Look, I hate black licorice, hipsters, and smelly people, but nothing, I MEAN NOTHING, gets under my skin more than someone calling me lucky. I hate, hate, hate it. For realsies!

Here are the types of things people say that really irk me…

Person #1: “Oh you are so lucky you can make money blogging.”

If you type “Luck” in to Google this is what you get: “Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions.” Do you see now why I hate when people call me lucky? It’s like they are writing off the fact that I have written five articles a week, every week, for 2.5 years. I work my butt off to try to make this blog not suck. Yes, I make money on the side, but only because I am constantly networking with other bloggers, advertisers, and learning about ways to make money blogging. Trust me, if someone was like “Hey Ninja, we don’t know anything about you, but we would like to give you $10,000 for no reason.” Then I would have no problem calling myself lucky. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet.

Person #2: “You are so lucky you got a good job out of college.”

I am lucky that I graduated college prior to the economy going down the toilet, no denying that. But do you want to know the real reason I got a great job out college? It’s really quite simple. I applied for a great job. If you don’t apply for your dream job, you have a 100% chance of not getting it. If you are only applying to jobs you actually want, it only takes one offer to change your life! I didn’t have connections. No one handed me my job.

Person #3: “You’re lucky you’re married”

Lucky to be married? No. Blessed? Definitely! You see, I’m old school. I didn’t date Girl Ninja, I courted her. From the minute I started having feelings for her, I did everything I could to win her heart. It took me six months to convince her to date me. Another eighteen to convince her to love me. And four years to convince her to marry me. My marriage definitely isn’t about luck. It’s about authentic, intentional love.

Calling someone lucky, that actually isn’t, is like telling that same person “You don’t deserve the happiness you have, because you haven’t earned it.”

Before you all accuse me of being ungrateful or arrogant, let me clarify something. I’m not saying that everyone who works hard will be successful, but simply that most successful people are typically hard workers. Does that make sense? I know that I’m blessed to have the things I have and I don’t take them for granted, but I refuse to attribute my success to random chance. You say I’m lucky, I say you are insulting me.

Am I the only person that hates being called lucky? What is a better choice of word? Fortunate? Blessed?

p.s. No denying certain aspects of my life were lucky (like being raised by financially stable parents or being born in the US). I’m not stupid. I know those things were completely out of my control.

Girl Ninja and I spent a wonderful four-day weekend in Palm Springs for Thanksgiving and, as you might guess, we got in super late last night. While today’s post won’t be a long one, I still think the message is important. And that message my friends is this: Being stable kinda sucks.

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on life, money, jobs, housing, cars, location, kids, savings, etc. I don’t know why, but it seems like a few times  a year I get in a little funk. A funk where I start to convince myself being “responsible” is overrated.

Even though I’m happy with my job, I sometimes dream about being fired. Not because I think unemployment would be fun, or getting another job would be a cake-walk, but because I’d probably learn a lot about myself in the process of looking for new work. I know I have a great gig, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes dream of working at Subway.

I’m also not so convinced investing, saving, and just general fiscal responsibility is all it’s cracked up to be. Discretionary income can be a headache. A few years ago, I had a ton of student loan debt and a much smaller income. Every dollar I made went to paying down my massive debt. Life was simpler back then. But now that the debts are paid off, and my income has grown, I’m more stressed than I was when I owed $28,000 to Sallie Mae.

How much of our discretionary income should we save? How much should we put in to retirement? Should we go to Hawaii this summer because we can afford it? What type of car should we buy? How big of a home do we want? Blah, blah, blah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “being broke is awesome”. I’m simply trying to bring attention to the fact that fiscal responsibility is no walk in the park.

I feel really weird writing a post about why being financially stable isn’t that great. I’m probably coming across as really ungrateful and/or unappreciative of the blessings GN and I have. That definitely isn’t my intention, as I know we are extremely fortunate to be where we are. That said, I’m hoping a few of you can relate. Anyone understand where I’m coming from? Can you give a few more examples why being stable kind of sucks?

p.s. How was your Thanksgiving.

p.p.s. If you are Canadian (Mo D, and others) you didn’t have Thanksgiving, so how was your weekend?

PDITF is a single author blog. Ninety-five percent of the articles are written by me, the other 5% are guest posts. Today, I thought I’d mix it up even more and allow a few unsuspecting people to hijack today’s post. My article about student loans being forgiven has quickly become one of my most popular. It currently has 87 comments, and counting. I thought I’d share with you a few of them.

