Entries Tagged 'Blog' ↓

I was at work all day today and I only caught a little bit of the inaugural parade on the internet when my coworker showed it to us during a release meeting. I did read Obama’s speech online and here are some of my thoughts.

First of all, Obama’s speech was very well written and that is no surprise because it was probably slowly crafted by a team of highly skilled writers including Obama. I actually liked it because it was more realistic than what I would have expected. He acknowledged that this country is in a crisis and that “the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many”. He also saluted immigrants and soldiers as people “who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom”. He also seemed optimistic that America will bring in a “new era of peace” and that American people will need to enter a “new era of responsibility”.

Obama also did not promise too much policy in his speech, and I think that is wise. However, this the excerpt where he talked about the role of the government, and I think it was somewhat sad:

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

And those of us who manage the public’s knowledge will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Basically it says that the government will determine whether its programs are useful and move forward or end them.  This brings up the question of who watches the watchmen.  How will those in power be held accountable?  I think many Americans today feel powerless to do anything about the situation they are in, and I am not sure if the government is the answer.  Generally, people have less freedoms as governments grow larger, and I don’t see that changing under Obama.  Case and point are the newly released $350 billion TARP funds and the proposed $825 billion stimulus.  This rampant government spending is obviously not being controlled and more government spending generally increases the size and influence of the government.

Finally, I saw on many blogs and news outlets that say that the inauguration costs somewhere around $160 million to $170 million, and I think that’s just a bit too much no matter who is getting named president.  $160 to $170 million could fund many companies here in the Valley, but instead its being spent on a big party in Washington D.C.    How is that for spending wisely?  I do hope that Obama will usher in a government that’s moral, wise, and frugal, but I don’t know how much one man can do to change this giant lumbering institution that is the United States government.  I also don’t know if Obama wants to actually make the government more efficient because he is pretty much the CEO of a giant non-profit organization.   This organization has no need to be more efficient because it has a giant endowment in the tax revenues of the American people, and its CEO acquires more power as it expands.
Will  we see a new era?  Only time will tell.  Meanwhile, the parties  rage on in Washington D.C.

Share This

I didn’t want to say anything on this blog until it was official, but today I got confirmation that some of my articles from Wise Bread will be published in an upcoming Wise Bread book.

The title is 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget  and the release date is May 1st, 2009.  However, we already have preorder listings  on Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Nobles!  Of course, the cheapest price is still Amazon.

All of the articles in the book are from Wise Bread and they will probably be edited a bit to suit the book format better, but this will be an awesome book because you will be able to read some of the best tips from Wise Bread in your bathroom.

I already told some of my family and friends and my dad said that he wants a free copy if possible.  If not, he would buy it and that he is my “most royal reader”.  My mom said that this book will help the people of America, which I thought was kind of funny.  I am probably not going to make money off this book at all since there about a dozen regular writers for Wise Bread and the book is a collection of materials that has already been published online.  However, it is still quite exciting because my ramblings have never been published in a book before.

An interesting anecdote I found out is that the publisher/editor said that frugal living books generally sold poorly in years past.  This is no surprise since people were more interested in spending money rather than saving money, but I am hoping that our book does better  in the current economic climate.

Anyway, I already got some mockups for the pages of book, and it looks pretty neat.   I am hoping that it would serve as a great promotional tool for Wise Bread, and also encourage people to save money.

Share This

Today my hubby finished sorting all the pictures from our trip. He really took a lot of pictures! Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this shall be a photoblog of the ancient and modern that we saw on our trip. Most of these pics were taken by my hubby, but I have permission to use them on my blog.  If you want to use any of these photos please ask me to ask my husband for permission.  Enjoy!

The Ancient:

The Great Wall – Beijing

Tiananmen – Beijing

Temple of Heaven – Beijing (This is probably my favorite structure in Beijing. It is around 600 years old and built without a single nail).

Terra Cotta Army- Xian (They were a lot bigger in size and numbers than I thought. These are around 2000 years old)

Five Pavillion Bridge – Yangzhou (This is the symbol of my hometown Yangzhou. Built in the 1700s by salt merchants on the Slim West Lake)

The Modern:

Bird’s Nest & Water Cube – Beijing (We didn’t get to stop and go into these, but they were quite impressive and looked even better at night)

CCTV tower – Beijing (A really weird looking building)

Runyang Bridge on the Yangtze River – (This bridge connects Yangzhou & Zhengjiang and its southern section is the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world)

Pudong Skyline – Shanghai (These new buildings east of the Huangpu river sprung up in the last 15 years.)

