Options

I try to formulate goals every year, month, or really as I have the motivation and time.

When those stars align, which isn't as often as I'd like or need, I put my future's goals on pen and paper and more importantly, in my busy, and forgetful, head.

Goals are good to have but only get one so far.  The more realistic gameplan would be to formulate and act on options!

I include way to many and's in my ramblings.  As a disclaimer.

But as an 100ker, options are limited.

I currently have 3 bills over 5hundy a month, work 7 days a week(although I promise myself I wouldnt bring that up again as I do at every turn), and am trying to raise a family, albeit only one child.

But options fo exist.

Everyone with any job, had the same set of options I have there.

1) Deal with it.  Which most do and will continue to do based on their given set of circumstances, 100ker or not.

2) Quit.  Well, thats a limited and desperate option with too many negative consequences to list. But nonetheless, an option.  One my wife puts out there for me often, but i bitch often so its tit for tat.

3) Get a new job.  I'm working on that but anyone in that circumstance knows the difficulty and hard work that option requires. 

4) Flee.  How that option came up so quick may be the severity of my situation, only magnified by my own thought process, but also an option.  With the most and numerous negative consequences.

5) Quit having goals and plans and options.  Which to myself doesn't seem plausible.

6) Have faith.  Have some sort of stitched together form of hope and faith in one of the above, more positive, options.

So there are options,  vague as they may be; we all have them, but wheres the line drawn in order to pick the correct one.  Not relying on myself is whats necessary, in a sense, and for another blog that I'm not capable or faithful enough to compose.

Selah with options.

Transfer Costs and You

Transfer costs are a given in business, economics, and life.  Well, the idea is a given, the meaning and what and how, and definitely  why, well those are whole other subjects.

The first definition  from the end all be all source, Wikipedia, states for the concept I'm trying to convey that ' Transfer pricing is the setting of the price for goods and services sold between controlled (or related) legal entities within an enterprise.'

Transfer pricing is the concept, transfer cost is more of what I'm trying to refer to, defined as the 'Total opportunity cost of moving an item from one place to another, including transport costs, loading and unloading costs, and administrative costs.'

So, why are 'moving' costs all around us?

I'm  not trying to point out moving costs as in the cost of moving but the actual  moving of costs.

I.E. moving costs from one party to the next.

Making some other poor sap pay for what may or may not, or should or should not be paid for by the actual paying party.

This occurs all the time within companies and corporations.  One department  defers costs to the other, and really it depends on what manager is willing, or not strong or brave enough to fight off that willingness, to pay for another departments necessities, or even errors.  Now interdepartmenally these costs are fought and passed around but as a company as a whole, the cost remains.  And in fact, the fighting and time wasted transferring the costs may have worsened the initial cost so the company as a whole takes a larger cost, just so one department 'wins' and 'transfers(!)' the cost.

Transfer costs, and additional costs associated with the transferring of costs, occur naturally in large companies due to size and complexity of costs, and the, lets not forget or be ignorant of, the incentives in place to reduce cost.  So, one department  managers thought process and logic of why a cost is not theirs is challenged by another department's managers views that a cost is that initial  departments. 

I'm not here to avoid those costs, because  frankly a corporation is already well ahead of myself as an individual, and all of us individuals, especially us100k plusers, even the average student with their measly 30k debts.

But, I am here to attempt to identify the ignorance in transfer pricing and transfer costs in our everyday life and most certainly  personal economies.

As students in secondary education, the cost, unlike primary education, has been transferred from the  state (in most cases, whereas, generous states like Georgia do not apply) to the individual.  As secondary  education is not currently a right, but a choice for embettetment, at least the guise of it, the cost should lay on the individual.  But the student loan industry, institutions included, has allowed the cost of education to be inflated so much that the cost of the industry and infrastructure of that industry has been transferred to the individual.

This transfer cost also includes the salaries of over inflated individuals, not the student loan paying individual(while at one point they may have been, ever increasing the life cycle or natural circle of life we as consumers have introduced into the modern civilized society), but the individuals at the top of these institutions, this time not referring to just the schools.  The CEO's and high level managers with inflated salaries as compared to the rest of the company, of whom are most likely debt-ridden student loan payers(another contribution to the cycle).  Even the teachers of these institutions, with their inflated knowledge, receive a top tier wage.

The separation of the top of society even in our modern day continues and pushes in both directions.  The rich get richer, and the debt ladled get more of what feeds them.

I wonder if these are all feelings, and not cold hard facts, if this is all bitching and not necessary talk, if I'm dead wrong and society's better than my random accusations.

But from a glance at the lay of the land, it appears to be even worse than my ramblings.

And the transfer costs continue to stack up while we ignorantly continue to pay.

