is to move so much stuff by yourself. but even in the last 6 years, i’ve accumulated more than i need. but it’s easier for me to weed out since i’ve done it so many times.

also, we both have way too many clothes for what we actually need, bc when we have to do laundry now, we have to cart it down to the basement, and it’s always a pain in the ass. so we end up with too many socks and underwear to make it last longer between laundry days (which take like 2-3 hours of dedicated time, the washers break constantly and they’re kind of gross), and it’s not like we’re running out of space for socks, so it doesn’t matter than he has 100 pairs of socks he doesn’t wear. in our new apt, we have laundry in our unit. we can do laundry as often as we like and just one load at a time. so we don’t need lots of ‘back up’ clothing to get us by between laundry days.

i could also tell his brain was going DO EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and he was in a bit of decision paralysis, wandering around looking at random things, opening and closing drawers or picking up stuff and putting it down somewhere else but not actually making progress. so i tried to help by suggesting one small thing at a time - start with packing one bag of clothes you want to take, but don’t need to use for the next month. i don’t know if that actually helped, but after 2 hours, he was on a roll and we got through way more than we even planned.

last weekend, i took a half carload of mostly my stuff to donate. this weekend, we took 8 garbage bags of stuff to donate, plus 5 big boxes of books to sell to half priced books (probably around ~700 books between the two of us). he also took some old video game stuff to a retro game store to sell. we made about $110 between the books and games, and now he’s itching to take CDs and DVDs to sell back, something he wasn’t on board with previously.

i’m super proud of him. i’m really happy with the progress made on stuff, but we also did not get in any fights. and he seem much more GENUINELY excited and calm and ready, and he feels like he’s making progress towards turning over a new leaf.

#it was a good weekend #stress can be good sometimes #moving to seattle #decluttering

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xofanfics · 8 years ago

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31 Days - Part 1

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Reader

Genre: angst, fluff

Word Count: 2.8k

Summary: You come to Korea to visit your family after you graduate from college. Soon, you find yourself falling for a guy you meet online. There’s only one problem—you’re only in the country for thirty-one days.

You weren’t sure what you expected when you landed in South Korea. You’d been here once, years ago, when you were young. You didn’t remember much, other than the fact that you went over the summer and that it was really hot and that you hated kimchi.

You probably wouldn’t even recognize your cousins even if they were standing in front of you. They were babies back then. But your dad had your cousins and aunt add you on Facebook before you left.

To be honest, you felt a little nervous about coming to Korea. Being born in New York, you definitely knew English better than you knew Korean. After all, you were only half Korean.

You grabbed your suitcase from the baggage claim. You were excited to be in Korea because you haven't been in years. But at the same time you were nervous. You didn't know the language very well and you wondered if people would know just by looking that you weren't one hundred percent Korean.

You let out a yawn and walked through Incheon to find the shuttle that would take you to Seoul Station. You were exhausted. You’d been on that flight for fourteen hours, with some little kid kicking your seat for the majority of the flight. And you had to take the train to Daegu, where your aunt and uncle would meet you.

“Y/N!”

You turned around to find your aunt standing next to the car outside of Daegu station. She looked really similar to your dad so it was pretty easy to spot the woman that called you. With a smile, you walked toward her and her husband.

“You’ve grown so much!” said your aunt, giving you a squeeze.

Your uncle followed up with a hug. “Was the flight long?” He took your bags and put them in the trunk of the car.

You climbed in the backseat. “Yeah. I’m going to be so jetlagged.”

Your aunt smiled at you from the passenger seat. “You have a whole month to get used to it.”

Your uncle got in the car and started driving away from the train station. “Are you excited to have graduated?”

You nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad it’s over.”

“Were you thinking of going to grad school?”

“I’m going to take a year off before I decide,” you explained.

College had been tough. You were ecstatic once you graduated. Ninety percent of the problems in your life had gone away after you walked down the aisle. It was a relief not to have to worry about assignments, exams, or group papers.

You were grateful that your parents agreed to letting you go to Korea for a month before you came back to start your job. You got a job working for a small company in Brooklyn starting in February. If you could, you’d stay longer. You weren’t quite ready to start being an adult.

In fifteen minutes, you had arrived at your grandmother’s apartment. Your aunt and uncle led you inside, saying that your cousins were waiting to see you. As soon as she opened the door your cousins, Yuri and Yubin were in front of the door. You vaguely remembered them as kids, but barely. Yubin was the oldest. She was eighteen, while Yuri was fifteen.

“Hi,” you said shyly.

“Hey,” they said, in unison. They each gave you a quick hug before helping you with your bags. Your cousins led you into a room toward the back of the house. You entered the room that had been prepared for you. It was small, with a full sized bed, nightstand, and a dresser with a small television on top of it.

Your grandma came into the room. “Y/N?”

You turned around to smile at her. “Grandma!” You rushed over to hug her. It had been so long since you’d seen her last. You talked to her on the phone a few times in between, but it wasn’t too often since international calls cost a lot.

“How was the flight?”

“Good,” you said. “I’m just tired. I couldn’t sleep much. Not with a kid kicking my seat.”

She laughed and said, “Are you hungry? Let’s eat… We prepared dinner.”

You were tired, but you couldn’t sleep just yet. Your grandmother and aunt had prepared dinner and it was great. You had all the Korean foods that tasted a hell of a lot better here than back at home. You helped grill beef and wrapped it up with lettuce, rice, and vegetables. Your arrival in Korea was a special occasion because, according to Yubin, grandma “never cooks this much.”

After dinner, you hung out with your cousins in the living room while the adults stayed in the kitchen. Yuri turned the television on and put on the Youtube application. She turned to you and said, “What kind of music do you listen to?”

“I like Rihanna, the Weeknd…Do you know them?”

“I don’t think I know the Weeknd,” Yuri said, putting her hand on her chin. “Do you like Korean music?”

“I’ve heard a few songs,” you said, “but I don’t know any names, to be honest.”

Yuri turned on a music video and said, “Watch this and see if you like it.”

A guy with platinum blonde hair popped up on the screen first, with others behind him, moving left and right.

Yubin started singing. “She got me going crazy…”

“This is a group called EXO,” Yuri explained as her sister continued singing the lyrics in Korean. “Ever heard of them?”

“I have,” you told her. “One of my friends likes that group. She saw them last year when they came to the states but I didn’t go with her. She said she likes Chen. Who’s your favorite? Do you have one?”

Yuri nodded. “My bias is Baekhyun.”

Yubin said, “I’m not as into EXO but I liked Luhan. He left the group, though. Three whole people left the group, can you believe it?”

“Yeah, my friend from back home told me all about it. She really liked Luhan, too.”

