Category: Lifestyle

Categories
Gaming Lifestyle Productivity Relationships

Why I Don’t Game

Confessions of a would-be gaming addict.

I love gaming. Whether they’re on my phone, my computer, or on gaming consoles made for TV, video games can be a fun, fantastic escape.

But at this point in my life, I don’t play them. At all.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a self-congratulatory piece about how perfectly I spend my time. Like most of us, I have other vices — social media and Netflix being two of them.

So why the hard line on gaming?

First, let me take you on a nostalgic tour of some of my favorite gaming relationships from my distant and not-so-distant past.

Digger (1980s)

The earliest example of complete seduction by gaming that I can think of goes back to a computer game called Digger, released in 1983 by Windmill Software. I used to play it on so-called portable computers — much too large to be called laptops — that my dad brought home from work.

Digger was a Pacman-like game that involved collecting emeralds while avoiding goblins. Although simple in concept, the speed, difficulty, and intensity of the game grew with each passing level. Every time I lost my last Digger life, I began a new game with deepened resolve to improve on my best score and level.

Digger was released by Windmill Software in 1983

I could and would play Digger for hours if my parents allowed me to. 30 years after playing it, I remember the theme song and sounds of Digger like it was yesterday.

World of Warcraft (1990s)

I remember playing World of Warcraft II on desktop computers in the late 90s, during my university years. Now over 20 years old, this game from Blizzard Entertainment was a leader for its time.

When I played World of Warcraft, I was completely and utterly immersed in the game. I mean, I didn’t move, I didn’t snack, I didn’t think about anything else. My eyes darted here and there across the blue screen for hours as the mouse clicked away with constant urgency. I was all in.

As I recall them, games lasted anywhere between 1–2 hours. Inevitably, my civilization would be destroyed by another, stronger force. Dismayed, but convinced I could avoid the strategic errors of the game before, I would often start a new game and repeat the same thing all over again.

On such occasions I would typically stay up too late, defer important work, and avoid the company of others just to keep playing Warcraft.

Clash of Clans and Clash Royale (2010s)

Even in recent years, gaming has pulled me briefly into its vortex, this time on my phone. I jumped on the Clash of Clans and Clash Royale games from Supercell and found them both tremendously entertaining. These games are free to download and offer intense, competitive gameplay.

I knew I had problems with each of these games when I began paying for in-app purchases (paying real money for upgrades in resources or levels). Even worse, I found myself retreating from human company so that I could play. I was even tempted to check in on my games while at work.

Games Aren’t The Same for Everyone

This piece is not to say that gaming is morally wrong or carries some sinister power in itself. I recognize that many people enjoy a healthy and measured relationship with gaming that doesn’t encroach on more important values and priorities. But for me, the accumulation of small warning signs makes a too-compelling case to avoid games altogether.

A Losing Deal

Here, then, are the main reasons why I don’t game today.

  • The addictive quality. For me, gaming can become all-consuming in ways that other screen-related vices can’t. Your experience may be very different, but even the few and fun examples I’ve shared here reveal the compulsive power of games for me. These compulsive behaviors are typically followed by denial, dishonesty, and random disappearances — all strong signals of personal dysfunction.
  • The emotional crash. Have you noticed the irritation you face when you try to pull a gamer away from their games? Gaming tends to have that effect: it offers a nice high of stimulation but is often followed by lingering dissatisfaction. Any parent that asks gaming children to put away devices and get ready for bed is familiar with the snarly reception that can follow. I know the emotional letdown of putting the games away because I’ve lived it many times myself. It’s something I am simply a better man without.
  • The terrible return on time. Even vices like Netflix can expand my thinking or inspire imagination, and social media interactions can positively contribute to authentic human relationships. But in my experience, gaming contributes absolutely nothing of value to my life. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older, but ROT (return on time) has become more important to me. Gaming is simply a bad deal.
  • Create> Consume. Just over a year ago, I decided to create more content. To take more risks. To be more vulnerable. To read more, write more, record more, publish more. And it’s been an exciting, growing, learning, and life-giving experience to do exactly that.