Health care comes to mind.

So, one day my, and I assume, out  of anger and quick assessment, your 100k plus will be 200k plus, or 400k plus, or 1m
plus.

Transfer costs.

And education, not ramblication.

Small Business, Large World

According to an article on Smallbusiness.chron.com, small business make up 99 percent of the business in America (sounds like a very biased source so maybe the figure is skewed, by a half percent. Ok, so no skewing here, just harsh reality.)

Now, my current, and college degree earned, employment is with a large corporation of over 50k. 

So, all my 100k plus earned me is a low level lackey spot with a large company's 50k plus. 

Not something im overly proud of but with unemployment rates high, and underemployment rates much higher than even those, a man with a job is something to appreciate.

But appreciation is really not what were looking for.

Its an answer.

Its education. And not the education that put myself in this 100k plus predicament, and the rest of the college educated crowd in a 30k plus position.  Education to actually achieve something of value, something that can actually be appreciated on a personal level. Not simply money, but that is nice at times.  But an education that moves ourselves and our society further.

A doctor at my 2nd job, giving myself a grand total of 7 work days a week, but that's another discussion (one I have very often with the people around me).  But this doctor, a research only PhD told me that doctors have a more pointed mind than the average person, that they are essentially more motivated to find this end means.

Well, I cant say I agree, and I certainly cant say I disagree.

But us averages still need an answer.

So, is a small business the answer.  For some yes, I assume, and many others, no, I also assume.

In searching for 'The lifespan of a sm' for small business, there are two things more important, or at least to technology and society, so since we've agreed we're trying to move society forward, these two things must be mentioned.

Smokers and Small dogs.

So, its good to know we care about us and our pets.

But what about the lives we chose, and must chose, to lead.

I, as previously noted, am following the crowd.  The crowd to college and the crowd to large business.

But as small business makes up 99 percent of the companies in this country, is large business really the crowd, and what crowd should be followed.

There is steady income, benefits, and overall stability with large business.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, according the Business Appraisal blog, more than half of all small businesses dont make it to 4 years.

So if I'm assumed to have to work a 35 year career, which is expanding exponentially due to lack of company and government backing (that's being sent to the uber rich to be more rich, and the low income to facilitate a life of low income, high rewards), one will need 9 small business ideas to stay above water, or at least make a hopeful wage.

I can't think of one idea, so I'll make a 35 year career doing what I hate.

Not much can be learned here but there's truth in numbers, but also questions.

A nightmare, the nightmare

Student loans are in fact a nightmare. And thats a fact.

Again, I hate to use this forum to complain, I have a personal blog for that if I so well please.  But whether this is a complaint or actually beneficial words and thoughts will remain a question until the end.

My current position of 100k plus is accompanied by other major debts, but that can be expected due to the root cause and only I can be blamed for those; a under-paid job, but many workers are under-paid so a change in society there starts at many other places than my mind, this blog, or even myself; a father that passed on too early leaving a 'struggling' mother, only by her own financial abilities, stunted by the one who ran the checking account who is no longer with us, but also not economically ready for retirement although numerically ready; and a brother of similar age who is taking all of our 'life equations' down, a good guy, yes, but one with no acuem for finances, perhaps due to what was mentioned before, or desire to make anything of his time here.

So, I ask you, where is the life there, 3 people 'jailed' to live a life of 'servitude' to the 'American dream' of wasted lives and failing systems. 

It feels as if I'm watching a movie, such as Hunger Games, where an aristocratic society holds a majority of the wealth while the majority of the population lives to struggle through everyday.

This is the nightmare, this is the movie that we watch over and over.

And there are no twists of fortune, just struggle, a struggle to pay the bills, a struggle to feel happiness, a struggle to get through the day, a struggle to find any answer.

This sounds about as depressing as it can get.  And it feels that way too.

I secede.  This isn't a blog worthy blog, this is pure complaining.

Metrics

There are many decisions made in this world that are based on very subjective points of views and opinions. 

The decision to attend college, or what to 'do when you grow up' should not be based on pure feeling and luck.  Your opinion matters but its not going to get you to the best place in life.

Many career paths are muttled with failure and wrong turns.  If you happen to be on a career path to a passionate dream and you are willing to work at all costs, that dream can become a reality.

If you're like most of us, a career is something you do, and made a limited choice to attempt to do while in college, not something you are.  Now that veers to another blog in another category of what one is and how to define that? But for this time and this place of wasted internet space, the choice is the ultimate answer.

I do have aspirations to create an entire life expense book but my 'passion', out of strong hatred is student loans.

