How Do You Balance Work And Leisure?

[Kriegsspiel]

I don't balance them. As a government employee I do the absolute minimum needed to keep my job.

I don't even know what to say, other than there should be no government employees. Even if you aren't a libertarian, you can see that the private sector would deal with this in a better fashion.

Someone just got added to the audit list.

I lol'd.

[Smith1776]

Ha. But I have nothing to hide, it's all on the up & up.

Even after that boating accident?

[I Shrugged]

Ha. But I have nothing to hide, it's all on the up & up.

Even after that boating accident?

I only own paper gold. I have been on record here many times against the costs and hassles of physical. And I know a lot of you guys think I'm crazy for that mindset.

No, I’m the same way. I have a few coins for the mad dash to the border.

[SomeDude]

Ha. But I have nothing to hide, it's all on the up & up.

Even after that boating accident?

I only own paper gold. I have been on record here many times against the costs and hassles of physical. And I know a lot of you guys think I'm crazy for that mindset.

No, I’m the same way. I have a few coins for the mad dash to the border.

You guys are positivity nuts . Any holding period over 10 years clearly favors physical for cost. Any crisis that results in a large spike in demand for gold will increase physical premiums, not paper. Having wealth no one else (the government) knows about is just going to get more and more important as time goes on. Lastly......there's that counterparty risk. I know there's a risk your gold could be stolen if you don't store it properly. You should store it properly.

I like you guys. Good people should hold gold in the event we have a currency crisis. If you don't hold the physical you don't have gold. A secure vault overseas is debatable and a decent option if you think they can be trusted in an emergency. Emergencies make people do crazy things though. And i wouldn't trust governments to not "secure" gold to back their currencies should the dollar get knocked off its perch.

[Kriegsspiel]

Here's another obvious tip: bring your lunch to work every day. Wasting most of your lunch break going somewhere to get food and/or paying for lunch (and delivery) is a fools game.

[SomeDude]

Post on this board most of your work day and you'll save a few hours of leisure time.

[yankees60]

Here's another obvious tip: bring your lunch to work every day. Wasting most of your lunch break going somewhere to get food and/or paying for lunch (and delivery) is a fools game.

For CERTAIN!!!!

[Smith1776]

I only own paper gold. I have been on record here many times against the costs and hassles of physical. And I know a lot of you guys think I'm crazy for that mindset.

It's still safe? Even after the fund provider's boating accident?

[I Shrugged]

Ha. But I have nothing to hide, it's all on the up & up.

Even after that boating accident?

I only own paper gold. I have been on record here many times against the costs and hassles of physical. And I know a lot of you guys think I'm crazy for that mindset.

No, I’m the same way. I have a few coins for the mad dash to the border.

You guys are positivity nuts . Any holding period over 10 years clearly favors physical for cost. Any crisis that results in a large spike in demand for gold will increase physical premiums, not paper. Having wealth no one else (the government) knows about is just going to get more and more important as time goes on. Lastly......there's that counterparty risk. I know there's a risk your gold could be stolen if you don't store it properly. You should store it properly.

I like you guys. Good people should hold gold in the event we have a currency crisis. If you don't hold the physical you don't have gold. A secure vault overseas is debatable and a decent option if you think they can be trusted in an emergency. Emergencies make people do crazy things though. And i wouldn't trust governments to not "secure" gold to back their currencies should the dollar get knocked off its perch.

Physical isn't scalable, except for using vaults.
How would you hold 7 figures worth of gold?

I could start listing the problems with physical gold. There are many. Basically different ways to lose it, have your heirs not know about it, have it stolen, including with you or loved ones being held at gunpoint or worse. If you've got only enough that you can hold it all in one hand, okay that's different.

[Smith1776]

I've personally always advocated for half-half between physical and paper, and I'm sticking by that.

[Mark Leavy]

Physical isn't scalable, except for using vaults.
How would you hold 7 figures worth of gold?

7 figures worth of gold is only 25 tubes. Several times that easily fits in a very small duffle bag. Assuming you have strong, thick canvas and heavy leather straps.

There are plenty of issues with physical gold, but storage space isn't one of them.

[yankees60]

Post on this board most of your work day and you'll save a few hours of leisure time.

When I first joined this place, I assumed most of the members were retired. I couldn't keep up with all the posts on most weekdays (we were off on Wednesday due to IL statute) bc I actually worked at work and assumed other people did, too.

But then again, if I was lazy, I'd have to fire myself and that would not go over well with the boss.

All you say is because you represent the TRUE "working class"!

If you do not work, you do not earn any money. Therefore, any hour you spend here at the sacrifice of doing your job, you lose out on the income that hour of work could have produced. No one is giving you income whether you are either doing work or spending your time here. You HAVE to do that work to earn that income.

I don't know, though, if John Lennon had you mind when he wrote "Working Class Hero"!

