the end of break time

I almost feel like I should return to the "to-don't" list for my own needs.   But the vacation brain is setting in and I'm not sure there is much to stop it. 
I
 know the plan ahead, and it is going to be long days and long nights for a long time.  There is no other option.  To be broke the rest of my life is not an option.  I am unwilling to "settle" and to lay down and die the life of mediocrity disillusionment.  I know this is what will happen because I know the way out, and it screams to my face.  I just have to quit blubbering and get on with it.  There is no other option, none at all.  There is just the way forward. 

As for the moral imperative to be rich, it's there.  God doesn't want his people to live just barely making it.  And the plan is laid out in Proverbs...

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth

So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands:  Go - to the point of exhaustion - and give your neighbor no rest!  Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.  Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

Proverbs 6: 1-8 NIV

To translate for those who don't speak Bible: get your lazy butt up, go to work, and get more jobs.  Quit being lazy and pay off all that debt. 
If you really want to shock yourself, count out how much debt you pay out every month.  The number will surprise you.  If you don't have the cash to invest for retirement, then that is probably why.  You spend all your money making other people rich and not yourself.
Debt is dumb, and there is no way around it.  And the only way out of debt is to work like a crazy fiend, shutting out all excuses and reason.  There is one solution, and that solution is work.  There will be time later for magic with big numbers.  But now... there will be work, and more work, and more work.

A long day, and a short blog

After a long night followed by a long day, I have this to say...


Many highly complex problems are solved by simple solutions. 

A label maker is worth its weight in gold, and should be used liberally. 

Shoddy, incompetent tech support delays real working solutions longer than need be. 

Just because "that's the way everyone else does it" doesn't mean we want to do it that way. 

Empowering individuals to solve problems can cause major problems.

Empowering individuals to solve problems is worth ten times the revenue lost during that one major problem.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

If you want a different result, do things differently.


That is all for today.

The Moral Imperative to Become Rich

The Moral Imperative to be Rich

Each and every person has a moral imperative to become rich.  That sounds weird because we are taught "the meek shall inherit the Earth".  That's all based off Psalm 37:11 and Matthew 5:5.

In context so we don't miss something,

Psalm 37:11 NIV

But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.

Matthew 5:5 NIV

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

Going with the "meek shall inherit the earth" theme is pretty simple.  Misguided people use it to justify why YOU and not them should be poor.  But, they are wrong because they use the Bible out of context to justify why people shouldn't try and succeed.

I say out of context because they ignore several important bits.

Psalm 24:1 NIV The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

Also, 1 Corinthians 10:26 NKJV for "the earth is the Lords's, and all its fullness."

What does that tell me, and this is what the Bible really means by "the meek shall inherit the earth". 

MONEY IS NOT YOURS.  POSSESSIONS ARE NOT YOURS.

As Jesus put it... 

Luke 20:20-25
Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, "Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"

"Caesar’s," they replied.

 He said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s."

Here, Jesus harkened back to Psalm 24:1.  Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's is a statement designed to see if those religious teachers actually believed and followed the law of God.  Fun fact: they didn't. To clarify so there is nothing left to chance: everything is Gods.  As I heard from Dave Ramsey one time, "he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and the hills too."

Being meek is the understanding that everything I have has been given to me through the grace of God and his blessings.  It's an understanding that I can do nothing without God.  It's also an understanding that

Ok, so the money I go out and work for isn't mine.  So what am I supposed to do with it?  Give 10 percent to God and use the rest as you see fit.  You need to think differently about money, wealth, and possessions.  You need to think as if you were an employee of a major corporation, using their money and items. 

Most people don't treat their work equipment like they treat their own equipment.  But that's the way you have to think about it.  I have a business cell phone.  I treat it like a business cell phone.  I know at any time, I may have to give it up and potentially get a new cell phone.  The laptop I use is a work laptop.  I spend so much time at work, my laptop bleeds into my personal life.  But I still know this laptop belongs to my company.  If they want it back, they will take it back. 

