Malcolm Peralty's Ramblings

What a year it has been!

At the end of December 2018, I decided that I would challenge myself this year to track my calories and make sure I ate less than one million calories. It was a fun challenge, at first, and then the grind set in. I managed to keep tracking, but the real spirit of the challenge was lost along the way. In 2019, I plan on doing shorter challenges, but always focused on improving my physical and mental health.

We are still living in Kingston, in the same apartment that we first moved into when we came back here in early 2017. In less than two months, we will have been here for three years. This is one of the longest times in recent memory where I’ve stayed in one spot, and not only is it a record for not moving, but also for my career. I’ve been with PressTitan almost two and a half years, and it is officially my longest single continuous job.

Speaking of PressTitan, it is doing rather well. I still love what I do, and working with my co-founder, David, continues to be great. I feel like we continue to fill any gaps that the other has and we work well to keep us both from going too far off track with our creative ideas. We are growing, albeit slower than we would have liked, and we are constantly learning and improving our processes. We are definitely more ready today for a jump in clientele than we have ever been before.

We have some ideas of how to make 2020 our best year yet, but as we all know, ideas are easy, execution is hard. There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t think to myself, “I hope I get to do this forever…”

One of the coolest things from this year is that I finally got to meet David in person. Annie and I went to the Philippines for three weeks. It was amazing. The more I travel, the more I feel connected to the world and grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. There is nothing better than expecting a huge amount of culture shock, only to realize that even on the other side of the planet, people are mostly the same.

I will say that the outlook of the average Filipino on our North American style of life made us laugh more than once. More than once we were told that they think that the treadmill we put ourselves on with acquiring stuff and having larger and larger bills we are required to pay is dumb.

Luna, our dog, continues to be a huge joy bringer in our lives. As it gets cold outside, her washroom breaks have us a little exhausted from the winter weather already, but her demeanor, intelligence, and more has really improved our lives. It was hard leaving her with family during our big trips this year, but we super appreciated the opportunities that our family’s care of her afforded us.

I said trips with an “S”, didn’t I? We also went to Florida this past summer. One of Annie’s nieces and one of her nephews, both adults, both able to drive, came with us. We drove down and back as quick as we could, taking shifts and going through any kind of weather so that we could enjoy as much time in Florida as possible. We went to Universal Studios, and did a few other activities to fill the time. Mostly, we enjoyed the beautiful weather, scenery and just getting away.

Two of the major highlights for me were seeing people. I got to meet a younger friend of mine that I play video games with. His family welcomed Annie and I in like we were their own, and his dad took us out to an air boat ride. It was a great visit. The second person that I got to see was a boss of mine from a previous company I worked at. She was a strong mentor to me, despite how short of a time we got to work together. She helped me refine my sense of order and build some true project management skills. She wasn’t afraid to highlight my shortcomings or compliment me on the things I did right. It has always been very powerful to me that I got to experience that, and so it was amazing to be able to spend time with her. We went to a fondue restaurant that was amazing, but probably a once in a lifetime thing as it was fairly expensive.

The medicine the doctor prescribed for my depression has continued to work well. It has helped me maintain a good control over my emotions and that has given me the energy to manage my anxiety a bit more.

My personal blog finally got over the 1,000 post mark. I didn’t do as much writing for myself as I had hoped, neither on my blog or my creative writing projects. Most of my time and focus has been on work more than anything else. I did make some progress on The Forgotten Vanir first draft, but it isn’t done yet and doesn’t look like it’ll get completed until sometime in late 2020.

Annie finished a successful year at St. Lawrence College working on her Bachelor’s of Psychology and entered her second year of the program. She is excited to continue forward and has continued to develop and cultivate friendships at the school.

We’ve also been spending more time with my family. Going to my aunt and uncle’s place for dinner around three times a month seems to be the new norm. I love visiting with them and they make such great food. I hope we get to continue spending time with them often in 2020.

In 2018, I also found the confidence, in part thanks to Annie, to start working on changing my name. I have assumed the name Malcolm for more than a year and a half at this point and feel good about it. I have the paperwork pretty much complete to make it a legal name change, but things like travelling and other things have come up that have delayed the change. It will happen in 2020! I hate needing to remember which name I’m using for what… That’s getting old real fast.

