Entry 14 - Philosophical Analysis

1.) Which of your answers surprised you? Explain.

- After completing entries 8-13, I find it difficult to isolate one variable as one that most shocked my senses, as most of the solutions I found were awe-inspiring, inspiring and are sure to drive me forward towards becoming a wildlife biologists, and difficult to fathom in the context of my own life as high school student.  What helped me to arrive at the answer to this thought-provoking question was thinking of what society has deemed powers our livelihoods: money.  This fact of life made me realize that the calculation I made with the most awe for this component was where I figured out my life expenses to be had over the course of 39 years of working, this amount being $1,055,814.  This number compared to how much I should make working in my job as a Senior Environmental Scientist (before the use of a savings account) - $4,289,203.55 - makes me rather depressed as shall be spending almost 25% of hard-earned funds for food, car expenses, and my rent - these variables for only about 40% of what I must expect to pay on time as far as living in a cosmopolitan niche is concerned.  This saddening surprise though is made less harmful to my spirits by the fact that the federal government is affording me a refund amount in the form of tax returns for the year 2015, and perhaps shall continue such a phenomenon for many years to come, so far as my income stays constant.

This picture I took of my dog Kaia is eerie, like my thoughts on life are, and my responses to the many surprises that await me in its recesses

2.) Did you expect your lifetime earnings to be as much as you estimated in Entry 12?  Explain.

- I will completely honest when I say that I did not expect my lifetime earnings to be as much as I estimated in Entry 12, and so the estimation in Entry 12 that I calculated I assumed to be my optimistic goal and thus apparent in a best case scenario.  This surprise is most likely due to the fact that I though the value of the dollar was going to be high this year given the disagreements on capitol hill and lessening rates of productivity for farmers in California.  Instead, the inflation rate for the year 2015 is -0.1% so far, and so the power of buying is stronger.  In this way, my earnings followed the behavior of a very positive and steep exponential equation and led me to applying the inflation rate for future years so that my financial qualms could be alleviated.

3.) Did you expect your lifetime expenses to be as much as you estimated in Entry 13? Explain.

- I did not expect my lifetime expenses for four very narrow categories to be as much as I estimated in Entry 13, thinking these expenses would measure to a six-digit quantity.  Instead, this debt of mine is in the millionth group and has grown most likely due to high inflation rates and a habits of mine that I now regard as embarrassing.  I was under the impression that my expenses would involves simple multiplication, making way for my more optimistic predictions.  Once I read up on how the economy functions as a function of the value of the American dollar and the affect current events have on this factor of society, I became aware of how expectations can be easily muddled and how the cost of living can change on a dime.  Numbers only solidified my perception of chaos in this world or ours, and now I know what I need to prepare for in life: frugality to create flexibility in living.

This photo I snapped at the student volunteer center at the LA Zoo where I work every other weekend as a young researcher and exhibit interpreter reminds me of one way I can achieve my dream of becoming a wildlife biologist that would require a very little investment of money: to work my way up as a budding zoologist while earning a small degree at a nearby community college, making shall changes to the system that cages animals that shall one day have large positive effects as I move further up the trophic level as an apex predator

4.) Now that we’ve finished Life Stage 2, how would you change your answer to Entry 8? Why or why not?

- If I was allowed full-range freedom with my $1 million dollars, I now know that I must spend the money in a conservative fashion and that I must allow the amount to be used for preparations for more lucrative and life-fulfilling goals.  In this way, I hope to stash a good sum away in multiple savings accounts and away for charitable uses so that deductions are applied to my yearly tax forms.  The whopping amount of money will also be focused on achieving higher education so that I might widen my horizons and earn multiple degrees, making me irresistible to more prominent institutions that can better take care of my living expenses.  Job-hopping may be necessary and if this is the case in my lifetime, then the hopping must be up the trophic level and must provide for both a more substantial salary and application of my interests

To follow the route less traverses upon will be my method to living life to its fullest, without the complication of unpaid debt; this methodology will allow me $1 million one day I hope and shall thus act the riverbed pictured in this picture I took at Eaton Canyon: to make my life exciting, rocky, and enjoyable to think about as I rest on my death bed

5.) How would you change your answer if you know that $1 million needed to last you the rest of your life?  

- If the $1 million given to me in Entry 8 were a salary allowed to my uses in the apparent case that I need only work for one year, I would not have been so reckless in the spending of my gift.  Indeed, I though the monetary amount was not be taken seriously and so that is why I spent it on frivolous things liking buying luxurious car and an island in the middle of a Canadian lake, these things being dreams of mine in a world where imagination is a viable substitute for such mind-wanderings.  Besides changing my answer so that I better ensure my way of living as described in the aforementioned question response, I would spend my gift on mire sly methods of going by in life, such as investing a bit in the stock market while hiring a stock market analysts who can provide me with stock market knowledge and starting a business that exceeds its cost of runnings with its sales.  Indeed, creativity shall sometimes trump security, and with a $1 million, both can be achieved, affording me a life where dreams are less surreal and more grounded in reality.

This picture is one that illustrate a sharpie tattoo I got on my arm one day after spending a good amount of time in house; the tattoo is borne out of the imagination of its creator and conveys how wish to go about living, choosing creative ways of meeting the pay-off of debts and making wise investments that shall secure preparations for a worst case scenario