My wife and I spent the better parrt of 3 years searching for the home that we currently live in. I'm glad we took the time. It has a gorgeous piece of land, in a nice neighborhood. The home is an updated colonial, and thanks to our savvy in getting some great incentives to update the boiler, has a brand new high efficiency heating system. We live in one of the best school districs in the area, and Sophia's grade school is literally in our back yard. It took us a long time to find it though, and we actually had three other homes fall through before we ended up landing this one.
Home buying is hard. Sure, there are plenty of options that one can take to ease the process. Zero down financing, Low money down financing, using hard money lending, Owner will cary....the list goes on and on. and we've explored all of these in our quest for the perfect first home for us. It is a little extreme how long we looked, but we wanted to leave a lot of wiggle room in the pruchase, and also make sure we got what we wanted. Unless you're pounding the pavement every day yourself and knocking on doors looking for a deal, finding the right house, at the right price, and making the right deal is a perfeect storm that really can take more than a year to formulate.
Let me spell out what I mean by that. Stef and I wanted a house that would a) put us in close proximity to her work in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires. We also wanted to make sure we were in a good school system for our daughter. We wanted to find a house that was 90% finished, but probably needed some basic handyman stuff (the extent of my skill level with a hammer) and we wanted to buy this house at a price that would a) leave us at about the same or less monthly expense as when we were renting a home, and b) would appreciate in value reasonably over a 10 year period. We also wanted to make sure that the home would be one that we would be just fine living in for 10 years. This is a long, long list of criteria for a home purchase. I'm glad we waited until every one lined up, though. I wake up every morning in this house, look around, and just feel good about every part of owning this home with my wife.
Why such strict criteria? Well, if there is one purchase you probably shouldn't comprimise on, its your home. Now I don't mean buy the house with helipad and 5 swimming pools, I mean buy the home that makes sense for your budget, for your lifestyle, and one that makes sense (in some small way) as an investment.
Our journey in home buying was indeed long. We started looking for homes very much in the "starter home" level. However, I knew that we wouldn't be happy in these homes for 10 plus years, so I kept looking at larger, more established homes in better neighborhoods, but these homes always needed too much work (extensive mold damage, no heater, ruined roofs and so forth) and so most of our searches were in vain. We also found a few homes in these price ranges that were great. We would negotiate these homes into a price range we could afford, and three times we had three different sellers back out at the last moment. What an emotional roller coaster. It just wasn't working.
The funny thing is that we didn't realize just how much home we could afford until we took a long hard look at our expenses in the home we were renting. We were renting a cute little ranch house with a garage, and an ancient, incredibly inefficient oil boiler. Stef and I both had never had any dealing intimiately with heating a home, so we just thought the the exorbidant heating cost was the name of the game. My mother's home in Vermont had a similar heat bill (although her home was about three times the size) so I thought nothing of it. It wasn't until I talked with a few of my friends with experience in heating that I found out that spending $6000 a year on heat was not normal, and in fact was skewing how much home we could actually afford.
armed with this knowledge, I dove headfirst into searching for how to set up effeicient heating in a new home that we would buy. I found a great article on Mister Money Mustache (here) that explained how to effectively insulate your home. My wife found out about MassSave, whih is an incentive program funded by the local electric company. This program gives you rebates on boilers, zero interst loans, and even a very low cost insulaion sure up done by professionals. as we did the math and crunched the numbers, we realized that if we were able to use these programs, we could essentially afford a much bigger, better home.
Armed with this information, we went looking in a higher price bracket. We found a few, made a few deals, and eventually someone bit. Thanks to some help from Stephanie's parents, we were able to close on what was really our dream home in three weeks. we used our knowledge we gained in learning about how to heat efficiently to sure up the home, get a new boiler installed with a zero interest loan, and even put blown insulation into the attic to help with heat retention. I installed a whole house exhaust fan as well, which pulls the hot air out of the house in the summer, and kept us to using an air conditioner for about 3 nights this past summer. All in all, we "upgraded" into a house that is about twice the size of the one we were renting, and our monthly expenses are far, far less than when we rented. It was a huge win.
I can't tell you how much buying this house in a wise way changed our lives. It made us feel more financially secure. It made us happier because we own a home we love, and we enjoy caring for it, fixing up things that need to be fixed, and just staying in it for an entire weekend. It really has been one of the best financial successes that either of us have experienced.
If you're looking to buy a home yourself, I would recommend reading up on some of the ways the Mister Money Mustache recommends purchasing. (here)
There are also some great calculators over at Bankrate.com that will help you figure out what makes the most sense. (here)
If you're trying to find homes in your area, and you really don't know where to start, be sure to hire a realtor. They don't cost you anything, even when you buy (the seller pays both realtors) and will be a huge help in picking something that makes the most sense to you and your family.
If you're looking for a comprehensive overview on how to effectively buy your first home, you can learn more about the calculations that my wife and I used to do it best on her blog. (here) She'll be rolling out her new mini-course on how to buy a home soon.
Until Next Time Remember: Take your time, you'll live in the house you buy for a long, long time. Spend commensurate time searching and doing the math.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Why The Education System Is Broken
For those of you who know me, I've spent a good portion of my
young adult life inside of a classroom. I have a BS in Business Administration with dual concentrations in Accounting and Management,
and a minor in Economics. I've been a Teacher's Assistant, and I'm
eligible for a CPA certification (although I have no desire to sit
currently) I'm a big proponent of formal education, and I believe
that getting a formal college degree fundamentally changes the way
you think about the world, and about life. It was one of the most
important thing I've done with my young life, and I'm glad that I did
it.
But what does it cost so much? When you look at the cost of a college education, aside from the actual dollars, there is so much more that goes into it. foregoing all the time you could be spending working, or learning these things on your own. All of the time spent meeting with advisers to decide your career path at 19 year olds (ridiculous) or looking into master's programs or PhD programs. Countless hours studying, which could also be spent working. It's amazing how for those 4 years, you're essentially checked out of the real world. You're thrown headfirst into a world of strict academia, and you don't have time for much else. This, in my humble opinion, is the biggest mistake of the college education system.
Those 4 years you're in school take you completely out of the workforce, for all intents and purposes. Sure, I help down part times jobs through my entire college career. I even started some small businesses and made some money off of them. I worked full time in the summers when I could find the work, and I was broke all the time. Aside from getting an education (which takes on average 5 years nowadays) my resume was essentially sitting in park This is the standard for most all college students. Why? Why on god's green earth would a college, a place where you o to gain the resume you need to land your first "real" job, not also focus HEAVILY on real world resume building? In my humble opinion, I believe that the first thing that should happen when you walk in the door of a college, and select your major, is you get placed into a part time internship actually working in the field. Okay, maybe a semester after. But you should be WORKING in your field as soon as you can.