Annie and I are looking forward to what 2020 brings and we are hopeful it’ll be our best year yet, from her education to our heath, our finances and our families. Thanks to everyone that has supported me over the past year and continues to do so. Thank you to everyone that has reached out over this past year, your love and support made 2019 the best for me in recent memory.

I want to preface this by saying that I am no expert in anything related to politics, the economy, finances, social structures, etc. I am just a regular person trying to provide my personal view on these topics and that as my understanding increases my opinions may change.

So I recently had a comment on one of my previous blog posts (UBI: A Transitional Economic Tool) where invertedlogicblog proposed that Negative Income Tax or NIT would be a better, more fiscally responsible way to provide people with an income floor. I haven’t done as much thinking or research on the idea of a negative income tax as I have basic income, so I read through their article and then started reading others. Some things bugged me about NIT right away…

NIT is Cheaper?

The numbers I’m seeing for comparing a Negative Income Tax to a Basic Income only show the total cost outlay of the money that each “qualified” person would get. In a NIT solution, only those reporting incomes under a certain threshold would receive what basically amounts to a cash refund from the government to be used as stimulus and everyone in UBI would get the same amount of money no matter how much or little they made. These differences create a false narrative.

Let’s say that we have a NIT that provides $10,000 to any person making less than $40,000 per year and take away $0.50 per additional dollar earned. So at $60,000, the person doesn’t get any further “tax refund”.

So it seems like that makes NIT a great way to go because those making $60,000+ don’t get anything from the program.

Over on the basic income side, if we provide $10,000 per year to everyone, then people making $60,000 get $10,000. People making $250,000 get $10,000. So the UBI program is more expensive, right?

No.

With a progressive tax system, the government claws back that money in the same way as the adjustment system tracking NIT payments is done. We adjust tax rates to compensate for the payouts in the system.

So for argument’s sake, we adjust the tax rates so that those at $50,000 of income ($40,000 + $10,000 UBI) don’t pay any additional tax. Then, the bracket above that is adjusted to recoup a certain percentage of the UBI payout until at $70,000 of income ($60,000 employment and $10,000 UBI) the person pays back the full UBI amount they receive. Thus, anyone above that point wouldn’t receive any net income transfer from the government.

Now UBI and NIT start to have similar costs.

Note: I am not saying that any of these numbers are the right way of building out this system. I’m using simple numbers for easy comparisons.

Update: My wife wanted more commentary on this part… So I’ve added the next few paragraphs.

Another big thing that people talk about is giving money to the wealthy and how that is dumb. I get it. It does seem dumb to give to people that don’t need it, but if UBI deposits are managed/executed by computers since it is universal on reaching adulthood, then it doesn’t matter how many payments are sent out, that doesn’t create additional administration burden and since the money comes back through taxes, it doesn’t create a true financial burden on the system.

Also, people talk about the rich avoiding taxes or creating systems where it looks like they have no income so that they can pay less taxes, no taxes or even qualify for more money, but both of these systems, as well as our current one, are vulnerable to this kind of abuse. We can continue to add layers of oversight to try to mitigate this kind of tax avoidance, but at the end of the day, NIT and UBI are more about creating an income floor and not focused as much on trying to solve income inequality. Other systems and tools need to solve that issue.

One Time vs Monthly

A Negative Income Tax typically is setup as a one-time payment to those that qualify and only after their need has been established. I think this is the greatest Achilles heel of NIT.

NIT Story

Say that John lost his really great paying job in October. Tax season is in April. John’s industry has been gutted for one reason or another and finding a job in the same or adjacent fields is next to impossible. He applies to minimum wage jobs, but so many of his colleagues and the colleagues of his competitors have flooded the market.

John gets some money from the social assistance programs that exist, but some turn him away because his last tax filing tells them that he should have had more than enough to save for this rainy day. John sells everything he owns that has value to make ends meet. He wants to work. He needs to work, but there’s nothing currently.

