Work From Anywhere

This morning I got up and headed to the gym before work. Now it just happens that my gym is Snowbird Ski Resort and I skied for an hour. Ski resorts are great places to work out as you pretty much social distance and have the benefit of being outdoors. I did take a bit of a risk though and rode a chairlift with a stranger. Don't worry, we wore our face coverings and sat on opposite sides of a 4-person chair.

I usually ask where someone is from and this morning's guest is from the Boston area. He confessed that he hasn't spent much time there though because of COVID-19. Instead he is taking advantage of being able to travel and work from anywhere. This week he is here in Utah and next week he will head up to Big Sky, Montana. I don't think he wants to go back to the way things used to be before this pandemic.

My wife was talking with one of her close friends this evening and the conversation turned to one of the neighborhood kids who recently graduated from college and landed a job in the Los Angeles area. Since he can work from home, he and his wife boarded a plane and are living in Hawaii until he needs to go back to work. He is someone else enjoying the ability to work from anywhere.

My wife's friend asked me where I would like to visit as I am also working from home and have the luxury of going anywhere. I confessed that I am exactly where I want to be and enjoy my morning workouts on the ski hill. Normally I would have been in the Bay Area if not for COVID-19. I hope I don't have to go back to the office as much as I did before the pandemic.

So this brings up the question for you. Do you have the ability to work from home and where would you be? Think about it, you can easily put your home on AirBnB and rent it out while you go live somewhere else. It could be for a short time or it could be longer. You just have to ask yourself if you are where you want to be right now. If not, do something about it.

Ideas for Investing $2000

Recently I opened a Webull trading account and started playing around in the stock market. It has been less than 3 weeks and I have increased my investment by 30%. Part of that is because the overall market is up and part of it is because I guessed and purchased an undervalued stock that is going through the roof right now. The exercise has got me thinking about other investments one could make and that is the inspiration behind today's post.

I chose the amount of $2000 because it is a sum of money that a lot of people can easily raise, especially with a potential new round of stimulus checks. It is also a number that lends itself to smaller investments and not enough for a larger investment such as a home.

I also want to think outside the box. When most people think of investments, they picture the stock market and I want to go beyond that. Yes, it is one option but what other options exist. I doubt I will create an exhaustive list but it should give you some ideas of what will work for you. You may even come up with some better ideas on your own.

The Stock Market - Yes you could do as I have done and invest in the stock market. The problem is that there are thousands of stocks to choose from. What do you invest in? Many investment advisors suggest companies whose brands you use. This is why a lot of people invest in Apple (APPL) and have done quite well over the past years. I saw the run on toilet paper since COVID-19 began and invested in a toilet paper company. Unfortunately that stock has lost value for me. It is only down $2.50 and so I am not too concerned, but it does highlight the fact that you can lose money in the stock market. Let's look at some other ideas that many will find more appealing.

Invest in Yourself - A long time ago I used to work for Oracle Corporation. I had a fair number of shares of stock in them (ORCL) and sold that stock to pay for my college education as I received the stock while I was in high school. I don't regret that choice at all. You could do the same thing with the suggested $2000 and invest it in your own personal learning. It won't come close to paying for a college degree but it may allow you to take the continuing education course that gets you that better paying job. Perhaps there is a skill that you want to learn simply to improve your own quality of life. While it may not reward you monetarily, it will pay you back in other ways.

This brings up investing in your self image. You have to be careful with this one as some people tend to go overboard but it is something to consider. If you work in an office where people dress up, it makes sense to invest in nice clothes. Perhaps your teeth are a bit crooked and you are very self conscious about it. Just be sure that the investment you are making will truly pay you back in some form. Don't use it as an excuse to buy something you don't really need.

I think you are the first area you should look at before other investment opportunities. If you are satisfied with who you are and what you have become, then you can look at other investments.

Invest in Tools - Before you can build a house, you better own a hammer. Not everyone wants to go into construction and there are other tools you may need for your interests. If you want to become a YouTube star, you might need a camera or a computer. You might even be able to get started with a good smartphone. $2000 is a start to help you get going. Just be forewarned that YouTube sensations don't happen overnight and it may be a year or more before you see any repayment of that investment. This is where my 30% in 3 weeks starts to look good.

