Growing up like Zac

I am really enjoying watching Zac grow up. I haven't known him but for a few short weeks, but I am hooked on his adventure. He will turn 17 soon and is doing things that some of us will never know, let alone seriously contemplate. Would I ever send my son out on the ocean by himself to circumnavigate the globe in a small sailboat? Wow! Actually, I would love to do this myself, but I don't think I would have the courage to send my child out on his own. Am I too protective? Maybe.

Zac is growing up and learning things that most of us will never learn and could never be taught in a classroom. Survival. Pacing. Navigation. Conservation. Communication. Ingenuity. Decisions under stress. How to handle loneliness. Dependence on others. Dependence on self. His inner strength to endure and persevere. He is seeing places first hand that we only read about and see in pictures on the web or in blogs.  It's incredible!

I want my children to learn these same things. But I struggle with the method. The control freak father in me wants to protect them and guide them each step. But the testosterone laden man in me wants them to take risks, learn first hand, maybe even fail some while the consequences are minimal.  But am I willing to let them be tested and take risks when the consequences are high? When their very life depends on their succeeding? No way!

If you were to ask me whether or not I was an "umbrella" parent, I would've said no way. But maybe I am after all. I would love to be on Zac's boat myself. But I would not want to have one of my kids on it! I'm guessing that I'm not weird but just a normal Dad on this. Where is the line when it comes to protecting vs letting them go? I know my wife and I are in different places here - I chalk that up to the general difference between Mom's and Dad's. I push the envelope while Mom holds back. Thank God for Moms!

But Zac isn't pushing the envelope, he's defining a whole new package.  I fully applaud and support his efforts and his parent's. It helps me to realize that doing hard things - larger than life idealistic endeavours, is worthwhile, realistic, and not out of reach.

Thanks Zac for showing me a great way to grow up.

Robin Hood

I guess he thinks he's Robin Hood and is going to rescue everyone from the rich people.  To "spread the wealth" or to move it from the rich to the poor - that is the Robin Hood principal.  In the woods, it's called stealing.  In the government, it's called taxes and welfare.  Some would even call it socialism.

I love giving to and helping the poor, as long as it is actually giving and not taking away.  Giving the needy help, giving them a job, giving them needed care and justice is very important in any society.  These are all good things.  But they must be provided in a loving way, not by raising taxes on the rich and calling it "spreading the wealth."

The business man with money must be allowed to invest and hire people, not to be taxed and have it taken from him.  In my opinion, that's punishing success.  Economic success comes from the top down, by allowing the people who've succeeded to invest and to hire others to succeed with them.  I think the reason countries like China and India are growing and changing so much and poverty there is diminishing (not gone yet) is not because we shipped food in to them, but because we shipped jobs in to them.  Now they work, earn their own living, and spend or save or give their own money.  People with money hired people without money.  Then they all had more money.   I think this is a better way than Robin Hood.

Regarding taxes - I'm actually quite fond of The Fair Tax.  I think I'll need to write on that some day soon.  

Please go out and vote this week or next Tuesday.   Let your opinion be heard.

Throw $100 Out Your Window

A friend of mine bought a new car yesterday. I'm sure the salesman and the dealer were happy to have sold a car in this market - any car! He traded in his other car which was only about 2yrs old. He told me that he got an "incredible deal!" He got a $35,000 car for $15,000, he said. Of course, this is net of his trade-in which was probably a $15,000 trade-in. So, I estimate that he still paid nearly $30,000 for the new car. I wonder if he figured this out yet. I also wonder if he realizes that his trade-in cost him around $25,000 two years ago which means he lost about $10,000 since then on it. I also wonder if he knows that his new car will probably be worth about $15,000 in two years. Maybe $18,000 if he takes good care of it. That's a loss of $12,000 to $15,000 in just two years which is $6,000/yr or more in lost value!

Let me put this in perspective - loosing $6,000/yr is like throwing a $100 bill out the window as you drive to work every week. Every week! Just pick a day - say Friday, and throw your $100 bill out the window! Ouch! Every once and awhile, throw out two just to keep up. Dave Ramsey taught me this!

It's called depreciation. It's the single largest cost of owning a new car. You can find proof in the consumer reports magazines or just calculate it yourself. If you've ever sold a car you bought new, you don't need someone else to tell you how painful it was to find out that it was only worth _______ when it came time to sell it. Often times, this problem is made even worse by having a loan on the car that is still more than the car is worth! Ouch - that's called being upside down.

