there are 8.5 million vacant homes in japan!

In Media, got handed the school's fanciest and most expensive camera...and then instantly dropped it. I'm an idiot.

Camera is fine FYI, just embarrassed

Why's the camera embarrassed?!

It's a camera at my high school, it's probably terrified of the things it'll see.

(Admittedly, last year I did film a fake drug deal for a videomaking project - I'm by no means innocent of this)

Teacher yelling into the locker rooms: "All Year 11 student leaders, you need to go to a meeting in the lecture hall."
Me yelling back to nobody in particular: "Nobody likes me, so I'm not one! Woo!"

Also, there's a girl at school whose laptop is covered with stickers of anime catgirls.

i’m starting to take an interest in the australian economy. no recession since 1991?? holy shit!

tell me something i don’t know

IDK, I'm not an economist.

My dad's an accountant though, you might be able to ask him

chockyks dad, i just read why you haven’t had recession for the last quarter century

wow!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ok-bittersweet

so, tell me something i don’t know

Well, the Australian dollar is apparently the fifth most-traded in the world. Pretty good if I say so myself.

yep. solid currency looks like.

im rightly impressed

The only real interest I pay to the Australian dollar is how much of it's in my bank account.

Got paid a few days ago, so I'm up to $300 or so, although I'm starting to get a little suspicious of my boss - he arranged the dates to cover a two-week period that didn't include my two shifts of last weekend, so if I don't get that in a few weeks I'll have a chat to him.

nice. make sure it stays up and keeps going up.

save, say 10%, in some place fun. buy stocks or something. it’s not like you need emergency cash to pay the mortgage.

ever heard of warren buffett? bought his first stock i think when he was 11 haaa haaaa haaaa. now his equity is 86 billion us dollars or some ridiculous amount like that. i forget.

there’s a recent documentary about him, on netflix. they make him look like some benevolent grandpa. and im sure the guy has his dark side (he’s a fan of walter white ha ha ha) but in spite of the puff piece aspect of it, i refuse to be cynical— it’s very inspiring in the sense that it shows what’s possible for a person to accomplish, much like a mountain climber or a sports hero of some sort.

compound interest is fucking amazing. it can work for you or against you.

of course i was a savage at your age and squandered everything like a meteorite crashing against the atmosphere, but eh. you might have more sense than me, lol.

Heh, thanks

At this point I have two main savings goals - a guitar and a trip to Germany. No timeframe or cost on the guitar (it's just a daydream, pretty much), but I'm going for $4,000 for the holiday and I'm doing it in November 2020 after I finish Year 12. I should easily have enough money.

And I'm trying to cut down on my impulse spending :P

Spent some really fun time hanging with a friend today - he was looking for a suit for a formal thing and he asked us if we wanted to come. While at the store I tried on a skirt, which was really quite nice - and then almost got caught by the trans commie. FML

haha you gotta budget a little for impulse spending. can’t live like a nun. right? asceticism is hard.

the trip sounds like a ton of fun and you should be in track for it. but it’s still an expense, just a deferred one, not savings proper. but still you have to accumulate your money, yes?

your inflation looks like 1.5-2% a year.
https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/inflation-cpi
and that’s the rate at which your dollar loses value if you just hold it. your paycheck loses value also unless you get a raise. roughly $80 off your intended $4k in 12 months.

the inflation rate is just an average. inflation can be different for different items though. e.g. if fuel costs rise 25%, your airplane ticket could follow the same way.

savings accounts in australia seem to barely keep up with inflation, but this one for utes pays a little more:

https://bankaust.com.au/tools/rates/accounts/mySaver/



i’d shop around for a good rate for the main savings. you wanna stay ahead of inflation.

but if you want your money to work for you, instead of you always having to work for your money in that sweaty parking lot, then maybe use another 10% for “risk capital”? stock returns are not guaranteed, especially in the short term, but they can also pay a lot more than savings accounts if you hold them for the long term.

see:
https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/stock-market
look at the monthly chart. your homework: tell me what was the percentage grow of that index year to date. :D

for this maybe your dad could help. you’re good with numbers and that’s a valuable talent. use that to your advantage.

so anyway, since you don’t have to support yourself yet, you could have a ratio like:

10-80-10 (fun money-trip-investments)
or 10-10-70-10 (splitting trip & guitar)

or whatever other ratio works for you.

but ratios are a great way to organize your money in a balanced way that feeds your goals and wishes, if that makes sense.

i use a grownup version (lol) where i budget needs/wants/savings (because i have to pay for food, housing, transportation, etc., as well as invest).

the wants part is extremely important because otherwise life would be no fun. but it’s confined to a ratio, see. so there is discipline to it.

anyway just some thoughts for you, free of charge haa haaa haaa

why Germany of all places in the world?
Do you know they speak German over there? :D




seriously though, it's a very nice country. And especially down south the people are very kind and nice and their Dialect is as well. I've seen many parts of Germany, but never made it to Berlin unfortunately.

Went there when I was fifteen and loved it, have family friends so I may not have to worry about accommodation, it's right next door to Austria so I can hopefully meet a boy I really like. Should hopefully be cool

Holy fuckin shit. Japan is dope as fuck. Saw Melt Banana on 30 hours of no sleep my first night here. The show didn’t start until 12am and MXBX didn’t play until 3am. I was so tired in the beginning but the first band was a hardcore punk band and it was exactly what I needed. Shit pumped me up. But then two idol groups performed after and holy fucking shit. People were moshing more during the idols groups than the first band. Then MXBX played. I broke my glasses and sprained my thumb after a dood tried stage diving. He gets up on the stage to jump, but then people were moshing so there wasn’t people in the middle to catch him. My dumb drunk ass fills in the spot and waved to jump. He lands on top of me and I almost lost my power bank too lol. Then last night I finally go to an arcade where SF3 was the main game. I am in love. Dingy basement arcades and smoking a cigarette while you play...man that shit was the best. I’ll be going to more arcades the rest of the stay. I am very jealous of the culture here. So much respect and professionalism. Even going to the random arcades and seeing motherfuckers kill it with whatever game they’re playing was truly inspiring. Excel at what makes you happy. The bigger arcades were so fun to just hang out in!

Oh yeah! So my glasses broke right? I went to like this mall in the subway and presented my situation. They were like, ok....just took the prescription from my old glasses, had me pick out a frame, then just returned 30 min later to pick up. Did I mention they don’t charge for the lenses? All they charged were the frames. Like, WTF.!

I am totally on board for EVOLghost's Japan trip - that sounds awesome, man. Absolutely terrifying to me, but still awesome.

Isn't it, like, 6am there atm? Jetlag getting to you?

It’s currently 7:45 PM. Didn’t feel much jet lag but today I’m incrsibly tired. Was walking all day at Akihabara. My cuz n I are now taking a break at the hotel and might hit up a nightclub...or another arcade lol. Anyway. I love Tokyo.