Passive Income in Australia: Perk TV update

Due to a change in Perk TV’s payment rates, it may now actually be a viable passive income source for Australians. This post repeats the previous analysis undertaken here, using the new parameters.   

Recently, a commenter on my previous analysis of Perk TV let me know that the payment rates had changed. Previously, watching two videos in the US would net you four points. In Canada, four videos would give you four points. But for the rest of us chumps worldwide, we had to watch 20 videos for four points. This was a huge source of disadvantage and was one of the key reasons it was not viable for Australians. Now however, that’s all changed.

According to Perk Support, the new rates are:

• For US: Earn up to 3 points for each video

• For UK, Canada and Australia: Earn up to 1 point for each video

• For IN: Earn up to 1 point for each video

 Source 

This is quite a drastic change in rates for Australians - instead of 5 videos to get a point, we can now watch just one. Though I’m a little skeptical of the ‘up to’ part of those sentences. In any case, let’s get into the analysis.

Analysis

Unfortunately, unless you sign up you can no longer see the points required to redeem for each reward. In this case, I’m going to assume that my previous assumption still holds. That is, that you would prefer to convert into cash rather than a gift card, and that the Paypal $25 gift card is still the best value for 35,000 points (if anyone can correct me on this, it would be much appreciated). Though I have read about other users who redeem for gift cards and then exchange them with other people for cash options, I will ignore this in my analysis as it seems quite variable what value you might exchange them for. Additionally, if the idea is for passive income, then spending time trying to exchange for something else is also an opportunity cost on your time. Again, we’ll ignore these and stick with a simple ‘earn points, get gift card’ paradigm.

This means the exchange rate to a $25 PayPal gift card is 1400 Perk points = $1 (35000 / 25). Assuming that the average video is about 2 minutes long, and under the new payment rates, that we are rewarded with 1 point per video - we could expect to earn 720 points per phone per day (1440 min/day / 2; also assumes that these videos are running continuously). This works out at a theoretical maximum return, under these parameters, of 51.4 cents per phone per day ( 720 points/day / 1400 points/dollar).

Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story as there are at least some costs which would eat into your return - namely the cost of your data and power, and tax implications. There could be others as well, for example if you were to purchase a phone for this specific use, but we’ll ignore this as this is more an individual circumstance thing.

I’m going to assume that the user has a properly unlimited data plan. I say “properly unlimited”, because there are many in Australia that advertise as “unlimited” but have some clause that states you can’t use more than X GB otherwise your speed will be throttled/shaped. If you’re already paying for a properly unlimited data plan, then the additional data usage from Perk TV doesn’t impact you and can therefore be ignored. If you aren’t on a properly unlimited plan and you were going to upgrade your service, then there would obviously be an additional cost to factor in. Again, for simplicity, I’m going to ignore this one - but do your own math for your own situation.

I’m also going to assume that most of my analysis on electricity costs from last time still holds. That is, 4 US cents per phone per day, with our approximate doubling factor to account for higher energy costs in Australia (the previous post explains the rationale), and taking into account the exchange rate.  The exchange rate has moved slightly since last time, and not in our favour. Currently, the exchange rate is sitting at 1 USD = 1.36 AUD. So our daily electricity costs work out to be 12.08 cents per day (4c USD/phone/day multiplied by 2.22 - the higher electricity costs factor - multiplied by 1.36 to convert to AUD).

Finally, let’s consider tax implications. I ignored this last time, mainly because it didn’t occur to me, but also because electricity costs alone outweighed any cash benefit under the previous payment rates - so there wasn’t any use in beating a dead horse. Obviously, income tax in Australia is very dependent on your own situation - income tax rates are marginal, so the tax you would pay on these additional earnings depends on what your income already is. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to ignore complexities like the Medicare levy and other tax offsets that you may or may not be entitled to.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in November 2016 the average weekly total earnings for all employees was $1,163.50 (Source). Multiplying by 52, this comes out at $60,502 in annual terms. So let’s assume that is your current income. Your earnings from Perk TV would therefore be taxed at 32.5 cents per dollar (Source). Again, do your own sums for your personal situation.

Looking at the breakdown, we have (theoretically, remember) 51.4 cents earned per day, less 12.08 cents in electricity, less 16.705 cents in tax ( 51.4 cents * 0.325 cents in the dollar). This comes to 22.615 cents per day in net income. 

In summary, Perk TV is a net positive passive income stream for Australians providing the following assumptions hold:

• Australians are paid 1 point per video
• 35,000 points are exchanged for a $25 PayPal gift card, which represents the best value for very minimal effort (happy to be corrected if this reward is no longer current)
• You have a properly unlimited data plan and can thus ignore the additional costs of usage
• Electricity costs are about 12 cents per day
• You are on the middle marginal income tax bracket of 32.5 cents in the dollar

Obviously, your milage may vary depending on your own circumstances - so do your own math. 

Your thoughts?

Is there anything I missed in my analysis? Do you think it is worthwhile from your experience? Have you done your own - how does it work out for you? What parameters make your results better/worse? Love to hear from any other Aussies having a go at this one.

Fun With Economics: Tax Incidence

On Budget night, the Treasurer announced a raft of infrastructure spending and other measures which are to be funded by some key tax increases, namely the Medicare levy increase and a new tax on the five largest banks in Australia. This blog post focuses on the latter - putting aside the politics, let's have some fun with economics, shall we?

The Policy

From 1 July 2017, Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs, read: banks) with liabilities of $100 billion will be subject to a six basis point (0.06%) levy on these liabilities. A levy usually works by taking a proportion of the whole amount that is over a threshold, so a bank with $100bn + $1 of the right liabilities, would owe the Tax Office about $60 million. The measure is projected to raise about $1.5bn each financial year over the forward estimates period (read: the next four years), for a total of $6bn. (http://budget.gov.au/2017-18/content/bp2/download/bp2.pdf)

Who is affected

Currently, the only banks affected by this measure are the Big Four (Westpac, Commonwealth, National Australia Bank, ANZ) and Macquarie Bank (http://www.abc.net.au/news/story-streams/federal-budget-2017/2017-05-09/federal-budget-2017-big-banks-bear-the-brunt/8511364). The Treasurer, Scott Morrison, has been at great pains to state that it doesn’t affect “pensioners’ and others’ ordinary deposit accounts, nor is it on home loans”. This is technically correct - the budget papers state that the liabilities subject to the levy include “corporate bonds, commercial paper, and Tier 2 capital instruments” and are not applied to “additional Tier 1 capital and deposits of individuals, businesses and other entities protected by the Financial Claims Scheme”. So the calculation for the banks will be something like, take the sum of all your liabilities, subtract the Tier 1 stuff and multiply by 0.06% to figure out what they owe the Tax Office.

