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17 hours ago

in why you’ll be richer without kids on brip blap
This is something M and I discuss a lot. We want to travel and we want to enjoy our "youth," and then we'll be ready to have kids. But you're right, even if people don't want to hear it: you will be financially better off without kids.

1 week ago

in do you need a bailout? on brip blap
I think a lot of this goes back to that poor person's mentality of "woe is me." It's easy to shirk responsibility and blame the big, bad corporations when stuff like this happens. I hear this kind of stuff too, and it drives me nuts.

1 week ago

in one more hill on brip blap
I thought you were going to say something like "because we wanted to get to that next hill, we missed the sunset." But I get your drift here. It's a delicate balance between pushing yourself to the limit and enjoying what you've accomplished. Awesome photo by the way. Creative Commons rocks!

2 weeks ago

in what is ROWE and how does it affect the workplace? on brip blap
This drives me crazy because I'm a HUGE fan of efficiency and I consider myself extremely efficient. But I feel no guilt leaving at 5pm because I know how much I've done and how well I've done it.

I first heard about ROWE from an article about Best Buy and I thought it was the best thing ever. What I've realized is that, as you go further in your career, an informal style of ROWE starts to appear. You have so much work and people "trust" you more (or are just aware of how "good" of a worker you are) so there's less attention paid to your hours and more paid to the results you get.

2 weeks ago

in linklings, rush hour 11 edition on brip blap
Hey Brip, I was taken aback by your stinging comment about the Onion. I was like "Jeez, take it easy, it's all a big joke." Then I went on and read the article...what the hell were they thinking? It's not funny and I can't imagine who greenlighted it. Terrible...

2 weeks ago

in what desperation looks like on brip blap
Brip, you seem to be railing on "regular paycheck" jobs in this post, but at the same time you've expressed how you're going to have to adjust now that your consulting gig is over.

I agree that a lot of people are hooked into the "Security" of their jobs and live beyond their means, but someone like myself is simply hooked on stability. I can't travel somewhere if I don't know I have a reservation to sleep somewhere and so consulting would be tough for me. Not knowing that there is at least a little stability is tough for me. Sure, having a cushion with which to live off makes it easier, but some people just aren't wired for it and it doesn't necessarily mean that we're at the other extreme.

You know?
2 replies
bripblap @WC: I'm a victim of the same paycheck mentality in a lot of ways - I've got one foot in and one out so far. My consulting is somewhat transitional - not quite an employee, not quite a solo practitioner/entrepreneur. And I'd certainly second the idea that some people aren't cut out to be entrepreneurs, just as some aren't cut out to be employees. I guess my only point would still be that you THINK you have stability in a job, but the real stability comes from having multiple sources of income, not a steady paycheck (although I guess you could argue that could be one of the sources).
bubelah's picture
bubelah WC, the point is that any "stable" job is just an illusion, it's NOT stable. YOu can get laid off any day, fired. I bet people at Lehman thought that had a stable job until they woke up one Monday morning and had NO job to go to, No boss to report to, No Human Resources to pick up checks from and nice apartment and nice car to be paid for. Poof, it's all gone overnight!

BTW, I once traveled within Turkey without any hotel reservations or bus tickets till last minute. It was unsettling to my nature, to someone who loves to plan everything and hates any surprises. It turned out to be OK, no big deal. We were able to find cheap deals once we got to our destination. (I was single, though. If I had to do this while traveling with kids, I wouldn't take the risk). YOu see where I am going with it.

3 weeks ago

in one more time on brip blap
You were right, that was very enjoyable. I missed this due to a family trip (did vote early though), so it was tough not being in Chicago when it all went down. Thanks for posting though!

3 weeks ago

in what has changed in personal finance? on brip blap
Good reminder that the basics and the essentials still apply. Nothing has changed on our end and it's likely nothing will. I also share your optimism about the future president and I think it's amazing to see how other people are also feeling so euphoric about it. When I saw video of people crying and cheering in the streets, it was like the whole country had just won the World Series only everyone was sober and orderly.
2 replies
guinness416's picture
guinness416 Heh, "like the whole country had won the world series" is a great description of the images I saw on tv. FWIW, there was a fair amount of dancing up here too (and TO has actually won the series more recently than some of the yank teams!).

I wish more of your fellow bloggahs accepted the interrelated thing, brip blap.
bubelah's picture
bubelah Ha, I wouldn't say everyone "was sober and orderly". At least in NY people were celebrating hard and had a few ;o)

1 month ago

in late link roundup… on brip blap
Thanks for the link! Oh and the cartoon is priceless. I have to go refresh my inbox now though.