Why do I believe this so strongly? I got an internship as an accountant my senior year. It was unpaid. No wait, let me back up a step. My junior and senior year, I was looking for an internship. I college job placement office was so inept at landing me a job, that when I went in with my resume, they edited it for me, and said "fix your resume, and then I guess we'll try and find you something" That's right folks, the place I had paid thousands and thousands of dollars to to find me work in my field, basically told me that's too bad. Try elsewhere. What a sham.
So, my junior and senior year, I spent a good portion of my free time cold-calling accounting offices. I would call up and simply ask if they needed help during the tax season, that I wasn't interested in pay, and that I was a junior year accounting student who was eligible to sit for the CPA exam. no one bit. Can you believe that? out of the 50 or so offices I called, not one was interested in free help from a CPA-eligible college student.
Now I'm not sure what that says about what. Does it say that people picture college students as worthless? Does it mean that "entry level" jobs are literally considered charity by the companies that offer them? or does it mean that people were freaked out that I wanted job experience that badly? It could be the latter but I have a feeling that you can't have one without a bit of the other. I didn't even get invited into a place to sit down and meet anyone. Literally nobody wanted to offer me unpaid work for job experience.
My favorite cold call was to H&R Block. I had gotten desperate, and it was my last resort. I called and told them I'm looking for unpaid work to build my resume, and I'm an accounting student at MCLA. The Manager told me that "here at H&R block, we have a rigorous training schedule to get our tax preparers up to snuff, you would never be able to do it without training first" I retort with "well, I'm eligible to sit for the CPA Exam"
She then went on to offer me an interview for a district manager position.
I kindly declined, and told her I had another year of school left. She hung up awkwardly, as did I.
I still, to this day, do not understand why unpaid internship work was not given to me, but I was able to get fired directly into a district manager position at H&R Block.
It seems to me that education sets most of us up for failure. You work hard in school, get decent grades, and keep your head down all 4 years. You look up, and you have a blank resume with the "education" section nice an full. Nobody cares. you're the same as everyone else.
I'm very glad I spent time working hard at part time jobs that built my resume. I'm glad I started small businesses that I can put on there. I'm glad I cold called those accounting offices and failed. Almost all of that goes on my resume. And people look at it and know I can work, and apply my education, and use it to their company’s benefit.
How can you show that as college education becomes more time intensive, takes you farther and farther away from reality, and costs more and more? It makes no sense.
Only in the past 2 years have I started to hear about college programs where they offer job placement, or make internships mandatory. How is this not the very, very first thing that happens? How do you not instantly start looking for an internship? How can you not work in your field for 4 years, just learn about it, and then expect to step in the dour of some company, and then hope you know the right stuff to help them out? hint: you cant. Its a bad system and needs to be reformed.
So if you're a young buck, getting ready to go to college, let me say this first: Do it. But do it smart. community college is cheap, and the parties are crazier. you'll thank me later. Get an associates, keep your grades up, and transfer into the program that makes more sense to you when you're more grown up and know what you want (god do I sound old) Or once you have your associates, and almost no student loan debt, then go get a job instead of going to school right off the bat. see if you like what you want to spend another 2 years learning. If you hate it, oh well, try something else in college. If you don't, all the more power to you.
If you need to go 4 year. work all 4 years. No exceptions. Find work, take work, excel at that work. Prove that you're worth something. at the end of your 4 years at college, you should be able to have a resume not BECAUSE of your college education, but in spite of it. It should just be the cherry on the top of the cake.
Older folks, who have resumes: Build skills, don’t get educations. you don't need them anymore. Go check out websites like Lynda.com, where you can learn just about any modern skill for pennies on the dollar compared to school. And you'll do just fine.
Until Next time.
But what does it cost so much? When you look at the cost of a college education, aside from the actual dollars, there is so much more that goes into it. foregoing all the time you could be spending working, or learning these things on your own. All of the time spent meeting with advisers to decide your career path at 19 year olds (ridiculous) or looking into master's programs or PhD programs. Countless hours studying, which could also be spent working. It's amazing how for those 4 years, you're essentially checked out of the real world. You're thrown headfirst into a world of strict academia, and you don't have time for much else. This, in my humble opinion, is the biggest mistake of the college education system.
Those 4 years you're in school take you completely out of the workforce, for all intents and purposes. Sure, I help down part times jobs through my entire college career. I even started some small businesses and made some money off of them. I worked full time in the summers when I could find the work, and I was broke all the time. Aside from getting an education (which takes on average 5 years nowadays) my resume was essentially sitting in park This is the standard for most all college students. Why? Why on god's green earth would a college, a place where you o to gain the resume you need to land your first "real" job, not also focus HEAVILY on real world resume building? In my humble opinion, I believe that the first thing that should happen when you walk in the door of a college, and select your major, is you get placed into a part time internship actually working in the field. Okay, maybe a semester after. But you should be WORKING in your field as soon as you can.
Why do I believe this so strongly? I got an internship as an accountant my senior year. It was unpaid. No wait, let me back up a step. My junior and senior year, I was looking for an internship. I college job placement office was so inept at landing me a job, that when I went in with my resume, they edited it for me, and said "fix your resume, and then I guess we'll try and find you something" That's right folks, the place I had paid thousands and thousands of dollars to to find me work in my field, basically told me that's too bad. Try elsewhere. What a sham.
So, my junior and senior year, I spent a good portion of my free time cold-calling accounting offices. I would call up and simply ask if they needed help during the tax season, that I wasn't interested in pay, and that I was a junior year accounting student who was eligible to sit for the CPA exam. no one bit. Can you believe that? out of the 50 or so offices I called, not one was interested in free help from a CPA-eligible college student.
Now I'm not sure what that says about what. Does it say that people picture college students as worthless? Does it mean that "entry level" jobs are literally considered charity by the companies that offer them? or does it mean that people were freaked out that I wanted job experience that badly? It could be the latter but I have a feeling that you can't have one without a bit of the other. I didn't even get invited into a place to sit down and meet anyone. Literally nobody wanted to offer me unpaid work for job experience.
My favorite cold call was to H&R Block. I had gotten desperate, and it was my last resort. I called and told them I'm looking for unpaid work to build my resume, and I'm an accounting student at MCLA. The Manager told me that "here at H&R block, we have a rigorous training schedule to get our tax preparers up to snuff, you would never be able to do it without training first" I retort with "well, I'm eligible to sit for the CPA Exam"
She then went on to offer me an interview for a district manager position.
I kindly declined, and told her I had another year of school left. She hung up awkwardly, as did I.
I still, to this day, do not understand why unpaid internship work was not given to me, but I was able to get fired directly into a district manager position at H&R Block.