However, this policy ignores some fundamental economic theory - namely, tax incidence. Tax incidence is a fancy term for saying “who actually ends up paying for this?”.

Economic Theory Time

Tax incidence can be worked out by considering the price elasticity of supply and demand. In this case, supply and demand could be across a whole range of products and services (e.g. financial advice, insurance, mortgages, bank accounts etc.). But for simplicity, let’s stick with mortgages.

The demand side is probably more intuitive, so let’s start there. How likely are you to change mortgages if your interest rate moves slightly? Chances are, not very likely. Researching and comparing mortgages is a pain in the arse, and most people would rather do just about anything else with their time. OK, what about if you were considering taking on a new mortgage - would a small increase in the interest rate prevent you from taking it out? Probably not, for a whole raft of reasons. In this case, the price elasticity of the demand for mortgages is said to be relatively inelastic. That is, changes in price do not have much effect on demand (people taking out or changing mortgages).

What about the supply side then? This is a little more complicated, because each individual bank has the ability to determine its own interest rates, albeit with some big influencing factors such as the underlying cash rate maintained by the RBA etc. Additionally, new loans are somewhat constrained by prudential regulation, such as requirements to hold certain amounts of different forms of capital (the tiers we saw earlier), and for example, the recent new caps applied to interest-only loans (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-31/apra-clamps-down-on-interest-only-mortgage-loans/8403712) and so forth. Loans for new housing are also constrained by the land available for development - you can’t borrow to build a house on land you are not allowed to build on in the first place! Let’s keep these in the back of our mind as think about price elasticity.

So what about the price elasticity of mortgage loan supply? How likely will a bank be to offer more loans (subject to the constraints we discussed before) if it can charge a higher interest rate? Very likely. More loans at higher interest rates, means more returns and profits for the bank. The kicker is whether the size in the increase in the amount of loans offered at the higher price is greater than the increase in price. That is, if price goes up a little, does the amount of loans supplied go up a lot? If this is the case, then supply of mortgage loans is said to be relatively elastic. That is, increases (or decreases) in the price, has a considerable effect on the amount of loans a bank is willing to supply. I think this is a fair assumption to make.

So we have price inelastic demand for loans and price elastic supply of them. The supply and demand curve diagram would look something like the below (though probably with a more horizontal supply curve, to indicate the higher elasticity). 

We begin at the point (P without tax, Q without tax) - our current equilibrium point. The imposition of the levy raises the price to P with tax. Due to inelastic demand for mortgages, the quantity demanded drops a little, and the supply curve shifts (to the left, as the quantity supplied is now lower). A new equilibrium point is reached at (P with tax, Q with tax), where a lower quantity of mortgages are demanded at a higher price (interest rate). The tax incidence is shown as the differences from the previous equilibrium point. Moving from (P without tax, Q without tax) along the supply curve to the new quantity supplied (Q with tax), we see that a part of the tax has impacted suppliers; they now supply fewer loans at higher prices. Moving from (P without tax, Q without tax) along the demand curve to the new quantity demanded (Q with tax), we see that there has also been some impact on consumers; they now demand fewer loans at the higher price. We see that, due to the relative elasticities of demand and supply (the slopes of the curves), there is relatively higher incidence of the tax on consumers (loanees), rather than producers (banks). Whether consumers or producers face a higher incidence depends on the relative elasticities of supply and demand (i.e. it depends on what the curves actually look like) - the above example is purely illustration. 

That’s all very nice in theory, what’s the reality?

Supposing that the levy gets through parliament (which it probably will), these bigger banks will have an extra bill to pay. They could get the money to pay for this by either reducing their profits, making their own operations more efficient, and/or increasing prices to customers. Reducing profits and therefore dividends (the incidence on producers above) will probably upset shareholders, of which your superannuation fund probably forms a sizeable part. Banks will most likely want to avoid this at all costs. In my opinion, further increasing operational efficiency is unlikely. In all likelihood, it will be some combination of all of these things, but I think primarily it will be sourced by passing it on to consumers through minor increases in prices (fees and interest rates).

Of course, Turnbull and Morrison aren’t stupid - they’ve already said that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be watching these banks closely for signs that this may be passed on. However, as best put by the ABC, while “[t]he ACCC will be able to force the banks to explain any changes to home loan pricing, including fees or interest rates, during that period, although it is unclear anything could be done to prevent those price rises”. If you have accounts or a mortgage with one of the aforementioned banks, I think it’s prudent to be prepared for a small increase in either your fees or rates but don’t expect them to cite the government’s major bank levy as the reason.

However, because this only applies to five major banks and not everyone, there is nice little constraint on the affected banks to be careful about increasing their fees and rates - namely, that you the customer could take your business elsewhere. While there is some obvious inertia (see: comparing banks/mortgages is a pain in the arse), some customers at least will change banks if they are too gung-ho about passing the tax on. The takeaway being that, you have the power to avoid this potential problem, so long as you are willing to endure the very boring process of comparing financial institutions and products.

Your thoughts?

Of course, much of this is purely speculation given that there is very little policy detail as far as I can tell. Do you think it’s good policy? Bad policy? Why/why not? What would be your alternative proposal? Do you think it has support to get up, from the community, the pollies or both?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Passive Income in Australia: Update on Gomez Peer

After a brief foray into passive income using the Gomez Peer application, I have decided to uninstall it. Here's why.