Tax season comes and John files his taxes. The government takes a look at his high earnings from the previous year and he doesn’t qualify for a refund. That Negative Income Tax that everyone is always talking about isn’t going to help John this year.

Thankfully, after maxing out all of his credit cards, and receiving very little support from the government, he finds a job in June. John was unemployed for almost nine rough months, but he made it to the other side. No thanks to NIT.

UBI Story

In another country, UBI has been set-up. A very similar situation occurs, where Mary loses her job in October. But this time, Mary gets a payment transfer at the start of November. Their UBI transfer. She uses it to feed herself, to continue paying rent and to continue looking for a new job.

Tax season comes around and she puts in her numbers. The government got paid taxes by Mary’s previous company at a rate that fit the expectations of her salary, so with the drop in earnings she’s had over the last three months of the year, she doesn’t owe anything additional, in fact, she is due a small refund from their yearly taxes.

Mary didn’t max out her credit cards, she didn’t have to sell everything of value to cover the gap in employment. While she did increase her debt over the year by paying for the gap between her expected lifestyle and the lifestyle that UBI could help her afford, she is able to look around at her small apartment and feel safe, comfortable and happy.

Overview

In my opinion, a one-time financial transfer has all kinds of limitations and doesn’t deal with edge cases very well. It also seems very reactionary, creating situations where people have to prove they are worthy of an income floor. This disconnect creates the potential for a negative perception towards those that are getting the Negative Income Tax.

How Do I File Taxes?

The other concern I have with the Negative Income Tax solution is that it requires people to file their taxes. While most of us think this an easy thing, thanks to the various accounting services or computer programs that we use, for those without similar resources, navigating the paperwork and terminology can be quite difficult and when mistakes can cost you the ability to get the money you need or to get more than you deserve potentially creating a situation where you can be penalized, it could end up being more messy.

Sure, under a UBI, there will be people that don’t submit their taxes and they’ll make money under the table and thus get more than they deserve, but the same issue can occur with NIT. Both of these systems don’t have a great way to address fraud or waste. That has to be expected. We can put in place various solutions and systems to reduce this to a manageable level but it can be difficult to balance protecting money and making it easily accessible for those that need it.

People Will Stop Working

Good. That should be the goal of our society.

We weren’t built to work eight hours per day, five days a week. Work should be a source of fulfillment and a source for “more”. If you want to drive a nicer car, own a nicer cell phone, have more land, a larger house, then you work, make money and have those things. But any article or person that believes we should be okay with anyone starving, being homeless, being constantly sick, or lacking the opportunity to have a reasonable quality of life is messed up in my opinion.

And if you think it is unfair that they don’t have to work, then once one of these systems in place…stop working too. Join them. I don’t care. It opens up a position for someone that wants to work. If there are a bunch of people leaving the job market and it hasn’t been completely automated or outsourced away, then competition in an industry to get qualified candidates may mean an increase in salary and/or benefits.

People always joke about no one wanting to be the garbage man or clean toilets, but if those jobs end up being high paying, very rewarding jobs with fairly short shifts, then I think people might take them on, at least until they can be automated…

Conclusion

I still need to do a ton more research on these topics. My understanding of them is still very limited, but I hope that this article gave you some new ideas, a new perspective to explore. I don’t have the solution for our society, but I do know that it is going to require some radical changes if we want to maintain a somewhat comparable quality of day-to-day adult life that the last two or three generations in North America have experienced.

It’s my birthday today. How do I reflect on the past year? With this calendar decade coming to an end and a reminder with this birthday that I’m quickly approaching forty, how do I measure my life so far and the goals I had and have?

When I was a teen, I never expected to be here at thirty-seven. When I was a young man in my early twenties, I thought that I’d be in a much more financially comfortable position by now. As I approached thirty, my life swerved again and my expectations of being unencumbered and able to see the world stopped being a priority. Everything I had expected has either taken longer or pushed me down a different road than I had intended.

When I look back on my life and think about where I expected to be at this point, I’m super hard on myself for the things I haven’t achieved, the goals I haven’t met, but what really surprises me is how happy I am in my life as it exists today. I think that’s the thing that my younger self would not be able to comprehend. I don’t own a house. I am not raising children. I haven’t traveled to a bunch of exotic places (though I did go to the Philippines, somewhere I never expected). But, despite all of that, I feel very lucky, very fortunate.

