RE: BUILDING UP YOUR CONFIDENCE AND SKILLS IN THE SEWING DEPARTMENT

Dear TOR:


Welcome back home. Looks like we will be having a white Christmas....

Re the article.

During WW2, while most things in the UK were going down the tube, second hand stores were doing a booming, and unrationed, business. I think the same thing will happen in the US when TSHTF. There are so many people with excess clothing, both cheap and well-made types, that I don't really foresee needing to do a lot of sewing "from scratch."

Patching, general repairs and alterations, otoh, will be very important. These are entirely different skills, and in many ways, much easier to do. I recently found some excellent beginner sewing books for sale at our library book sale. Paid 50 cents each and bought all they had. For fancy hand-sewing (decorative knots and stitching, get books on needle-point, embroidery, petit-point, cross-stitch, etc. There are many magazines and blogs available, too.)

For those folks who are sewing shy, just learning how to hem, put in a fold at a waistband, or put on buttons and snaps, are very good places to start. Actually, just learning how to thread a needle is a good first step. In fact, realizing that you need to stockpile sewing supplies (called notions) and putting together a sewing kit might be an "adjustment reaction" that a lot of people need to go thru.

Suggested items for a hand-sewing kit:

Needles in a variety of sizes, including self-threading ones if you can find them.

Cotton or cotton/polyester thread in different colors, but esp. black, white, brown(s), blue(s), red and green. Pure cotton thread sometimes shrinks in hot water when you wash clothing, so I try to go with a combination-type.

Very fine fishing line (use for hemming or repairing heavy duty clothing)

Waxed dental floss (excellent for sewing on buttons)

Straight fabric shears and pinking shears (these are the ones that have the sawtoothed edge and are used for cutting cloth so that it doesn't unravel)

Thimble(s)

Pin cushion (I use a bar of soap which helps to keep the pins and needles slick)

Straight pins (the larger the head the better) and safety pins, several sizes, including diaper pins

Ruler (12 and 36 inches)

Measuring tape (not metal ones like those used for carpentry. Sewing tapes are made out of soft cloth or other bendable material so you can measure around waists, etc.)

Wooden darning egg (I was taught to darn using an old lightbulb. Cheaper, but a bit more difficult to handle)

Darning needles

Marking chalk or transfer paper (to transfer pattern lines onto cloth. We used to use true carbon paper, but there are probably other products available now)

Marking roller (a pizza cutter with a light hand will do in a pinch. You have to be careful not to cut through the pattern OR the material.)

Sewing hoop (used primarily for fine hand work like cross-stitch, appliques, needle point, etc., but also very useful for small repairs where it helps to stretch out or stabilize the material)

You can also add various standard patterns, extra zippers, extra buttons. I keep a button jar and cut all the buttons off any shirts that I am recycling into rags or other projects.

If you will be using a sewing machine:

You will need much more thread and BOBBINS, which are parts of the machine that enable simultaneous stitching on both sides of the fabric. Usually, you fill the bobbin with the same thread you use for the top stitch, but you don't have to. Some projects intentionally use two colors for contrast.

If you are really concerned about having to live off-grid, you might want to start looking for a "treadle" sewing machine, which uses foot-power, not electricity. They are still available, and though might require some repairs, are often comparatively inexpensive.

Best Yuletide Greetings to you and yours,

SaddleTramp

Backyard Passive Freezer

Ryan,

I thought your off-the-grid readers might be interested in reading about this project to make an underground (passive) freezer. It's a cool concept. I hope his project is a success. From the Burlington (VT) Free Press:


http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100816/NEWS02/100815019/Essex-project-builds-backyard-passive-freezer

Trailer Park Sam

Not Good, Just Less Bad

I saw something interesting on the yahoo main page today. It is an article called The Myth of Good Debt. Certainly it is good for a coffee break or a few minutes of internet time wasting.

The whole subject of "good debt" vs bad debt has always kind of bothered me. Plain and simple debt is bad. You are promising future earnings for something now. You are almost surely paying interest for this service.

