Archive for February, 2009
How to Save Money
Saturday, February 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
When it comes to saving money there are only a handful of basic principles. Once you learn them, you can apply them to any category in your life (such as cars, kids, pets, utilities, rent) and see new ways to save money.
The Curse of Being Skilled
Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | work | 1 Comment
I’ve been increasingly frustrated at work lately. It seems that I’ve gotten a reputation for being smart. I’m viewed as the “go-to guy” for a number of projects. Normally, this is a good problem to have but it results in a very unpleasant side effect: managers try to dump a lot of work on you.
How I Won $100 For Nothing
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When I was in high school, there was a pamphlet distributed to my entire class detailing a scholarship offered by a local community center. The only requirement was to make a website promoting ethnic diversity. This contest was open to any high school student from the county, so this was advertised to literally thousands of students. Naturally, my best friend and I pounced on this opportunity. We quickly filled out the application form (which only required our names and addresses - you could submit a link to your final product later) and got to work. We spent a few hours dreaming up lofty ideas for our website - should it be serious? Or funny? How were we going to show diversity?
I Could Die Tomorrow
Friday, February 6th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Whenever I read personal finance articles online and the topic is saving money for the future, there is always one grasshopper among the commenters who berates us for wanting to save, saying something along the lines of “I could die tomorrow! Why not live life to the fullest now?”. Usually we personal finance types dismiss the call of carpe diem with a dose of realism: you probably won’t die tomorrow and if you spend all of your money now you will likely be SOL when you turn 60 with no savings. But what’s the truth? How likely is it that you’ll die? I looked into this using the 2004 actuarial tables from www.ssa.gov and the results were surprising.
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Whatever Happened to Hustle?
Thursday, February 5th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Given the current state of the economy, I assumed that companies would be eager to make a sale or gain a new customer. But last week my girlfriend and I tried ordering a pizza and we were turned down by 3 places before we finally found a place willing to deliver. What kind of a pizza place doesn’t want to make a sale?
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