How simply do you live?
#951
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#952
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One example is learning how to repair & mend stuff. Another example is to learn to cook well with cheap ingredients.
This kind of non financial investment is best suited for people who are underemployed in the market economy to a greater or lesser extent.
#953
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Investing In Yourself
Thank you Platy for reminding me of this. I should look into classes at Home Depot if they're still offering them. I want to do some framing and insulation work on a trailer home. Learning to do it myself would save a ton of money. Even learning about wiring would be beneficial for my future project.
Slowly I'm learning computer skills. Most of them are within programs. I really don't have the desire to learn programming code. Right now I'm getting familiar with using Linux. I really need to learn how to do FTP (uploading web sites and modifying them). These skills are for creating a web site that one day will earn some money for me.
Creating my own source of income would simplify my life in many ways.
Investing time to gain knowledge that you know will benefit you is probably the best investment there could ever be. Some people think a college education is beneficial. I think the cost to benefit ratio of a college education is too high these days.
Learning how to build a house, fix your vehicles, and cook great foods, are all very useful things to know these days.
Slowly I'm learning computer skills. Most of them are within programs. I really don't have the desire to learn programming code. Right now I'm getting familiar with using Linux. I really need to learn how to do FTP (uploading web sites and modifying them). These skills are for creating a web site that one day will earn some money for me.
Creating my own source of income would simplify my life in many ways.
Investing time to gain knowledge that you know will benefit you is probably the best investment there could ever be. Some people think a college education is beneficial. I think the cost to benefit ratio of a college education is too high these days.
Learning how to build a house, fix your vehicles, and cook great foods, are all very useful things to know these days.
#954
Sophomoric Member
Thanks Platy and smallwheels. My7 first thought when I read your posts was, "But how is an "investment in myself" helping me to prepare for retirement?" After I considered it a few minutes, I had a couple new thoughts:
First, I realized that learning the right new skills, like the ones you guys suggested, might save me significant money after I retire. If I save even $100 a month with DIY projects, that's about the same as putting another $20,000 in my retirement accounts!
Second, I remembered that recent neurological research is showing that mental exercise--such as learning new information and skills--might heolp protect against dementia and other cognitive declines associated with aging. What better retirement investment could there be?
First, I realized that learning the right new skills, like the ones you guys suggested, might save me significant money after I retire. If I save even $100 a month with DIY projects, that's about the same as putting another $20,000 in my retirement accounts!
Second, I remembered that recent neurological research is showing that mental exercise--such as learning new information and skills--might heolp protect against dementia and other cognitive declines associated with aging. What better retirement investment could there be?
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#955
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Yeah, Roody, the phrase "invest in yourself" has been co-opted by the education establishment to imply accredited degrees, certifications, multi-year programs, giant student loans, etc. You know, all the stuff that only they can provide. Those are all good things, but I specifically meant learning immediately useful skills in bite-size chunks.
Now about retirement. Everyone knows of some retired guy who's turned into Mr. Fix-It / Mr. Gardener / Mr. Chef. One reason this happens is, they can save a bundle of money and have a good time doing it. A person does need a certain amount of money income to retire, but the idea is to sharply reduce the income requirement by satisfying your own needs as directly as possible with ingenuity and labor -- which is precisely the Do It Yourself philosophy. You can do a little or a lot. One great thing about this approach is, it's not just for the retired. It's helpful for anyone who "has more time than money", as they say. It's not a complete solution, but nothing else is, either.
Now about retirement. Everyone knows of some retired guy who's turned into Mr. Fix-It / Mr. Gardener / Mr. Chef. One reason this happens is, they can save a bundle of money and have a good time doing it. A person does need a certain amount of money income to retire, but the idea is to sharply reduce the income requirement by satisfying your own needs as directly as possible with ingenuity and labor -- which is precisely the Do It Yourself philosophy. You can do a little or a lot. One great thing about this approach is, it's not just for the retired. It's helpful for anyone who "has more time than money", as they say. It's not a complete solution, but nothing else is, either.
#956
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We were doing some mock interviews with pageant girls a couple of weeks back (my wife is big into pageant work and I am a certified judge ) and one of the questions that was asked was; "What is your most prized possession and why?" One the top girls and possibly the next Miss NC replied with; "My college degree, no one can ever take away the knowledge I gained earning that degree." Awesome answer! FWIW her BS is in Zoology and she is working on a Masters in Agriculture!
I don't believe you can ever go wrong learning something new or a hands on skill, even if it may be an archaic one.
EDIT: I should add, make sure you don't fall prey to the "gotta have all the accessories" for the new skill! One of my wife's cousins has spent several thousand dollars on the "gotta haves" every time she takes an different course; scrap booking, oil painting, water colors, etc, etc.
My current learning has been computer oriented, working on programing
I am much more of a physical, hands on person. I do much better with things like welding, carpentry and gardening. I have also learned over the years, learn to do it the old fashioned manual way, then decide if you want to go modern with the power tools. Years ago I took cabinet/furniture making courses. We learned to do things with the most basic of hand tools before we learned how to use the fancy power tools. Good hand tools well taken care of will last a long time and are easy to store. Most of my cabinet making tools fit in a large wooden tool box the size of a small coffee table. Many of them were inherited from my grandfather and are still used today for smaller projects. Ditto my mechanic tools, bicycle tools and homeowner tools.
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Last edited by wahoonc; 06-21-11 at 06:27 PM.
#957
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#958
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
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Thanks for the pic. I would have no clue how to use this.
