Wallet Talk Wednesday: Asset Allocation

Alexander The Great Gold Coin

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers who talk about finances post their target goals and where they are at currently. It's an interesting idea and tool so one can track the progress or lack thereof in reaching their objectives. I'll probably have to create a java script or something of the sort to have it updated regularly, or borrow how Jonathan does it, for the mean time.

Long Term Goal: $1,000,000 Liquid Assets by late 30's, how to get here I don't know yet but I've started the steps to get here.
Short Term Goal: $100,000 Liquid Assets by December 2007 (most should be in the Market Funds) and $50,000 for Retirement Funds by December 2007 so I'll be 30 by this time.

Numbers are approximate:

Liquid Assets (Assets that can be used immediately):
Emergency Funds (Savings + Checking): $44,000
Market Funds (Stocks + Bonds + MF/ETF): $10,000


Other Assets:
Equity Property #1: $140,000 (November 2005 price)
Equity Property #2: $50,000 (November 2005 price)
Retirement Funds (401K, IRA, Roth IRA): $30,000

Short Term Liabilities:
NONE...no credit card, no car payment, no nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero...sorry for not being your average american.

Long Term Liabilities:
Property #1: $560,000
Property #2: $750,000

Wallet Talk Wednesday: New Investments

I’ve just recently purchased some stocks that I believe would go up in the long run, I think would give me good returns within 5 years.

Cup of Coffee

This first stock pick and also my speculative pick is a coffee company because of my following "common sense" reasons:

1. Generation X & Y DRINK a lot of coffee, and I mean a lot. It’s like the Coke (no not that coke that you snort, the soda coke) of this generation AND coffee doesn’t cause diabetes and won’t really make you obese so the coffee drinkers will live longer drinking more coffee for a long long long long time. And can you imagine the price of a cup of coffee? It’s like $3.xx for a cup in Starbucks and people are complaining about a gallon of gas at $3! Weird huh!
2. The company just started and I’m in for the long haul so if management does it right they should grow to be "similar" to Starbucks in the future. They do have other varieties of tea too so it would attract tea drinkers too I hope.
   
3. They already have WiFi networks in their shops and they are only growing slowly now as they haven’t penetrated too much of the west coast yet so once their coffee and other treats starts flowing to the West Side & East Side and North to South I hope it would give me great gains in the future.

Dollar Sign

The next stock pick is an ETF, a Mid Cap Index Stock. This is part of my passive diversified portfolio that should grow pretty good within a few years, it’s actually been going up since I got it. The "common sense" reasons I got this stock:

1. It contains a good mix of financial and utility companies that I would like to dip my hands in since I don't have these types of company in my liquid portfolio yet.
2. With China, India and the Asia Pacific’s growing economies the financial institutions will have a good set of companies needing loans, financial support, insurance, investment capital, and consulting from various financial institutions so this will give me good coverage on that area.
3. Utilities and Energy are always on demand and normally gains profits during winter season and holiday season (driving to shop and natural gas for heating), and so does retail (but the index doesn’t have retail) so I’m hoping to leverage on this to have some good gains this winter time.

Holiday Humbug! What's X-mas for???

I’ve been thinking about the holidays because I’ve seen people putting Christmas decors around the neighborhood. I remember when I was young and because I studied in a Catholic school that during Christmas we celebrated the birth of Christ, we had presents and all of that but we went to mass a lot during this period to remember the birth of Jesus. They told us that giving gifts represents the Three Kings giving gifts to Jesus because of their respect and admiration to the King of Kings, I did forget what was the gold, frankincense and myrrh stood for but I still believe that it should be the case today, that Christmas should be the remembrance of Jesus and what he stood for. It is sad to see Christmas being commercialized and that it’s probably Santa who’s remembered more during this season instead of Jesus, but for the reasons of capitalism and consumerism I’m a bit fine with this since this is also a period when a lot of trade is being made, though I would like for children to realize that it’s actually not about the gifts but about Jesus Christ (even other religion knows about Christmas celebrating Christ's birth), I’m not advocating Catholisism/Christianism, I am faithful person but I’m not religious, I would rather have the next generation not think of Christmas as just an extension for their birthday but as a remembrance of a holy person that did what is good.

Jesus and Santa

Fit

Fitness Day Monday: Fitter by the Day.

Thanks to Thanksgiving I'm now fitter, yehey! my baggy pants and big shorts really fits well now coz of all the food we've been munching on and the weight I probably gained (I hope it's temporary). I'm fitter and fatter :P....and thanks to having a cold I wasn't able to work out much last week too so I have to make up for it this week. I'll make sure to do cardio at least an hour and work out on the weekends too, I'd like to get to my target weight by January 2006.

Thanksgiving News!

Here's a great deal if you have an issue with your spaceship powersource. You can get spaceshipr batteries for only $10,000,000. Shipping is kina expensive though, maybe you can get a better deal somewhere or if you pick it up. I just had to post this one "SPACESHIP BATTERIES FOR SALE"

Be carefull of text messaging: "A biker got killed because a 17 yr. old lost control of his car while text messaging"


During the Black Friday shopping spree a man who cut a line to buy a cheap laptop got taken down and wrestled to the ground.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fancy Friday! We now have 2 fancy 32" LCD TV! Wine will be nice later ;)


It was a fun thanksgiving and Black Friday, we spent our time with relatives yesterday, had dinner, laughs, wine and great conversation and went home to check on what are on sale. We weren't planning to buy anything on Black Friday because we already have all the stuff that we need but there was a sale on a 32" LCD TV for < $700 which was the price we paid for our 27" and since we bought our 32" for around $900 too we decided to replace them with 2 sub 700 bucks LCD TV's which saved us around $200. Then I saw a 19" LCD monitor that is on sale and would end up cheaper than mine so I returned mine and got the one on sale. It was a tiring day in the mall but it was well worth it, I even found a "friend", while walking to the end of the line at 5:00AM PST a "kababayan" guy called me and told me to stick with him, at first I didn't want to because some people was there before me but he told me that the line goes up to the back of the building and that he's been there since 3:30AM and he's not even close to the door so it's best I stick with him. We talked a bit, I got to know about his situation and his challenges being an immigrant, we traded info and tips and when we got inside I thanked him and went to the stuff I wanted to get, when I saw him again I pointed to him where to get the TV that was on sale so he won't run out and since he had to leave early (he had work at 8AM) I'd like to give him a heads up on where to get what he wants (I know the shop really well). Well I got what I wanted, saves some dough too but man....it's a fun shopping experience...I should have taken my camera and got some photos of the line and some folks really cleaning out the shop... :)