I try to think about all my possessions in that way.  I try and manage money as if I am managing it for someone else.  As such, I spend a lot of time budgeting and figuring out how the cash will flow and the bills will get paid.  All that has to happen for the company (you, INC) to stay in business.  I might go into budgeting later.  But a lot of others have said much better things than I have.  Check out Dave Ramsey, Larry Winget, or Jim Cramer.

Now, if you don't believe in God, then this probably isn't going to help you.

But, if you don't believe in God then you might as well acquire as much as you can because being broke sucks. 

Next time, unless I get distracted...  more on the moral imperative to become rich.

Getting weird

Wow.   Just wow.  Can you forgo housing whilebootstrapping a startup?

I'd honestly contemplate it if I wasn't married with kids.  All things considered, it seems like an awesome idea and sticks back to the general idea of "how bad do you want it?"  Going without housing for four months would be one of those amazing situations and goes to show that "the little man can't get ahead" and "the man is keeping me down" are just excuses. 

But we're here to learn from the crazy guy about how to quit listening to those people and take charge of your own destiny, so let's work on that for a bit, shall we?

Ok. 

First things first.  You need a good bank.  What qualifies as a good bank?  I don't know, but I do know what a bad bank is.  Look for something with excellent customer service, a logical deposit schedule, and putting customers first.  Just because they are "large" or have lots of ATMs doesn't make it worth a darn.  I use USAA , but I'm lucky like that.  My ATM charges get refunded every month, so I use whatever ATM I happen to be closest to.  Also, some Wal-Marts have money stations that act as ATMs and give out amounts other than $20 bills.  The one I use often will dispense $1 bills.  Talk about precision.  And that helps when making a budget.  My totals don't always come out to nice $20 rounds, so if I need $150, I don't have to pull that extra $10 out to get what I want.  Plus, Wal-Mart charges $1.50, which USAA also refunds.  So it's worth driving out of the way to get what I want.

While you are thinking of a bank, treat them like used car salesmen.  Don't be mean and rude, but realize there is another one five blocks down the street that is more than happy to take your money.  Banking is a PRODUCT, not a privilege. 

Once you find that bank, or if you decide to keep your old bank you have one thing to do. Get rid of overdraft protection.  Overdraft charges run about $30 per situation, and will kill every single penny you make.  Plus, the shoddy banks will charge you overdraft plus under minimum balance plus whatever else, so a $.10 over charge turns into a -$80 hole from one transaction.  Get rid of it.     

Now here's what's going to happen the next time you try to overdraft your account: the clerk is going to look at you and say your card has been declined.  You're going to make all sorts of ludicrous statements.  And then you are going to realize one simple fact: I do not have the money to purchase this.

And that shock and embarrassment will hopefully cause a behavior change.  Or at least, that's what we want.  That behavior change is going to be required if you are going to change your life and your family tree.  Living within your means is hard, but it's worth it.  The biggest problem is getting the years of stupid out of your head dumped in by sales and marketing people.

Passive Income

Now that the day has slowed down, I'm finally capable of sitting down and writing for a bit.  Operational changes can be complete havoc on my day, and any hopes I have of following a schedule is hopeless.  Doesn't help that I'm several days behind on testing another new rollout.  But, I digress. 

Anyways.  I said I was going to take about "income I don't have to work for" this time, so I will.  My method is quite simple.  Go to Yahoo! Finance.  I use it because 1) It's free, and 2) It's free, and 3) The FREE information provided gives me what I'm looking for.

Now, I am going to talk about stocks.  I am not going to talk about buying stocks like a house flipper.  I'm not going to talk about buying stocks like the midnight cable TV guys.  I'm talking about buying a stock and ALMOST NEVER selling it.  Why?  Because you're going to buy 1 stock for one (that would be ONE) and only one reason.  There are reasons you would sell, but I'll get to that in a moment. 