I don't buy new cars - I buy used ones. I think it's a better way. I buy them after someone else has absorbed the depreciation cost. Then, I drive them for a few years and sell them for somewhere near what I paid for them or just a bit less. If I buy a car for $3,500 and drive it for 3 years, and sell it for $2,500, I've only lost $333/yr in depreciation. If I buy a $9,000 car and drive it for 3 years and sell it for $6,000, I only loose $1,000/yr. I've saved nearly $4,000/yr in vehicle costs minus maintenance.

Maintenance you ask? Yes, there might be maintenance costs on a used car. But it should never add up to $4,000/yr! Just don't buy an old Hyundai or KIA (or a few others). Buy a Honda or Toyota. No guarantees, but they have a better record as good used cars. Investigate and learn what the good ones are. You won't regret it.

The authors of the book "The Millionaire Next Door" documented the same thing as they interviewed actual self made millionaires in America. They discovered that most millionaires don't get rich by buying new cars. They buy used cars and are usually quite frugal. So understand - a new car is not your pathway to building personal wealth. It is actually your biggest hindrance.

Buy used - I think it's a better way.

Better Worship

She worships better now.  I see it in her eyes and in her face as she sings aloud to God.  It's different now.  It's beautiful!  Not that it was bad before, but it is now less hindered.  Eager and anticipating.  Like before you go on a trip, you anticipate it and thinking about it makes you happy.

It's just different now that this thing came into our lives.  This tumor.   This brain tumor.  This cancer.

Before this past May, I always thought that if she ever got some sort of cancer or life threatening illness that she would be really upset with God.  That she would be angry, question him hard, say "Why me" over and over and be in despair over it...  But she's not.  She's hardly had any complaints and I think is really at peace with it.  Not that the Dr's have given her a time frame because they haven't. 

But she worships better now with cancer.  It's just like Job I guess.  Will people still worship God in bad times as well as good?  Actually, it seems, they worship better in hard times.  In good times, the things around us distract us and make us feel like all is going to be OK.  But they're just things.  When times are tough, hard, or life threatening, it's just us and God.  Pure worship!

Thank you honey, for showing me a better way to worship!

Shawn and Holly

I saw it tonight.  The love.  The friendship.  The caring.  The willingness to do anything for a friend, no matter how unnecessary it seemed to them, it was important to her.  So they did it for her.

They've been there through everything.  Nine years of fighting - they've been there with her and her husband.  For them.  Along side them.  Carrying them.  Crying with them.  Celebrating with them.  Now crying with them again.  She is done fighting now.  There's no more that can be done but to keep her comfortable and wait.

Shawn and Holly are people that songs should be written about - except that I can't write songs.  I 'm not sure I can even write...  They were faithful to their friend when they said "I'll be there for you" and didn't really know what the road would look like, where it would turn, how rough it would be, or even how long it really was.

My wife and I said "Who are our Shawn and Holly?"  I think we know who they are.  But everyone needs a Shawn and Holly in their life because no one knows what tomorrow may bring.  These are the friends that will do ANYTHING for you.  And I mean anything.  For any length of time.  No matter the cost.  No matter the pain.  They will fly with you to the other side of the world.  They'll care for your kids.  They'll forgive and understand your ugly times.  They'll only remember the good times.

Maybe another great question is "Who are we Shawn and Holly to?"  Are we willing to go to any extreme for someone?  We can't do it for everyone - we just don't have the capacity.  But for at least one person or family?

Shawn and Holly - they've shown me the better way.

A Better Gift

Today, I finished reading the Old Testament.   I read how God called his people "Evil" because they were offering gifts to him. Evil? Really? Why is that? They gave him their offerings...

Oh, I see - the gift was flawed. It wasn't the best of the flock. Or perfect - like him. The people had some blind and lame animals that they didn't want or need, so they gave them as offerings to God thinking that God would be OK with that.

The problem here is that the people treated God as the left-over God. Not the first or the most important. They forgot how jealous God really is.  This makes me wonder if we offer God the same blind and lame sacrifices today?  Do we give what we have left over each month? Only what we didn't need for ourselves?

I think there is a better way. God wants and deserves the best of our flock. The first of everything we earn. Giving is a priority and a pleasure because we worship Him. He tells us to give this way - to honor him with our gifts.  But, honor only comes when we treat as first importance, not last.

Are you considering cutting back in your giving due to the current financial crisis? How about if we cut back on other things that we really don't need and give to Him despite our fears. That takes faith.  And, it is a better way to give!

If it works...

...what do you do? Do you leave it alone out of fear of breaking it or suddenly making it not work? Or do you find yourself wanting to improve it? What you do under this dilemma may actually tell a lot about you. There are two sayings that tend to rule this decision - a) "If it works - don't break it!" or b) "If it works - improve it!"

