Accountant by Day

January is behind me, and “busy season” for public accountants is in full swing. Apparently February gets even more intense than January, but the light at the end of that tunnel is that things start to slow down a little bit in March (so they tell us). In a way, working so much is enjoyable, because I’m learning that I can survive while working 10 hour days for 6 days a week (at least).

I just finished reading The Broke Professionals’ post about their treacherous home buying process - check out their post here to get some valuable lessons about shopping for houses and whole buying process. I probably need to read a hundred more articles about other home buyers’ experiences - there’s so much that can go wrong! I certainly agree with their lesson about not falling in house-love too soon! I definitely had visions of myself living in this house, the beautiful flowers I would plant in the front yard, and the organic vegetable garden I would have!

I know I’ve been reading too much Mr. Money Mustache [an early retiree] when I start wondering “why are all these people giving such awful money advice” when listening to Planet Money. Their advice is not really “awful” but it’s the “normal” financial advice I used to know - such as save 10% of your income, etc. Mr. Money Mustache (and his readers) make saving 70% of your income seem like such a normal goal that advising people to save 10% seems like you’re doing those people a disservice.

The problem with going to Level 2 training all week (for staff beginning their second year) is that people still give you stuff to do. And the problem with starting your work day at 5:30 or 5:45, after training is over, is that just when you’re getting something done, you realize it’s already 8:30. Since I get up at 6, and would like to push that back to 5:45 or so, I’ve found I only end up getting enough sleep if I’m actually ready for bed at 9.

I think one of the best things about the web is the ability to reach an audience that is spread far apart geographically. So even though fans of a product may be pretty rare, you can reach all of them, and that makes the product viable, while also allowing those odd-ball consumers to buy exactly what they want. The artist of Dinosaur Comics attributes a lot of his success to this factor.

Most of us go to work everyday. Some of us might prefer not to go to work, would prefer to work less, or would prefer their work to be in a different field. We also have ideas about what is “important” work and we have more respect for some jobs than others. From the lamentations we hear today about the loss of manufacturing sector, you’d think working in a factory was the best job of all.

I always found the cliché “There are starving children in Africa” response to be a pretty useless tool to use against more well-off children refusing to eat the food offered to them. In reality, the “keeping up with the Jonses” cliché holds true, because we compare ourselves to our peers around us, not to distant people in poverty-stricken countries that we have never been to. That’s what makes high school reunions so stressful - they are one of the closest peer groups you can compare yourself to, and let see how you line up 10 years down the road with people who grew up in the same town as you, with the same basic education.

photo by Linder6580 on sxc.hu When you picture coming home, what is waiting for you there? If you carry around an idealized image of home in your head (like I do) - what must be in it? Does "home" to you mean a place full of family members and laughter, where you can be yourself? Does it mean a place of peace and quiet, relaxing after a long day out in the world?

Something cool: Speaking with Dolphins - I was fascinated by Denise Herzing’s Ted talk on her research team’s attempt to speak with dolphins. They explain in the linked article that they think they were able to teach one “human” word to the dolphins. Something sad: Professors more likely to respond to white male student emails - or at least, students who have a typical white male name. Photos: This photographer’s project is to show how beautiful all shapes of women are - this series focuses on recent mothers (contains nudity!

Here’s what I’ve been reading over the past 30 days, (mostly on my Kindle): I Shall Wear Midnight - by Terry Pratchett I haven’t been reading too many Terry Pratchett books, although I recently discovered that I quite like them, as they all seem to be at least $9.99 on Amazon.com. This one is only $6.99 I think, and well worth it. It is a Tiffany Aching story, set in the Disc World, complete with the Nac Mac Feegles, my favorite characters.