Free At Last, Free At Last
The box with the book stuff went UPS ground on Friday. Inside were two hard copy manuscripts and four CD's with different styles and layouts. I probably misunderstood the instructions but better safe than sorry. The time consumer was the index copy where you, or should say me, went through the manuscript and had to highlight every reference to an individual. Example--if you write Davy Crockett, it has to be highlighted as %xDavy Crockett%z so the publishers computer program can note the page and reference for inclusion in the index. Lastly, for you budding authors, don't put five spaces for the start of a paragraph--tab over. Only one space between sentences, not two. One line space between paragraphs but double space the manuscript. I think. Like I said, probably screwed it up but it is gone.
Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie back in the box. They'll pop up again in editing. That should be a lot of fun.
Need some help. Anybody know anybody at A&E or the History Channel? For starters, this book is based on a little known incident at a Spanish fortress in Texas three weeks after the Alamo where over 300 Texans were massacred. Not a lot of fun. The interesting thing is that the fortress was totally restored in the mid 60s. Take the Alamo in San Antonio and make it three times bigger. Would be a great place to film a documentary on the event. So if anybody knows a creative type at A&E or the History Channel, let me know.
Some financial clean-up. Got this from Spencer on Pensions-The Not So Good Old Days.
"Your point 3 is internally inconsistent. If your pension is a function of your salary in your final years of work what you made 30 years ago does not matter.
It looks like you deliberately wrote it so as to create a false impression."
Yikes. Take it easy, Spencer. Not sure what 'internally inconsistent' means but let's look at point three.
3) The pension will be a percentage of your last several years salary at the company. Percentages vary but let's assume 60% which is pretty rich but will work. So you are 30 and have a pension. Fast forward to age 65 and you will get 60% of your salary--the salary you made 30 years ago. Might pay the phone bill.
Got to give Spencer some credit. Reads a bit rough. The point was that pensions are a drawback to leaving one job for another. First, to qualify for a pension you have to be there for a certain period of time. So let's say you have ten years in and you quit for another job. The pension is still there when you reach 65 but it will be based on your salary when you left. If you are now 65 and you left the company with the pension 25 years ago, the pension will be based on your salary 25 years ago which probably isn't a whole lot. If you stay at the one company until you are 65, the pension will be based on your most recent salaries but the odds of people staying some place for 25 to 30 years is remote.
If all that still doesn't make sense, here is a true life example. Me. A long time ago I had been at one company, one with a pension, for 9 and 1/2 years. The vesting period was 10 years. Leave one day early, no pension. Got a job offer. Went to a smart finance guy (later became CFO) and said "Should I stay or should I go?" His advice was go assuming the new company had a decent plan of some kind. If so, and his words exactly, the pension of the old company "has a present value of zero." And he was right. The new company had, still does, a company match of $2.12 to every $1 I put in. Haven't done the numbers but my guess is that the amount in the 401(k) far exceeds the foregone pension payments on my salary of over twenty years ago.
That's the point, Spencer. But still wondering about that 'internally inconsistent' thing. As far as your comment "It looks like you deliberately wrote it so as to create a false impression." Thanks for the compliment but I can usually create a false impression without being deliberate.
Next couple of days will do some retirement planning for different professions. Will start with those confusing retirement calculators.
CONGRATS!! you wrote your first book :) whats next?
Posted by: cahoots | July 05, 2006 at 07:43 PM
Congratulations Bill! Glad you made it through your forced march with your sense of humor intact.
Posted by: Chris Yeh | July 05, 2006 at 01:12 PM