“Make sure your Lady Love is set”

Wallet Talk Wednesday: “Make sure your Lady Love is set”

Ok before anything else: It’s going to be Black Friday in a couple of days so pls. check these sites out for those in the U.S. if you’re going to go shopping:

Black Friday List
Online Coupons
Fry’s Electronics Sale

Ok Now back to my topic, statistically MEN will kick the bucket, be one with “God”, get popped, walk the valley of death, get touched by the grim reaper, be taken by Shiva – Rudra or to simply put it…..DIE earlier before their wife does. So if you’re like me and your married and you really really really LOVE and CARE for your wife then you have to make sure her retirement fund and future life without you is set and in check AND she should knows where and how to get to all the assets that you have. Also note that if you have kids you still have to make sure your wife is a PRIORITY because your kids can leverage working and getting a loan while they are young but if your wife is at retirement age then she doesn’t have any chance of getting back to the workforce to help herself if the finances are low. Women will live longer and will normally have less assets during retirement than men due to various reasons such as men earning more wages than women, men investing more than women, etc. etc. So couples should share and be aware of how their finances will be distributed incase of the inevitable death of the male character and how it will be liquidated for the day to day use of your partner.

If you are gay or a lesbian couple, um…. You can probably determine who will drop dead first by looking at your partner’s lifestyle, age, family history. etc. etc. does he/she smoke, drink, stay up late too much all the time, eat very unhealthy food, etc. etc. well I’m not aware on how domestic partnership finances works, but I’m assuming that it’s the same where either one handles the finances or it’s divided between the two but here are some sites for domestic partnership financial advise links that could be helpful:
Gay.Com Business
Gay Financial Network
Pink Finance.COM

Now here are what I’ve been doing to prepare for any event in the future:
I Make sure that we invest or save money for my wifey’s accounts.
I Make sure she has access to all our accounts and any information that she needs are available.
I Make sure to tell her where I invest the money in so subconsciously if she decides to invest or think about investing in the future that she knows how I think and where I would invest in so if my investments flop she just do the opposite, if they are a success then invest in what I would invest in. I do have a common sense approach to investing so it’s not hard to follow my thoughts.
I Make sure all my accounts will have her as the beneficiary if I die and other accounts joined with her so it will be easy for her to access them.
I inform her of my own retirement fund so she knows how much is in it and how to access it.
I told her not to liquidate everything so in my demise she can still pay for the other assets and liquidate them slowly so she won’t get taxed too much by Uncle Sam. It’s a common mistake to remove the entire retirement fund and sell any extra houses/assets because it could be taxed at a very high rate.
Tell her to consult a couple or maybe three FEE based financial adviser to make sure she has a plan on what to do with the assets and liabilities.

Live Life and Love your Wife
Make Sure Your Honey knows
Where You Put the Money.

Walk with Music

Tunes for the Times!

I’ve been thinking lately about the music that I listen too and I noticed that I’m inclined to listen to Rap and Reggae music for a reason. A really good reason, because the message isn’t deep and it doesn’t push my emotions to other levelswhich makes it easier for me to listen to in a daily basis. Rap is very present, non-reminisce type of music that is pretty good to listen to while driving or doing stuff, there are politically charged and socially conscious raps out there but they aren’t played much on the mainstream, while reggae (old school ones by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, etc.) gives me a relaxed feeling, messages of freedom and liberty and being “easy” is abound BUT still puts me in that mellow mood. If I listen to a song let’s say from the Cardigans or Tracy Chapman’s “Revolution”, it brings me back to that period where it just came out and back then I was with some activist people that I knew and they were discussing politics and the like. When I hear Prodigy’s “Smack my Bitch Up” it brings me back to when I was in theater and it was the end music of the play where we introduce ourselves. And when I hear rock music from Metallica, GNR, sepultura or those old rock bands my mind goes back when I was in HS when I used to love Heavy Metal, real heavy metal where life was full of angst and trying to be a rebel and different. I also remember my close friend who lives in Dallas Texas now because they had a heavy metal band back then and I would sometimes join them during their sessions to listen to their music and just hang out with them. Live was easy then, it's good to remember the past, not live in the past.

Yes music takes me back in time, Music is in our Soul.

Weed Whacker!

Fitness Day Monday: 'Weed Whacking Workout'

Last week was an ok week for fitness, I had 2 sessions at the gym lifting weights and the weekends cleaning up the backyard and garage. Most of my tiring activity was cleaning up the weeds and the vines that were left by the previous owner to grow and takeover a big portion of the backyard. I'm still far from making it perfectly clean and clear for wifey and myself to put new stuff there but we're getting there. I'll probably spend some time during the holidays to clean it up, the sooner the better too since it's getting cold and it's pretty hard to wake up in the morning and do some backyard work when it's cold...brrrr...Joints and muscles are sore, I won't do cardio today, treat today as my rest day and will just start again tomorrow. I just remembered needing to get supplements too, I'll probably get some later at bodybuilding.com site, some supplement for pre-workout would be nice. Probably have to get two too, wifey will be using it too.

Kitty Paws! Nov 20 2005

Tommy's Sunday Speak: 'Strangers and Spaces'

Pussy Cat Tommy and Tigger sleeping under the dining chair.