To be honest I think it is more like kind of bad debt and really bad debt. I would characterize home mortgages and education is kind of bad and consumer debt, credit cards, car loans and the like and really bad debt. The label good implies that it is smart to have this debt and it does great things for you. Sometimes that is right. In particular getting a college degree greatly increases (on average) your earning power. If you could figure a way to get through school with no debt or low debt that is ideal. However since educational costs have increased greatly beyond inflation or typical low level (working your way through school type job) wages that isn't always realistic.

Tangent begins- Also I would submit to some people that working your way through school at a low paying job and taking classes part time isn't the best route anyway. I have known a lot of people who had significant life problems as well as academic difficulties that lead to them not finishing school. They take a class here and another there and periodically have to drop out due to life reasons or even fail classes. Screwing up and not getting to a place where they can earn a comfortably livable wage and then continuing to earn 7-12 bucks an hour is pretty common. These folks then whine about how life is so hard and it isn't fair and generally have a long term pity party. What would often be a better course of action is to decrease their lifestyle if applicable, work less and borrow just enough to make up the difference. The difference between going to school and working 12-20 hours a week or 30-40 is huge. At minimum wage or close the amount of money we are talking about isn't that big. They could focus on school more and get it done at a decent pace. It probably will not be too hard to pay back said money with their increased future earnings. This is basically what I did and while I should have borrowed a bit less lived a bit cheaper it has worked out pretty well for us so far. End tangent.

With educational expenses should come degrees or certifications that significantly boost your earning power. I have got news for everybody. The days when a guy could graduate high school and  fall into a comfortably paying job doing work trained monkeys could do are over. We could talk about why this has happened but it doesn't change that it has. Especially with today's economy and jobs being scare you need to be marketable.

Mortgages are slightly worse than educational expenses IMO. I say this is because they do not have the same kind of exponential payoff as education (if properly targeted and used). Also the returns are generally less of a sure thing. House prices have a great long term track record but the short-mid term can be wild.

It would take a really long time for most people to save the cash to buy a traditional home outright. There are certainly some benefits to alternative housing but if you don't want to go that way the options are saving a lot of money for a very long time or getting a mortgage. Certainly paying the landlords mortgage for decades instead of your own and not getting the tax benefits or the appreciation in value doesn't make any sort of sense.

Getting a decent fixed mortgage you can actually afford on a home makes good sense for somebody in a stable financial place with some savings. As you noticed that sentence was kind of complicated. Maybe adjustable rate type mortgages or other exotic options make sense for some smart people in some situations. However for most people they are a horrible decision. If you can't afford a fixed rate it means you can't afford the home. Stability is very important as even short mortgages last many years and you need to be able to make that payment every month. Personally I have seen a lot of people get into trouble when they happen to get a job that pays somewhat better than they can expect elsewhere, 10 dollar an hour type guy earning 13 or a job that pays 70k instead of 55. The issue comes when they get a loan they can afford at their current higher wages and for whatever reason (laid off, fired, decide to change fields, etc) they end up changing jobs. Think about how much you could make at another job. Also having a safety net in the form of an emergency fund is essential. You've got to be able to deal with that month the car breaks or being out of work for awhile. I think Chief Instructor said once that a month of looking for every ten thousand dollars in salary is a guideline.

Part of my concern is that the concept of "good debt" leads to an attitude that having this debt is normal and even smart. Yeah it smart to increase your earning power with a degree and eventually purchase a home. However it is really smart to pay off that student loan as fast as possible and in time the home too. Having a mortgage (for the right person) beats the heck out of renting but owning a home free and clear beats the heck out of having a mortgage. I think it is also worth noting that if you buy a modest home you can actually afford paying it off at an accelerated rate is probably realistic. If you get absolutely as much home as you can make the payments on of course it isn't realistic to pay 10, 20, 50 or even 100% extra principle payments.

