Easy Change

Curiously, I recently became I'll and was forced to have a small surgical procedure done at my local hospital. While emergency rooms are rarely fun, I found this experience to be one that made me rather happy to have such a good system close by. I know that there is much being said in the healthcare debate and that many people will have other ideas. My experience is an isolated incident. For my recent life I have not had to experience it. The real concern now is the bill. Well, provided that it isn't exhorbitant, I will be happy. And for now, I am just glad to ne back to work.

This morning on the Fox Business network they provided a very interesting infographic that shows the spending on various program by NASA. I've been convalescing for the past few days and during this time I have been watching the show called the universe. One of the experts from this show appeared and made an appeal for NASA to allocate some of their resources to this important task. When sold as an insurance policy, it seems like a no brained. Many people think that NASA is important for the value it provides to motivate kids to get interested in math and science. Personally, I am not sure that holds much water. There was no NASA during the time of Newton or Copernicus or gallileo. Here are the stats: Space operations: 5.8billion Science: 4.5billion Exploration: 3.5billion Aeronautics: 500million The amount needed for asteroid servaillence is in the hundred million range total. That is over many years. I think that is good insurance.

The reality of healthcare and much of life is that much of it is a crapshoot. Emergencies can happen and make critical work quite difficult to complete. For instance I recently experienced this first hand when I was experiencing stomach pain this past Sunday night. It developed into and was diagnosed as appendicitis. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but knowing that I had a significant amount of work due at the end of the month, it became clear that I would need to use my backups. What I mean by my backups is different for various circumstances. For existing projects that are currently in use, this means to make sure that there are people and processes in place to do whatever is needed to handle day to day tasks. For projects in development, this means having documentation available that shows next steps. This documentation can provide what is needed to proceed forward even if I am not available. These backups are critical for important projects and tasks that must continue no ...

So, after a couple of years, prosper is gone. I can't say that I am terribly surprised. They are still around and doing business but they are no longer lending any significant amount of money, according to Eric. I'd like to say that I am surprised and that this was a great site that just went badly, but in many ways they reaped what they sowed. Personally, I invested several hundred dollars there and my money would have been safer and made just as much, if not more in a bank CD with a lot less stress and hassle. Of course, it would not have provided me with the diversion of looking at loans and trying to size up who was a good credit risk, but that's not really what we should be interested in doing when it comes to our investments. Investing (at least for me) is not gambling. Now many of my loans are almost done and I've made just short of 2.5% on my money but with tons of hassle. And if there is just one more default, I will be negative. This sucks. And it would be eas...

In dealing with my quest to become more financially secure, I have to admit that there are times when you think that it is all about the amount of money in the bank account or how much debt hat you pay off. For me recently, things have been going quite well at work and I think that it is a good idea to step back every once in a while and revisit your priorities. For me, I realized that my personal financial goals would suffer if my priorities were not taken care of first and foremost. My priorities are probably more simplistic than most people. Food, shelter, and basic health top the list. Without those things everything else is just a bit pointless. After that I need companionship. Some people say they don't. But I know that I need more than others. The point of this post is not to get touchy feely. Instead I want to recognize how important it is to maintain good relationships with family and friends. It is critical if it is a priority for you. Therefore do not be shortsighted by ...

One of the key factors in my personal finance adventure has been dealing with the concepts of estate planning and also retirement planning. There are various calculators out there for helping you estimate your needs at retirement but I take a somewhat different approach. My approach is that instead of looking at the amount of money you'll need and saving enough to get you to that goal, I first look at what I am saving and see what it could possibly get me in retirement. Of course all of this is a forecast. Currently I'm forecasting for six percent returns and two and a half percent inflation in this exercise. Then I see what is available when I invest in this way on a monthly basis for the next thirty years and take a four percent distribution divided by twelve as a monthly withdrawl down out of the accounts. Many people might think that this is the same old thing. But I try to be pragmatic. I will certainly try to stay on track but life throws curveballs. My method lets me ch...