Nash
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Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#961
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Get a big bucket, wash tub or use your bathtub or sink. Fill with dirty clothes and warm soapy water, put the plunger in and plunge up and down against the clothes, them move them around and continue for a while until A) you are worn out or B) the clothes are as clean as they are going to get
Aaron
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Get a big bucket, wash tub or use your bathtub or sink. Fill with dirty clothes and warm soapy water, put the plunger in and plunge up and down against the clothes, them move them around and continue for a while until A) you are worn out or B) the clothes are as clean as they are going to get
Aaron
Aaron
Nash
#963
Sophomoric Member
I wash bike clothes (quick dry fabrics) by hand when I get home at night and they dry by morning hanging in the bathroom. You have to rinse them and wring them out very well.
I only do this for very small loads when it's definitely not worth using the washing machine. It's a fair amount of work for even a couple items. I don't know how women (mostly) did it back in the old days when they hand cleaned a whole family's laundry!
I only do this for very small loads when it's definitely not worth using the washing machine. It's a fair amount of work for even a couple items. I don't know how women (mostly) did it back in the old days when they hand cleaned a whole family's laundry!
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#964
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They boiled the laundry with home made lye soap in a big iron kettle by the side of the house, stirring and pounding it with massive wooden plungers. This harsh treatment was necessary to kill lice and other bugs. There wasn't as big of a quantity of stuff to be laundered because outer garments were typically worn for days or weeks between washings. Washing and hang drying a week's laundry was considered to be a full day's work. Traditionally it was done on Monday. Ironing took most of another day. I don't think ironing was strictly necessary from a health standpoint, but most people at the time would have been aghast at the thought of wearing wrinkled clothes in public.
#965
Sophomoric Member
They boiled the laundry with home made lye soap in a big iron kettle by the side of the house, stirring and pounding it with massive wooden plungers. This harsh treatment was necessary to kill lice and other bugs. There wasn't as big of a quantity of stuff to be laundered because outer garments were typically worn for days or weeks between washings. Washing and hang drying a week's laundry was considered to be a full day's work. Traditionally it was done on Monday. Ironing took most of another day. I don't think ironing was strictly necessary from a health standpoint, but most people at the time would have been aghast at the thought of wearing wrinkled clothes in public.
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#966
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They had no alternative and it really wore people out. Modern fabrics and detergents, along with indoor plumbing and sanitation, makes hand laundry easy in comparison. I don't use a laundry plunger myself, but I do hang dry my clothes.
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Saw a paper/study a while back the claimed that labor saving devices in many cases really aren't if you factor in the time required to pay for them versus the time spent doing work the manual way. I didn't completely agree with the conclusions but they were interesting. One was the cost of a vacuum cleaner versus not having carpets and beating rugs a couple of times a year.
Aaron
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#969
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Somewhere on an RV site I found a story about a guy who uses a modern day version of the plunger and bucket system. If I recall properly, it was a three bucket system. One was for washing and two for rinsing. Each bucket was a five or six gallon tall plastic design commonly used for paint and other things. The plunger looked more like a bell than a plumbing drain cleaning model.
There was a formula for creating the soap. One ingredient was white vinegar. To me adding that would seem to make the whole process more expensive, maybe not. The person using the system said that the clothes came out cleaner than they would using a commercial or home washing machine. The article said that such a kit was sold on ebay. I found the plunger on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQurD1JXHy8
This kit would seem like a good thing to have for an RV dweller that didn't want to move his machine around town looking for a laundromat. It wouldn't be needed for the people who only park in RV parks.
I also remembered the Wonder Wash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk-CK_2OmHk
Would these things make life simpler? They might for an apartment dweller who didn't have a washing machine. On Amazon.com (where I go to read product reviews) several apartment dwellers loved the money savings and not needing to walk down several flights of stairs to the cold basement.
This post made me also realize just how much the internet has simplified my life. I can learn about so many things so much faster than ever before. Without the internet how long would it take for me to come across somebody who owned a Wonder Wash or Breathing Mobile Washer?
There was a formula for creating the soap. One ingredient was white vinegar. To me adding that would seem to make the whole process more expensive, maybe not. The person using the system said that the clothes came out cleaner than they would using a commercial or home washing machine. The article said that such a kit was sold on ebay. I found the plunger on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQurD1JXHy8
This kit would seem like a good thing to have for an RV dweller that didn't want to move his machine around town looking for a laundromat. It wouldn't be needed for the people who only park in RV parks.
I also remembered the Wonder Wash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk-CK_2OmHk
Would these things make life simpler? They might for an apartment dweller who didn't have a washing machine. On Amazon.com (where I go to read product reviews) several apartment dwellers loved the money savings and not needing to walk down several flights of stairs to the cold basement.
This post made me also realize just how much the internet has simplified my life. I can learn about so many things so much faster than ever before. Without the internet how long would it take for me to come across somebody who owned a Wonder Wash or Breathing Mobile Washer?
#970
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#971
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I use a 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle rather than a commercial softener. It strips the soap out of the cloth and leaves it soft without the perfumes, wax and silicone that the commercial softeners do. I also try to hang my clothes out to dry rather than run them through the dryer. It saves energy and isn't as hard on the clothes. Lint is from your clothes disintegrating.
Aaron
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#972
Sophomoric Member
I use a 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle rather than a commercial softener. It strips the soap out of the cloth and leaves it soft without the perfumes, wax and silicone that the commercial softeners do. I also try to hang my clothes out to dry rather than run them through the dryer. It saves energy and isn't as hard on the clothes. Lint is from your clothes disintegrating.
Aaron
Aaron
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#973
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In many communities there isn't a stream nearby. I lived near to Bear Creek for 8 years. Barely saw a drop of water in it. Sometimes none at all for over a year at a time.
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No vinegar smell at all. I had a chemist friend explain how it works one time but I missed most of it...I was a biology major.
Aaron
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon