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Blogging to you from the Northeastern Badlands of The County of Lake, in the state currently known as Fatmanistan, DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP inside the heartland of the Banana Republic formerly known as the USA, WELCOME TO THE NEXT CHAPTER! WARNING! ALL FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ARE ADDICTIVE; EXCESSIVE USE MAY LEAD TO MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS, REDUCED JOB PRODUCTIVITY, INSOMNIA, SOCIAL ALIENATION, GENITAL ULCERS, BLINDNESS, POLITICAL EROTICISM, AND / OR DEVIANT FUNAMBULISM. NOTICE: NO GUNS OR AMMUNITION ARE FOR SALE VIA THIS BLOG. (No, I will not trade my Colt Python for some lubricious adventures with your trophy wife and a future first-round draft pick.) CAVEAT: This blog is not suitable for viewing while at work, while inside a public library, while inside any public or private school, or while inside any public or private restroom. Do not view this blog while driving a motor vehicle or while piloting an aircraft. Viewing this blog may be illegal inside the EU, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and other parts of the Third World. THIS BLOG CONTAINS (albeit often very childish) ADULT-CONTENT. DISCLAIMER: This blog is a hobby, it is not a livelihood. Even though much of what I blog about relates to firearms collecting and recreational shooting, I am not an expert (by any measure) on any facet of guns, shooting, hunting, or personal defense. Entries at this blog are akin to good old-fashioned campfire chats or post hunt bourbon-fueled barroom-bluster; I offer no opinion on what you should or should not purchase, or what you should be using or doing. What does or does not work for me could be rugged-country-miles away from your tastes and your needs. All products, places, and miscellany that I review for this blog are purchased / rented / leased at retail price by me. I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, freebies, products on loan, distilled spirits, recreational pharmaceuticals, plea-bargains, probation, parole, Papal Blessings, Presidential Pardons, or sexual favors for doing any review or blog post. TRACKING COOKIES: Google et al stick tracking cookies on everybody. If you are online, you are being spied on via one method or another, for one reason or another; 'nuff said. You may be able to minimize your online DNA residue by using Tor and Duck Duck Go. Vive la liberté! Vive all y'all! Ante omnia armari. To each of you, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Planning out the New Year 2012



Just finished our 2012 family budget; I’ve been doing my budgets for home and work on spreadsheets since the days of VisiCalc.  It is getting tighter for us to make ends meet, but if we can quit adopting sick cats and helping out destitute friends and relatives, each who say that they “keep track of my finances in my head,” we should be okay at least for another year.  The taxes and health insurance costs are murderous, but I assume those problems are nationally pervasive.  It is funny that the government programs to help the needy are not available to help the needy that I know.  Quite frankly I am growing weary of people practicing foolhardy financial hygiene for their entire lives then loudly adorning themselves in the robes of victimhood when their world falls apart.  Please BUDGET, people.  Quit spending money you don’t have on things you really do not need.  In my blue, gray, and white-collar lifetime I was amazed to meet so many people who felt qualified to manage multi-million dollar corporate budgets when they lived one paycheck away from bankruptcy.  Money in your personal bank account is power and freedom.  Debt indentures you to a life of sycophancy and servitude, which is exactly where the banks and politicians (and occasionally, your spouse or significant other) want you to be. 

As far as our other contingencies, today I exercised the engines on the portable generator, both snow blowers, and (optimistically) the riding lawn mower.   I have cut down on the emergency supply of food and household paper products so I can reorganize the basement, but I expect to be done with that project and fully restocked before the end of the Mayan calendar when the gods shower cataclysmic horror down on our poor defenseless little noggins.


4 comments:

  1. Have you ever read or heard of a couple of books, "The Millionaire Mind" and "The Millionaire Next Door"? One of his points, based on what sounds like honest research, is that the doctors, lawyers and ceos who look rich, aren't. They spend so much of their income on maintaining the image that they have nothing set aside to build wealth. As slim as your equity may seem, you are probably wealthier than many of those who drive the big cars.

    Here I am talking dollar wealth, you obviously are richer in the area of values wealth and priority wealth.

    Grace and peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy New Year, Pumice! Thanks for stopping by.

    Yeah, we all know folks who will bankrupt themselves trying to look rich, or at least as well off as their neighbors and friends. Many do make good livings but choose to live beyond their means.

    Heck, I've lived long enough to be broke and sometimes I am silly enough to make the same mistakes more than once. I guess the difference is I always found the source of my problems staring back at me from any mirror and I never felt sorry for myself and I never hang-dogged to others for help.

    Anyway, I hope to live long enough to make and learn from many more mistakes.

    Best to you!

    Zack

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're right about debt. Took me years to figure that out (I'm especially thickheaded).

    ReplyDelete
  4. All great advice Zack.

    Hope all is well back there in your part of the country!

    ReplyDelete

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