Cars I would classify as the best or most understandable of the "bad debt". Buying cars with cash is ideal. However "clunkers" can have some real problems. Some folks are good at fixing cars or just lucky and others have horrible luck. Often clunkers are unreliable and just $400 the heck out of you until they die. Basically if you aren't able to save a decent bit of cash and need a car for transportation you're pretty much stuck getting a loan. The real problem is how expensive of a car you get. For example awhile back my little sister found herself needing a decent reliable car. She went and got a loan to pay for a few year old basic car. Not a junker but also not new or fancy or anything like that. She paid it off faster than the loans planned life and still drives it. You need reliable transportation, not a new Mercedes. Look at it this way. If you can't afford to pay cash it means you aren't in a great spot for getting this car so be reasonable.

Consumer loans and credit card debt and such are just bad. The best case is that you use these as a sort of emergency fund because you haven't saved a couple months worth of expenses. This is bad because if you can't afford this stuff now why would you think it will be easier to afford later. I am a realist and I know things happen. I can also note that for some strange reason things seem to happen a lot more to folks who do not have emergency funds. Some unforeseen stuff comes up that has to happen right away. Replacing a key household appliance is a good example. Lets say your washer goes out. You get a new one from Sears and finance it then pay it off over a couple paychecks. Not insane. [However what if something bigger happens. Putting a months worth of living expenses from some down time at work on a credit card could take forever to dig out of. ] However using consumer loans to get all new appliances you don't really need for the whole house is insane.

My observation is that people rarely get into consumer or credit card debt trouble because of using them to ride out an emergency. People get into trouble here by using credit to live beyond their means buying this and that and the other thing which they can't afford and almost certainly don't need.

Sometimes debt makes sense. It can be understandable and even a good decision. However do not forget that at the end of the day no matter how "good" debt is it's still a promise of money you haven't even earned yet. Use it responsibly and try to get out of it as quickly as possible.

Stop Backing Yourself Into a Corner

One of the wonderful things about America is that it is a very free country. Maybe not quite as free as it was at some other point but people living in the good ole USA have more rights, protections and freedom to do what they please than in just about every other country in the world.

So often people back themselves into a corner in terms of lifestyle and the resulting debt/ expenses. They have to live in this kind of house, drive this type of vehicle (or even a vehicle at all), charge stuff they can't afford and whatever. The result is that they are in an uncomfortable situation. These folks often turn around and blame everybody but themselves for their circumstances. It is a big picture version of eating a big mac and extra jumbo fries with a large milkshake for lunch every day and blaming other people for why you are fat.

If you don't like the amount of money you can make then get a degree or some certification or skill to become more valuable to an employer or customer. It is a lot more productive than whining. If you do not want a mortgage then find some kind of alternate housing you can afford to pay cash for. Maybe get a little piece of land paid for free and clear. Hate the idea of an HOA then don't buy a house in one. If zoning restrictions in your current location prevent this kind of action and you really still want to do it then MOVE to somewhere you can do what you want. If you want to home school your kids then move to a home school friendly area. Don't like the tax laws in your state? Move to a different one. Don't like your city/ states gun laws? Vote with your feet. If you want to be able to shoot an AK-47 from the front porch naked at 3 in the morning then start in a state that is cool with the AK-47 and then find a place with no nearby neighbors. If you don't want to deal with car insurance, registration and such then don't have a car. Live within biking/ walking range or public transport routes to the places you need to go. Maybe arrange to go to Costco with a cool neighbor who has a big van every month or two. If you don't want a credit card then don't have one. Don't like debt; too easy simply do not borrow money from anybody. If you hate paying taxes then make conscious (legal of course) choices to limit your tax liability.  This is checkers, not chess. Simply make choices to not be involved in things you don't want to be involved with and to be in the situation you want to be in. 

Of course because this is simple doesn't mean it is easy. Just like dieting or household budgets knowing what you should do and easy implimentation are very different things. Every decision has second and third order effects. You might like some parts of an area (family, work, recreation, etc) and hate the restrictive laws. Not having a vehicle sucks but you don't need insurance or vehicle inspections. Living in a nice house is more spacious and comfortable than a travel trailer or a shack/ tent. Generally places where you can buy a piece of land for the price of a decent pistol and do whatever you want on it kind of suck. They are far from jobs, may not have water or are otherwise undesirable. Hence the name junk land.

