Tersosity & Verbosity

Could he be any more clueless?

Here’s a new and different idea: Companies offering debt-related benefits, as opposed to the more traditional emphasis placed on retirement and other things. Because yes, it is distracting (remarkable that link is from 2002, when the good times still rolled and only a few of us were stressed out about the glaringly obvious housing bubble problem).

It’s an interesting theory I could be inclined to believe. More troublesome is my impression when I learned in college about FASB and how it all works was that it’s an arm of the SEC in all but name, sometimes grabbing some wiggle room, but buying that room by largely doing whatever the government wants, before the government can impose the same rule more heavy handedly. Kind of like giving the nice man in the Italian suit your spare cash because you know he’s armed and usually humorless, rather than waiting for him to show that he’s armed and insist you go along. And if you don’t make him insist enough times, maybe he’ll go easy on you the time when you really can’t spare the cash. I don’t follow FASB at all closely, since losing any interest in being an accountant for a living, but it’s cool having a bit more insight into the process than your average person.

Credit Card Ghosts, including somr interesting links to factoids and statistics about credi cards.

I’ve always had trouble battling imposter syndrome, which ties into my trouble charging a lot and accepting too little income, as I discussed with the recruiter yesterday. Not that it helps for what’s a good income to change so dramatically over time. What was a great income in 1978 is live with your parents or in a car money these days. What was good money five years ago needs to be higher by an amount equal to the entire good annual income of thirty years ago. Crazy.

But yeah, I suffer from lack of focus, but not lack of ability or potential. I only think I’m worthless much of the time. Probably a good reason for people not to shoot me down when I do get cocky, because that may be annoying, but the quashing of it contributes to fear that I’m no good and unwillingness to tout myself even if I have a solid idea otherwise. Even the people who chip what they are willing to pay have contributed, because to me there’s a direct correlation between your cheapness and my perception of not being worth anything.

Apart from cost and fussiness, depending on model, I actually like the compact florescents, and what they did to the electric bill. At least, until the electric usage we were getting billed for nearly doubled for no apparent reason. One of the things I don’t like is that you can’t or couldn’t, put the new ones in covered fixtures, requiring old style in some cases. I mentioned that to someone the other day and surprised them, as they’d not read the directions/warnings and used them that way without apparent issue. At any rate, I can completely understand hoarding incandescent bulbs for various reasons. It should be up to the market to encourage the switching, not government decree.

On an amusingly related not to my consulting fees post the other day, here’s a post on how to sell overpriced services. The dressing part feels tongue in cheek, even though it’s tried and true advice I first saw decades ago, and so not me. The part about being right up front is something I’ve flirted with and lately come around to wanting to do again, though in my situation there may be a balance between every scrap of marginal revenue being vital and it being worthwhile to make the most of what work can be landed at real rates, allowing focus on clients willing to pay realistically.

Sounding sensible? Apparently it can happen.

This is good post on determining consulting fees, even if it does date back to January. I famously have trouble with pricing, which may be tied up somewhat with self-esteem and excessive desire to please others on my part, and ironically it’s probably low pricing that’s left me with a lack of business and prospects. Obviously you can’t sell to those who can’t or won’t pay a given amount, and competition is ever a factor, but in all reality I need to charge $100 n hour and put in plenty of hours in order to earn realistic income from a support the family perspective. That should be a powerful incentive not to charge $50 to spend 6 hours updating a web site, or $80 to spend 4 hours, or $112.50 for 9+ hours on a POS system update underpriced and misleadingly described. Or you would think.

Richard Grasso is holding up well in court so far.

This is exactly my view of it.

The obsession with home ownership is indeed strange and unhealthy, and was parlayed into maximizing the housing bubble I’ve been on about for years.

This is just remarkable. Trouble is, you can vote it into law, but the legislature and governor are above the law and can twist and warp accordingly.

Weekend Pundit has regularly discussed tin whiskers, though due to the Blogmosis failure those posts are not available. I previously mention the problem in this post. So I was interested to see a “fact or fiction?” post and discussion of tin whiskers at Slashdot.

I think I linked this elsewhere previously, but it’s still in my “to be linked” bookmarks and is interesting. Apparently there’s end of the world insurance that factors into investing, defaults, and expectations.

This is an interesting and lengthy look at finance, investment, economics, bubbles, and intergenerational issues, launching from the massive writedown of German subprime investments in the US.

So gas stations are having trouble staying open, duh, when credit card fees eat more per gallon than you earn. Given that, the return of cash discounts couldn’t be far behind.

With my family situation, type of work, and commuting costs, working from home has been not only much on my mind, but a conscious thing we’re trying to pursue. Sun recently pursued telework in a big way after determining the benefits.

I’ve long figured anything there happens to be is gravy, and been of the opinion there’s no obligation for people to do anything but spend it on themselves, although an inheritance does sort of haphazardly make up for the crazy upside-down situation we have now, where a genration or two or three support the older generation through onerous taxes and insane real estate values hyperinflated in large part for the purpose of intergenerational wealth transfer. Maybe this should be a Reality Bucket post instead of a quick link with limited text. Perhaps I’ll expand on it there. I link here in brief intending to do that in some cases anyway. Digression aside, there are reasons not to expect an inheritance, and it’s both interesting and good to see someone saying it aloud.