I remember when I was involved in testing in one of our facilities (my day job is “rocket science,” or more specifically, aerospace engineering), one of the most irritating things that one of our test engineers would say was, “We’re closer than we’ve ever been.” He would say this when you asked questions like “How much longer do you think it will be before we’re ready to test?” The answer was absolutely correct, but totally useless.
I remember specifically one day when I was supposed to meet my wife for lunch. I didn’t have any way to contact her (didn’t have cell phones in that day). We were testing in a facility that would blow really hot air over things like materials you would put at the front of a space capsule to allow it to survive coming back into the atmosphere. This facility used compressed air at such high pressures it would look like a liquid if you could see it because the molecules were squeezed so close together. Once the test started it would only run for a few minutes, so I knew that we could be done in just a minute or two if the test started, but as is usually the case when doing these kinds of tests, there was one delay after another as we were checking things and finding issues.
As I watched the time tick away, I got to the point where I would need to leave to meet my wife on time, then the time passed where I would be a little late, and then it started to get to the point where I was going to be more than a little late. I didn’t absolutely need to stay for the test – I could find out afterward what had happened and look at the data then, but it was really neat to see this facility run and I didn’t want to miss it if I didn’t need to. If I knew it was going to be a half-hour before we tested, I might have just gone for lunch, but thinking that it could happen at any minute, thanks in part to the test engineer saying we were “closer than we’ve ever been,” I stuck around and waited.
Finally, the test went off and I went to meet my wife. By this point I was a half-hour late and had some explaining to do. Luckily, she understood, but I still hated to keep her waiting.
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I feel like the same thing is going on with the new book, “Cash Flow Your Way to Wealth. I keep thinking that the book is almost done, but then I get a proof copy and sit down to read through it for errors and issues, and find that there are still things I want to improve and move around a bit. As a result, we’re always “closer than we’ve ever been.”
The other day I got a new proof copy (this is the third one) and started reading through it. I think that it is finally to the point where there are just typos and grammatical errors to correct, which means that it should be out in about a month. I’ve only made it through the first couple of chapters, however, so it may take a bit longer than I think.
I really like this book because it gives you something you really don’t find in other finance books – a specific strategy for managing your money to live a financially secure life. If a high school senior picked up this book before he got into debt and made all of the other bad decisions many of us make, he could save himself a lot of pain and not need to use the Dave Ramsey debt snowball to climb out. That is the beauty of it – we all start out clean and debt free when we first become adults. It is at that point that we try to live beyond our means and we get into trouble.
Hopefully, there are a few folks out there who have been following my posts on writing this book who are eager to get their hands on a copy. If you shoot me an email (VTSIoriginal@yahoo.com) I’d be happy to let you know when the book is ready so that you can buy a copy and not miss out. I also have a special offer for those who buy a copy of the book and send me proof (like a picture of the book in your hands or a screen capture of the e-book): I will give you a copy of a spreadsheet program I created to manage my own cash flow. This means that you can use all of the work I went through in putting the spreadsheet together to make developing your cash flow plan that much easier.
So, we’re closer than we’ve ever been. Please keep checking back to The Small Investor or subscribe to make sure you don’t miss the big release. May financial security find you all.
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Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to give financial planning or tax advice. It gives general information on investment strategy, picking stocks, and generally managing money to build wealth. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell stocks or any security. Financial planning advice should be sought from a certified financial planner, which the author is not. Tax advice should be sought from a CPA. All investments involve risk and the reader as urged to consider risks carefully and seek the advice of experts if needed before investing.