I have an amazing wife. I probably have the best relationships with a larger number of family members than I ever have previously. I have an extended family that has helped me not only to be better, but let me lean on them when I wasn’t doing well. I have a career where I get to do something I enjoy and get paid well for doing it. I have an adorable dog that always wants my love and attention and returns it a thousand fold. I have wonderful friends that are understanding, patient, and supportive. Sure, I still struggle with my mental health, but for the first time since starting dealing with this disease, I feel like I have a much better handle on it than I ever have.

This is not the life I pictured for myself, but this is a good life.

While I am very uncomfortable celebrating my birthday, I am also extremely grateful for the wonderful messages that I have received not only today, but over the last year and beyond. The amount of support I receive from so many wonderful people has helped me more than my words could ever say. I am here because of all of you. I am successful because of all of you. I am happy because of all of you.

Thank you for the birthday wishes, thank you for your love and support! I hope in the year ahead we will all continue working together to keep improving our lives and increasing our collective happiness, come what may.

Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly, in spurts, writing The Forgotten Vanir, a novel about runic tattoos that enable certain people to cast magic.

I am currently back working on the book and have added a few thousand words the last couple of days. My hope is to get the majority, if not all, of the first draft completed this month, during NaNoWriMo. What I’m doing is not part of NaNoWriMo, but I’m trying to use it as inspiration to write creatively again.

It took me a bit to get back into the story and I had to go back and re-read what I’ve written so far as well as reviewing my planning document and inspiration images. It feels good to be back in this story. The characters are coming alive in my imagination, and I’m enjoying the process, despite not being able to get as much as I want from my fingers to the story… I was hoping to average over sixteen hundred words, and I’ve been averaging around half of that.

I don’t know how career writers do it. Creating a world with words is so difficult.

If you are interested in reading the first draft, the first twenty-thousand or so words of the raw first draft are available online at TheForgottenVanir.com.

A huge thanks to my wife for reviewing my first draft and providing suggestions for my second draft, as well as anyone that has or will take the time to read my writing.

I have been listening to some documentaries while working and I feel like there should be a documentary that focuses on the media’s influence on eating and food choices as well as the quality of food that exists today. I’m concerned that most documentaries and diets overlook the societal issues and current food quality thus creating a false narrative.

Imagine a documentary that analyzes the current amount of nutrients and vitamins and health factors in different foods and compares that to historical data, as well as looking for unhealthy factors in foods like lead and pesticides and other concerns. Maybe it could also be fair and talk about human evolution and how food companies play on different factors that are more likely to get us to consume their products. 

I often feel like I don’t have any good choices. I can find documentaries and videos about the positive effects of any diet as well as documentaries and videos about the negative effects of any diet. With this wealth of information, often times with people having a specific agenda (I see you Keto and Vegan people as well as you dairy lobbyists!), it becomes hard to make a decision regarding what is best which causes me stress, frustration and apathy. 

I sometimes feel like if there is no good choice then I might as well eat whatever I want. Or I’m tired from a busy day, I don’t feel like cooking, ready-made meals at grocery stores are all too processed so I’ve failed at nutrition and let’s have McDonald’s.

I recently watched a documentary that focused on whole food, plant-based eating and was intrigued. I don’t know that I could ever completely give up meat or dairy, but I’m open to trying to eat healthier. At first the documentary seemed to be going in a direction that I could get behind. It covered why a growing number of people are obese, even starting to talk about how our brains, stomachs and hormone systems work. Then it felt like they threw all of that away, never touched it again and moved on. Around the mid-point of the documentary, one of the people they were interviewing basically gave a short spiel about how eating healthy is like opening a combination lock to a box full of money, and if you don’t eat completely healthy, you don’t get some of the money within the box.

Anyways, after watching the documentary, I did some research on eating a whole food, plant-based diet only to find information countering many of the things said in the documentary, such as issues with pesticides causing negative health effects as well as a decrease in the nutrition available in much of the produce available in North American grocery stores today. There were people pointing out that some of the “experts” in the documentary lacked a depth of knowledge, were themselves backed by or financially incentivized to promote this diet or were cherry-picking studies to prove their preconceived point.

