I like to figure out what I need in whatever electronic product that I’m in the market for and then I factor in what I want and then determine if I can even afford the extras. This way I don’t get caught up in trying to purchase the product or brand that has the most features; many of which I may never use. Furthermore, shopping using this tactic increases the probability that I purchase a product that has all of the features I absolutely need. I also do a little research and read a few product reviews to check out the different brands. Once I decide on the model/brand I’m going to purchase, I comparison shop online using sites like Price Spider, Price Grabber, Shopzilla, etc. to find the best deal possible based on total cost, which includes shipping of course.
Sara- I bought my house cash- it was one of the smaller ones- and all real estate people will tell you- location location location. If you like your neighborhood, gold star, if you have the smallest house- gold star- and if you can pay cash and have other savings for needed cash expenses... you will be free in your mind from dealing with mortgages. Good luck!
@Guest: Yes! I've noticed a lot of marketing, esp. with tech gadgets, relies on conditioning people to believe that previous product generations are junk, and that you want what's "NEW!" Unless the newest has must-have features, the difference isn't so bad as many might perceive.
@Lynn: Yay!
@Stock Investing Guru: That's an interesting thing which relates to the mindsets of different people: "early adopters" are all too happy to beta-test and work through products hot off the assembly line, even if it means a lot of bugs.
I've found many of the gadgets I like didn't stabilize to my satisfaction until the 3rd generation. (And to mention another Apple product, the G3 Power Macs were a good example — hence the name!)
With technology it is best to be a follower, not a leader. You should wait for the bugs to get fixed. Also, anything to do with technology gets rapidly cheaper over time.
Just look at what happened with early iPhone buyers; $600 bucks and no 3G!
i just returned from the dr. office and found out my sugar in the pee was 2000 what am i to do! i need help fast.... i need some ideas to quickly bring down the sugar. does anyone have some suggestions....help.... and where do i go to explain the 2000 in my urine.... all they said was get it down exercise,stop all sugars and watch what i eat and i will see you in 6 mo.
what should the count be in your urine?
Disclosure: I am a real estate broker and I now exclusively act as a buyers agent.
Why I disagree with your story and feel that it is bad advice.
1: The sellers agent is acting illegally by not representing his sellers best interest or by doing any negotiating at all. If you move to a intermediary transaction(dual agency) you are not legally allowed to do any negotiating for either side. You essentially become the in-between. I do not know why so many people allow dual agency to happen in their transaction. You do not get a professional working on your behalf on either side. The agent in this transaction is working to make the highest commission for himself. If you ever encounter an agent or broker who suggests this BE VERY AWARE!!!!!
2: In a down or distressed market, which the entire US is experiencing, a REAL professional can guide you to the best deals, while also fighting to get your offer down to the lowest possible price. It is possible that in the same neighborhood that there is a like property that is in distress and could be bought for $290k. You would not find this, because you have not used an expert on your behalf. When I say say expert I mean someone who knows every possible detail about a specific market. This is also why you should do your research on who you use as a buyers agent. As example, I also buy and invest in properties in other markets. The first thing I do is find the most qualified buyers agent. I check there references. I interview them. I then pick the best of my findings.
By doing this I am giving myself the greatest amount of market knowledge possible. Remember I buy houses for a living and when I go to another market I hire a buyers agent. A good analogy would be; would you want a dentist doing heart surgery on you or a heart surgeon doing your dental work?
My summary is that a good buyers agent will save you more money and protect you with fiduciary responsibility.
I have been solely educated by public schools and I feel that I have a major disadvantage as compared to those who were educated in the private school system. For one, I don't earn all that much money relative to my great number of years of schooling and there has been no networking for me despite this being the way most jobs are gotten these days. Plus, public schools are just like the public sector--let's see how cheaply we can do everything! If you want a chance at a decent existence and some luxuries in life, go for private schooling. If you want to attend lower class schools without a hint of opulence, no one to network with, and a lower middle class existence, do what I did. Trust me!