In an earlier post I described why Gomez Peer could be a suitable passive income opportunity for Australians. However, I've since decided to uninstall the Gomez Peer application. My reasoning is as follows:

It's been about 10 months since I initially installed the program and I am still yet to be activated, despite having over 230,000 minutes of online time accrued (160 days) and over 72,000 minutes (50 days) of processing time (i.e. about 30% of my online time was spent processing - see below). Although they state that "account activation depends on how well your system characteristics match our current testing needs", I'm not sure how factual this is. In the time since I've had the program running, I've lived in three different places (some distance from each other) and had two different connection types (DSL and Fibre). Additionally, I would consider a 30% rate of processing time to online time to be evidence that my characteristics match their testing needs (though I have no hard data to compare against). I have attempted to make contact with the company to seek a timeframe for activation, however the contact form on their website doesn't appear to work, nor did they respond to a Facebook message left on their page. This has reignited some of my earlier skepticism.

While I knew that this avenue was only ever going to offset some of the running costs of my computer, I have since decided that I'm just going to modify my behaviour (i.e. turning off my computer when its not in use) rather than leave it running 24/7. A quick Google search for "software to turn pc on off automatically" nets a wealth of information on how this process can be automated. I'm considering just having it turn itself on for a few hours in the morning and evening on weekdays, and I'll turn it on when I need it on the weekends when I have the time to wait for it to boot up.

I think there is a certain danger of giving into the sunk cost fallacy with this program. That is, it's very easy to say "I've got all this online time/processing time now, maybe I'll just leave it running just in case I get activated". I think it's worth assessing the up and downsides though: The upside is quite small - a passive income stream tied to having your computer being on and online - while the downsides are larger in comparison - the longer your account is pending, the more potential income you forgo while continuing to pay the running costs of your PC to remain ready to undertake processing. If the activation process had of been quicker, it may have enticed me to stay with the program - however, the experience has made me realise that I'd be much further ahead if I just turned my computer off when I'm not using it.

I've now removed the links to download Gomez Peer on my blog and in my earlier post.

Announcement: Taking a break and launching a new website

I know I haven't been as active on here lately. I've moved from Newcastle back to Canberra and I'm trying to get settled back into a bit of a routine. In the meantime, I've also been clocking up the kilometres to play gigs with Tortured and Namazu between Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra lately, which would be great to do an update on when I can. Not the least of which because I got to play with two amazing bands: The Black Dahlia Murder, and one of my favourite technical death metal bands, Psycroptic.

I just wanted to write a quick announcement to say I'll be putting my personal blog on hold for a little bit, while I shift my focus to another endeavour. Namely, getting my SAS Base Programmer certification. The exam is in November, so I'm going to be studying my arse off the next couple of months. I've started another blog/website to share my study notes with the world. The address is https://learnsasprogramming.wordpress.com/ if you want to check it out. You might even learn something yourself!

I've still got plenty of stuff churning through my brain that I want to write about, but I'll have to postpone for a little bit while I focus on getting my SAS qualification.

Cheers!

Four reasons Pole Dancers are like Metalheads

Last weekend, I went to watch a friend compete in the North NSW Pole Dancing Championships and it got me thinking how much people who are into pole dancing have in common to people who listen to and play metal. I thought it would be interesting to draw some parallels between the two, so here are four things pole dancers have in common with metalheads.

1. Both are subcultures that sit outside of the mainstream

Most people can't understand the appeal of loud, distorted guitars, blast beats and guttural vocals. Liking this sort of audio torture is not generally considered "normal".

Image credit: By Alex pole dance lyon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Most people wouldn't consider swinging around a pole in your underwear in eight-inch stiletto heels normal either.

2. Both are extremely passionate about their hobby

Metalheads will tell you at length about the particular metal sub-genres they like, as well as the many that they do not. They can name numerous bands within all of these sub-genres. God forbid you get a group metalheads playing and sharing music with each other; they feed off each other and can continue to queue up songs into the early hours of the morning - well after everyone else has passed out.

Pole dancers are very similar; they can talk pole for hours, discussing routines and manoeuvres, professional pole dancers and workshops. They also put their money where their mouth is, sometimes spending vast sums of money on pole clothing, costumes, shoes and other paraphernalia.

3. Performing requires a very high level of skill and a dedication to the craft

Metal is one of the more technically complex genres of music. It requires a hell of a lot of practice to build up the speed, coordination and stamina to perform a full set of metal songs.

Likewise, pole dancers require a great deal of physical strength, flexibility and endurance  to gracefully execute some of the moves they pull off.

Image: Demonstrating a knee hold (Source, licence and credit)

4. They both have a stereotypical look

Image: Slayer at the Fields of Rock Festival, 2007  (Source, licence and credit)

Black band shirts, long or shaved hair, piercings or tattoos, leather or denim jackets with or without patches, camouflage. Whether you like it or not, metalheads do have a stereotyped look - though there are quite a few different types (see here).

As do pole-dancers, but it's usually not very much: crop tops and Blackmilk tights or pole shorts. But they do wear them anywhere.

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Short post today. If you can think of any other parallels, let me know in the comments.

Passive Income in Australia: Gomez Peer

In this post I will show you why my first foray into passive income is well suited for Australians.

As I said in a recent post, I've become pretty interested in the area of passive income lately - especially those passive income ideas that can be applied specifically to Australians. Now my last post on this was about a month ago, and I was getting right into AdSense and Affiliate Marketing. And the results? Well let's just say that they have been a little less than impressive, but it has still been exciting. I know that passive income is about building incremental income streams over a long period of time, but still I find myself wishing it would happen a little faster. So let me preface the below discussion with this - I know that this is a long game and (cueing the shampoo commercial) it won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

So let's recap:

AdSense Earnings: 80c

Chances are I won't be seeing any of this any time soon. Before Google even considers paying me, I'll need to have at least $15 and I need to make it up to A$100 before they will make a payment to me. This is the super-long game.

Affiliate Marketing: 0c

This is my own fault. I've read a stack of books since the start of this year which I'd love to write reviews about, but because of other commitments I haven't sat down and done them.

Writing Articles on Revenue Sharing Websites: 3c

This was my one article over at InfoBarrel - a relatively well known revenue sharing site. The three cents of advertising revenue was earned in the month I published the article, but nothing since. It garnered next to no interest though, so I'm pretty happy it has made anything at all.

So all in all, 83 cents - not exactly a huge windfall, especially since I won't see any of it until it builds over the relevant payment thresholds, but it's something. But while it's a start, I was keen to find other ways of making passive income and in my searching, I came across this program called Gomez Peer.

