Tag: money
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Senior Underachiever
Every so often my wonderful work wife Trisha drags me out to some social function or other, like I’m a pet project and she’s studying the effects of enforced recreation on misanthropes. Last night that was to an event for the Junior Achievement organization. I put together some online training for them a while back, so figured this was some kind of thank you for the volunteers, and figured I deserved a free drink as much as the next person, so against my natural tendencies, agreed to go. And on a school night, too! But instead of the quiet round… Read more
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Live and let Live keep charging you
Several years ago, I bought my son an Xbox 360 for his birthday. Along with this, I got him a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. Because he was a minor at the time, getting him an account set up on Xbox was a complete pain in the ass, involving me providing a credit card to prove I was over 18 and could ‘vouch for’ him, then a bunch of iterations of logging in and out and providing various approvals/confirmations, and so on, which took the best part of an hour to do (all the while, the boy pacing around anxiously… Read more
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Antisocial Insecurity
I know people claiming social security are sometimes seen as jobless spongers who are just too lazy to get a job, but based on my recent experience, getting the Social Security Administration to actually give you money is more work than an actual job. Allow me to explain. For reasons we don’t need to get into, my three kids became eligible for social security payments (in lieu of Child Support) in January this year. Although they automatically became eligible, I still had to apply (on their behalf) for said social security payments, which necessitated filling in a shit-ton of forms… Read more
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Owen Anderson is a Crook – Official!
One of the things about being an ‘independent’ contractor/consultant is that everyone assumes that you have loads of money. Sure, you may get a bit more in your pay packet than Johnny Punchclock, but there are a lot more factors to take into consideration – things that a salaried employee’s company shells out for. One of these things in moving expenses. I’ve been fortunate in that my work has taken me to a number of different places: from England to Belgium, from there to Singapore, then to the U.S., then back to Belgium, and finally (so far) back to the… Read more
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Stimulate, my arse!
Over here in God’s Chosen Countryâ„¢, the economy is going down the pan. You can see it on the news, sense it on the streets, and feel it in in your wallet. Everything is more expensive, from gas to a gallon of milk (or from petrol to a pint of milk, if you prefer) so everyone has less money. Thankfully, God’s Own Governmentâ„¢ is in control and taking measures to rectify the situation. In a bid to ‘kick-start’ the economy, earlier this year Dubya announced a series of economic measures that included a one-off payment to every tax-paying American (or legal… Read more