If you've been anywhere on Facebook, Instagram, or any knitting website here lately, no doubt you've seen that emotional support chicken that's been all the rage here lately. A few of my friends have made them, and yesterday, I decided I needed me one of those emotional support chickens for myself. So, last night I got the pattern and this afternoon I cast on the first tail piece.
In other less pleasant news, a few days ago, I noticed a puddle in my carport under my car. It's right under my passenger side rear wheel well. I ignored it, hoping it was a freak thing, but nope. Whatever is dripping is still dripping. The silver lining is that now you can schedule an appointment on the website, so that's a big relief for an introvert such as myself.
And that's what I did when I got home from work today. I guess I'll be sitting at the car shop Monday afternoon. I'm going to cast on another hat to take with me, instead of trying to follow the pattern for my chicken. Hats are pretty mindless at this point.
I hope it's something pretty simple and inexpensive to fix, if anything for a car can be inexpensive.
Speaking of, I ran across an article about Dave Ramsey on ...I think it was MSN. I was checking on a weather alert, and saw the headline, so I opened the article and read it. I'm sure you've heard of Dave Ramsey, the financial guru everyone seems to love so much. Everyone but me, it seems.
I have never felt his financial advice was very realistic, or as I like to jokingly say, "he gives financial advice for people rich enough not to need financial advice." Usually, one of the first things he says to do is pay off your credit cards, which is something I can agree with. That's about it, though.
Next thing is to save 3-6 months of expenses in an interest bearing savings account. This is where I stumble, because I've been working on this one for 30 years, and still haven't gotten there. Every time I get a little money put by, something happens and I need to use it.
Now, here is where he starts to get really unrealistic. He says not to buy a new car until you have a net worth of $1,000,000. A million dollars. He wants you to be a millionaire before you buy a new car. Hun, if you're a millionaire, you do not need financial advice!
Anyway, the reason he gives is that new cars depreciate in value and you'll never be able to sell it for what you paid for it. But what he doesn't seem to get is that here in the real world, ordinary people don't buy cars as an investment property. We buy them to have reliable transportation. I was 50 years old before I ever bought a new car, and if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have done it a whole lot sooner.
Sure, it has depreciated, but not having to put it into the shop every other week just to keep it running like I've had to do with every used car I've ever gotten has more than made up for that. Having a car I can depend on is worth more than whatever the resale value would be.
The last piece of financial advice he gives is to save up and pay cash for your house. Seriously? If you can pay cash for a house, then you're rich enough not to need financial advice. Oh, but he says if you need to carry a mortgage, then get one you can pay of with a 15 year, fixed rate mortgage where your payments are 20% of your take home pay.
Yeah, even then you'd have to be ridiculously rich to be able to afford a home like that -- unless you're willing to live in a broken down shack. My home wasn't that expensive as far as houses go, but still, there is no way I could afford to pay it off under those conditions. I'd have to find a home for about $30-40k, and those aren't even worth living in.
And finally, winter has come back for one last hurrah. It's supposed to get down into the 20s tonight, and I'm thinking as soon as I publish this, I'm going to make me some hot chocolate.
Stay warm, y'all!
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