So what is Gomez Peer?

Basically it's a program that runs in the background and uses your computer's idle resources and connection to the internet to perform website testing.

Background

Gomez Inc. was acquired in 2009 by Compuware, a private IT and software development company that's been around since the 1970s, for its application performance management software. From their 2009 press release regarding the acquisition:

The on-demand Gomez platform integrates solutions for Web load testing, Web performance management, cross-browser testing and Web performance business analysis that test and measure Web and mobile applications from the "outside-in" - across all users, browsers, devices, and geographies - using a global network of over 100,000 locations. Over 2,500 customers worldwide, ranging from small companies to large enterprises - including 12 of the top 20 most visited US Web sites - use Gomez solutions to increase revenue, build brand loyalty, and decrease costs.

That global network it references are all those people running the Gomez Peer application and those customers that they mention include companies such as MTV, Audi and Domino's Pizza (Source). You can have a look at the information about it on their website here.

Security

I was initially nervous and a little skeptical about the idea of it, but I have since done my due diligence. I could find very little about security risks or issues anyone has had with using the legitimate program after considerable period of searching for information using search strings like "Gomez Peer safe", "Gomez Peer secure", "Gomez Peer security risk", "Gomez Peer scam" and so on. I did find out that there are some other malware programs that might disguise themselves as Gomez Peer, but the program itself seems safe (Source - note that this site gives a technical security rating of 54% dangerous, but this appears to be mainly due to how the program operates). Feel free to make up your own mind if you are comfortable with it, but I don't think it is too risky.

Other issues

The one thing I have noted in doing my research is that the activation process varies in length for a lot of people. After signing up for the peer program, your account status is pending. While you are pending, you are not eligible to receive payments. Thus, if you haven't been activated before the month is out, you miss out on any potential earnings. This is what I believe frustrates a lot of users and results in them uninstalling the program. According to their website:

Account activation depends on how well your system characteristics (connection type, location, etc) match our current testing needs. We would encourage you to be patient with the program but we cannot guarantee that you will be activated. All pending PEER accounts are reviewed for activation approximately every 2 weeks; continue to run the PEER application to remain eligible for account activation. For updates on our latest testing and activation needs be sure to check our News Page and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, I've been running the application for about six weeks and am still yet to be activated, despite having a considerably high ratio of processing time to online time. One would think this would mean that testing is in demand in the location, but perhaps there is something else preventing me. I saw various comments on websites that stated they were activated within a few days, or a few weeks, and some who were not activated after several months. I would be interested to hear from others using the application as to how long it took them to be activated.

So why do I think it's a good idea for Australians (and a number of other countries too)?

It comes down to the rates that are paid depending on your location. There are 3 payment levels, paid per minute of online processing time: 0.0249942 cents, 0.0499998 cents and 0.1000002 cents. For simplicity, let's call it 0.025 or 1/40th of a cent, 0.05 or 1/20th of a cent or 0.1 or 1/10th of a cent. I will refer to these as the low rate, middle rate, and high rate respectively. Note that these are subject to change at any time.

Most locations in the world are at the low rate, but luckily if you live in Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, you get the high rate. Those countries on the middle rate are Argentina, Austria, Canada, Colombia, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, The United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

Let's do some quick calculations. Let's assume you are online 24 hours a day, giving you the maximum amount of opportunity to undertake online processing. This equals 1440 minutes of online time per day. We'll then multiply this by the percentage of processing time to online time (in the six weeks I've been using it, I have experienced about 25%) because that's what you get paid for. This comes to 360 minutes of processing time per day. Using this as our basis for calculation, we can come up with with following figures:

• Low rate earns about 9c per day, totalling $2.70 after 30 days or $32.84 per year
• Middle rate earns about 18c per day, totalling $5.40 after 30 days or $65.70 per year
• High rate earns 36c per day, totalling $10.80 after 30 days or $131.40 per year.

If you want to have a look at what you could earn if you changed some of these variables, I have put together a simple Excel workbook that compares earnings between the different payment levels, which you can download here. However, note that (at the time of writing) Gomez Peer caps the maximum monthly earning amount at $45, though my calculations show that this is pretty much impossible - you would have to be online 24 hours a day, with 100% of those minutes as processing time and be paid the high rate in a 31 day month for that to come into effect. I believe my calculations are a lot closer to what you could reasonably expect. That being said, my experience may differ completely from yours.

Referral Program

You can earn additional money for referring others to use Gomez Peer. The pay rate is $1 for each user that uses your referral link to apply for the peer program, and then their account has to become active before you are paid. It seems like a relatively small bonus, so I haven't considered it much.

Donation Program

One thing that I thought was quite neat is that you can donate your earnings to the Make A Wish foundation if you're feeling generous. As far as I can see, you have the ability to swap between your earnings going to your PayPal account and to be donated in your preferences once you are signed up. A small token, but a nice option all the same. 

Cost Benefit Analysis

Coming to a good estimate of how much it costs to power your computer depends on a hell of a lot of variables including your provider, location, usage and so on. This website suggested a computer uses about 600 kWh per year, so if you've got a recent energy bill lying around, you could do the math for your own situation. This government website suggests that running a computer can cost 9 to 15 cents per hour. Assuming you're running your computer 24 hours per day, this could cost up to $3.60/day - ten times the amount you could feasibly earn from running Gomez Peer.  This doesn't even include how much you're paying to be connected to the internet. 

So let's just say that, at best, running this program will offset some of your costs from running your computer. However, if your computer doesn't need to be on, you'd be making more money (and helping the environment) by turning it off.

Summary

Gomez Peer seems like it's a pretty legitimate passive income stream. The pay rates are only (relatively) good for a small handful of countries, which thankfully Australia is included in. However, at best, it will only very partially offset your running costs for your computer's electricity usage and internet. You'd be better off just turning it off when it's not needed.

Update: See why I ended up uninstalling Gomez Peer here.

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I'd be interested to hear about other user's experiences - let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I'll do a post to update if and when I'm activated (to give you and idea of the timeframe) and a proof of payment.

