Array of stuff

The insurance claim was accepted and the car went into the shop Monday morning. The panelbeater thought they would be able to have it back to me by next Saturday no problems [touch wood].

Reminder to self - book motel

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It occurred to me this morning, walking by the institution holding my term deposit, that interest rates are getting low enough it's possible some of that money might provide a better return in power savings if used to put in solar hot water heating. It also occurred to me that since I've just entered a year's worth of power use data into a spreadsheet I could probably make a good guess at the amount spent on water heating by taking a high % of the $ spent at night rate.

Which I did, taking the recent four months only (fairly flat line, minimum other heating) and what I hope is a conservative 80%.

Ballpark for installation: $8000 (based on recent quote)
Estimated power savings: $500 per year (repay installation cost in 16 years :-| )
Estimated return on $8000 @ 4.5%: $360 per year (before tax!)
Estimated return on $8000 @ 5.5%: $440 per year (before tax!)

# of years until interest rates are again high enough to beat the power savings after tax: ??? High enough to also recoup the difference from those years: ???

Looking at those numbers, it's almost a no brainer.
Of course, it means I'll no longer have the money ... this goes strongly against my natural tendencies. OTOH, it's not actually doing me much good where it is.

Practically, I would get the work done in the next few months, pay for it off the mortgage and then pull the money from my TD when it matures mid-winter.

I'm just a little suspicious of any urge I have to spend large amounts of money right now for emotional reasons - does my reasoning seem sound?

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Someone on the nzphpug made a comment recently about "I don't want a job, I offer a service." which has my brainmeats ticking over. I don't want a job, I want a what?

Actually, I want making money to be incidental to what I do. Or I want to be doing something I enjoy / consider worthwhile that people also happen to be willing to pay me for doing.

Still percolating. There will be another post on it I'm sure.

Gameathon shout out

So I've decided. Had to, since there is supposed to be material going in OoC, and it's being printed in the next few days.

I'll still be holding games at my place. The Gameathon website is still there if people would like to express their support for the idea by actually creating an account, or post events for other locations. I promise not to spam anyone.

If the telethon itself falls over the charity will still exist, and if they somehow implode there are plenty of other good causes out there.

Edit: fixed link. The lack of comments telling me it was broken says something about how many people have tried to click on it I suppose :-| Thanks zakzahn.