Entries Tagged 'Money' ↓

Happy new year everyone!  I have been away from my blogs for a while since I spent the last couple weeks in our new home down in Southern California.  My inlaws are moving to the Philippines in about 10 days and this may be the last Christmas we will spend with them in California.  This year we do  plan to go to the Philippines to visit them for Christmas.   The last two weeks was filled with a flurry activity.  We saw my sister in law get married in Temecula to her Navy seaman and then my parents made a drive down for a couple days.  We took them to the San Diego Zoo and also Hollywood Blvd.  My husband also had the chance to see quite a few friends and have dinner with them.

Christmas was lean last year because everyone is trying to save money.  The only shopping trip we went on was after Christmas at the local mall.   I lounged a bit in the Bath & Body Works since they were having a sale, but ultimately did not buy anything.  In the end, we went to  TJ Maxx with my parents since my mom is a big fan of that store, but I have never been in one.    TJ Maxx is kind of like Ross where brand name goods  are heavily discounted for consumers. I was surprised that they had a huge selection of beauty products including AHAVA brand moisturizers that my hubby got me from Israel one year.  My mother often buys the cosmetics there as gifts for friends in China because they are really into brands in China.   Anyway, this was the place I did the bulk of Christmas shopping.  I bought two large bottles of shampoo, a camera case for my dad, a shirt for my mom, and a pair of  PJs for myself.  Everything came under $45 since the store is so discounted.  You do have to dig a bit through the many multicolored shelves, but there are plenty of heavily discounted goods to be found.

For my inlaws we waived their rent payment on the house for these last few days and didn’t really buy anything new for them because they are  trying to get rid of everything in the house right now.  They actually gave us one of the presents we got them last year for Christmas because they can’t bring it to the Philippines.  Every single day we were doing some packing and sorting because a lot of things had to go.

On New Year’s day we drove a caravan back up here to Northern California with quite a bit of furniture and kitchen goods.  My inlaws also sold one of their cars to an aunt so they’re going home with less stuff.  It took us another half day to sort everything into our closets and storage spaces.   So basically we have been quite busy.

We also found a family that agreed to be caretakers for our house after my inlaws leave.  We reserved the right to use the downstairs guest room at anytime and they will be taking care of the gardening, pool, and utilities.  It is really an awesome deal for them, but we’re hoping it will not be long term.  The hubby is really contemplating moving down south, but we would need to secure employment there and that seems to be a lot tougher than getting jobs in the Silicon Valley.  Also, the hubby is waiting for his company’s games to be published this year so that he could say on his resume that he has shipped a couple games.  So basically we won’t be moving for at least one year.   Honestly speaking, if we both had jobs with comparable pay the quality of life is a lot higher there because the cost of living is quite a bit lower.   We could actually just live on one income if we moved into our house because it’s cheaper than renting a two bedroom apartment here.  The public elementary and middle schools there also have pretty high ratings so my hubby says that it’s more likely we’d move after we have kids.   As my friend Michael jokingly (or maybe seriously)  said once, “the Bay Area is where you work really hard for a crappier life”.

Even though this year  has just begun, I already have a list of things I’m planning to do.  First, I am seriously looking into a refinance even though we just bought the home a few months ago.  The reason is that interest rates have come down significantly in the last month because of the Fed’s plan to buy mortgage backed securities.  If you have significant equity in your home, good credit, and good income then it may be a good time to refinance, also.  I’m specifically looking into a no-cost refinance and right now I’m watching the rates at IndyMac and Technology Credit Union.  IndyMac quoted me a no-cost refinance rate of 4.75% a couple weeks ago but it was impossible for me to get all the paperwork through and their phonelines are always busy. They’ve also been sold to a bunch of private investors so I’m not sure the rates will ever get that low again.   Technology Credit Union is a local Silicon Valley credit union and they have a pretty straightforward online application so I’m watching the rates there.  They also answered phone calls pretty quickly when I called so I may do the no-cost refinance with them when the rate drops a little lower.  Their rate is currently at 5.25% for the no cost and lower than 5% with costs.  This credit union is for people who work or live in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Contra Costa, and Alameda, so pretty much most Bay Area folks can qualify for membership.

The next beast on my list is taxes for the year of 2008.  I may hire a professional this year to do it because I exercised some stock options last year and  bought the house with the hubby.  Seriously, I really hate taxes.