Let’s get right to it….

If you forgive one type of debt, you kind of have to forgive all debt. Who’s to say that one debt is greater or more important thus needing forgiving then another. It’s just all so stupid. If in the end you can’t pay for something, don’t sign the paper work in the beginning stating you can.

Pretty reasonable first line right? The banks were bailed out so students should be too. WRONG. The banks shouldn’t have been bailed out, and students shouldn’t be bailed out. Goes back to the age-old adage “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” You do realize if your student loan is forgiven the balance doesn’t disappear in to space. No, instead YOUR student loan balance now becomes MY headache (via taxes). I don’t want to pay for your student loans any more than I wanted to pay for my neighbor’s house.

And then there is my personal favorite, this one came in late last night while I was watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars (warning: the commenter’s thoughts are difficult to follow)…

So… back to the Iphone that was made by worker bees in China…. Did you keep it/are you using it? The answer to that question pretty much illustrates the rest of any of your like mentality. You’re either hypocritical or you’re not. Your response to the whole OWS movement seems based from a pretty “world is roses” and overall very ignorant stance. Somewhat parallel but not as dumb as the dirt poor Republicans who keep voting against themselves. You seem to not realise the point that you cannot truly “function” in society without some/most items made in deplorable conditions (even bums use discarded Starbucks cups and wear Nikes). Protesters include nurses, students, all types of professionals. Just because these are again – a function of modern day society – virtually inescapable in Modern Day America – doesn’t mean that you can’t disagree with how they are made. In fact, it should outrage you more. The corporate greed that has gone into their making at the expense of the natural habitat and the 99% if you will for the benefit of the fattest is what people are making a statement against. If you are outraged about the working conditions in China for a product you buy in America, yet seem to think the protesters are silly and infantile you are just another dirt poor Republican voting against yourself (just on a different scale). You seemed more intelligent than that.

First, please for the love of bacon, learn how to use a freakin’ comma. I had to re-read this garbage a handful of times before I could even understand what it was you were trying to say.

Second, yes I did keep the iPhone (which is probably worthy of a blog post in and of itself). Mainly because of these comments. It seems that just about everything, from the TV I watch to the clothes I wear are byproducts of questionable work conditions. Unfortunately, (almost) everything in America was made somewhere else. Anyone know of a cell phone manufacturer that doesn’t outsource? It was a lose-lose situation. Check out this article for more information.

Lastly….what? Are you drunk, high, stupid, or a combination of all three? What does this sentence even mean “Your response to the whole OWS movement seems based from a pretty ‘world is roses’ and overall very ignorant stance.”? If you are going to insult me and call me things like “a dirt poor Republican” please at least have an agenda or reason for doing so. I’m all for people posting their opposing point of views (Stacking Cash and Larry can testify to this), but at least have some meat and potatoes along with your comment. To the anonymous commenter that wrote the above, click here.

I’m totally glad my post got people thinking and brought both sides of the table to discussion. Although, I do particularly enjoy reading comments from people who agree with me (haha, it’s true). Like this one…

Besides, the inherent “unfairness” of forgiving student loan debt, it just doesn’t make sense as a stimulus. I’m an economist, and here’s how that idea stacks up to me:

A Keynesian stimulus is concerned with short-term spending increases – the usual cutoff is about 24 months. So the question that must be asked of anything that is claimed as a stimulus is: “how much marginal (i.e. extra) money will be in the national pockets if it’s implemented?”

Let’s say that Joe Occupier has $60,000 in student loan debt and has payments of $500 a month. If the government forgives his loan, it costs them $60,000. Assuming Joe spends *all* of the money he saves (which is a crazy ambitious assumption), he’ll put an extra ($500*24)=$12,000 in to to economy. So the federal government is paying $60k for $12k in stimulus.

You’ll never find an economist to back this plan up.

Am I terrible blogger for calling out some of the very people who read my blog? Perhaps. But if you really believe I’m a “dirt poor Republican” I’d rather you just not read my blog at all. At least then it’s a win-win for both of us

I was really hoping to avoid talking about Occupy Wall Street again. I gave insights in to my stance on the movement last week and didn’t feel as though more needed to be said. That was until yesterday when I read this story on the Huffington Post…

While the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow and spread, there is no common call to action. I propose that the first call to action to help ease the economic stress of Americans is to forgive student loan debt. What do you say?

I say, “You sir are an idiot.”