The thing is that you have to make a choice as to what is more important. Often nice places to live where there are plenty of good jobs and fun things to do have expensive housing costs. So either move to a place where you can afford to live comfortably or stay where you are and gripe about the rent/ mortgage/ taxes.

The old saying about construction comes to mind; a job can be done fast, cheap and right but you only get to pick two of them. Inevitably there are difficult choices and compromises to be made on all fronts (housing, location, work, vehicles, debt, tax and gun laws, zoning, etc).

The important word in that last paragraph is CHOICES. I'm not telling you that you must do anything (though it would be nice if you clicked on one of our ads and suggested the blog to a friend;) but am telling you that you can choose. The real interesting part is that this stuff can snowball big time. If you don't need to make a big rent/ mortgage payment then maybe you can quit that horrible job. You could then try a business idea that has been in your head for awhile. If you don't need to impress people at that fancy job then maybe an older paid off vehicle (or no vehicle at all) will work just fine. With all that time you aren't at work all kinds of things could be done.

Take some responsibility and ownership over your life. Figure out what is really important to you. Think outside the box and focus on what is important to you and your family, not the Johnson's, or anybody else. Make the inevitable hard choices and create the kind of life that you really want to have.

Peak Oil

World Made By Hand and the writings of our buddy in a trailer in Nevada have made me see peak oil differently over the past few months. I am starting to see why people worry. Though maybe for different reasons.

There is so much hype and "science" around this topic that I am not even going to look at that perspective. Lets just for the sake of the discussion agree that there is probably a pretty finite (or slow repleting) supply of oil and sooner or later we will start to run out of the stuff. Personally I do not think this would lead to a Mad Max type situation.

Human beings have long been able to adapt to a new situation by using technology. I have thin skin, no fur and modest fat reserves but live pretty comfortably in a place where there is regular snow for about 4 months of the year. How do I do this? I live in a warm place and wear heavy clothes when I go outside. Our capacity to create technology that allows us to survive, if not live comfortably in many austere environments.

People talk about how X amount of oil is needed to produce or transport food and a sure reason everybody would die if we got more than 12 fewer barrels of oil next year than we did this one. I just don't see that happening. We have other means of providing energy to do all sorts of nifty things energy does. Most of the reason we use oil so widely is that it is so cheap that other alternatives are not currently cost effective. Interestingly that flows well into my next thought.

I am not particularly concerned that the world will get sucked into endless resource wars to the bottom or everybody will starve to death. However I do have serious concerns about what this would do to our economic model. Obviously JIT delivery and shipping goods incredible distances would no longer be effective, maybe even for the better. However if the price of energy skyrocketed it would drag the price of everything else up as well. From heating a home to buying food and manufactured goods prices would really hurt people. This would in turn lead to more unemployment and pretty quickly a sort of vicious cycle of taxation, increasing costs and rising unemployment.

I don't know what this world would turn out to be but I imagine it would take a serious turn for the unpleasant somewhere.

In the grand scheme of things peak oil is low on my list of concerns. Somewhere in the area of hyperinflation or a global pandemic and just above zombies or the UN invading America. How am I preparing for this? Well the general food, water, medicine, arms stuff covers a lot. Also I am slowly but surely working to acquire the skills (and stuff to make the skills work) so that I can have a couple back up career options.

Thought?

quote of the day

"This adds credence to my theory that tornadoes are mysteriously guided by some unseen force toward single-wide trailer parks."
-JWR

The American Dream 2: Opting Out

I intended this to be one post but it got pretty long and I realized that to really hit my main points it was going to have to get broken up. Figured this was the best route so I pushed my other plans to the right a day.

I have been accused of being heartless or inexperienced or otherwise somehow not well informed on this topic. I have said more or less that people are where they are because of choices they made. That elicited a series of unhappy comments. Here is my take on the whole thing. First of all I believe in personal responsibility. Aside from truly freak accidents and blind dumb luck pretty much everything that happens in our lives is a result of some choice or another.

