A half million dollars?

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A half million dollars?

I am getting close to a net worth of $500k which I should reach by the end of the year if the markets don’t completely crap out before the end of the year. It’s almost all money I’ve made myself and invested. I recognize that my current financial struggles are just a temporary dilemma as I build a secure retirement and save for my off-grid property that I should be able to buy with cash and live simply.

The way I look at it is if I can manage a 7% return on my investments over the next decade, I should be able to have more than a million on capital gains alone along with continued investments that will get me closer to $1.5 million by my mid-50s when I leave my good paying job for a better life. Plus wherever I end up moving, be it rural Missouri or South Dakota or elsewhere, I will probably still need a real job beyond my homestead for at least a few more years as I think universal health care is still a few years off.

Sounds like a lot of money but it really isn’t. Land and equipment is expensive and I hope to have many years in retirement. I don’t want to live fancy but I do want to have the money needed for the equipment needed for a hobby farm, a truck, four wheeler, guns and other implements for working the land.

STRUCTURE magazine | Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse Remembered

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STRUCTURE magazine | Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse Remembered

It was a time of celebration at the Kansas City Hyatt on July 17, 1981, 35 years ago. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people were in attendance at the Tea Dance, enjoying the band, the music, the food, the drink and the dance contest. Unfortunately, what began as an evening of celebration would be remembered for the tragic deaths resulting from the most catastrophic failure of a structural connection in the United States. The collapse caused the death of 114 people and the injury of more than 180, and traumatized countless others. The effects were felt throughout Kansas City and the United States and served as a wake-up call to the engineering community.

This event highlights the importance of following appropriate procedures and processes involved in structural engineering. The consequences of a structural failure can be catastrophically high – and can be the result of inattention to details, inadequate quality reviews, and lax shop drawing reviews. The following article describes the events leading to the construction and failure of the Hyatt Regency Skywalks, post-event actions, and lessons learned – especially about quality reviews.

Election Districts

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I really should try to get and save as many of the election district maps from county rest servers as possible before the year is up because with redistricting they will be changing the lines and for certain projects it sure would be nice to have the old ones to compare to new ones, especially in an automated fashion by using join by location in QGIS.