It seems to me that education sets most of us up for failure. You work hard in school, get decent grades, and keep your head down all 4 years. You look up, and you have a blank resume with the "education" section nice an full. Nobody cares. you're the same as everyone else.
I'm very glad I spent time working hard at part time jobs that built my resume. I'm glad I started small businesses that I can put on there. I'm glad I cold called those accounting offices and failed. Almost all of that goes on my resume. And people look at it and know I can work, and apply my education, and use it to their company’s benefit.
How can you show that as college education becomes more time intensive, takes you farther and farther away from reality, and costs more and more? It makes no sense.
Only in the past 2 years have I started to hear about college programs where they offer job placement, or make internships mandatory. How is this not the very, very first thing that happens? How do you not instantly start looking for an internship? How can you not work in your field for 4 years, just learn about it, and then expect to step in the dour of some company, and then hope you know the right stuff to help them out? hint: you cant. Its a bad system and needs to be reformed.
So if you're a young buck, getting ready to go to college, let me say this first: Do it. But do it smart. community college is cheap, and the parties are crazier. you'll thank me later. Get an associates, keep your grades up, and transfer into the program that makes more sense to you when you're more grown up and know what you want (god do I sound old) Or once you have your associates, and almost no student loan debt, then go get a job instead of going to school right off the bat. see if you like what you want to spend another 2 years learning. If you hate it, oh well, try something else in college. If you don't, all the more power to you.
If you need to go 4 year. work all 4 years. No exceptions. Find work, take work, excel at that work. Prove that you're worth something. at the end of your 4 years at college, you should be able to have a resume not BECAUSE of your college education, but in spite of it. It should just be the cherry on the top of the cake.
Older folks, who have resumes: Build skills, don’t get educations. you don't need them anymore. Go check out websites like Lynda.com, where you can learn just about any modern skill for pennies on the dollar compared to school. And you'll do just fine.
Until Next time.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
What It Means When I Say "Libertarian"
This is something I've meant to write about for quite some time.
I've seen the term bastardized, used in vain, and thrown around like
a swear word far too often for these past few months. Years, even.
I've now just recently started to see some news articles pop up where
libertarians are being labeled as "terrorists" who are
trying to tear apart the government. Maybe they are. I wouldn't know
because I don't subscribe to whatever the main party is trying to
tell whomever they're trying to tell. and I think that many people
who have been beating up the main line libertarian party is probably
right. But its not what its supposed to stand for. People got it all
wrong. From what I've seen as I've learned more about small
government and liberty, it seems as though we all agree that the
government should be doing less than it is now. we all begin to
differ almost immediately after that. However, under the guise off
"true freedom" all Libertarians seem to just argue amongst
themselves about policies that would actually help their candidates
get them elected, instead of standing on a similar party stance.
This is my first issue. Libertarianism is really more an idea than a political party. For me, being libertarian means that I love my country dearly. I celebrate all national holidays with reverence, I make sure to reach out to my veteran friends on memorial day, on veteran's day, and I invite them over for the fourth. I teach my daughter about the history of our country, and make sure she understands how to respect the flag. At the same time, I am wary of our government leaders. I want to know and understand the whys behind their votes in congress, and I want to understand the executive action that takes place at the White House. I read through many Supreme Court Rulings, and ask myself if they have upheld the constitution. To me, the first part of Libertarianism is loving your country in all of these ways. At the community, family, and national levels.
As a libertarian, The main question I ask myself when I'm looking at a new law, or wondering about an issue is "why legislate?" This is a loaded question, in reality. The more specific question I think would be "why would we legislate against/for this, and whom does it benefit? Lets take the issue of Gay Marriage. Why legislate to allow it? to allow folks from all walks to life to marry whomever they please. Now, here's the issue that I see. Why does the government need to legislate for it AT ALL? In my humble opinion, the government has no earthly right telling anyone who they can and cannot marry. EVER. Its none of their business. The only thing it does for the American people is ferret more money out of the national treasury and into the salary of somebody who has to track this, manage it, and check to see who is marrying whom. Why? What purpose does this serve on a government level? Why does it matter that Joe married Annie, or Greg? Who honestly, really cares?
This is what I don't understand about government. It like they've gotten so tied up with the idea that they need to solve everything, that they've forgotten that people really like to just do their own thing. Do you really want the government involved in your love life? Do you really want them monitoring the internet? So you really think you need them to help you go to the store, go out to eat, and any number of other things? The government sure does.
I can understand why things go the way the do in congress. These people in congress want to be re elected, and the only power they have is to create laws. That's it. They can create laws, or shoot down other people's laws. But with 300 some odd years of law creation comes a lot of bullshit that nobody needs. Especially when that's your only function. to create laws. How does one get re elected by NOT making any laws? by essentially not doing their job? Its a hard thing to wrap your head around, but sometimes laws are really just not needed. I can totally visualize how this can also get away from congress as well. When you only make laws, and you spend most of your time in Washington, of course your natural thought process is that Washington knows best. Congress knows best. The President Knows best. But its really not the case. I know me best. I know what I want best. So let me do it.
Now let me qualify everything I just said. The government is necessary. As the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world, we should be helping the poor. We should be helping to cultivate peace and PERSONAL liberty in foreign nations. We should be the stewards of a new, better planet. We should be helping less fortunate nations get on their feet. This is what responsibilities a superpower like us need to take on.
We should also be helping our own at home. We should be spending money (lots and lots of money) on federal programs to help get more students into school and get them into meaningful jobs with career paths. We should continue to spend on healthcare and continue to have the best healthcare system in the world. We should expand our help of the poor, and the injured, and our veterans. These things are legitimate government functions. ESPECIALLY when you're the wealthiest nation on the planet. Its been statistically proven that Austerity doesn't work. It has been inversely proven that spending on those who have a real need for it, and helping them to grow into a job, or helping them get better (whether physically or mentally) grows the economy, and our society.
As a Libertarian, I would love to see a society where the government is there to help, not to punish. How do you ensure that? Don't make so many laws. You've been making them for 300 years congress, tone it down. If you're going to make laws, make laws that help those that need it. If you're going to repeal laws, repeal laws that indict those who have committed victimless crimes, or repeal laws that create undue expenses. There's no reason that our nation needs to spend millions and million of dollars every year on regulators for things that need no regulation. There is no need for government to regulate marriage. There is no need for government to spend millions of dollars regulating abortion on a national or state level. How can a lawmaker pretend to know more about something that a doctor will spend more than a decade studying before he's eligible to perform the operation? Why wouldn't you leave it to the professionals to decide?
As a libertarian, I love my country. I love the lawmakers that help steward the constitution into a new generation. I love Our veterans, our President, and everything that they and our Constitution represents. I am saddened by how skewed everything seems to have become.