Speed counter of the Shanghai Magnetic Levitation Train (It’s going about 260 miles per hour for you non-metric folks).

There is not much to say besides that you have to see it to believe it all.

To be continued…

Share This

Well, as you all know now. The #$@#$! housing bailout bill is set to pass very soon. I am so annoyed by this, but I can’t really do anything about it. I wrote about the bill in two different articles at Wise Bread so I’d love your comments there.

Anyway, some good things did happen this week to me personally. A couple days ago I got a surprise email from one of my previous employers informing that I am receiving a dividend on the company stocks I bought. The dividend is quite significant and it’s equivalent to about 20% of my purchase price. I don’t have that many shares but the dividend is still worth over $1200. It’s like receiving another economic stimulus check! It is a private stock I can’t sell it, but if it gives dividends like these every year I wouldn’t mind keeping it forever for the free money.

Another news item is that the hubby received a small raise. It was around 5% and it is a bit smaller than he expected, but a raise is a raise and that’s great! He left a large soul sucking megacorp a couple years ago and took a large paycut to join this small game studio, and now his pay is finally a tiny bit above his pay at the megacorp. Right now his company is trying to pump out a couple games so I guess they’re not exactly rolling in dough. The gaming business is sort of risky in that if one game fails then the entire studio could die out because they have to invest a lot of resources in the development of a single game. That actually happened to the studio my cousin worked for. So I am hoping that the hubby’s game set to release next spring is a huge success because the hubby has been working on it for 2 years already. He wants his name in the credits! If he has shipped one great game then his chances of finding another job in the game industry greatly increases and we might move somewhere else. Right now their games are looking pretty promising and they are gathering quite a bit of a fanbase.

Besides that, one of my friends from college is getting married tomorrow! My mom bought me a couple dresses for my birthday so I can wear one of them and show up not looking like a baglady. We also planned a kayaking weekend in Half Moon Bay for our anniversary next month. The dividend money came just in time for our trip. We could have covered it easily ourselves, but it’s pretty cool to receive some surprise money.

So despite the government passing another bill that we will pay for until we die, I try to look on the bright side and see that my life is actually quite excellent.

Share This

Recently my mom was trying to convince me to buy a house again, and once again I had to tell her that San Mateo is ridiculously expensive and renting costs one half or one third of a mortgage.  I have said this about 10000 times already.  Yes, the median price has dropped over $100k, but it still costs around $640 per square foot in my zipcode.  So I said that investing my savings in the stock market is better at this point, and to this she retorted, “You think it’s easy to make money on the stock market?  There has been no returns on the SP500 for the last 10 years while real estate doubled and tripled!”

Superficially, my mom is right.  According to Vanguard’s SP500 index fund, the returns for the last 10 years is 2.85%, and that doesn’t even beat inflation.  In the same time period real estate prices did double and triple at least in California.  However, this doesn’t mean that the SP500 gave no returns during any of those years.  If you look at Vanguard’s fund record, the return for the last 5 years is more than 7%, and that handily beats inflation.  Most people I know who invest in the SP500 do so through 401ks and IRAs and contribute money as time goes on. So even if the money they put in 10 years ago did not earn money, the money they put in during the lowest years of the market would be earning quite a bit.  The only situation where someone would be earning 2.8% on all their money is if they put in all their money 10 years ago and left it there and that is hardly the case with most investors.

Additionally, investors in stocks are not restricted to buying stocks in the SP500.  In the last ten years international stocks in South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania have been performing quite well. Investors could have bought REITs which get their dividends from real estate and participated in the real estate boom. The possibilities are endless.  Even in the current down market, it is possible to make money in the stock market.

Ultimately, hindsight is 20/20, and I think my mom is wrong in saying that stocks are the lesser investment because she is cherry picking a decade where real estate appreciated abnormally. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is possible to make money in real estate, too, but worshiping one asset class as the ultimate holy grail is a bit short sighted.  I like stocks for their liquidity and hassle-free nature.  For example, I never have to mow the lawn of my mutual funds or fix their roofs.  If I can get enough return from my funds to come out ahead, then I am happy.  Basically, I still believe that having a diversified portfolio of low cost funds is the way to build wealth.  Eventually I will buy a house, but I will probably be paying cash and the amount of cash I spend won’t exceed 25% of my portfolio.  I would do it this way so I don’t overload my portfolio with real estate.

Share This