Not cheap, Fiscally concerned

First, I’d like to link to Fox-news’ “Worst Films of 2008″. A great article by Roger Friedman:
The Worst Films of 2008
Awesomeness starts with words like these:

In a way, it’s harder to choose the worst films of a year rather than the best. There are so many! How many times did we walk out of a theater this year muttering, “That’s the worst thing I ever saw”? About as many times as last year. So here they are, for better or worse.

I like movies. Just don’t like paying 10$ a ticket for them. Worse - don’t like paying at all to feel cheated by a horrible piece of propaganda. I won’t go deep into what turns me off in a movie - suffice it to say that I like to laugh, and I like plots to connect and not be a random collection of things blown up nor horrendous monologues of self importance which usually purvey a certain political mind set. I don’t like being preached.

If I feel the need to be social and “enjoy” a film outside of my living room, I usually travel to Briarwood Mall at Ann Arbor and pay 1$ a ticket for something that should go out on DVD in a week:
Briarwood Dollar Movies - Just saw “Pine Apple Express” there last weekend.

The other obvious frugal choice is to watch movies cut, censored and filled with commercials and onscreen overlays. I bet no one really wants to pick that one… Tis’ the season though - many movies are available on basic cable and public local stations just because Tis’ the season.

I am a comcast cable subscriber, and I do get On-Demand. Although they do not update their listing as frequently as I’d like - the selection of free movies is pretty large. When we had subscribed to premium channels - we had a selection of slightly newer movies to watch as well. The update frequency was still lagging.

Other than that - we rent from a store when we really want to watch a new release. That happens once in every couple of months. If we’re truly lazy or the weather outside is absolutely depressing, we rent a new release on-demand. It does cost about the same as the DVD rent store. That hadn’t happened in quite a while - despite the weather being horrendous.

We also buy used DVD-s. We used to buy new ones and build a collection at home, but we stopped. After buying some really horrible movies for full price, we decided we should get frugal. Our approach is to buy used DVD-s at blockbuster when those are on sale.

Finally - I’m not a content pirate, and I don’t approve of such practices. But I know people - who know people - who know people… Their tools of trade are as follows:
ImgBurn
DVD Shrink
and VLC media player

All of these applications are excellent freeware. If you do get your hand on an image of a movie - that’s what you’d use. Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge, Say no more.

Cheers!

I thought the next video was pretty funny…

Times are tough - it doesn’t mean we should be inconsiderate ;-). Frugal and fiscally mindful - yes, cheap - no.

Cheers!

I used to question the relevance of studying imaginary numbers in school. I was told it is useful in physics.
Wikipedia: Imaginary number - so yea, no imaginary numbers - no battery for you.

In times of extreme market pessimism, you might squint at your brokerage statement, look at the number and get confused, you might think for a moment that you are looking at imaginary numbers…

Just remember - there’s no i or square root of -1 in this financial calamity.

You know - it might be a cliche but there are more important things than money. Money doesn’t buy happiness, though it can help. Our family is getting geared towards a fantastic next week and I’ll post about it after the occasion. Focus on the good stuff in life.

Here’s something funny I stumbled upon, within Math Humor, found:
Top Ten Math Major Pick-Up Lines

10. You fascinate me more than the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
9. Since distance equals velocity times time, let’s let velocity or time approach infinity, because I want to go all the way with you.
8. My love for you is like a concave up function because it is always increasing.
7. Let’s convert our potential energy to kinetic energy.
6. Wanna come back to my room….and see my 733mhz Pentium?
5. You and I would add up better than a Riemann sum.
4. Your body has the nicest arc length I’ve ever seen.
3. I wish I was your derivative because then I would be tangent to your curves.
2. I hope you know set theory because I want to intersect you and union you.
1. Would you like to see my log?

Cheers!

Is it my imagination or did MorningStar.Com found a new shade of red to signal the state of the market? I Believe they went from bright red, to scorching lava to “too close to the sun” red.