What we are looking for are dividends.  Dividends are payments made by companies to the shareholder.  Some give dividends quarterly, some yearly, and some never.  I want to find a stock (or mutual fund) that pays a dividend MONTHLY.  Why?  Because my bills come every month, and I want income EVERY MONTH to pay those bills.  I may be diligent and driven, but I can't plan three months of bills out and expect it to work regularly.  So you are looking for a stock that pays a dividend every single month.

Here is the one situation in which you would sell this stock: if they decide they aren't going to pay the dividend.  The stock you are buying can choose to do that.  But if they don't pay every single month, sell and go buy somewhere else.  We're buying them for the long term because they are willing to fork out cash every single month.  If they miss a payment, FIRE THEM and get someone who will pay you every single month. 

Now that you've picked your stock, the question comes as to where to reinvest the dividend and make compound interest work for you, or not reinvest.  It sounds stupid, but it helps my brain to NOT reinvest the dividend.  That's because that .37 cent payment shows just how much fine my retirement will be.  And that's the whole point, right?  It's much easier if you can look and say "yup, I can afford to live on that".  But getting a tiny payment gives a constant reminder that I need to invest more to get more. 

If you don't need that constant reminder, you are a better person than I am and compound interest will make you rich and famous. 

Now, would I do this as a "retirement strategy" in tax-advantaged plans?  No.  A "retirement strategy" assumes you are going to work until you are 62 1/2 or whatever ridiculous age the government comes up with and then retire.  What if I have the money to retire at 40?  What's wrong with that if I have the income to support it? 

If I follow the typical Roth plan, then I can't touch that money without huge penalties and interest.  I do have a 401k, but I no longer contribute to it.  I use highly risky funds and an income fund.  Hopefully, they will ride the roller coaster up and down and eventually be worth something.  But I'm not going to bet on it.

Waiting

Waiting.  

I often want to charge headlong into every problem I see.  It just doesn't work that way quite often.  The singular momentum that builds up and moves us to action often has to be made subservient to everything else we need to do.  As of recent, I've become a time nut.  I've spent a lot of time examining how I spend my time and what I get accomplished with my time.  It's just not what I want.  I think I can do more. 

But my goals require following a certain path.  That certain path isn't exactly laid out, but it is laid out enough to where if I skip a step the entire thing may fall apart.  And that is something I don't want. 

But here I am, back to waiting.  Mostly waiting for two different things to complete.  Ubuntu has to install on my back PC so I can begin testing some of the ideas I have.  I've heard Nagios is a very good program for examining the current status of a system. 

Which leads me to the next day, and once again system examination.  After reading part of the speech by Julian Castro, I'm inclined to remember several very similar speeches from the RNC convention.

All of the speeches are essentially rags to riches stories.  All are about immigrants that started off with nothing and ended up becoming something amazing.  As a constant studier of systems, I'm inclined to think Julian Castro and Mitt Romney have more in common than they think.  They may have come to different conclusions, but their systems are probably remarkably similar. 

Romney, being Mormon and a fairly decent business guy probably kept his debts low, lived within his means, and then increased his means.  Castro's grandmother probably had old time values, so she probably never borrowed any money.  Not borrowing any money would have kept her well ahead of anyone else, even if she hadn't increased her means. 

So based off the generalized example of both, the goal is simple: get rid of debt, and increase means.  Now, being the non-business inclined person, Castro's grandmother probably didn't rely on the wonders of capital gains, so she spent her whole life working in what Robert Kiysoaki would have lamented to be the wrong sector.  I haven't read Cash Flow Quadrant in a while, so I don't remember the exact terminology he used. 

Essentially, Castro's grandmother and many others never take advantage of "money they don't have to work for".  As such, they work an 8 or 10 hour day, and that is all their life produces.  8-10 hours of work.  Mitt Romney learned the benefits of using his money to make more money.  In the end, it seems like most of Mitt's income is generated by things he doesn't have to show up to do.  Hence, he can work his 8-10 hours a day or not, and still get paid.  

So the question becomes: how do I make money when I'm sleeping?  

Maybe next time for that one.