Today I wanted to share a piece of inspiration from one of my favorite Beth Orton songs with the line, “I wanna keep your dream alive, can I keep it with mine?“
To me this is the epitome of a committed relationship. It is all about being there to support each other in going after your dreams. Some of these will be joint, but many will also be individual. It is essential that a couple is able to balance this.
It also means supporting each other through it all. In certain cases this means helping your partner keep their perspective, like James’ short term obsession with buying land in the middle of Texas. But at other times it means supporting your partner in their dreams, just as they are. Accepting them for what they are without wanting to change them, just as a good relationship.
The reward in all of this, is that you too have that support in whatever wacky dream you believe in. I know that some people will read this, and say, “Yadda, yadda, such a luxury for the young DINKs.” My response, if you are a DINK, enjoy this time to go after your dreams. If you have upgraded from the DINKs status, just remember what keeping your dreams alive will do for your family.
We DINKs don’t often get religious on you, but I thought folks would enjoy hearing about my adventures today. We went to a mountaintop Buddhist temple that is most commonly visited when seeking wealth and prosperity. I of course put our latest goals out there into the universe for all the help we can get!
It was a fun and interesting day, particularly visiting such a site with a group of inquisitive Afghan Muslims. They were intrigued by it all and open to learning more.
Reflecting on the day, nearly reclining myself, it reminds me that your mind is your most potent resource in acquiring wealth. No matter your religious beliefs or cultural background, I believe that your mental outlook on life makes such a difference.
Believe in yourself and your dreams and there are no limits to what you are capable of.
So, many of you know about the congresswoman from southern California – Representative Laura Richardson – who lost her house to foreclosure last month? Well, the story gets thicker. Now it looks like she had in fact worked out a payment agreement with the lender. Despite the agreement, somebody at the bank didn’t get the message and had the place sold anyway.
Guess which bank it was?
Thats right…Washington Mutual!!!
We’ve had nothing but trouble with Washington Mutual (1,2,3,4,5) and hearing this news just convinces me that the bank is the worst run financial institution in America today. It is bad enough to accidentally foreclose on some poor schmuck, buts quite its another thing to do it to a member of congress. You would think they’d be smart enough to keep a special file for important people, but no, they couldn’t even get that right. Seriously, if I were CEO Kerry Killinger, I would resign in shame and move to Alaska to hide.
Check out the news story, the WaMu rep tries hard to spin the mistake, but just ends up sounding lame. Here.
I’m excited to announce that my twin sister and her husband are putting their place up on the market this weekend. They live in a perfect DINKs place in a great neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Previously DINKs, they’ve enjoyed their place as DIOKs (Dual Income One Kid) for the last couple of years and are now planning to upgrade to DITKs (Dual Income Two Kids)!
If you live in, or have friends, in Portland please pass this on to anyone who might be interested. If you don’t live in Portland, you can drool at what $274,900 can buy you in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! Attractive and energy efficient home right across from Arbor Lodge Park. Full of original character & features. Hardwood floors, tiled fireplace, French doors, original millwork. Beautifully landscaped with native and perennial garden, pleasant backyard with covered patio. Many mechanical upgrades. Low energy costs from full insulation, new windows, efficient furnace, & more. Live a low-carbon lifestyle in this fully insulated energy-improved home. Leave your car at home with a bus, lightrail line and New Seasons market nearby. There are plenty of restaurants and coffeeshops too. Enjoy free time on the large patio or in the 9-acre park next door. Arbor Lodge is a hot neighborhood, with tremendous appreciation in recent years. Check out the virtual tour from the RMLS listing (sorry, the links don’t transfer!)
Turn off the lights. Leaving the lights on can increase your power bill. For example, a standard 60 watt light costs you an average of $4.40 a month to run. However, if you turned it off for 8 hours a day, it would cost only $3.00 to run. That’s just one bulb. If you get in the habit of turning off all the lights before leaving for work, your wallet will definitely feel the difference.
For more information on how to save electricity, you might consult Michael Bluejay’ssaving electricity homepage.
If you’re like us, you probably read a number of personal finance blogs. But you probably don’t have a lot of time to sift through the thousands of blogs out there. To make it easier for you, here are two of my favorites.
Wealth Building Lesson is run by a Californian entrepreneur named Nirav. I like this particular blog for a number of reasons. First Nirav’s net worth is off the charts for someone of his age, so he has a fair amount of experience with making money – far more than most personal finance bloggers. Second, he writes some great posts, for example his piece on tax strategies employed by the wealthy is instructive for even those without a lot of money.