Yubin sighed. “I hope no one from NCT leaves. They’re about to make a comeback, too.” She lowered her voice a little. “I kinda think they’re better than EXO right now…”

Yuri snapped, “Hey! I heard that.”

She smirked at her sister. “I’m just saying…I can’t wait to until the music video for Limitless is released. I can’t wait to see Johnny. He’s finally debuting.”

You nodded. “This song is pretty good. I like it. Have you been to their concert before?”

Yubin said, “Yeah. We went to one last year but the last time we tried to buy tickets, they sold out too quickly.”

Yuri said, “We’re going to a BTS fansign in two weeks, though. We both really like them. And I have a letter that I want to give to Jungkook.”

You raised your eyebrows. “You can do that? Actually give them things? I went to a fan meet before and we were lucky if we could even get a picture...”

“Really?” asked Yuri. “It’s not like that here.”

Yubin took a swig from her water bottle. “Do you wanna go with us?”

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t really know them,” you replied.

You had heard about how the fan meets could get. You didn’t want to have to wake up at six in the morning just to wait on line and have a couple seconds to say hi. Plus, you had no idea what BTS was or what it stood for or who the members were. You didn’t want to go up to them, ignorant and not knowing what to say.

“Well,” said Yuri, “if you change your mind, let us know. It’s in two weeks, on a Friday.”

Your aunt came out into the living room. “Come on, both of you have school tomorrow and studying to finish.”

Your cousins groaned and started to stand up. You had almost forgotten that, technically, they were both still high school students. Before leaving, they suggested that the three of you eat together after they came from their after school study group. They said they’d show you some good places to eat.

After they left, you went to the room you’d be staying in after saying goodnight to your grandmother. It had been a long day and you were a bit tired from the trip. You took off your clothes and got in the shower, washing away the dust you were sure you’d accumulated from the long plane ride.

By the time you got in bed, your eyes were low. You took your phone off of the charger for a moment, deciding to see if you could make some friends or something. You opened the whisper app. You typed in ‘Korea’ to see if there were any groups where you could chat with anyone. You found a group of people wanting to learn Korean. You posted in the group: Is anyone here in Korea?

Then you locked your phone and fell asleep almost instantly.

You rolled over, the morning sun peeking through the blinds. You reached for your phone on the nightstand and found that you had a new message from the Whisper app. A person with the username Taeberry95 had messaged you saying, I’m in Korea!

You wrote, I am too! I’m on vacation!

You looked at the person’s age. It said that they were somewhere between eighteen to twenty. Looking at the username, you figured you were talking to a girl.

Taeberry95: Are you Korean?

You: I’m half. I’m from NYC.

Taeberry95: Cool, I’m going there in March!

You: Are you Korean too?

Taeberry95: Yeah. 100%

You: I guess you know English pretty well

Taeberry95: Yeah, my friend helps me out

You: I know a little bit of Korean but not too much

Taeberry95: I can help you if you want to practice writing

You: So what city are you in, if you don’t mind me asking?

Taeberry95: Daegu

You: Me too

Taeberry95: Really?

You: Yeah. I’m visiting family.

Taeberry95: Do you know the area?

You: Not really. I haven’t been here since I was little

Taeberry95: I could give you some recommendations

You: That would help out a lot. Do you know where a bookstore is?

Taeberry95: There’s a bookstore called Kyobo. They sell english books there. Haha idk if you know enough Korean to read a whole book.

You: Lol you’re right. I don’t

Taeberry95: I’m always right ;)

You: Whatever lol

Taeberry95: Would you want to meet up sometime? I can take you to the bookstore.

Taeberry95: Sorry if it’s too forward, I was just wondering…

You: No, no, it wasn’t too forward.

You: Are you free today?

Taeberry95: Yeah, do you wanna meet today?

You: Sure, I’m meeting my cousins for dinner around 8 but we can hangout before then.

Taeberry95: How’s 4?

You: That works for me

Taeberry95: Do you have kakao?

You: Yeah. What’s your ID?

Taeberry95 gave you the kakao ID and messaged you first. Hey, it’s Tae.

My name is Y/N.

You got a picture message next. You were pleasantly surprised to find that Taeberry95 wasn’t a girl. Taeberry95 was a guy.

You wrote, You’re a guy? Lol

What? Did you think that I was a girl?

Um kinda…

Lmao nah, i’m a guy, he wrote. Anyway, this is me.

You searched through your phone library, deciding that you should send him a picture, too. The last thing you wanted was for this Korean guy to think that you were a catfish or something. You looked at his picture for a moment. He was good looking. His skin was darker than a lot of other Koreans you’d seen walking around and his lips were full. He had a great smile, you noticed, with almond shaped eyes that seemed so happy and full of life.

He was really attractive, you realized. Suddenly, you felt a lot less confident than you had, say, just a few minutes ago. What if he thought you were ugly? Immediately, you shook those negative thoughts out of your head. No, you thought. I’m thinking way too deep into this. He only asked you to meet up at the bookstore. It was a normal meetup. The two of you would probably just make small talk and talk about your favorite books. Did he even like reading? You shook your head. It wasn’t like you were meeting up to go on a date. How you looked shouldn’t matter.

You went through your camera roll and clicked on one of the three pictures you took on the plane before it took off. You chose the one where you thought your smile looked best and sent it to Tae.

He messaged you back immediately. You’re pretty :)

You smiled. You’re right. I am pretty.

He said, Lol so does that mean I’m ugly?

With the grin still plastered across your face, you typed, Not necessarily

Your heart started racing as you allowed Google Maps to guide you toward the bookstore. You had met up with people from social media before, but this was a bit different, You were in a completely different country with different culture and traditions. You hoped that you didn’t come off as rude. Americans have a bad reputation internationally, so you hoped that you’d make a good first impression.

You went inside the bookstore as you texted him to say that you were there. It was a cute little store,with cute little stationery items. As you started sorting through the pencils that they had, you heard your name. Whipping your head around, you found Tae. He was just as handsome as in the selfie he sent earlier, if not more.

He smiled brightly at you and waved. “Hey, Y/N!”

“Hey, how are you?”

You thought about hugging him because that’s what you’d normally do but you didn’t know him well enough for that. Koreans weren’t very touchy feely when it came to others unless it was their boyfriend or girlfriend or something like that. The last thing you wanted was to scare him off. He seemed really cool. After agreeing to meet up, you continued texting. You found out that he actually did like reading and that Harry Potter was one of his favorite series, though he hadn’t had time to read the last three. He’d said, “I saw the movies, though!”

“You like stationery?” he asked.

You shrugged. “It’s cute, but I’ve never really considered buying any.”

He smiled. “Let’s look at some books.”

“Okay,” you said, following him.

He walked toward the back of the bookstore, where the books for young adults were. You came across a bunch of familiar titles that you’d seen in Barnes & Noble back home. He picked up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. “I haven’t had time to finish this one.”

“What have you been doing?”

He said, “Oh, I’ve just been working...”

“I just graduated from college so I’m here for a month.”

“Do you know what you want to do?”

“I want to work for a while. I was thinking of going to graduate school. I’m just not sure what I want to do,” you explained. “I got a job. I start next month as a Digital Marketing Assistant.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“What kind of work do you do?” you asked, shifting through books.

Tae sat down against the wall, book in hand. “I go to cyber university and also work at an entertainment company.”

“I know music and movies are really big here, but I don’t know any of the companies or the artists.” You sat down next to him, beginning to flip through one of the books you found. “Do you listen to K-pop?”

“All the time.”

“My cousins seem to like it a lot. They showed me a group called EXO. The song was called ‘Monster.’ Do you know it?”

He nodded. “They’re really popular these days.”

“They want me to go to a fanmeet with them too. I forgot what group they said.”

“You should go,” he said. “It might be fun.”

“Yeah,” you said. “Maybe I will. I was thinking of going shopping nearby while they go to it.”

“Are you into fashion?”

“A little bit. I like shopping every now and then. I could use some new clothes. What about you?”

“I like clothes. I wasn’t rich or anything growing up so I kind of just wore whatever I got, you know?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t rich either.”

“But I’m making a lot more money now so I can buy more things.”

You nodded. “I saved up a lot of money for this trip. While I was in school, I worked at Starbucks part-time.”

“I’m actually kind of thirsty. Do you want to get bubble tea? We can come right back if you want,” he said, chuckling, “or if I’m too weird, you can leave.”

You shook your head, joining in his laughter. “You’re not too weird.”

He stood up, putting the book he had back on the shelf. “Are you sure? You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“No,” you said, “I’m not lying to you. Don’t worry.”

And he shot you that sweet smile again.

#kim taehyung #taehyung #bts taehyung #bts v #bangtan boys #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #bts smut #bts fluff #bts angst #bangtan smut #bangtan fluff #bangtan angst #bts scenarios #bts reactions #bts imagines #bts #bts army

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goldeagleprice · 6 years ago

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Singapore, Indonesia offer monetary adventures

(Image courtesy www.directferries.com)

I spent much of the previous two weeks in Singapore, with a day trip to Batam Centre, Indonesia. In contrast to the United States, just about anywhere in Singapore is less than 20 miles from Indonesia and Malaysia, nations whose populations (32+ million and 266+ million, respectively) are much more populous than the 5.8 million in Singapore.

Because of the close proximity and the significant financial interconnectedness, monetary arrangements in Singapore and Indonesia are different than they are in the United States.

In both countries, one of the most common businesses you encounter are currency exchanges. Some are stand-alone operations, but many stores also have a currency exchange counter. In one Singapore mall, of four side-by-side stores, three had currency exchange counters. I think about 1/3 of the exchange places had long boards posting their buy/sell prices – none of them charged any service charges beyond those prices.

With so many options available, I found the buy/sell spreads to be far more competitive than are available in America, a land where most currency exchange activities would tend to be near to national borders or major ports of entry.

For instance, the Singapore dollar is worth about 72-73 cents to the U.S. dollar. The inverse is that the U.S. dollar is worth about $1.37-1.39 Singapore dollars. The buyers were offering at least $1.30 to as much as $1.35 Singapore dollars per U.S .dollar. The U.S. dollar sell rates ranged from $1.375 to $1.40 Singapore dollars. One vendor was buying U.S. dollars at $1.35 and selling at $1.375 Singapore dollars, a spread of barely 1.8 percent. Even for exchanges between Singapore dollars and the Indonesia rupiah, the buy/sell spreads tended to be 3 percent or tighter for small quantities. One operation would pay $1.34 Singapore dollars for U.S. currency up to $20 denomination and $1.35 for U.S. $50s and $100s. There was virtually no paperwork other than a receipt for the transaction, no names or ID required.

Singapore gained independence in late 1965 and issued its first coins in 1967. All are still legal tender, although the diameters were reduced during 1985 and some metal compositions have changed. I brought with me all the spendable Singapore coins that my company had accumulated and only had one store where they would not accept the large older coins. One taxi driver even got excited to receive an old dollar coin as part of his tip.

One-cent coins were last issued for circulation in 2001. It is of such small value that merchants always rounded cash transactions to the nearest five cents. Circulating coins include the 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, and $1 denominations. Currency denominations, which are all plastic now, start at $2, $5, $10, $50, and go up to $1,000. Because the notes are plastic, the condition of all that I saw was high.

Most goods and services were priced inclusive of the Goods and Services Tax. Exceptions included sit-down, non-fast food restaurants, where such establishments normally added a 10 percent service charge plus the GST. Most merchants that accepted credit cards did not add an extra fee. However, taxis and service businesses often did charge a fee to accept cards.

In walking around, I passed a few coin and stamp shops that seemed more to serve tourists than serious numismatists. One had some junk boxes on a table outside on the sidewalk, so I took a closer look. In the dollar bucket were about one-third arm’s length poor quality counterfeits of coins that otherwise might be $10-50 pieces. Every single piece in those buckets had been harshly cleaned. That discouraged me from wanting to investigate further. It there are coin shops for serious collectors, they are likely not to be found in tourist shopping areas.

If you wanted to purchase gold, your best bet would to be to go to a jeweler. One jeweler had a sign indicating that the .999 fine gold ingots and jewelry in a section were selling for $59 per gram (approximately $1,330 U.S. per troy ounce) or the .916 fine gold items at $54 per gram (again, about $1,330 U.S. per troy ounce of gold content). The displays had almost no coins. I believe that Singapore recently exempted gold coins from a 3 percent import tax. There were no signs indicating that the Goods and Services Tax would be added to the sales price. If not, then the jewelry could be purchased for less than 7 percent above the intrinsic gold value.

I did see some instances of banks operating a single-desk kiosk in malls. I would be fearful of security to the bank and its customers if this were done in many other countries, including America.

Taking the ferry over to Indonesia for a day trip turned out to be less than wonderful. First, the ferry was held for a half hour while an incoming cruise ship docked. Then, it took 90 minutes to go through Indonesian Immigration once arriving in Batam Centre. The planned trip was to put us on Indonesian soil for four hours. Half of that was gone before we even exited the arrival building.

Then we learned we had to go through immigration again an hour before departure, which barely left us time to go to the mall across the street to eat lunch. It might sound like paying 118,000 rupiah for lunch for two is a lot, but that was barely $8 U.S. Besides restaurants with multiple Asian cuisines, the mall also had an A&W, Burger King, KFC, and a Wendy’s.

