“Your income doesn’t matter – it’s the ratio of income to housing that matters.”
In other words, there’s an arts scene, or theater, or some group doing the things you like in every city, and you’ll probably be surprised at the level of sophistication and creativity as well. You’ll have a much happier and stress free life in Wichita* spending 10% of your income on rent, than in San Francisco forking over 60%. And have much nicer digs to boot.
From a (friendly) argument with a Seattle friend struggling with their insane housing costs.
Friend: “But pullin, I can see Mount Rainier every day on the way to work”.
Me: “You’re staring at the car in front of you, just like me – and I can see Mount Rainier from my airplane window if I want.”
Friend: “Yeah, but you have to buy an airline ticket to do it.”
Me: "You’re not grasping the words my airplane. "
My claim is always: Disposable income adds far more to your life being than able to dine/see “the” trendy restaurant/theatre/sights/etc.
*Substitute any reasonably sized city; Cincinnati, San Antonio, Tulsa, you name it.
Google the side effects of every drug you’re taking and all possible interactions.
Because God knows, your doctor won’t.
Hell, my niece was put on a drug because of her growth issues when she was younger. I googled the drug right there and read off a list of possible side effects. My sister got pretty silent and angry, then said she’d be talking to the doctor about it the next week. Sure enough, my niece was having unpleasant side effects and they pulled her off that drug immediately.
When my oldest son was considering not going to college, I pointed out the teeming masses of people working in jobs with their name stitched on the front (me included at the time) and asked him if that was what he wanted to do. He replied in the negative, so I told him ‘Well, if you stay uninformed, you’re likely to end up uniformed.’ He looked puzzled at first, then started to smile as he got the word play.
I’ve said this elsewhere on this board, but I once read some great advice:
“Fail fast”
The message was that successful people actually make a lot of mistakes (primarily because successful people aren’t afraid to try new things). But, once they make a mistake, they quickly change their behavior to avoid making it again. They don’t continue to put more time and effort into fruitless endeavors, and they don’t dwell on their mistakes.
When I was a teen, my brother (10 years older) sort of played the father role with me. One thing he said that always stuck with me: “Never talk a fight. If someone gets up in your face, haul off and hit him with everything you’ve got. If he starts to get up, either hit him with something heavy, or run like hell.” I never had to put that into practice, but I thought it was good advice.
“Make the system work for you.” In a world full of stupid rules, policies and practices, there are often ways of interpreting or working around them to use to your advantage.
I’ve learned a lot from folks on the SDMB. I learned to be more skeptical than I was. I learned that language changes grammar and spelling over time. The way I learned those things may be obsolete today. Even if I’m right, most mistakes others make are not worth making a fuss over. Dale Carnegie said, before I was born, getting along with people is often more important than being right. It is still true.