It has been a crazy week for me, last Friday when the garage was open I went out of the house and roamed around the neighborhood. When I went back to the house mom and dad wasn't there and I couldn't get it the house, they seem to have went out somewhere. I was sooo hungry and lonely that I went knocking to our neighbor and I'm glad that she took me in. She gave me food and a litter box and gave me a bed, then in the morning she took me back to mom and dad, they were so happy to see me and they always make sure now that I'm in the house before they go to sleep. Dad and mom was busy during the weekend too, dad cleaned up the backyard we have so much space now and we can climb the trees, mom rested a lot and cleaned up the house too. So I've just been climbing trees and running around lately, I was trying to catch some flies but they seem to be too fast for me right now. When I grow older I hope to catch a lot of them though.

Old Backyard with weeds.

New Backyard! Trees are fun.

Busy Bee!

Rand0m RAmbL1NgS!

It's been such a busy period lately..... but it's a great time too. I'm now an uncle. My elder brother just had their baby this week so I'm officially an uncle. Well they say uncles normally prepare the children for life so I hope when my nephew grows up I can teach him about life in general.

Other than that there are so many things to do that I'll probably spend Thanksgiving holiday studying and working on house stuff which is a good positive way to spend the free time anyways.

1. Study for Certification and re-educate myself on new technologies
2. Study for business and career reasons
3. Clean up the backyard so the extra space will be usable

B!A07H

You can't choose your neighbors but you can choose to ignore them. We have b1a0tch azz neighbors in the area who just complains and complains about everything. I think it's because they are old ba$turds and they could be bigots or just sick of their life and have nothing better to do. I should send em v!brators and blow up dolls so they can do something productive. The great thing is that one of our next door neighbor is such a great couple that they balance the others that are POS. I hope God shines their light upon our idiot neighbors and talk to them in heaven in how it is to be neighborly as soon as possible ;)

For our Nasty Neighbors and Old People that doesn't have anything better to do in life than to be BITTER and mess with other people. F#*K YOU! May the finger of the light come inside though where the sun doesn't shine....

Real Estate #1

Wallet Talk Wednesday: Real Estate #1

Real Estate is a great asset to have as long as you can take care of the payments and ride it out through tough times. Common sense will tell you that people need a place to live, people will NEED to either rent or buy a house so it’s an investment that should always be considered. Right now being a “young” investor there are 3 plays that we see in real estate, these are:

Cash Flow from Rentals (though this could be a negative flow if the rent doesn’t cover the mortgage then the play is number 2.). If you’re one of the lucky ones who generate a positive cash flow from your property then that’s great. It’s basically paying itself for you so now you have 2 play, positive cash flow and possible future equity of the property.

Equity of the property which is the difference of the value of the house you purchased and the present value or future value of your house. It is speculative in a way but historically housing prices have steadily climbed up especially if you’re in a good LOCATION. AND you can leverage your equity for any emergency or other investments if you want to.

Tax Break and Tax Deferral of the property. Home owners have their interest payments refunded to them and as of today, if you stay in the house for 2 years out of 5 you will not get taxed up to $250,000/single or $500,000 gains on the sale of the property. For rentals, they can sell the house and do a 1031 exchange (get another investment property and put all the gains from the initial property to the new one) and defer the tax.

Our general rule of thumb for real estate:
LOCATION
LOCATION
LOCATION

Any real estate property relies on the location that it is in. It also depends on what type of property you are willing to get into and what you plan to do with it.

If you have a rental property which is a single family house and it’s located in the middle of the desert (lets say Las Vegas) do you think you’ll have a market to rent it out? Tourist use hotels/motels. Employees in hotels, casinos, theaters, bars, etc. probably own a place or are already renting in apartments/condos. There might be some demand but it will be limited compared to getting a rental close to business areas, school district that are good, and/or “exclusive” neighborhood where people want to live.

Good places to have property for rent:
Location where there is a strong Business presence and big companies with high paying jobs
Location where there are Universities, Colleges and/or great schools
Location that are very attractive for starting family like suburbs that is around 20-40 min away from the main city.

Your main house:
Close to work so commute time is reduced and road accidents can be avoided (less time on the road less chance to get into an accident)
Close to family and friends so you can still have a life other than work.
Accessible for clients if you are running a business at your property.

AND a good LOCATION normally will have higher demand of people moving in and they will be willing to pay a premium price for them.

You can still invest in real estate without buying a house though. You can buy REITS, they are like stocks which you can buy from companies that are involved in the real estate business.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING BEFORE BUYING A HOUSE FOR INVESTMENT OR AS A HOME IS TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN MAKE THE MONTHLY PAYMENTS. A good broker should be able to give you the numbers on monthly payments and terms of the house.

Research and Educate yourself for any investments. Good Luck.

Active Week!

Fitness Day Monday: Like a Train

The good thing with working out is that when you start going you run like a train non stop. Last week was a great week, lifted weights on Tuesday and Thursday (body was sore coz I haven't lifted much weights for a while) and Wed-Fri did 45 min cardio. And to add to that on Sunday I did a lot of backyard work, cleaning and clearing up all the weeds and the thorny vines that the last owner left. I ate a lot during the weekend though but hopefully it won't be that bad because I made sure I ate a lot of chicken and fish instead of pork and beef. I'm thinking if I need to calorie count again, the results are amazing if you count your calories and cycle it for faster results but I might not have time to do that so I'll probably just keep it the way it is right now.

Tuesday - Cardio 15 min + Weights: Chest 3 x 12 reps, Biceps 2 x 12, Triceps 2 x 12, Abs 3 x 12
Wednesday - Cardio 45 min
Thursday - Cardio 15 min + Weights: Legs 3 x 12, Back 3 x 12, Calves 2 x 12, Delts 2 x 12
Friday - Cardio 45 min to

Kitty Paws News Update Nov 12+1 2005

Tommy's Sunday Speak: 'Webs Spinning, Bells Ringing.'

Pussy Cat Tommy with his new collar with bell.

This week was a fun week as always. Daddy let me out a lot of times during the day so I can roam around and get used to the backyard. I even saw this spider up top of the bushes but I wasn't able to catch it. I was trying real hard to get to it but daddy took me down and told me not to bother it coz it eats flies. Dad likes spiders I think because he made sure he didn't mess up the spiders web. So I was running around and playing around while Daddy cleans up Big Dog Brother Diesel's poop or cut some weeds and bushes which was fun. This weekend Daddy had a surprise for me and Big Kat Brother Tigger, daddy put collars on us with bells. At first it was very very so so irritating but we got used to it now everytime we move fast there are bells ringing and now they know where we are all the time too I guess. It was a busy week for dad and mom though coz I noticed that they were busy doing a lot of stuff and going in and out of the house while I play tag with Big Kat Brother Tigger.