In stark contrast, I see gaming as the antithesis of learning, growth, and content creation. Instead of creating, it only consumes. Instead of enlightening my mind, it immerses me in a meaningless fog. Instead of contribution to community, gaming demands infinite time, energy, and resources.

Today, the choice is simple. I just don’t game at all. It’s not the conclusion everyone will or should reach.

But it’s the right path for me.

How does my journey with gaming compare with yours? If you’ve ever felt the pull of gaming, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Categories
Family Finances Lifestyle

Ending Our Love Affair with Restaurants

“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” — Dave Ramsey

Image credit: https://medium.com/@pablomerchanm

The term “sacred cow” comes from the sad reality that in some countries — India in particular — famine and hunger can run rampant through communities where cows graze undisturbed. Since Hinduism teaches a reverence for cows as a symbol of life, many Indians refuse to kill them. No matter how badly hunger beckons or how seriously malnutrition ravages their villages, these walking sources of beef are considered non-options.

That’s what we’ve come to call it when an obvious solution is unreasonably avoided due to beliefs, preference, or pride.

A sacred cow.

Spenders and Savers

Financial expert and consultant Dave Ramsey teaches that people are generally spenders or savers by nature. Sure, just about everyone enjoys both activities to an extent. But most people derive a discernibly greater sense of pleasure from either watching wealth accrue or experiencing its benefits.

My wife and I are both spenders. I mean, we talk a good savings and investments game. But when it comes right down to it, our budget numbers tell the true story. We really, really like the experiences that money can provide.

And restaurants. Do we ever love restaurants. What follows is our restaurant spending for this year:

  • January: $451
  • February: $227
  • March: $628
  • April: $781
  • May: $941
  • June: $1,175
  • July: $1,570
  • August: $1,296
  • September: $734
  • October: $471
  • November: $468

Restaurants add up very quickly, as anyone with a family can attest. Just one date night and one family dinner out can easily total $150. Repeat that pattern four weeks in a row, and you’re at $600/month. Add more meals out to the mix and watch those numbers skyrocket, as they did for us this summer.

Here’s a sad fact. My wife and I both enjoy decent incomes, but we have literally no cash. Instead of a large bank account, what we have is a line of credit. And that’s unacceptable.

For the first eight months of this year, we actually budgeted $200/month for restaurants. That would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. I mean, it’s ridiculous when you look at how much we actually spent in comparison.

Our Sacred Cow

Our extravagant restaurant spending is serious. It’s serious because it exposes some ugly realities.

For one, we’re living in cognitive dissonance. We’re repeatedly saying we want one outcome (to spend less than we earn) and will make choices to that end. Then we’re repeatedly going out and making different choices, month after month after month.

Diagnosing the Problem

Why does it happen? Because there are always good reasons and excuses to cheat. Because it turns out that self-control and delayed gratification have never been easy. Because on some level, we’re telling ourselves that the overspending just doesn’t matter, that we’re somehow entitled to it.

We’ve both had long days at work.

We need some date time together.

It’s for the family.

We deserve this.

Gazelle Intensity Required

Dave Ramsey knows all about spending denial. He’s seen thousands of individuals, couples, and families lose the fight to control their spending and dig out of debt because they just can’t seem to find the ruthless resolve required to win. In his bestselling book, The Total Money Makeover, Dave calls this determination “gazelle intensity,” alluding to the sort of urgency you see from gazelles when they’re fleeing for their lives.

Photo credit: Art.com

With a lion on their heels, gazelles don’t fool around or get distracted. Their focus is laser clear, and there really is only one mission: escape.

“You can walk into debt, but you can’t walk out of it,” Dave Ramsey likes to remind his listeners.

No, we can’t walk out of debt. And changes to our spending won’t happen by themselves. When it comes to restaurant spending, there really is only one solution.

This year, it’s time to get real about restaurants.

It’s time to kill a sacred cow.

 

Categories
Business Entrepreneurship Investing Lifestyle Real Estate

7 Reasons Why Real Estate is Still the Best Place to Invest

Even as borrowing rates rise, real estate wins. Here’s why.

