Help, I am becoming a D&D character !

When the directors of BIGScribe wanted to have a meet-up to plan the next event (click here if you want to attend my next talk which is free), I told Kyith that I'm always free because I was am still currently an "unemployed hobo".

Kyith then went onto the urban dictionary to get a formal definition of the word "Hobo" which I reproduce here :

" A hobo is an itinerant worker, a career which sprang up during the depression. A hobo, unlike a bum or a tramp, is more than willing to work, but mostly for a short duration, as their main impetus is travel, the love of the journey above the actual destination. A bum is stationary, feeding off of those unfortunate enough to cross his path; a hobo merely travels from town to town, finding work when he can, but only for the sake of financing his next adventure. NEVER call a hobo a bum...they'll kick your sorry no-bo ass! "

In Dungeons and Dragons, some player characters are known as murder-hobos. It basically describes a typical fantasy role-playing character, someone who goes around killing monsters and taking their treasure. D&D PCs also do not have a steady income. Most earnings come from the ransacking a treasure hoard that are found in most dungeons.

Too little has been said about freelancing work.

Thanks to my dividend flow, my finances can withstand having earned income coming in dribs and drabs. Even dividend income tends to come in on a quarterly basis, so for the past 4 years, I stopped thinking and spending like a person with a monthly income. All my budgeting efforts are made on a quarterly basis with planning made every January, April, July and October. Quarterly planning is definitely more intense and stressful and I generally spend less at the beginning of the quarterly and ramp up only before the next dividend payments season start.

There is the occasional upside that occurs every now and then.

First, I'm happy to say that Growing Your Tree of Prosperity has finally sold out, giving me close to half a week of living expenses of late. The copies I have left now are copies I will probably leave for my children. This raises questions as to whether I would publish another book on the updated $100,000 challenges for a new generation of fans. I think if I ever do this, I would like my work to come under a proper publisher given that the book was a Straits Times bestseller and I actually sold off an entire print-run at the end.

The next upside would be a more challenging but interesting one. I'm still in the process of planning my next serious workshop under Dr. Wealth. I would not put in any details here because they are a much better marketing engine than this blog can ever be. If you are interested in attending a preview, write to me privately (waichung.ng@gmail.com) and I will see if there is a way to enroll you into their mailing list but all preview seats have been taken up quickly and there are no seats available right now.

If this works out, I would be able to get something small to complement my passive cash flow. This is a reversal from the employment model I have employed in the past. Instead of using passive income to support a source of actively earned salary. I will have a small flow of active income to reinforce my passive income flow.

There is a philosophical antithesis to becoming a D&D character or a murder hobo.

The converse is being an NPC. In Skyrim, these are the guards who are stuck in a dead-end job because they took an arrow to the knee. For most of us, we spend the larger part of our lives as NPCs and this is the default lifestyle for most people. It is a good life of comfort and predictability.

For part of the FIRE community, I am now seeing some genuine efforts to see if there are alternatives to the NPC lifestyle.

Hopefully in a few years time, we will see more Adventurers in Singapore.