My Play Yard.


The Spider I was trying to play with.

Old Skoool

Lounging at home and watching CASABLANCA. It's a refreshing movie to watch since movies now a days are just..... well incomplete? no new story? nothing new? Very dull? lifeless?
"A Kiss is just a Kiss, a sigh is just a sigh"

Classics are good! Old Skool is Cool!

Fancy some Wine!

Well I'm not drinking yet but wifey and I went for steak last night (bad me, I shouldn't eat too much at dinner time) but we left half of our food for leftover tonight. I'll enjoy eating the rest later with wine....I tried zinfandel with the steak last night and it didn't work :P


THIS FRANCIS COPPOLA SYRAH-SHIRAZ WINE IS GREAT WITH New York Steak. It just jives together soooo well....I'm no food critic but man I just love having the two together....



Enjoy the Weekend, I'll be wining and dining at home;)

Below is a poem I made concerning passing away but the images are not consistent, they jump from one thing to another. But should still make the point...


Time To Go

I clamp on
To your hand
Like a caliper
Holding a test tube
So not to be diverted
From the process
As we
Traverse
Coordinates
Leading to
The
Theater
To Gaze

The Last Dance of Shiva

97-98

Prick!

Prickly People!

I just remembered a client of my wife, he's older than us and him and his wife went to our new place a few weeks back. Wifey toured the new place to them and the only thing that came out of his mouth is "Isn't it a little dark?" when he saw our masters bedroom. The color is like dark swampy green (which we feel is really nice and cozy), I wasn't there during that time but wifey just let it go. His wife was happy for us and especially when she saw the backyard, she couldn't believe it was so big....but no peep from him for any positive thing. Being a guy I've encountered pricks because I was probably one too :) but it's just shameful that someone at his age would be such an arrogant prick and would only notice "negative" things. Well now that I'm writing about it he's actually an average person, someone who only sees the mistakes and doesn't see the beauty of things. A pessimist in life, a person who thinks only his point of view matter? No? Just to make fun of it all I'll try to determine why he's a prick.

Why is he a Prick:
1. He's 40ish and noticed that life is passing him by and it just drove him to be a bitchy bastard.
2. He's probably a dork when he was a kid and always getting picked on so he only see the "negative side" of things.
3. His penis is small.
4. He just doesn't have manners or didn't learn good manners growing up. He should go to John Robert Powers.
5. Mommy never paid that much attention to him and always criticized him.
6. He's jealous that people younger than him have more assets. Well Fuck off, we sacrificed vacation, shopping, luxury, new car, and other things to acquire what we have. This year we've only gone to the coast for our vacation and THAT IS IT while you've gone to a different country, out of state trips, etc. etc. in the span of 3 months.
7. He realized he couldn't show off to people younger than him and he's pissed off. Well lick donkey ballz biaotch, it's not what you have it's who you are that's important.
8. He realized his nice cars weren't gonna get him a house and now it's too expensive to get one and we have two already.
9. He was just born a prick. I can live with that ;)
10. His penis is small.

Interesting News!

Interesting: Golder Retriever Gives Birth to a GREEN, yes GREEN puppy:

One pup in a litter of four is color green, vet says it could be because of the placenta that could have rubbed on the pup.

Read more at Click 2 Houston!


Sad/Weird: A woman wants to sue her mother's doctor:

"Alexia Harriton was born deaf, blind, physically and mentally disabled, and requires 24 hour a day care, a news agency reported.

Her lawyers claim her mother's doctor was negligent in failing to diagnose rubella infection early in the pregnancy and wrongly reassured Olga Harriton that her child would not be affected."

Read more at Hindustan Times!

Weird: Paul McCartney Beam Concert into SPACE!

Title says it all....

Arnie got Smacked in the Head in California

Arnold got smacked like a biaotch in the ballot! Will He Be Back? Or is it Asta Lavista Arnie?

Californians reject Governor Schwarzenegger's initiatives and got smacked bad on the ballot initiatives that he was pushing for. Personally I think it’s stupid to spend $50 Mil on issues that doesn’t directly affect Californians. I saw the opposition’s ad’s and I knew he’s going to get his ass handed to him. You don’t fight the middle class without sweetening the deal or getting the people’s take on it, I didn’t vote because it’s obvious that he’s going to get creamed anyways, fighting teachers, firefighters, unions, nurses, police, etc. WTF they are the middle class, WE are the middle class and we don’t need initiatives that doesn’t affect us NOW, there is nothing on his initiatives that I can relate to, it just sounds like union busting and some political maneuvering to me.

What issues will make me vote:

GAS/OIL - related initiatives, put tax on it or use reserve oil to push the prices down, I don’t know what but do something about it.

TAX – the state is in deficit, increase tax somewhere….how about increasing sales tax on Luxury SUV’s and Luxury Cars? They are gas guzzlers and if people can afford them, they can pay a little more to help the state.

ECONOMY – I’ve been hearing and noticing businesses going out of state because of the cost of having their business here is pretty high. Even families are moving out due to the cost of living in California. Employment isn’t hot too, it’s better than before as I do see folks getting jobs fairly quick now compared to before but you still can’t feel the air being financially sound. Get businesses in the state, get the investors in the state, push education like give credits for people getting higher education, I’d love to get my MBA but I’m not getting paid enough to take care of school and bills ;P

BUT I still do admire Arnold, people don’t know this but he’s one of the “American Dream.” He grew up in Austria, became a bodybuilder there, leveraged bodybuilding and came to US and learned about business (he was going to business school while doing bodybuilding), became an actor, got into various business deals (last I know he’s worth close to a billion dollars) then became a governor. I have an old book about him where he did say he wants to be a governor and it became true, he’s now the Governor of California. He might not be the best politician out there but he’s a determined and passionate individual to get to where he's at right now and I like that about him.
Will he win a 2nd term though? Hard to say since he just shot himself in the foot with his ballot initiatives that the people don't want and now he's not looking very good, alienating the democratic and independent middle class of the state. It's up to what he does starting today that will make a difference. Stop thinking or being like an Elitist, get intouch with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and learn some humility and publicity from him. I've seen him personally in a convention, he's always out there, he pushed for Stem Cell research to be centered in SF, he's everywhere attracting business, getting itouch with immigrants, he's just where people are, and he's getting involved and getting "one" with the people without throwing any politics in the mix.