Photo credit: Scott Webb

With a world of options available to today’s investor, it can be hard to know what will produce the greatest bang for your buck. What follows are the reasons why, in my opinion, real estate is still the investment champ.

1. Real estate offers a significant human service.

Shelter is one of humanity’s most basic needs. As a landlord, it’s an honor to provide a safe, secure, and dry space for others to live and love and work and build relationships. Showing genuine care for tenants, taking pride in a property, and maintaining it with dignity can create great satisfaction.

2. The demand for real estate is permanent.

People will always need a place to live or work, meaning your investment property will always have interested renters or buyers. Housing is not a fad, land will always have value, and the demand for real estate will not go away.

3. Real estate offers a measure of control.

As an investor, you have the power to set rental rates, screen renters, determine upgrades, and even choose the paint color. You can physically see and touch your investment, inspecting it as you wish. Other investment classes, such as the stock market or venture capital, offer limited control and transparency — sometimes almost none at all.

4. Real estate investments create passive streams of income.

To acquire a desirable property is to acquire a (generally) permanent and ongoing flow of passive income. Even if you don’t net a dime of positive cash flow in the short term — meaning all you’re doing is breaking even on expenses each month — the payments made against the mortgage principal mean you’re steadily building equity. The more you replicate this activity, the more equity gained, even if your chequing account looks as tight as ever.

5. Market appreciation is reliable over the long term.

Sometimes the market is hot, like three years ago when our Pacific northwest home appreciated over 30% in one year. Sometimes it’s cold, like this year and for the foreseeable future as rising interest rates lower the purchasing power of buyers, and the market predictably sags.

But regardless of the ebbs and flows, North American real estate shows a steady appreciation over time. Choose any 10-year window in any market and you’ll find measurable appreciation. In real estate hot spots where mountains, ocean, international boundaries and other factors combine to limit the growth of new development, market appreciation is even more of a guarantee. And when the market explodes forward as it did in the Lower Mainland of BC in 2015, the equity gains can make anything in the stock market pale by comparison.

6. Investment property improvements are tax-deductible.

Let’s say you invest $20,000 to upgrade your kitchen in your own home. It looks great, and you love the upgrade, and it may even add market value to your home — but there’s no tax advantage to be realized there. On the other hand, when you make similar improvements on a rental property, those investments count against any taxes that you would normally pay on your rental income.

Governments set these policies to encourage landlords to maintain their properties and provide better quality housing for their renters — a great example of humane public policy. As a landlord, you gain by adding value to your investment property while rightly avoiding taxes at the same time. Win-win.

7. Real estate investments produce incredible leveraging power that other asset classes can’t match.

This point may just be the best of them all, and it’s one that your stock market friends forget about. Think of it this way.

Let’s say your pension fund is worth $500,000. Can you visit your local lender and ask her to use your pension funds as collateral for a $100,000 loan? Absolutely not. But trade that $500,000 bundle of investments for a property with equity of $500,000 in it, and the bank would be only too happy to issue the $100,000 loan (using the property as collateral).

As your real estate investments appreciate and gain equity over time, banks and other lenders will allow you to borrow against those properties (usually up to 70–80% of the equity in the property, depending on the lender). And to make this dynamic even sweeter, there’s an accumulating effect.

Imagine this scenario. Let’s say you invest in Property A. After a few years of payments on the mortgage principal + market appreciation there is significant equity growth in that property. You could then borrow against that equity to invest in Property B. The cycle repeats itself, although slightly faster this time, because now there is equity growth in not one but two properties. A few years later, you visit the bank again to borrow against A and B, and you purchase property C. And so on, and so on.

Other investment classes don’t allow you to borrow against them in this same way. And so that cumulative or multiplying effect is lost.

Some Admissions

There are a few points I’ve oversimplified here for the sake of argument. Yes, it’s possible to overpay for dilapidated properties. Yes, it’s possible to purchase properties in remote areas with dubious potential for appreciation. Yes, it’s possible to purchase properties in overpriced markets that can’t hope to generate sufficient rental incomes to cash flow positively. Other risks, including bad tenants who may inflict significant damage on properties, certainly exist as well.