If there was one law I would want to see passed as a Libertarian, it would be a law that got money out of Politics. I have read the ruling on Citizens United, and I believe that in light of the constitution, it was the correct ruling. It follows the letter of the law exactly. However, this may be something that our forefathers could have never seen. Corporations, through their immense cash reserves, wield too much power to sway congress, and the other offices in government. Its too much, and it creates a massive barrier to entry for new ideas and new candidates. If I wanted to propose any change to the constitution, it would be to remove money from politics, and let the chips fall where they may. Let the candidates fight on even ground, and let their ideas be the bedrock for their campaign, not the dollars they raise. Maybe one day we'll see that.
I've only scratched the surface here. There is of course a multitude of different opinion articles I could write, positions I could take, and so on. The point I'm trying to get across is that You know YOU better than your congressman knows you. Think about that when you're looking at new laws, and new candidates.
Until Next Time.
This is my first issue. Libertarianism is really more an idea than a political party. For me, being libertarian means that I love my country dearly. I celebrate all national holidays with reverence, I make sure to reach out to my veteran friends on memorial day, on veteran's day, and I invite them over for the fourth. I teach my daughter about the history of our country, and make sure she understands how to respect the flag. At the same time, I am wary of our government leaders. I want to know and understand the whys behind their votes in congress, and I want to understand the executive action that takes place at the White House. I read through many Supreme Court Rulings, and ask myself if they have upheld the constitution. To me, the first part of Libertarianism is loving your country in all of these ways. At the community, family, and national levels.
As a libertarian, The main question I ask myself when I'm looking at a new law, or wondering about an issue is "why legislate?" This is a loaded question, in reality. The more specific question I think would be "why would we legislate against/for this, and whom does it benefit? Lets take the issue of Gay Marriage. Why legislate to allow it? to allow folks from all walks to life to marry whomever they please. Now, here's the issue that I see. Why does the government need to legislate for it AT ALL? In my humble opinion, the government has no earthly right telling anyone who they can and cannot marry. EVER. Its none of their business. The only thing it does for the American people is ferret more money out of the national treasury and into the salary of somebody who has to track this, manage it, and check to see who is marrying whom. Why? What purpose does this serve on a government level? Why does it matter that Joe married Annie, or Greg? Who honestly, really cares?
This is what I don't understand about government. It like they've gotten so tied up with the idea that they need to solve everything, that they've forgotten that people really like to just do their own thing. Do you really want the government involved in your love life? Do you really want them monitoring the internet? So you really think you need them to help you go to the store, go out to eat, and any number of other things? The government sure does.
I can understand why things go the way the do in congress. These people in congress want to be re elected, and the only power they have is to create laws. That's it. They can create laws, or shoot down other people's laws. But with 300 some odd years of law creation comes a lot of bullshit that nobody needs. Especially when that's your only function. to create laws. How does one get re elected by NOT making any laws? by essentially not doing their job? Its a hard thing to wrap your head around, but sometimes laws are really just not needed. I can totally visualize how this can also get away from congress as well. When you only make laws, and you spend most of your time in Washington, of course your natural thought process is that Washington knows best. Congress knows best. The President Knows best. But its really not the case. I know me best. I know what I want best. So let me do it.
Now let me qualify everything I just said. The government is necessary. As the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world, we should be helping the poor. We should be helping to cultivate peace and PERSONAL liberty in foreign nations. We should be the stewards of a new, better planet. We should be helping less fortunate nations get on their feet. This is what responsibilities a superpower like us need to take on.
We should also be helping our own at home. We should be spending money (lots and lots of money) on federal programs to help get more students into school and get them into meaningful jobs with career paths. We should continue to spend on healthcare and continue to have the best healthcare system in the world. We should expand our help of the poor, and the injured, and our veterans. These things are legitimate government functions. ESPECIALLY when you're the wealthiest nation on the planet. Its been statistically proven that Austerity doesn't work. It has been inversely proven that spending on those who have a real need for it, and helping them to grow into a job, or helping them get better (whether physically or mentally) grows the economy, and our society.
As a Libertarian, I would love to see a society where the government is there to help, not to punish. How do you ensure that? Don't make so many laws. You've been making them for 300 years congress, tone it down. If you're going to make laws, make laws that help those that need it. If you're going to repeal laws, repeal laws that indict those who have committed victimless crimes, or repeal laws that create undue expenses. There's no reason that our nation needs to spend millions and million of dollars every year on regulators for things that need no regulation. There is no need for government to regulate marriage. There is no need for government to spend millions of dollars regulating abortion on a national or state level. How can a lawmaker pretend to know more about something that a doctor will spend more than a decade studying before he's eligible to perform the operation? Why wouldn't you leave it to the professionals to decide?
As a libertarian, I love my country. I love the lawmakers that help steward the constitution into a new generation. I love Our veterans, our President, and everything that they and our Constitution represents. I am saddened by how skewed everything seems to have become.
If there was one law I would want to see passed as a Libertarian, it would be a law that got money out of Politics. I have read the ruling on Citizens United, and I believe that in light of the constitution, it was the correct ruling. It follows the letter of the law exactly. However, this may be something that our forefathers could have never seen. Corporations, through their immense cash reserves, wield too much power to sway congress, and the other offices in government. Its too much, and it creates a massive barrier to entry for new ideas and new candidates. If I wanted to propose any change to the constitution, it would be to remove money from politics, and let the chips fall where they may. Let the candidates fight on even ground, and let their ideas be the bedrock for their campaign, not the dollars they raise. Maybe one day we'll see that.
I've only scratched the surface here. There is of course a multitude of different opinion articles I could write, positions I could take, and so on. The point I'm trying to get across is that You know YOU better than your congressman knows you. Think about that when you're looking at new laws, and new candidates.
Until Next Time.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Fortunesnap: A New Perspective on Young Professionals
Good Evening everyone.
As promised, my wife and I will be starting a small business on the side called FortuneSnap. It's plan is simple: to help young professionals write resumes, balance their checkbooks, and get started out in life. We plan on doing this by having my wife write insightful, data filled blog posts about how to land your first job out of school, how to write a resume and cover letter, how to interview, and even how to budget and save. We'll also be offering my wife's services in budgeting, resume writing, and general consulting in all of these fields. We'll be working on this together, but she will be the voice of the blog.