However it seems that maybe some folks see this position of mine as an attack against them or a view on them as an individual. That is not the case. I have a solid measure of respect for people who instead of complaining about this or that come right out and say "I made a mistake and am living with the consequences". Good people can and do often make poor choices. Maybe it is just that my mind is compartmentalized but I can really empathize with someones tough situation without trying to shift blame for it away from them. I can feel bad for someone in a rough spot while completely recognizing they put themselves in that spot. 

As I talked about in length yesterday the American Dream is getting harder to achieve. Its price has gone up and the earning power of a lot of folks has gone down. No point in excessively rehashing, read yesterdays post if you need to catch up.


I see two broad reasons people opt out of the American Dream. The first is that they (at least right now) just plain can not afford it. The second is that they want to take another path. We will talk about them in order.

Some folks just plain can't afford the "American Dream". They may have the exact same job their father had (unlikely but lets go with it) however they make less money and stuff costs more. There is a lot of pressure to drive this and live here, etc. It is a hard decision to do something else, like what you can really afford. One of the downsides of the relatively recently passed insane credit bubble was that it was very easy for people to borrow their way into the American Dream. Then their adjustable rate mortgages adjusted or they got cut from 40 hours a week to 35 and their whole house of cards falls down.

Some people do not want the American Dream, at least not all of it or right now. They might just like being foot loose and fancy free preferring to live in a motor home instead of a 3 bedroom ranch. Maybe they realize that to them it is worth downsizing their expenses in order to be able to work less or take a few months every year off. Maybe they are just super cheap and would rather have cash in the bank then wood floors in the dining room.

To a certain degree Wifey and I fall into this category. We like most parts of the American Dream but are going to do it on a time line we are comfortable with. One thing about my rough age group (call it 23-33) we seem to expect to walk into a darn near ready made American Dream like a week after we get even a mediocre job. It is sometimes possible to do it that way these days (more so 3 or so years ago) with the ready available credit to anyone close to worthy.

Personally Wifey and I were not comfortable with that format. The idea of having a solid emergency fund and little or no debt suits us. We are living pretty modestly now in order to be able to do well and still be well within our means later. It might be a pretty solid idea for someone like our friend 5:59 to bite the bullet and live in a cheap little apartment for two years to pay off those student loans and otherwise shore up their financial foundation. Like many things in life the right answer is not the easy one.

 We would love to own a nice home and drive a couple of solidly decent cars. However right now we can not pay for them in a fashion that is comfortable for us. We have very different opinions on how we should spend, save and borrow than most other folks. When we got married we lived in an RV for a few months. Lots of other folks would have gotten a nice apartment or even rented a house. We had some interesting times in the RV and Trailer Park and saved up some money. Folks at work messed with me a bit until I mentioned that our total housing expenses were $300. In hindsight I should have gotten a travel trailer and lived in it through college. In Alabama we chose a fairly modest apartment in order to save money.

I would love to drive a newish Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would enjoy a nice little BMW. To be honest we could have these things this weekend. However we really do not want a car loan (let alone 2!) and thus we have one beat up old car. Instead of having 2 car loans eat up our income we chose to save up for a modest second car. Also by living well below our means we are able to put money towards stuff we think is worthwhile. Two car loans would make it impossible to establish an emergency fund, save for the future or otherwise get ahead.

In a few years we will buy a house. It will likely be a pretty modest fixer upper type place. A wood stove for sure and ideally a basement but nothing too amazing. I would rather fix up a place a bit than pay for a perfect place. We will come at home ownership a bit later than a lot of my peers. After all until you are a home owner you haven't made it. Too many people over the last few years jumped into something they could barely afford if  they got a normal paycheck and nothing bad happened without even enough savings to get some basic repair on their car. Between their ARM mortgages adjusting or a crazy event like having a few slow weeks at work and these folks can have real issues. Personally I would rather have a bit more modest home, slightly later in life but with a solid emergency fund and with a home we can genuinely afford during a bad month when everything goes wrong.