I think the rest of 2009 should be quite interesting since Barack Obama will be the new president.  Will the United States be revitalized or go down the tubes?  No one knows yet, but we will be okay as long as we trust God and be responsible with our own actions.  This is a year that will be filled with challenges for everyone around the world, and hopefully these events make us stronger and more prudent in the years to come.

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Today police in Southern California found a family of six dead in a upscale gated community. Apparently the father of the household lost his job a few months ago and decided to kill his three children, wife, and mother in law. He wrote a suicide note detailing his recent financial difficulties and also killed himself. This tragic story isn’t the first in the current financial climate. Last year a North Berkeley family also died in a similar manner when Kevin Morrissey felt that his family was overwhelmed with money problems and shot his wife, two children, and himself in Tilden Park. I would really hate to see this happen again so I want to reiterate that life is so much more important than money.

Now, people who are on the edge of suicide or murder probably need more than a blog article to persuade them from carrying through with their plans. However, family members of those recently unemployed should take care to notice depression and homicidal tendencies. In both of these cases it is a head of the household that felt like they had to kill their families due to failing household finances. They probably felt that their families were just as powerless and miserable as them, and they extended their own suicides. So I think those in families that are in financial trouble now due to a sudden change in employment status should pay attention to the mental health of their family members. Someone has to have a clear head and say that money is not the most important thing in the world, and that it is possible to get through these trying times. I think the most tragic thing about these cases is that the children are also murdered because they have their whole lives ahead of them. So perhaps it is safer to send the kids away for a while if things feel desperate.

If you have a family member who is in financial trouble, it is important to offer words of encouragement now. Ask them how they are doing, and don’t take “good” for an answer. Dig down a bit deeper and see how they are really doing, and perhaps more tragedies can be prevented if people just realize that losing money is not a death sentence.

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Lately I haven’t been blogging very much due to a variety of factors, and one big thing that is happening right now is that we are buying a house.  Yes, I know this sounds crazy considering that I have written extensively about why buying a house is more expensive than renting, but there is a good reason why we’re buying this particular house.

To make a long story short,  we are in the midst of purchasing my husband’s parents’ home  at a significant discount.  They are leaving the country to do long term missionary work in the Philippines in January 2009  and their income will no longer support the mortgage they have on the home.  So they were planning to put the house on the open market and sell it, but as you know, the current real estate market is pretty much in the pits and they are not guaranteed to sell the house by the time they leave.  So we decided that it is probably best to keep the house in the family somehow.  My husband really loves the house because he grew up in it and his parents has lovingly put in many improvements over the years.  His parents expressed that they wanted us to live in the house when they leave, but the one problem is that the house is in Southern California and our jobs are here in Northern California.

At first, we were just worried that we couldn’t afford the home, but since his parents agreed to give us a large gift of equity the mortgage will turn out to be about  15% of our gross income and that is pretty affordable. The price we are getting is basically 30% off market value so it is a fairly good deal.  We also found that California has a law called Proposition 58 which allows the present tax value to pass from parent to child so the property taxes will not be reassessed to the current value.  So after crunching the numbers several times, we found that by renting the home out for the current market value for similar homes we are able to pretty much break even.  We plan to keep the house long term as a hedge against inflation, and if his parents decide to return to the United States they could move back to the house they are familiar with and rent it from us.  The house is located in a very good upper middle class neighborhood with median household income of $103,000 per year and elementary school API scores of above 900 so we are pretty confident that we can get some willing renters.

We just entered escrow right now and plan to close by the end of October.  It is sort of sad that we can’t live in the house because we both like it very much, and it is really weird to be a landlord and renter at the same time, but it will definitely be interesting.  For now we are going to rent the home to my husband’s parents, but at the same time we will need to find a renter for the future.  I am learning quite a bit through this experience, and I will certainly write about it later.

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This week has been an emotional roller coaster ride for all of us who have investments of any type.  It seems like nothing is safe haven for your money anymore.  Even if you hold your money in your mattress you would lose it due to the high inflation.  The scent of fear is really overwhelming in the air.  I have been really busy at work but I think everyone seems to be frustrated and sobered by what is happening.  It seems that every single day the government comes up with a new scheme to do something or the banks “inject” money into the system.  Here is what it really means and why we as individuals can only go with the flow.

