Shaine Mata Blog

It is getting complicated running this blog and ShaineMata.com . Therefore, I'm moving over to the dotcom for future posts. In case you're wondering what the complication is. Supposedly, one of the sites was for "business" and the other for "personal blogging". The trouble is that I do not have that schism, as far as I can tell. Same guy in both roles. So, it was becoming difficult to choose where to post. I'd have these endless debates on where a post belonged, and then I would not write at all. I suppose it would be simpler to not write, now that I think of it. Except that I do write. I think, eventually, I may point the domain over there and leave this as a blogspot site. That should simplify further.

New MissionTexas.net site. One theme that has been coming up in my life a lot, recently, is letting go of the cruft of life. This includes several aspects, the stuff that clutters up my house, financial accounts that are relics, old ideas that are not yielding their promise, and even relationships (or lack thereof). This has been the case with my MissionTexas.net website. It originally began as just a blog. But, it seemed inadequate at the time to serve as a website. Blogger had not offered Pages at the time. Google did, however, have Sites, which was based on a Wiki. I could use Sites for my concept. It was easy to use and had Adsense gadgets I could use to monetize. I do like Google Sites for its ease of use and because it tracks cross-links. If I move a page, all the URLs get updated. However, Google Sites killed the Adsense gadgets, which means that my theme is somewhat stuck. That's the problem with Google Sites. The service has not evolved with design standards. T...

Jicama My latest misadventure involves jicama , a perishable food item that resembles a turnip. I can't make out whether it's a bean or a vine from the Wiki entry. It's definitely a root. But, other sources online categorize jicama as a sort of morning glory or nightshade. I had a business idea, which required me to purchase five pounds of jicama. So, how much jicama does five pounds make? About three large jicamas will yield five pounds. Actually, I went over by half a pound. But, it's not like you can resize them to suit you. So, now I have five pounds of jicama at home to eat. I cut one up and sprinkled Trechas and lime on it to eat. I had a few pieces and put the rest in the refrigerator to cool. A while later, I started coughing with a familiar sensation that comes from a food allergy. After a little research, sure enough. Jicama is among the foods that triggers a latex allergy. I had never experienced this reaction with jicama. However, I typically ea...

My kids found this song. I had heard it years ago; but, the song wasn't one that I would have remembered. It's catchy and apparently global.

The Amazon Echo Tap One thing I love about Star Trek, most of the different series, is the ability to issue voice commands to the ship's computer. The crew is able to use the computer's voice recognition anywhere they go. Amazon has introduced a new and improved Amazon Echo Dot, which is a smaller, stripped down version of the Amazon Echo. The Echo Dot brings the vision of the Star Trek computer closer to reality. The Echo devices are always listening for commands to play music, read books, control your IoT (Internet of Things) device, or even place orders on Amazon. However, the Echo sits quietly in one spot of your home waiting for commands within hearing distance. Once you move to another room, the fun is over. Going back to the Star Trek computer, the characters in the show frequently speak commands to the computer, such as when they enter the turbolift and tell it to take them to the Bridge or Engineering. No buttons needed. There are episodes on Star Trek: TNG...

I have been considering the resurrection of RGV Life and MissionTexas.net recently. These blogs continue to generate a little bit of advertising revenue from Google Adsense every few months despite sitting around without updates. I don't feel any guilt or remorse about leaving the blogs fallow. However, I do wonder, ever so often, if I could have made them viable businesses. I have been aware of Patreon in the last couple of years. I can't help thinking that it might be a better way to go than depending on advertising. It is easier for me, personally, to ask for patronage than to sell advertising. With advertising, I would have to pull stats, make reports, make sales media, and so much more that is required to process individual customer orders. Asking for patronage, on the other hand, is simpler. Cleaner. One page. If you like what I do and want to support it, it won't break you. Obviously, bigger supporters would get something more for their patronage. I would have...

My financial experiments have so far proven more or less workable, although rather slow. In fact, circumstances have led to diminished cash reserves, to the point where I am slightly nervous. I've had some big draws on my reserves that in times past would have been impossible to pay. For example, my Prius had some cooling problems and required changing parts to the hybrid system and changing a leaky water pump. With dealer prices, the repairs cost almost $1000. Something like that is still alarmingly pricey on my budget. Still, I was able to take care of it. Prius models are known for their longevity, so I'm hoping that at 145,000 miles, I can count on the car to continue to perform as dependably as it has been. Another large draw was for a deposit with a builder, which would become earnest money if we qualified for financing, my wife and I. That was another chunk that left the reserves. We expect that money to come back to us soon. The driving reason behind attempting to...