Now, while racking up more student loans I received my MBA from a small Pennsylvanian school most likely not known outside of the tri-state.  There was a certain professor, who like all influential teachers one meets throughout their educational journey, made an impression, an impression that I should have understood and recieved prior to my secondary educational experience.  As I had not recieved this type of tutelage, I learned of a decision making process using solely metrics, and making that gut feeling, guess of a decision, one with numeric value, supporting the side chosen or not.

Using statistical evidence, and a linear regresion program, I believe it would be possible to map out an educated guide to life with specific emphasis on the 'Student Loan Decision'.

Locating, and expensing, the statistical program may be difficult but I, as well as openly recommending, plan on reading the school book I failed to open, Smart Data by James Rodgers.

Statistical evidence is the only basis one can know a more informed decision was made.  And when it comes to life, and student loans, we cant afford to be wrong.

Excuses

I was having a real tough time coming up with something to write about, and usually my topic for forced writing around those times is motivation. Motivation because of my lack of at those times.  Well this time it may be based on the hangover or the head cold or the lack of sleep.

There in lays the problem, the problem with student loans, the problem with amounting debt, the problem with our, American society.  We base our lives off excuses, excuses derived from entitlement.

And there are many who recognize this obvious epidemic.  You see it in the news daily, media sources push the sense of entitlement to a new level with each passing day as many minorities and majorities protest against injustices.  While these injustices do exist, and awareness is key, what happened to going into the system and trying to change it from the ground up, through education and job growth, and then empowerment through the position to be able to make choices to change things for the better.

But no, it is deemed acceptable to sit around and bitch.  Hell, as im doing now.  I'm not the vocal minority, even though I most certainly should be with 100k plus in student loans. 

Real change doesn't come from temporary fixes brought about in response to the vocal.  But change is brought about by action.  And most of the times this must be done on the personal level, for to change society and the way of the world is much more difficult, and I can find innumerable excuses to fight that internal urge, and external work that would need to be put into such a change.

But we will continue to rely on excuses, and blogs.

An Ignorance fueled by Entitlement.

I've heard a couple good quotes regarding excuses, and more so life and what occurs.  They both have the same meaning but using different verbiage.

The first is from one of the more successful persons from my graduating class who owns and operates several establishments, and in your early 30s that is quite an accomplishment. Im sure its an adaptation of a quote but quality and true, true to the excuse bearer:

Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react.

Bad grammar if you ask me, but like I said, I'm the bitcher using words and shes the worker establishing herself and her business.

The other is from one of Joe Paterno's biographies, the last notable one after his passing.  It was taken by him from Bear Bryant, both highly successful and both who did not make many excuses.  It was a poem by Heartsill Wilson that the Bear used in a public appearance:

This is the beginning of a new day
God has given me this to use as I will
I can waste it or use it for good
What I do today is very important because I am
Exchanging a day of my life for it
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever
Leaving something in its place I have traded for it
I want it to be a gain,  not loss - good, not evil
Success, not failure, in order that I
Shall not forget the price I paid for it.

More Choices

There are many more choices in life other than to college or not.

But when college is the option then the choice is what to study.  Sure, where, how, and other questions also arise but what is the most important of those choices.

Talking with a 16 year old cousin, I find myself preaching on the words I write here. To not college.  And if I could go back I wouldnt change my decision, but I would hopefully do it better. Think about it more and realize there are many more years after college. Years that the decisions made before, through, and after are affected.

So the choice of what to study and ultimately Be is one that shouldn't be made lightly, but one that any young person does not know because they've barely experienced to know what is.  But nonetheless we give them that life defining choice and let them run into whatever life they choose, which the direction is chosen in some instances but paths and obstacles arise that were not necessarily by choice.

He, my cousin, wants to be an aerospace engineer, which to me sounds like a child saying I want to be an astronaut.  To say that you will start into this career path is one thing but getting through is a whole different, long and brutal story.  Ive known many an engineering student move elsewhere,  which are those unseen and unchosen paths and obstacles.  So I heeded him that warning along with a warning to chose a field like that, he also said mechanical engineering which seems a bit more obtainable but also a grueling effort is needed to succeed while in school.

I, as an accounting major, took a job for jobs sake and still believe in the accounting major as an adequate opportunity with a heed of warning that you, unlike I, must put in the work to find a position in the field.  But many come out with 'business' or 'management' or 'communication' or 'miscellaneous' degrees and look for miscellaneous jobs, not unlike myself.  So I ask what then is the point of those degrees.  And the point of educational institutions that give 'knowledge' but actually give nothing of real value, physical or future, such as guarantee of a position.  A guarentee of a grade is giving and even when that is sufficient, a job is still not given.

Maybe im being a child of my generation.

Entitled.

Maybe im just bitching. As always.

But read and know that the choice of 'what' is a fine point as to know to college or not to college.