THE OLD

AND THE NEW

Save on Holiday Shopping!

Wallet Talk Wednesday!

Save! Save! Save! via Coupons and Sale

I'll start of with a rant.... ARRRRGGGGHHHHH I didn't want to but I had to.... I had to...I had to.... I had to get a monitor because my old monitor is already blurry and it was hard to do work on it last night. I had a hard time finishing some work I took home because it was blurry so I bought a new monitor. The only redemption is that I was able to buy it at a good price and another guy was able to get it too because he heard me talking with the sales guy about it. His coupon shows a $50 rebate for a 17" Flat Panel monitor for a total of $199 after rebate, my coupon shows $50 rebate for a 19" Flat Panel monitor for a total of $199 so he was also able to get the 19" for the same price he would have paid for the 17". I also told him where I get my coupons so next time he can get better deals :) We even chatted a little and I learned he still plays video games especially with his kid, he also got divorced and that his X-wife had issues with him playing games but his new wife doesn't mind so I bet he's happier now. Oh well, my old monitor served its purpose, I had it for around 2 yrs and spent $80 for it so I guess it's fine.

For this session I'll have something that will directly affect buyers....

OK Black Friday is the DAY after Thanksgiving when a lot, and I mean ALOT of retailers have their biggest sale of the year since this is the period where people shop for the holidays too. I think the next one would be the week after Christmas, if the retailers didn't meet their quotas they'll be having tons of sale during this period too but on to Black Friday since it's just around the corner:
Check this site out you will definitely find a good deal if you're looking for something.
BLACK FRIDAY DEALS ADS

Personally I don't like gift giving on X-mas so I tell my wife to give the most practical and not so expensive gift. I won't get into details on that one though so enjoy the holidays.

Online Printable Coupons from various stores like Best Buy, Borders, Bath and Body, etc. etc. I normally get Borders coupons from this site when buying books at borders. This site is always updated:
WOW Coupons (Free Online Coupons)

Normally your Local Newspaper or Magazine will also have coupons or sale online, that's where I normally find good deals too. Like around my area we have San Jose Mercury News/Contra Cost Times with online ads:
San Jose Mercury News Newspaper Ads

Contra Cost Times Shop Local

Food: You can actually just be a member of restaurants then you get emails on their deals. Pretty good for those quick snacks when you need them.
Round Table
Quiznos

Also coupons could be available on your grocery shops:
Safeway
Alberstons
Savon
Longs Drugs

You should also try out online grocery shopping if there is one close to you, it saves time that you can use to do things instead of going to the grocery store and spending time roaming around and getting the stuff you want. You have to pay for delivery but it does pay off with the time you can spend with family, studying, etc. etc.

Also check out services like UPROMISE.."a service that gives you cash back towards college for various types of shopping activities, from shopping online to buying certain groceries to dining out"..I got this from MyMoneyBlog Jonathan

Thumbs up for the good Deals!

Do you remember?

Reflections of a TEENAGER…;) YES I'm still a Teenager.

Well every time you get a year older it’s always nice to reminisce about the past and the good old days. I guess it’s also a good time to reflect on what the future will bring, but like most people I’m clueless about the future and like most men, I’ll probably just scratch my balls and grab a drink and think about it when it hits me. Well blogging is a great tool that I use as a journal for myself and as a way to share knowledge and experience to other people with the same interest and views in life (I save the blogs I make monthly on my local drive so I can always look back on how I think and what I did) so thanks to my friend, Tobie, who got me into blogging.

I don't have any written outline of what I'd like to write down so I’ll probably just randomly put in my $1 (due to inflation it’s not 2 cents anymore, it costs a dollar now for my thoughts) about life and what it contains.

Friends – yes I miss all my friends, HS to college, more college than HS though, I do have various friends from different walks of life, I guess because Friends have in them a small part of you which is why the connection is there so I do have various types of friends. In college, a close friend of mine actually said that I’m a paradox because I’m a nerd and into sports, normal guy but into arts, spender but thrifty with good business sense, crazy but have common sense, conservative in some and liberal in others. I'm just weird I guess.

Time – time use to be on my side when I was young, on weekends or the summer time I’ll just lounge all day, help in the house, do nothing, read a book, use computer, meet friends, go out and get drunk till the weeee hours in the morning. Now it’s a luxury that shouldn’t be wasted.

Family – I’m sure you heard of a saying about Blood being Thicker than water. Yes Blood is thicker than water, I don’t always get in touch with my family but if they NEED something I’m sure to provide it. Family is always there even if your viewpoints are not the same or you might not agree with their opinions they’ll be there or rather I’ll be there for Family (let’s just say sometimes Blood doesn’t always push through for you) BUT the only thing I don’t want Family and even Friends to try to even get involved with me is in BUSINESS and MONEY MATTERS. I’ve seem family fighting over money, business and the will of the head of the family and I tell you it’s very ugly. I’ll share experiences and tips but WILL NEVER GET INVOLVED. There’s also a saying that “It’s better to develop friends from business than to develop business with friends.”

Arts – Music, Poetry, Novels, Paintings, Film, Sculptures, etc. etc. are all great and I believe a person should at least be able to appreciate 1 form of art. Life will be so bland without art appreciation. I like reading poetry and looking at paintings too.

