by Dolores Moore

Created on: March 03, 2010

Having read the 'Help'  pages, and trawled the articles that seek to explain how payments on Helium really work, I have come to the conclusion that I must be mathematically dysfunctional, at least when it comes to understanding how it all fits together.  Yes, I know what each column means,  and yes, I see the difference between total earnings and adjustments and requested payments, but try as I might, I cannot get those mathematical calculations to make sense.  Mind you, at school, the math teacher who also taught French, threatened to "defenestrate" me if I continued to be so dim.  That was back in the days when teachers could be harsh without fear of parental attack.

Back to my dilemma in understanding those little bits and pieces that go alongside my Article Earnings.  I thought that the penny might have dropped (forgive the pun), when I looked at the small amounts at the start of each month.  But then I set to and added up the first four pages, at the beginning of the month and came to a total of $1.72.  But wait, at the top of this trusty column, the legend reads that my earnings are $54.20 already!  That's great, thought I.  I wonder how I got that much already?  So why then is my account balance showing 80 cents?  Do you understand my problem here?

Never having mastered the art of high finance, though I did study basic accounting about 100 years ago, and I can balance a check book,  the mysteries of why nothing adds up are keeping me totally flummoxed.  It would take some Helium writer with the patience of a saint and the ability to explain,  using words of one syllable I fear, to enlighten me as to why my sums have not the slightest contact with reality.  I must be missing something small but vital,  but what that is exactly, escapes me.  They tell me mathematics is an art form, and there again, art has never been one of my strengths.

In order to overcome this mental aberration of mine and my mathematical failings, I have had to make a conscious decision to stop trying.  After all, there are better things to do on Helium such as writing high earning articles or a really great poem.  Now, about those high earning articles...NO, STOP RIGHT THERE!  Like the Bermuda Triangle and the Flying Dutchman, Helium earnings and payments must remain one of life's most tantalizing mysteries. 

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