Living Expenses

Housing: $605/month. My own (big) room. All utilities included. Washer/dryer. Bathroom and refrigerator shared with one other person. Bathroom cleaned by maid every couple weeks.

Transportation: 2000 Honda Civic, paid off. 63,000 miles. New tires, new brakes. Over $3000 in maintenance performed in last six months. Runs like new.

Food: I need to find a job where co-workers don’t make fun of me for bringing a sack lunch. Probably $200-$300/mo despite rarely eating out. Prime territory for cost-cutting.

Cell Phone: $53-54/mo

Clothes: Nordstrom Rack and Buffalo Exchange. Any other suggestions?

Toys: Let’s look at the things I want: big screen TV, TiVo, Xbox 360, new computer, fancy digital camera, and every other gadget in existence. The common theme is time-sink electronics that depreciate like crazy. TiVo is the most dangerous – I don’t need to spend all weekend catching up on the TV I missed during the week. I can live without.

Vice: 16 days since last cigarette, longer since last drink. A couple months without blazing. My goal of working 14 hours a day should help keep me away from temptation. I could spend $15-20 a day on booze, get too lazy to make food and spend $20-25 on a pizza, all while smoking $4 worth of cigarettes… then wake up the next morning and burn $10 smoking away a hangover. $0 fits my budget better.

Vacations: I can take a six to twelve hour vacation that feels like a week whenever I want, I just need to find a good hook.

The Job Hunt

Finding a decent entry-level job is more difficult than I expected, considering I was under the impression the job market is wide open right now. Every job worth having wants a candidate with a degree in economics, finance, or business administration. My standard line: your supervisor doesn’t hand you a stack of papers on your first day at work and say “here, perform some econometrics.” I actually came across a job titled “Econometrician” and it was, unsurprisingly, looking for a master’s degree + experience. Anything relevant to an entry-level position could easily be learned on-the-job by a qualified candidate, so why do many businesses unnecessarily limit their pool?

50 Years to Freedom

This job looks like it would be interesting. There’s some legitimate responsibility here, I wonder what kind of experience it takes to get the higher-ups to trust you with a position like this? As my browsing of job listings expands beyond UC Irvine’s ZotLink database of entry-level jobs – most of which I am not qualified for – I am confronted with descriptions of what real jobs entail.

12-16 years relevant experience with a bachelor’s degree, or a far more lenient 8-12 years with a master’s. That’s when it hit me . . .