Sometimes you get the “Moondays” (like in office space), on Wednesday. As a software engineer, I usually have internet access and randomly will click on the “Stumble” button on my “Stumbleupon” toolbar. Today I landed on a really funny page - but you have to be a programmer to get the joke.

Quotes about C and C++
My favorite quotes:

• C++ has its place in the history of programming languages. Just as Caligula has his place in the history of the Roman Empire. (Robert Firth)
• Being really good at C++ is like being really good at using rocks to sharpen sticks. (Thant Tessman)
• If you think C++ is not overly complicated, just what is a protected abstract virtual base pure virtual private destructor and when was the last time you needed one? (Tom Cargill)
• Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out. (Bjarne Stroustrup)
• I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. (Alan Kay)
• C++ will do for C what Algol-68 did for Algol. (David L Jones)
• Java is, in many ways, C++–. (Michael Feldman)

This list is so great and true, that I printed it out and put it on my office wall.

Here’s how you can quote me:
Having been forced to work on C/C++ on linux recently, after years of working with C#/C++ on ms visual studio, the experience is like a grown up being sent back to kindergarten and wearing a diaper full of @@@@@….(Sivan Segev)

C++ is not for dummies. Unfortunately, too many dummies use it to produce programming atrocities, and leave it to the rest of us to attempt to fix it.

C++ for Dummies

Cheers!

Let me ask a simple question, how much would you value a blank peace of paper? What if you paint it green? How much would you value a stone found on the ground next to you? What if it would shine in a yellowish/orange color?

Currencies are priced by governments and traders. We hold them to buy things because that’s the system society came up with to eliminate the exchange of goats and camels for spices. The end result of currencies being valued by trades and manageable supply by governments is that pieces of paper (blank or not) eventually loose value. This phenomena is known as inflation.

Being unaware or dismissive of this fact is what causes people to accumulate rocks and papers in their basements, closets or vaults. I particularly hate carrying papers in my pockets. You literally have something, or nothing - by carrying papers in your pockets. You may transition to have nothing by incidents where you might drop the paper, loose it, get robbed, or count it incorrectly. As childish as this may sound - I’m just uncomfortable with holding part of my own net asset value on my person. When holding a plastic card and paying as credit or debit at least I know there’s some phone number I can call to complain if I was cheated.

Some books advise you to always pay everything with cash. That way you cannot spend more than you have. That’s almost true. But if you owe money - the papers you hold in your pockets are only temporarily yours. If I manage to be responsible enough to think before I spend and at times check up on myself electronically. Then I have enough to spend on credit without paying interest by paying in full monthly. Having paid it all in cash simply means I didn’t take advantage of the 0% 30 days loan my credit card offers me.

My disliking of rocks and papers goes deeper. Physically holding flammable substances (like Dollar bills in a sock in the closet) - is an unnecessary risk to my NAV. Do not discount the risk of a burglar in your house or a family member with sticky fingers. In addition, it just sits there, without working for you. At the very least - let your bank count it for you and pay you something for it.

Some companies offer gold coins for purchase as a form of investment. Gold is in fact a currency, and while you cannot pay for anything with it - you can always trade it. Some think it is a hedge for inflation. First, why hold it if you can buy an ETF to hold it for you? Try IAU. Second, it brings no income - unlike currencies - no government stands behind it to pay you interest for it. This is only “good” if you assume Gold would stand the test of time and beat inflation. Recent volatility in that commodity may prove otherwise. It’s not a safe haven, it’s as much as a speculation as any other investment.

Back to our “stack of papers”, money in the form of cash. So we put it in the bank and get some pennies back for it. Big whooptee whoo. It turns out that this interest payment won’t cover much for inflation.

It’s not an easy issue. You don’t want to play “rock, paper, scissors” with your money… (where scissors would be stocks). I keep looking for ways to add a safe edge to holdings without seeking extra risk. (You can click on “tactics” on the top of the page for some ideas, or here)

The first step is to seek the highest paying money market that is insured. All of a person’s short term savings should be held in a high yielding insured vehicle which cannot loose value. When I mention “high yielding” I mean it in relative terms. These days you’d be lucky to get 3%.

