The Week That Was!

Last Week was pretty quiet, a tiny bit of jet lag that made get up very early in the morning. I got up and made use of the quiet early morning hours to get some stuff that needed to be done, done.

Which means at about 10 or 11 in the morning it feels like I need some downtime and that is how I ended up watching shows which I have skipped over many times.




Amazon Prime
McLeod's Daughters

Set in rural Australia, on a cattle ranch co-owned by 2 sisters and being run along with 3 other women, has drama worthy of keeping one engrossed for hours. It did me :). So for gorgeous views of the Australian country side and some good acting and a gripping story watch this.

I have seen this lady swimming at the pool for a number of years now, then I stopped seeing her for a few years. Then I ran into her and got to chatting. She said that she was in Australia for work for a few years and she wishes she were still there. What she liked most is the laid back lifestyle and their approach to parenting. This lady had young kids. I have read and heard about the Aussie spirit and watching this show will offer you glimpse into some of that.

Newspaper
Bloomberg article on AOC's 70% income tax. When I first heard of it I was thinking "here go these liberal democrats". But when I watched the 60 Minutes it was clear that she mentioned the 10 millionth dollar will be taxed at that level. Who likes taxes and some of the not so rich people would end up paying the higher rate and some of the not rich people would be caught up in that. That does not mean that some of these mega million earners should not do their part. Starting with the Reagan revolution, the Gingrich disasters doing your part seems to have become unpatriotic. Allowing people with lesser means to take the bulk of the burden while they the richies like our President using high priced accountants and lawyers can even avoid not only paying but allowing the government to pay to them. Pretty Patriotic stuff!

FIRE
While FIRE is on fire among the millennial set, it should probably get popular among a lot more of us older people as well. We all went through another annual shutdown episode which even given it lasted longer than usual, but unlike the other times there was a lot of news about people suffering. I know life is hard and that living paycheck to paycheck happens to a lot of low income earners because the great USA does not have some of the safety nets that other Western democracies seem to have. As things get more and more expensive it is absolutely understandable that this happens.

But let us move on to some of the higher income earners like my relatively young colleague with a wife and a child for example. He makes salary which is about say $125000 or so and one day he was looking at his gas bill and was worried if it went over $250, reason he might not be able to pay it. I was shocked twice, one that the gas bill was a bit steep for just 2 people and two that he cannot afford to pay the gas bill if it exceeded that amount. What was he doing with all the money he made? Their life style I am guessing had a lot to do with that. I sat next to him so we discussed dealing with finances his mostly, him asking how we managed etc.,. His wife does not like to do things around the house, unless his MIL was around they ate out almost everyday he after swallowing a pill to control his blood sugar. Another incident with this same guy was what threw me off and left me wondering...

His wife's birthday was the next day and he had purchased a handbag (about $200 worth) and was ready to present it to her but his wife after knowing about it sent him a nasty text accusing him of not caring about her. Nasty is too nice of a way to put it. It was downright mean and disgusting. Why the nastygram? It was because he did not buy 2 of the same handbag in different colors like she had demanded. The drama was for that! Maybe this kind of lifestyle is what forces some people to live paycheck to paycheck? How do you break this cycle?

I am not a true adherent of FIRE meaning, retiring early was not part of the equation of why I wanted to achieve Financial Independence. The reason was something else altogether. Most people consider living within their means or even living modestly to be shameful. But it does not, it gives you more freedom to do what you want. To be continued...

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