In Summary

All of these disclaimers aside, I’m supremely confident in the power of this asset class to win the day. Done right, real estate offers permanent value, good control and visibility, steady income, reliable appreciation, tax advantages, and a multiplying effect that other assets can’t match. I’ve seen what it can do in the past, and I intend to see what else it can do in the future.

Have you got a strong yay or nay response to my thesis that real estate is still the best investment class? Throw your hat in this discussion by commenting below, and thanks for reading.

Categories
Lifestyle Productivity Routines Wellness

Soul Sabbath: Finding Restorative Practices on Days Off

I’m engaging intentionally in rituals that revitalize my spirit.

Whether our work schedules are full-time, part-time, Monday through Friday, shift cycles, homemaker, or solopreneur, our bodies and minds require therapeutic rituals of restoration. We ignore this reality at our peril.

There are times when we all wish we had the endurance and tenacity of machines. When life’s realities confront us and we feel the plates of responsibility slipping, our response can be — like Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm — “I will work harder.”

I will get up earlier, go to bed earlier, allow myself fewer moments of wasteful leisure, invest more in relationships, and just generally dig deeper to put every waking moment to productive use.

And yet, when we systematically deny ourselves opportunities for rest and rejuvenation, this approach inevitably fails. Sleep deficits start to accumulate. Stresses build. Our tempers grow short and our bodies succumb to illness.

As the fog of physical and mental fatigue sets in, our decisions become more irrational and selfish, and we lose the emotional margin required to invest with passion and energy in the people and priorities dearest to us.

We’ve all been there.

It’s from these experiences that I’ve learned to craft the sorts of cathartic experiences that my spirit needs each weekend. No, my weekends don’t perfectly resemble the strict adherence to sabbath instructed in the Abrahamic religions, but in my way I’m paying respect to the core principles of sabbath-keeping that these faiths advise and I believe our bodies and minds require.

With that said, here are some of the revitalizing Saturday rituals that most resonate with me. Some are small, some are more significant, but all contribute to a process of spiritual healing and rejuvenation that puts me in a good position for another week of productive work. My hope is that one or more of these may plant in you a seed of inspiration that leads to more life and catharsis in your days off as well.

  • Friday family fun nights. My weekend starts with spending quality time as a family. This might look like dinner at Chipotle, a walk at the beach or by the river, and a board game or movie (with Mom’s awesome popcorn, of course). The formula can be simple, but it’s the time together that counts.
  • Saturday morning sleep-in and reading. This is the one morning of the week that I can afford to sleep in until 8 or 9. Rather than launch immediately out of bed, this first hour is a great opportunity to lazily read my Kindle and cuddle with my partner. Both are wonderful.
  • Bakery and Starbucks. This family tradition is only a couple months old, but I like it a lot. By late Saturday morning, the four of us walk to a neighborhood bakery for fresh Italian flatbread and then hang out at our local Starbucks. This is what Gordon Neufeld calls “collecting” — the idea of emotionally connecting with our boys before we begin our own activities of the day. With a Pike in hand and feeling well-slept, I’m in the mood to chill for sure.
  • Family chores. No, our housework list doesn’t look like rest from a distance. But as I make the bed, fold and sort laundry, tidy up belongings, file papers, collect garbage, and clean our three bathrooms, I get into a very settled and centered headspace. While I’m doing these tasks, the rest of the family is doing their parts to clean every floor and surface of our home as well. It’s a house reset that satisfies.
  • Audio bliss. During all of my sorting and scrubbing, I’m listening to great audio content that I missed during the week: scripture, education podcasts, productivity podcasts, and even YouTube videos I’ve bookmarked on my ‘Watch Later’ list. If I can do some learning and growing while brushing a toilet bowl, that’s a win.
  • Purging. I try to take a few minutes each Saturday to perform a few simplifying activities. I might rid myself of a clothing item, a phone app that I no longer use, or a DVD that I haven’t watched in years. These activities only take a couple of minutes but are oddly satisfying. One of the hidden rewards of this ritual is that I’m forced to take stock of what I do have and inevitably rediscover some treasures in the process.
  • Date time. Saturday nights are dedicated to keeping the fires of love burning! Date Night often includes Happy Hour at our favorite restaurant, some financial budgeting, calendar updates, long-term planning, and decision-making. Once these gnarly but important bits are done, we try to go for a walk together — outdoors, weather permitting.
  • Chill time. Saturday is really our one guilt-free Netflix session of the week. Although it’s a challenge for my wife and I to find a title we’re both interested in seeing sometimes — our Netflix profiles are ridiculously different — we can usually find a compromise and enjoy some screen time together. Some Saturdays, we spend late-night wine time with other couples and build relationships in cozy living rooms — every bit as good as Netflix.
  • Sexy times. Ha, let’s face it — we all wish we could have more of these. If you’re in a committed relationship, you know the connecting quality that only physical intimacy can provide. If it’s not happening on the weekends or your valuable days off, it may not be happening at all. My wife and I value our relationship too much to let that happen. Thus, weekends = magic.
  • Worship. The restful elements of my weekend are capped on Sunday mornings by awesome times of worship with my family and church community — perhaps the most life-giving ritual of all. We pray, sing, reflect, learn, encourage, laugh, talk, and build relationships. As we leave the neighborhood school facility that houses our faith community, my heart is always full and encouraged.