Nice post and your analysis and suggestions are on the money. A few observations of my own.
Sometimes, you can get fabulous deals that have low lifecycle cost by buying a high end model that has just been refreshed, that is buying the one that is replaced. I got a MacBook Pro for $1,600 a year ago that had been $2,500 the week before. The speed bump was relatively mild and not much more disk. Apple paid the dealer back for items in stock so everybody, except possibly Apple, came out on top. I expect the one I purchased to last a long time and have low life cycle cost.
Also, the idea of buying the second highest model is consistent with your analysis. It is overall life cycle cost that counts; not purchase price. Low ball a purchase and it becomes obsolete even years before a second level model. The result is that the low ball item usually has a higher life cycle cost.
ELEP's volunteer program is a life-changing opportunity for individuals who seek to make a difference in Ecuador. We offer customized volunteer placements in a wide variety of social organizations and ecological reserves and national parks throughout Ecuador.
Living and volunteering in Ecuador for a short or long term, you could help enrich the lives of Ecuadorian needy people and make a real contribution to the betterment of Ecuadorian society and difference in this part of the world. This is a more challenging and you as volunteer have the opportunity to contribute to the development Ecuadorian people. ELEP's volunteer program will match your skills and interests to local needs in order to provide you with an unforgettable cross cultural experience. Volunteers do not need to have any special skills. They just need a willingness to help.
Our program goes from 2 to 24 weeks duration and count with the following projects:
Humanitarian: Children welfare (orphanage, street kid centers and day care centers), Human Rights, Education and Teaching English, Healthcare/nursing, HIV/AIDS, Micro-enterprise, Micro-credits, infrastructure and construction work, etc.
Ecological: General conservation, Animal welfare and veterinary
I do like the fact that mortgagee's can buy the bonds at discount values and pay off their loan faster. It promotes liquidity in the market and allows people to exit bad positions in the bond market.
One thing this type of instrument does not solve is systematic risk. Risk still exists in the system but the risk has been offloaded somewhere else. I'm quite sure there is a property bubble in Denmark (like the rest of the world). When the hammer falls it just hits where the most risk was taken.
If I'm reading correctly the Denmark model does leave much of the risk in the bank's hands. If the borrower defaults then the bank still has to pay the coupons. If too many people default then the bonds become impaired and the bank will be under severe stress. In that scenario this would lead to failure of the bank. Bank run? Bailout? In any event the result would be the same as the US banking crisis.
The banking system can be made more resilient by requiring much higher capital ratios. That means much more money needs to be set aside for eventual losses when the business cycle turns. The generation of bankers after Great depression bank had a reputation of keeping their reserves high. However decades of complacency has lead to lower and lower reserves. There is also the fact that locking money in reserves guarantees banks profits cannot be maximized (who wants smaller bonuses??).
Banks are now belatedly trying to increase reserves via capital raisings. All rather too late. Perversely the governments around the world are trying to coerce banks to lend again when they are trying to be more prudent!
In the end the only long term solution to this problem is to allow banks to go bankrupt. The Great depression generation's reputation for prudence wasn't born, it was made via harsh experience. If you get burnt badly it is unlikely you will make the same mistake for a very long time.
how certain systems are taken for granted or not questioned because they've existed so long, and the status quo isn't challenged. Like the standard "40-hour workweek", for example.
Life is simply too short to not celebrate your freedom and self-expression. This includes being creative, which many jobs could use more in abundance (hey, it sure worked for Google and I have the blessing of working in a virtual world, Second Life), and I celebrate posts like this which remind people of these fundamental facts!
there are a lot of opportunities youth have that didn't exist in previous years — not carbon-copy jobs, but creative endeavors that can earn extra cash, or at least, encourage a teen to continue developing their artistic skills. For instance, learning video editing (so valuable on many fronts now, since it's a very popular way to communicate on the web) and uploading funny vids to YouTube. Or more meaningfully, video tutorials teaching how to use different software. (I've seen some really bright teens and even tweens get in on this and grow fanbases, wow.)
