August 2011 - The Outlier Model

Making money is easy… part 2!

Estimating income, expenses, emergency expenses, bills, budgeting, budgeting income, make a budget that works, budgeting 101, Family and finances, dealing with the family, Making money, extra income, quick cash, side job

CF / August 25th, 2011 / 2 Comments

Earlier this month, Brian posted about his casual special events novelty selling gig. Special events are a great way to add a bit of extra cash since they are infrequent, flexible, and often, fun. Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twon/ I’ve been picking up some extra cash myself this summer, so here are my ideas: Mystery shopping: I do a few shops a month which nets me around $50...

Posted in: Money Tagged with: craigslist, focus groups, making money, mystery shopping

Live your dream – so you don’t end up like this guy…

Live your dream, follow your passion, computer science

CF / August 23rd, 2011 / No Comments

There’s a guy at my work who takes care of all the computer-related stuff for the lab. Let’s call him Jack, short for Jackass. Jack’s in his late thirties or early forties, has two young kids and recently made the manager “manager” level. So he gets paid about 50-55k per year, but he does get a gold plated pension and benefit package thanks to working for the university. ...

Posted in: Career and Work, Philosophy Tagged with: career, pensions, work

Why “good enough” really isn’t

CF / August 19th, 2011 / 1 Comment

When I was growing up, my parents were your typical strict Asian parents. Failure was unacceptable, piano lessons were mandatory, and dating was out of the question. The last two met with great resistance on my part, but the one thing that stuck with me was the firm belief that I can do anything. Maybe it is arrogance. But I would rather be arrogant than complacent. I’ve really noticed,...

Posted in: Philosophy Tagged with: failure, parenting, philosophy, success

Making money is easy

Brian / August 2nd, 2011 / 4 Comments

“I would really like to do that, but I don’t have enough money.” Sound familiar? There is an engrained sense of self pity in our society when it comes to making money (namely that what we earn is never good enough). Traditional thinking is to believe that our ‘day job’ should pay us enough money to afford the lifestyle that we want. In a changing world, those that think...

Posted in: Career and Work, Money, Philosophy Tagged with: alternative income, creativity, finding a job, making more money