I managed to obtain a part-time job. It isn’t in the legal field and doesn’t make use of my degree in any way but it will at least cover my bills for now. And it will allow me plenty of free time to work on my online endeavors and look for another job. One plus is that the job is working for a non-profit. If I spend ten years working for a non-profit my student loans will be forgiven. I don’t see myself spending ten years working for this company but the time is cumulative so it could be added to any time spent working a public service job in the future. I am training this week and starting next weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.

According to economist Zvi Bodie. In a Money magazine article he says that if you need the high return of stocks to reach your goals then you can’t afford to invest in stocks. You should read the article to get all the details but this is a general summary of what he says. He states that stocks are too risky an investment for retirement investing and suggests a portfolio of TIPS instead; you should only invest in stocks what you can afford to lose. He also says that you should save 20%-30% of your income or more so you will accumulate enough money for retirement despite not having the higher returns from stocks.

This is an interesting point of view and I can agree with it somewhat. As he states when you are saving for retirement you can either sacrifice by having a lower standard of living now, working longer, or taking more risk in your portfolio. If you are able to maintain a low standard of living and save a large percentage of your income than the returns you receive are not as relevant as when you are saving only 10% of your income.

Personally, I am still going to be investing in stocks. They are risky but since I have started saving late in the game and don’t have much income I need the high returns of stocks to accumulate enough money to retire. Even if I were young and just starting out I don’t think I would put 100% of my money into TIPS though. That just seems too conservative to me. Once I have accumulated all the money I need then I might consider putting a large percentage of my investments in TIPS or some other form of guaranteed income but until then I will stay invested in stocks.

What do you think of Bodie’s advice?

Now that it is getting colder the ads for the miracle heaters are coming out again.  They promise that their highly efficient heaters can save you 50-60% on your heating bills but do these wonders of Amish technology really work?

It is true that these heaters are highly efficient.  This is because all electrical heaters are approximately 100% efficient.  Any 1500 watt heater will produce roughly 5100 btus.  The ads are telling the truth here but they are being misleading.

Since electric heat is generally 3-5 times as expensive as other forms of heat it is unlikely they will save  you money on  your heating bill.  One possible way they could save you money is if you turned your furnace down and used a heater to keep the area you are in at a comfortable temperature.  I did this a couple years ago and it did save me some money.  I just used a $20 ceramic heater though.  There is no need to spend several hundred dollars on a heater to do this.  Again the ads are misleading.

Check out these Amazon affiliate links.  You can get a $20 heater
or a $400 heater.  They both put out the same amount of heat so which one would you get?

The simplest way to cut your heating costs is to not turn on your heat.   This article tells of a  no heat contest where people see how long they can go into the winter without turning on their heat.  The family that won last year made it to December 31.  They live in New Jersey so they must have been pretty cold.  I’m a tight-fisted miser and all for being frugal but I think that is a little too extreme.

That being said I haven’t turned on my heat in my apartment yet.  Since my apartment is on the the third floor it seems to be absorbing heat from other apartments in the building.  Even though the outside temperature has been in the 30s, I don’t think the temperature in my apartment has been below the 60s.  We do have several cold days forecast so I will probably have to turn on my heat sometime this week.  Saving a little money on my heating bill isn’t worth being uncomfortably cold.

In the absence of force, a body either is at rest or moves in a straight line with constant speed.  My body is at rest right now and there isn’t any force to get it moving.  I am having a hard time getting motivated to do anything right now either mentally or physically.   I know if I could just do enough to gain a little momentum I would be able to get more things done and feel better about myself.  I just can’t get started.

To me it is kind of like running.  I like running but I never want to go for a run.  If I do go for a run though once I am doing it I enjoy it and am glad I do it.  The next day though I still won’t want to go for a run.  This changes if I manage to go running often enough for it to become a habit.  Once it is a habit I look forward to running and no longer have to overcome my initial resistance.

I’m out of the habit of running right now.  I need to get back in that habit as well as develop a habit of working on my blog and other things.  Maybe this post will be enough of a spark to get me started.

Due to my recent move I needed to acquire a few household items.  Being a Tight-Fisted Miser I didn’t want to pay any more than necessary for them.  Therefore I checked out the dollar store and was able to find a few things I needed there.

The best deal at the dollar store is probably the shower curtain.  It is $1 for the curtain and another $1 for the rings.   This would be about $10 at a big box store.  The quality probably isn’t as good but the shower curtain does its job and I haven’t had one fall apart on me yet.

Another good deal at the dollar store is kitchen items.  I bought a can opener for $1 and it works fine.  I also have a small frying pan that I bought at the dollar store several years ago that is still working fine.

Perhaps my best dollar store deal was a large laundry bag that I bought a couple years ago.  When I went hiking I used this to store my backpack when I checked it as baggage for my flight.  Many people buy large duffle bags to store their backpacks in which generally cost at least $20.  (If you don’t store your backpack in another bag the various straps and buckles on the pack often get caught on baggage handling equipment causing major damage to the pack.)  I figure the laundry bag saved me at least $19 and I still use it as a laundry bag as well.

Cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products can be good buys at the dollar store but I usually get these for free or almost free from playing the drugstore game.

I suppose some of the food might be a good deal but I just don’t trust food from the dollar store.

Do you get any good deals from the dollar store?  What products do you not recommend getting from the dollar store?

I am moving in to my new apartment today.  I managed to find a one-bedroom apartment for $360 a month.  That is a pretty cheap even for Kansas City.  The apartment is nice it is just in an old building.  That is my best tip for finding a cheap apartment – look for an older complex that is still well maintained.  You can often get an apartment in older buildings for much less than the normal rate.  I guess this is because people think apartments in older building aren’t good?, I don’t know. The location is great with a CVS drugstore, Dollar General, grocery store, bank, movie theatre, library, park, and lots of restaurants within walking distance.

The only negative is that it is on the third floor and there is no elevator.  That could be a positive though because I need to exercise more.  Luckily, I don’t own much stuff so moving won’t be too difficult.  A couple of carloads should get me moved.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

My expenses were a little high this month. That was mainly due to my car purchase. I left out the cost of the car purchase to keep my monthly figure from being skewed too much. I did count the expense of sales tax, registration, and insurance though which caused my transportation expense to be high. I should get my expenses back down to the $1000 level this month.

At the end of October my car had a cost per mile of $4.98. That isn’t too bad considering I had only had it a couple weeks. By the end of this month that figure should be way down. If I were to take out the purchase price from my total car cost I would obviously have a much cheaper cost per mile. Even though I could probably sell my car for close to what I bought it I am going to keep the purchase cost in my total cost since I plan to drive the car until it is near worthless.

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

My income for October was good considering it was all alternative and passive income. It was higher than my expenses – if you don’t include my car purchase – which is always a plus. I will be hard pressed to match this amount of income in November since I don’t have any study money or bonus money coming . It is possible that I will have some income from a j-o-b this month but it will probably not add much to my total income.

My October Investment income rose to $85.24 from $83.28 the month before. The rise was mainly due to adding more money to my stock portfolio although my portfolio did slightly rise in value also. I will probably not be able to add to my investments this month so any rise in my income will have to come from a rising market.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.