Through My Thick Skull
Jun. 17th, 2005 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI have finally gotten it through my thick skull how to work with academic content for a living and still have a job with a regular salary that does not involve trying to teach people who don't want to be taught. I've decided I want to do online course development. There are people who do this where I work now at the distance learning center. The only bad news is that this center is located out in the middle of nowhere, so I would lose many of the advantages of working where I do.
The good news is that I no longer feel the urge to try to convince myself that I would make a good academic counselor. Or alternatively that I would make a good programmer. Woo hoo! I just have to go learn a lot of web page skills now.
I am starting to get it through my skull that retirement (my ideal career) is not going to be easy. My current plan is to try to retire at the same time as all the baby boomers are trying to retire, which means using one of their disintegrating retirement plans, selling stock while they're selling stock, etc. I suspect that salaries, taxes, and healthcare will skyrocket as retirement soars, while stock prices and interest rates will plummet. The only good thing is that big houses will get cheaper as older folks downsize. I like the idea of doing as much of my investing as possible in Roth IRAs and, when they become available, Roth 401(k)s (or 403(b)s) so I'll be paying all my taxes now, while it's still cheap. But all of that money will have to be in stocks or bonds (or worse). The only obvious ways I see to escape this crowd is to invest in my health (yea!) and in job skills (bleh!).
I am still working on getting it through my skull that when people offer me money, the appropriate response is not "but you can't afford to repay me yet." Nor, "don't worry about it until my credit card bill is due." Nor "but that new job title you want to give me doesn't make any sense." The appropriate response is "Thank you."
Journal entry of the day - How to Be a Dilettante in "Are We There Yet" - "I learned that beads are more addictive than crack, that no matter how many beads and tools and supplies you have, you totally need more, and at this point, I should probably just build an extra wing on my house and open a bead store. Which I would do except for the fact that I cannot part with my beads because they are my precioussss."
The good news is that I no longer feel the urge to try to convince myself that I would make a good academic counselor. Or alternatively that I would make a good programmer. Woo hoo! I just have to go learn a lot of web page skills now.
I am starting to get it through my skull that retirement (my ideal career) is not going to be easy. My current plan is to try to retire at the same time as all the baby boomers are trying to retire, which means using one of their disintegrating retirement plans, selling stock while they're selling stock, etc. I suspect that salaries, taxes, and healthcare will skyrocket as retirement soars, while stock prices and interest rates will plummet. The only good thing is that big houses will get cheaper as older folks downsize. I like the idea of doing as much of my investing as possible in Roth IRAs and, when they become available, Roth 401(k)s (or 403(b)s) so I'll be paying all my taxes now, while it's still cheap. But all of that money will have to be in stocks or bonds (or worse). The only obvious ways I see to escape this crowd is to invest in my health (yea!) and in job skills (bleh!).
I am still working on getting it through my skull that when people offer me money, the appropriate response is not "but you can't afford to repay me yet." Nor, "don't worry about it until my credit card bill is due." Nor "but that new job title you want to give me doesn't make any sense." The appropriate response is "Thank you."
Journal entry of the day - How to Be a Dilettante in "Are We There Yet" - "I learned that beads are more addictive than crack, that no matter how many beads and tools and supplies you have, you totally need more, and at this point, I should probably just build an extra wing on my house and open a bead store. Which I would do except for the fact that I cannot part with my beads because they are my precioussss."