My sister and I grabbed a few quick souvenirs on the way back to the ferry dock, but I spent less than one-third of the Indonesia currency that I had brought with me to leave in that country (meaning more business for the currency exchange in Singapore, where one of the 20,000-rupiah notes was too worn to be acceptable – all Indonesia currency is still printed on paper). The slow operation of Indonesia’s immigration resulted in less business for the country’s merchants.

While I did see multiple currency exchanges in Indonesia, I didn’t have time to investigate buy/sell rates. The circulating coins go up to 1,000 rupiah, while the currency goes from 5,000 through 100,000 rupiah.

Upon return to Singapore that day, in comparison, it only took about 10 minutes to pass through immigration.

Neither nation had money changers operating in the streets as I have utilized in a handful of other nations I’ve visited over the years.

Next year, I plan more international travel, including a trip to two new African countries for me. In my childhood, I lived in Sudan and then Liberia for several years while my father was in the foreign aid program. I also visited Egypt and Senegal. I can speak a little bit in about ten African languages and dialects, plus Arabic and French, and am starting to learn the dialect spoken in southwest Uganda. Look for another report after that trip.

Remember – correlation does not prove causality! However, it did happen that the gold and silver prices jumped at least 1 percent when I left the country and did not return to the lower levels until I got back. While I take no credit for that occurrence, if some dealers and collectors would like to raise funds to send me on an additional foreign vacation, I would be willing to sacrifice myself for the cause.

Patrick A. Heller was the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, 2017 Exemplary Service Award, 2012 Harry Forman Dealer of the Year Award, and 2008 Presidential Award winner. He was also honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild in 2017 and 2016 for the Best Dealer-Published Magazine/Newspaper and for Best Radio Report. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries titled “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio and text archives posted at http://www.1320wils.com).

This article was originally printed in Numismatic News Express. >> Subscribe today

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fesahaawit · 7 years ago

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Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth

[My man ESI makes a return today to share his tips on what to REALLY focus on in order to grow our wealth exponentially. You might remember him from his previous post that went viral on the 10 things he didn’t expect in early retirement, which he’s still very much in and still very much enjoying :) Thanks for taking the time, good sir!]

********

We all have money tips coming out our ears. Do this. Don’t do that. Do this or that. And on and on… The advice seems endless. So much so that if you try to follow them all you’d end up with no time to actually live your life.

At the same time, all money tips are not created equal. While many are valuable, there are some that are exponentially better. These are the tips that will make you wealthy.

So let’s get to the good stuff and cast the rest aside for now. Based on the experience of managing my own money — allowing me to accumulate a few million dollars and retire at 52 — here are my recommended ten big financial moves that will propel your wealth skyward!

#1. Get an advanced education in a valuable field

College degrees can add significant wealth. There’s no debate that (on average) the more education you have, the more you’ll earn and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

And if you can keep debt low while getting the degree (and there are reliable ways of doing this), then it’s almost guaranteed that getting a college degree is a good deal.

Even better is getting a degree in the right field. It’s well-known that certain careers pay more than others. Pick one that is closer to the top than the bottom and you’re finances will thank you for it.

Consider this finding:

College graduates earn $1 million more than high school graduates over their lifetime, and the income gap between the highest-paid college majors and the lowest-paid is more than $3 million dollars.

To make even more, get an advanced degree in a high-paying field. This is where the big money can kick in.

I got an MBA by spending a grand total of $5k for six years of college (because I was willing to work during school and got good grades). My MBA was worth an extra $1 million to $2 million, even though I only worked until I was 52. If I had stayed employed into my sixties you could take on a few more million.

Of course, you have to factor in abilities and interests when picking a career. But most people have at least a handful of fields that would work for them. If they select one which pays a bit more, they will be making a solid financial decision which can help them become quite wealthy over time.

#2. Focus on growing your career

Even if you don’t pick a vocation in the highest-earning field, your career is a multi-million dollar asset. If you don’t believe me, take a starting salary of $40k, add in 3% annual raises over 45 years, and look at the result. You’ll have earned $3.7 million.

Even better, you can manage your career to get those 3% average raises even higher. Doing so will help you earn millions more throughout your career.

Take the same numbers from above and instead of 3% raises use 8.16% raises. The difference is over $10 million!

Think it can’t be done? I averaged 8.16% increases for 28 years using seven steps that grow any career. Plus, it took me years to figure out the seven steps. You don’t have to go through that trouble, so you have the potential to do much better than I did.

Of course, 8.16% could be considered on the high side. So let’s go low. Let’s say you average 4% annual raises. That extra 1% will allow you to earn an extra $1.1 million more than what 3% raises would.

Any way you look at it, managing your career for income growth will have a huge impact on your finances.

#3. Control spending

No matter how much you make, you can spend it all. We don’t have to look far to find examples. It’s almost a cliche that high-income actors and sports stars go bankrupt. People who have made millions somehow spend it all and then some. As a result, they are often left with nothing (or less).

A bit closer to home, you can see this principle play out across our country.

The median American household annual income is $51,939. U.S. households median net worth is $80,039. This means that over a 40-year period at an 8% return rate, the average American is saving a paltry $310 a year. What are they doing with all the rest? They are spending it!

On the other hand, those who control their spending do much better.

Assume a family can save $5k per year (less than 10% of their income). In 40 years at 8% they will have a net worth of $1.3 million. See what even a little bit of saving can do over a lifetime?

And this doesn’t mean you have to save on EVERYTHING, just some things. Enjoy your life by spending on what you want here and there, just keep it in line so you have excess to save and invest. Even 10% will make you wealthy over time.

Personally, I wanted to do better than average and was able to save 36% of my income. Others have saved much more. If we can do it, so can you. (See: Proof You Can Live off 50% of Your Income)

There are two major areas to control spending: on the big things, and on the little things.

Big things like homes, cars, extravagant vacations, and the like can bust your budget in a single move. Little things like eating out for lunch regularly, smoking a pack of cigarettes daily, and, dare I say, drinking $5 cups of coffee several times a day don’t seem like much, but they can add up to big dollars over time.

#4. Eliminate debt

Debt is a financial killer, especially consumer debt. And yes, even “good debt” like a mortgage and student loan debt can be bad in many situations. Look no further than 2008 for housing debt and the current issues with student loan debt.

The average American will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest over the course of his/her lifetime. Imagine if this expense was eliminated or even cut in half and invested? This move alone would make anyone’s net worth sky-high.

