Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

savingholmes

:jHi firewalker - just caught up and read your whole diary. You write fantastically well and it is a pleasure to read it!:T:T:T

Good luck with the debt busting and massive congratulations on your progress so far. I love all the exploring of your identity, the reading and the thinking about what things mean.

I do a fair bit of that too but probably far more internally.

I haven't read memorygirls challenge -but one of the things I wanted from this year was to set up a coaching website, blog, twitter and try and attract private clients. My website, facebook and twitter is set up but I am not blogging and twittering enough so that could be my challenge. To write a minimum of 1 blog complete with pictures on my site but preferably 4 a month. This would also help me with my long term ambition to be a published writer!

PS I am subscribing so you could be stuck with me lol!:cool:

My favourite quote at the moment is "your dreams are a gift to you, what you do with them is your gift to others". Don't know who said it tho as it is on a mug I bought!!

Firewalker

savingholmes wrote: »

:j
I do a fair bit of that too but probably far more internally.
I haven't read memorygirls challenge -but one of the things I wanted from this year was to set up a coaching website, blog, twitter and try and attract private clients. My website, facebook and twitter is set up but I am not blogging and twittering enough so that could be my challenge. To write a minimum of 1 blog complete with pictures on my site but preferably 4 a month. This would also help me with my long term ambition to be a published writer!

My favourite quote at the moment is "your dreams are a gift to you, what you do with them is your gift to others".

OK Savingholmes, it look like I have company for the 100 days. Thanks. Go for it - if this is what you really want. And you can update either here or on your thread, if you prefer.

Firewalker

Firewalker

All is done and now it is time for relaxing – first with Brisigr (this is what little boy and I read in the evening) and after that with the book on Millionaire Women...I received in the post.

Today I wrote only about 600 word but also had a meeting with my co-author to discuss what has been done till now. So far, so good. I also ran and did my circuits – all part of the plan to run Lausanne marathon in under 4 hours and 30 min.

On the finance side I did the weekly accounts. Our variable expenditure for last week is £113.58 of which £67.49 was spend on food, £41.09 on a pair of crocks for little boy, wine and ironing, and £5 was a contribution for a present. The food bill looks slightly high but it is not really given that in the past week we entertained twice – a French colleague on Thursday (so the menu was French) and our friends last night. I am rather pleased because my budget shows that things are fine if our weekly spend is on average £100 (the budgeted expenditure does not count).

And finally, I discovered that what I have been saying for some time now – that the ultimate objective ought to be to have most of one’s income from assets rather than selling one’s labour – has a name. It is called ‘passive income’. So I am thinking that what I’ll do during the next several days is to set myself a ‘passive income’ goal. The 100 days challenge is just the beginning.

And the saying for today is:

“Money is something you have to make just in case you don’t die.” – Max Asnas

Firewalker

Firewalker

Just back from the cinema where we saw a movie I really liked and OH really did not like. The movie is called ‘Inception’ and is about different realities – well it made me think really. How do we know what is real? Philosophically speaking – in terms of critical realism – everything that has real consequences is real. So we know reality by its consequences. The problem is that within a dream there are consequences as well – so how real are dreams? And does the reality of dreams, reality with a level of control, excuse chasing dreams by smoking opium, for instance?

I have two other items. First, I am very pleased to report that last week I have lost 600 g – this is slightly over a pound. Losing a pound a week is a runner’s dream – anything over that and a runner is weakened, anything under and he/she is heavy. You won’t believe how much couple of pounds are felt. I also went running down the river today – run to the gym and immediately went for a swim. Training is in full force.

Second, I did write today and in the last three days have written 3,000 words of the introduction to the book. Which I am very pleased about – of course the text will need loads of editing but this is the main difference between excellent and sloppy writing – the number of times the text is re-written and edited.

Tomorrow I have something very pleasurable to do. Three weeks ago a student of mine successfully passed her viva – so tomorrow we are going for a celebratory lunch.

Now off to bed with the Millionaire Women...

Firewalker

savingholmes

Congrats on the writing and all that exercise....

for future info SportsDirect sell real crocs for about £10... something to think about next year....

williamD1964

Well done FW, on target and looks like you will do all you set out to do.

I work shifts so my body clock is somewhat screwed making regular training almost impossible.

ninky_2

Firewalker wrote: »

This is interesting, because I think I am. Anyway, I can't do suffering at all. Pleasure is what usually drives me - so everything in this diary I enjoy; just like I enjoy wiritng it.

Mmmmmm...(I am thinking and scratching my head in puzzlement)

Firewalker

maybe it is because we find you as you are turning a new leaf. however your long distance running, worry over weight etc etc does not seem to be from someone who seeks only pleasure but rather from self-reflection and concern to do the right thing. you also seem to have quite a perfectionist streak which to me does not sit well with the hedonistic. perhaps i am wrong. of course i am going with the populist notion of hedonism. i believe original hedonist lead a fairly simply life that would not sit comfortably with the over consumption of modern life.

ninky_2

Firewalker wrote: »

But here we hit the problem with saffron – why is it so expensive?

i am very lucky. my in laws are visiting from iran and have brought with them a generous supply of the world's finest saffron (which grows in iran). i beleive it is expensive because the best crop only comes once a year and is made from the individual stamens of crocus. very tricky to harvest and such a tiny part of the flower. saffron from spain is inferior but cheaper. the climate there is too dry to produce the excellent saffron of iran.

ninky_2

Firewalker wrote: »

But what would you answer if you were me – where are you from?

i too have a problem with this question. i too feel i belong to the world. however i have a british passport so i usually say 'english' unless i am in company where i feel the urge for a more interesting conversation.

personally i am very anti borders. i feel they are inhumane and reflective of power and control of some humans over others. this feeling has been heightened through personal experience of struggles to legalise my spouse in this country and on-going (expensive and time consuming) issues with visitor visas for inlaws etc.

as there are no universal rules for citizenship across nations i wonder how anyone can think the system fair or reasonable.

williamD1964

On the subject of borders, I am all for them, as a national identity should be protected and cherished. I am a proud englishman, my children are of mixed race, and though I will instill them with pride in being english, my wife & I will instill pride in their mothers home country of Jamaica.

I do wish I could still run. At school (all those eons ago) I so enjoyed cross country running, was even in my school & county team but alas, I found cigarettes and alcohol