First Gen American issued a challenge this month – to list 5 ways to gain income or save time.
Here’s mine:
Stage and Sell – the goal this year is to sell the house for max money. Coincidentally, my neighbor just listed their house which should give me a very good idea of what the market is like. I don’t like my neighbor. He spraypainted my house when he painted his fence. He must hate the planet since he puts out 5 bags of garbage every week. He gets mad at the kids for playing in the back lane. He bought his house at the peak of the market three years ago, is it mean of me to be glad that he’s losing money?
Satisfice – I spend too much time questioning too many things – the writing, big purchases, the meaning of life… Enough already.
Shut up – There’s a lady at work that talks too much and traps me at my desk. She’s costing me time and money since I eat the time that she spends talking to me about things I have no interest in. I’m practicing the strategies of small bladder (going to the bathroom whenever she corners me) and being more blunt than I care to be. The other day my boss got mad and asked her point blank “isn’t there anything for you to do?” The small bladder strategy doesn’t work anyway since she’s taken to following me to the bathroom. Yesterday, I went to lunch with her. She left me alone all afternoon. Despite not liking to go out to eat every day, maybe spending $10/day on lunch with her every day would be a good investment.
Stop caring what other people think – On a good day, my inner world is so much like Penelope Trunk’s that it scares me sometimes. She writes about it. I hide it. It’s very time consuming and draining to edit yourself all the time.
Smile and stay in contact – Just in case I need a job down the road, I need to keep my network active, especially if I’m traveling. I’m terrible at staying in touch with people. This may have to be scheduled.
Short but not sweet. Very satisificing.
ps – I am so lazy, I just copied off of First Gen…
Here are the Other Coffee Talk Articles from Around the Web:
Invest It Wisely – New Year’s Blogging Resolutions – Kevin is a hard working man – now that’s sexy.
Molly on Money – Working 25 Hours a Week is Wonderfully Wicked – love the posts where someone’s scaling back and finding time for themselves and those they love – what else are we working for anyway?
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff – New Year’s Resolutions brought to you by the letter S – not just budgeting the fun stuff but making money off it too!
Everyday Tips and Thoughts – New Year’s Resolutions the 5 S’s – sometimes I think Kris is my “good twin/side”, great resolutions!
101 Centavos – 5 S’s for the 2011 Spring Garden – I think 101′s whole hand is green and not just her thumb…
Oh my gosh, those coworkers can drive you insane. I tried to get away from someone that I actually said I had to leave work early and left. He ended up walking out to my car with me, and it was winter! I have also employed the ‘pick up the phone and fake a conversation’ tactic to avoid such people.
Good luck with the house. I hate when a crabby neighbor interferes with your life. Did he pay for the paint on your house?
Everyday Tips recently posted..New Year’s Resolutions – The Five S’s…
Yowza Kris, that’s a bad one! Re. the house, he ‘claimed’ that it was the previous neighbour. I couldn’t prove it was him.That’s not as bad as the one on the other side who kidnapped my dog and held it for ransom!
Hey, I just saw I was your good twin. You are in trouble then…
Have you written a post about the kidnapped dog? I want to read all about it.
everyday tips recently posted..New Year’s Resolutions – The Five S’s…
Oh good! Let out that wild side woman!
We fondly refer to her around here as “the bitch next door.”
Well, I could write that, since it’s about money. Sort of.
Hey, it is your blog, write what you want. Your title is ‘single mom rich mom’. That means you can write all day long about kidnapped dogs if that is what you choose!
Waiting for the post…
Everyday Tips recently posted..Dumb Things People Do Volume IV- Packaging Items Poorly
Well, the pets are like my kids too, so I suppose I could write about them.
I like your last one the best. I try hard to at least send Xmas cards to a lot of my contacts, and this year I just ran out of time to put a personal message on each one. I had to be okay with just the photo card and move on to another thing. I’ve since phoned or emailed a few of the folks to catch up.