Once this worship time is over, I’m immediately back into work mode: publishing my latest episode of the Teachers on Fire podcast, responding to emails, evaluating student work, planning for the school week ahead, studying for my Master’s degree, and any number of other workish activities that get caught up in the swirl of life. It’s fully game on.

Rest time is over … but if all of these restorative practices are behind me, I’m feeling fully emotionally, physically, and spiritually charged and ready to go.

Where are you on this business of recharging? Do you set aside time for cathartic practices on your days off, or do such moments prove elusive in the face of competing priorities? Do you have a life-giving ritual on your days off work that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments below.

Categories
Content Creation Entrepreneurship Gig Economy Lifestyle

Indulging Dreams of the Laptop Lifestyle

“What if next year we just quit our jobs and worked from home?” I asked my wife. She stared back, her eyes trying to gauge exactly how serious I was.

Photo Credit: @RawPixel

My wife and I both work full time.

During the ten months of the school year, my teaching position consumes at least 50 hours a week (that’s eight hours at school plus at least two hours split before and after work each weekday). Throw in a little more time spent in the evenings and weekends, especially during weeks with special events or reporting seasons, and I’m closer to 60 hours/week.

I’m definitely not crying about this situation. I’m fully aware that a ton of professionals and entrepreneurs spend far north of 60 hours per week.

I’m just calling things as they are.

Both my wife and I are very thankful for our current jobs, which allow us incredible opportunities to build relationships, serve others, grow, learn, and utilize our skills. My job in particular allows me the amazing honor and privilege of pouring love, life, and hope into dozens of young adults every day. It facilitates the formation of meaningful friendships with other like-minded professionals with whom I share significant ideals, values, and passions. Every staff team at every school I’ve served with has felt, to some degree, like a family. These are monumental blessings for which I am truly and deeply grateful.

All of that said, I can’t help but notice the ways the world has changed in the last ten years. I can’t help but notice the economic opportunities that technology has produced. I can’t help but notice that online marketplaces reward creativity, passion, and consistency over time. And it’s fun to dream, periodically — however silly our dreams might be — about the possibility of completely flipping the script of our current work lives and working from our laptops.

Rest assured, we’re nowhere near making the leap today, this year, or even next year. We’re well aware that a leap of this magnitude would likely take a year or two (at minimum) to properly set up and plan. Until then, we’re only dreaming.

But How Would You Replace Your Current Incomes?