Add to that the feeling of increased cost, whether that point is legitimate or not, a personal feeling of rapid spoiling of fresh produce creating a waste of food and money, and a busy daily schedule, it becomes hard to find the time, money, and willpower to make better food choices. That is if we can even figure out what better food choices really are beyond reducing consumption of processed foods, something most documentaries seem to agree on.

In the end, maybe then this imaginary documentary could give some advice on avoiding some of the tricks that companies play, provide insight into how to bolster our willpower when it comes to our food choices, as well as providing some advice on how to get access to reasonably priced food that will benefit your health. Can someone put that together, please?

A family member recently experienced a major issue with their vehicle, a vehicle that is a one year older version of the same make and model that we have. It got me thinking about our next vehicle.

We haven’t yet paid off our current vehicle loan. We got zero percent financing from Kia when we traded in the Kia Rio lemon that they sold us only a few years before. This meant that we were upside down on our car loan (owed more than the new vehicle was worth). I don’t recommend anyone doing this. If it wasn’t for the high trade-in value we received for our previous vehicle and the zero percent financing, we would have gone elsewhere for our new one.

I am a bit of an Elon Musk fanboy, and have been keeping on top of the developments in all of his companies the best that I can. Of course, that means watching Tesla and their vehicles. Since the Tesla Model S first came out, I’ve been salivating over that car. When the Tesla Model 3 came out, I switched to thinking that maybe that would be our next vehicle. The announcement of the Tesla Model Y made me think that it would be an even better option than the Model 3, despite being a bit more expensive, it would likely have more cabin space and a more comfortable driving position. Of course, all of these vehicles, are premium in terms of cost, especially if you want any of the upgrades from the stock/standard versions that they often don’t even sell.

So when my sister-in-law let my wife know of the issues their car was experiencing, it got me thinking about what we would do in their situation. They were looking at a big, off-warranty, repair that would cost as much as one-third of the current used-value of the car.

Of course, we would pay it, but not be happy about it. What else can you do, especially when you are still paying off a vehicle? When you buy a vehicle with a six or seven year financing plan, you expect the vehicle to last at least that long, but if it doesn’t, and you are out of warranty. What do you do? This is the kind of problem that we see all over North America. Of course, the snide response is that you shouldn’t be financing for such a long term or to only buy what you can afford to pay for in cash, but those kind of responses aren’t really helpful or even realistic for some people.

The whole thing got my brain buzzing, and Annie pointed out that I should create a spreadsheet of all the current full-electric vehicles being sold in Canada and see which one would best fit our needs.

My gut instinct was to say that we are buying the Model 3 or the Model Y depending on what we can afford at the time.

But I jumped into Google Sheets, and started looking through lists of vehicles. I configured vehicles how I would want them using the tools that the different car companies provide and found out both the base-model and my-configuration prices. I looked at the expected range and calculated an expected winter range that was seventy-five percent of expected range. I also noted the financing terms that the different companies currently listed.

With all this data, I came to some conclusions:

• Premium brands like Audi, BMW, and Jaguar are way too expensive with Audi and Jaguar having configured prices over $100,000 and BMW having a $65,000 vehicle with half or less range than the competition.
• There seems to be three “standard” ranges of all-electric vehicles: around 200 KM, near 400 KM, and Tesla at around 500+ KM.
• Most all-electric vehicles aren’t focused on self-driving features. Tesla seems to be leading the way here.
• The typical financing interest rate seems to be around 4% for 60 – 96 months.

So, am I going to get a Tesla? Well, the Model 3 might still be in the running because I’m a fanboy, but with the longer range and the self-driving features, it would be a monthly financing price of over $800 for eight years. That’s no small amount and puts us at almost twice what we are paying now.

The three vehicles in true contention would have to be the Hyundai Kona Electric, Chevrolet Bolt EV, and the Kia Niro EV .

