Building A Deck: AKA - Structuring Boundlessness

I had a nice 4.5 day weekend taking a break from my landsc-ation to have a construc-ation.  I drove a third of a tank of gas north to help family rebuild an old deck.   We started by tearing out the old decking, but leaving the joists.  It was quite the process since about all of the screws were rusty and just broke apart.  That meant a lot of prying was needed to get the boards out.  That was the real labor intensive part.  It was also fun to tear things apart for some strange male reason.

Then we had to take a metric shit-load of new wood back to the site.  The initial difficulty was figuring out the logistics for the framing and making sure everything would line up.  The mental part.  It was interesting reflecting on how each of us approached these problems.

Once things got rolling, then it was just a lot of cutting and screwing.  Eventually everything came together.  It was really rewarding watching a project go from zero to finished.  It's nice when you can work on something and see the end result.  The sense of accomplishment is much greater than with repetitive tasks that never seem to end.  My work was also much more focused than on the landscaping I have been doing.  The deck work was characterized by extended intense working periods, which contrasts with my time-is-no-issue pond work.

I also enjoyed being able to spend an extended amount of time with my family.  Trying to build up those family bonds when possible.  I will be disappointed if I'm not able to cram some Spanish and Chinese into the kids' heads too.  I also took some time on the first day to walk around the woods near their house.  There's nothing quite like a walk in nature.

That was my extended weekend.  Very pleasant.  Back at the landscape project things are taking shape and progressing nicely.  There is now water in the pond, but there is still plenty of work remaining.  An overflow system needs to be put in place and shaping and beautification needs to happen.  Literally a ton of stones will need to be brought in to keep the liner in place and define the space.  The decision hasn't been made where the majority of the stones will come from.  Could be from a farmer's field or the rock store.  More wood and brush needs to be cleared.  Some frogs, Mo, Frank, and Chaz, have already moved in even though it isn't complete yet.  I worry Chaz may be immobilized by the cold water.

I've also decided that I need to create a bit more structure in my daily routine.  I don't have anything that I really must do.  It's not a problem so much as not efficient and prone to unuseful idleness.  As opposed to useful idleness, which does exist and is lovely.  So I figured out that what I should do is figure out what I should do.  I have added one step to my morning routine and I'll try to see where else I can add some structure.

Finished

Gross National Happiness

I love Bhutan.  Never been there, just love the idea.

I'm sure there are many, many things that make the country great, but I think the most outstanding is their policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH).  Even though I play one on TV, I am no economist.  But that doesn't stop me from thinking they have an awesome measurement of national progress.

To understand GNH we have to look at what it is an alternative to.  Most countries currently measure their progress by calculating their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  GDP is essentially the value of the widgets a country sells in a year.  But it's sometimes forgotten that GDP is not necessarily relevant to the well being of the people.  It shows you if the country as a whole is or is not making money, but it doesn't mean you are making money, or that you can afford to keep yourself healthy, or that you have the right to vote.  GDP means something up to a certain point, but beyond that it is harder to know how it is effecting your life.  In Bhutan, they have decided to look at a variety of different factors to guide their policy decisions instead of just GDP.

Despite Bhutan being one of the poorer countries in the world, they have decided that making the most money possible will not be their main goal.  The policy, which is known as Gross National Happiness, was introduced by their king decades ago.  The king stepped aside a few years ago to allow a democratic government take control (nice guy, see?).  The newly elected government also strongly supports GNH.  The king and now the people have figured out that there is a lot more to well being than the money they can make.  For example they may enjoy beautiful scenery and fresh air more than logging and factories.  GNH measures a variety of hard and fuzzy factors that they believe have a bigger impact on quality of life than GDP.  I would say they are right.  They have composed an index of the factors they want to track in order to increase the happiness of Bhutanese.  They measure:

- Time use

- Living Standards
- Good Governance
- Psychological Wellbeing
- Community Vitality
- Culture
- Health
- Education
- Ecology

The government implements policies and judges its effectiveness based on if it can increase happiness based on these criteria.  It's pretty radical, which is why it is so awesome.  If people get less than eight hours of sleep a day, GNH decreases.  If their rivers are poluted, GNH decreases.  If people agree with the importance of reciprocity, GNH increases.  If people have enough food to eat everyday, GNH increases.  And so on.  Isn't this what we really need to be worrying about?

Life is not all smiles for Bhutanese and I do not want to disregard the difficulties of poverty, but I think they have a chance to get things right from the start.  That makes me excited.  Maybe there are some ideas from Bhutan that we could use here.  At least in our personal lives when we think about what we need.

Here's a chart from Yale to send you off.

Don't Give Me The Credit

And you can take your bonus points and cram them up your AP¥!!

I did everything I could in life to avoid debt.  So far I have successfully avoided any formalized debt.  That means I did not take out any loans for school.  I did not buy a car on credit.  I did not get a credit card.  I don't have a mortgage.  I really don't like the feeling of owing someone something.  It's even worse when you owe a faceless entity.  It's the opposite of freedom.

Not System Approved
Never having debt means I have no credit score.  No formal entity would loan me money even if I wanted it.  I'm an unknown factor to them.  However, everyone wants to know your credit score these days.  Banks, employers, phone companies, apartments, vending machines.

I remember when I moved for the start of my professional work life five years ago and had to open a new bank account.  I gave the banker my information and he typed it into the system.  He was like "This is weird. I don't see anything. This has never happened before." and I was like "Shit, yeah."  Apparently, I'm the odd one out here.  At this point, I view not having a credit score as security from identity theft (not sure how accurate that is).

Credit Cards
As far as credit cards go, I don't see the point.  I don't want to buy things if I don't have the money for it.  Credit cards might have some value if they offer rewards, but only if there are no large fees, you pay off the balance each month, and you only buy things you need.  Credit cards could also be used as a source of emergency funds.  If you don't own a house or car, then emergencies would be mostly limited to medical and legal expenses, as well as possibly a plane ticket.  Since I don't have a credit card to use for this purpose I keep some savings in cash.

Cars
A car can be made unnecessary in many cases, but if truly needed, then you could save up and just pay cash for a used vehicle.  If you can't get around without a car then the problem may also be location.  Consider transportation when you're choosing where to live.  I realize people don't always have so many options, but I think location is not given as much consideration as possible due to our car culture.

Houses
I believe you could also buy a house with cash only, but you would need to have a long term strategy for it obviously.  You would also need to have modest expectations.  A large house isn't going to be easy with an all cash purchase.  This is certainly one area where buying on credit might make sense.  For the most part, I'm happy with renting anyways, so owning a house is not a concern for me.  One issue is that apartments like to run credit checks on their residents.  Having no credit score and no job may not be appreciated.  I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  Even though I don't like being tied down to one place, I do like the idea of a place where you know it is your own.

I'm not sure if I'll ever feel like I need to build/start my credit, but so far I've managed to make do without.