[yankees60]

I don't know, though, if John Lennon had you mind when he wrote "Working Class Hero"!

He actually wrote several songs about me, but Yoko didn't like them so they never got recorded.

What a response!!!!

[Mountaineer]

I don't know, though, if John Lennon had you mind when he wrote "Working Class Hero"!

He actually wrote several songs about me, but Yoko didn't like them so they never got recorded.

What a response!!!!

Pugchief is firing on all cylinders today - a precursor of great things to come in 2021!

[pp4me]

Post on this board most of your work day and you'll save a few hours of leisure time.

No one is giving you income whether you are either doing work or spending your time here. You HAVE to do that work to earn that income.

Towards the end of my career there were times when I would go a whole week doing absolutely nothing but surfing the web and I did read and post here a lot out of sheer boredom.

They finally figured out that keeping me around just to get them out of trouble when the system crashed and nobody else could figure it out or had a project that needed to be done 10 times faster than anybody else could do it wasn't worth the > 6 figure salary they were paying me.

And I was really happy for that day too. Now I can sit here and read and post and don't have to make some B.S. up for my time sheet.

[WiseOne]

WiseOne,

Doesn't your university offer phased retirement? My institution allowed me to choose between working half time for up to three years OR working full time every other semester for three years. I took the second option, but decided after two years to pull the plug completely. I think it was a good way to test whether I was ready to retire full time.

jhogue, THANK YOU!!!! I checked this out and sure enough, there is a provision for phased retirement up to 3 years. Not the same as the part time I was envisioning, but I definitely see that as a graceful way to exit.

The taking care of Mom thing is really exhausting. I had her stay overnight with me last night, and she loved it. Of course, that means she wants attention 100% of the time. But in a way that's easier than phone calls every 20 minutes. I let a bunch of them go the other day, then called her back to find that a spam call had gotten through Verizon's leaky call-forwarding from her landline, and she was just about to hand her credit card over for some random service she didn't need (and who knows if it was legit or just another phone predator). I went to her house to get her for the New Year's overnight visit and pulled the plug on the landline. I had replaced her house phone with one that links to her cell phone, so she won't know the difference.

Sorry off topic a bit...but my "work/life balance" right now is about figuring out how to keep my mom from self-destructing while keeping up with what I'm supposed to be doing with the majority of my waking hours (i.e. my full time university job).

[Smith1776]

jhogue, THANK YOU!!!! I checked this out and sure enough, there is a provision for phased retirement up to 3 years. Not the same as the part time I was envisioning, but I definitely see that as a graceful way to exit.

The taking care of Mom thing is really exhausting. I had her stay overnight with me last night, and she loved it. Of course, that means she wants attention 100% of the time. But in a way that's easier than phone calls every 20 minutes. I let a bunch of them go the other day, then called her back to find that a spam call had gotten through Verizon's leaky call-forwarding from her landline, and she was just about to hand her credit card over for some random service she didn't need (and who knows if it was legit or just another phone predator). I went to her house to get her for the New Year's overnight visit and pulled the plug on the landline. I had replaced her house phone with one that links to her cell phone, so she won't know the difference.

Sorry off topic a bit...but my "work/life balance" right now is about figuring out how to keep my mom from self-destructing while keeping up with what I'm supposed to be doing with the majority of my waking hours (i.e. my full time university job).

This is complete news to me. WiseOne, I thought you were a practicing physician of some kind. Or am I just imagining things??

[I Shrugged]

Physical isn't scalable, except for using vaults.
How would you hold 7 figures worth of gold?

7 figures worth of gold is only 25 tubes. Several times that easily fits in a very small duffle bag. Assuming you have strong, thick canvas and heavy leather straps.

There are plenty of issues with physical gold, but storage space isn't one of them.

I’m not talking about storage space. I’m talking about risks.

[Mountaineer]

WiseOne,

Doesn't your university offer phased retirement? My institution allowed me to choose between working half time for up to three years OR working full time every other semester for three years. I took the second option, but decided after two years to pull the plug completely. I think it was a good way to test whether I was ready to retire full time.

jhogue, THANK YOU!!!! I checked this out and sure enough, there is a provision for phased retirement up to 3 years. Not the same as the part time I was envisioning, but I definitely see that as a graceful way to exit.

The taking care of Mom thing is really exhausting. I had her stay overnight with me last night, and she loved it. Of course, that means she wants attention 100% of the time. But in a way that's easier than phone calls every 20 minutes. I let a bunch of them go the other day, then called her back to find that a spam call had gotten through Verizon's leaky call-forwarding from her landline, and she was just about to hand her credit card over for some random service she didn't need (and who knows if it was legit or just another phone predator). I went to her house to get her for the New Year's overnight visit and pulled the plug on the landline. I had replaced her house phone with one that links to her cell phone, so she won't know the difference.