I strongly encourage you to think long and hard. First think about what you can realistically afford and then think about what your priorities are. Remember, no matter how much someone else says you need to drive this or live here unless they are going to pay for it they don't get a vote. It is fine to want this and that and the other thing, most of us do. However you have to look at what you can afford and choose. Also to make things even more complicated you need to balance how much of a lifestyle you want to make yourself be able to afford. A guy who lives a lifestyle, even the American Dream that requires him to work 70 hours a week at a job he hates might just be happier with a smaller house, or even a trailer, and a more normal job that is not so stressful.

We all face a variety of different kinds of pressure. This pressure both real and perceived can couple together with our own  desires and be a recipe for disaster. People back themselves into a circle where they  have to have that house filled with those electronics in that neighborhood with those cars out front. They get all this stuff which they can't afford, seeing it as the only option and then don't understand how things are so bad. I do not have a great answer for this. Just like anything else your choices are your own and others do not pay the price for them. The same way that a friend who encourages you to do shots with them on a work night when they have the next day off is not going to feel your hangover the next day at work. People might cheer you on or encourage you to do something or another but at the end of the day your choices, good or bad are your own.

quote of the day

There are no such things as tornadoes. Chuck Norris just hates trailer parks.

Existential Blogger Crisis

Some days I question how much I agree with most of you and why I am even here. Had a couple of those days this week. Not sure what can be done about it and even less sure what I am willing to do about it. Maybe I am being a whiner and need to just quit caring what y'all think. I started off doing this because it is fun and continue to do so because it is still generally fun even though it has become a sinkhole for my time. Maybe I am a bit burned out this week.

I have had a couple comments recently about how I have changed. They may have had a point, hell if I know.

I think in some ways I certainly have. I know that getting out of college, marrying and starting a real job has made me a lot more practical in my concerns. Instead of thinking about theoretical barter items I am worrying about saving money and budgets. Instead of thinking about how to fight the neighboring town for resources I am thinking about how to avoid getting mugged on the way home from dinner out.

Also I am finding some folks here are just as blindly sticking to group think as liberals. Seriously on some recent topics I could said to myself before hand to myself "what would the most stereotypical gun rights/ liberterian viewpoint on this be?" and some folks are spouting off with it. Now I completely understand why folks can see things differently than me but I just ask you to think critically and harshly. Do not just go with the regurgitated answer that meshes best with your political/ social beliefs. I really hate a leming, even a freedom oriented one.

If a belief is accurate and sound letting it see some questioning and a bit of discussion is just fine. If a belief is not accurate or partially not accurate then maybe it deserves to be revisited no matter how much it fits into a central vision or belief system. 

As for my political beliefs heck if I know. I am libertarian on a lot of issues and conservative on a few. Sometimes when I wake up early in the morning and am tired and out of coffee I think we should invade any country that looks at us sideways or doesn't send us a nice Christmas card and that they don't celebrate Christmas is not an excuse. I am also fairly militaristic in general and really don't like people messing with my country, at all. I am still pissed at Iran over the whole hostage crisis thing though it happened before I was born. Not sure if that is entirely compatible with a lot of my libertarian view, in fact I am fairly sure it is not. But it is probably not less compatible than the masses of people who belong to a religion where premarital sex is  forbidden yet have sex with someone who they are not married to on Saturday night and go to church on Sunday.

Also I just want to say that sometimes I say outlandish things that are questionably appropriate. Always have and always will. I am like a militaristic libertarian version of Shauna Glenn but with an outie instead of an innie.

I also tend to have a bit of fun with some stereotypes.  I mentioned fat drunks in trailers earlier today. I have lived in trailers and then later in life had a fat and drunk period in them. If it seems like I am taking a shot at you or something you do the odds are very high it is just a friendly easy jab to the shoulder. That is just sort of how I roll and just about every group gets one from time to time. My friends and I do this to eachother all the time and we don't like eachother any less for it.

Tomorrow I think I will write something really boringly easy to agree with. As for the day after that I am not so sure. Not sure if I want to stick to safe easy topics that do not question what you hold sacred (politically not religiously) or just rant.

Hopefully I can get to sleep now.

Raiding the Emergency Fund: When and to What End?

First of all don't worry things are fine here at the TOR household. No need to raid the emergency fund, in fact we will add to it this week on pay day. I have just been thinking.....