I believe looking for fresh ops, including entrepreneurial ones, can be more long-time rewarding. Sometimes, short-term "paying your dues" drudgery is necessary to appreciate what else is out there in the world, tho. :-)
Note: The intro image (a really nice one!) somehow didn't make it through. Askin' Lynn for HELPS! ;)
Also, while the above is online-centric, even if you buy stuff in brick-and-mortar stores, the same base research applies. I'm eager to hear your experiences and learn from them... so, thank-you for reading and comment away!
Your post presupposes that any person, no matter how poor, lazy, ill-starred, mediocre, incompetent, or just old is entitled to any portion of the money earned by those who actually work and produce... a claim on their working Time, Skills and LIFE.
NOTHING can ever justify such a claim on another persons LIFE.
Such a belief is tantamount to endorsing slavery... if you, by force of law, force the productive workers to support the poor, old, lazy, ill-starred, mediocre, and incompetent, as you do with welfare and Social (In)Security, you literally are enslaving the productive to the unproductive. Taxing/enslaving productivity only decreases productivity. That results in lower living standards for all.
> unless you're self-employed,
> you don't pay 12%, you pay 6%.
> Your employer pays the other 6%.
OK, Who just got elected President in your universe - Ronald Reagan? The Social (In)Security tax rate is 7.65% (15.3% self employed) on my planet. And the half the employer pays? Gee - that could be paid to ME so I could SAVE it if it wasn't for the f&@#ing taxes! Or maybe my employer could lower his prices so you didn't pay so much for his products!
> If we were to privatize social security,
> what happens when the stock market tanks?
Gee, I think that if we privatized Social (In)Security that it would give the economy and securities markets a helluva boost - consumer goods being bought by the fools & investments being bought by the wise.
Please check Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper".
And - God forbid - people could actually learn something about economics & the markets - and stick their money in CDs if they want safety. No stock market risk (Fed-induced inflation on the other hand...).
> Do we tell the poor elderly, sorry,
> you can't eat this month?
I am not advocating the immediate cutoff of Social (In)Security... it would need to be phased out. People paying lower taxes could then take their own earned money and save it for retirement so they wouldn't need government handouts - again - education away from the 'Government Provides' model is needed (Government only provides by stealing).
Please note, that I am not advocating abandoning the truly poor or disabled - but aid to them should be VOLUNTARY. For a very long time they got along with the charity dispensed by churches, Granges, & the Community Chest - LOCALLY administered by people who knew who they were helping, so they were helping the deserving poor... not the leeching couch potatoes whose sole purpose in life is to produce another generation of leeching couch potatoes. And the working poor were at least working... and didn't pay Social (In)Security taxes, so they were automatically better off than the working poor of present day.
Again... nothing entitles anyone to even ONE SECONDS WORTH of another person's LIFE.
To quote John Galt in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged": "I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
I know that Robert Kiyosaki is a prolific writer on financial freedom. I am thoroughly impressed that his sister is also financially free. I know that through positive and steady desire to be financially stable one can be successful.
This is a good article, but I suggest that you try out a few different themes to see which one works the best for you. Picking one that looks cool might seem like a good idea, but having all the functionality that you need is more important.
It looks like the recommendation is to match the life or usefulness of the property with the borrowing term. It seems that Mr. Wilder doesn't recommend tying too much up in one particular investment to make sure that clients have cash flow and extra money to invest each month. So I am thinking that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage would be the easiest way to borrow and maintain an even cash flow.
