Archive of posts from May 2020
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Drip Irrigation Control System v4.0 – Software
This is a continuation of my previous post on control system v4.0. In that post I wrote about the hardware. Now I will talk about the software. If you have been following my drip irrigation control system design, you know that I switched from Arduino to ESP8266. It took some time for me learn about the new board, but it is very similar to Arduino when it comes to programming it.
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Update On Franklin Funds That Are Winding Up
It does not seem like the problems with Franklin are going to end anytime soon. They are in news everyday for some reason or the other. The first issue I can see is that the investors will not receive any money in May. The reason? Franklin has not yet started the voting process. And until that happens I don't think they can return anything to the investors. If you recall, I was hoping Franklin will return something in May.
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Should You Save For Kids Higher Education
You know my stance on saving for kid's education. Those who have read my blog or know me, understand that we are unschooling our kid. Most already know that I retired early. I guess early retirement and unschooled kid is probably not a common combination? Or may be it is just my feeling. Because, in this combination, one rarely plans to setup a corpus for kid's higher education. And yet many people ask why I haven't set aside a corpus for the kid.
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The Start of a New Series: Sustainable Living
In the last two meet-ups I had with my readers, I understood that a few people are interested in sustainable living. For those readers I am planning to start another series called the sustainable living. Since I don't know much about the topic and it is mostly run by my better half, I will hand over the reins to her when talking about sustainable living or organic gardening. To kick things off, I asked her to write a guest post as an intro to sustainable living and how she got started. So here is that one from her. Take it over mrs reynd.
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Drip Irrigation Control System v4.0 - Hardware
As promised, I started upgrading my drip irrigation control system with v4.0 design and software. If you read my last update on the control system, you know that there are two things that I wanted to add to it. One was a way to access the system via internet, so I don't need to physically configure it. And the other was to add a humidity sensor. I finally worked on the first upgrade. Now my control system is accessible over the net (currently limited to my home network). However, I had to make a few hardware design changes. I replaced Arduino with ESP8266. The why and how follows.
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Life After You Are Long Gone
Generally life is uneventful and routine until it is not. As long as you are fit and healthy, you are not thinking about what could life of a loved one be if you are suddenly doomed to become non-existent. No one ever plans for death. But it is a required step. Especially for some one who plans early retirement. For the sake of your family, think about how things should be when your life is cut short in an evil twist of fate.
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How Much Do I Make From Ads?
This is sort of a continuation of my previous post -- truth about my passive income. Over there I mentioned that I have recently started showing ads to offset some of the expenses of running the blog. And I promised a follow up post explaining the costs and how much I am earning from ads. So here it is. I will try to keep it short because it is probably not relevant for you.
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Do Kids Need Toys and Books in Unschooling
While unschooling is already the extreme end of the spectrum, it is not a thin line. There is a lot of variance. What seems like unschooling for one may still feel like home schooling for another. So it's all relative. How deep you want to go is all up to you. Consider this for example, some unschooling parents find any kind of books or toys to be a hindrance to creativity and learning. They prefer a fertile playground for children that is devoid of any man-made objects so children can learn the natural way. They prefer nature with trees and river and all the natural things one would find before the inventions and technology. While others may say books give knowledge while toys help in creativity. It is extremely hard to clearly demarcate where home schooling ends and unschooling begins in these cases.
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Should We Be Greedy or Fearful In The Current Market?
Should we be greedy or fearful? I really don't know. This is one of those confusing times. When the markets crashed all over the world due to COVID-19, I thought it was a good time to be greedy. But soon, the markets recovered some of the losses making it a confusing time. If markets don't fall down deeply, there is no way to properly time the market, which is what I like to do. In the current situation, I can do nothing much but keep my asset allocation the same as the markets move sideways.
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Virtual Meetup
Given the COVID-19 situation, it is probably better to do a virtual meetup rather than a physical one. So here is an invite to join me in a virtual meet-up to discuss random things on the topics of financial planning, early retirement, home schooling or sustainable living. We can share our stories and ask each other questions or give suggestions. As a group we can learn from each other's experience, learnings and pit-falls. Since I post a lot about me on this blog, you probably already know everything about me. But if you ever wanted to ask me something and did not bother to comment on the blog, this is your chance.
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How Much Will I Get From Franklin Ultra Short Term
You have all read about the Franklin debacle regarding the closure of 6 Franklin India Debt Funds. Many have invested in those funds. Especially the Franklin India Ultra Short Term fund, lured by the excellent returns. I am also one of the investors in the ultra short term fund. And I have a significant portion of my debt portfolio in it. The fund came with a promise of "optimum balance between regular income and high liquidity". But now, it can neither generate regular income, nor does it have any liquidity at all. Talk about the irony :)
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Is Unschooling for Everyone?
While we jumped ship and joined the unschooling camp, it may not be for everyone. Just like how early retirement is not applicable to everyone, so too is homeschooling or unschooling. While we still consider that we are at the early stage of our unschooling journey (although we have been unschooling for a couple of years now), I can already see a few "disadvantages" and "risks". I had to put those words in quotes because we don't see it as a disadvantage, or risk, but for some others it looks that way.
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Investment Recommendation App I use
If you remember how I handled the market downturn and why I don't follow the 70:30 allocation, you know the reason behind it. I was just doing what my app was recommending me to do based on the market. For the past few months I have been rewriting the app and finally have parity with the old version. This is one more of those pet projects of mine that I always wanted to work on after retirement and now living the dream :)
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