Monthly Archives: January 2010

Disclosure

Posted on by

The FCC has decided that bloggers not revealing where they receive income is a threat worth quashing. I agree it’s unethical, for example, to blog about how wonderful Nabisco products are without disclosing that Nabisco is paying you $200 a month to say nice things about them from time to time. I don’t think we needed the government to step in and police that, but it is what it is.

And so here is my disclosure:

I may recommend–or at least review–books and other products from time to time. If I provide a link to Amazon.com or some other site to those products, I’ll probably get some sort of a reward if you click on or buy those products. I try not to recommend things I don’t believe in just to make money.

The other is VIP Gamestore, a video game store. I have mostly just a passing interest in video games, but I believe in our approach. There are people for whom video games are a key source of entertainment. It’s not incompatible with this blog to offer people a way to obtain that entertainment more economically. There may be some relevance here from time to time, and so there may be some links as well.

I am also a consultant/private contractor in several areas. I’m not sure how that will tie in with anything I say here, but I’ll disclose that, too.

If, in the future, anyone offers to pay me or offer me goods/services/rewards for links, references, reviews, etc., I’ll be sure and disclose it. I’ll probably do a little happy-happy dance, too, but I’ll try to keep that to a minimum.

So rest assured that unless I say otherwise, anything I link to, mention, or plug outside of my business ventures indicated above I am doing out of true, unadulterated interest and/or enthusiasm. Read with confidence.

Introduction to Simple Self-Reliance

Posted on by

Last year I became a grim statistic; one of the one in ten people who can’t find work. The past nine months have revealed both good and bad. The good is that my family and I have been above average in our self-reliance. We had money put away for emergencies such as this. We were able to cut back on our budget considerably. We are able to make do, do without, or make it ourselves in quite a few areas.

But I’ve also realized that we could do more. I have nothing against my mechanic, but it costs me $30 to have him change my oil–something I’m pretty sure I could do myself with a little study and practice. I’m still having professionals come and fertilize my lawn and spray my trees. I’m still paying $30-40 for tax software, even though I’m pretty sure there are cheaper alternatives.

Or perhaps I’m just not thinking creatively enough. Is there some skill I possess that I could use to barter with someone else who has the skills I lack? Could I have my friend the out-of-work accountant do my taxes in exchange for my setting up a website for his wife’s day care?

The more I think about it the more I realize that there is much more I could do to become even more self-reliant if I put my mind to it. Could the drive for self-reliance become a harmful obsession? Of course it could. But I don’t think I’m there yet. The key, I think, is to determine which areas are the most beneficial and focus on those first, then apply whatever time you have to lesser gains.

For example, is it really worth my time to figure out how to save $20 on an oil change every three months if I could instead figure out how to save $150 on lawn fertilizer each year? Perhaps not. Why waste time trying to save two cents more on a tube of toothpaste that runs out once a month if there are ways to save two cents per roll of toilet paper that I replace every few days? There’s self-reliance, and then there’s psychosis.

So hopefully this blog will prove to be both useful and sensible. I’m not advocating we all move to the back woods and build our own compound with our bare hands and prepare ourselves for doomsday. But if I can figure out how to keep at least a week’s worth of food on hand just in case severe weather causes the store shelves to empty for a few days or a new pandemic forces a quarantine, wouldn’t that be a worthwhile pursuit? I think so.

And that’s why I want to do this blog.