We eliminated all debt over 20 years ago when we paid off our mortgage. We had already retired our car loans and a personal loan. Then we focused everything on paying off the mortgage. It started with buying a house we could afford — one half the price the bank wanted to lend to us. We then took all extra cash — bonuses, financial gifts, etc. — and put them against the mortgage. We cut spending as well and made extra payment after extra payment.

Less than a decade later, we were completely debt free.

Not having debt for two decades allowed us to dramatically increase the amount we saved, which in turn super-charged our net worth.

#5. Invest early and often

You’ve probably heard that time is your greatest investing asset. It’s true. The more investments earn and grow on their own, the greater they become.

Investment value is also greatly impacted by the amount invested.

These two factors are why you want to put away as much as you can as soon as you can. Fortunately, both of these decisions are within your control.

Return rate is the third variable in the investment growth equation and gets most of the press. However it’s actually the least important of the three in determining your overall results. Furthermore, beating the averages in return rate is virtually impossible.

You can spend hours and hours trying to find the right investments, only to not pick a winner. Or you can just invest in low-cost index funds and let them do the work — and beat 95+% of investments over time! This is what I’ve done and what I recommend.

Finally, you have to stick with it, which may be the hardest investing choice of all.

I remember back in 2008-2010 when things were really dicey. My portfolio was down big-time. I had put money in all the way down and there was no sign it was going to come back.

But I kept at it and even found extra cash to invest.

Seven years later I’m so glad I did. That money is now worth a small fortune!

Many think the stock market is due for a drop soon. No one knows when it will happen, but if it does, keep the faith. Market drops are often the time to buy if you have at least a 10-year time horizon.

#6. Marry well

You can make all the great money moves in the world, but if you’re married to someone who makes all the wrong moves you’re in trouble.

You don’t have to marry Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, but you do need a spouse who shares your financial goals and general outlook on money.

This was a VERY big part of our financial success.

I was good at tips #1, #2, and #5 above, but my wife was great at #3 and #4. In words from The Millionaire Next Door, I was good at offense and she was good at defense.

Together we had a winning combination. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, divided up the responsibilities, and climbed up the money mountain together.

#7. Have goals and a plan to reach them

First of all, having a goal is key to being financially successful. It sets the bar and allows you to work towards what you want to achieve.

It doesn’t need to be a 100-page treatise comparable to the federal budget, but you must have at least a general goal like “retire at 40 with $2 million in the bank.” It’s better yet to have SMART goals.

Another key is to write them down. Research has shown that “people become 42% more likely to achieve their goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.”

Second, simply having a goal does little good if you don’t then take action on reaching these goals.

You need to break each goal into bite-sized tasks that allow you to grow your career and control your spending if you want to accumulate wealth.

I know this can seem daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. Simply write down what you want to accomplish and what you’re going to do to get you there. Then just make a small bit of progress every day. Over time, those seemingly little advances will add up to something big.

This was the tip that I missed when I was young. I went several years without a specific money plan and I lost five years of investing. Do you know what those five years would be worth now? Thousands.

But hopefully my bad planning demonstrates that even if you’ve made a few mistakes along the way, there’s hope for you if you take action now.

#8. Track net worth and cash flow

Net worth and cash flow statements are financial success scorecards. Net worth (assets less liabilities) tells you how you are growing your wealth over time, and is of course something that J$ likes to drill into our heads.

Cash flow statements (aka “budgets” listing income less expenses) tell you how much you are making and how it’s being spent. From there, you can make decisions that allow you to do more of the former and less of the latter, freeing up more money for investing.

We have tracked our net worth monthly for over 20 years. We use Quicken, but you can also use Mint, Personal Capital, a spreadsheet, or even paper. The key is that you track it on a regular basis (probably at least quarterly) to see how you’re doing at growing your wealth. It lets you know if what you’re doing is working or not. (Editor’s Note: I’m on month #114 in a row – best thing I ever did for my money!!!)

We have had a budget for years as well. We use a spreadsheet that I update monthly. It’s very useful at showing where our money is spent which allows us to make adjustments sooner rather than later.

Many people hate budgets because they think they are too restrictive. I’ve found them to be the opposite. They allow me to know exactly what I’m earning and spending, which then frees me to make the lifestyle decisions I want to make.

My guess is that our budget alone was responsible for half of our spending control success.

#9. Develop side hustles

In addition to growing your career, a side hustle/business is a great way to #1) do something you enjoy and #2) bring in some extra income to grow your net worth much faster. Also something J$ loves to share here. (See: 71 Ways to Make Money On The Side)

I’ve had several side hustles over the years including:

Freelance writing for magazines — This was a major contributor to paying off our mortgage

Blogging — I had a blog before my current one which was quite successful

Refereeing — Mostly done because my son needed the money and we did it together, but a few extra thousand dollars a year never hurts

Real estate — My biggest side business of all (though some could call it an investment) which allowed me to retire without having to draw down any assets

The great thing about a side hustle is that it speeds up early retirement dramatically.

Assume you can retire when you are able to generate $40k in income per year. At a 4% asset withdrawal rate, this means you’d need $1 million saved. Also assume you can invest $10,000 a year towards that goal at an 8% return.

If you have no side hustle, it would take you 29 years to reach your goal.

If you have a side hustle that took four years to build up to $20k per year, and you invested that money, in 12 years you’d have $503k (which would generate just over $20k at 4% withdrawal) plus a business that generated $20k. Bam! You’re at your $40k annual goal.

So the side hustle is probably worth it to save 17 years of working, right?

#10. Learn about money and manage it yourself

No one cares more about you than you do, but there are plenty of people who care about your money. Many of them want to turn it into their money and they are quite good at it.

Others have good intentions but simply don’t understand how money works. And yes, this includes many, if not most, financial advisors. The only way to avoid being taken (one way or the other) is to know the basics of managing money yourself.

Fortunately, the money principles you need to be successful are simple to learn and few in number. With a handful of books and regular reading of some good money blogs you will develop the knowledge and skill not only to protect yourself, but to thrive financially.

We were fortunate to take a Dave Ramsey-like class at our church soon after we were married. It set up a good foundation for us. I continued by reading several personal finance books and applying the key principles that I learned. Finally, I began to write about money and became even more educated along the way.

I started from ground zero, and if I can learn how to manage my money, you certainly can too.

Everything you need to know

Yes, there are a ton of other financial guidelines you could implement — probably thousands. But if you want the biggest financial bang for the time spent, focus on these ten wins above.

If you get these right, there’s no way for you not to become financially free yourself.

********* This post comes to you from from ESI Money, a blog about achieving financial independence through earning, saving, and investing (ESI). It’s written by an early 50’s retiree who achieved financial independence, shares what’s worked for him, and details how others can implement those successes in their lives. He is also the author of a free ebook titled Three Steps to Financial Independence.

