I spend way too much money

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by DanS
How far is Oxford from a major (over 2 million) city?

Oxford has a population of about 120 000...so quite a long way

[Drogue]

Originally posted by DanS
How far is Oxford from a major (over 2 million) city?

In distance or how far it is from being that itself? It's an hour's drive or train from London, and as PH said quite a way from being a large city.

[Jon Miller]

Oh, and like others have said, start putting away money now for your retirement. The sooner you do and the more you put away, the sooner you can retire.

I don't really care about retiring

also, right now my income is artificially low, because I am a student

JM

[Hot Mustard]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


I don't really care about retiring

And that's why most people don't until they're 65, or older. I'm aiming for 45 - I'll enjoy travelling the world while you're still slaving away.

Originally posted by Jon Miller

also, right now my income is artificially low, because I am a student

JM

Doesn't matter, start maxing out your RRSP contributions as young as you can and the rewards will be huge.

[Jon Miller]

RRSP?

also, I am and have been having fun now...

if I just wanted to have fun, I would do this for a long time

I was (and still am) aiming to be a professor, and enver retire

JM

[Provost Harrison]

I am putting aside some money in my pension but I am not going to worry too much about it and I don't think Jon should either...he can start doing that once he is working proper...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by dejon
And that's why most people don't until they're 65, or older. I'm aiming for 45 - I'll enjoy travelling the world while you're still slaving away.

45 is probably an unrealistic target, assuming that you have about 30 years to live off your savings.

Besides, having nothing to do becomes very boring after a while. One of my old bosses came out from retirement to start a business.

[pchang]

RRSP is the Candian equivalent to our IRA/401k/403b.

[Jon Miller]

I really want a laptop

JM

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I really want a laptop

::shrug::

Why? It's not like you need it to do work.

[Jon Miller]

I could install linux on it..
and work at coffee shops and the like..

and could move it between home, office at school, office at lab easily... (only one computer to personalize, versus 3)

etc

Jon Miller
(and it would be cool)

[Urban Ranger]

Okay. Perhaps the way to go forward is look for a bargain, maybe even a used one.

[Jon Miller]

yeah.. or possible get the one I have now (over 7 years old) repaired

how hard is it to fix a broken keyboard?

Jon Miller
(one concern about used ones is that they may have a nonexistant battery life, also laptops aren't near as solid as desktops)

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
yeah.. or possible get the one I have now (over 7 years old) repaired

how hard is it to fix a broken keyboard?

Depends on how it was broken. If only a couple of keys have gone bad you can always use the <alt> trick by pushing that key and the ASCII code of the character on the numeric keypad.

Originally posted by Jon Miller
(one concern about used ones is that they may have a nonexistant battery life, also laptops aren't near as solid as desktops)

I reckon battery life is more of a concern at this point, but if you have access to AC power you should be fine.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I could install linux on it..
and work at coffee shops and the like..

Then you can also have ridiculously Calorie-rich specialty coffees when you work.

Starbucks's most energetic coffee is 710 kcal/cup.