9:00 a.m. Early enough. I’ve still got the flu. Miscellaneous reading today, although I did some book shopping. However that’s usually a one-time shot per location for me. There’s a reason, I think it is because I look like I know what I’m doing. It goes like so. The first time I walk in, I usually spot the empty section with the books. Within a few moments, there will be a few people watching me. By about ten minutes a small crowd has gathered, all suddenly interested in reading, and specifically the books in the shelf where I am standing.[Author’s note: this strange activity, but I now recognize it as a standard type of Florida behavior, and I’ve taken doubting people along to watch the effect. This is doubly odd, because I stay away from the fiction shelves. The whole situation is well-documented elsewhere.]
By the second time I go back, I’ve had some of them race me to the book area, dropping whatever they were doing when I walked in. I am not exaggerating, it’s like they are afraid I’ll find a good deal or something.
What got into me, I don’t know, but I went over to see if Frank was in at 2:30 p.m. He wasn’t. I waited a couple of hours over coffee at IHOP and did some calculating. or what I’m paying in rent, I could handle an $80,000 mortgage easily. There are some decent places around for that. [In the end I did not buy, it was too speculative.]
It was Staci at work that got me thinking. She has that condition of thinking she can’t possibly get by with one cent less than she makes. She cannot imagine saving even $5.00 per week. My rule is after you get paid, put one hours pay into savings, rolling the savings over into larger investments over time. When I suggested this to he she asked, “Then what am I supposed to live on?”
(Maybe the other 97.5%?)
By comparison, and despite my recent expensive rent, I still manage to save 14% of my pay (19.2% of take-home). That’s still not revealing [of the true extent of my savings], because to do so I have a complete investment and record keeping system in place. This is not only an incentive, there is a ready place to channel any windfalls or found money. (Don’t try to interpret these labels too literally.)
[Author’s note: Staci was a lady at work that used to complain how broke she was all the time. She used to get her nails done every Thursday for $15 while she was complaining. The reference to “found money” is an account I have that has proven, over the years, that I can do better than my parents just by saving any money I find blowing in the streets. That account with all those thousands just sits there to this day.]