Under what conditions should you raid the emergency fund?
1. If you are married, domestically partnered, living in sin, coupled up or really in any other situation where you share money with another person only get into that account with both people being involved. This isn't the way to cover up (not that you should be covering up anything but that is not the point) that you spent a bit too much on naked dancing girls, designer shoes, poker night, handbags or whatever. Obviously things are really bad (not borrow a few bucks from a friend bad but ski mask and handgun kind of bad) or you would not be wanting to raid the emergency fund. Do you really want things to be that bad AND have an incredibly pissed off spouse? I certainly wouldn't. Sit down and have a serious conversation about what is going on and what the two of you are going to do to get through it. Make this decision together.

2. What are you going to raid the emergency fund for? First of all if married, etc all read above again. Second this is personal and you might have a different answer than I. To me it is for covering sudden unavoidable expenses (think broke down car or sudden plane ticket home to bury a close relative, not a deal on a .308 or a boat or a diamond ring), job loss or something else completely lame and unexpected like a house fire or needing to flee a natural disaster and spend a month in a motel in Nebraska. I think it is good to keep it open because you don't know what sort of crappy thing is going to happen to you but the odds are over any given decade at least one probably will.

To what end will you use these funds is the more unique thought I have been mulling over.

One of my low probability (lower than being mugged but higher than say a lightning strike) concerns is something getting completely fucked at work. My job is very stable, like prostitution and gambling stable. As long as our Federal Government exists in anything near its current state my industry will be safe. For the foreseeable future given our current world circumstances (two conflicts, various threats on the horizon) we will probably be a growth industry. Given said current circumstances there isn't really much of a worry about job stability because people are leaving left and right, if you stay in you will move up.

However just because things are pretty stable doesn't mean they are 100% guaranteed and reliable for every person. Anything can happen in life (everything is just fine at work don't worry) like sometimes a boss gets a serious case of the ass at someone and crushes them in evals or a subordinate does something stupid and they crucify the first officer and NCO in line so I have thought about it a little bit.

I make pretty good money but it is our only income. [Wifey is looking like crazy and hopefully will find a job that will make her happy soon.] Also there are not a whole lot of places where my current skill set would be valued without a real change in scenery and job conditions. It isn't exactly like I am a plant manager in a town with 8 plants.

Odds are we would get home and spend a couple months with relatives but it could be awhile before we were back to around our current income. Lets say that before we got back to meaningful work things came to a head at the relatives place (doubt it would but lets say it did). Right now we have more than enough to buy a piece of junkish land in the general area we want to settle plus get some sort of a functional shelter (travel trailer, mobile home, etc) to put on it sitting in the bank. We could live all Dakin like on around minimum wage for a long time in this sort of situation. Heck we could do this on what I would get in unemployment.

The reason we (might potentially ) choose to take this extreme course instead of just getting an apartment or whatever then looking for jobs is that we would not know when real jobs could be had and the odds are it would be awhile. In two years time things would be fine but there would probably be a rough 6-9 months before then. There would be a high probability that things would come to head in terms of finances (if we kept more or less our current budget) before jobs could be had so we would need to drastically change expenses to survive.

Some folks say to have a 6 month emergency fund, some say 12 months or maybe even 18. Heck why don't you just have a 96 month security fund as well as 400 ounces of gold, $100,000 face in 90% silver, a dozen M1a's and a 12,000 acre retreat! The simple answer is that we live in a world of unlimited desires and limited resources. Most folks need to scrimp and save and sacrifice just to bank a little bit each month and keep it there till it adds up to much of anything.

Also money that is sitting in an FDIC insured account (or a safe) is money that can not be put towards anything else. To me as a relatively young person the idea of saving up 12-18 months wages before starting to save for a home down payment doesn't make a lot of sense. I would rather have less in the bank (say 4 months) and be paying myself instead of some other guy.

My point is that it might not be bad to have a contingency plan for radical long term or even permenant changes in income. You might (depending on your funding,age, levels of risk, etc) not even need to do anything toward putting this plan in motion unless your personal circumstances really change but it is probably wise to think this one out for awhile and discuss it with the spouse.