Education – One of the NEEDS a person must satisfy. Is not only contained in the 4 corners of the classroom. Specialty is also a key factor for your career goals, it’s hard to actually decide what you want to be when you grow up? I’m still deciding on what I want to be and a lot of people still doesn’t have any idea on what they want to be when they grow up, but if you received education on specific skill like accounting, IT, medicine, photography, etc. you can work and pay your bills while you decide on what you REALLY want to be when you grow up :P

Sports – Sports is good for the health and a social tool too. If I was genetically gifted I’d love to be an athlete ;) Education Trumps sports on my book though.

Money – Is a basic need, it’s used as the medium for trade and services. A funny thing is that watching MTV when I was young I thought it’ll be easy to be wealthy…well a decade after that and I know it’s hard to be wealthy BUT kids these days still think they’ll be rich… rich people are like 4% of the population, LOL I guess being delusional is normal for teens my generation and the next ones. Here's a Washington Post Article on teens thinking they will become rich someday CLICK ME.

Never mind TOLERANCE, it must be ACCEPTANCE. Tolerance is like having the gun pointed, lock and loaded with your trigger on the finger but the switch is on the safe position. You can fire anytime and just have a switch that holds it all back.
Acceptance is learning, respecting, educating and knowing. It's putting your gun to the holster, securing it in place and putting out your hand for a handshake.

Underwear- yes an underwear can last for a long time. There are sides A & B and AA &BB and sometimes AAA & BB for weekly use har har har. Bacon strips? Yes that's fine as long as it holds :)

Women's publication on Men- it's ALL Bull Crap. I'm sick of seeing those articles that says make your man happy 100 ways, satisfy your man's needs in 1million ways.....It doesn't take 50, 100, 200 ways to satisfy or make a man happy. Men are simple creatures, give us something to do + eat + sleep + get some + manly conversations(sports + women + sex + stuff), that's about it..... it will probably only go up to 10, if the guy is metro-sexual then it will probably go up to 15, that's about it.

Hi-Tech - a term used back in the days. It's important to be tech familiar, even secretaries now a days needs to know how to use a computer. I've seen just dos commands, bat files, pctools, the possessed virus, BBS, dig dug and price of persia, windows 3.1, karateka ;)

Marriage - Well the marriage contract should be as much paperwork as buying a house. With the divorce rate 40ish% if I remember right, man it should be thought as much as when purchasing a house or property. What happened to "sickness and in health, for richer or poorer and death do us part?" It should take a week to finish up signing a marriage contract. Ever heard of the saying "Marriage Works"? well it's because "Marriage is a work in progress", here's something pretty easy to grasp, if you have siblings or relatives that you grew up with, love and care for and also get into harsh fights and misunderstanding DON'T BE DELUDED that you will not encounter any misunderstanding with another person that you didn't even grow up with and didn't spend your childhood with will :P

Food - I love eating different types of food and trying out various dishes. I just found a nice blog concerning food adventure in Cali "California Eating"

Ok all done for the day ;)

I’m almost out of my teen years, married to my lovely wifey, have great friends and family, have 4 cute pets, 2 houses, 2 businesses, 1 job, 2 cars, 1 nasty neighbor (old bastards, you’re not going to bother my life bitches and crazy mofos). Life is good so love life and live.

Fitness Day Monday!!

Fatigue to the bone!

I was only able to do carido 2 days last week because of our busy schedule. I'm still sooo tired of the move and the cleanup of our house and rental property, good thing family drop by on the weekend to visit our new place and my Bday as well. I won't be going to the gym today though, I'll rest my body for today coz I'm still feeling fatigue of all the yard work and the cleanup that we did last week. I did loose 5 lbs already. I've created a program that I'll follow till the end of November, it should maximize the fat loss and help develop some muscles.

Monday - Cardio 45 min to 1 Hr
Tuesday - Cardio 15 min + Weights: Chest 3 x 12 reps, Biceps 2 x 12, Triceps 2 x 12, Abs 3 x 12
Wednesday - Cardio 45 min to 1 Hr
Thursday - Cardio 15 min + Weights: Legs 3 x 12, Back 3 x 12, Calves 2 x 12, Delts 2 x 12
Friday - Cardio 45 min to 1 Hr

And of course I'll be more strict with the food I eat now. No calorie counting yet but Chicken + Fish and Beef on weekdays with very small amount of carb in the evenings. Free for all on weekends though, pizza, pasta, steak, etc. etc. yum yum..... ;) I've also added FLAX SEED oil as a supplement, so Fish oil and Flax Seed Oil are the 2 supplements I'm taking right now.

I'm OLD...metabolism is slowing down....
Seeing that I just got a year older I do need to push for fitness as a lifestyle now, my metabolism which is slow as a turtle already will be going on a decline sooner than later. Sucks, I'm almost out of the TEEN age group..... I'm officially TwenTEEN Eight years old :P two more years and I'm not a teen anymore ;)

Will rest today and read on books I need to finish, mental fitness is as important as physical fitness ;) Workout starts tomorrow.

Kitty Paws News Update Nov 6 2005

Tommy's Sunday Speak: 'Pack and Play'

Pussy Cat Tommy blogging on his laptop.

It's soooo great to be back online again. It's been so tiring and busy with us moving and it's such a new place that our litter box and food box is in a different place now, I've been so confused that I sometimes took my pee pee on Daddy and Mommy's bed, they get so mad and don't let me in the room anymore but I kiss them and it makes everything all right. My new house is nice, I have such a big backyard now but there was this incident a few days back where I was outside playing and this one big black cat bullied me...I cried and cried and tried to fight back but the cat gave me a scratch on my belly. Good think mommy heard me and went outside and scared the cat away, daddy even went home to check on me to make sure my wounds are not really bad and he said that Big Dog Brother Diesel will be out too to watch over me when I'm outside so if any other cat tries to bully me they'll be surprised to see Big Brother Diesel around. I've been running around and playing but I'm still not used to the place, good thing the couch that I sleep on is here too so I know where I should lay down and sleep. My first week was hard because mommy and daddy didn't let us out of the room, they let us stay there for a long time before they let us go around the house. Now I'm getting use to the place, the backyard is big and nice, mommy kat Fiona brought home a gopher yesterday too, I think she hunted it in our backyard:) Well enjoy your week as I'll just be lounging and playing around here.