American Dollars and much of modern money is based on a fiat system, which means that the money we earn is a type of credit declared by the United States government to be legal for paying back debts and buying things.  There is really nothing backing the money other than the word of the government.  Central banks around the world control much of the money systems and they can technically  create or destroy money at their whim because they do not need to produce anything to create money.  Since money is basically a legal instrument, banks and governments are intrinsically involved with each other.  It is actually really easy to conjure money out of thin air, all that needs to happen is for a government system to say so.  So when Paulson says that the financial system is sound, what he really means is, “Trust us, we will print more money and make people believe they have wealth to spend!”

The financial industry understands that they are not actually producing anything and they are just playing a giant numbers game so they have nothing to lose.  Afterall, banks are just trading promises between a variety of folks and I really think that intangible quality of money made a lot of people more irresponsible than they should have.  When the numbers game failed and promises were broken,  quite a few banks ended up with actual assets such as foreclosed homes, but most of them find these homes to be a liability because they don’t want to play with actual property, they just wanted to play with balance sheets.

Now money only has value when people are willing to accept it.  I could have a $100 yuan bill in America and people will probably treat it like a piece of garbage, but in China I could buy a bunch of groceries with it.  Why would a grocer in China accept a piece of paper that’s useless in America?  Is he daft? The fact of the matter is that we are all already too deep in this system where we accept a certain currency even though at its core it is just a piece of paper.  This is why the governments and banks want our trust.  They want us to believe that the money they are creating by the stroke of a pen is good and acceptable.  They want us to know that we can continue to work hard and produce goods and be compensated in ephemeral numbers.  They want to continue the game.

Money is an illusion, and I don’t even mean that in a metaphorical way.  It literally can be conjured up from thin air by those in power.  This is also why I’m not too worried about our financial markets.  As long as the banks and governments are in control, they will continue to tweak the game for their own survival.  So pick up an index fund and watch those little numbers swing up and down, but remember that it really means nothing until you have to use it and actually buy something tangible.  This may seem like you should spend everything and go in debt, but remember, most of us are not in power and we can’t make money magically appear.  Most of us still have to pay taxes and debt interest to those who control the global money game, and that can get very frustrating, but that’s life. Don’t worry about your portfolio too much and enjoy the sunshine and don’t be a workaholic because the time you have on this earth is more precious than a few numbers.  That’s all we can do.

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So by now I am sure all of you know that Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy and Bank of America purchase Merrill Lynch. Additionally, one of the largest insurance companies, AIG, is in deep financial trouble and was just bailed out by the government. In reaction to the news, the Dow Jones industrial plunged more than 500 points yesterday and regained more than 140 points today. It all sounds quite unsettling and volatile right now, but I really think bad things need to happen before things can get any better, and this is my reasoning.

First of all, I think most of us have had the experience of eating something horribly uncouth and falling ill. What usually happens is a bit of a stomach ache, and then full blown diarrhea, but once the last bit of toxin is out of your body you start to feel better. I think the financial markets is basically in the middle of a cathartic bowel movement right now. As many commentators have said, the debt and mortgage backed securities were “toxic” and these securities poisoned many firms and it is only natural that we’re seeing death and destruction. As a result, the more prudent firms are surviving and becoming stronger. For example, Bank of America has snapped up Countrywide and Merrill in the midst of this, and their position as a financial services company has been strengthened.

The problem I see with the current situation is the string of bailouts being handed out by the United States government. Last week it was the bailout of Fannie and Freddie, and today AIG just got an emergency $85 billion loan and the government will be receiving a 79.9% equity stake. This pretty much means that the United States government is now the largest insurer in the world. The problem with this is not only that the government is throwing good taxpayer money after bad, but that the United States is taking on enormous amounts of financial risk.  If the government left these companies alone and let them perish or be gobbled up by competitors, then the resolution to their failure might come quicker and the government will not have to borrow countless amounts of money that have to be paid off for decades.  Right now we are seeing policies that mirror the policies that possibly extended The Great Depression and that’s what’s truly frightening.

So in conclusion, I guess I am saying that 500 point stock market drops do not really bother me all that much because I am a long term investor, but these hundred-billion dollar bailouts are really disconcerting.  How many of these bailouts can we taxpayers really afford?  How many years will America be slave to its lenders?   It is hard to know the future, but Washington should really let the financial markets work itself out without prolonging the current pain.  I hope that people would remember what happened to lead up to the current financial crisis, and learn something from it, but unfortunately I think history  tends to repeat itself over and over again.

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