The Week That Was!

Books
As winter rolls into spring, the hustle and bustle at the farm will start. So for now I am trying to make the best use of my house bound days by reading books.
Heads you Win By Jeffrey Archer

Reading Jeffery Archer's books are like comfort food, familiar, cozy and comfortable. These books saved me from a lot of boredom during the summer holidays when I was in school and college. Have read a lot of his books that came out in the 80s and early 90s. He is a terrific writer and knows how to keep his readers engrossed. His personal life is as engrossing as some of the fiction he writes. Of course being a politician and spending time in prison is no surprise ;) He ended up writing a few books based off of that. I picked up the book and immediately felt a dejavu of happier care free times. The book is good and a great time pass especially if it is raining or snowing outside and there is nothing much you can do.

Online
Amazon Drops Plans For New York Headquarters
Last week Amazon was in the news for its CEO being blackmailed by some sleazy magazine. Now it is in the news again, this time for pulling out of New York because the citizens of New York refused to bow to the deal their leaders had stuck for corporate welfare. While some might consider this an assault on these big businesses, it is time these business stop being secretive and refrain from being so ruthless and stop doing things that adversely affect the rest of the citizenry.

While Bezos and Trump pretend to duke it out, Amazon is laughing all the way to the bank. Nice isn't?
Despite record profits, Amazon didn't pay any federal income tax in 2017 or 2018. Here's why

Google reaped millions in tax breaks as it secretly expanded its real estate footprint across the U.S.
Google another one of those behemoths that use secretive and not so straight forward and transparent ways to stomp over small jurisdictions which are hungry for big companies to move to their cities and towns.. The time when these companies could do no wrong are under scrutiny. Do no evil! Really?

FIRE
Financial Independence comes with not wanting a whole load of stuff. More important than wanting stuff is not wanting stuff that other people have. When I was younger I liked electronics. I had this Sanyo radio which went with me everywhere, then the craze to own a small portable music player much smaller than that radio hit and then once I purchased that I sort of lost interest which was a good thing. Otherwise I would have acquired a lot of useless, expensive, small electronics which have become all the craze now. The impulse buying I tend to do nowadays is on books and occasionally kitchen utensils. Those are my Gazingus Pins. So identify your 'Gazingus Pin' and try to avoid putting yourself in those situations.

What is a Gazingus Pin? This is a term coined by the authors of 'Your money or Your Life' for non essential impulse buys.

1. First step is where the trap of buying more stuff is to identify the 'Gazingus Pin' and being conscious of it.

2. Do the need or the want test and try to avoid buying it for a month and see if you really can't live without it.

3. The fun in anticipating buying something is much greater than actually owning that thing.

4. Do an analysis, sometimes in the process of analysis you might give up wanting to buy the thing altogether. For impulse buying, analysis paralysis is a good thing.

5. Tell yourself that before bringing something inside the house requires removing something. This usually will make you realize that you don't really that thing that much after all.

But first in this process is to identify if you really need something so bad. Once these become a habit, conquering the Gazingus Pin should be easy I am hoping.

I am trying to practice them with mine.


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