I guess for me, I'm a tweaker. I usually think that things can be done a little better, a little faster, a little bit more efficient, etc. I'll make an adjustment here, a tweak there, just small iterations that add up to large improvements over time. I guess that's why this blog exists - TIABW.

Are you a risk taker? If not, you will most always land on "Don't break it!" If you are a risk taker (like me), then you might tend towards "Improve it!" I guess it really depends on the application. If you're Intel making chips at a factory, you always "copy exact" the next factory. But technology in general works on the principal of improving it or your competitor will for you. When software is written, we know that if you make changes, it might break something unexpected. But you have to make changes to improve it, fix it, or add features. Besides, no piece of software is ever completely done - ever.

What about life? Do we keep doing life like we've always done it out of comfort? Out of fear that something bad or unknown will happen? What if there are better ways of doing life? Are we open to learn and change? Or do we get grumpy in our old age and just growl back at change.? We all know someone who is simply stuck in their ways and won't change. We always say "I won't be like that when I get old." Hmmm. Are we approaching this point when we don't want to try new things?

There is also a personality issue here. Some people just don't like change and must plan for changes. Otherwise their cart gets upset and they are out of their comfort zone. Others, just love change and actually can't stand to do things the same way twice. Maybe, somewhere in the middle is the healthy ground we should aim for.

We should always be teachable and humble enough to admit that maybe we don't know more about a particular issue than everybody else. No matter how smart or "wise" we get, there is always something more we can learn. I learned that here. And here.

So please, leave your comments on these entries and teach me a thing or two...

Be Flexible

Why does my car have to have only one shape? Sometimes I want to drive a sports car.  Sometimes, a regular sedan.  Is there a way to have both so that I could choose depending on my mood? Maybe this is how it could work.  BMW is thinking outside of the box and is trying to better connect our emotions to the automobile.  This only makes sense to those who love cars and can really connect emotionally to their cars.

If nothing else, it would be fun to drive!  But will it keep me safe?  I guess rocks would just bounce off it and the car door next to me wouldn't bother it a bit.  Hmmm... maybe this is a better way?

Measuring Fuel Efficiency

Is there a better way to measure fuel efficiency?  You know - mpg's.  We all use mpg's to compare cars or trucks and figure out which will use less fuel.  If I were comparing two cars whose ratings were 15 and 20 mpg, I would say the 20 mpg car had a big advantage in efficiency.  But if I were comparing two cars who's ratings were 40 and 45 mpg, initially I would say that the 45 mpg car also had a big advantage over the 40 mpg car.  Right?  Well, not quite.

A better way to measure fuel efficiency is to calculate fuel used for a given distance.  Say we took an average year of driving - 12,000 miles per year.  How much fuel would these cars use?  Well, a car that gets 15 mpg would use 800 gallons of gasoline while a car that got 20 mpg would only use 600 gallons, a total savings of 200 gallons per year.  Quite a lot.  But now for the higher mileage cars.  A car that gets 40 mpg would use 300 gallons of fuel, while a car that gets 45 mpg would use 267 gallons of fuel for a total savings of only 33 gallons per year.  Not very much.

What does this mean?  It means that the more fuel that a vehicle uses, the more impact an improvement in fuel efficiency will have on your pocket book.  Meanwhile, the higher mileage models don't have as much savings to gain.  See the chart below and notice how the slope decreases as the mpg's increase.   In the real world, this means that the automakers who try to improve the mileage of the big vehicles are making the most impact (Tahoe Hybrid) while the smaller cars (Civic Hybrid) don't actually save as much because they already get such good mileage.

So think in terms of fuel used per year, instead of MPG.  It's a better way...

Google has a better way

Did you ever wish that your employer treated you better than they did? Do you ever feel like they are just squashing the creativity out of you and your co-workers? The rules. The budget cuts. The formality. The cube farms. The boredom. Or whatever...

Google might just be on to something. They have perks - lots of them. But not just perks for perks sake. That would miss the point. They have an agenda behind their perks. They are social engineering creative moments and atmospheres for their people - they call it "People Operations." Hmmm... Sound interesting? Take a look at this video and pay close attention to the comment at the end about hiring intelligent people. It might just be working.

Here is Google's better way...

A Better Bailout

The bailout in Congress is being widely discusses around the watercooler.  Is it a good idea to "Nationalize" these bad debts and assets? Is it absolutely necessary for our financial systems to keep operating?  Maybe there is a better way to pull up before crashing?

Dave Ramsey thinks that he has a better way, a "Common Sense Fix" to our financial crisis.  If you agree, follow his steps and send a message to your congressional representatives.    I like Dave's thinking on many fronts.  Voice your opinion now!