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

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heliosfinance · 7 years ago

Text

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth

********

At the same time, all money tips are not created equal. While many are valuable, there are some that are exponentially better. These are the tips that will make you wealthy.

#1. Get an advanced education in a valuable field

College degrees can add significant wealth. There’s no debate that (on average) the more education you have, the more you’ll earn and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

And if you can keep debt low while getting the degree (and there are reliable ways of doing this), then it’s almost guaranteed that getting a college degree is a good deal.

Consider this finding:

College graduates earn $1 million more than high school graduates over their lifetime, and the income gap between the highest-paid college majors and the lowest-paid is more than $3 million dollars.

To make even more, get an advanced degree in a high-paying field. This is where the big money can kick in.

#2. Focus on growing your career

Even better, you can manage your career to get those 3% average raises even higher. Doing so will help you earn millions more throughout your career.

Take the same numbers from above and instead of 3% raises use 8.16% raises. The difference is over $10 million!

Any way you look at it, managing your career for income growth will have a huge impact on your finances.

#3. Control spending

A bit closer to home, you can see this principle play out across our country.

On the other hand, those who control their spending do much better.

Assume a family can save $5k per year (less than 10% of their income). In 40 years at 8% they will have a net worth of $1.3 million. See what even a little bit of saving can do over a lifetime?

Personally, I wanted to do better than average and was able to save 36% of my income. Others have saved much more. If we can do it, so can you. (See: Proof You Can Live off 50% of Your Income)

There are two major areas to control spending: on the big things, and on the little things.

#4. Eliminate debt

Less than a decade later, we were completely debt free.

Not having debt for two decades allowed us to dramatically increase the amount we saved, which in turn super-charged our net worth.

#5. Invest early and often

You’ve probably heard that time is your greatest investing asset. It’s true. The more investments earn and grow on their own, the greater they become.

Investment value is also greatly impacted by the amount invested.

These two factors are why you want to put away as much as you can as soon as you can. Fortunately, both of these decisions are within your control.

Finally, you have to stick with it, which may be the hardest investing choice of all.

I remember back in 2008-2010 when things were really dicey. My portfolio was down big-time. I had put money in all the way down and there was no sign it was going to come back.

But I kept at it and even found extra cash to invest.

Seven years later I’m so glad I did. That money is now worth a small fortune!

#6. Marry well

You can make all the great money moves in the world, but if you’re married to someone who makes all the wrong moves you’re in trouble.

You don’t have to marry Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, but you do need a spouse who shares your financial goals and general outlook on money.

This was a VERY big part of our financial success.

I was good at tips #1, #2, and #5 above, but my wife was great at #3 and #4. In words from The Millionaire Next Door, I was good at offense and she was good at defense.

Together we had a winning combination. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, divided up the responsibilities, and climbed up the money mountain together.

#7. Have goals and a plan to reach them

First of all, having a goal is key to being financially successful. It sets the bar and allows you to work towards what you want to achieve.

Another key is to write them down. Research has shown that “people become 42% more likely to achieve their goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.”

Second, simply having a goal does little good if you don’t then take action on reaching these goals.

You need to break each goal into bite-sized tasks that allow you to grow your career and control your spending if you want to accumulate wealth.

But hopefully my bad planning demonstrates that even if you’ve made a few mistakes along the way, there’s hope for you if you take action now.

#8. Track net worth and cash flow

My guess is that our budget alone was responsible for half of our spending control success.

#9. Develop side hustles

I’ve had several side hustles over the years including:

Freelance writing for magazines — This was a major contributor to paying off our mortgage

Blogging — I had a blog before my current one which was quite successful

Refereeing — Mostly done because my son needed the money and we did it together, but a few extra thousand dollars a year never hurts

Real estate — My biggest side business of all (though some could call it an investment) which allowed me to retire without having to draw down any assets

The great thing about a side hustle is that it speeds up early retirement dramatically.

If you have no side hustle, it would take you 29 years to reach your goal.

So the side hustle is probably worth it to save 17 years of working, right?

#10. Learn about money and manage it yourself

No one cares more about you than you do, but there are plenty of people who care about your money. Many of them want to turn it into their money and they are quite good at it.

I started from ground zero, and if I can learn how to manage my money, you certainly can too.

Everything you need to know

Yes, there are a ton of other financial guidelines you could implement — probably thousands. But if you want the biggest financial bang for the time spent, focus on these ten wins above.

If you get these right, there’s no way for you not to become financially free yourself.

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes

thedrakontomes · 8 years ago

Quote

10 Deathbed Regrets You Can Avoid by Making Changes Now By George Mortimer

10 Deathbed Regrets You Can Avoid by Making Changes Now

“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” ~Leonardo Da

Vinci

It’s terrifying, isn’t it?

There you are—days, hours, maybe minutes remain in your life. You lie there helpless, searching

for the strength to say your last goodbyes.

You look back on your life. All the things you wish you’d done differently.

As you continue to reminisce an overwhelming emotion comes rushing in, an emotion many are

familiar with.

Regret.

You set the standards high for yourself. But now that it’s all said and done, more was always

said than done.

There’s no greater fear than leaving this world with our most important goals unfinished. Yet,

with never ending hopes and dreams are we destined to live an incomplete life of mediocrity?

Perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way. A New Perspective & Why You Should Burn Your Bucket List

It’s human nature to desire more. No matter how much we accomplish, we’re wired to create new

objectives to pursue.

For most of my upbringing, I was obsessed with bucket lists. Mine had over 100 things I wanted

to do. Anytime I managed to cross one off the list, I’d add ten more.

The process was never ending and doomed for failure.

During this time my grandfather passed away. It happened so fast I never got to say goodbye. It

was my first experience of how quickly life comes and goes.

I started thinking about when my time would come. Would it matter what my bucket list looked

like on my deathbed?

So I threw it out. Instead of thinking of what I wanted to do with my life, I started focusing

on things I didn’t want to say about myself when it was time for me to go.

That I was greedy, angry, or rude. That I didn’t care about others, or even myself.

Death is scary. We can’t change that. But we have a chance to live fully right now—and we can do

that by ensuring we don’t have to say these things at the end. 1. I didn’t take care of my body.

Your time will come much faster if you don’t take care of yourself.

Smoking, excessive drinking, compulsive eating, sitting for too long—all these add up over time.

Continuing bad habits encourages rapid aging and brings you closer to your final days.

You can buy another car, a new house, and find another job, but you only get one body.

If you want an abundance of breathtaking moments, you need a body that’s ready for the long

haul. 2. I let anger get the best of me.

Anger is a natural emotion. We all experience it, and at times it’s perfectly justifiable. But

we do ourselves a disservice if we let anger control us and sabotage our relationships.

One of the best ways to address anger is to empathize with others and to understand why they did

what they did.

Being proactive and reflecting on the times you’re angry helps you to get to the root of what’s

bothering you, allowing you to move on and go back to being happy. 3. I spent my entire life in my comfort zone.

There’s no bigger waste of your time than doing the same thing over and over waiting for

something exciting to happen.

Nothing exciting will happen if you don’t get out there and make something happen.

Escaping the confinement of comfort is a struggle for anyone at first.

But when you’re looking at your life as a whole, you’ll be proud if you don’t have to say the

most unease you felt was choosing what to watch on Netflix to waste the night away. 4. I spent too much time around toxic people.

There comes a time when you must face the reality that not everyone you spend your time with is

actually benefitting your well-being.

People change, family members bring you down, and certain people just aren’t fun to be around.

If you want to make the most of your time, it’s essential you minimize your time with people who

drain you emotionally, disrespect you, or otherwise treat your poorly.

If you think it’s rude to dismiss someone, look at it this way: When you stop spending time with

people who aren’t positive additions to your life, you open yourself up to relationships with

people who will uplift and support you. 5. I didn’t stay in touch with family and friends.

The other end of the spectrum is the people we love.

Humans are biologically social creatures. We’re meant to be around others, especially the ones

we care about most. There’s no sense in fighting the nature of humans because you’re too busy at

the office.

If this doesn’t seem pressing to you now, know that it may one day feel that way, when they’re

gone and you realize you didn’t show them how much you loved them. 6. I didn’t give as much as I took.

It’s easy to forget that nothing tangible comes with us after we die.

Once we’re gone, that’s it. Whatever you have gets left behind. So why do we spend valuable

years of our lives taking rather than giving?

Money is always the first to come to mind. I’m not suggesting we give it all away, but I’ve

never met someone who was proud to say that all they did with their life was pad their bank

account.

Life is about giving and sharing experiences. The more you give, the happier you’ll be. 7. I thought I knew everything.

People often assume that after graduating from high school or college, they know everything.

But the truth is when you stop learning, you stop growing.

Since the beginning of our existence humans have been explorers, venturing to the corners of the

world and into space to discover more about life.

Constant learning allows us to discover new things about ourselves and the world, and our

experiences teach us things that could never be taught in a classroom.

Looking at the bigger picture, we don’t know anything. And that’s exactly what makes life so

exciting. 8. I never made any mistakes.

It seems counterintuitive to wish for failure, but our mistakes are what allow us to grow.

The point isn’t to make as many mistakes as possible, but to learn from our mistakes.

Every great revelation, invention, or revolution started with hundreds of mistakes before it,

until one miracle made it all worth it.

It’s not so much mistakes that matter, but having the courage to make them. 9. I hated my job.

Accepting the nine to five and secure paycheck. Two weeks vacation for fifty weeks of slavery.

Accumulating debt on house loans, car payments, and credit cards. Add on the responsibility of

supporting your family, and it may seem you’ll be trapped forever.

If you don’t enjoy your job now, that’s okay; many feel the same. But if by the time you lay on

your deathbed you still hate it and never left, that’s a problem.

You won’t want to look back and say you took the easy route and played it safe, accepting that

you were never supposed to do anything meaningful with your life.

Leaving a job is scary, especially when raising a family. It doesn’t mean you should quit today,

but implementing an exit plan toward a career you actually do enjoy will relieve yourself from

years of misery. 10. I spent my entire life trying to be someone else.

It’s become the norm to follow the crowd, adapt to the trends, and accept what everyone else is

doing and join in.

By doing this you never encounter the person you really are because you’ve been camouflaged by

the identity of society.

Taking time to understand yourself is life changing. It allows you to gather a clear picture of

what you want to accomplish during your short time on Earth.

You learn the things you love about yourself and things you might want to change. And most

important, you understand what makes you unique and how your uniqueness can help you leave the

world a better place than you found it.

One Last Thing

In the end, you’ll likely reflect on the things you didn’t do. As I said before, it’s human

nature.

But avoiding certain things, such as not taking care of myself and living in my comfort zone,

has brought more happiness to my life than a bucket list ever could.

It doesn’t matter if you swim with sharks, travel to every country, and take the first ride of

space tourism; what matters is how you live your life, how well you take care of yourself, and

how well you take care of others.

This is your life, and you only get one. There’s no right or wrong way to live it.

What matters is that you do.

#regret #createyourownlife

0 notes

fesahaawit · 7 years ago

Text

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth

********

At the same time, all money tips are not created equal. While many are valuable, there are some that are exponentially better. These are the tips that will make you wealthy.

#1. Get an advanced education in a valuable field

College degrees can add significant wealth. There’s no debate that (on average) the more education you have, the more you’ll earn and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

And if you can keep debt low while getting the degree (and there are reliable ways of doing this), then it’s almost guaranteed that getting a college degree is a good deal.

Consider this finding:

College graduates earn $1 million more than high school graduates over their lifetime, and the income gap between the highest-paid college majors and the lowest-paid is more than $3 million dollars.

To make even more, get an advanced degree in a high-paying field. This is where the big money can kick in.

#2. Focus on growing your career

Even better, you can manage your career to get those 3% average raises even higher. Doing so will help you earn millions more throughout your career.

Take the same numbers from above and instead of 3% raises use 8.16% raises. The difference is over $10 million!

Any way you look at it, managing your career for income growth will have a huge impact on your finances.

#3. Control spending

A bit closer to home, you can see this principle play out across our country.

On the other hand, those who control their spending do much better.

Assume a family can save $5k per year (less than 10% of their income). In 40 years at 8% they will have a net worth of $1.3 million. See what even a little bit of saving can do over a lifetime?

Personally, I wanted to do better than average and was able to save 36% of my income. Others have saved much more. If we can do it, so can you. (See: Proof You Can Live off 50% of Your Income)

There are two major areas to control spending: on the big things, and on the little things.

#4. Eliminate debt

Less than a decade later, we were completely debt free.

Not having debt for two decades allowed us to dramatically increase the amount we saved, which in turn super-charged our net worth.

#5. Invest early and often

You’ve probably heard that time is your greatest investing asset. It’s true. The more investments earn and grow on their own, the greater they become.

Investment value is also greatly impacted by the amount invested.

These two factors are why you want to put away as much as you can as soon as you can. Fortunately, both of these decisions are within your control.

Finally, you have to stick with it, which may be the hardest investing choice of all.

I remember back in 2008-2010 when things were really dicey. My portfolio was down big-time. I had put money in all the way down and there was no sign it was going to come back.

But I kept at it and even found extra cash to invest.

Seven years later I’m so glad I did. That money is now worth a small fortune!