For any of you who know my wife, she is well known to bring people together in any situation. her father has told me many times that as a child, she would be the one to collect everyone together so that they could all do something more fun, as a team. She has always been a team player, and quick to ask more questions and learn more about the person she's talking to. She is also passionate about financial freedom and literacy, and has worked tirelessly at her craft since I set her on that path many years ago, and saved her from a horrible fate as an English major (no offense to English majors, please leave editing comments below)
Her ability to effectively organize and compartmentalize financial issues is second to none. This is the woman who will spend an hour on the phone negotiating interest rates on credit cards, finding the most competitive rates on mortgages, and then pitting the companies against one another for an even BETTER rate. This is the woman who has gotten our phone bill down from $200 a month to less than $40. The woman who has helped us go from crushed by credit card debt out of college, to completely credit card debt free for all of 2014.
Our friends have called upon her help many times. And we've come to their aid, whether it's been a few simple questions about how to effectively set up a Roth IRA, or how they can know which apartment they can afford, we've been available to offer aid. However, she and I have both realized that offering help around a dinner table while kids running around is a far stretch from professional help, and we want to offer services on par with what our friends and family deserve. That is the purpose of this site.
I hope you all enjoy her blog posts, and musings about finance and professional life. I hope you find her as compelling, interesting, and intelligent as I do. I know you will find immense knowledge, given for free, in the pages of this blog as the months go on.
Please, Enjoy!
www.fortunesnap.com
As promised, my wife and I will be starting a small business on the side called FortuneSnap. It's plan is simple: to help young professionals write resumes, balance their checkbooks, and get started out in life. We plan on doing this by having my wife write insightful, data filled blog posts about how to land your first job out of school, how to write a resume and cover letter, how to interview, and even how to budget and save. We'll also be offering my wife's services in budgeting, resume writing, and general consulting in all of these fields. We'll be working on this together, but she will be the voice of the blog.
For any of you who know my wife, she is well known to bring people together in any situation. her father has told me many times that as a child, she would be the one to collect everyone together so that they could all do something more fun, as a team. She has always been a team player, and quick to ask more questions and learn more about the person she's talking to. She is also passionate about financial freedom and literacy, and has worked tirelessly at her craft since I set her on that path many years ago, and saved her from a horrible fate as an English major (no offense to English majors, please leave editing comments below)
Her ability to effectively organize and compartmentalize financial issues is second to none. This is the woman who will spend an hour on the phone negotiating interest rates on credit cards, finding the most competitive rates on mortgages, and then pitting the companies against one another for an even BETTER rate. This is the woman who has gotten our phone bill down from $200 a month to less than $40. The woman who has helped us go from crushed by credit card debt out of college, to completely credit card debt free for all of 2014.
Our friends have called upon her help many times. And we've come to their aid, whether it's been a few simple questions about how to effectively set up a Roth IRA, or how they can know which apartment they can afford, we've been available to offer aid. However, she and I have both realized that offering help around a dinner table while kids running around is a far stretch from professional help, and we want to offer services on par with what our friends and family deserve. That is the purpose of this site.
I hope you all enjoy her blog posts, and musings about finance and professional life. I hope you find her as compelling, interesting, and intelligent as I do. I know you will find immense knowledge, given for free, in the pages of this blog as the months go on.
Please, Enjoy!
www.fortunesnap.com
Just a Stream Of Thoughts
Good Morning All.
Today, I truly have no intention of writing nything i particular. I'm writing for the sake of writing. As the experiment of this blog continues to unfold. I find that instead of sitting down and having more and more things to write, as more and more people start to read, I'm constantly worried about losing readership by writing worse and worse. I think for the past weke or so, I've been writing wrose thanks to this fear. So fuck all that.
Here's my stream of thoughts: Right now I'm drinkgin coffee, excited about my wife's website. It took me about 2 hours to get a fucking email subscription bar to center on the home page, but besides that, It looks pretty great and wasn't to much of a bother. I also am wondering if My youtube channel will work out. We've been having some problems getting more subscribers, and nobody seems to be watching our stuff on twitch, either. However we did just change the channel completely, so hopefully it'll grow more over the next week or so. If anyone out there has some reccommendations on how to make it blow up a little faster, that would be appreciated.
I started making real money with this blog. Not like REAL real money, but like take my wife out to dinner once a month money. That's pretty cool for something I've been working on for about an hour a day for a month. hopefully If i keep up the writing it'll get a little better over time. Hopefully I don't continue to write trite bullshit and make nobody read it anymore. Hopefully My wife doesn't mind me musing about our fighting on an open internet forum. WE'll see. All I know is that right now: I'm happier than I've been in a very, very long time. I have a wife that loves me, a daughter thats about a billion times smarter than my wife or myself, and I'm doing some things that I really am enjoying every day. It's great. I'm hoping that with each passing day each part of what I'm doing gets better, and gets closer to letting us live the life we want to. I think that's my real goal here.
I want to see these little bullshit endeavors grow. I want them to look more professional, more real, and more legitimate every day until they really give us what we're looking for: real , true financial security. real true lifestyle design A La Tim Ferris. Spend 6 months in Buenos Aires because why the fuck not freedom. Drive cross country and write about it on my blog freedom. Wake up at noon on a Tuesday Freedom. Its there. I can smell it.
But what's the secret sauce to get there? I've been working on all of these endeavors from sun up to sundown, and they're still not quite as professional, or quite as cleaned up as I would like them to be. I've actually found myself working through friends coming over, through conversations with my wife, through bath time and nap time and storytime with Sophia. It might be too much. It might not be enough. It might be exactly what you need to get things like this off the ground. I'm not sure. Everyone hides their secret sauce, or their secret sauce is "hard work" and that's the one I'm going for.
I've had a few places show interest in me for jobs. I'm not sure if I want to take them. I'm not sure if a job in the financial field is what I need right now. I'm not sure that another full time worker in this house is what will make it better. I take that back. I'm no sure that me sitting at a desk being unavailable for Sophia is what this household needs. I'm not sure that I'm more useful to my family making a paycheck when I can make that money somewhere else AND be more available. That is what I want to say. I'm not sure its healthy for us, for me, or for anyone else involved. I just don't know.
I'm wondering what the next month or so will look like. I can take a job, start working, and go back to doing what I was doing before. This next job, armed with the experiences of the ones before, I'm sure will be one I will enjoy more, because I won't make those same mistakes again. I'm sure that I'll be paid well. I'm sure that I'll do well at the job, and excel for my bosses and be eligible for raises and promotions and whatever else. I enjoy succeeding. I enjoy working hard. I enjoy doing well on a team, and leading the team to victory. These are things I enjoy. I also enjoy my time. I also enjoy My space. I also enjoy working for myself, and finding my own way. Its always been my dream to work on my own. Maybe at the end of this month I've found that. Maybe at the end of this month I haven't and I'm back to work. I don't know.