Obviously your longer term “stash” should work a little harder to beat inflation. The safest solution I found for this is to maintain a diversified income portfolio. You get both the high income and the diversification as hedges against drop in value. My personal favorite income vehicles include: Emerging Market bonds funds, oil related MLP-s, safe and stable leveraged CEF-s investing in US Government bonds (not corporate, or implied government bonds like “fanny mae”).

A quick exit note, check out Saturday Night Live spoof of those gold pedlers: SNL: Buy Gold!!! Monex!

Cheers!

We picked this little cutey in the humane society shelter today. His name there was McGuire or something like that… After some debate - we renamed him to the much appreciated character MacGruber.

Ain’t he a cutey?

Here’s a reminder to the grander of MacGrubar.

Right now I can’t exclaim the cat’s name without it sounding like it’s out of the skit’s jingle.

BTW, Our 3 year old morphed the name a bit further… Grover?! She keeps calling the cat Grover now.

Cheers.

Regardless of where I am at life, I always feel humbled and a need to know more and seek better and greater success. I am quite proud of my achievements thus far but I know that life is a journey, and through that journey I strive for more. The obvious path to acquire more knowledge is to seek what others have discovered through reading. And reading a lot is what I want to do. I wish I did read a lot more. Most of the time, when I plan to read, I stack up a queue – and set myself up for failure by doing time wasting things. Things like watching TV, playing computer games and reading news and commentary on the web. Having a family (I love you guys) doesn’t help that goal. Kids require our attention as parents and my wife rightfully expect us to communicate at our leisure time, not to bury our faces in books (or blogs) most of the time. Getting tired or unmotivated at times can also be a challenge.

Since books are our window to further improve ourselves, we like to cheaply possess more and more, to give us a chance to know more. Buying new books all the time at the store as soon as they arrive is only good if you can’t wait. You might HAVE to buy right now – if you are boarding a long flight and have not stocked up in advance with entertainment or books for the flight.

Here are a few ways we reduce the cost of books we read:

• Join the local Library and borrow. You already finance it through your taxes – make use of it. You can usually order new books you want and are unavailable yet. You might also be able to reserve a book online as well.
• Sign up for a book club. I would especially recommend a paperback book club.
• Buy paperback editions, or wait until the paperback is out. It’s usually cheaper
• Buy used at Amazon’s marketplace (or Ebay’s half.com)
• Buy on special sales at the library. Our library makes such a sale once a month and we stack up with many excellent classics and children literature at those sales.
• Buy at Amazon discount sales and have it ship for free – still much cheaper than the store.
• I don’t know about you - I don’t like reading e-books although I do have a laptop. There are many free e-books sites out there…
• When you are in college, consider swapping books with other students. Also, try ScratchWork.org - it seems to provide a lot of benefits for students beyond books exchange.

Being frugal and enjoying visits to the book store gets tricky. My wife and I, as well as the kids, enjoy the occasional visit to the book store to browse through the new selections. We sometimes do indulge our selves – when the budgeting is right – and buy something.

I wanted to write a post about buying books on the cheap, but when I began my preamble – I got carried away with my personal story. If you are still interested, the following was written subsequently after the first paragraph.

More about reading and striving for knowledge…

When I studied for my graduate degree online I was married and already had our first child. I was working full time and I dedicated the night hours to studying. Usually between 10:30pm to 2am. It was a fully packed day and only because I was driven by a schedule and homework deadlines did I read and finish my tasks. As graduation approached, I felt a void in my time was forming – such voids are easy to fill with nonsense – but combined with a New Year resolution I expressed a desire to fill that void with a desire for knowledge.

At first I set my sights on learning a new language - French. There’s something romantic and exciting about new languages. I bought a book, some CD-s and began learning without restriction of a framework pressuring me to reach results. I played the Fifa soccer game on my laptop while listening to “learn French” audio content daily for about 20 minutes each day. I put a CD in the car and listened at the car for a while. I peeked and read about 3 of the first chapters of the French for dummies book (I find the name of the book series insulting, but the content superb). I wouldn’t call that experience a success or a failure – it’s a work in progress, and after about 3 years of studying I think my ability is akin to studying in class for the second year.

