When we moved into our house several years ago, it came with a large (21' x 21') unfinished room in the basement.  The floors and walls were cold concrete and block.  We decided to put a ping pong table in it which gave it some limited functionality when we had friends over, but otherwise it was generally wasted space.  My wife and I called a local contractor and asked for an estimate to frame the room, hang drywall, run electrical outlets, and prime it.  To save some money, I was willing to paint it and we were confident we could get a good deal on carpet. $10,265. That was the estimate received in December of 2016.  My wife and I couldn't believe the price, so we spoke to another local contractor who confirmed that this was about right for this kind of work.  I looked at my wife and said "Hey, I bet I could do a really cool theater room for a fraction of the price."  She agreed to turn me loose as long as I was less than the contractor's...

So, I've made several updates to the Creator's Financial Independence Calculator including some improved aesthetics, an actual calculation of time and $ needed to reach Financial Independence, and some input / output guidance and explanations.  There's a ton more that I could do with it like warnings for improper input, allowance for pensions and social security, and allowance for company 401k matching, ..., etc.  But, I'm going to take a break for now and focus on some non-programming efforts for the blog.  Swing by and play with it.  Perhaps one of you out there would like to take up the gantlet and improve on this calculator.  There's nothing hidden in the JavaScript source on the page, so feel free to play with it and reach out if you have some improvements.... or steal it and improve on it on your own page.  I'm ok with that, too. I hope this efforts provides a tool to inspire people to create and invest instead of consume.  Add...

Ok all you creators out there, I am hereby declaring August 11th "Adopt a Problem Day."  If you remember back in the Responsible and Victimized post, we talked about how crucial it is for creators to be uncommonly responsible  for the outcome of things they value.  So, to put that into practice, your homework assignment for August 11th is to adopt a problem.  What does it mean to adopt a problem?  Just take these four steps: Step 1 (Pick it): Take five minutes to think about the problems that nag you on a daily basis.  Maybe the garage is a complete mess.  Maybe there's a fence that needs painted.  Maybe one of the kids is not doing so well in math class.  If you are like me, there's no shortage of things that you just never get around to... but today you only get to pick one.  If you have your personal life completely in order, there's bonus points for adopting someone else's problem!  Step 2 (Plan it it): C...

There have been a lot of positive events in my life that I can attribute to my dad, but certainly one of the most memorable was the day he brought home our first computer.  It was one of the first IBM PCs and included a monochrome monitor.  There wasn’t even a mouse.  I was probably five years old and remember clearly the sound of it booting up (which took five minutes or so) and the smell of hot circuitry that blew from its vent ports.  I explored on it constantly.  Eventually at the ripe old age of nine, I saved up enough birthday and Christmas money to buy a used IBM PS-2 of my own which I proudly kept on a desk in my room.  This was, of course, perfectly safe for a young man in the early 90's since it was still years before folks in Appalachia knew about the internet.  So, what on earth does a nine-year-old boy do with a computer without internet?   Well, I had a few games, MS Paint, and an encyclopedia, but I was still curious. ...

Today we are going to mix it up a bit and focus on a fellow blogger that is  lighting up  the financial independence world (how could I resist such a terrible pun?).  I hope to do more of these spotlights as I continue to stumble on inspirations out in the blog space.   I check in on a few blogs now and again and have really started digging on  AccidentalFire.com .  Accidental Fire (Financially Independent Retired Early) chronicals the daily passions of a super energetic dude who focuses his life on working hard and enjoying intense outdoor actives instead of adorning himself in the luxuries that his skills and career could easily afford.  The author of Accidental Fire decided to part ways with his peers early in life moving from the financial sink hole of Baltimore’s party district into the modest home of his late grandmother “Nonnie”.  At a starting salary of $20,000, he began setting a simplistic standard of living which did...

I have always loved the word lean because it personifies a very important feature of a creator.   The word means so much more than ‘efficient’.   To say someone is efficient means that they can do something quickly.   To say someone is lean means that they are fit for the purpose, resilient, robust, and value focused.   An efficient person is well trained for their task.   A lean person is forged by fire for success.   Creators are lean and consumers are wasteful as we see in the Creator and Consumer Wheels .   So, as a creator, where do you reside? Are you lean or wasteful?   If you want to know, take a look at how you deal with stress. I began working on my master’s degree while my wife and I worked full time and raised our young daughter.   The program provided DVDs of the class lectures, I had to emailed my homework in, and had to go to a local school to have all of my exams proctored.   It wasn’t long before I realized...

So, for those creators out there, I am hereby officially deeming July 6th  "Take Something Apart Day". Come on, you know you have that old broken computer, air conditioner, or weed trimmer laying around that hasn't worked for years.  As an engineer by trade, I can tell you that there is no better way to learn something than to take something apart, and (if you're lucky) getting it to regain at least a portion of it's original functionality! Anytime something breaks in the house, I take it apart and try to fix it, even if it's of trivial value.  I would say I have about a 30% track record of actually getting it working again, but a 100% track record of learning something cool.  Do you hear that?  That's the consumer inside you already starting to whine:  "...but, I'm not naturally handy" "...but, I make 50 dollars an hour.  It's not worth my time try to fix something" "...but, that sounds like a lot...

Every couple of years the scale creeps up on me and I come to realize that it’s time to get on a diet and start exercising more.   This ends up going fine for about a six weeks. That’s when I end up having a stressful, late Friday at work and decide that we should just go out for dinner… and of course follow it up with desert.   I tell myself “you’ve worked so hard! You need a break! You can afford one cheat day!” and so I indulge for one night.   Although dinner doesn’t even put a dent in my weight loss progress, almost inevitably I let Saturday and Sunday slip as well, “let’s just call it a ‘cheat weekend’” and once I lose the weekend, I rarely ever get back on track.    Just like my one compromise on dinner after a hard day of work, corporate marketing continually pushes us towards the ledge of negligence and entitlement.   TV and online ads constantly tell you “You deserve this”, “Only the best will do”, or “You owe it to yourself”.  ...

In the Why? post I briefly introduced the concept of a "creator".  The word “creator” is not simply talking about “one who creates” as the formal definition would suggest.  Likewise, a consumer is not simply “one who consumes”.  These labels were chosen because the words provoke an image that is the essence of self identification that I hope to write more about.  Where consumers are conventional, reactive, entitled, and indifferent.  Creators are creative, proactive, grateful, and passionate.  In fact, it is these hallmarks that I believe fundamentally distinguish the consumer from the creator, and I'll try to link back to them in future discussions. So, why should you embrace the life of the creator? What’s in it for you?  How about a deep enriching, healthy life full of joy, success, and enduring relationships.  Oh, and did I mention as an unintended consequence, the creator will often find his or herself entangled in staggeri...