That didn’t take me long to screw up and miss a day with writing here. It’s been what – a week, if that since I started to count the days on how to get out of debt in 1000 days. I have an excuse though:
I took a day off
One reason I avoid the day job like the plague is the lack of freedom. Frankly, I don’t know how you folks that do the 9-5 do it. I know it’s all time management and when I go the grocery store on the odd Saturday I understand how you guys get things done. All of you are at the grocery store with me, or so it seems. Now, I’m not dissing you 9-5′ers, it’s just that I’ve never had the pleasure of that experience. I’ve been gainfully employed a few times in this lifetime, so it’s not the work that’s foreign to me, but rather the schedule. I’m used to working nights or afternoons but never days. One of the benefits of working for yourself is you can take a day off and go ride your motorbike, which is what I did. And while I was thinking and riding I realized motorcycling is one of the more cost efficient hobbies to have if you do it right.
If you buy a new motorcycle and are making payments because you had to have the new bike this doesn’t apply to you but for most others, a used motorcycle is pretty good value. I bought my 88 Suzuki in 1992 for $2500. I have had it for 18 years this summer. I could sell it tomorrow for $1000, maybe a bit more but I could realize one grand for it I think fairly easily. That means it has cost me less than $100 a year to own the motorcycle. I have had no real big dollar repairs to it , a new tune up in the spring and I just replaced seven year old tires on for all of $300. Including gas, insurance , depreciation and the whole nine yards, that’s not too bad a cost for a whole lot of fun over the years.
Now, like any hobby you can choose to spend a lot, or do it on the cheap – but I was out last night with friends and save for $10 for some cheap chinese food and maybe ten dollars in gas I sure had a whole lot of fun. I didn’t need to go out and spend $100 on some tourist trap or expensive hotel . I went out, had some good food with good friends and had a wonderfully warm motorbike ride home in the middle of july when the air is so thick that even at night you could taste it. All this to say, over the years I’ve had a lot of fun on that bike, and the expense was ten bucks of gas and a large black coffee at the coffee sh0p.
Today’s takeaway: Good fun does not have to be expensive. And it’s nice to be outside. When you’re in debt or have any worries at all about money I find it’s easy to let the worries consume you and your day. But life is just fine without money. My friends and family like me for me, not my net worth. Yes, one should strive for debt freedom and live frugal, make more – spend less and so on. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go for a walk and spring for an ice cream cone on a hot summer night. It’s all about balance. Save on the stuff that’s not important so you can spend on what is important. That’s really all there is to personal finance.
End of the week update
About a week ago I started my 100 hubpage challenge as it’s an easy way to write for the web. You don’t have to set up individual websites and I think it’s a great way to stretch your mind and learn about new topics. There’s also a chance you’ll make a buck or two along the way too.
I have written 22 hubs so far on a variety of topics, so I’m about a quarter of the way through. What I’ve found is it takes a week or two or even more to get any search traffic to them and I haven’t seen any income from them yet either, and that’s OK. This all takes time to happen I don’t expect writing 20 articles for a website and retire. But it’s a good way to test some stuff and get some data back so you can figure out what topics are more popular than others. So I’m right about on schedule for getting the 100 up in a month. By the time I get the last article written, I should see some hits and traffic to the older 22 articles I did get done this week. At least, that’s the plan. But even if I fail specatacular at this it will be a lesson learned.
Until next time..
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