Stu's Book Reviews List

I've read and reviewed a lot of books since starting this blog. This post will be a single place that links back to all of the book reviews I've written for those who are interested, which I'll update from time to time.

At the moment I have arranged them in reverse chronological order; newest reviews first, oldest reviews last. I'll see how that goes for now, but if you think there's a better way to arrange them, let me know in the comments.

Click the heading to read the review, or click the book cover to check it out at Amazon.

64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then - Ben Hammersley (Non-Fiction, Technology Trends)

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it from there in Hardcover, Paperback or for Kindle.

Lord Of Chaos - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there in a number of formats

Battlers And Billionaires - Dr Andrew Leigh (Non-Fiction, Social Issues)

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there for Kindle or on Paperback.

Fires Of Heaven - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there in a range of formats.

Mortality - Christopher Hitchens (Non-Fiction, Philosophy)

Image credit: Amazon, available in a range of formats.

Eric - Terry Pratchett (Fiction, Comic Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon, available in numerous formats.

Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett (Fiction, Comic Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon

Pyramids - Terry Pratchett (Fiction, Comic Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon, available in a number of formats.

The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon

The QI Book Of General Ignorance - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson (Non-Fiction, General Knowledge/Comedic Reference)

Image Credit: Amazon

Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image credit: Amazon.com; buy it here

The Logic Of Life - Tim Harford (Non-Fiction, Economics)

Image credit: Amazon

The Dragon Reborn - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image credit: Amazon

The Value Of Nothing - Raj Patel (Non-Fiction, Economics/Social Issues)

Image credit: Amazon

The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon

A New Spring - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image Credit: Amazon

The Eye Of The World - Robert Jordan (Fiction, Fantasy)

Image credit: Amazon

Louder Than Hell - Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman (Non-fiction, Music history)

Image credit: Amazon

3 reasons why Perk TV isn't a viable passive income stream in Australia

**NOTE**: This analysis has now been updated to account for Perk TV's new payment rates. See my other post here.

Want to earn money for doing nothing? Wouldn't we all? Advocates of the Perk TV farm would certainly suggest that it's possible. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite stack up for Australians.

Recently I've been interested in the idea of passive income (you can read my last post about getting started here) and in my reading and research on the topic, I came across Perk TV. Perk TV is an online streaming video service that is pays its users for watching app videos and movie trailers. Watching videos earns points which can be converted into gift cards or cash in Paypal. So there are people out there who have set up Perk TV farms - a string of devices all running Perk TV 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I did the math though, and it doesn't stack up as something that can be done in Australia, and here's why.

1. Different Rates

Firstly, there are different rates for earning points depending on which country you are from.

• In the US, every 2 videos gets you 4 points.

• In Canada, every 4 videos gets you 4 points.

• In other countries, every 20 videos gets you 4 points.

So from the start, if you are from anywhere except the US, you are at a disadvantage and outside of North America (though there were some people stating the UK was paid at the same rate as Canada) you are at a supreme disadvantage. You'd have to watch 10 times the number of videos to earn the same number of points! Using a VPN to trick the service that your computer is from the US is against their terms of service, and from what I've read, they enforce it pretty strictly. As you can imagine, it is in their interests to do so.

There are a variety of things you can use your points on, but the two main options are gift cards or Paypal credits. Buying a gift card costs you fewer points ($1 = 1,000 points) but if you wanted cold, hard cash the Paypal exchange rate is higher ($1 = 1,400 points). Note that redeeming lower value rewards results in a higher exchange rate, for example a $10 Paypal credit costs 15,000 points, so 1,500 points per dollar. So to get the best value, you need to redeem for higher values rewards. Again, because we're interested in income (though the thought did occur that Amazon gift cards would be great to support my Kindle habits), lets look at redeeming the lowest value Paypal gift card with the best exchange rate - the $25 Paypal credit for 35,000 points.

So in Australia, you earn 1 point per 5 videos. A video's length will vary - the app videos are shorter than the movie trailers, but PerkTV will occasionally switches you over to viewing movie trailers. Taking the most conservative approach, assuming that you only watch movie trailers and that the average length of one of these on the site is about 2 minutes (this figure was sourced from Reddit), then you earn 1 point per 10 minutes of video on average. You want to earn 35,000 points, so you have to watch 350,000 minutes of video, which equates to 243 days of non-stop watching! That's pretty much two-thirds of a year!

2. Internet usage

This is not even taking into account the cost of the other utilities. From my research, most broadband internet plans in the US are unlimited or basically unlimited and rather less expensive than here, so no-one seems to be too worried about exceeding their data usage or having to pay for additional data. However, in Australia most internet plans have a data cap that, once exceeded, will throttle your  connection speed or begin charging you for excess usage. It is estimated that running PerkTV typically uses 1.31 GB of data per day (source) - so about 40 GB per month, which is not an insubstantial proportion of a typical 200 GB or even 500 GB plan. Assuming there are no economies of scale with multiple devices, a five phone Perk TV farm (you are allowed up to 5 devices earning points through Perk TV) would chew through 200 GB in a month.

3. Electricity costs

The other consideration is electricity costs, which becomes an issue given that generating points is harder for users outside of North America (10 times the usage for the same number of points!) and that typically we pay more for electricity here than they do stateside: for instance, this report from 2012 states that Australians pay 122% (more than double!) more for electricity than our US friends.

One site estimated about 20c in electricity costs per day to power a five phone Perk TV farm in the US. Twenty cents divided by five phones is 4 cents per phone per day. Let's now assume that that 2012 report is still accurate, and that we are still paying double the US for power - we're now at 8 cents per phone per day. Let's also factor in the exchange rate, which as of writing is sitting at 1 US = 1.31 AUD - we're now at 10.48 cents per phone per day in electricity. We then need to run that phone for 243 days to earn our $25 Paypal credit. This equates to $25.47 in electricity costs - so we're in the red on what is probably the smallest fixed cost! And given that electricity prices are increasing, and will most likely continue to increase, this alone makes in unviable from a cost-benefit point of view.

Summary

In summary, a Perk TV farm just isn't viable from an Australian perspective - the rate that you earn points is too slow (perhaps it might be viable if we were on a better deal here), our internet infrastructure, plans and pricing is not well aligned towards it, and the electricity usage costs alone outpace any earnings you would make.