Sleepy Head Pussy Kat Tommy, done sufing the net.

Big Brother Tigger Lounging on the couch

Mom Kat Fiona Cleaning Herself after the hunt!

Dinner Date! Birthday wants

Fancy Friday! B-Day coming in, I'm getting old.

We will definitely go out for dinner tonight in a nice restaurant with wine, steak, cheesecake ;)

And since it's also my B-Day next week we'll be celebrating it this weekend. Well I normally don't care about my B-Day, all it is for me is the realization that I'm getting close to the "finish line" hahahaha.
So wifey asked me what I wanted and thinking hard, since I don't want to waste resources, I thought of these:
1. To satisfy the "Nerd" inside:
1.a. Upgrade my machine to 1.5-2Gig ram> Decided on adding 512MB more instead of a gig. I do have a lot of stuff that runs on my machine and 1.5Gig should be enough to handle them all.
1.b. Upgrade my machine with an additional 300Gig HDD > Nah, I'll buy when I need more space, I have around 100Gig of free space I think.
1.c. Set up video surveillance around the house for security (a just in case shit happens tool). > This will be a fun toy and a practical additional security gadget to have. I'll be getting a wireless video network cam, can't believe how cheap they are now.
1.d. Maybe get a new monitor, my 21' has blurry text on the bottom part already. > Nah, last on my list. Not a need, flat screen montiors are still expensive for my taste. Maybe if I find a 2nd hand well priced 21'er.

Oh gotta get new speakers, my old speakers are dying, I'll just get those cheap ones, don't really listen too much on my computer anyways.

2. To satisfy the "I want to be wealthy too" inside:
2.a. Have some investment money to play with. > Probably put some money on my account with Scottrade.
3. To satisfy the insides of my Tummy:
3.a. A nice dinner with wine and NY Steak and all the side dishes, deserts and trimmings that will give me a heart attack ;) Harharharhar....Hmmmm


Fancy Friday will be continued with pics and stuff chow!

Sound Blaster Speakers (Free after rebate), Airlink wireless network camera , OCZ 512MB memory

I'm still thinking if I need to replace my monitor....hmmm....well dinner time in a few will play with my new toys when I get back or play with them tomorrow if wine flows in my throat like the autumn rain from heaven.

Super Uber Great dinner with wifey... had great food with great wine and great conversation, the Sterling Cab is a great table wine, for NY steak wine I preferred the Copolla Syrah from Napa vs. the Jade Mountain Syrah from Napa. Great Start for the weekend, you guys and gals have a good weekend. I won't be able to upgrade my machine tonight as my coordination is not at its best ;) Have a good one.. It's by Birth Day Biaotch I'm 28 already I'm getting old.....

Wine is Divine, here are my extras for tomorrow....

Sticking with minima!

I've been looking for a simple template to use....easy to read, not much colors and no busy links around it so decided to use minima again :P

Blog Rush!

Some Poetry in Me!

Not being able to go online for a week just made me starved surfing, blogging and sending emails to friends ;)

Below is a poem I made about 7 yrs ago. My friends who are known writers would edit my works and said that before I'd rampantly use "nothingness" which they didn't like, especially Ricci (Nerisa Guevara '99 poetry awardee of the Palanca Awards) which I now understand as I'm older and a little wiser. I now see that there is no such thing as nothing(ness), maybe empty but not nothing :P

The Merchant from www.thecards.com

Merchant

Father,
Trades
Blood and sweat
For gold and diamond,
Time turned bones brittle,
Made dust of his hand.

Son,
Plays with
His silver heirloom
Bending and twisting it,
Left
For beer and whore,
Found dead in an alley
With only dust in his hand.

(1997-1998)

Battle Scars: Finger Bang

GOT FINGERBANGGED?

During the course of fixing up and getting major work done to our house I went through a couple of major scars. The worse one was when I was drilling a pilot hole (small hole for the screw to go in) my drill bit snagpped and guess where the drill went? Through my pointy finger…when I pulled it out the drill took some meat with it…blood was dripping mad and wifey got the bandage and ointment while I was wasdhing it with soap and pressing it to make sure the blood and any dirt goes out, I’m experienced in taking care of my wounds since my mom’s a nurse and she normally takes care of cuts, colds, flu and bruises when I was young, she only took us to the doctor if we’re really sick. While washing it I was feeling faint because of the pain and I actually thought it went through the other side of my finger, good thing it didn’t but it seem to have hit my bone. Wifey wanted to call 911 but I didn’t want to, I just neeed time to get myself together and patch it up, I was initially thinking of getting to a doctor check if the bone got hit but I realized that he won’t replace the bone or do anything, he’ll just probably give me some medication or ointment and let it heal anyways. So when I felt better I got some aspirin, wifey bandaged my finger and we just called a handyman to finish the work that I was trying to get done. :P

Fingerbangged #1

The next one was when I was setting up our network, I was going through the carpet to place the cat5 cables for the router and the main machine when my hand scraped through the carpet retainer (the flat wooden strip with small nails that holds the carpet down) and my right thumb got some layer of skin scraped off :P I just washed the blood off and continued doing my work. Wifey saw it and asked me "what are you doing? you should rest!" I just kept on doing what I needed to do. What can I say, I’m your average normal guy, doesn’t ask for directions, beer (and wine) drinking, fornicating, doesn’t go to the doctor, actually I do get a checkup at once a year, getting wounds and scrapes, which are fine as long as they are far from the heart….well and the brain, and the spine. It’s all good. I'm just your average wham bam good bye mam kinda guy :P

Fingerbangged #2

Check this out: Cluster Map - A very interesting counter that shows where in the world your readers are based. Got it from one of the blogs I visit, Scott the Survivor.

Back again!

Computer OK
DSL OK
Major tasks DONE
Minor tasks IN PROGRESS (always)

Interesting News:

Gossip column, want to find out what your neighbor earns? In Helsinki tax information becomes public.
Click here for more info!

Freak Accident, 68 cows killed by lightning in Australia.
Click here for more info!


