Not necessarily the kinds that make them financially rich, but things like piano lessons, dance lessons, Tae Kwon Do, etc. A good friend from church was recalling a story that their new piano teacher told them about another one of her students. This particular teacher demands that her students practice on a real piano. (Aside: … Read more
I was talking with a friend at church a few weeks ago and we got to talking a little about our retirement accounts. He admitted that he was afraid to look at what his portfolio had done. (He has a bit of exposure to equities.) I doubt he’d be afraid to look at it if … Read more
Man, it took the grace of God not to hit a new seller with negative feedback on his second auction. I bought a programming book off of eBay. I checked the auction description and it looked like the book and edition I wanted. I bid a little bit less than what I could get it … Read more
In 2008, Netflix’s distribution system went down in a big way for three days. (This was the DVD arm of Netflix, which was closed in 2023.) Getting videos to its customers was the largest chunk of what it does, so not being able to do this was a big problem. They stood to lose a few … Read more
If you can type 200 words per minute and got 800 on your Verbal SAT, then you probably don’t need to visit these websites. I tweeted something about time sucks and got a link from the author of Freelancedom with a list of her favorite time-wasters. There are literally an infinite number of ways to … Read more
We love Amazon Prime. It’s a luxury, but based on what we buy on Amazon.com it’s already paid for itself a few times over. Amazon Prime is all-you-can-eat two-day shipping on millions of eligible items, without minimum orders. It also includes overnight shipping upgrades for just $3.99. The cost of Amazon Prime is currently $79 … Read more
My tachometer, my friend. Not all vehicles have one of these but it is a helpful monitor of gas consumption. The relationship between gas consumed and revolutions (cycles) per minute isn’t exactly linear but in general, the higher the engine’s RPM, the more gas is consumed. The tachometer gives me a visual cue as to … Read more
Early retirement is a dream of many Americans — one that can be achieved by sacrificing early in one’s life to tuck away enough of a nest egg that the possibility of outliving one’s money is remote, or at least easily fixed. This is a good think to achieve, right? Charles Yarrow, vice president of … Read more