#6. Marry well

You can make all the great money moves in the world, but if you’re married to someone who makes all the wrong moves you’re in trouble.

You don’t have to marry Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, but you do need a spouse who shares your financial goals and general outlook on money.

This was a VERY big part of our financial success.

I was good at tips #1, #2, and #5 above, but my wife was great at #3 and #4. In words from The Millionaire Next Door, I was good at offense and she was good at defense.

Together we had a winning combination. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, divided up the responsibilities, and climbed up the money mountain together.

#7. Have goals and a plan to reach them

First of all, having a goal is key to being financially successful. It sets the bar and allows you to work towards what you want to achieve.

Another key is to write them down. Research has shown that “people become 42% more likely to achieve their goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.”

Second, simply having a goal does little good if you don’t then take action on reaching these goals.

You need to break each goal into bite-sized tasks that allow you to grow your career and control your spending if you want to accumulate wealth.

But hopefully my bad planning demonstrates that even if you’ve made a few mistakes along the way, there’s hope for you if you take action now.

#8. Track net worth and cash flow

My guess is that our budget alone was responsible for half of our spending control success.

#9. Develop side hustles

I’ve had several side hustles over the years including:

Freelance writing for magazines — This was a major contributor to paying off our mortgage

Blogging — I had a blog before my current one which was quite successful

Refereeing — Mostly done because my son needed the money and we did it together, but a few extra thousand dollars a year never hurts

Real estate — My biggest side business of all (though some could call it an investment) which allowed me to retire without having to draw down any assets

The great thing about a side hustle is that it speeds up early retirement dramatically.

If you have no side hustle, it would take you 29 years to reach your goal.

So the side hustle is probably worth it to save 17 years of working, right?

#10. Learn about money and manage it yourself

No one cares more about you than you do, but there are plenty of people who care about your money. Many of them want to turn it into their money and they are quite good at it.

I started from ground zero, and if I can learn how to manage my money, you certainly can too.

Everything you need to know

Yes, there are a ton of other financial guidelines you could implement — probably thousands. But if you want the biggest financial bang for the time spent, focus on these ten wins above.

If you get these right, there’s no way for you not to become financially free yourself.

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

0 notes

heliosfinance · 7 years ago

Text

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth

********

At the same time, all money tips are not created equal. While many are valuable, there are some that are exponentially better. These are the tips that will make you wealthy.

#1. Get an advanced education in a valuable field

College degrees can add significant wealth. There’s no debate that (on average) the more education you have, the more you’ll earn and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

And if you can keep debt low while getting the degree (and there are reliable ways of doing this), then it’s almost guaranteed that getting a college degree is a good deal.

Consider this finding:

College graduates earn $1 million more than high school graduates over their lifetime, and the income gap between the highest-paid college majors and the lowest-paid is more than $3 million dollars.

To make even more, get an advanced degree in a high-paying field. This is where the big money can kick in.

#2. Focus on growing your career

Even better, you can manage your career to get those 3% average raises even higher. Doing so will help you earn millions more throughout your career.

Take the same numbers from above and instead of 3% raises use 8.16% raises. The difference is over $10 million!

Any way you look at it, managing your career for income growth will have a huge impact on your finances.

#3. Control spending

A bit closer to home, you can see this principle play out across our country.

On the other hand, those who control their spending do much better.

Assume a family can save $5k per year (less than 10% of their income). In 40 years at 8% they will have a net worth of $1.3 million. See what even a little bit of saving can do over a lifetime?

Personally, I wanted to do better than average and was able to save 36% of my income. Others have saved much more. If we can do it, so can you. (See: Proof You Can Live off 50% of Your Income)

There are two major areas to control spending: on the big things, and on the little things.

#4. Eliminate debt

Less than a decade later, we were completely debt free.

Not having debt for two decades allowed us to dramatically increase the amount we saved, which in turn super-charged our net worth.

#5. Invest early and often

You’ve probably heard that time is your greatest investing asset. It’s true. The more investments earn and grow on their own, the greater they become.

Investment value is also greatly impacted by the amount invested.

These two factors are why you want to put away as much as you can as soon as you can. Fortunately, both of these decisions are within your control.

Finally, you have to stick with it, which may be the hardest investing choice of all.

I remember back in 2008-2010 when things were really dicey. My portfolio was down big-time. I had put money in all the way down and there was no sign it was going to come back.

But I kept at it and even found extra cash to invest.

Seven years later I’m so glad I did. That money is now worth a small fortune!

#6. Marry well

You can make all the great money moves in the world, but if you’re married to someone who makes all the wrong moves you’re in trouble.

You don’t have to marry Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, but you do need a spouse who shares your financial goals and general outlook on money.

This was a VERY big part of our financial success.

I was good at tips #1, #2, and #5 above, but my wife was great at #3 and #4. In words from The Millionaire Next Door, I was good at offense and she was good at defense.

Together we had a winning combination. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, divided up the responsibilities, and climbed up the money mountain together.

#7. Have goals and a plan to reach them

First of all, having a goal is key to being financially successful. It sets the bar and allows you to work towards what you want to achieve.

Another key is to write them down. Research has shown that “people become 42% more likely to achieve their goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.”

Second, simply having a goal does little good if you don’t then take action on reaching these goals.

You need to break each goal into bite-sized tasks that allow you to grow your career and control your spending if you want to accumulate wealth.

But hopefully my bad planning demonstrates that even if you’ve made a few mistakes along the way, there’s hope for you if you take action now.

#8. Track net worth and cash flow

My guess is that our budget alone was responsible for half of our spending control success.

#9. Develop side hustles

I’ve had several side hustles over the years including:

Freelance writing for magazines — This was a major contributor to paying off our mortgage

Blogging — I had a blog before my current one which was quite successful

Refereeing — Mostly done because my son needed the money and we did it together, but a few extra thousand dollars a year never hurts

Real estate — My biggest side business of all (though some could call it an investment) which allowed me to retire without having to draw down any assets

The great thing about a side hustle is that it speeds up early retirement dramatically.

If you have no side hustle, it would take you 29 years to reach your goal.

So the side hustle is probably worth it to save 17 years of working, right?

#10. Learn about money and manage it yourself

No one cares more about you than you do, but there are plenty of people who care about your money. Many of them want to turn it into their money and they are quite good at it.

I started from ground zero, and if I can learn how to manage my money, you certainly can too.

Everything you need to know

Yes, there are a ton of other financial guidelines you could implement — probably thousands. But if you want the biggest financial bang for the time spent, focus on these ten wins above.

If you get these right, there’s no way for you not to become financially free yourself.

Ten Moves That Will Skyrocket Your Net Worth published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

0 notes