I very recently cancelled my  +Acorns  account. Despite the excellent app and overall product experience, it is not a fit for my needs. Two problems arise from my experience with Acorns. The first problem was the randomness, which could be fixed by not rounding up. The second problem is that they use modern portfolio theory (which money geeks call MPT). A third issue is not related to Acorns itself, but my own move towards simplification. Randomness The idea of taking spare change and investing it has an allure of simplicity. Surely, you would not miss a few cents here and there, right? Sure, until it adds up to real money. I think my highest 30 day contributions reached around $70. That's real money out of my monthly budget, not just change. While the occasional draft of $5+ from my checking account does not interfere with my spending, I realized that the $70 could be going towards my other accounts or goals. I didn't realize that spare change is real money. Downsi...

I am crushing on my  +Simple  account now that I am gathering my expenses for tax purposes. While Simple is not so useful this year, due to limited use in 2015, it is going to be awesome next year. Simple currently only offers personal accounts, although their Help section mentions that they are considering business accounts in future, which would be even better. The one feature that will make my tax preparation less demanding next year is the ability to tag my expenses. By adding a #business tag to the appropriate income and expenses, I instantly create a filter for my searches. Next year, for example, I would simply search "2016 #business" to get a report listing all my business expenses and income. Then, it is as simple as exporting the list. Done. Another excellent tax feature is the ability to upload invoices to the individual transactions. This is great in that I would have access to the actual invoice should I ever need to verify that the expense is business-rela...

TheGrid.io has granted me Beta access to my account. You can see the account over at ShaineMata.com if you like. If you have never heard of The Grid, they are working to build a self-designing website that uses artificial intelligence. The idea is brilliant. I like the concept. I think that when they iron out the bugs, The Grid should be excellent. I am not ready to make The Grid the home to any websites that are important to me quite yet. Here is why. They are still in Beta Obviously, being in Beta means that the service is not at full production capacity. There are things I expected would be available, which aren't. Watch the video to see more or less what I expected. So, the first thing I expected was to be able to choose the website's purpose, which is not currently an option. Instead, there is a very rough posting process that allows me to share content from the web and to type up blog posts from the browser. At least, there is some control of the AI's d...

In the last couple of posts, I have written about how I am using Simple.com to manage my self-banking experiment . It turns out that one flaw in the process is me. It has become habitual to check balances, transfer money, schedule payments, and figure out strategies to ensure what needs to be paid gets paid. I maintained the habit knowing that Simple can mostly manage things. Since switching my payroll direct deposit over to Simple, finally, much of my fussing over money is automated. It has been difficult for me to let go of the reins. At first, I was putting lump sums into Simple Goals in order to pay off self loans, as I have done since beginning the self banking experiment. The problem with manually doing this is that Simple automatically allocates a daily amount into your goals. Therefore, your Safe-to-Spend quantity goes down every day as Simple allocates your daily rate. For example, let's say that to meet my Goals, Simple needs to set aside $45.67 per day among the v...

In my last blog post, I wrote about my self banking experiment and a transition to +Simple  as my main bank account. Previously, I had my paycheck deposited into a local bank. The money would then pay bills and pay down my loans to myself. This method required a lot of time in tracking accounts, bills, and loan balances. Transitioning to Simple has freed up so much time. Self Banking Recap Let me recap the self-banking idea. I have a savings account where I accumulate a percentage of my income. Whenever I need to purchase something other than a living expense, a WiFi router for example, I use money from savings. That instantly becomes a loan with tacked on interest that is paid back over one year or less. In this way, the savings account has a means to grow other than the meager interest rate the bank offers. In this way I avoid using outside credit and recapture the interest I would have paid out. Self-banking is a fun mental game to play with my finances. Whenever I purcha...

In the past few months, I have been experimenting with self-banking. The idea is to have some money saved away, which I can borrow. After borrowing the money, I run it through a 1 year amortization, or longer. Then, I pay back the loan to my savings with interest. The idea is to progressively have a larger and larger savings after I pay off each loan to self. I have been searching online for information from others who have created a similar system to save money and recapture the interest that would otherwise be paid out to banks. However, the search results usually come up with links to Infinite Banking Concept, which is similar to what I am doing, except that it involves whole life insurance as the source of capital. I think IBC has its merits; but, it takes years to build up and adds a "load" to the program from the life insurance. I would still do IBC because of the whole two birds, one stone business, in which one needs to be insured anyway, might as well turn it into ...