I like to figure out what I need in whatever electronic product that I’m in the market for and then I factor in what I want and then determine if I can even afford the extras. This way I don’t get caught up in trying to purchase the product or brand that has the most features; many of which I may never use. Furthermore, shopping using this tactic increases the probability that I purchase a product that has all of the features I absolutely need. I also do a little research and read a few product reviews to check out the different brands. Once I decide on the model/brand I’m going to purchase, I comparison shop online using sites like Price Spider, Price Grabber, Shopzilla, etc. to find the best deal possible based on total cost, which includes shipping of course.
check out www.scoobydea.com
Sara- I bought my house cash- it was one of the smaller ones- and all real estate people will tell you- location location location. If you like your neighborhood, gold star, if you have the smallest house- gold star- and if you can pay cash and have other savings for needed cash expenses... you will be free in your mind from dealing with mortgages. Good luck!
@Guest: Yes! I've noticed a lot of marketing, esp. with tech gadgets, relies on conditioning people to believe that previous product generations are junk, and that you want what's "NEW!" Unless the newest has must-have features, the difference isn't so bad as many might perceive.
@Lynn: Yay!
@Stock Investing Guru: That's an interesting thing which relates to the mindsets of different people: "early adopters" are all too happy to beta-test and work through products hot off the assembly line, even if it means a lot of bugs.
I've found many of the gadgets I like didn't stabilize to my satisfaction until the 3rd generation. (And to mention another Apple product, the G3 Power Macs were a good example — hence the name!)
With technology it is best to be a follower, not a leader. You should wait for the bugs to get fixed. Also, anything to do with technology gets rapidly cheaper over time.
Just look at what happened with early iPhone buyers; $600 bucks and no 3G!
i just returned from the dr. office and found out my sugar in the pee was 2000 what am i to do! i need help fast.... i need some ideas to quickly bring down the sugar. does anyone have some suggestions....help.... and where do i go to explain the 2000 in my urine.... all they said was get it down exercise,stop all sugars and watch what i eat and i will see you in 6 mo.
what should the count be in your urine?
Torley: a-ok with the photo now
Disclosure: I am a real estate broker and I now exclusively act as a buyers agent.
Why I disagree with your story and feel that it is bad advice.
1: The sellers agent is acting illegally by not representing his sellers best interest or by doing any negotiating at all. If you move to a intermediary transaction(dual agency) you are not legally allowed to do any negotiating for either side. You essentially become the in-between. I do not know why so many people allow dual agency to happen in their transaction. You do not get a professional working on your behalf on either side. The agent in this transaction is working to make the highest commission for himself. If you ever encounter an agent or broker who suggests this BE VERY AWARE!!!!!
2: In a down or distressed market, which the entire US is experiencing, a REAL professional can guide you to the best deals, while also fighting to get your offer down to the lowest possible price. It is possible that in the same neighborhood that there is a like property that is in distress and could be bought for $290k. You would not find this, because you have not used an expert on your behalf. When I say say expert I mean someone who knows every possible detail about a specific market. This is also why you should do your research on who you use as a buyers agent. As example, I also buy and invest in properties in other markets. The first thing I do is find the most qualified buyers agent. I check there references. I interview them. I then pick the best of my findings.
By doing this I am giving myself the greatest amount of market knowledge possible. Remember I buy houses for a living and when I go to another market I hire a buyers agent. A good analogy would be; would you want a dentist doing heart surgery on you or a heart surgeon doing your dental work?
My summary is that a good buyers agent will save you more money and protect you with fiduciary responsibility.
I have been solely educated by public schools and I feel that I have a major disadvantage as compared to those who were educated in the private school system. For one, I don't earn all that much money relative to my great number of years of schooling and there has been no networking for me despite this being the way most jobs are gotten these days. Plus, public schools are just like the public sector--let's see how cheaply we can do everything! If you want a chance at a decent existence and some luxuries in life, go for private schooling. If you want to attend lower class schools without a hint of opulence, no one to network with, and a lower middle class existence, do what I did. Trust me!
hope the cookies were good. i am looking for that. could you send it please. and thank you
Nice post and your analysis and suggestions are on the money. A few observations of my own.