Sorry off topic a bit...but my "work/life balance" right now is about figuring out how to keep my mom from self-destructing while keeping up with what I'm supposed to be doing with the majority of my waking hours (i.e. my full time university job).

Oh my WiseOne. I feel for you. I shall keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Going down that road with a loved one is hard. My very best wishes.

[Mark Leavy]

I’m not talking about storage space. I’m talking about risks.

Here's how I manage the physical gold risk:
My coins are distributed in several small safe deposit boxes at no name banks in small towns across multiple states.

It's easy to fit $500K in the smallest 3x5 size box. $35.00 / year fee.
Setup a $1K checking account at each bank and enable automatic box payment.

Again, it's not for everyone, but any method of holding gold assets has pluses and minuses.
And our forum has plenty of people with experience in all of the different methods.

[Xan]

I’m not talking about storage space. I’m talking about risks.

Here's how I manage the physical gold risk:
My coins are distributed in several small safe deposit boxes at no name banks in small towns across multiple states.

It's easy to fit $500K in the smallest 3x5 size box. $35.00 / year fee.
Setup a $1K checking account at each bank and enable automatic box payment.

Again, it's not for everyone, but any method of holding gold assets has pluses and minuses.
And our forum has plenty of people with experience in all of the different methods.

None of them have a policy requiring visits? I've heard that many can confiscate the box if you don't come visit it every so often.

[Mark Leavy]

None of them have a policy requiring visits? I've heard that many can confiscate the box if you don't come visit it every so often.

I asked at each one of them (again, small local banks) and they all said that as long as the fee is kept paid, there is no issue.
I also specifically checked on any box restrictions, and didn't use any banks that restricted gold coins. And several places flat out said that they would never know what was in the box no matter what I put into it.

[Kriegsspiel]

A few of you guys reminded me of some job advice from Ran Prieur:

Well, when I say "low," I don't mean Wal-Mart low. I'm thinking of low-end "professional" jobs, where you have a cubicle or maybe even a tiny office, and you can get away with doing four hours of work in an eight hour day. Of course you'll never get promoted, but you don't want to be! Those jobs are out there. The problem is there's no way to ask for them. If your job is too stressful, look for another one. Repeat until you get lucky. And go for boring over cool. A job at a video game company is likely to work you to death. The best job I ever had was as the flunky office boy for a lease administration office. Here's a great page of advice from Dan, How to find your Dream Job (dead link).

Also, Robert comments:

...in 1998 I quit my bank analyst job with plans to start my business. I had about nine months of savings and time to play with before my expected opening date, so I got an $8.25/hour office job pulling faxes and routing calls. I worked about four hours a day at my "job" and four hours a day surfing the Internet, making calls, formulating strategies, in connection with starting up my import business. And those people in that office thought I was the most efficient and capable person ever to have that position.

And Patricia comments:

Colleges are good places to find those "four hours work / four hours net surfing" kinds of jobs. Anything with "administrative" in the title will usually qualify. If you have the right attitude ("I'm just here putting in time to get cash for a couple years") then they are also low-stress. People around you may be stressy, but you can learn to let that roll off your back.

And Jason comments:

Don't overlook security guards! The hardest thing about it is filling a twelve hour shift, and you learn a lot of stuff that helps you stay under the radar. The ideal job is where you sit in a shack with (monitored) internet access and check people in and out on the night shift. I also get a preview of what's coming for society, and get to test it now (tin foil does a great job of blocking an RFID badge). Before you apply know that your fingerprints will be put in the FBI files.

link

[Tortoise]

As long as your housing and car costs are kept in check; those are far more critical than food.

+1

In personal finance, the Pareto principle has always made more sense to me than the leaky bucket approach of trying to minimize dozens of relatively small expenditures.

[Kriegsspiel]

Here's another obvious tip: bring your lunch to work every day. Wasting most of your lunch break going somewhere to get food and/or paying for lunch (and delivery) is a fools game.

I read this advice all of the time in my teens and 20s as I studied bogleheads and frugalism.

What I realized in my 30s is if you’re making over $200k a year, and your housing and car is frugal, then it didn’t matter one bit that I spent $30 for lunch everyday at a nice restaurant near my client site. And the leaving the office to get the food is the best part.

Then again, in my line of work, I make a lot of money and no one has a stopwatch for when I leave and return to my desk. I could be gone for 3 hours for lunch, and I have, and no one blinks or cares. Because ultimately it only matters that I turned in my deliverables and they were high quality.

So yes, if I was making widgets for $50k a year and had a 30 minute lunch break that my manager recorded on a clipboard, then bagging my lunch makes sense. When you’re a 1099 and 50% of the lunch is tax deductible and no one cares how long your lunch break lasts, then go out and splurge daily. And you’ll still be saving 70%+ of your income.

As long as your housing and car costs are kept in check; those are far more critical than food.

I'll concede the point to those making $200k/year and who aren't "on the clock"