While it probably could be counted as a passive income source, I don't feel it fits in the same category as the monetising of content creation. Passive income in my mind is about providing value to people in the form of information, utilising automation and the power of the internet to leverage your work, while this does not.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Let me know in the comments, I'm happy to respond.

**NOTE**: This analysis has now been updated to account for Perk TV's new payment rates. See my other post here.

Getting started with passive income in Australia

Before getting started, I'd like to qualify that the topic of money and income is very difficult to write about without coming off as completely self-interested hand-wringing. This is not my intention at all. In no way is money my only focus point, as you can no doubt see from my previous posts, nor is it my primary motive - I get much more satisfaction and fulfillment from other pursuits. I really just want to share some information about a topic that I've become interested in, and to describe some of the steps that I have taken to begin this journey.

A definition

I've become quite interested in the idea of passive income generation lately. Passive income is somewhat self-explanatory - the basic premise is that you provide some form of content online and monetise it so that you have very little work in the way of upkeep and maintenance. The form of the content can be anything, but generally it is digital to allow for digital delivery (though there are definitely some examples where a physical product is used). So your content could be a blog, ebook, YouTube channel, podcast, an app or a piece of software or whatever really, so long as there are people willing to either pay you for that content or pay to be in front of the audience of your content.

It's important to note that the process to create a passive income stream is not an easy task. It does involve a hell of a lot of upfront work for very small initial rewards, which might turn some people off. The argument is that the value over the long term is much higher. For example, you might write articles on a blog which earns you some ad revenue - you are probably going to spend a lot of time writing the articles in the first place before you earn a cent, so your revenue per hour is minuscule. However, that article is now there, for all intents and purposes, permanently. So that article will over time, providing it still receives some interest/traffic, continue to generate that small amount of revenue permanently. If you continue publishing content and increase your article base, then this builds the income stream you have.

I've set myself a goal to earn $100 - just $100 - through passive income methods between now and the end of the year. It's going to be difficult, but I think it is achievable. I discuss my small steps so far below.

Advertising revenue

I have taken my first steps with this on this blog; you might have noticed the new features at the top and sides of the blog for example. It has taken me well over a year of writing content for this blog to even get approved for Google's AdSense program. However, you might have also noticed that I qualified that sentence above with "providing it still receives some interest/traffic". The topic of your content and building an audience around this topic is key. Unfortunately for me, because I write across a whole range of topics, the chances of me actually building an audience and getting traffic through this blog is slim to nil - I'd need to be a lot more focused on what I write about - but there is at least some prospect of earning something, no matter how little really, from writing about stuff that I am (and, I assume, you are) interested in right now. Also, because of the wide variety of topics I write about, from my understanding this makes it difficult for Google's algorithms to determine what sort of ads it should display - so they are probably not going to be 100% relevant either.

Affiliate marketing

The one other thing I am trying out is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically where you refer people to products or services and if those people purchase that product or service, then you earn a commission. "I already write reviews for books," I thought, "so I am already promoting them to people. If they end up buying it from my review of it, why shouldn't I get something from that?". Importantly, it doesn't cost you any more for the product, but you do decide to purchase something through my referral links, I want you to feel awesome because you are acknowledging that my review helped you, and helping people makes me feel awesome too! Really. The ability to earn a little money from the reviews I would write anyway is a bonus, but it doesn't really matter to me. For me, the important metric this gives me is that my review helped you, and that motivates me to write more - it is hard work writing when you don't know if anyone reads it or actually cares.

In summary

I have only really dipped my toes into the pool of online business and entrepreneurship. Many concepts apply whether you live in Australia or any where else, but there are some things that don't. I will endeavour to share what I can from what I learn, and I hope that will benefit you too. If you found this or any of my other posts useful or interesting, all I ask is that you take a quick second to share it around. If there's anything else you want me to know, why not leave a comment?

On Philanthropy

One of my resolutions this year was to donate more to charity and volunteer. While I haven't made it to volunteering yet, I have started making a regular donation to a charitable aid organisation. With Tropical Cyclone Pam devastating Vanuatu last week, I thought it would be a good time to discuss philanthropy and charitable giving.

Writing about this topic is difficult; it's hard to come off not sounding 'holier than thou' in some way or to make your audience feel guilty for not donating. This is not my intention. I am writing this article for others who may be in the same situation that I was; wanting to do something but not knowing where to start. There are so many charities and aid organisations out there, how can I pick one? How much should I give? But let's start with the most pressing question, why should I give?

Why?

There are many reasons that you might want to donate. You might give because:

• you have a personal connection to the particular cause, place or group of people e.g. cancer research, areas affected by bushfires, cyclones or other natural disasters etc.
• it makes you feel good
• it is the right thing to do
• of the idea of the Rawlsian Veil of Ignorance - the idea that if you did not know what circumstances you were to be born into, that you would prefer a world that is more equitable
• of your personal philosophy or religious or spiritual reasons

It really doesn't matter; whatever reason you choose to give for, it is the right reason because it is your reason.

How much should I give?

The answer here is really whatever you feel comfortable with donating. There is no sense in giving if it means depriving yourself of basic needs (though sometimes it is good to think on what we consider basic needs), but likewise this doesn't mean you have to live as a pauper and can never buy anything for yourself again either. The key is finding balance. What worked in my case was to establish a rule that I could follow and felt comfortable with. This rule is to give 1% of my income, and to give for as long as I can, if possible for the rest of my life. I found this heuristic when I was conducting my own research into donating in Australia. This infographic makes a good case for why, though the data is a little dated now. 

There are a number of other guidelines or rules that have been proposed, such as a progressive donation scale similar to our progressive income tax system. The Giving One Percent website describes a few of these.

Who should I give to?

Again this really comes down to your own personal preferences and philosophy.

In my case, I'm quite persuaded by the utilitarian arguments for donating to charity (trying to provide the greatest good for the greatest number). A logical extension of these arguments is to donate towards poverty reduction/relief, development projects and international aid. After all, your dollar makes much more of a difference to someone living below the poverty line than it does for people with comparatively higher living standards.