Kia Niro Ev

The Niro is a crossover vehicle that isn’t much larger than most mid-sized cars, but it looks like it might have a decent amount of head height. It has a range of around 385 kilometers which should be more than enough for most driving situations, including visiting family on the other side of Toronto.

The big advantage here is that Kia has been decent to us and would probably give us the best deal out of the vehicles listed here. Unfortunately, I worry about their quality control. It seems like Kia has become the budget brand for Hyundai.

If you didn’t already know, Kia is 51% owned by Hyundai, which is why many of their vehicles look similar.

The Kia Niro Ev starts at $44,995 but when I configured it with reasonable options, it came out to be $56,129. It is still eligible for a federal tax rebate, but who knows for how much longer.

The Kia website lists the finance price of my selected model to be $766.96 per month at a 3.99% interest rate for an 84 month (7 year) term.

Chevrolet Bolt Ev

It always confused me that the Volt is a hybrid and the Bolt is the electric vehicle, but also in contention after comparing variables is the Chevrolet Bolt EV, a compact hatchback looking car, provides up to 383 kilometers of range, only two less than the Niro.

I’ve watched a ton of reviews on this car, and the consensus is that the seats are uncomfortable, it sounds and looks cheap, but drives well. I think that description might cover most of Chevrolet’s non-premium offerings.

Interestingly, it seems to have more backseat room than the Kona, making it more comfortable for taller people like myself to sit in the back. Why would this matter? Well, on our trip to and from Florida this summer, I found myself in the back for a long time and realized just how small our Kia Forte is, and I didn’t like it. So having additional leg room in the back would be handy in rare situations like that.

The Chevrolet Bolt Ev starts at $44,800 and my configuration came out to be $54,230, so a little cheaper than the Niro. The Chevrolet website lists the financing for my configuration to be $691 per month at 1.99% interest over 84 months.

Hyundai Kona Electric

Listed as a sub-compact SUV, the Kona looks similar to the Niro in many ways. The Kona is a gasoline vehicle design that was converted to be an electric vehicle and the reviews that I watched seem to be impressed with how little they had to change externally and in the cabin to make that work.

The Kona Electric states that it has a range of 415 kilometers on a full charge. This is thirty kilometers more than the Niro, and thirty-two kilometers more than the Bolt. With an electric vehicle losing a solid chunk of range due to heating the cabin in the winter, or cooling it in the summer, having more base range means that after these reductions are taken into account, you still have an advantage over the others, and we don’t want to suffer too much range anxiety to switch to an electric platform.

This might seem a bit silly, but the Kona has ventilated front seats. That means that it can blow cool air on your torso, cooling you down faster on a hot day. For someone like me that runs hot, this can be a real treat. I bring this up not because it would make or break a vehicle purchase, but instead, it provides a little bonus if we went with the Kona.

The Kona starts at $44,999, which means it has the highest starting price, but after I add in all of my options, the vehicle ends up being $52,326.20, which is more than $2000 cheaper than the other two competitors in this post.

The financing listed on the Hyundai website for my configuration comes out to be $650.13 per month at a 3.79% interest rate over 84 months. This means it is over $100 cheaper per month than the Niro, and over $40 cheaper per month than the Bolt. So not only does it have more range than the other two, it is also less expensive and it comes in a turquoise looking blue that my wife and I both like.

In the end, the Hyundai Kona Electric would be our front-runner if we had to purchase a vehicle today and felt we could afford an electric one.

Conclusion

But, I hope that we don’t have to purchase a new car any time soon. We still have a few more years of paying off our current car, and then we hope to not have car payments for a little while so we can build up a solid down payment on a new vehicle. Our plan was always to run our current car into the ground, which means getting to the point where repairs are more costly and common than the value of the car. This might happen this year or next year, if my sister-in-law’s vehicle is any indication, or it might be three, four, or even five years from now when the car is a decade old.

When the current car ends up being replaced, we will definitely want an electric vehicle, but we aren’t willing to compromise too heavily on features, range, or price.

Ideally, we would get something like the Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, but at more than $20,000 more expensive than the vehicles listed above, I just think it is too expensive for us and will have to remain a dream car unless or until we have the financial means to make it happen.