Next, came my desire to understand money better. As it was for many others, the need to understand how to manage your own money comes out of immediate necessity. We earn money, we spend money, I wanted to save some of it as well and reach a balance together as a family. We bought two books together and have been following a plan for 2 years now which should take us to where we want to reach together.

Starting to accumulate savings in different forms (retirement, college fund for kids, money market account and others) is what drove my next big curiosity. Now that we will have taken charge of our financial destiny – where should we steer our funds? Should we just stuff it under a mattress? Just let it lay there in a bank (in a dark cold safe, all alone without a hug from crusty crab)? What would be a risky choice or a safe choice? Budgeting and savings is only the first step – the next step relies on making money management decisions.

I began watching CNBC. I think that at some point in life in America, most people do. I took interest in Cramer. His show was loud and he tried very hard to grab attention by joking around. I bought his books too. Two of them. I’ve also finished reading those two books. Because of the time of day the show is on, I gradually watched less and less of that show. All the while, I did not take his advice – and did not invest in stocks. I assumed (correctly) that I don’t know enough – and jumping in the water head first is dangerous (especially when the pool is half empty).

As mentioned in my post about not watching CNBC – Cramer is a complicated man (link to Overstock.com CEO’s thoughts on Cramer). I assumed that much way before it was proven. I still respect his advice – but I take the CNBC disclaimer very seriously. It’s an entertainment/educational show. It’s not the gospel – and for investments it is only the starting point of a research.

I moved on. I might watch CNBC, but I just have enough reasons not to. Right now I have a queue of books on investments, options, trading and self improvement (a book from the 60-s!). The hard part is finding the time to delve in. And once that time is found and dedicated, staying focused. As my wife says – how can you read that? It sounds so boring? Well it might be, and sometimes it is and I take breaks. The problem might be what I do with these breaks (guitar, PC games, TV, movies, family time – anything but return to what I dedicated the time for).

Since we discovered the book sales at the local library, we have accumulated quite a bit of classical literature as well. At some point I do intend on enriching my culture and not just my knowledge. I still intend to finish reading our O’Henry stories collection. It seems we will probably won’t buy a new book for a while… we do need to buy some new bookshelves though.

L’Chaim! (Cheers!)

I’ll be heading on a road trip to DC at the end of this week and will probably not blog anything new until a couple of days after I come back. DC has been on our list of places we would like to visit and we are proud of ourselves to have been able to save for this vacation as we planned to when our family reorganized our finance. We are sitting with websites right now making our final plans. The hotel is already booked, van has been serviced at the repair shop and we are really excited on going there.

Alongside our budget spreadsheet on sheet.zoho.com, we have another one with vacation destinations separated by desirability and cost. We planned ahead how much money we will need annually to put aside and have looked in the long run at going on the more expensive ones. I detest going on a vacation on a credit and planning on repaying it over time with interest - it’s just wrong. Also, planning on a tax rebate for that purpose is just as wrong - you can usually reduce the amount you set aside for taxes and keep it in a money market account so that it earns you some interest. I prefer not getting a tax rebate, but paying taxes owed. Earning interest on my money - instead of having the government hold on to it seems like the smarter choice for me.

Since I’ll be on vacation - I will probably not post a blip on this young blog for a while - probably not until mid August. Having said that, I still have many ideas for posts - but those will have to wait. Still intend on organizing a couple of summery pages with links to posts regarding how we spend less than we earn, how we plan, where we as a family are financially and where we are heading. So come back soon - post a comment, spread some posts around to friends and link back here. It will be greatly appreciated and will encourage me to continue blogging.