I just noticed that my timer never started. I just noticed that I've written quite a lot already, and its scary. That means you all need to read it, because its important. That means that Its not bullshit, like the past week has been. I hope that you enjoy this more than whatever I've been writing before. Its hard to guage what will read well and what won't. That is something I've learned so far. I figured that My Edward Snowden Post would be hailed as complete bullshit, get me double-tracked by the NSA, and would be my least popular post. Instead its gotten more views than all of my other posts COMBINED. Its by far my post popular writing thus far. The close second is what Stef and I write about our business endeavors. None of which I was planning on putting on this blog. But that's what's working from a popularity standpoint.
I can write more politics. I love politics almost as much as I hate them, if that makes any sense. However, I feel as though there aren't any columnists that attack the issues that come forth from a more logical standpoint. From a "why legislate?" standpoint. From a more truly conservative, but socially liberal, "government for the people" standpoint To explain my exact point of view on politics and how to write on it would take me another 5 pages, so maybe that's what I'll write about tomorrow.
Until then, stay tuned to watch me fall flat on my face in any number of directions. Or Succeed. We'll see.
Today, I truly have no intention of writing nything i particular. I'm writing for the sake of writing. As the experiment of this blog continues to unfold. I find that instead of sitting down and having more and more things to write, as more and more people start to read, I'm constantly worried about losing readership by writing worse and worse. I think for the past weke or so, I've been writing wrose thanks to this fear. So fuck all that.
Here's my stream of thoughts: Right now I'm drinkgin coffee, excited about my wife's website. It took me about 2 hours to get a fucking email subscription bar to center on the home page, but besides that, It looks pretty great and wasn't to much of a bother. I also am wondering if My youtube channel will work out. We've been having some problems getting more subscribers, and nobody seems to be watching our stuff on twitch, either. However we did just change the channel completely, so hopefully it'll grow more over the next week or so. If anyone out there has some reccommendations on how to make it blow up a little faster, that would be appreciated.
I started making real money with this blog. Not like REAL real money, but like take my wife out to dinner once a month money. That's pretty cool for something I've been working on for about an hour a day for a month. hopefully If i keep up the writing it'll get a little better over time. Hopefully I don't continue to write trite bullshit and make nobody read it anymore. Hopefully My wife doesn't mind me musing about our fighting on an open internet forum. WE'll see. All I know is that right now: I'm happier than I've been in a very, very long time. I have a wife that loves me, a daughter thats about a billion times smarter than my wife or myself, and I'm doing some things that I really am enjoying every day. It's great. I'm hoping that with each passing day each part of what I'm doing gets better, and gets closer to letting us live the life we want to. I think that's my real goal here.
I want to see these little bullshit endeavors grow. I want them to look more professional, more real, and more legitimate every day until they really give us what we're looking for: real , true financial security. real true lifestyle design A La Tim Ferris. Spend 6 months in Buenos Aires because why the fuck not freedom. Drive cross country and write about it on my blog freedom. Wake up at noon on a Tuesday Freedom. Its there. I can smell it.
But what's the secret sauce to get there? I've been working on all of these endeavors from sun up to sundown, and they're still not quite as professional, or quite as cleaned up as I would like them to be. I've actually found myself working through friends coming over, through conversations with my wife, through bath time and nap time and storytime with Sophia. It might be too much. It might not be enough. It might be exactly what you need to get things like this off the ground. I'm not sure. Everyone hides their secret sauce, or their secret sauce is "hard work" and that's the one I'm going for.
I've had a few places show interest in me for jobs. I'm not sure if I want to take them. I'm not sure if a job in the financial field is what I need right now. I'm not sure that another full time worker in this house is what will make it better. I take that back. I'm no sure that me sitting at a desk being unavailable for Sophia is what this household needs. I'm not sure that I'm more useful to my family making a paycheck when I can make that money somewhere else AND be more available. That is what I want to say. I'm not sure its healthy for us, for me, or for anyone else involved. I just don't know.
I'm wondering what the next month or so will look like. I can take a job, start working, and go back to doing what I was doing before. This next job, armed with the experiences of the ones before, I'm sure will be one I will enjoy more, because I won't make those same mistakes again. I'm sure that I'll be paid well. I'm sure that I'll do well at the job, and excel for my bosses and be eligible for raises and promotions and whatever else. I enjoy succeeding. I enjoy working hard. I enjoy doing well on a team, and leading the team to victory. These are things I enjoy. I also enjoy my time. I also enjoy My space. I also enjoy working for myself, and finding my own way. Its always been my dream to work on my own. Maybe at the end of this month I've found that. Maybe at the end of this month I haven't and I'm back to work. I don't know.
I just noticed that my timer never started. I just noticed that I've written quite a lot already, and its scary. That means you all need to read it, because its important. That means that Its not bullshit, like the past week has been. I hope that you enjoy this more than whatever I've been writing before. Its hard to guage what will read well and what won't. That is something I've learned so far. I figured that My Edward Snowden Post would be hailed as complete bullshit, get me double-tracked by the NSA, and would be my least popular post. Instead its gotten more views than all of my other posts COMBINED. Its by far my post popular writing thus far. The close second is what Stef and I write about our business endeavors. None of which I was planning on putting on this blog. But that's what's working from a popularity standpoint.
I can write more politics. I love politics almost as much as I hate them, if that makes any sense. However, I feel as though there aren't any columnists that attack the issues that come forth from a more logical standpoint. From a "why legislate?" standpoint. From a more truly conservative, but socially liberal, "government for the people" standpoint To explain my exact point of view on politics and how to write on it would take me another 5 pages, so maybe that's what I'll write about tomorrow.
Until then, stay tuned to watch me fall flat on my face in any number of directions. Or Succeed. We'll see.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Now, You Can Work From Anywhere
Good morning all. I'm upstairs in my bedroom writing this as my
daughter eats her breakfast in the other room. My wife is off to work
about 7 minutes away at the local branch office for her company. The
funny thing about where she works, is that her co workers are
actually on the other end of the country: In Houston Texas.
she's always been stationed in Mass. Always was intended to be. There was no big sales pitch on her part to get to stay up here. There was no work performance evaluation to allow her to stay. Its just how the company runs. Work from anywhere, pretty much anytime, and get your work done. They don't really care what else happens in the middle.
It really is the future. For more and more people (especially us in finance, or in blogging) technology now allows us to work from anywhere, anytime. Its great. I've been working on this blog for my house, from my friends houses, from my mother's house. And I don't feel as though my work has been hindered at all. If anything, the new vistas helped me to get more inspiration as I wrote. Stephanie works from home often as well. If the weather is particularly bad, or she has a bad cold, She’ll sleep in an extra hour, have some cold medicine and some tea, and get her work done from bed. This holds the dual benefits of allowing her to get better quicker, and also stops her co workers from catching her cold as well.