There are plenty of other examples of purchasing tools that will help you earn money. Right now there are several car manufacturers that are offering 0% loans on new cars. $2000 would be a great down payment that could get you a rental car that you can make available on Turo. I skied with a guy who has a small fleet of Hondas and renting them on Turo is his full-time job. Perhaps you don't like the idea of letting someone drive your car and you dream of becoming a Lyft or Uber driver. A new car would definitely help out especially since both companies have minimum standards for the quality of cars they allow you to drive.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of tools purchases but I don't want to go on too long and will leave other ideas up to you.

Hopefully this has given you some new ideas on what to do with your investment money. Just remember that an investment takes time to mature. Stocks may be down or your YouTube channel may not have the 1000 subscribers to allow you to monetize your content. Hold tight, keep at it, and don't panic. Remember that investment money should not be needed for a year or two. If it is needed before then, don't invest it.

Sailing from Hawaii to California

A few days ago I mentioned that I wanted to complete a sailing video I started working on about bringing a sailboat from Hawaii to California. Yesterday I used part of my day off because of MLK and finished the video. It can be found on YouTube and represents my latest effort in learning about how to make good adventure videos.

It is really easy to come up with ideas for videos but they take a lot of work to put together well. With this project, I started the video over a year ago. I pulled together all of the photos from the trip and realized that the 62 I had, weren't nearly enough. The interesting stuff that happened during the trip kept everyone so busy that nobody bothered to pull out a camera and take pictures of it. We had 2 cameras onboard but neither were any good compared to today's standards. A telephoto lens would have helped a lot but we didn't have one and never bothered to get pictures of whales or dolphins. Cameras also don't really show the magnitude of the waves on the open ocean either. You really need to be out there to understand how truly massive some of the waves got to be.

Once I had all of the photos, I needed to put together a script. To help me with that, I went through my journal and took notes about the significant events that happened daily. I then had to match story narration with the limited pictures. Needless to say, a lot of what happened doesn't appear in the video. While we started the sailing trip in the slop left over from Hurricane Jimena, the larger waves came at the end of the trip after another hurricane crossed Baja California and slapped us in the face. We were too busy hanging on to pull out a camera and take any pictures. Suffice it to say that we had several days where we surfed 50-foot waves for hours at a time.

With all of the night sailing I have done, it wasn't until this trip that I actually got to see where the story of mermaids came from. We had finally reached the coast of California and sailed into a patch of phosphorescence that lit up the water with any movement. The boat passing through created a glowing wake. We could also see fish swimming under the boat. We didn't know it but fish had been riding our bow wave the entire trip from Hawaii and dolphins knew they were there. Every so often a dolphin would swim toward our bow and grab one of the fish traveling with us. The glowing trail left by the dolphins looked very similar to the outline of a mermaid. We became so mesmerized by the scene we didn't even try to take a picture, not that one would have turned out because of the darkness.

Unfortunately I don't think I spent enough time working on the script as each time I view the video I come up with better ways of telling the story. I'd like to blame all my English teachers that required us to create a minimum essay length. Instead of learning to squeeze as much information into as few words as possible, I learned to use 20 words when 5 will do. It is a habit that will take the rest of my life to fix.

With this video I did learn a number of tricks to help with the sound. In the past I have added the background music first and then the narration. This time around I made sure to put the narration in first and that allowed me to adjust all of the narration sound levels so they match. Now the viewer is not distracted by some sections being louder than others.

Recently I browsed through a book on how to make successful YouTube videos and it suggested throwing away your first dozen. This represents my fifth video and I hope there is a marked improvement over videos in the past. After all, that is the purpose of this exercise.

My 5 Minutes of Fame

Last October I received an e-mail from my marina on the Great Salt Lake. A local outdoor television show wanted to experience sailing on the Great Salt Lake and asked for someone to take them out. I responded that my wife and I could go out that week with the film crew and hosts. I assumed that there would be a lot of sailors who would also jump at the chance. Little did I know that we would be selected.

We met the husband and wife hosts at the marina that Saturday morning along with their family and the person who would capture everything on camera. Having that many people on the boat makes for a crowded experience but we made it work by spreading people throughout the boat. At first the wind cooperated in the sense that it started light so nobody got scared. Then as the sailing continued, the wind built to the point where we had an exciting day that didn't get scary.

As quickly as it started we finished our sail and the day came to a close. We had a great time and I think the hosts had a fun day of sailing. While they mention that in the television episode, they said the same thing when the camera wasn't rolling. For those that are interested in watching the video, it can be found on YouTube and gives you an idea of what it is like sailing on the Great Salt Lake.