Thoughts?

The Single Income Household

This one has been kicking around in my head for awhile but it really has been picking up steam over today.

I am going to discuss two fundamental questions:
1. Is a single income household the right thing for you?
2. Is it a realistic way of life for people these days?


To the questions at hand:
1. Is a single income household the right thing for you? Well that depends a whole lot about you, your spouse, your family and what you really want out of life. You and the spouse being on the same page fully is probably the most important thing, far more important than what I or anyone else thinks.

As to the broader question I think the answer is often yes. One person being at home to take care of the kiddo's and even potentially home school them can often have positive effects on their development and such at least unless you are crappy parents then they are screwed anyway. In terms of raising children to school age a single income household is probably a desirable thing.

Unless the second wage earner makes pretty decent dough it is often a wash between having them working and earning a wage but paying child care, car payment and or assorted costs of needing a second car, eating more convenience foods and such.

2. Is a single income household a realistic way of life for people these days? I have heard people say it just isn't realistic to have one wage earner and I certainly disagree.

For instance my in laws are a single income household with a fine standard of living, because FIL makes a lot of money. This is however not to say that unless you make a whole bunch of money a single income household will not work. To a certain degree saying 'just go out and make more money' would be a bogus excuse because it will not work for everyone. Most folks could figure out a way to earn a bit more if they really tried by getting a little bump in pay, picking up a few more hours or trying for that promotion but often this is not enough to radically change your lifestyle.

To all those who say you have to make a bunch of money to be a single income household I have two words, the Dakins.

Simply put if it is really important to you to have a parent at home with the kids then make the choices necessary for it to work in your financial situation. This is almost invariably going to mean some sort of sacrifice even if it is relatively modest. If you say you want to have a parent at home but are not willing to give up the ski boat, the two new vehicles with loans, assorted other keeping up with the Jones's crap and quite possibly that house you can't really afford anyway then you don't really want it! The degree of sacrifice will depend on your income but in almost every case you will have to accept a different lifestyle than has become the norm.

You can do it if you want to bad enough.

Thoughts?

Quit Bitching- First Rant in Awhile

I am tired of people bitching and griping about bankers and 'the elite' plus of course the trilateral commission or some other such junk. [Now if you are complaining about how the derivative collapse and or government bailouts affected you fair enough. That isn't what I am talking about.] People who claim to be pro freedom but bitch about how someone else (legally) makes a lot of money are fucking posers at best. These folks want to have their cake and eat it too but do not have the guts to live in a truly free world where people are allowed to borrow and loan money at whatever terms both parties agree to. If you want to be a communist that is fine and good but at least be honest.

First of all class warfare has nothing to do with libertarianism or freedom. Don't begrudge anyone else the ability to (legally) earn a lot of money. I am sorry their skills are more valued than yours and their business sense is better but tough shit. If you want to make more money get better skills and make better decisions, nobody is holding you back but yourself.

If you don't like the terms a bank will offer you then don't borrow their money. As for bitching about how they just jacked up the rate on your credit cards I ask why are you carrying a credit card balance. If you don't want them to be able to change the interest rate on a loan then do not take a loan with an adjustable interest rate. This ain't fucking rocket science.

The bankers are not ruining your life, nobody forced you to take their money. I am honestly sorry if you got a [reasonably priced fixed rate] mortgage and now you can't pay it because of a job loss or whatever. That is a sad situation but it is not 'bankers' fault that you lost your job or whatever.

Running up a bunch of debt you can't service and then blaming bankers for your shitty financial situation is like eating 3 big mac's for lunch every day and complaining that 'donalds made you fat. YOU ARE AN ADULT WHO MADE CHOICES so fucking own up to your responsibility for those choices.

If you don't want bankers to be involved in your life then don't have any debt. Fuck don't even have a bank account, keep your earnings in a coffee can. Do like Dakin and Creekmore and get yourself a couple acres and a travel trailer (purchased with cash) and live off grid but stop fucking bitching.

Its DAMN TIME!!!!!

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day at IGN.com