I’ve recently been writing a post on how the physical structure of a house can positively or negatively affect the overall cost of the house. In the process, I started wondering what exactly the mechanism of growth is for real estate, and off the top of my head, it occurred to me that an increasing […]
Money and Judgement!
What does it mean to be “good” with money? Does it mean spending very little of it, spending a small portion of it relative to one’s income, spending it judiciously, or does it consist of some other quality? Conversely, what does it mean to be “bad” with money? Does it mean spending a lot of […]
Thought Games of Political Economy
I’m not yet ready to commit myself to any serious study of macroeconomics: it’s simply too large of a field, with too many interconnecting pieces. I don’t know that my interests will actually help me go very deep here. But I think thought games can do a great deal to help anybody think clearly about […]
Consumer Goods as a Proxy for Value
As a kid, half my life was spent thirsting for the next toy or video game. I could occasionally save up my allowance to buy nice or expensive things, but I would often have to rely on the luck of Christmas or my birthday for the those much more expensive things, especially video game consoles. […]
Failing at ‘Optimal’
A lot of effort goes into finding the most optimal paths for various aspects of life. My thoughts gravitate toward finding this on a regular basis, but the truth seems ever elusive. I get tired. I get frustrated. Recently, my car developed a thunk going over bumps, in conjunction with a slight creak whenever I […]
Minimalism: Stuff Quantity vs. Stuff Size
Well, it finally happened: I ordered a PS2. Of all the things I’ve gotten rid of over the years, the PS2 is one of very, very few things I have regretted getting rid of. Downsizing the collection of video games wasn’t bad in itself, but I ultimately blocked myself from ever playing certain games normally […]
Paying Money to Save Money: The Strange Economics of DIY
Several months ago, I had an interesting thought concerning the actual cost of working on my car. Back at my old apartment, I had the option to rent a garage for an additional $75/month on top of my rent for the apartment. I never took this option because I was too cheap for that sort […]
Additional Media Thoughts
Due to the flexible usage of DVDs and the inflexible usage of Blu-rays, as mentioned in my last post, I kind of wish I had focused on buying DVDs instead. However, maybe half of my Blu-rays include both, but these are strangely unpredictable. For example, I have The Hunger Games on Blu-ray only, but my […]
Media Rant
I ventured back into the world of Netflix last month, after probably a 4 year hiatus. There were a few series I had been wanting to watch for years, but for whatever reason I had been too lazy to get around to. I have access to Netflix through the account of my friend who owns […]
The Structure of Financial Decisions
I’ve had a dozen things to write lately, and all of them have been worthless, but as I was thinking how best to categorize my own financial strategy as compared to other financial strategies, I remembered some loose ideas I’ve had over time about how our financial decisions don’t operate in a vacuum. Too much […]