I wonder what will be lost as remote work becomes the norm more than the exception. will human interaction start to become less important in business transactions? will the "getting to know you" phase of some business deals end up being a collection of shared memes from reddit? Will Skype replace the in person meeting for all but the most serious of business deals? And what about clerical work? and reception? will those jobs become more obsolete as they can be sold out to the lowest bidder, or a computer who may be able to do it more effectively, especially in a world where all of your data is in the cloud anyway?
It'll be interesting as the world grows to see how remote work changes so many things. As the floodgates open, I'm wondering if a slew of people will simply move to the Bahamas, enjoying cheaper accommodations, the same pay, and year round summer. I bet that it doesn't happen as much as people will think.
I don't know about all of you, but I like home. I like knowing people in my backyard. And even though I enjoy seeing new sights and traveling a whole lot, I don't know if moving into some of these "paradises" would be my answer if a full remote work situation became a reality. I'm sure that there would be a few months in there where we would jet set to Argentina, Or Thailand, but I doubt that It would become our final resting place. Also, I wonder how enjoyable working in a place like this would actually be? Would it really be the joy that everyone is picturing? I imagine that if you ended up staying in a place like that while working, you're probably going to lose a lot of the magic that you perceived while living there and NOT working.
But I digress. I'm glad to live in a time where working from home will soon become the norm. It'll help bring families closer together, it'll allow us all to be more productive (as long as the evil netflix doesn't get a hold of you) and will give us all the flexibility we need to get the kids from soccer practice, or to work a late night in your pajamas without any guilt whatsoever. It's what the country needs to continue to be productive, active, and still enjoy life. I think as companies embrace remote work more, we'll at once see bumps in happiness, household savings, health, and even productiveness.
I've always preferred working by myself. Perhaps that stems from growing up an only child in the middle of nowhere. But for me, working on a project myself is something i truly enjoy. I enjoy working on things myself. I enjoy the feeling of just lowing myself in my work for a space of time. Its a true joy. I like to find new ways to do things, and to work things out on my own. Its always been a joy of mine. That's probably why I enjoy working on cars myself so much: there's always a puzzle to solve, and that's the best part.
So to the puzzle solvers, to the folks who like to work in silence, to those who like to choose their own hours, who want to work Honduras or Thailand: your time is at hand. It will soon be here for you: a time where you'll soon be able to work from where you want, when you want. And here's the thing: you'll all probably be better workers for it. For many of you, I think it will also remove a lot of the strain, the stress, and will also cause a boost in productivity. If you're comfortable where you're working, you'll probably work better. Just my opinion.
Here is my question to you all today, readers: Do you want to work from home? Do you already work from home? If you do already work from home, do you enjoy it more than office work? do you travel while you work, or do you stay in place? For those of you who already remote: tell us about it. For those of you who do not Tell us what you think its like.
Til Next Time.
she's always been stationed in Mass. Always was intended to be. There was no big sales pitch on her part to get to stay up here. There was no work performance evaluation to allow her to stay. Its just how the company runs. Work from anywhere, pretty much anytime, and get your work done. They don't really care what else happens in the middle.
It really is the future. For more and more people (especially us in finance, or in blogging) technology now allows us to work from anywhere, anytime. Its great. I've been working on this blog for my house, from my friends houses, from my mother's house. And I don't feel as though my work has been hindered at all. If anything, the new vistas helped me to get more inspiration as I wrote. Stephanie works from home often as well. If the weather is particularly bad, or she has a bad cold, She’ll sleep in an extra hour, have some cold medicine and some tea, and get her work done from bed. This holds the dual benefits of allowing her to get better quicker, and also stops her co workers from catching her cold as well.
I wonder what will be lost as remote work becomes the norm more than the exception. will human interaction start to become less important in business transactions? will the "getting to know you" phase of some business deals end up being a collection of shared memes from reddit? Will Skype replace the in person meeting for all but the most serious of business deals? And what about clerical work? and reception? will those jobs become more obsolete as they can be sold out to the lowest bidder, or a computer who may be able to do it more effectively, especially in a world where all of your data is in the cloud anyway?
It'll be interesting as the world grows to see how remote work changes so many things. As the floodgates open, I'm wondering if a slew of people will simply move to the Bahamas, enjoying cheaper accommodations, the same pay, and year round summer. I bet that it doesn't happen as much as people will think.
I don't know about all of you, but I like home. I like knowing people in my backyard. And even though I enjoy seeing new sights and traveling a whole lot, I don't know if moving into some of these "paradises" would be my answer if a full remote work situation became a reality. I'm sure that there would be a few months in there where we would jet set to Argentina, Or Thailand, but I doubt that It would become our final resting place. Also, I wonder how enjoyable working in a place like this would actually be? Would it really be the joy that everyone is picturing? I imagine that if you ended up staying in a place like that while working, you're probably going to lose a lot of the magic that you perceived while living there and NOT working.
But I digress. I'm glad to live in a time where working from home will soon become the norm. It'll help bring families closer together, it'll allow us all to be more productive (as long as the evil netflix doesn't get a hold of you) and will give us all the flexibility we need to get the kids from soccer practice, or to work a late night in your pajamas without any guilt whatsoever. It's what the country needs to continue to be productive, active, and still enjoy life. I think as companies embrace remote work more, we'll at once see bumps in happiness, household savings, health, and even productiveness.
I've always preferred working by myself. Perhaps that stems from growing up an only child in the middle of nowhere. But for me, working on a project myself is something i truly enjoy. I enjoy working on things myself. I enjoy the feeling of just lowing myself in my work for a space of time. Its a true joy. I like to find new ways to do things, and to work things out on my own. Its always been a joy of mine. That's probably why I enjoy working on cars myself so much: there's always a puzzle to solve, and that's the best part.
So to the puzzle solvers, to the folks who like to work in silence, to those who like to choose their own hours, who want to work Honduras or Thailand: your time is at hand. It will soon be here for you: a time where you'll soon be able to work from where you want, when you want. And here's the thing: you'll all probably be better workers for it. For many of you, I think it will also remove a lot of the strain, the stress, and will also cause a boost in productivity. If you're comfortable where you're working, you'll probably work better. Just my opinion.
Here is my question to you all today, readers: Do you want to work from home? Do you already work from home? If you do already work from home, do you enjoy it more than office work? do you travel while you work, or do you stay in place? For those of you who already remote: tell us about it. For those of you who do not Tell us what you think its like.
Til Next Time.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
How We're Doing It: Volume 2
These won't be timed, "flowing thought" posts, but more posts about how we're going to create our online businesses, to hopefully better help you guys learn more and be able to do the same things yourselves.