Thanks so much for participating in my little experiment. It’s always fun to read other people’s takes on the same topic. Next month will be “what financial lessons did you learn from your first Boy friend (a valentine’s day theme)”
Thanks for putting it out there Sandy! Now I’ve gotta do the links to everyone else. I was enmeshed in a post that covered everything from cleverbot to The Art of Trolling, to TSD famous swimsuit issue. A PITA to get done right. Sorry I just spent 5 minutes in stream of consciousness posting, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
First boyfriend lesson – hmmm… I don’t think we were talking about money…
Wow, the swimsuit issue..I remember that one. I think I posted in the comments 3 or 4 times on that one. It was before I started my blog so I was just Sandy L back then.
Well Sandy L, I got ‘er done. I unsubbed from TSD eons and eons ago and never used to read the comments. Someone at GRS pointed that post out. Too funny.
Maybe you can rent the house out instead, if that makes more sense? #4 and #5 can really help improve quality of life, too!
Invest It Wisely recently posted..New Year’s Blogging Resolutions
Nah, IIW, my house is freaking HUGE (to me). 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 living rooms upstairs and a full (bungalow) basement. That’s why it’s been so time consuming and expensive to renovate, it’s just too damn big. I bought it to flip it back when the market was low. And I don’t want to mess around with being a landlord. I got my profit on the buy for the most part, so I can handle some price fluctuation.
Got any suggestions on how to do the Shut Up when the talker *is* your boss? I’ve tried the small bladder routine, shutting my door (fire door, super heavy!), not looking up from my computer, being blunt (that resulted in some serious drama later), and praying. Nothing works. Surely you have a magic bullet?
ConsciouslyFrugal recently posted..Blog Buddy Challenges
No magic bullet – apart from the one that makes margaritas and protein shakes. Unless it’s a hollow or soft point, I’d recommend the silver point myself – good for varmints.
I had a bad one back in the day that I managed a pretty big group in an open environment. Headphones (nothing playing) worked well with her. Can you get an accomplice to phone you? How about a button that you can push that makes your phone ring? I’ve come to realize that some people are incredibly oblivious when it comes to social signals. On the bright side, it sounds like they like you?
This lady has taken to follow you to the bathroom ??! Wow, that’s one a hard-core talker, for sure. Perhaps extreme bluntness is the answer then.
Hey Andrew, thanks for stopping by! I tried being blunt and it works for about a day. The worst thing about following you to the bathroom is that it really is kind of embarrassing if you don’t ‘need’ to be there.
Is your coworker an issue that you can bring up with management? I’m sure they’re not thrilled to pay you to listen to her stuff. Also, having someone follow you into the bathroom is borderline creepy.
The Lost Goat recently posted..How cheap am I
Hey Goat, part of the ‘problem’ is that our “boss/manager” is non-confrontational and hands-off. He and I have been brainstorming strategies. I told him he’s got to micro-manage whether that’s his “style” or not. Sucks to be a manager sometimes, I know – BTDT.
LOL. gotta luv the ‘shut up’ resolutions. Just tell her, ‘coworkers are not friends’.
Christine recently posted..How PowerPoint can Draw in 1000s of Readers
I feel bad for her. She loves me.
And she cuts my checks… 
I’ve been working on strategic timing of picking up printing. It seems to kind of work. LOL
Satisficing sounds like a very good plan to me. And a killer word, I might add. I’ve had my fair share of weirdo neighbors too (lots of renters next door).
My neighbors probably call me the lady that yells at her kids to get in the car every morning and think I’m the weird one.
Lindy Mint recently posted..Shake It to Shrink It
Lindy, I think yelling is good for your vocal chords. I don’t do enough yelling at my kids so whenever I go to a loud place with friends, I lose my voice for like 2 days. I used to yell at my oldest son, but something happened, so I don’t anymore. Hmm. Maybe I’ll write a post about that some day.