My biggest problem with working the graveyard shift is that it completely throws your sleep schedule off, even on those days you don’t work. Yesterday, for example, I ended up staying awake all day, simply because the sun was out. You don’t realize just how much of an effect sunlight can have on your ability to stay awake until you find it keeping you from getting any rest at all.
I think, from now on, when I have days off, I’ll just have to stay up all day and sleep at night; that’s what I do when I am visiting my Sondra, and it seems to work out alright. It’s also what a few of my coworkers do as well, and they seem to have adapted quite well to it. The only problem is that then I have days like today, where I have to go back onto a night schedule in order to make it to work. Alas, I think that all this switching from nocturnal to diurnal is not worth the small premium I get on my paycheck by working the third shift.
Alright, enough of my complaining; it’s time to go through some of the interesting personal finance posts from last week and see what some of my talented fellow bloggers had to say:
Blog Entries That Made Me Think
National Protect Your Identity Week – Apparently it’s nearly the end of National Protect Your Identity Week. Stephanie of Poorer Than You reminds us that even as we prepare to disguise our identities for Halloween, we need to be concerned with protecting our identity throughout the rest of our lives. (Also, remember to keep voting for Stephanie in NatureMade’s Good Mood Gig contest.)
Party Like It’s 1999! Ten Takeaways from This Recession – With the recent return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to 10,000, people are starting to look back over the events of the last year and taking much different lessons than they would have during the depths of the downturn. If you asked me back when I started The Amateur Financier what the next eight months were going to hold, I doubt that a soaring stock market but stagnant job market would be high on my list of possibilities. The Financial Samurai draws a few lessons from the whole of the past 18 months, and his points are right on the mark (particularly about asset prices coming back).
Presents for Kids: Who Do They Belong To? – An interesting question: if your very young child receives a monetary gift, who should get to spend it? My Life ROI raises a few possibilities, from you (that is, your parent) to the kid him- or herself. Personally, I favor the third possibility he suggests, putting the money into a savings account or other investment until the child is old enough to know what he or she wants to do with it.
Is Generation Y’s Financial Situation Really That Bad? – Given that we were coming to age in the wake of the internet bubble bursting and now are getting a raw deal with this ‘Great Recession’, there’s no shortage of people bemoaning the plight of the young investor. But, we have one advantage that many people in the older age brackets would love: time to recover. As long as these downturns don’t scare too many of my fellow Gen Yers (including the author of this post, the Generation Y Investor), we can recover and do just as well, if not better than our elders.
Scary Calculation on Credit Card Debt Elmination - Studenomics reminds us all that paying off our credit cards by only paying the minimum due is nigh impossible. Quite fitting for about a week before Halloween, it’s downright scary how long it can take; a mere one thousand dollar debt at 18% takes over seven years to pay off, twenty dollars at a time. Save yourself some time (and lots of money): pay more than the minimum.
Where The Amateur Financier Has Been Featured
The Skilled Investor featured Is Your Child An Investment? in the Carnival of Financial Planning – 111th Edition
Related Websites
MLR
on October 25 2009
Thanks for sharing my post! I also favor the third option.
As far as the graveyard shift, you will get used to it. I work 330pm-1am… I don’t mind it much anymore!
Roger
on October 26 2009
MLB,
No worries, it was a pretty interesting post. The third option does seem to be the best; the first seems mean, and the second, while it might provide the child some enjoyment in the present, isn’t exactly thinking of his or her future.
As for the graveyard shift, I am used to it, at least on days I work. Interestingly, when I am off, my schedule tends to go kerfluey. I just need to figure out how best to be awake during the day on my days off and get back to being awake at night on my days on. I’m getting better, though, so perhaps in a month or so I’ll have to revisit this topic and announce my success.
Financial Samurai
on October 26 2009
Hey Rog – Thanks for the shoutout! What are you doing during the graveyard shift btw? I did some graveyard shifts while on vacation this past week, and it was a wonderful time to gather my thoughts and write!
BTW, if you are anybody you know is interested in applying to b-school, let me know. We’re doing our “$1,000 giveaway” this week. Best, FS
Roger
on October 27 2009
FS,
I’m working at Sanofi-Pasteur, helping to make swine flu vaccine. (It’s really kind of weird, having articles related to your job show up nearly every day in the news paper, but you get used to it.) The plant runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, hence the need for people on graveyard. There’s even talk about having to work over Christmas to make up for the shortages in flu vaccine that keep cropping up, although hopefully that won’t be the case. Sadly, not much time to write (I barely get on a computer while I’m at work, and since I’m still a temp, I don’t have access to any websites).
At the moment, I’m not really that interested in business school, although I’ll do what I can to pass the word along to those who might be. Very generous offer, by the way.
Financial Samurai
on October 27 2009
Roger – Good stuff man! Your company is really needed so keep up the good work!
Winter is obviously the most fertile time for the flu, so hope we got things under control.
Best, FS
Roger
on October 27 2009
Yup, at the moment we’re going all out to make enough vaccine for all by holiday time. I’ll keep up the work as best I can, and hopefully there will be a limit on how many people get sick.