Hi All,
Yesterday we linked to a story detailing an insider’s description of cash4gold’s sleazy business practices. Well, the consumerist is now reporting that cash4gold offered a blogger $3,000 to remove a post detailing the criminally low prices cash4gold was offering.
Click here for the story.
Best,
James
This just in. Cash4gold is a big rip off.
What a surprise.
Here is an interesting tidbit:
1. China 767.90 (Billion)
2. Japan 686.70
3. Caribbean Banking Centers 213.60
4. Oil Exporters 192.00
5. Russia 138.40
6. United Kingdom 128.20
7. Brazil 126.60
8. Luxembourg 106.10
9. Hong Kong 78.90
10. Taiwan 74.80
From the US treasury…
Sometimes I think I’m in the wrong business. No matter how you cut it, Wall Street seems to make out like bandits.
The latest news is that Citigroup is increasing its base salaries for traders and investment bankers by 50% (here). They don’t exactly operate the same way personal finance does where we stress “live frugally” and “build wealth.” After the near 90% wipeout of its common equity, these salary raises are another incredible chapter in a disgraceful story.
Best,
James
The thing about personal finance bloggers is that we get caught up in the day to day trivialities of running a blog and sometimes forget about good content. In my view the purpose of blogging should partly be about communicating the best way to build wealth. While we DINKS are certainly not experts when it comes to making money, there are two things we have done which have put cash in our pockets.
1) We’ve bought and held high quality stocks. For example, we bought shares in Starbucks (SBUX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM). Holding onto both of our positions in these companies brought us gains in excess of 20%. In the case of XOM, we’ve seen a 40% appreciation in the value of our shares. We hit it big with Hansen’s Natural Corp (HANS), and made pre-tax profits in excess of 50%. Of course, we’ve seen plenty of looses, but the buy-and-hold strategy has worked for us.
2) We started a small business. My wife and I have an efficiency condo unit that we rent out. Real estate has been a love hate experience with us. We tried to expand into a multi-family building two years ago, but sold the property. On the other hand, our condo unit has added thousands of dollars to our networth and allowed us to significantly build our wealth. The final point here is that the rental unit is basically a small business, we have one customer to whom we provide housing and utilities in return for rental payments. It works. The business puts money into our pockets.
To conclude, if you are really serious about becoming financially secure, you’ll take some time to find out what works for creating wealth. For us this has been two things: 1) investing in good stocks using a buy-and-hold strategy and 2) starting a small business.
Best,
James
As James’ comprehensive exam comes up we’ve been spending a great deal of time going over flash cards together. One of the theories that is big in the criminology world is that of low self control.
As you can imagine, a great deal of crime is attributed to the fact that the perpetrator just can’t control themselves enough to refrain from said activity.
Thinking about this from a financial perspective I believe that this would be the root of all evil, so to speak, around both personal and corporate finance. It certainly has been a large driver in the perpetuation of credit card use, as well as the larger greed seen on wall street and in the banking sector.
Honestly I think that if one is able to manage their finances well, chances are it is in large part due to their ability to control urges to spend and ability to live frugal. Master this, and the rest is a cake walk.
Easier said than done. Even for those of us who try and know better. There are influences at every part of our lives, with social norms that persuade us to spend. From holidays to check out sale items, it all pressures to spend.
I’m still mulling over all of the best ways to apply self-control, particularly in those areas where it is about social influence and we don’t even have as much self interest aside from appeasing others in our life – which I guess in turn satisfies us on an emotional level. If you want to build wealth, self-control is going to be the most important trait you need to acquire.
Anyway, it is certainly an interesting subject to consider and something I’ll be pondering for quite awhile.
Cheers,
Miel
The NY Times is reporting that many older investors are rethinking risking their retirement funds on the stock market. This is probably not a bad idea and certainly resonates with my families experience. My mom lost a third of her portfolio in the crash of 01 and a half last year. These major losses of savings have had a huge impact on her ability to build her wealth.
Click here for the write up.
Best,
James
Hi All,
Here is an amusing video from the Onion. The premise is that the US government will raise fund to serve the deficit by selling the nations gold in Fort Knox to Cash4Gold. Its funny, but also kind of sad at the same time.
Apologies to those who are reading via RSS and may not be able to view it.
US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com
Since I’m on a budget and enjoy discussing finance, today’s posting is a discussion of ways to save money by cutting your spending. My wife and I have come up with some of these. Other tips come from Jane Bryant Quinn’s Making The Most of Your Money.
Without further ado, here are some ways to painlessly cut your budget.
1) Drink Office Coffee: Many offices have communal coffee brewing, this is usually free. Free is much better than dropping $1.80 at Starbucks.
2) Go to the Library: Libraries are totally stuffed with free entertainment. You can get books and CDs and DVDs for no money at all. For example, you might not think it, but the DC library had a great collection of classic operas. For the cost of quick drive, its well worth a trip to get your free entertainment.
3) Go Shopping with a List: The main idea here is if you shop with a list, you’re far less likely to impulse purchase or buy things you won’t ever use. My wife and I are totally guilty of this. We often go shopping with only a general idea of what we need. That said, shopping with a list is a proven way to cut your expenses.
4) Focus on Inexpensive Entertainment: Try to find cheap restaurants, museums, or zoos. There are usually plenty of these opportunities to be found. Try looking in your local weekly paper. If you can’t find anything inexpensive to do, try staying home and curling up with a good book instead of going out.
5) Go Vegetarian: A few years back a woman changed her name from Karin to goveg.com to promote vegetarianism – I’m not suggesting another so drastic. At the same time, typically meatless meals are less expensive than meals with meat. Think about it, beef and chicken are usually more expensive than beans and rice. While you probably need the protein found in meat, you could try skipping a couple of meat meals or substituting something else (e.g. mushrooms instead of mean in pasta sauce) in place of meat.
6) Ease off on Alcohol and Tobacco: Too much alcohol and tobacco can be harmful to your health. More importantly, if you smoke and drink less, you’ll save on life insurance, doctors bills, breath sweeteners, dry cleaning bills and incidentals like ash trays and wine glasses. If you must drink consider getting less expensive wine or beer.
These suggestions are good because you can actually do them without drastically changing your lifestyle. This is important. If you want to build wealth, you first need to save the cash to invest with. In order to effectively save, what you do has to work within the context of your daily activities. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to move to less expensive housing if it increased your commuting costs by taking you further away from your employment. So, these are painless changes you can can work on within the context of your lifestyle.
If you’re interested in more ideas, The Simple Dollar has a very excellent list on saving money tips. Also, you might pick up a copy of Jane Bryant Quinn’s Making the Most Of Your Money. Its available on Amazon for twenty bucks.
Best,
James
Just saw this posting over at Blogging Away Debt.
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My husband turned in his resume for the government job.
According to HR, he was one of over 1,000 applicants for that position.
I am confident in his abilities and his references but I’m not expecting him to get the job.
I knew the job market was bad in San Diego… I just didn’t know how bad.
I am more thankful now than ever that we are both employed.
—————
Thank goodness my wife and I live and work in the DC bubble. Here unemployment is only around 6%.
Best,
James
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