We’re not exactly sure. Most likely, the laptop lifestyle formula would include some mix of income streams from online sales, marketing services, online courses, book writing, and content creation. How much of the pie each of those slices would make up would likely be determined by the response of the market vs. the passion and time we invest into each. Along the journey, there may be other streams that we discover, too. But those five would likely factor into the mix in some form or fashion for the foreseeable future.

Still just dreaming here … but what follows is a little thinking aloud about the pros and cons of the laptop lifestyle. By now, maybe I’ve lost you — the concept is so ridiculous and laughable that the only reason you’re still reading is to see how deep this madness can possibly go. But maybe you’ve had similar thoughts: like me, you’re not close to making the laptop leap, but a spirit of entrepreneurship tugs at you as well.

If that’s you, consider these pros and cons.

What’s the Draw? Some Pros of the (Successful) Laptop Lifestyle

  • Freedom of location. Working from home, Starbucks, oceanside cafes, or even in foreign cities would become everyday options. Our workspaces would be limited only by our access to internet.
  • Freedom of activities. This is a joy of entrepreneurship — the right to choose your own work and align your productive activities with your creative talents and passions. Come on — that’s a big deal.
  • Freedom of time allocation. The laptop lifestyle wouldn’t necessarily free up more discretionary time — in fact, it might even cost us more hours than we currently work. But it would produce greater freedom and control in terms of how and when our time is allocated.
  • A higher income ceiling. Don’t misunderstand me. I harbor no romantic delusions regarding the ease or size of incomes that our new laptop lifestyle would generate in the short term. But the salary grids that my wife and I are currently paid on? Gone.
  • Online work is scalable. If you make canoes or quilts, your sales are ultimately limited by your health, energy, and time. But most online work is scalable, meaning it has the potential for limitless growth and reverberating benefits. Digital products, in particular, can generate incomes for years after their creation. That’s an upside worth considering.
  • New challenges, new growth. I’m a big believer in the power of the growth mindset. New adversity, obstacles, and opportunities would require skill acquisition and development. It would require some trailblazing. And we’d learn and grow — however uncomfortably — every step of the way.
  • Being able to work together. Call us sappy, but even after four years of marriage, my wife and I still love each other’s company. The freedom to work in the same physical spaces would be really, really cool. Sure, entrepreneurship would test us in new ways. But I have no doubt that our relationship would grow stronger than ever.

Cons of the Laptop Lifestyle

  • Loss of community. As I said earlier, my wife and I enjoy the relationships formed in both of our current organizations, and those relationships would be sorely missed. By contrast, entrepreneurship can be a lonely and isolating venture.
  • Loss of defined mission and purpose. Both of our current organizations also serve people well. Like really, really well. Service is an integral part of their missions, identities, and cultures. It’s worth acknowledging that we’d have to work very intentionally to embrace a similar ethic and avenues of service to others. That would be a spiritual necessity.
  • Loss of external accountability. Sure, maybe this one could go in the pros list, stated as ‘not having a boss.’ But there’s something to be said for the work we produce and the hours we keep when we’re working under the accountability and direction of others. With those accountability structures removed, it would be up to us to engage in productive activities in timely and market-appropriate ways.
  • Loss of predictable incomes and benefits. Let’s end with the obvious. We both currently enjoy good incomes, generous health benefits, and dependable retirement contributions. Those would all go bye bye with a leap to the laptop lifestyle, obviously, and all the usual costs of living would be immediately thrust upon us. Not only that, we’d be permanently accepting the uncertainty of variable income streams. Not a big deal for couples already in sales, for example, but a very big departure for us.

The laptop lifestyle is an interesting conversation, and if nothing else, this post was worth writing just to arrange my thoughts a little more clearly. For now, our $4,000/month housing costs mean that “little matter” of financial insecurity on our cons list is a big enough deal that we can’t take our dreams too seriously. But the appeal of the laptop lifestyle is there, nonetheless, and it feels good to acknowledge it. It may not be a reality in two years, three years, or ever … but we want to continue to dream and remain open to possibilities.

Have you ever had thoughts about jumping from a guaranteed income into entrepreneurship or the laptop lifestyle? I’d love to hear and learn from your thought process — please share in the comments below.