As you can imagine, converting these files to a database cost them millions, and it was not completed when I left the company in 1996.[Today] I ran the lotto pool, with 148 tickets we did not even get three numbers. (6! of 53! combinations) [This] got me thinking about statistics and database again. Y’day I was touching on P81, my plan to have $25,000 invested by October 10, 2005, out of pay from my job.
[Author’s note: the actual entry contains too much information, but Plan 81 was named because I always invest the first $81 of any paychecks I receive. However, little items like the $600 spent on coffee while counting toothpicks in IHOP bit into the plan. I was advising Staci, a lady I worked with who was always having to borrow $20 before payday. The remainder of this post concerns the income from that single investment.]
In 2000, I made $1.07. In 2001, $107.00. In 2002, $240.00. I invest only in stocks that pay dividends [because those companies have to fundamentally be run differently].
Balance this with zero debt (of any kind) and my equity is climbing at about $82.75 per week. If this seems trivial, remember it is only a working model [to prove a point] and it has persisted for years. It is also a reminder I do not measure wealth in money alone. There are too many out there who indeed have more money—and you can tell why the minute the first two words come out of their mouths.
[Author’s note: I was barking about a popular misconception, that those who desire money are only motivated by greed. Of course, that is the tack that my own family seized on when I wanted to go to university, which is understandable because they could not imagine wanting money for any other purpose except to accumulate riches. I wanted only the opportunities that money offered. This was far beyond their mental capacity.]
