Don't Budget, Be Happy

Say you've been reading this blog for awhile now, and you are actually inspired.  Okay, let's be realistic.  So instead, let's say you're like, "Wow, that Deadwood is a complete waste of carbon.  But I do want to save more."  So you sit down and start working on a budget.

Don't.

Seriously.

Don't.

Rule 3: Invest Wisely (The Experts)

Several years out of college, I was having dinner with a few of my old high school buddies.  One of them, Filmore, was making an observation about cultural shifts, and lamenting our relatively disadvantaged social life growing up.

"Today, it's great.  High school kids just don't seem to care about race.  They intermingle much more, now.  In fact, interracial dating is really common.  We would have done a lot more dating if it was like this when we were teenagers."

 I was floored.  I had a completely different understanding.

"Fil, the reason we didn't get dates in high school isn't because we were minorities.  The reason we didn't get dates in high school is because we were nerds!"

 It never even occurred to him.
 

Why "Deadwood?"

"So how did you come up with your blog name, anyway?"

"Do you know how hard it is to come up with a new name on the internet?  Everything is taken.  There is no original thought.  Someone once said that."

The Big American Dream (Part 1)

A recent Forbes article talks about "the American dream of home ownership."  Housingwire.com asserts that "most view becoming a homeowner as...a chance to put down roots and fulfill the American Dream."  Whitehouse.gov dedicates an entire blog post to how Obama is "Promoting the American Dream of Homeownership."

So when did the American Dream become all about home ownership?  The whole concept must have shifted over the decades.  It used to be about things like freedom, and opportunity, and equality.  Yeah, I know there was never an exact definition.  But I also know that when I was a boy, back in the seventies, it had nothing to do with home ownership.  (Although, I seem to recall it had a lot to do with Farrah Fawcett.)