Good Deal or Bad? FOR SALE: House with "Bride" included. Deborah Hale is selling her house with herself....WTF is that? Well crazy is as crazy does.

Read it on My Way.


Papua New Guinea arrests 320 people on charges of sorcery.

*****************************

Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s.

Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a "cargo cult" and their followers, the newspaper said. Those arrested were aged between 20 and 70.

One group led by two women used menstrual blood as "sacred water" to enable them to see "invisible things," said the newspaper in the capital, Port Moresby.
*****************************

Wow talk about government crackdown on religion and culture. Inquisition in the 21st century? Let them spread their mens if they want too, reuse is better than not using them at all :P

More information Here!


Back to the Gym Again:

Did cardio earlier today and it’s soooooo good to be back in my routine again, with the addition of other stuff to take care which is fine, but it’s still good to be back to my routine. Ain’t it funny, during my younger years it was all about being a rebel (with a cause) and being different, now routine is the key to happiness, well it’s the key to consistency. You can routinely be a rebel too ;)

Compound Me Up!

Piggy Bank

Wallet Talk Wednesday

Compound Me Up!

Good to be back online and blogging…DSL finally got activated...for this portion I’ll talk about compounding and increasing investment savings from your budget.

The best way to increase investing or saving portion of your income is to make sure you budget what you need and remove those that you don’t. Because some of you folks have gotten used to having a standard of living you might actually think you can’t live without some of your stuff. Guess what… you can live without them...really you can.

Currently we have reviewed our bills and had these outcome:
1. Cell phones – Needed for emergency but not a necessity so plan was reduced to minimum. $80ish for 3 lines.
2. Satellite – It’s a good thing to have and we have gotten used to the shows but not a necessity so no satellite for now. Save $50ish a month.
3. DSL – prices are low that it’s not worth to downgrade to dialup and necessity for business and personal sanity. Other than blogging and surfing I get news and financial information online instead of traditional newspapers.
4. Phone – Necessity for emergencies, not expensive too.
5. Starbucks/Coffee funds – Nah we are not coffee drinkers and we’re not like YOU…:P addicted to Starbucks. I should have bought their stocks 3 years ago ;) We have a gift card given to us so we get free coffee until it runs out.
6. Dining out – Yes, wifey and myself would rather spend money on FOOD than on other things. Well wifey does spend some on furniture and stuff to make the house look good so it’s all good.
7. Gym – Well health is important and I’ll be going back to the gym probably tomorrow too, I’m not feeling too fatigue from the move anymore. That’s $19/month.
8. Magazines – We’ve cancelled all our subscriptions months ago so that’s around $40ish a month in savings.

So I guess all in all we only have $100-$120 Plus utilities, food and trash, so WORSE case scenario a running monthly bill of $400. Savings of around $90 a month taken from the stuff we cancelled.

The great thing about investing early (market/savings/bonds/etc.) is the “Compounding Effect”. It’s basically better to save early and get the benefits of compounding
As a VERY SIMPLE SAMPLE:

I put this $90/month or $1080/yr. in an account/investment that earns 4% per year. In 6 years I would have what vs. if I kept it yearly in my pocket?

Assuming that the addition that is added for the year will not accumulate interest for the period. There are various formulas for compounding out there depending on your situation and schedule of contributions but this one below is the most simple one I can think of right now so I’m going to use it :P

$90*12 = $1,080 to be given yearly at 4%.

End of 1st year you will get $1,080 + 43.2 (4% of $1,080)= $1,123.2
End of 2nd year you will get $1,123.2 + 44.928 (4% of $1,123.2) + $1,080 = $2,248.128
End of 3rd year you will get $2,248.128 + 89.925 (4% of $2,248.128) + $1,080 = $3,418.053
End 4th year you will get $3,418.053 + 136.722 (4% of $3,418.053) + $1,080 = $4,634.775
End 5th year you will get $4,634.775 + 185.39 (4% of $4,634.775) + $1,080 = $5,900.165
End 6th year you will get $5,900.165 + 236 (4% of $5,900.165) + $1,080 = $7,216.17

So because of compounding I would have $7,216.17 instead of having $6,480 if I kept the money in my pocket.

Let me reminded you that you can loose money or your capital in some investment vehicles so educate yourself before investing in anything.

Good Luck and EnjoyLife!

Investment Thoughts!

Wallet Talk Wednesday: Investment Thoughts on putting money to funds.

WHAT's THE PLAY WITH MONEY?


Well I've been lagging on taking care of wifey's retirement funds. I have her funds vested into INTERNATIONAL mutual funds and VALUE mutual funds which I'll reasses next year. I still have some portion to invest though so I'll put them to INTERNATIONAL funds again seeing as I see China and India and other asian countries boosting their economy and production. Included are Vietnam and Singapore. I give 5 years of economic boom in the Asian region.

Here are my common sense breakdown:

1. China - All manufacturing jobs are going here. Furnitures that we got were all made in China, clothes and computer parts and other household items are made here. Companies from China has been acquiring various companies to boost their brand and products too. China also have a great pool of engineers.
2. India - Tech jobs are being outsourced to India and they also manufacture various products. Their pool of engineers are some of the best in the world that's why Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, Oracle and other major IT/System/Service companies have facilities in India either by call centers, research labs, middle management positions, etc. etc.
3. Singapore - I've read news that their economy is strong with incresing IT pool and with their government being pro business and with being the 5th of the least corrupt countries it's a very good place to be in business.
4. Vietnam - I've read that they have been exporting shrimps, rice, textile and various other products. I think they will be a major agricutural exporter in the future.

My previous Investment Thought was back in 2003, when we got our 1st house and the housing boom is going strong. I told wifey that by 3 to 5 years the housing will cool down due to the sharp increase and soon people will not be able to afford the prices and they will be put in a "2 Income Trap" position. And a lot of people who went in head on using variable interest without being ready for a spike in monthly payments will have to sell their house or, I hope not for their sake, go into forclosure. Housing market has cooled down here in California, and I think it's about time, with interest rising and housing prices are high too. I'll get more into real estate next time ;)