Sometimes, you can get fabulous deals that have low lifecycle cost by buying a high end model that has just been refreshed, that is buying the one that is replaced. I got a MacBook Pro for $1,600 a year ago that had been $2,500 the week before. The speed bump was relatively mild and not much more disk. Apple paid the dealer back for items in stock so everybody, except possibly Apple, came out on top. I expect the one I purchased to last a long time and have low life cycle cost.
Also, the idea of buying the second highest model is consistent with your analysis. It is overall life cycle cost that counts; not purchase price. Low ball a purchase and it becomes obsolete even years before a second level model. The result is that the low ball item usually has a higher life cycle cost.
I'd be person A and invest my money rather than spending it. That way I could retire early.
ELEP's volunteer program is a life-changing opportunity for individuals who seek to make a difference in Ecuador. We offer customized volunteer placements in a wide variety of social organizations and ecological reserves and national parks throughout Ecuador.
Living and volunteering in Ecuador for a short or long term, you could help enrich the lives of Ecuadorian needy people and make a real contribution to the betterment of Ecuadorian society and difference in this part of the world. This is a more challenging and you as volunteer have the opportunity to contribute to the development Ecuadorian people. ELEP's volunteer program will match your skills and interests to local needs in order to provide you with an unforgettable cross cultural experience. Volunteers do not need to have any special skills. They just need a willingness to help.
Our program goes from 2 to 24 weeks duration and count with the following projects:
Humanitarian: Children welfare (orphanage, street kid centers and day care centers), Human Rights, Education and Teaching English, Healthcare/nursing, HIV/AIDS, Micro-enterprise, Micro-credits, infrastructure and construction work, etc.
Ecological: General conservation, Animal welfare and veterinary
Website: http://www.elep.org/
E-mail: programs@elep.org
To Apply: http://www.elep.org/main/elep-apply-now.html
I do like the fact that mortgagee's can buy the bonds at discount values and pay off their loan faster. It promotes liquidity in the market and allows people to exit bad positions in the bond market.
One thing this type of instrument does not solve is systematic risk. Risk still exists in the system but the risk has been offloaded somewhere else. I'm quite sure there is a property bubble in Denmark (like the rest of the world). When the hammer falls it just hits where the most risk was taken.
If I'm reading correctly the Denmark model does leave much of the risk in the bank's hands. If the borrower defaults then the bank still has to pay the coupons. If too many people default then the bonds become impaired and the bank will be under severe stress. In that scenario this would lead to failure of the bank. Bank run? Bailout? In any event the result would be the same as the US banking crisis.
The banking system can be made more resilient by requiring much higher capital ratios. That means much more money needs to be set aside for eventual losses when the business cycle turns. The generation of bankers after Great depression bank had a reputation of keeping their reserves high. However decades of complacency has lead to lower and lower reserves. There is also the fact that locking money in reserves guarantees banks profits cannot be maximized (who wants smaller bonuses??).
Banks are now belatedly trying to increase reserves via capital raisings. All rather too late. Perversely the governments around the world are trying to coerce banks to lend again when they are trying to be more prudent!
In the end the only long term solution to this problem is to allow banks to go bankrupt. The Great depression generation's reputation for prudence wasn't born, it was made via harsh experience. If you get burnt badly it is unlikely you will make the same mistake for a very long time.
Marty is dishonest, says you have an approval, tells you to send the money, then does not deliver and will not return calls.
how certain systems are taken for granted or not questioned because they've existed so long, and the status quo isn't challenged. Like the standard "40-hour workweek", for example.
Life is simply too short to not celebrate your freedom and self-expression. This includes being creative, which many jobs could use more in abundance (hey, it sure worked for Google and I have the blessing of working in a virtual world, Second Life), and I celebrate posts like this which remind people of these fundamental facts!