Another blog I recommend reading is Budgets Are Sexy. I met the author J at a happy hour a few weeks ago. He’s got one of the most amusingly written and well designed blogs to come out in a while. If you’re interested in a light hearted read, definitely check out Budgets are Sexy.
So I’ve been on a kick lately of contemplating need vs. want.
I’m currently in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a month, where there are absolute tons of must haves. From silk clothing and purses to home wares and art, there’s something for everyone.
As I’ve made my way around the city for the past three weeks I contemplate what I might get during my travels.
The thing I’ve come to realize, aside from the reality that there really isn’t a great deal that most of us Westerners actually need, is that stuff breeds stuff.
The only two things I have bought were reactions to stuff I already had. I have a camera that I’ve been looking for a rechargeable battery set that can still be used back in the states. I finally found the right one, and bought this.
I also happen to have the world’s largest work laptop, perfect for all of my travels, and keep struggling to find the right bag. I managed to find a cute and functional one here for less than twenty bucks and picked it up.
Granted that neither of these were large expenses, but my point is that much of what we feel that we need to buy is because of the stuff we have already.
Think about it. You buy a TV, then you need cable. You buy a car, and then you need gas. You buy an iPod and then you need music. It really goes on and on.
My point in all of this, is that before you buy something, consider what else you might later feel the need to buy as a result of that purchase. For instance, some are prone to buying something that goes with absolutely nothing in their closet. Then they must buy more clothes just to wear the clothes they just bought. It’s a vicious cycle.
If you’d like to save money, the planet, room in your closet, stress from clutter, think before you buy.
When we were chatting via skype today, we figured out that our net worth growth had nearly broken the $400,000 mark! This is really excellent news because it means that we are 10% towards our overall retirement goal of 4 million!
It also means that we’ve set a new goal of $440,000. This to be accomplished by the end of the year. Thats an annual growth rate of 10% in 7 months. Its a bit of a stretch, but our back of the envelope calculations suggest we can reach 60% of the targeted growth without much effort. For the rest, we’ll just have to rely on ingenuity and hard work.
This posting is a brief outline of two key elements of a stock chart. It is intended to provide some basic thoughts for beginners on how to understand stock charts. Reading a chart is easy, you just need a basic understanding of math. The two fundamental features are: the shape of the line and volume.
Line shape and volume are clearly seen in the example below. The graph below is from the Exxon Mobile corporation. The line represents the market price over the past 30 years. The bars at the bottom are the volume.
In the chart above, the stock price of Exxon has increased steady. The volume has also increased – you can tell because the bars on the bottom part are taller in more recent years. Understanding both of these metrics is important for determining if your stock is a good investment or not. Why? Read on.
1) Volume: This is the number of shares traded withing a given time period. Volume is important for two reasons. First, you want to be sure that you can sell your stock in the event something adverse happens to your company. If the volume is less than say, 10,000 shares traded a day, you might not be able to find a buyer if you want to sell. Second, in technical analysis, a lot of emphasis is placed on volume. High spikes in volume are believed to signify future sharp rises or falls in prices.
2) Shape of the Line: The first thing you want do when evaluating a potential stock buy is scan the price performance over time. Stock prices usually follow earnings. Prices often have a schizophrenic relationship with the underling value of the company, but prices do matter. All things being equal, more profitable business command a higher price, less profitable business have lower valued shares.
So, if you are buying to hold, you should be looking for a graph that shows a steady upward movement over time – the pattern shown by the Exxon graph (above). This indicates that the company you are buying has increasing earnings over time. On the other hand, if the stock is headed downwards, there might be problems with the company’s underlying economics. I added the 1 year chart of Starbucks stock (below) so you can see what what we mean by a stock that’s headed downwards.
HINT: Starbucks is having financial trouble. Its reflected in their share price. So, basically shares moving up = good, shares moving down = bad.
Of course, looking at price charts is not a substitute for doing due diligence – do your homework when buying stocks. That said, if you’ve got to screen a lot of stocks – a steadily upward moving line is a good way to separate profitable companies from the dogs.
For more information on understanding stocks, I recommend you find a copy of the Forbes: Guide to the Markets. Its an easy read and answers most questions on stock charts.
Get a free checking account. Many interest bearing checking accounts are loaded up with additional fees. While most free checking accounts do not earn interest, the amount that you save in fees with a free checking account may be worth not earning interest on your deposits.
Today I wanted to share a piece of inspiration from one of my favorite Beth Orton songs with the line, “I wanna keep your dream alive, can I keep it with mine?“