Creating My Next YouTube Video

Back in 2003 I had the chance to help sail a boat from Hawaii back to Los Angeles. It had just completed the Transpac yacht race and the owner needed help getting back home. I found out about the trip through a sailing friend and jumped at the chance to participate. During the trip I made sure to take a lot of pictures. Now I am using them to put together my next YouTube video where I describe the trip.

I started the video several months ago but then discovered that nearly all of my photos needed to be edited. When you are on a sailboat, it is difficult to see what is level. Back on land you will look at your photographs and wonder why the horizon is at an angle. Other boats look like they are heading uphill in one shot and downhill in another. The reason is that on a moving boat it is difficult to capture the horizon correctly. Over half of my photos capture the horizon and only a tiny fraction of them have the horizon level in the photo.

As a longtime user of GIMP, I am fairly good at using it to correct photos. Basically I have to rotate the image and crop it. Then I save the new image as a different file to keep the original in case I have to go back and do some more alterations. It takes about 2 minutes per photo and when I realized I had a lot of photos to edit, I got rather discouraged. Last night I set aside several hours and spent my time fixing photographs. Now I am ready to begin actually creating the video.

The moral of this story is that if you ever try to take pictures on a small boat, you will probably need to edit the photos. Otherwise they may look skewed once you see them on land.

Online Stock Trading

Many years ago I worked on the personal management merit badge as a Boy Scout. One of the things I remembered is answering the question of what to do with $100 or some similar amount of money. I had to describe the various places to put that money and the expected outcome. The two choices that stood out most at the time were keeping it under your mattress or putting it in a savings account. The idea was to get the young boy to think about interest and that putting money in the bank is much better than putting it under a mattress. Last year I looked at my bank statement and noticed that I am not getting very much interest on my savings account and so one of my New Year's resolutions is to take a more active role in investing my money. There are lots of places to put your money and I remember them from my Boy Scout days.

My merit badge counselor was a life insurance salesman and he extolled the virtues of various life insurance products. I took his advice right after getting married and I have a great policy that allows me to borrow against the cash value in the event I need some extra money. I also have life insurance through my employer and so I don't want to transfer my savings into more life insurance.

I have toyed with the idea of purchasing a vacation home and renting it out on AirBnB or VRBO when I am not using it. Unfortunately I don't think I am quite ready for that. In looking at the various places I want a second home, I realize the giant commitment it would take and know I would soon become a slave to the vacation home. I might be able to handle that after I retire but not right now.

Ultimately I decided that I have had significant luck in the stock market and it is time for me to re-enter the world of online stock trading. Now the first thing anyone will ask you about investing is, "What are your goals?" I really don't want to actively monitor my stock portfolio and trade frequently. I really just want to put a little extra money out of each paycheck into something and let it grow over time. I don't want to lose any of that money and so I want to invest in solid companies that will be around for years to come. Sure I may miss out on some huge potential growth but I also don't want to worry about equally high risk.

My oldest son suggested that I set up a Webull account. One of the selling points is that they immediately give you 4 shares of random stocks: 2 when you create your account and 2 more when you put at least $100 into it. My son also received several shares of free stock just by referring me. If you click on the link above and create your own account, I will also get referral stock shares and so I really want a lot of people to create accounts for themselves. Don't worry, I won't feel bad if you don't. It would be nice though.

The real reason I created my Webull account is because there are zero commissions on purchases and sales. I can buy and sell stock at will and as long as I follow specific rules, I don't have to pay any fees. One of the rules is that I can't deposit or withdraw more than $50,000 in a single day. I can only hope that it becomes an issue in the future but for now, that is way more than I need to deposit or take out. Should I need to pull out $100,000, I will just have to plan ahead and spread the transaction across 2 days instead of 1.

There are many strategies for investing in the stock market and I don't pretend to know them all. I also don't want to give anyone ideas about where to invest as this is something I am doing to make more than the annual 10 cents per thousand dollars in my savings account that I currently am getting. Already I am up 10 dollars per thousand after only 2 days. No it is not enough to quit my day job but it significantly beats everything I earned last year in my savings account.

I must make one final note about online stock trading. I am not guaranteed to make money. I could do worse than my savings account. If you need money in the next several months, it is best to keep it in your savings. Only invest with money that you don't need for a year or more.