I hope it's not a dangerous job; sounds like an upside is exposing you to a diversity of people.
there are a lot of opportunities youth have that didn't exist in previous years — not carbon-copy jobs, but creative endeavors that can earn extra cash, or at least, encourage a teen to continue developing their artistic skills. For instance, learning video editing (so valuable on many fronts now, since it's a very popular way to communicate on the web) and uploading funny vids to YouTube. Or more meaningfully, video tutorials teaching how to use different software. (I've seen some really bright teens and even tweens get in on this and grow fanbases, wow.)
I believe looking for fresh ops, including entrepreneurial ones, can be more long-time rewarding. Sometimes, short-term "paying your dues" drudgery is necessary to appreciate what else is out there in the world, tho. :-)
Note: The intro image (a really nice one!) somehow didn't make it through. Askin' Lynn for HELPS! ;)
Also, while the above is online-centric, even if you buy stuff in brick-and-mortar stores, the same base research applies. I'm eager to hear your experiences and learn from them... so, thank-you for reading and comment away!
@Jeff: Great question. I got the code on Christmas Day (2008, of course).
Your post presupposes that any person, no matter how poor, lazy, ill-starred, mediocre, incompetent, or just old is entitled to any portion of the money earned by those who actually work and produce... a claim on their working Time, Skills and LIFE.
NOTHING can ever justify such a claim on another persons LIFE.
Such a belief is tantamount to endorsing slavery... if you, by force of law, force the productive workers to support the poor, old, lazy, ill-starred, mediocre, and incompetent, as you do with welfare and Social (In)Security, you literally are enslaving the productive to the unproductive. Taxing/enslaving productivity only decreases productivity. That results in lower living standards for all.
> unless you're self-employed,
> you don't pay 12%, you pay 6%.
> Your employer pays the other 6%.
OK, Who just got elected President in your universe - Ronald Reagan? The Social (In)Security tax rate is 7.65% (15.3% self employed) on my planet. And the half the employer pays? Gee - that could be paid to ME so I could SAVE it if it wasn't for the f&@#ing taxes! Or maybe my employer could lower his prices so you didn't pay so much for his products!
> If we were to privatize social security,
> what happens when the stock market tanks?
Gee, I think that if we privatized Social (In)Security that it would give the economy and securities markets a helluva boost - consumer goods being bought by the fools & investments being bought by the wise.
Please check Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper".
And - God forbid - people could actually learn something about economics & the markets - and stick their money in CDs if they want safety. No stock market risk (Fed-induced inflation on the other hand...).
> Do we tell the poor elderly, sorry,
> you can't eat this month?
I am not advocating the immediate cutoff of Social (In)Security... it would need to be phased out. People paying lower taxes could then take their own earned money and save it for retirement so they wouldn't need government handouts - again - education away from the 'Government Provides' model is needed (Government only provides by stealing).
Please note, that I am not advocating abandoning the truly poor or disabled - but aid to them should be VOLUNTARY. For a very long time they got along with the charity dispensed by churches, Granges, & the Community Chest - LOCALLY administered by people who knew who they were helping, so they were helping the deserving poor... not the leeching couch potatoes whose sole purpose in life is to produce another generation of leeching couch potatoes. And the working poor were at least working... and didn't pay Social (In)Security taxes, so they were automatically better off than the working poor of present day.
Again... nothing entitles anyone to even ONE SECONDS WORTH of another person's LIFE.
To quote John Galt in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged": "I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
Virtual RAM is a BAD idea. It gum up your computer.
I know that Robert Kiyosaki is a prolific writer on financial freedom. I am thoroughly impressed that his sister is also financially free. I know that through positive and steady desire to be financially stable one can be successful.
This is a good article, but I suggest that you try out a few different themes to see which one works the best for you. Picking one that looks cool might seem like a good idea, but having all the functionality that you need is more important.
It looks like the recommendation is to match the life or usefulness of the property with the borrowing term. It seems that Mr. Wilder doesn't recommend tying too much up in one particular investment to make sure that clients have cash flow and extra money to invest each month. So I am thinking that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage would be the easiest way to borrow and maintain an even cash flow.