1 month ago

in the math hurts on brip blap
My portfolio sounds similar to yours: index funds of the same exact kind almost. I'm also curious how you are down 65%. Did one particular fund slow you down more than the others? It sounds like we have similar allocations but I'm not down nearly that much.

Either way, I wouldn't be worried. Let's just keep plowing more and more into it.
1 reply
bripblap WC, I'm plowing more into it, trust me - I upped the contribution percentage and I'm hoping that future contributions beat my losses. I had two funds that slaughtered my returns, and one in particular (a mid-cap fund) has gone to almost worthless. My 401(k) doesn't offer a good mix of index funds, mostly managed junk, so I take the blame for not going super-conservative with the 401(k) and putting the risk in my IRAs and brokerage where I have more control and choice.

I'm not TOO worried - I'm young, I have time to recover. I hope...

1 month ago

in minding the little things on brip blap
You are spot on with #5. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the politics of the presidency but we don't pay nearly enough attention to the people who can actually help us out with our problems.

1 month ago

in how to enjoy life, or not on brip blap
Sundays used to be my day to reflect on this when I was younger and in grad school. I would usually be hung over and I'd start to think to myself "why am I studying writing? Who cares Why don't I just get a high paying job that'll get me oodles of money so I don't have to scrape anymore?"

Thankfully, Monday would come and everything would go back to normal.

1 month ago

in 7 mistakes not to make in a crisis on brip blap
Tell me about it with the pundits. All you need to do is find one instance of pundits saying something ridiculous and you'll find it a lot easier to get over their supposed expertise. It's like sportscasters—some are good and some suck. Listen to one that sucks and it's all you need to realize that just because they're on TV it doesn't mean they know what they're talking about.

2 months ago

in ostrichism on brip blap
I think everyone agrees with you, even up to that last line. And that's where people's problems lie.

"If you were happy with what you were doing..." Now people see the market tanking and feel like they did something wrong, didn't pick the right funds or stocks, etc. So they have to do something else. When all they should really do is stick their head in the sand.

2 months ago

in have MBAs been devalued by the crisis? on brip blap
I don't think they'll become less popular. MBAs are closely tied to earning power (at least in people's minds), so they will always chase after the money. And Wall Street types always feel the same way about these kinds of events: "I wouldn't have messed up."

2 months ago

in oh no they di’int on brip blap
Seriously, people worry way too much about all these things they have no control over, while their finances sit in the corner, neglected and suffocating.

2 months ago

in Gibbled on gibbled
Thanks for the link!

2 months ago

in even my barber on brip blap
Any kind of drastic tip like this that comes with earth-shattering stuff like "this is like nothing we've ever seen" or "this will change the market forever" is all hot air. Hopefully something good will come of this, but I doubt it. Things will get better and in 15 years the same things will happen again with different companies/industries. Better be ready for it.

2 months ago

in frugality versus self-sufficiency on brip blap
Among my best investments of all time I have a magazine subscription and an online workshop — nothing to do with actual money. But like you say here, I spent it smart and it's definitely paying off.

2 months ago

in timing the bottom on brip blap
THere will never be a "perfect" time to start any new project or idea. You got that right. It's all about saying, "F*** if, I'm making it happen NOW."

3 months ago

in this food and this life on brip blap
My wife and I were just talking about how lucky we are that the both of us feel the same way about food and cooking. You're right when you say: "I think if you are serious about money, you will be serious about food." That's how we both started getting into cooking — we were trying to protect our money.

3 months ago

in 5 ways to take time off work on brip blap
Ditto on this. Sometimes taking a day off like this to just enjoy the summer is a great idea. Just make sure you don't sleep in, stay at home and do nothing! Go out there and make it a day you'll remember.

3 months ago

in when does intellectual curiousity stop? on brip blap
Whenever I find myself in a rut, be it creative or otherwise, I usually find that I haven't been reading as much as usual. So that's a clear sign right there of how reading affects me.

3 months ago

in college student finance tips on brip blap
Try as hard as you can to make it work without going into debt. If you can't, then rethink it. But if you REALLY want to go to Stanford, find a way to get it paid for.

3 months ago

in searching for water on mars on brip blap
I like these posts, especially the titles. As for this one, I've got the first two and want more, but the spirituality one is where I don't think I"ll ever get a hit. I have my own brand of "faux spirituality" right now, but maybe it's because I'm "young."
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