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Doing it yourself saves money!

A Penny Saved is as good as one Earned.

Being retired has it’s ups and downs. Some days you feel like you are on vacation and others like you are playing hooky. You spend your life working and suddenly it is ok not to be working. This blog is one way to pretend I am working; at least I have to think about what to write. The little bit of consulting and web work helps to maintain an awareness of a field in which I spent over a quarter of a century. Generating income is almost an after thought, it is primarily a ratification that what your doing has some value.

I have authored some public service books on another web site that I have up as free downloads. They are focused on preschooler’s feelings about family abuse, feelings of alienation and other such sad realities of our modern family. Anytime one is downloaded, I feel like I have helped someone.

I guess the point is that working tends to validate your existence. You’re bringing home the bacon, supporting the family, nobly toiling away to provide food for your kids. Suddenly that isn’t necessary so you need to find things that can make you feel like you are contributing to something. Volunteering time to a valuable cause helps. Sometimes that comes from earning a few bucks updating a website or saving a few bucks by purchasing wisely. Even renewing old skills and doing yourself what you have been paying to have done for the last 30 years. Retirement is fun but….it also provides much food for thought.

However since I claim to be talking about money saving tech tips, how about saving money on your car. The price of gasoline is skyrocketing. What can you do to cut the cost of your ride. It is not rocket science to put a new battery in the car. My local garage wanted $50.00 to install a new battery and another $10.00 to install a new air filter. I’m retired, my time for me is FREE. So I got my hands dirty and put in a new battery and air filter. Saved $60.00 and felt like I had accomplished something of value. One caveat, make sure you can get to your battery if you want to do it yourself, many modern cars have their batteries in the most unlikely, hard to get to without disassembling something else spots. Check your manual and save some money. It is not a real techie kind of blog but it is a money saving tip.

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