Cratchit Is Not Scrooge

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

Cratchit is not Scrooge. That seems like a silly thing to write. The two main characters in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are known well. Scrooge, of course, is the better known. He is the wealthy character that is dragged through a transformative journey. Cratchit represents poverty and compassion. Simple enough. Good story. I watch at least one version every year. (Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite. “Light the lamp, not the rat!”) This year I also watched Scrooged, a more modern version that made me reflect on the more modern work world – and how some folks have a very different interpretation of the story.

Bob Cratchit works almost every day. He also has to work hard at getting some time off. Meanwhile, there’s also a house to keep, a family to support, while somehow maintaining a positive attitude. Health care is definitely an issue. Fortunately, somehow they manage to occasionally afford a bird to roast.

In Scrooged, Bob Crachit is replaced by a single mom in a multi-generational apartment trying just as hard – and usually only getting a bath towel for a bonus. They can’t even afford a tree.

Welcome to 2020. How many people do you know that are working as hard and as long as they can – and are grateful because there are others who don’t have jobs, or health care, or a ready supply of food? How many of them work for corporations that are more like Scrooge?

Stereotypes. Memes. Political talking points. Nothing new, except that 2020 emphasized and amplified the troubles felt by those that have too little. (For my improved situation, see my August post More Than Enough.)

Here’s the weird part. I know people who conflate the two characters. They know the story, but they read it differently than I do, or at least act on it differently. Scrooge was a workaholic by choice. Cratchit was a workaholic by necessity. Yet, I’ve heard criticisms that assume that anyone working that hard is greedy like Scrooge.

This strikes me every year. How could such a message get so mis-interpreted? America breeds workaholics. We have lots of examples around us. Considering the political word-wrangling of the last year or so, confusing and conflating seems to have become the norm – or at least accepted and not challenged.

Even now, as I type, I pause.

I think most corporations aren’t evil; they’re simply impersonal entities. They can have a transformative journey, but it requires many managers to agree, many shareholders to vote, and frequently a profit motive.

Private companies can be large, have many employees, and can have a culture that shifts overnight. Unless you believe in ghosts, the best chance is that the ones in charge watch the story and see a mirror instead of caricature.

There is a much larger and growing segment called the Gig Economy, the millions of people who would’ve been called employees, but who now are independent contractors who are also independent of steady income and benefits. If they’re workaholics by choice, they’re probably not affecting any other Cratchits. If they’re workaholics by necessity, well, that struggle has been going on for centuries.

Christmas messages, like this post, are expected to be uplifting, positive, and pleasant. I could re-write this to fit that stereotype, to fit cultural norms; but this blog is meant to represent my interpretation of personal finance. It saddens me to hear such criticisms, to hear advice given out as if work was not a necessity. “Your problem is that you work too hard. You wouldn’t be in this situation if you took some time off, like on a beach in Hawaii.” (paraphrased but real) There’s a phrase I append to such advice “As Long As You Can Pay Your Bills”, which is also the very inconvenient hashtag #ALAYCPYB.

Most problems aren’t fixed by someone finishing a transformative journey then delivering “the biggest goose in all of London.” I suspect in the real world the bigger gift was Cratchit’s raise.

As for the modern world and what we’ve witnessed during the pandemic, there is a gift that is so large that can only arrive in pieces. Imagine all, all, of the people we know now are truly essential workers: postal workers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, drivers, delivery workers, grocery clerks, farmers, ranchers, teachers, people making less than a living wage, people who need community, and others easily overlooked getting a living income and essential benefits like housing, healthcare, food – and maybe even a day off.

Such a gift may not fit in Santa’s sleigh. Maybe that’s our first job, building something big enough to benefit all.

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Lessons With LTBH Via MVIS

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

A stock goes up over fifty percent in a week, and people get curious about it. Why? What happened? Should I do anything about it? Well, I’m not a certified or professional financial advisor so I won’t answer what you should do about that. I can, however, mention what I did about it. And in that there are lessons both arithmetically positive and negative. MicroVision’s stock went up more than 54% this week, on almost no news. That was good and bad and odd.

Google Finance

For a synopsis of MicroVision and their stock, MVIS, pardon me as I copy from my own stock synopses posted as part of my semi-annual portfolio exercise, which will be updated at the end of this month. It may be necessary to drill through links in that post for the most details. For far more details, this blog has two tags for that. MicroVision MVIS

“MicroVision is a company based on the technology of oscillating mirror(s) on chip(s). Bounce light one way, and create a projector and display. Bounce light the opposite way, and create a sensor or a camera. Bounce light both ways and people can interact with the projected image. The advantage of MicroVision’s tech is the ability to create devices that are small, use less power than some competitors, and project images that are always in focus. Their projectors aren’t as small as embedded cameras, but they are closer to those camera’s size than to conventional projectors.“

That explains one four-letter acronym in the title, MVIS.

The other four-letter acronym is LTBH, Long Term Buy and Hold, an investing strategy that I’ve used for decades (inspired by Peter Lynch’s books). That and frugal living (similar to Your Money or Your Life, and I’m in the second edition) and some good luck allowed me to retire at 38, which led to my book (Dream. Invest. Live., written by request), which led to this blog.

Hi, this is all part of a very long story.

Long is the key word.

The idea of Long Term Buy and Hold is to buy stocks and hold them for a long time. Duh. At least the way I do it, it is a strategy that does not expect to optimize financial performance. It does, however, allow me to better optimize my time. Day traders can concentrate on every bobble in a stock price. Short term investors may only have to check in every few days, especially around news events or financial reports. Some long term investors may only check in a few times a year to see if the company is proceeding, though they may have no intent to trade. They do get to spend a lot more time and many other things, like living.

Regular readers and folks who’ve known me for a several years know the strategy failed me due to what some financial professionals called “a perfect storm of bad luck” and what I call My Triple Whammy.

Folks who’ve known me for decades saw the strategy work better than most.

LTBH is not a panacea. No strategy is. I’ve seen the good and the bad. This week in MVIS pointed out a key reasons I continue to follow the strategy.

Ideally, investing would be logical, factual, and methodical. Humans are involved so there goes that assumption. Investing can seem mysterious, capricious, and ridiculous. Ah, humans.

If investing was that logical and fair, everyone would get the same information at the same time and have the same opportunity to buy or sell. Even then, professionals could trade sooner because that is their job. Individual investors who could only trade when they got home from work, or when they had a day off would be at a disadvantage. One solution is to buy before the news is released. That could be days, weeks, months, years, or decades early.

I regularly read; something that is becoming less fashionable. I’m also a geek, so I am more likely to read dull science-y stuff. I try to be open-minded, so I am drawn to inventions and discoveries. As I find intriguing ideas I write them down. When I have the time and the money to consider investing, I find companies working on those ideas in positive and hopefully profitable ways. Buy. Hold. Read. Listen. Wait. Repeat if necessary. Sell if the risk gets to be too great for the possible reward.

I bought 500 shares of MVIS in 2000 at a price of about $38. The stock spiked (Yay!) and then the Internet Bubble popped (oy.) But, I wasn’t deterred, much. The company was showing off a pair of glasses that could display a television image without obscuring the viewer’s view. There were expectations that they would be profitable within a few years. Cool. I’d seen market corrections before. It would come back. I’d seen innovations people laughed at that succeeded. At that point I already had a history with AOL, AAPL, and several others.

Google Finance

Fast forward to this week. Those early shares and prices need to be adjusted by a one-for-eight reverse split. (500/8 = 62.5 shares, $38×8 = $304) Today’s price is ~$4, a 98.7% loss.

So much for long term buy and hold. Earlier it was worse. The low for the year was $0.15. ($0.15/$304 = too sad a loss for me to want to calculate. Call it 100% and be close enough.)

Google Finance

This week’s stock move was a surprise. There was no new news. There was old news about possible products and possible buyouts, but not news released by the company that was positive, significant, and quantifiable. Waiting for the news would mean continuing to wait.

So, why did it move? Humans. Either, humans are speculating that good news is due any day now, a situation that has also been considered likely for years. Or, someone has heard the news before they’re supposed to know it or supposed to be able to act on it – but that would be possibly felonious and that would never happen. Right? Humans.

The recent move still is significant for me because I continued to buy the stock. As long as the story was sufficiently encouraging and as resources allowed, I continued to buy. I’ve made over two dozen purchases since that first one. My purchases haven’t been as methodical as some, more random; but I made purchases in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. And yes, I missed the bottom this year (and wrote about it here – No News Big Smiles MVIS.

The majority of those purchases are now profitable. Some have even had a reasonable return on investment (ROI). The significant losses from those earliest ones will be harder to recover from.

Time is the powerful tool, but it works for and against the long-term investor. Buy early and beat the rush. Someone probably bought their first shares of their first investment by buying MVIS at $0.15 within the last year. Buy too early, like me, and the compound interest necessary to produce a reasonable ROI means the money for those early shares should’ve been put in something else, like a no-load index fund. Waiting while holding shares of a startup can also mean dilution (A Study In Dilution MVIS). Despite continuing to buy shares, the company issued so many more that my participation in its success is greatly diminished. Originally, if MVIS became a $1B company I would have become a millionaire. Currently, if MVIS becomes a $1B company, my holdings will be worth about a year’s frugal living expenses. Nice, but not as NICE as it would’ve been.

I hesitated to write this post because MVIS’ great recent performance has yet to be tied to positive, significant, quantifiable news. Currently, MicroVision’s technology has made impressive advances, and may already be incorporated in planned consumer electronics and more sophisticated components. MicroVision is also trying to sell the company, which some see as encouraging, and I see as discouraging because I think the best value to the shareholders would be for the company to remain independent. (That’s another long post for another day.)

Story stocks, stocks that are in companies with impressive stories for whatever reason, make it easier to remain engaged as an individual investor. Dull can work fine, but dull is easier to forget about to the investor’s detriment. Companies don’t always make much noise if they fade away.

I almost forgot to mention, startups can have ridiculously rapid rises. Several times I’ve had holdings that rose 140% in a day, one rose 240% in a day, and the most I’ve ever seen on the market was 640% in a day. So, am I hopeful? Yes. Am I overwhelmed with the recent performance? No. Glad, but not overwhelmed. I’ve seen positively overwhelmed and I look forward to seeing it again.

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Fresh Idea – Floating Car Barge

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

Fresh ideas, inventions that I pass along to the world. Maybe they already exist. Maybe they’re useful. Maybe they’re fun. Maybe I don’t have the time, money, and resources to patent them, or develop them, or both. At least by writing about them here I am less likely to forget them. But really, a floating car barge? Well, have you seen footage of floods? There might be a use for something that lets the cars rise with the tide.

The idea is simple, so I’ll describe it before describing the design details and the benefits – and maybe some comical side effects.

Imagine a car or truck-sized barge that either sits in a recess in the ground, or is low enough to easily be driven onto. Sizes will vary, of course, but for every ton of vehicle weight the barge needs to displace about forty cubic feet of water. Many vehicles are less than eight feet wide and eighteen feet long. That’s 144 square feet, so a 1 foot deep shell could displace 3.6 tons of water, and hence that size vehicle. Size as appropriate. (Check my math.)

I call it a barge, but this wouldn’t have to be seaworthy, just able to float and remain stable. Maneuverability is not an issue. Anchorage is.

The barge also has to lift its own weight, and as an engineer I naturally want a safety margin.

Park on the pad/barge. Set the brakes and make sure it is in Park. And forget about it. Maybe make sure the windows are closed. Ideally, the barge will be ballasted to balance the vehicle.

Why do such a thing? Floods. Floods already happen regularly. Watch the news for footage and frequently there will be pictures of entire parking lots of flooded vehicles. Cars can be carried away, floating down streets and rivers. In neighborhoods, in addition to flooded houses, people also have to deal with repairing or replacing flooded vehicles. The flood water recedes, the clean up work begins, but the truck might not work well enough to make the trip to the hardware store or for getting back to work. Imagine the loss to car dealerships, or fleet owners.

Flooded cars are so common that Consumer Reports has reported on them for consumers’ protection.

On an individual basis, not having to replace a vehicle can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Multiply that by the number of cars flooded after only one spring flood, flash flood, hurricane, or other drenching disaster. Ten cars, a hundred thousand dollars. A hundred cars, a million dollars. A thousand cars – hopefully you get the idea.

While it saves money, it also might look silly. Each barge would need to be anchored by an anchor chain or cable sufficiently long enough to exceed the depth of the tide. This is something to use outdoors. Inevitably someone would build one inside their garage which would merely make it bump up against ceiling. Outside it might work well enough, while at the same time making the car bump up against the house which means it can’t be put just anywhere. If one breaks loose, that image of it floating down the street then river then maybe out to sea should be enough to make sure the anchor is secure.

Aside from saving money, it also saves time. During a disaster, minutes count. If the vehicle is already on the barge, then the owner can concentrate on protecting the house, their company, or their community – which may also save substantial funds and recovery time.

Time, money, and then there are materials. If a flooded car has to be replaced, that means that much more waste, and that much more mining and refining to produce the replacement. A barge is far simpler than a truck.

The cost every vehicle turned into junk far exceeds the cost of the replacement in terms of time, duplicated effort, maintaining a growing pile of old tires, and cleaning up the pollution as oils leak into flood waters.

In some regions, it seems that insurance companies would have an incentive to subsidize the deployment of floating car barges.

There’s a good chance that this idea is a natural for someone who lives on an island (though purposely far above sea level and on land that slopes and drains well), and who drives through tsunami zones, through neighborhoods that experience king tides, and in general hates waste.

Whether this Fresh Idea is serious or silly, writing about it is also a little gift to me. I enjoy playing with such ideas. Evidently, so do some readers. Years after I’ve posted some of them, they continue to attract traffic. Two of the more popular ones are: Dockside Tidal Power and Passive Pump. Maybe someone else has the resources to pursue them. Maybe they’ll remember where they got the idea and will be gracious enough to include me. Who knows? But the world has many problems. We need new ideas. It is hard to know which ones will make the biggest difference, but if ideas stay locked inside heads, the ideas may be revealed too late, or never.

OK. Let’s assume we’ve saved the car or truck. How about the house? How could we make a house float? How could be make a house act like a boat? House. Boat. There’s something there.

Oh, to know how to draw…

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Fascinating Realities

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

I’m surprised I haven’t told this story before; or maybe I have, but even I can’t find it in the hundreds of thousands of words that comprise this blog. A friend told me a story about his road rage and how he eliminated it; and that has affected how I look at much of the current news – and more.

Think back about thirty years. It was a time of particularly difficult commutes in Seattle. (That must all have been resolved since then. Right? No? Glad I moved to Whidbey Island.) My friend’s commute was constantly a torture of slow moving traffic. For years, he changed lanes at every opportunity that looked like it could get him ahead. Bozos. There were so many bozos getting in his way. The other drivers were doing the same thing. He’d shout, shake his fist, but he was just mature enough to not get into anything more than throwing insults through his open window. A few years go by, tormenting himself this way, twice a day, five days a week. It wore him down. He was a geek and eventually accepted the mathematical truth that he couldn’t control or out-think a chaotic system, chaotic in the mathematical sense. His anger continued though, because he saw how the other drivers were putting the rest of the cars and drivers and passengers at risk. This continued for a few years. And then one day, a day like the rest, he had a breakthrough. Instead of getting angry, he became sarcastic, massively sarcastic. Within a short while, the sarcasm became a source of humor. The unbelievably stupid things others were very seriously doing became entertaining. Watch some stupid maneuver, and instead of shouting, he tried laughing. And it worked. A while passes and one of his jokes reaches back to his geek heritage. He mimicked Spock. Fascinating, Captain. Fascinating how these humans act. Why would they do such things? What would they think something that illogical would be the way to live a life? And then, no joking included, he actually asked himself that question. Why do those people do those things? Take another step. Why do people do what they do? Why do I do what I do?

Channeling Spock brought him a bit of enlightenment. He didn’t see that one coming.

Has the world been weird enough for you, lately?

Climate change, a pandemic, assaults on political and societal institutions, gross injustices. Even if we all were working together towards a common goal, as if we were united or something, it would be a stressful year.

And yet, we aren’t working together. Each of those have people who are adamant that the other side isn’t just wrong, but is delusional, that conspiracies are involved, and that discussion has become pointless. Just looking within the US, tens of millions stand proud of their opposing opinions. It’s almost as if checking facts takes too much time. Opinions are far easier to shout. Opinions don’t require asterisks, footnotes, or references. Opinions define identities.

Fascinating.

There’s a lot of shouting going on. There are a lot of unchallenged assumptions. People are reading between the lines when there are no lines to read between, or the lines are mere mimicry, echoes from perceived authority figures.

Fascinating.

Why is that? I don’t know. I can guess, but guessing is not knowing. Guessing is in style, right now.

Something I do know is that ‘those’ people are adamant and proud. Rather than debate that, I accept that. Expecting everyone to suddenly agree on the same position is unrealistic – in my opinion, my guess. But there’s a value to accepting ‘they’ will exist and probably persist.

I’ve learned that I am not a particularly persuasive person. If I was, the world would be a better place – isn’t that what most folks think? Don’t try to change what I can’t change, but don’t ignore what I’ve learned.

Climate change, a pandemic, assaults on political and societal institutions, gross injustices. Progress for or against each of these is going to be influenced by the fact that we’re not united. The ideal solutions are good goals to have, but reality will be different.

I won’t get into each of those topics. They’re simply the ones that came mind, came to fingers as I typed. But I will pivot this to personal finance because that is not remote. I have to deal with my finances, my personal finances. For each of those topics and many others, my plan is to assume there will be a struggle for months, years, and decades. The struggles may go on for centuries or millennia, but unless we develop immortality that I can afford, those longer time scales are moot, to me.

I’m glad I live by the Salish Sea. Climate change will happen here, but moderately compared to much of the world. While many expect the pandemic to fade, and it might, I also recall an early article from epidemiologists who labeled this a ‘Practice Pandemic‘. As bad as Covid19 is, it doesn’t carry some of the more worrisome, deadly aspects of their worst case scenarios. (I agree after researching the histories they referenced.) As for political and societal institutions and injustices, the Middle East is a good example of how long we humans can adamantly hold serious grudges for serious reasons. Common, united ground could be generations away.

This year has been cathartic. Disruption and change have been the norm, and that won’t suddenly stop in 2021. At least for the next few years, my personal finance plan, and life plan in general assumes an extrapolation from now. Even if there was some sort of revolution, history shows there is an undercurrent with immense momentum that doesn’t change everything, everywhere, all at once. People have to eat, sleep, and poop. Kids have to learn. (So do adults, in this world.)

I am hopeful about 2021. I expect there will be a slowly-building great relief as at least this pandemic gets under control. Shoppers, businesses, employers and employees, and the government will try to dance the economy back into something healthier. We may not recognize how much better it is until we’re looking back from twelve months in the future. Hopefully face masks will gradually find their way to the back of medicine cabinets, glove boxes (which should be called mask boxes), and junk drawers. Maybe some of our essential workers will finally get a vacation, and a raise.

But, we’re still human. We’re still fascinating. Enjoy the free entertainment.

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Spending Time On Social Media

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

Posts making your crazy? Folks on Facebook revealing a bit too much about the values behind their facade? Tweets flittering by as if there can’t be content in a few dozen characters? LinkedIn seeming to be so dull that it isn’t worth watching? Yeah, me, too. But what’s really there and why am I willing to spend time, precious time, the most precious resource on social media? I’m a geek. Arm-waving and considering anecdotes isn’t as satisfying as taking data. Here are a few insights into how Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn fit into my life, if at all.

Here’s how I did it in case: 1) you’re curious, or 2) you want to check out the same thing for yourself, or 3) both.

Of the dozen or more social media sites where I have accounts, I only regularly spend time on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You’re welcome to go have fun on Pinterest, Instagram, and others. Similar data can be gathered there, too. For each of my main three platforms I scrolled through four hours of posts (which takes much less than four hours if I ignore the content). Each post or tweet was informally, unscientifically, and rather quickly categorized as social, meme, advocacy, entrepreneurial, commercial, or news.

Social – “Hey, look at what happened in my life.”

Meme – “Hey, this has nothing to do with me, but it is cute, or pretty, or funny.”

Advocacy – “Someone needs to do something about this!”

Entrepreneurial – “You must know me because we’re friends or connections or following each other; which is why I know you need to know about my business. Buy now!”

Commercial – “Hi, I’m a mega-corp trying to look all friendly-like and you should “Buy Now!”

News – “Here’s the news but without advocacy or agenda from trusted sources – as much as possible in November 2020.”

Every social media platform has some combination of these kinds of posts. Your categories and mix will be different. Mine skews towards data and away from politics, until politics begins crashing into budgets. One of my other blogs is Pretending Not To Panic, news that is “for people who are eager and anxious about the future”, news that is significant, based on facts, data, logic, and ideally apolitical. Apolitical. Ha! Several years ago I fed that site a few posts a day. November 2020, zero; none so far this month. That observation helped prompt this study.

How much of what I’m seeing is truly social, or simply news, or highly opinionated, or really just another ad?

So, I counted. And now my eyes are a bit bleary, but I haven’t done this in about three years, and may not feel the need for a few more years. (Wasting Time on Facebook, October 2017)

Here we go. Data. Charts!

Do you want social? Facebook rules. And yet, when I joined Facebook (twelve?) years ago every post was social 100%. As I recall, we couldn’t even include links. Photos were a new thing. In 2017, that was down to 25%. Now, 20%. That’s much more social than the other two, but it also shows that about 80% of the posts have little or nothing to do with being social. It’s now more common to see things created by others and shared. Original content is fading. People are more caring though. Maybe this is a measure of November 2020, but about 25% of the posts are exhorting people to action. Being a moderate with a wonderfully eclectic collection of friends, this also means I see extremes that may only reach each other by meeting at infinity approached from opposite directions.

Twitter has the news, at least in my feed. About 2/3 of what I see is either news or opinion. News plus advocacy pulls in most of the traffic. There’s a great grey area between supposedly academic discourse of current events and how to interpret those events. One handy feature is seeing the different opinions beside each other. Sure, Twitter now runs ads, but they’re only about 15%; more than Facebook but far less than LinkedIn.

Ah, LinkedIn. The most purposely boring of the sites, even though that’s where work is getting done, or at least announced, or where folks are asking for work or trying to hire people. It’s not a surprise that an environment like that is home to ads. The surprise is that so many non-profits are on the site that there’s more advocacy there than on the other sites – at least in my feed.

A few other observations:

Small businesses are busier on Facebook. Corporations are posting more to LinkedIn.

All three are giving voice to advocacy, which can also mean very free and sometimes commentary that is less self-critical.

Four hours held ~180 posts on Facebook, ~520 tweets, and ~53 LinkedIn posts. I’ll leave it to you to decide how to balance quality and quantity.

For me, this is not academic. It cost me a few hours of time to compile the data, but as I’ve said frequently, time is the most precious resource. Why shouldn’t I analyze the way I spend time to a greater degree than how I spend that less precious resource called money? Personal finance in a hectic world should consider both. In 2020, there doesn’t seem to be enough of either.

If I wasn’t working I know I’d spend less time on social media. A double cost or double benefit, depending on my financial perspective. Social media is how I run my business. Social media is a remarkable tool. I make remarks about it frequently, sometimes accompanied by grumbles of frustration. I’ve taught classes on how to use it for business and advocacy. And those lessons continue to change.

Social media is free, at least financially. It costs me time. My activity, all of our activities on their sites make them money. Someone has to pay for the servers, the service, and the updates (whether we want them or not.) Free, as in no fee, however, is hard to ignore for an entrepreneur.

I’m sure this little analysis will trickle through my brain as I ponder options and alternatives. Facebook is adding so many features that it crashes my browser, hence I am using it less; even though it has the largest audience. Twitter is my preferred site because it is easier to get useful news, and occasionally directly contact corporations’ Help Centers. LinkedIn, boring LinkedIn, will stay in the rotation because, while it offers less, it also offers more credible connections. All of them include enough friends, real people, that each has a community worth visiting.

I don’t expect many others to do this. How OCD, anal-retentive, and bored must someone be to do such a thing? I will, but we all that ain’t normal. Maybe about every three years seems about right.

Now, it’s time for me to finish this post, add some links, engaging graphics, hashtags and keywords, and then share it out to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And it all goes round, and round, and round. See you on the feed.

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Help With Social Security

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

This week I started signing up for Social Security. The benefits are better and not as great as I expected. The process is easier and harder than I expected. I’m not done yet; and I’m sad and glad to be doing it. The train wreck happened when I was asked about my job. Ha!

As I wrote on my Bio page; Real Estate Broker, Consultant, Writer, Speaker, Teacher, Photographer, Engineer, Entrepreneur, etc.

“So, what company do you work for?” Mine? Many? Do you want the biggest one, the one that’s biggest and most recent? Frustration ensued until she checked an official resource she could’ve used earlier instead of asking me. 

Life in the Gig Economy has been strange enough. I think my record before becoming a real estate broker (required disclosure: Dalton Realty, Inc.) was nine gigs in one day. Social Security expects one job, one answer. The IRS is a little more accommodating because each job can ‘simply’ be another set of duplicate forms. Part of the frustration was caused by her use of pronouns. “OK, use that company.” That? We just mentioned several possibilities, which that is that? After several minutes of a conversational round-about she brought up the IRS database, read my tax returns and said to use ‘that’ company – without ever mentioning Trimbath Creative Enterprises. Suddenly all I had to do was list my one company, not every one where I’ve been an independent contractor. Good.

Aside from that sticky set of nomenclature, the rest seems to be remarkably easy. For much of the information they’ll willing to accept my memory: marriage date instead of Marriage License, divorce date instead of Dissolution Document. The one they seem to care most about is my Birth Certificate (maybe because I wasn’t very aware when one day old), which I serendipitously have because I recently had to clear out my safety deposit box. (My local bank was bought out by a larger bank which said it would keep things local – and recently announced they are closing the branch.)

The system is modern enough to be available online. The system is anachronistic enough to assume people have one job. Like many governmental sites, the web sites are accurate and seemingly comprehensive but skip over details like whether a document has to be delivered in-person, by mail, or by email. Just enough answers are correct in ways that aren’t necessarily useful. No system is perfect, especially systems that have decades of history, hundreds of millions of records, and are probably underfunded. 

I expected barely any benefits. One of the consequences of retiring at 38 and being un-retired at about 50 is missing out on 12 years of income and 12 years of contributions to the system. A few years after being un-retired I signed up for a temporary and early accelerated pension from Boeing, where I spent 18 years as an aerospace engineer. That acceleration doubled my pension, but only until – hmm – next year? After that it halves the original value, a quarter of what I’ve been receiving. 

At the start, it took care of my mortgage. Now, the ARM of my mortgage has risen just as the pension will fade. Until Covid hit, it looked like real estate business would more than make up the difference. Maybe real estate will, but I don’t want to live that risky of a life. So, sign up for Social Security at an early date, know I’ll miss out on larger payments later, but fill a gap that’s too drastic to leave unfilled and unprotected. 

The good news is that the reduced pension and the early Social Security will almost cover my frugal lifestyle. A bit more income, or even a lot more income, or maybe an unexpected windfall (hey, it happens) could reduce major anxieties in my life. Social Security living up to its name. 

I’m glad for the benefits, and sad that I have to take them. And I wonder about others who aren’t as fortunate. And I wonder about younger people living with a government that may be so large that it may not change to reflect the way they live, earn, and age.

As I type this, I’m finishing yet another twelve hour work day. As an artist and a real estate broker and a sometime member of the Gig Economy it is common to work hard and maybe get paid eventually. Great exposure! Good work! Keep it up! But books take a long time to write, and may not sell well. Photos can accumulate Likes and Shares, but usually not sales. Consulting is gratifying, but many clients prefer anonymity because they don’t want to reveal the fact that they asked for help, making word-of-mouth a difficult advertising option. And while real estate is crazy busy, not every offer is accepted and not every deal successfully concludes. Another broker commented about a situation I was in. I helped my clients submit an offer on a very nice house. There were about sixteen offers. The seller and their broker had good news. One of the buyer/broker combinations had good news. That leaves fifteen clients and fifteen brokers moving on to the next listing with greater urgency, all good work gone to nothingness. Twelve hour days, working hard, sometimes seven days a week, is no guarantee of earning a living. 

I am fortunate. It took a bite out of my pride to apply for an early pension, to ask for help keeping my house, to accept substantial support in starting yet another career, and to apply for Social Security. That’s a lot of bites. How many folks don’t have an early career to tap, who weren’t lucky enough to find the right phone number when the Default notice is stuck to the front door, and to not have an amazing support network that provides more than nice words? Too many do not have those things.

Old adages like work hard have a good basis, but nothing is a panacea. Individualism and independence are admirable virtues, but sometimes a bit of “We the People” and community help regain self-sufficiency. My business is improving. My name recognition is reaching far beyond family and friends. I have good reason to hope. But first, I’ll be glad, yet again, for a little help.

First, though, I have to put aside signing up for the benefits because a client just made an offer on a house and was accepted! Good news for us. A few more twelve hour workdays, but with more promise. Sorry news for the other offers. This paperwork before that paperwork, and the work continues.

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My Healthcare Plan For 2021

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

For folks in Washington State (and probably other places, too) it is that time of year to pick a healthcare plan for 2021. At least that’s true for people using the Washington State health insurance marketplace. The entire process took me less than thirty minutes, as far as the state is concerned. Great. That’s the insurance policy. My real healthcare plan costs less and has been far more valuable for several years.

First, don’t make the mistake I made last year that stretched into early this year. I trusted and misread the various emails and letters I received thinking I didn’t have to do a thing because everything would carry over. For a bit of that fiasco, read Health Insurance Confusion 2019-2020-. My personal remembrance was that my mistakes in dealing with health insurance companies and the health insurance marketplace was unhealthy. It was eventually successful, but the extra costs in money, time, and stress were expensive.

This year, selecting an insurance plan for next year I decided to make a change. Ironically, while real estate prices are rising (I’m a broker with Dalton Realty, Inc. – required disclosure), it is because inventory is falling – at least on Whidbey Island. Each sale can be more profitable, but there are fewer sales. Currently, the number of brokers exceeds the number of listings by about a factor of three. Those listings where sixteen offers are submitted mean a potentially good day for the seller, their broker, and one of those buyers and their broker; and fifteen pairs of buyers and brokers who pull back and wait for the next listing, possibly competing with the same crowd minus one. I’ve had a better year than many, but I’m not taking that for granted. So, I must reduce my monthly expenses. The irony is that, because of a health care crisis, I have to cut back on my health insurance expenses.

There’s good news. Changing my insurance plan only took about that half hour I mentioned above, and that included on conversation via Chat and one call to a real conversation at Washington Healthplan Finder. I think, I think, I’ve now reduced my monthly premium by about $300 or $400 per month. That happened by raising my deductible from $1,150 to $6,000, as well as paying out of pocket for more on the copays and prescriptions.

The comparison between the old and the new plans was easy. Thinking back over the last four years, and further, my total copays and prescriptions through the healthcare provider associated with the health insurance company was – let me run the numbers again – zero. Zero. My experiences with that health care provider and conventional health care have been so traumatic that I no longer use their services. I continue to carry insurance because: 1) accidents happen, and 2) insurance is required.

Yet again, another insurance policy that I’m required to pay for but that is effectively useless. Health, house, and car insurance have been a greater expense that what I’ve spent on healthcare, house maintenance and repair, and maybe truck repairs. (That last one is close because the truck is 20 years old, though the house is 56 years old, and I’m older than both of them.) I can’t cut back much more on house and car insurance, but I can at least cut back on health insurance, and that’s only because subsidies will pay the rest. Without subsidies, I wouldn’t have any health insurance.

Over $1,000 per month for insurance is ridiculous. Imagine instead, paying a health care provider that much per month. That would be great health care.

Imagine instead, paying a health care provider something more like $100 per month, getting a professional who spends thirty minutes per appointment or more as necessary, being able to work with them more than once a month, and working on treatments that are specific to my lifestyle, my finances, and my history. That is welcome and healthy considering the rare ten minute consultation when so little background and understanding are available that the main treatments are based generalities, stereotypes, and assuming every patient is essentially the same.

Working outside the health insurance company’s healthcare provider also means eliminating a lot of insurance and corporate paperwork, and the subsequent negotiations with insurance and corporate bureaucracies. Unhealthy experiences, at least for me.

Health insurance is not an insurance of health. Health insurance is not health care.

At least in my experience, conventional health care is centered on how I am going to die, while a more personal approach can be about how I am going to live.

I am fortunate. I’ve mentioned my health care provider before Water’s Edge Wellness Center in Langley, WA. They operate from a business model that sounds radical and innovative, but I suspect it is more similar to the way doctors worked fifty years ago. One difference is that, instead of paying per visit, I pay per month. Because of my financial constraints (and my frugality), we work from supplements and tests that rarely cost more than that monthly premium. Compare that to just the subsidy I receive, which is seven to ten times higher (depending on how it is calculated.)

Water’s Edge’s business model can probably be replicated. That’s one reason I write this post. I think… I know their business model and caring approach are better than any health care plan I’ve experienced in twenty years. Prior to that I had an impressive health care plan while I was an engineer at Boeing, but that was back in the era of personal ignorance of medical costs, and even then the visits were corporate.

I’m glad I live in Washington State because it has such things as a Healthplan Finder, and people who support it well. I’m also glad I live in a state that is taking Covid seriously. Because of Covid and life in general, someday I might need the full suite of services of a hospital and whichever doctor they assign me (my previous preferred provider left them.) That’s why I keep the insurance. But lately, health insurance has become all expense and no benefit; while my health care has been the most beneficial and the least expensive I’ve experienced.

Good ideas happen. Innovations succeed. Such ideas deserve to be spread around. I’m glad someone was willing to try. I’m a lot healthier because of it. (And am also old enough to have had an interesting enough life that there’s plenty to work on. Now, about that hyper-extended knee, and the compressed disk, and pandemic-dictated restrictions on exercise like dancing. Hmm. Plenty to work on.)

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What Has Not Changed

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

OK, peoples. I purposely took four days off from work, largely for medical reasons (busy, busy); purposely did so over Election Day because I already voted so there was nothing I could do about the outcome; didn’t really get any time off (real estate is that busy on Whidbey Island); and checked back in to social media and the news to learn that we do not know who has won in too many races. The political situation will change. But comparing the news before and after my election hiatus taught me how little has changed.

For those who are late to my blog, it is based on my book about personal finance, Dream. Invest. Live. I should’ve subtitled it something like Personal Finance for Frugal Folk. The book was published as the economy crashed in November 2008. November 2008. The first post on the original blog was circa election night, 2008, the night Barack Obama was elected. I’d like to link to that post but that blog went away when Apple quit supporting the blog software. Allow me to paraphrase a memory of one line;

“And now the work begins.”

Celebrations are great, and change is the only constant; but waiting for the change can take too long.

Personal finance in our economy requires people to make assumptions about the economy, finance, society, culture, and the world in general. Personal finance plans need to adapt to changes in those influences. What has and has not changed since that election twelve years ago, since my ill-timed book was published?

Economy & Finance

The prominent NASDAQ index fell from just under 3,000 to about half that within a few weeks. Now, the NASDAQ is just below 12,000, a four-fold increase. In retrospect, yet again, a simple index fund could have done very well.

Mortgage rates were ~6%, now they’re ~3%; both of which are far lower than the terrible times of the early 80s.

US unemployment went from ~5% to ~10%, during the long recovery gradually fell to ~3.5%, and recently spiked up to then back down from ~15%.

Of the three, arguably jobs have been the most chaotic.

But.

Primarily because of Covid, there are worries that a wide swath of businesses and hence employment are at threat as stimulus packages fade. Increased government debt is worrisome in the long term.

Regardless of Covid, wealth inequality continues to rise, further fracturing society. Several governments and banks are responding to wealth that is being accumulated and kept out of the economy by instituting negative interest rates. In some places that’s led to negative mortgage rates. Negative rates can scare economists that are worried about deflation because deflation is harder to manage that inflation.

Society and Culture

How people live, think, and feel is hard to quantify. Society and culture are basically subjective characteristics of our civilization. It is relatively easy to suggest that progress is being made, most readily visible in the greater variety of people recently elected to office. It is also clear that injustices are as egregious as ever. The main thing that may have changed is the transparency of the situation. Videos may be doing for social justice what independent war correspondent footage did for our awareness of the inhumanity of war.

Technology

Those videos are happening more frequently because we no longer need to rely on a limited population of correspondents. The smartphone, sites like YouTube, social media, and better internet speeds now mean news has fewer gateways to pass through. It also means there’s a lower percentage of fact checking, a decrease in privacy, and a fascinated audience.

People are cancelling their land lines. Cable companies are now competing with free content. And yet, media companies are cordoning off their content behind paywalls. You can watch any movie you want, as long as you can afford it.

The internet has graduated from luxury to necessity.

Energy

Solar panels have advanced from curiosity to inefficient luxury to pragmatic and economic preference. The power grid is decentralizing. It is now cheaper at the utility level as well, to build power plants based on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels.

Electric cars are becoming so common that they don’t grab the attention they did when the industry was new.

LED lights are so efficient that the debate over incandescent lights is being negated by lights that are cooler to touch, last long, and can run off batteries, no wiring required.

Climate Change

The climate continues to change. Sadly, as predicted, the change is accelerated. Also sadly, the conservative estimates discussed over a decade ago proved to be too conservative. It was difficult to discuss nominal or worst case scenarios because they sounded too extreme. Now we’re finding the changes are happening sooner than expected and it appears unknown feedback loops are accelerating the change. Look to Siberia that recently hit 100F. So much for that old stereotype.

The public’s perception of the change has changed. Now that the effects are becoming more apparent, people are beginning to react, but it may be too little too late.

Pandemic

Health professionals around the world have always been fighting pandemics, and were so good at it that few of us were affected or even aware. And yet, a review of the literature reveals their worries that a bigger pandemic was likely. The scary part is that many of today’s defenders fear that Covid-19 is a practice pandemic – serious, very serious, but not as bad as a pandemic that has a higher fatality rate, is more contagious, and is discovered too late. One consequence of having almost eight billion people on the planet.

Me

Me? I’d be amazed at anyone who has read every post in this blog. Currently, that’s about one million words. If you try it, make sure your eyes get a break, regularly.

What hasn’t changed

What hasn’t changed is that change is accelerating, but if trying to understand every shift, retreat, and advance is too difficult, then focus on those things that haven’t changed.

While some of the details I described in my book have changed (hence the sequel that I am working on), some of the frugal elements remain; Spend less than you make. Invest the rest.

While the world is in turmoil, it still makes sense to Thinking globally. Act locally.

While it seems like there’s an infinity of divisiveness, there’s still the Golden Rule; Treat others as you wish they’d treat you. Or as I put it; Treat people as if they are people, because that is one thing we have in common. No other labels need to be applied.

PS

Of those four days I tried to take off, one went to a long list of household chores, one went to a marathon writing/editing session for the sci-fi novel I’m writing; which left two days off, which went to a couple of twelve hour days working real estate as clients try to get things done before the end of the year. (Required disclosure: I am a real estate broker with Dalton Realty, Inc. in Clinton, WA on Whidbey Island.) So, maybe I’ll take Sunday off?

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Do Not Wait Live

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

Are you still waiting? It’s the week before the US election. There’s a lot of waiting going on. People are waiting for the election, ah, the Electoral College, ah, the start of the new year, ah, the Inauguration, ah, the first 100 Days (assuming a peaceful enough resolution and conclusion to the election), ah… Add them all up and find yourself at April 10, 2021. Look back to April 2020. What were we waiting for then? With infinite time and immortality, waiting forever can work. Mere mortals can only wait a finite amount of time. At some point it makes sense to get back to living.

I can’t say that I’m immune to waiting. Sometimes it is necessary to follow that phrase from Sun Tzu (paraphrased from The Art of War); “Only move when it is to your advantage to do so.” If it isn’t to your advantage, then wait until it is to your advantage. But there are limits to that. If what you’re waiting for is never going to happen, then you’re trading living for waiting for nothing.

Many people are waiting. Waiting for political shifts. Waiting for economic shifts. Waiting for pandemics to shift. Waiting for things to shift or be shifted.

Think back six months. An impeachment had no effective change in politics. The economy was shifting, yet since then the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. The pandemic, which was hopefully only going to last a few months was now obviously only getting started.

US politics may settle down in a week, but I don’t expect that. The economy won’t stabilize for quarters or years because the pandemic doesn’t seem to be going away, any vaccine seems to be something that will take a long time to administer, and people continue to not wear masks.

Few expect things to get back to normal, but a new normal isn’t going to be delivered on one day in one announcement for everyone. The new normal will be defined by those who do something more than wait – and they may not realize they’re doing it.

For the last six months we’ve been experimenting with new lifestyles. First, the idea of staying home was like an unpaid and uncertain staycation. Now, we’re redefining work, and school, and socializing. A few weeks of adaptations could easily be rewound. A few months have revealed real reasons to accept new ways to work, learn, and meet. Maybe waiting through those times made sense, but those changes happened because some people didn’t wait. Either they couldn’t or they decided not to.

It is easy to imagine almost every aspect of life continuing to change for the next several months, and maybe years. Waiting might have felt fine for a while, but wait too long and it gets to become difficult to move.

Throughout this post I’ve used the word “you”. I really meant “me”. I could argue that I’m not waiting. My work schedule certainly hasn’t consisted of just waiting; neither has my writing routine. But I’m recognizing that I should take some time and consider what changes I have avoided because I was waiting for something to change.

I’m old enough that it is apparent that there are a finite number of seasons left. I haven’t hiked or skied much for the last few years. Not a problem for someone in their twenties. But, even if I live thirty more years, I don’t know how many of them I’ll be able to hike, or ski, or dance, or whatever. My knees are already vetoing some excursions. Rather than waiting for them to recover, I’m shifting to other exercises like walking and bicycling. If finances improve enough, maybe I’ll add rowing and sailing.

It’s happening in investing. The markets are uncertain. Maybe it makes sense to wait for things to settle down. Ah, if you haven’t noticed, the markets are always uncertain. A good investment strategy is probably still a good investment strategy; if not, maybe it is not a good investment strategy.

It’s happening in real estate (required disclosure: I’m a broker with Dalton Realty, Inc.). People don’t want to move until it is to their advantage to do so. But the advantage expected six months ago may never happen. Instead of moving from one house to another similar house, it might be time to consider moving from a house to an RV, or a boat, or to a property that is defined more by what projects can be tackled. Instead of a condo, how about a house with a garden? Instead of a house with a garden, how about a place with room for building things, or growing crops, or tending livestock, or finally creating a personal retreat?

I challenge myself to consider what I could do if I sold my house. At least on Whidbey Island, small houses on small lots sell relatively quickly. Mine even has a view and is in a neighborhood with a marina. As a real estate broker it is easier for me to estimate how much I’d make. With that much, could I try a new lifestyle, one that is better suited for such an uncertain world, or am I already in the right place for such a situation? (A thought work in progress.)

the view from my house – power lines, deer, Cultus Bay, Olympic Mountains, and a bit of the universe

Conventional jobs, in conventional offices, for conventional pay and benefits are no longer conventional. Unfortunately, we can’t know what the new conventions will be. We have to define them, and lives must be lived in the meantime.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Six months from now, most people will be living where they’re living now, they’ll be in the same jobs, they’ll probably be in the same schools. We might still be wearing masks and missing personal social contact. (How long until we can hug each other, again?)

The only constant is change. While many accept that, the rate of change is accelerating, with harder ratchets clicking in behind us as we leave behind conventions that are becoming anachronisms.

Some reasons to change, now, instead of waiting: interest rates are low, there are so few houses for sale that new listings can get more attention, as businesses are disrupted new opportunities are produced, innovation will probably rule over convention, and people are eager for answers.

Waiting is time. Time is irreplaceable. Time is precious. Waiting is spending something irreplaceable and precious. Only move when it is to your advantage; but not moving sometimes means spending something without gaining something in return. Move when it is to your advantage to do so; but keep in mind that not moving isn’t free, spends something valuable, and may miss opportunities that can’t be seen without a change in perspective. Live.

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Friends In Tea Places

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Tom Trimbath

It is good to have friends in tea places. It’s also good to have friends in high places, which can either be powerful, spiritual, or recreational (as in recreational marijuana). I do have friends in each of those spheres, but none can frugally deliver a bit of flavor to my mailbox. My supply of loose leaf tea was diminishing. My resupply arrived, just in time. Winter weather is trying to arrive, as well. Forget tea bags. The months ahead are going to require pots of camellia sinensis, black tea.

Why not just use tea bags? They’re convenient, tidy, readily available, and reasonably inexpensive compared to other caffeine options like coffee or soda.

Don’t ask a tea connoisseur about such choices. Loose leaf versus tea in a bag? Leaves of tea that are recognizable as leaves grown from a plant versus something that can look like sawdust trapped in a tiny pouch? Pull up a chair and wait for a long impassioned explanation from them.

I’m not a tea connoisseur. Want proof? I still can’t spell the word without help from spell check. ‘Tea’ I can spell. ‘Connoiseur’? We’ve got to find a better word for that.

I’m a fan of tea, as much from frugality as flavor. Thank Starbucks for that.

Starbucks introduced me to tea in about 1980. Boeing hired me after I graduated from college, helped me move across the country from Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech (VPI&SU at the time). I knew no one. Had nothing else to do. Hadn’t discovered what hiking really could be like. So, bored and curious, on the weekends I’d drive from Everett near the 747 plant to Pike Place Market. There, there was a slice of a store squeezed into a gap between a couple of other stores, their names forgotten by me by now.

Before Starbucks bought Tazo? So long ago.

That store, which is still there, was crowded. Coffee? Sure, but equally tea and spices. Don’t forget the spices.

All I wanted was a cup of tea. I drank a lot of tea in college. Aerospace (and Ocean) Engineering was the sort of curriculum that kept me studying past 2AM with early morning classes a few hours later. Coffee cost too much. Pop (soda) was sticky. All I expected was a tea bag dumped into hot water. Nope. With a line behind me, the person behind the counter (who wasn’t called a barista because no one used that word) explained how to use loose leaf tea, the strainer, the timer, and the counter by the window where I could watch the tourists while my tea steeped. Hooked.

Tea in a bag is also someone’s idea of how much, what kind, what blend, how big your cup should be, what materials you want to dunk into something you’re going to drink, etc. Don’t worry. They’ll take care of you. But, do they know you?

Or.

Loose leaf tea is friendly to frugal people.

Today might need more or less tea. In 2020, cranking it up to almost espresso strength can seem like a fine idea. The amount I use is determined by whether I’m filling a cup, a mug, a thermos, or an entire pot. Adjust as desired if someone else will partake, too.

Then, use the leaves again. Using the same leaves twice or thrice can be just as nice, if the tea leaves are high enough quality. Each steeping means less caffeine, too. A full strength pot in the morning can lead to a bit of less-caffeinated tea in the afternoon. Or, in the right weather, drop the leaves into a jar and make sun tea.

While at Boeing I worked with someone from east Asia. They erased my ideas of how to drink tea. Black tea for 4 minutes or 90 seconds for green? The right mug? Ha! They drank tea sent over by their family from their tea farm (not a plantation). Three or four rolled up leaves, like little green ball bearings, dropped into a glass tumbler of hot water. No dainty little handle. No insulation. Somehow they carried around a hot glass from meeting to meeting. Each leaf eventually expanded into a full leaf a few inches long, not bits and pieces. When the glass was empty, more hot water on the same leaves. Repeat as necessary. Only get rid of those three or four leaves at the end of the day.

Loose leaf tea loosens restrictions. Use as you will. I do.

More than a winter’s supply, I hope

Take a look at the packaging. Five packages delivered in a couple of boxes. No tiny tea bags. No inner sleeves. No tags or strings. No staples or glue. I’ll drop the contents into airtight glass containers that I’ll store in a cupboard. Nothing fancy, yet sufficient. Buy the same amount of tea in bags from a major retailer and watch the postal carrier carry a bigger box that won’t fit in the mailbox and probably also includes plastic peanuts. Tea leaves aren’t that fragile.

Frugality is about choices. Learning more about the things I enjoy and use helps me understand their fundamentals; and also helps me cut away the excess, the unnecessary.

Take a look at what I bought. Three of them are blends (from Joyful Alchemy on Whidbey Island), but two are straight black teas (from Dandelion Botanical in Sequim, WA), something like a single malt scotch (a much more extravagant topic for later). All for about the same price as bags, and maybe cheaper. If you drink black tea you’re probably drinking either or both of those: Assam and Keemun. ‘Breakfast’ teas are usually a blend of those two, each blend getting a different name like English, Irish, etc. By buying both I can blend my own or go full Assam or full Keemun. Control and exploration for a very small fee.

People who sell tea, especially from local shops, typically also understand flavor, and hence, herbs and spices. Remember those spices at Starbucks mentioned above? I suspect the people working in that shop at that time knew about more than coffee. I definitely know that the shops I order from retain that knowledge about tea, and herbs, and how they can also be used for cooking, tinctures, and other things I don’t understand. They emphasize their customer’s needs instead of the brand’s identity.

Tea lovers know about more than just tea – rows and columns of herbs and spices – and teas

There are whitecaps on the bay. Wind and rain came through, making the lights flicker here on Whidbey Island. I don’t want the power to go out; but if it does, I don’t need to worry about coffee roasters, grinders, percolators, espresso machines, and whatever froths those frothy drinks. Boiling some hot water in a kettle on a camp stove is easy enough. Pour into water and leaves into a pot to steep for a while. Then fill a mug (my hands are too big for a cup), let the warmth work its way through, and watch the storm go by.

Cheers!

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