Goats, see?

I recently read this article on living well for $11,000 a year. Most of you guys already read Glenn's blog, To Simplify.

There's a budding discussion about the plausibility of living on less than $1000 a month over here;  what do you guys think?  Do you mind saying what you spend to live?  I know, your mom told you never to talk about money, but money is a big part of why people think they can't live this life.

We're very bad at budgeting and accounting.  I don't mean that we're unskilled,  I mean that we don't do it. Do you?  If Annie says Do you want to go out to eat tonight?  I count the singles in my pocket and say 'yes' or 'no.'  How are you at budgeting?  Do you even bother?  Can I borrow $20?

Questions for the pre-retirement set.

Okay, you spring chickens!  You young pups!  You crazy kids!  There are things I need to know.

When Annie leaves her job, she'll have cheap and decent insurance for a year.  I won't.





What do you do about health care?  Self-pay?  Buy private coverage?  Catastrophic?  Full-coverage?  Half a fifth of whiskey and a bullet to bite on?

I've been feeling like an old truck getting ready for a road trip.  

• Headlights good?  Check.  
• Reservoirs healthy?  Check.
• Fluid levels?  Check.
• Hoses tight?  Check.
• TMI?  Check.

I'm trying to squeeze everything I can out of insurance while I have it.  

I've always bought into the fully-padded mindset, even when I haven't agreed with it or been able to afford it.  Frankly, lots of insurance is better than no insurance, especially when someone else (employer) is paying for it.  But, if we stay here and look for work we don't enjoy instead of doing something important to us, who is really paying?  (We are, for you non-fans of the rhetorical).

On second thought, I'm not positive that lots of insurance is always better than none.  With insurance, I have gone to the doctor every year, gotten fatter every year, heard higher numbers every year, and taken some new medicine to cure middle-age every year.   Looking into the face of non-coverage, I have lost weight, started getting more exercise, picked up better eating habits, and begun taking supplements.  I guess I'm that guy.

So spill.  What do you do, and how do you feel about it?  Check out our Healthcare page and add something to it, if you'd like.  If you wouldn't be caught hypercholesterolemic without the best insurance available, you can say that.  If you dress in bubble wrap and take vitamins, say that, too.  

Occupations I might rock or suck at.

1. Shabbos goy
2. Ambiguous fortune cookie writer (Big things await you around the corner.  It is only by leaving that you can return.  Expect huge payout when temperature drops in southland.)
3. Mystery shopper
4. Ninja shopper
5. Samurai shopper
6. Sumo shopper

Here in NY State, I work for a wheat research team.  I used to be their part-time lab technician;  now I'm their parter-time field technician.  I work two days a week doing whatever (I can physically do that) needs to be done.  Threshing wheat in the barn, transplanting in the greenhouse, packaging seed in the workroom.  I do that.  I especially like the greenhouse work, but it's all good.

I used to love lab work.  L<3VE.  Something just clicked, and I was done.  I'd like to work in a microbiology lab again, maybe, but maybe not.  Last night I dreamed John Larroquette was the senior research associate showing me his PCR gel (if you know what I mean, ladies).   It was so perfect that I asked This is a representation, right?  and he said, No, this is the document!   He walked away, knowing this discovery meant a lifetime of research grants, and I thought God, I hate science.  [This is not the first time John Larroquette has found his way into my dreams, and I do not know what that means.]

I don't have formal experience doing anything but this and lab work.  And cleaning houses.  And door-to-door proselytizing.  Knock-knock.  Give me money.  I can't see it being lucrative:  no one gives money to preachers.

So, on the road I'm open to lots of stuff.  I won't want a long-term commitment for a while.  There are a few things I won't do (unless you're John Larroquette, apparently), but almost everything is on the table.  Brainstorm, please!