I need not remind you (readers) that I graduated college with $28,000 in student loan debt in 2007. According to Huff Post that’s $4,000 more than the national average in 2009. So before you start accusing me of being part of the 1% let’s get a few things straight. 1) I’m not. 2) My parents aren’t either. Glad we got that settled.

Let’s talk about my story. I knew full well when I signed up to go to a private school that it was about three times more expensive than a local university would have been. I also knew that I would have to take out student loans to be able to go to said private school. I didn’t really think about the repercussions of taking on debt and gladly signed my life away. These are the facts as I see them.

To be perfectly honest, I was shocked to see the total balance of my student loans upon graduation. Twenty eight thousand dollars is a big scary number, especially when you have no employment lined up. I did what most grads do, I consolidated my loans and deferred them for six months.

What I didn’t do was complain that the college tricked me in to signing up for the debt. And I didn’t expect my Alma Mater to find me gainful employment upon graduation. I knew I got myself in the mess, and I was the only person that could get myself out. I accepted responsibility for my ignorant actions.

So guess what I did? I got a job and started making my minimum payments. I then got a second job, and a third job, so I could make accelerated payments. After 2.5 years, I was debt free. I didn’t expect the government, big business, my college, Sallie Mae, my parents, or you, to pay off the loan I voluntarily signed up for. I accepted my situation, and worked my a$$ off to improve it. Sending off that last payment was incredible.

Do you know how frustrating it is to work so hard (as I chronicled in many blog posts) to accomplish a goal, only to have it marginalized by a group of people who want the same thing, but aren’t willing to go to the lengths I did to achieve it. I was EXACTLY where you are now, a few years ago. The difference was I didn’t go Occupy Wall Street, I occupied multiple jobs.

If Joe starts eating healthy/exercising more and loses 50 pounds as a result, do I suddenly have a right to demand the local plastic surgeon give me free liposuction so I can have the same results as Joe? Even if I have a genetic makeup that makes it much more difficult for me to lose weight? Fat chance (pun absolutely intended).

I can only think of one situation in which I would entertain the idea of allowing student loans to be bankrupt-able/forgiven: If and only if the individual would relinquish all credits and degrees earned. The worse thing we could do is forgive the debt and let them keep their degrees. Hell, I’d take a few dings on my credit score if it meant I got a “free” degree out of the gig.

Lastly, if you really are pissed off about the whole student loan/cost of college issue, you should probably go protest your college, not Wall Street.

I’ve already paid off my student loans. Don’t force me to pay yours off too. Unleash the hounds.

p.s. Just to make a few things clear. I am not saying the lending practices associated with student loans are great. And I’m not saying the exponentially increasing cost of college is acceptable. I’m all for reforming tuition rates and lending practices. Student loan forgiveness is not reform, it’s a lame solution that doesn’t solve the much more complex problem.

I hate to have two “downer” posts in a row, but I just can’t help myself. People suck. Bad. I don’t even know why I bother reading the news anymore as it just reminds me how broken this world really is. Here’s the latest reason (via a CNN article) I’ve lost hope for humanity…

Janitor finds mentally disabled people locked in basement; 3 arrested.

Three people have been arrested and accused of holding the disabled people captive and stealing their Social Security checks.

…

Authorities believe the four were trapped in the tiny room for up to a week. Ray Evers said they suffered from bed sores and “injuries that are very, very hard to describe.”

Seriously? How messed up do you have to be to kidnap, torture, and steal from a mentally disabled person?

Yesterday an Indy Car driver died while racing, and while that story is sad enough, it’s not as sad as the horrible jokes people made about his death in a YouTube comments thread.

Last week eight people were killed in a Salon in California.

We could even take this depressing news and relate it to personal finance. Big banks are trying to nickel and dime us, Ponzi Schemes are as popular as Justin Bieber’s hair, and a Chase staff member had a customer arrested for trying to cash a legitimate check. Check out the horrific details of that last story….

Njoku was taken to jail on June 24, 2010, which was a Thursday. The next day, Chase Special Investigations, realized it was a mistake. The check was legitimate. The Investigator called Auburn Police and left a message with the detective handling the case, but it was her day off. So Njoku stayed in jail for the entire weekend. Finally, on Monday, he was released.

[Meanwhile]

Njoku’s car had been towed from the bank parking lot and his check seized as evidence. “I had to wait a couple of weeks [for the check]” he said, “and my car got sold/auctioned off.”

Njoku says he didn’t have the money to pay the impound fees and fines to get his car back before it was sold.  He said he also lost his job because he couldn’t show up for work while he was in jail.