OK... I guess I need to come clean on the gambling tease from my prior posting.  (AND I have another jack of all trades entry at the end)

==================================================================

Around the beginning of January I receieved a postcard inviting(?) me to go to a relatively new and local casino to play, and that I was to be given free "bonus" money to play with.  I normally wouldn't give such things a second thought, but I had seen the location on drives out of town and it was not too far from where I lived.  (by this, I mean maybe 12-ish miles one way)  I remembered the time I went to a casino with the then GF probably a decade ago, and since I knew how it worked from that visit, maybe I could use the same logic with gambling today.  And so the gears started turning.

First I checked the distance: OK, not too far.  Given my car is electric, the cost to drive there and back: around one dollar - OK, I can handle that expense.

Next I checked the traffic for a few days.  Traffic here near DC can be apocolyptic.  Well I'm retired, so I can go most any time and mid-day looked like usually a clean shot, so noon-ish it would be.

So with no reason to not go on a free day, I bit the bullet (so to speak) and headed out about a week after I got the card.  Almost got lost near the casino, as their address online, when given to my car's navigation system, showed to me a location on an old road nearby.  So instead I drove on the main drag nearby and finally found a sign at an intersection, and then wound my way in to their garage.

My plan was to get the free bonus money, not use any of my own, and use the free play in such a way to maximize the cash out from each machine. I looked at these trips as amusement only, just seeing how people lived if you will.  And it was a bit of an eye-opener.  I got to see people that most likely didn't have tons of money, but then again who knows for sure.  The "slots" are really just video machines that simulate the old type slots, but with very colorful graphics and tons of animation.  There were a few with phyiscally moving mechanisims but they were fairly rare and didn't look to be popular.  I tried to figure out the rules of the games, but most often they were confusing, to put it mildly.  Some machines you could get the rules to be shown.  I tried reading a few of these and the rules just kept going, and going, and ... shoot, I have a degree in mathematics and I couldn't follow all of it.  I just accepted I would win when I won, and I would get nothing when I lost and there was nothing I could do to change it.

Going in at mid day, the casino had mostly retired age people there.  As such the music over the speakers was usually from the 60s to 80s, which I will admit I defintely appreciated the selections.   One time I went in the evening for a change of pace and the music was of a more modern range, more like 90s to today.  So they're not dumb, they know who their customers are.

One funny thing I found.  The wagers you can do on each machine are usually in increments.  For example, $0.50, $1.00, $1.50 and so on.  Or $0.40, $1.20, $2.00 and up from there.  And variations on this type of pattern.  However, the games that have a Chineese flavor to the graphics instead will go $0.88, $1.76, $2.64 and so on.  I guess since the number 8 is supposed to be lucky in China they are using this numbering system on the Chineese games.  I just thought this was interesting.

Since I started this experiment I have gotten many emails from the casino.  Either talking about various promotions or trying to entice me to rent a room at the adjoining motel.  Not sure what the enticement is as I live close by, unless I were to use the location for various trysts with lovers (don't I wish!).

So how did it all play out?  Well first, the first five visits they would give you progressively more money to wager, hoping to reel you in.  It started at $10, then progressed to the 5th visit giving me $50 to play with.  After that they did send another post card with four weeks of $10 for a visit.  Plus for the over 50 crowd there is another $5 on each Wednesday if you go in before 4.  Additionally they had something like McDonalds where you get stickers with letters on them.  If you spell out certain words, you can get free wagers.  I won another $25 with that promotion.  Not sure of how much free play I ended up with in total - probably around $200.  And I never did use any money from my wallet.

And my winnings?  Easily the most rewarding visit was the first one.  During that visit I got over half of my total winnings this year.  From that first visit to the last (15 in total) I have won just over $500 without using any of my cash.  I don't want to go over each day's winnings, but after that first visit I have stepped away each day with from $1 to $72.

I found out that the casino will send you a tax form if you win over $1,200 on slots (but over $600 for any other gambling?), but as far as I can see this location only has slots.  As such I think I am done with this experiment in my life, or at least for this year.  Now if they give me some other great promotion I may change my mind, but for now this has hit the end for me.  

===========================================

Should you do this if given the chance?   Let me say - DO NOT DO THIS!  Really, you should NOT do what I did unless you:

Can afford to lose some money.

--OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING--

You can make a plan and stick to it 100%. (Do not think "oh I'll add a few dollars to make it fun")
You don't have an addictive personality.  ("Just one more time and I'll win the big one!")
You have free time. (Being retired is best)
You can get to the casino at very little expense (For me it was around $1 for a round trip)
You can walk away with no desire to go back. (There are other things in life)

============================================

To add a Jack of All Trades entry...

============================================

Past week I found my upstairs toilet was leaking.  Turned out the tank was cracked.  It was either pay someone lots of money to do the replacement, or do it myself and figure it out.  At the hardware store you couldn't buy just a tank, so a full replacement it was.  Didn't buy the cheapest model, but it was on the lower end.  Thankfully I had a gift card I needed to spend, so with that I only paid $100 cash (credit card actually) and installed it. Worst part was getting it upstairs.  The weight on the box said 101 lbs.  OMG, that was a bear to get upstairs. 

It works so much better than what was there before (think cheapest install possible to sell the house when I bought it), so I'm happy with the upgrade.  

With the time of year where nothing much is happening financially, I figured a post on how I save money might be good.  I may be retired from my career employment, but it seems like I still have various interests that keep me active or at least keeps my mind sharp(?).  What follows are a few of them.  And with that, off to:

=============================================

Trade #1: Financial Advisor

With the arrival of February came the arrival of my yearly "job" - being my mother's tax preparer.  Thankfully this year taxes for her will be easier as she has shut down her business (hair dresser), so that will be easier for me going forward.

But the new part of this job is as a CPA/Financial Advisor to her.  I already helped her get started with investing, but last year was the first time I got involved with her investments and what to buy / sell and how to minimize (actually avoid) taxes.  

In the past I talked a bit about taxes with her, but I could see it wasn't a big concern for her as her taxes were so low, so I didn't push it.  Last year with her stopping working I could emphasize that taxes were an expense, even if low, and if she would work with me I could get them to possibly zero, plus making it better for me should I inherit the money.  So she did as I asked, and ended up with more money than she wanted anyway.  And this month I did her taxes, and I determined I got the numbers right.  Her taxes for both state and federal are $0.  The big move I had for her was taking a large amount out of an IRA and move it into her brokerage.  Basically using up all of the 0% federal tax space she had available.  The money she didn't spend went into her brokerage and she bought alot of the same stocks as before.  And even crazier, I had her withdraw maybe 35% of the IRA thinking we could get it emptied in a few years.  Instead the IRA has re-inflated to 20% HIGHER than when we took the money out last year. And this year I plan on her only taking out a minimum distribution, so who knows where this will end up.  SMH

And now for this year she wanted to sell and buy in the brokerage.  So I her wait until I did a 2026 tax estimate based on her wants.  I then let  her know what she could do and still avoid all taxes.  So far she has followed my instructions, hopefully she will stick with the plan.  

Skill level: Advanced

=================================================

TRADE #2: Woodworker

This is an old (for me) item, but I used to build furniture as a pastime, or fix & refinish beat up items.  I had stopped that for quite a few years, but this past summer I saw a beat up dresser out for trash.  I went and looked it over as I thought I could get some drawer pulls off of it.  Instead I thought perhaps it was solid enough to be worth working on as a project.  

With a ton of effort I was able to get it in the back hatch of my Tesla Model Y (going to the gym helped as it weighed a ton!).   It had been painted over, there was a ton of damage from a dog(?) around the base, and a leg was torn off.  But I saw possibilities.

So over the span of a month I had to: strip paint, strip laquer, build a new leg, try to minimize the look of damage about the base (lots of sanding), fix every drawer (all the drawer guides were busted), sand it smooth, stain it as it was originally, and finally put multiple coats of polyurethane on everything.  As I checked it out I found it was an original Hungerford mahogany dresser, so I got mohogany stain to get it looking as close to new as I could.

That's pretty much it.  It is in my bedroom, replacing one I had that was sort of Ikea quality.  But doing that has made me look at my older items and realize they could all use recoating (and in some cases a bit of repair work).  That will be one of my upcoming summer pastimes - rejuvenating older furniture in my house.

Skill level: Moderate

==============================================

TRADE #3: Gambler (!!??!)

Actually I am going to leave this as a tease for next time.  I plan on finishing this project at the end of February.

Skill level: I'll let you decide next time.