T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 21
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #21!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Finance Articles
How to Deal with Fear of Retirement and Outliving Your Savings (Retires Great) – “Rather than feeling anxious over what might happen, remind yourself this is your life and you deserve happiness. The bad times pass. The good times come again.”
How to Sell Your Stuff: A Guide to Local Apps, Websites, and Tools (TicTocLife) – “We’ve taken on a mentality of “renting” our stuff: it’s always for sale, for the right price. Here’s the apps, websites, and tools to quickly sell locally.”
Video
Absolute pitch, often called perfect pitch, is the rare ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. I wrote about musical genius Rick Beato in T.G.I.F. Friday Volume #18. So go figure, his son has perfect pitch. Watch this amazing display. If you’re not a musician you may not realize this is impossible for even 99.99% of musicians. (the volume is a bit low so you might need to crank yours)
Who’s Inspired Me
Aziza Raji.
As a woman in very conservative Morocco, Raji was likely headed for a life of child rearing and housekeeping. She grew up in a tiny rural Muslim village where sports were not prohibited for women, but highly discouraged. She started by setting off on long runs in the desert with her brothers, and then a few years later she was winning races. Hard races, like really really hard ultra-marathons. Now she’s looked at as a hero in her country and as a role model for encouraging women to participate in sports.
This great short video tells her story.
What I’m Grateful For
Open Source Software. I’m a huge proponent of open source solutions (vice proprietary), and one in particular has helped my business a lot. I use Inkscape for quite a lot of my designs, and it’s open source and free! Sure, Photoshop is still my main workhorse, but Inkscape is powerful software and easy to use. And did I mention free?
Lyrically Speaking
When I was young, I was so full of fear
I hid behind anger, held back the tears
It was me against the world, I was sure that I’d win
The world fought back, punished me for my sins
I felt so alone, so insecure, I blamed you instead and made sure I was heard
And they tried to warn me of my evil ways
But I couldn’t hear what they had to say
I was wrong, self destruction’s got me again
From “I Was Wrong“, by Social Distortion.
Mike Ness isn’t a particularly great musician. As a marginally talented guitarist I could teach you 6 easy chords in 30 minutes, after which you could probably play 80% of the Social Distortion catalog. But to imitate his gritty 3-pack-a-day vocals and significant songwriting chops is another story.
I always identified with this song, it kinda tells my life story. As a functional alcoholic well into my 30’s, I was sure it was me against the world. Thankfully I too realized how wrong I was.
It’s never too late to sing this song.
Miscellaneous
How Giving Up TV For A Month Changed My Brain And My Life – “Watching a couple hours of TV a day can have major effects on your brain. So what would happen if you quit cold turkey?”
The Deer in Your Yard Are Here to Stay – “The deer population of the eastern U.S. has exploded and cities are trying to keep it in check”
Thanks for sharing. I really liked the post from Tictoc life. Shifting your mentality from owning stuff to just “renting” is nice. At any point in time I can probably get back 50% – 100% of the cost of an item by selling it. Just need to stop being lazy and actually sell the stuff.
You might have lucked out a little since it’s easier to batch it. Selling one thing one month, then forgetting about the process, then trying to do it a month or two later again, can be a pain.
Batching it all together, listing a dozen things in one go, having it all gone in a few weeks works reasonably well. At least, it feels that way to me–and it’s the excuse I tell myself! 😉
I did a post on the owning/renting shift, and it’s been gaining popularity in America especially with younger folks. That’s a good thing.
Great reads in there today – thx man!
Thanks J, I appreciate the support!
Dave – thanks for exposing the actionable part of the “everything is for sale” mentality series of posts we wrote!
So far as OSS and Inkscape… have you picked up a tablet and done some art with a pencil lately? I was pretty blown away by an iPad, Apple Pencil, and Procreate. You know, sort of the opposite of OSS, but — very neat creative experience.
You’re welcome, it’s a great post!
And yes I’ve considered doing tablet illustrations but right now my Android tablet is 8 years old and doesn’t have stylus capability, or enough computing power to handle some modern apps. Unlike most of America, I refuse to just trash it and get a new one. I’m going to ride her out until she breaks since everything else works fine and it’s a great tablet. That kind of behavior helped me get to FI 🙂 I’m not an Apple guy but I’m considering a Microsoft Surface Pro whenever my tablet kicks the bucket.
Thanks for sharing the article on giving up TV. The greatest gift my parents gave me as a child in the 70s was to get rid of our TV. My childhood was spent outdoors building forts & treehouses, sketching & painting, and reading a prodigious amount of books. I watch Netflix or Prime 3-4 hours a month now (hardly worth having, I know). My philosophy is that I’d rather be a participant in life than a passive observer.
I’m not sure how I found your blog, perhaps a search for FIRE blogs, but I’ve been quietly reading for a number of months now and thought I’d comment. I look forward to reading your posts.
I cut my cable TV about 7 years ago and wish I had done it 7 years before that. All that time I wasted in my life watching nonsense. And yes, even cable news. I’m embarrassed that I used to do that…
And THANK YOU so much for your kind words and for reading. It’s comments like this that keep me blogging, I appreciate it!
Thanks for the shout out Dave!
Always find your T.G.I.F.s interesting and inspiring.
Had no idea of all the ways to sell old stuff…the other day I came across dirt biking magazines from my youth and learned they’re worth something. Not to mention other things where I’ve often wondered if they had any value. Now all I need is more time to find new homes for them.
Way cool, I made the mistake of trashing some old music magazines of a specific genre a few years back when I got in a fit of cleaning out and found out later I could have gotten some decent coin for them. Oh well…
social D!
Yeah man!