Changes

Changes was Originally Posted on December 9, 2012 by lavarock

I use an external company to repoint a number of my internet domains. When you type a name such as “Lavarock.Info” their site redirects you to a different site I run. This has been working fine UNTIL the other day, when this company decided to “upgrade” their systems. Now many of my sites went to default pages and I had to manually change 30 pointers by hand.

This is not unlike when companies such as facebook or Yahoo change the way you access their site and all of your personal configurations and preferences disappear in the name of progress.

My.Yahoo.Com changed their format, allowed you to access the old stylesheet for a while, then forced you into the new (and supposedly improved) experience. It was dreadful. My content was arranged in a neat newspaper format and I was able to fit the two columns on the screen and read everything. Now some of the content takes up more room and I have to scroll back and forth.

Many others felt the same way, when windows 7 was forced upon them and all the comfort and preferences they were used to were now null and void.

Progress! You have to hate that word sometimes.

However, not all changes are bad. For example, this month marks a turning point of such for me.

Recently I signed up for Social Security and they mistakenly delayed my 1st check until this month. It was supposed to start last month. Still, when it comes in (just before Christmas) it will begin a slow process of recovery for me.

I have been done with major projects on the farm for a while, and while I still have many to do, I have been taking a bit of a breather.

I have been watching my cash-flow very carefully. If you are not really familiar with cash-flow, here is how I structured mine. I took all of my expenses and set them up in a spreadsheet. Each column on the right is an expense like telephones, internet, water, electricity, etc.

Then in the left columns I added income (in some cases an estimate) such as coffee sales, puppy income, social security and cash in the bank.

Then in the middle I combine the total income minus the expenses and had an estimate of a running total of cash available to me. I did not include savings and retirement money, but if I had to “dip into the till”, that amount was added to the income columns.

The available money column was scheduled to reach zero this month! That meant that about December 1st, if I did not take more money out of the retirement account, I would not be able to pay my bills.

I HAVE been taking withdrawals from my retirement accounts, but hope to limit that and make it last a lot longer.

So although December was scheduled to start turning me negative, it also was the turning point. As The social security funds come in, that amount just covers my mortgage each month. Also this month marks the last payment for my tractor and mower. As for the mortgage, I only have 23 more payments to make.

I have a small loan against my 401K and will start paying that off a bit faster too, perhaps from other 401K funds. It gets complicated, but the 401K loan allowed me to access retirement funds and not have it count as income. The interest for the loan and the payments all go back into my account, so in essence I’m paying myself with interest.

My coffee crop is starting to finally come in and so is the fruit. Next season I expect a reasonable amount of coffee to harvest. I also should be able to go to farmers markets and sell the fruit. In future years there will be even more fruit. I am already seeing that I’ll be having lots of lemons, figs and tangerines.

The difference between myself and others is that although I was starting to run low on available money, I knew it, I knew how quickly I was burning through it (so to speak) and when the tide would turn.

People find it difficult to budget and track things. I found it easy, just uncomfortable to watch the numbers in the middle column approach zero. Still, I had funds I could go take out, I just didn’t want to. Every dollar I take from retirement funds limits what I can do in the future.

I was happy when I extended the columns past this month and saw the results after the mortgage and tractor are paid off, etc. I also saw what kind of expenses I was going to end up with. My taxes and leasehold fees are low. My water bill is low and although electric is very expensive, I don’t use as much as others do. Also, I may switch over to solar electricity and it would be easy to change from electric hot water to solar or propane.

When I fix up the room downstairs, I could rent it out for perhaps $600 a month or more or trade that room for someone to work a few hours a day on the farm.

I laughed when people would ask me what I would do if I ran out of money and I told them, that I would limit my trips to town which cost gas. Then I could sit home and have all the fruit and coffee I wanted, on the house!