So I knew I wanted to donate to an organisation that delivered broad benefits internationally. I also wanted as much of my money to go to the people who need it and not towards "awareness", marketing campaigns or administrative overheads. Finally, I don't believe that people who need help should be evangelised or proselytised to; help should be given without strings attached. I don't believe you need a god to do good works.

I used the Charity Chooser (Australian centric) to help narrow down the field of possible recipients and chose to support UNICEF for all these reasons. I would encourage you to think about what your own criteria for donating would be.

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As a final point, there are other ways to give to charity that don't involve parting with your money. You might be able to donate your time, donate your particular skills or donate your blood. I particularly encourage blood donation as it is very easy, there's always a shortage of blood and blood products, you replenish your lost blood over time anyway, and the overall experience is always really pleasant (the phlebotomists really do their best to look after you, and you are usually given milkshakes or other treats after you have donated!). 

We Australians like to think of ourselves as a generous country, though that is not really backed up by the data. In fact, I believe we are becoming a much more insular and self-interested country. One way I see to reverse this trend is to give and encourage others to give - whether it be their money, their time or their skills.

For a good general collation of stats on charitable giving in Australia, in easily digestible infographic form, have a look here.

Short story: The Red Moon

I've been busy lately, so I haven't posted in a while but bear with me because I'm going for hopefully more interesting content than the slice of life stuff than I mostly posted last year.

So I recently discovered reddit's writing prompts sub which has provided me a bit of a laugh, but more to the point, it's given me a starting place or an idea to base a story around. And that is the hardest part of writing for me; thinking of an idea that I don't automatically deconstruct as being ridiculous or idiotic or not realistic.

Anyway, the first one of these I have written below. The stories I write will generally be pretty short, about one or two A4 pages written by hand (I write by hand to get away from distractions). As always, I'd appreciate any feedback you have - comments, questions, tips - anything. Let me know in the comments below.

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'The year is 2052, the moon is now a giant Coca-Cola advertisement. Tell the story of a person whose one goal left in life is to destroy this abomination in the sky.'

The Red Moon

There it is. There it is again. AGAIN! Every night that... that abomination, that monstrosity, that insult to humanity,,, is there. Staring back at me. It's enough to make you sick.

If there's one thing that represents everything, everything that's wrong with the state of the world, that's it. Not the garbage island that's just been sold to developers. Not the fact that the stock exchanges are just algorithms owned by the point-1 percent making trades. Not that Africa is still impoverished now, in 2052! That goddamn red moon.

It seems like some sort of joke really. How did we, as a society, allow Coca-Cola to turn the moon - our moon! - into a giant billboard. Well, the same way that any civilisation does something myopic, I guess. People thought that the government had run out of money, that the bureaucrats had maxed out the credit card, and mortgaged the futures of us, our children and grandchildren, and our grandchildren's children. Then Coke offered them a way out - a bailout.

All they wanted in return was the moon. Just that. Just the thing that inspires people to push the limits of what's possible; explorers, scientists, astronomers. And now look at it. Now what does it inspire? Go to your nearest vending machine and consume. Consume so we've got enough money to buy the next planet from the next government.

I should know, I designed it. It was state of the art. Cost a mint. But it's ruined me. At the time I told myself I was just doing my job, but once it was finished - once I saw what I had done - I felt... empty... corrupted. The money I got paid didn't fill the emptiness. Neither did the drugs, or the strip clubs or the sex. And when my wife found out about those habits, well she didn't stay around long.

I was in a hole. A dark depression. Until I had an idea - a dangerous idea. One little spark of inspiration. One singular goal to destroy what I had made.

And that's how it has come to this. Sitting here, at my computer, watching the blinking line at the end of the code I've worked tirelessly to write. It's beautiful. Elegant. It's ready... Am I?

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Exhaling brokenly, John executes the program and moves to the window to watch. He looks at his watch and counts the minutes that pass.

"Should be right... about... now"

On the lunar surface, a field of luminescent mirrors reflect the trademark red and white logo. The actuators controlling them begin to whirr. The mirrors shake back and forth in all directions uncontrollably. Faster and faster. The violence of the motion shatters the concave surfaces. The actuators overheat underneath. One by one, the mirrors begin to break off the stalk-like structure they are attached to. They float slowly along different trajectories towards the silent, meteor-pocked landscape.

John watched on from his study window with tears in his eyes.

"We built you... but we can destroy you," he muttered under his breath, "I think I want a Pepsi".

Book Review: 64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then by Ben Hammersley

Discussing trends in technology and the new networked world, the subtitle of the first non-fiction book I've read for this year tells me it can show me "how to face the digital future without fear". But did it?

64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then - Ben Hammersley

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it from there in Hardcover, Paperback or for Kindle.

Not really, no. I think that subtitle must have been created by someone in marketing. In Hammersley's words, his book is about "guided exploration" to "help us all feel a little more comfortable" with the Internet and the networked world. Certainly, while some - maybe most - of the ideas he presents are exciting and could make our world a better place, he also states that (as with any technology) it has has the potential to be used for nefarious purposes.

Take 3D printing for example: It shows the potential for an amazing array of useful applications. It has already been used to design and manufacture a whole range of consumer goods; things like clothes and cars. But it's also been used to support research and other industries; 3D printing food is also probably not too far away. But, as Hammersley points out, it could also be used - for instance - to print a gun, or to pirate intellectual property in much the same way as movies and music are now. The example that Hammersley uses is that if you saw something you liked, say fancy glassware at a restaurant, you could either find instructions for a replica of it somewhere on the internet, or snap a few photos of it from different angles and, using software to mesh these images, create your own set of 3D printing instuctions. You would then simply print them yourself at home. The implications are many.

Arguably, 3D printing is probably one of the trends Hammersley discusses that you can show a distinct cost-benefit analysis for. One would probably be okay with the potential drawbacks given such a big upside. But for many of the other trends he discusses, such an analysis can't be easily made. Take, for example, the chapters on the Hacktivism, the Human Flesh Search Engine and Anonymous. As Hammersley argues, in some cases their actions may be justified - no-one is going to dispute that someone who posts a video of them killing a kitten for entertainment should be brought to justice - however, "the problem is that the human flesh search engine often swings into action not just against perpetrators of acts that mainstream society might agree were unsavoury, but simply for the fun of it".

