Posts Tagged ‘finance’

A Poor Showing

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Well, I really fucked up the Constraints I laid out for March. My good friend Sasha knows me well enough to profit from these bouts of optimism, so he bet me a reasonable sum that I wouldn’t make four out of the six Constraints. Even if you accept a couple of my excuses (and you know you shouldn’t), I made two. If you follow the letter and not the spirit of the law, I succeeded at zero of these tasks.
Let’s go through them:

I will eat out only three times this month, and not spend over $100 total on this. When at home, I will eat inexpensively and I will try to consume all my leftovers.

NOPE.

I will drink one beer per day, perhaps two on the weekend. This does not count a beer that someone might purchase for me.

SORT OF.

I will visit the gym every other day, with the option to skip a weekend visit if I exercise at home. (This will ensure I get value from my gym membership).

NOPE.

I will sell my two ham radios at a reasonable price.

NOPE.

I will make and sell at least two t-shirts…getting them in a store on consignment is okay for this.

NOPE.

I will find freelance work and execute it at a rate more than $20/hr.

SORT OF.

  • I have eaten out at least six times in the last 31 days, but the food purchased probably did not exceed $150 in value. I would be able to track this better if I went to any establishments that weren’t cash-only.
  • I am pretty sure that on average, I paid for one or less than one beer per day. This was a combination of my drinking less and my getting in to grad school, since all my friends very nicely bought me some celebratory drinks for the better half of the month. (New York, you’re all next!)
  • I simply did not go to the gym the required number of times. I lost momentum when I was bedridden for six days with the worst flu I’d had in years. My recovery was slow and full of self-pity, so I probably made it to the gym about every third or fourth day if you average out the whole month. On the plus side, now I run three miles every other day without much physical strain, and I’m listening to a lot more music because gym time is essentially dedicated iPod time.
  • I made a little progress selling the ham radios (I found a guy who runs a local hamfest and electronics swap at MIT), but I am still far from getting the money in my hand.

  • I did not make or think about making T-shirts. Sorry about that. I will do better.

  • Regarding freelancing, I want to count this as a “sort of” accomplishment because on the last day of the month I got a gig doing sound in the middle April. I was also hoping I’d get paid for a little work I did on the South African project (which, technically, ended before March began), but I think that’s not yet a sure thing.

    • Sasha, thank you for your support—let me know where to send my finest Liar’s Poker bills.

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    An Unlikely Set of Constraints

    Monday, February 25th, 2008

    Because of some recent financial blunders and a lack of roommates in my residence, I find myself with far less cash than I usually have available. Coupled with the recent computer troubles necessitating a new laptop, this prompts me to take drastic steps to increase my liquidity.

    I will therefore live the month of March with some elective constraints, listed below:

  • I will eat out only three times this month, and not spend over $100 total on this. When at home, I will eat inexpensively and I will try to consume all my leftovers.
  • I will drink one beer per day, perhaps two on the weekend. This does not count a beer that someone might purchase for me.
  • I will visit the gym every other day, with the option to skip a weekend visit if I exercise at home. (This will ensure I get value from my gym membership)
  • I will sell my two ham radios at a reasonable price.
  • I will make and sell at least two t-shirts…getting them in a store on consignment is okay for this.
  • I will find freelance work and execute it at a rate more than $20/hr.

    • I am interested in the degree to which you think I will be successful here. I have listed more constraints than I intend to follow, and I’d love to hear in the comments which ones you think I will be able to meet.

    If I had a lot of time on my hands, in fact, I’d love to take odds on these and make this an ongoing market—I think it would be interesting and motivational if a community helped itself improve by posting resolutions and paying out when they’re broken (and vice versa - if you bet me I won’t make it to the gym and I do, you lose the bet). This encourages people to push their limits and propose something that gets better odds, and discourages them from lowballing and going the comfortable route. Sasha would probably have a better system to implement this, so if you read this, Sasha, chime in!

    In other news, I have snuck some fun into my workday by assigning myself the task of designing better visualizations for the tech support staff’s telephone data. Right now, I’m adapting Ben Fry’s excellent zipdecode applet to accept timestamped call data.

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