Regarding the blog, I must admit - sometimes, I get disparaged. It’s not that I have nothing to write about - but that it feels like writing to a blog is like writing into a black void. Without feedback - it feels like stuffing your letters into a mattress. Do you like what you find here? If I don’t have any way of knowing that - I get the feeling it pretty much sucks - and I should stop for my own good. Writing into nothingness feels like what happens at the end of the following video:

Ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit…. if you haven’t ever seen that video - you should, just for a small laugh. It’s a pretty old one too.

Anyhow, signing off for a while - wish me Bon Voyage…

Things investments shouldn’t be, but end up as…

• Technical Analysis - imagining lines to guess future value of a stock
• Fundamental Analysis - reading all available documentation about a company and still not understanding how it makes it’s money
• TV Stock Tip - An opportunity to buy high and sell much - much lower.
• Analysts commendation - a variation of meaningless synonyms to buy. Buy now, strong buy, we hadn’t canceled buy yet. We still have to recommend a percentage of financial companies - so here’s another buy rating.
• FDIC Insured - come stand in a long line to collect your loose change we have on our computer records for you after we shut the doors and escape to the Bahamas.
• Mortgage - taking a loan with no intent of repayment
• House appraisal - numbers lottery
• Bottom - the impossibility of an investment reaching 0. Oh - wait…
• Market bottom - what happens the day after you liquidate your portfolio
• A banker you trust - they guy who was fired, lives in trailer and refuses to discuss money ever again.
• Enron - the model for corporate ethics
• Exxon Mobile - the root of all evil
• Microsoft - shh… they’re listening
• Buy and hold - the result of going into a coma and not paying attention to your money
• Buy/sell/buy/sell - under-trading considering what you have bought is still going lower on a daily basis
• over-trading - you just paid a lot of commissions - to reach the same results as the S&P500
• Junk Corporate Bonds, Preferred Stock - The safest way to delude yourself into a false sense of safety. Check out the ticker HGM…
• Saudi Oil - what drives your car, robs your bank and warms your weather (or cools it - if you take the 70-s view). However the only ones getting rich are Saudis here…
• Taco Bell - where I wouldn’t hire an investment banker to clean the toilets.
• 401k - a funny number and a letter where parts of your monthly income goes in the (false) hope of ever seeing it again. Too harsh.
• 401k - Where big corporations don’t tell you how much they collect in fees but continuously send you nice colorful fliers on how nice it would be to retire some day.
• Health Savings Account - where you can get the lowest interest rate on your money - and still pay monthly fees - only to keep the money you would some day need for surgery away from the taxman for a while.
• Checking account - the electronic version of your pocket. How fun is it to pay for your own money in the ATM? Do us all a favor grandma and pay with a visa check card in the groceries store, everybody does hate you for spending 15 minutes writing a check for 14.37!
• Savings account - the reason the clerk at the bank squints at you when you ask for your balance… yea - that’s my buck and half earning a 1.5 interest rate - do you have a problem with that?!
• Money Market - Where you would like to hold your checking account.
• Money Market Fund - not FDIC insured. May loose value. Almost the same interest as a Money Market Account - with less privileges. Where you pay a 1.5% fee on a mutual fund that pays you back 1.8% interest.
• APY - Yoda says: Are Paying-Attention You?
• Google - your financial advisor
• Yahoo -Your trading desk
• Day job - don’t quit it
• Hedge fund - the enemy, don’t buy their rumors.
• Smart Money - the Oracle from the Matrix movie investing in stocks
• Dumb Money - your stock picks, as well as TV bubble head stock tips
• Deep Value -a company going bankrupt that you for some reason think is doing a turn around
• Over Sold - you lost your shorts in the market
• Over Bought - You missed the move and are afraid to jump in.
• Dividends - the pennies the rich throw at you while laughing out loud as your fund’s net asset value plummets
• NAV - No Asset Value
• Exxon’s CEO - the only man to ever get rich by being associated with Exxon, including stock holders.
• Rent Property - The best way to hire yourself as a repair man.
• Yacht - just put all your money in a black suit case and throw it into the ocean.
• Debt - your excuse for not being one of those losers who put their money in the market in January 2008.

Hope it brought a smile to your face…Let me know if it did in the comments section.

Cheers!