I just turned twenty-five, and I wish I’d had as level head as you seem to at twenty. At twenty I got my first credit card, promptly used it to pay $400 in car repairs, and I am still trying to pay that off (and subsequent follies. Do it once, and it’s much easier to do it again).

The book that I would recommend, as it’s helped me very much in learning all about personal finance is, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi (who also has a blog by the same name). He talks about both finances and investing , especially for people in their twenties. His style isn’t for everyone, but he’s definitely worth checking out. Very straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to money and investing.

Of course, subscribing to a blog like The Simple Dollar (or any of the others out there) is an excellent first step in figuring out your personal finances.

(I would also recommend the book “Never Eat Alone” which talks about networking and connecting with others, but that’s only because it’s slowly changing the way I look at the world, and I think everyone should read it as soon as possible. :D)

To Rocky, re: sewing

I am also an accomplished sewer, and I find that even though I can buy many things for less that I can make them, there is a great satisfaction in making my own clothing, and getting compliments on it. And often, even if a garment is less expensive in the store, I can make it better, which means that it will last longer and is therefore of more value.

**NB: to my knowledge, OO can’t select and copy text from scanned files. You can, however, capture part of the file as an image and write your notes to the side or below.

For those who claim that obesity is not a disability, there are many medical causes of obesity including: thyroid disease, hormonal imbalances, leptin disorders, polycystic ovary syndrome, and various other genetic disorders. Prescription medications (like antidepressants or anticonvulsants) also cause excess weight gain. You can’t assume someone is overweight because they’re lazy, they could have a serious medical condition and giving them a hard time because of their weight makes their life even more difficult than it already is.

On a personal note, I would like to say that I am very overweight and have been so almost my entire life. I’m working on my PhD in Physics, I take classes, do research, and teach. It’s not unusual for me to work 70 hours a week. I’m not lazy or stupid, I dress professionally and I’m well groomed. My weight does not interfere with my ability to do my job. In fact, while my classmates and coworkers are at the gym or playing sports I am sitting at my desk working.

When you can by a t-shirt made by someone in India for 3 bucks she simply cannot compete with that much of a discounted labour costs. She can’t even by the fabric most often for that price.

Great comment. I immediately thought of a male nursery or elementary school teacher. When something is stolen in an office, someone often fingers the cleaning crew, ignoring the actual evidence that you’ve watched a coworker habitually “borrow” from the supply closet. If two kids get into a fight, you just *know* it was the average kid who started it, not the perfect straight-A student.

Most discrimination is a lot more subtle than that, and results from the unconscious assumptions we make in order to “fill in the gaps” about what we know about a person. We might see an obese job candidate and think “lazy, stupid, unpleasant to be around,” and see a thin, attractive, fit-looking job candidate and think “driven, intelligent, someone I’d like to work with.” And we hang on to those assumptions until we have evidence to the contrary. So the obese candidate is “guilty until proven innocent,” whereas the thin candidate is “innocent until proven guilty.” Guess who’s going to have the advantage in the job selection process.

If you’re thinking, “Well, *I* never, ever make assumptions about people based on superficial characteristics like that,” you’re wrong. Everybody does. It’s human nature, and it does not make you a bad person. If you’re honest with yourself, you can probably think of a time when you found out something about somebody that was contrary to what you expected: that the man who greeted you in the hospital was a nurse, not a doctor; that the popular, chatty blonde woman you knew in college was a physics major at the top of her class; that Susan Boyle is a pretty good singer. The very best thing you can do is to be aware that you’re making assumptions like this, admit to yourself that they’re not always accurate, and try to correct for them.

And, as someone rightly noted, small companies are free to discriminate with impunity.

But to your meaning, I wonder if it is true that you always get your investment back? If I were to sell my house right now, I would probably not make any money and could wind up owing the bank. Plus, the point of kristine’s post was that she traded the return on investment that she would have gotten from investing in a home for the “profit” of sending her kids to a better school and living in a good neighborhood. Although I bet she’d trade her neighbors in a heartbeat, sending her kids to a good school and having a short commute for her husband were more important than the ROI of owning a home.

kristine: I don’t think it’s a comfort but my grandma always told me, “money can’t buy class” and I’ve found very often in my life that she was right. I’m thankful she left me with class and no money rather than the other way around and I’d be more than happy to have you as a neighbor – mine are noisy and rude regardless of whether they are owners or renters…

While an employer can expect a job applicant to arrive well-groomed and dressed appropriately for the position, judgment should not extend to physical characteristics irrelevant to performing the job. Do we really want to foster a society so shallow that job seekers need botox, teeth whitening and liposuction more than education, social skills or relevant experience? I have never hired someone because of how they look, but I would be ashamed to admit it if I did.

It’s worth noting that neither Title VII nor the ADA applies to private employers with fewer than 15 employees.

Another thing to consider is what happens if your descendents don’t want to live in the houses you’ve bought for them. Maybe they’ll want to move to other cities because of their jobs, educations, spouses, or living preferences. Maybe they’ll want to have larger or smaller families than can be comfortably accommodated in the houses you’ve bought. Maybe the neighborhoods that are nice now will have gone downhill over 20 or 50 or 100 years. I’m not saying your plan can’t work – just that there are some reasons that it might not.