I wanted to . . .
Posted on August 18, 2006 - Filed Under Housing |
More than anything in the world, I wanted to write today and say "It’s finished!"
That’s it. Just two words.
"It’s finished."
Well, technically that’s three words if you count "’s" as a word.
But I can’t write that. So I won’t.
The back-splash has taken longer to do than the plumbing. That amazes me at some level. I’m not sure which level but it does amaze me. And the work on the back-splash came to a sudden halt because I ran out of noses. That sounds weird to me. I ran out of "noses". Who thinks up the words for this stuff?
In measuring the kitchen, I measured super sloppy. I figured an error of 20% and came up with a number I was positive would be sufficient in terms of "noses". In total, I ordered 36 feet.
"You’re about 10 feet short," the Tile Guy said to me, eyes glazed over from his last bong hit.
He was right. Not because he wasted the noses. It was because I completely forgot to figure in the vertical distance. I only measured the horizontal distance.
An emergency phone call to the tile place and a desperate plea to expedite shipping ensued. The manager was nice enough to oblige me.
Work begins again.
It’s nice to know that my contribution to the workload has finished. For these few remaining days, it’s in the hands of the tile guy. He made a comment about his car payment being due so I can only assume he’ll work so he can finish so he can get paid.
Funny how that works.
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2 Responses to “I wanted to . . .”
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Posted this in response on my blog:
mOOm said…
I’m thinking that the stock market will mostly decline into October. See the chart in my August 13th post. Of course I could be wrong. I’m not betting everything on that happening.
One thing to consider is that if you are just starting out and the market goes down you lose relatively little money if you are adding money continuously to the market and so it isn’t worth really trying to time the market with your first few thousand dollars. However, for someone with a larger amount to invest or already invested in gets more important.
As I see it you have three options I would consider, from least aggressive to most aggressive:
1. If you have a fixed amount to invest divide it up say into six portions and invest a portion each month for the next six months. Or if you are just making small contributions from salary then don’t worry just put in a bit each month. This is called dollar cost averaging. You buy more shares when the price is lower and less when it is higher.
2. Keep it in a money market account or bond fund until October/November.
3. Try to benefit from a fall in the market by using one of the new ETF’s recommended by Suze Orman in this article on the second page. These funds will rise in value if the market falls but lose if it rises. This is the kind of thing I do with options and shorting but more straightforward for beginning investors. Downside is any gain you make is taxed as a short-term gain unless in an IRA as you will want to sell the shares in October-November.
Hope this helps and happy to follow up.
There’s nothing like finding a motivated worker…