As for this blog, I had my post on Edward Snowden Go Viral Earlier in the week. You can read it here. it more than doubled my internet traffic, and to be frank I have no idea how to capitalize on it. I never intended for this blog to be a political tell-all, nor did I want my focus to be politics. So I've attempted to get the comments flowing on the post, but to no avail. In general I feel as though it was ar ed herring event, and I should stay focused on the original experiment at hand: writing 20 minutes a day, and posting it up and seeing what people like and dont like. People like politics, but I think they'll need to go elsewhere for that.
I made about a dollar in ad revenue from that day of viral interest. Still nothing to write home about. However, I did gain quite a few more readers that seem to check out the page every day. My old "stretch" goal for readership (about 100 per new post per day) is now the new baseline even if I post late in the day (as I did with my youtube channel rollout page). This is really nice, to see your readership constantly grow. However, I'm fairly confident that this blog will not be a moneymaker in any real sense. However, that does not take away its many assets that is posesses to me.
As something that is growing in readerhsip, and takes less than an hour of my time once per day, This blog gives me the aiblity to test marketing ideas on a small group of readers, and see how they react. This will prove immensely useful when Stephanie's website is off the ground. Now you guys know you're guinea pigs, how does that make you feel!?
In the matter of stephanie's website: we've written content, we've spelt out an action plan for multiple products and services, we've even set up a domain name. However, we've decided to use wordpress (As so many awesome, smart people do) and for whatever reason we cannot get the page out of Romanian. I've gotten in touch with Wordpress themselves and I've been told that its a glitch and should be fixed on all pages shortly, all you'll need to do is change language settings. Even with language setting changes we're still in Romanian. If anyone (including Wordpress) can help, please contact me.
Chris and I also rolled out a more consolidated, cleaner, better looking youtube channel here. Now that we have a small viewership we wanted to start looking more professional, post up videos more regularly, and make sure that we can continue to grow our audience. We're posting up videos daily, and we'll continue to do. I think that a successful youtube channel will be the real moneymaker in all three of these, at least in the 3-12 month time period. However, I'm interested that the blog started making a little revenue so quickly. It'll be interesting to see if the channel can do the same in a few weeks.
So in conclusion: wordpress is still in Romanian, but I want their templates, so rollout of my wife's webpage will be delayed until they finally fix that. I'm going to contact them again today and hopefully fix it. Financial status is much the same, however audio quality is far better. Check out the mic we bought here. I'll be doing a full podcast on why its so good eventually.
Now here's the question for you: unresponsive readers. AND YES IM CALLING YOU ALL OUT.
What meaningful step have you made today toward starting something of your own?
Have you made the youtube channel finally? started the blog? made some content? tell us all about it. If you haven't started yet, THEN START. I've written about this quite a few times already, and Its really that simple. START. If you aren't willing to start, then this blog might not be for you, because I'll just bore you by constantly telling you to start. I know this bog started as a theray to myself for a lot of bad shit that was going in my life, and it has helped immensely. It helped me get past some of the harest bits of depression Ive ever had. Now that I'm feeling better, and making shit again, I feel like me again. And that's what it was: I'm creating things again, and it feels good. So create. Make. Build. Or Go elsewhere, because I'm done complaining about the state of my life at least for now. Its fine if this isn't your cup of tea, I'm just trying to save you some time every morning reading something that doesn't pertain to you.
So tell me in the comments: What have you done today to start something of your own?
As for this blog, I had my post on Edward Snowden Go Viral Earlier in the week. You can read it here. it more than doubled my internet traffic, and to be frank I have no idea how to capitalize on it. I never intended for this blog to be a political tell-all, nor did I want my focus to be politics. So I've attempted to get the comments flowing on the post, but to no avail. In general I feel as though it was ar ed herring event, and I should stay focused on the original experiment at hand: writing 20 minutes a day, and posting it up and seeing what people like and dont like. People like politics, but I think they'll need to go elsewhere for that.
I made about a dollar in ad revenue from that day of viral interest. Still nothing to write home about. However, I did gain quite a few more readers that seem to check out the page every day. My old "stretch" goal for readership (about 100 per new post per day) is now the new baseline even if I post late in the day (as I did with my youtube channel rollout page). This is really nice, to see your readership constantly grow. However, I'm fairly confident that this blog will not be a moneymaker in any real sense. However, that does not take away its many assets that is posesses to me.
As something that is growing in readerhsip, and takes less than an hour of my time once per day, This blog gives me the aiblity to test marketing ideas on a small group of readers, and see how they react. This will prove immensely useful when Stephanie's website is off the ground. Now you guys know you're guinea pigs, how does that make you feel!?
In the matter of stephanie's website: we've written content, we've spelt out an action plan for multiple products and services, we've even set up a domain name. However, we've decided to use wordpress (As so many awesome, smart people do) and for whatever reason we cannot get the page out of Romanian. I've gotten in touch with Wordpress themselves and I've been told that its a glitch and should be fixed on all pages shortly, all you'll need to do is change language settings. Even with language setting changes we're still in Romanian. If anyone (including Wordpress) can help, please contact me.
Chris and I also rolled out a more consolidated, cleaner, better looking youtube channel here. Now that we have a small viewership we wanted to start looking more professional, post up videos more regularly, and make sure that we can continue to grow our audience. We're posting up videos daily, and we'll continue to do. I think that a successful youtube channel will be the real moneymaker in all three of these, at least in the 3-12 month time period. However, I'm interested that the blog started making a little revenue so quickly. It'll be interesting to see if the channel can do the same in a few weeks.
So in conclusion: wordpress is still in Romanian, but I want their templates, so rollout of my wife's webpage will be delayed until they finally fix that. I'm going to contact them again today and hopefully fix it. Financial status is much the same, however audio quality is far better. Check out the mic we bought here. I'll be doing a full podcast on why its so good eventually.
Now here's the question for you: unresponsive readers. AND YES IM CALLING YOU ALL OUT.
What meaningful step have you made today toward starting something of your own?
Have you made the youtube channel finally? started the blog? made some content? tell us all about it. If you haven't started yet, THEN START. I've written about this quite a few times already, and Its really that simple. START. If you aren't willing to start, then this blog might not be for you, because I'll just bore you by constantly telling you to start. I know this bog started as a theray to myself for a lot of bad shit that was going in my life, and it has helped immensely. It helped me get past some of the harest bits of depression Ive ever had. Now that I'm feeling better, and making shit again, I feel like me again. And that's what it was: I'm creating things again, and it feels good. So create. Make. Build. Or Go elsewhere, because I'm done complaining about the state of my life at least for now. Its fine if this isn't your cup of tea, I'm just trying to save you some time every morning reading something that doesn't pertain to you.
So tell me in the comments: What have you done today to start something of your own?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)