I really liked this book. It's not often that you can pick up a book that summarises the frontier of where we are at with technology and emerging trends so easily and succinctly. The thing about this book is that it only really discusses the 'what' - it tells you about the trend, pros and cons of it - but it doesn't go that step further to try to show how we can manage it. Going back to 3D printing a gun for example, how can we as a society manage a reality where potentially anyone has the means to procure a firearm, whether they are licenced to hold one or not? Or what about the immense data shadows we are now leaving behind? I am leaving behind this blog post as we speak, and it will most likely be archived somewhere on the internet, like the Wayback Machine, forever. How will we as a society face a world where everything and potentially everyone knows a lot more about us (or at least our digital self)?

The other thing I think is missing is a sense of how these 64 trends are interacting with and feeding off one another. While the book is set out quite logically, it's quite possible that some trends have impacts and implications for others. I mentioned data shadows before, and this data is useful for companies to point us towards things we might like and hopefully purchase. The obvious interaction with another trend is that of the Echo Chamber; the idea that increasing personalisation increasingly keeps us within our comfort zone. For example, if I read a lot of books about classical economics say, then various algorithms will recommend me either other titles to do with classical economics or titles by classical economics authors. While this is useful for delving a topic, it doesn't allow for your worldview to be challenged. The more you read up on classical economics, the less likely you are to get pointed to books on the other side of the spectrum: say, Keynesian economics, post-Keynesian economics, or modern monetary theory. This applies to all topics, whether they are political or social issues or religion; and it's not just non-fiction, you can get stuck in a rut in fiction too. I, for example, have several recommendations from Amazon to read more Terry Pratchett - which I was going to do anyway - but it's hardly going to throw me a curveball and suggest I read something like 50 Shades of Grey. And who knows, I might love it if, on a spur of the moment decision, I gave it a chance.

So in terms of "facing the digital future without fear", I'm still not quite there yet. And despite being a little older (it was published in 2012, which in technology is more than enough time for Moore's law to tick over and double the power of computers again), I'd highly recommend reading it to get a sense of the state of play in the technology space now.

New Year's Resolutions 2015

New year and new set of goals to work on. 

While I was looking around for a way to arrange my New Year's Resolutions this year, I stumbled upon this article, which I think provided a really good framework for different areas of life. It's a reasonably high-level framework, but it's not abstracted too much to be useless - for instance, I found some that had fewer life areas, but they were so generalised that they didn't really provide very useful distinctions.

While I believe in goal setting for motivation, I often think it can be too rigourous and taken too far. For instance, I don't think people should have 'life plans' or even 5-year plans. Firstly, because they aren't flexible enough to take advantage of opportunities that might be missed with too much focus on other goals, and secondly, I think the world moves too fast now to think that how we do things now will be similar to how we do things in five years time - it all just gets too rubbery projecting too far forward. I'm sure there are plenty of examples to illustrate this. I think goal setting should be more flexible, and crucially that failure to meet a goal is not a big deal. There are many reasons for failure, but the important thing is the act of continuing on.

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A lot of my goals for this year are to continue doing things that I found useful last year. I had one rule though: no more than two goals per life area (except for the 'Energy' life area, because those are supposed to be the fun things to give you a break from developing the other areas). Again, this rule was to prevent me from being overly specific and creating too many competing interests for my time.

Here's what I've decided on pursuing in 2015. Most are self-explanatory if you have read some of my other posts, but I have provided some more details if I thought them necessary:

Mental Health

1. Actually find out if I have Seasonal Affective Disorder/Cyclothymia

Jess and I have suspected for some time that I might experience symptoms of either of the above throughout the year. Until now, I haven't thought about actually finding out with a proper diagnosis; firstly, because that would require me acknowledging that there might be something wrong with me, and secondly, because I don't know what I would do with the information if it turned out to be true. I'm not sure if I'd be okay with medicating away what has essentially been some part of my personality for at least the last five years. The other reason is that if it turns out to be false, then I am essentially finding out that it is psychosomatic and that I experience the same ups and downs as everyone else. But this year, I will face that fear and seek a professional opinion.

2. Continue practicing mindfulness with Headspace

Physical Health

1. Continue to stay active through the 7 Minute Workout Challenge app, using my FitBit, going to gymnastics, walking Odin, riding my bike to work, drumming, stretching - whatever really!

Intelligence

1. Get my learner's motorcycle licence

Something I have wanted to do for a while - mainly because it is a brand new skill, but also because I'm a stingy economist and motorbikes are super-efficient transport that can be parked just about anywhere for free. Basically winning life once I have bought an old Postie bike :)

2. Continue Mind Expansion - aim to finish SAS programmer certifications

Once again, I like continuing to develop skills and push the boundaries of what I know. This can sometimes be a double-edged sword though, because you also continue to find out how much you don't know.

Social Life/Relationships

1. Begin tracing my family tree

I've always wanted to find out a bit more about where I have come from.

2. Keep in touch with my family

Legacy

1. Donate more to charity and volunteer

I read this article a while ago, and one particular quote that stood out for me was this:

Inside, you have great compassion for poor people. Great. Does that result in you doing anything about it? Do you hear about some terrible tragedy in your community and say, "Oh, those poor children. Let them know that they are in my thoughts"? Because fuck you if so -- find out what they need and help provide it. A hundred million people watched that Kony video, virtually all of whom kept those poor African children "in their thoughts." What did the collective power of those good thoughts provide? Jack fucking shit. Children die every day because millions of us tell ourselves that caring is just as good as doing. It's an internal mechanism controlled by the lazy part of your brain to keep you from actually doing work.

I have often talked about volunteering, but have never actually gotten around to doing it. So yeah, less talk, more action on this front this year.

2. Continue writing this blog - 26 posts over the year/ average 1 per fortnight

As I said in a previous post, a weekly goal was too much and caused the content to suffer a little. Hopefully with more time, this will make for more interesting posts.

Wealth

1. Continue to save for our house deposit

2. Invest in an index fund

Energy

1. Hone in better on what gives me energy

2. Brew at least 1 batch of beer/cider

3. Read 12 books - at least 6 non-fiction and 6 fiction

4. Make some time to play video games guilt free!

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What are your plans for the new year? Let me know in the comments.