patrick.net

E-man says

but I'm quite happy with my profession, and that's being a stay-at-home dad while investing in real estate part-time

However you can do it.

The thing is that there are all these clowns who say that 'money doesn't buy happiness' but yet, this clown contingency is working for some loser corporate (or academic) America entities and yet, they can't see the fact that they're little more than indentured servants, making a living, doing as they're told.

"The happiest profession is being independently wealthy"

"Independent" of what ? ever job is dependent on some
other parties and economic well being. When it goes bad
it goes bad for all... dont matter even if you are a RE investor
who rents out property.. with job loses come decline in incomes
and thus fall in rental income..

thomaswong.1986 says

"Independent" of what ?

Yes, and that's why it's critical to live within one's means, even if one's rich because residual income will come and go. Thus, that expensive yacht, a money sink, has nothing to do with being independent but more a sign of being ostentatious.

But yet, knowing that the general economy comes and goes, gives one an idea that with a certain minimum amount of dividend income, the prop tax, maint, food, and health insur costs are covered. And that's the base and to keep one's lifestyle as close to that base, until one's capital grows to a higher echelon.

Rin says

And how a proper audit trail,

I find an audit trail is necessary, even on an in house program that only a few people are using. Too bad the designers of the various Obamacare site couldn't figure this out.

zzyzzx says

I find an audit trail is necessary

Yes, in fact, we even start that before a trade is executed. That's a part of our proprietary system, using a bit of fuzzy controller logic, with the key inputs being company secrets, to assess the transaction and assign it a key valuation parameter.

Then, when we run our monthly reports, we can determine the stats of how our assignment algorithm is working against the P/L. So far, so good; and it's been key in getting clients to commit to our firm and has also helped our prop traders in limiting their loss column.

I'm assuming that some time back in the middle ages, the lifestyle I'm advocating is like being a monk, but with regular access to a brothel with food and whiskey.

Today, no such luck ... you need money for housing, food, b**bs, and booze.

Rin says

I'm assuming that some time back in the middle ages, the lifestyle I'm advocating is like being a monk, but with regular access to a brothel with food and whiskey.

Today, no such luck ... you need money for housing, food, b**bs, and booze.

Medieval monks were not exactly chaste, nor teetotalers of excess food or strong drink:

In early feudal times, the marriage day might have ended differently, with the feudal lord deflowering the new bride, before releasing her to her husband. The existence of this 'jus primae noctis, also known in France as "jus cunni", in England as "marchette", in Piedmont as "cazzagio", has been much disputed, but Ducange has provided detailed evidence and the best authorities now accept that it existed; (190) cases are even known where monks, being at the same time feudal lords, held this right — for instance the monks of St. Thiodard enjoyed this right over the inhabitants of Mount Auriol. (71)

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/taylorgr/sxnhst/chap2.htm

Monks were equally serious about drink. In his Rule Benedict admits to some misgivings about recommending how much anyone ought to drink but bearing in mind ‘the standards of the weak’ he recommends a hemia (half a pint) of wine a day. Mark you – it was only a recommendation, and the monks treated it with caution. Recent studies have shown that alcohol seems to have accounted for something like 19 percent of monk’s energy intake (it provides 5 percent of ours)....

...Records for 1447 note a brothel in Westminster called the “Maidenshead”, which was much frequented by Benedictines. With up to 12 pounds pocket money a year , the monks could afford to go there. And churchmen did not just use brothels, they owned them. The bishop of Winchester was the owner of one of the brothels in Borough High Street in London – the girls were known affectionately as “Winchester geese”.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4T909PAV8GkC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=medieval+monks+brothels&source=bl&ots=QPSbxp70Ae&sig=ZQ3LGZrzvvbNlbCU5ErjrpG2skk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6ARgU5TlIdipyATkgIG4Ag&ved=0CGkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=medieval%20monks%20brothels&f=false

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ks9GZqQ8P88

New Renter says

Medieval monks were not exactly chaste

Nor modern priests.

New Renter says

...Records for 1447 note a brothel in Westminster called the “Maidenshead”, which was much frequented by Benedictines. With up to 12 pounds pocket money a year , the monks could afford to go there. And churchmen did not just use brothels, they owned them. The bishop of Winchester was the owner of one of the brothels in Borough High Street in London – the girls were known affectionately as “Winchester geese”.

Which shows, once again, that money brings happiness.

I find it a lot easier to solve STEM problems, after a good bo*nk.