August 2007

There are some burdens in life you carry forever. These are memories of things you wish you hadn’t done, but did nevertheless. Here is one such burden that I have been carrying for years.

It was a stupid chewing gum that started this whole thing. The gum came with some kind of a scheme in which they were giving away toys after you collected a certain number of gum wrappers (I was drolling over a specific diecast car, if I remember correctly). The temptation started as a way of competing with other kids who proudly displayed their toy trophies to me.

Any kind of chewing gum was totally frowned upon by my parents at that time (and correctly so); and hence, there was no way I had the guts to ask them for money to buy the gum. To make matters worse, the little shop that sold the stuff (which was about 10 steps away from our condominium), seemed to beckon me to go forth and indulge - by hook or by crook.

Then one day, in a moment of desperation, I did it - I stole some money. Of all the places in the world, I stole the money from a place of worship (probably because that’s where money was least guarded). Later, I realized that whatever I stole was not enough to buy that particular gum - so, I stole some more [I am talking about a piece of chewing gum here, so you can imagine how much I stole].

Finally, I bought my first chewing gum from stolen money. I was closer to the diecast car, but not there yet. So, I stole some more and bought more gum. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

And then, after a few gum purchases, it happened.. I got busted. My parents probably realized that I was becoming too religious (always ready to visit the place of worship and stuff) or probably the shopkeeper mentioned my little secret purchases to my parents. Whatever was the reason, it brought my gum affair to an abrupt end.

Many learning moments followed - for both me and my parents, and I eventually realized the gravity of my actions. I was remorseful and wanted to return the money back to the place from where I had stolen it. However, since I had already spent it on the gum, I didn’t have anything to give back. At this point, my parents did something clever - instead of giving me the entire amount to return it to it’s rightful place, they tied me to a small chore allowance. Every time I received my allowance, I was to apply my earnings towards returning the stolen money - by physically taking it back to the place of worship and apologizing to the caretaker each time. Believe me, it was much more painful (and pretty humiliating) than just returning the entire stolen amount at once and saying sorry.

It took me four (may be five - I don’t remember well) trips, over a few weeks, to give back what I had wrongfully taken, and every trip was made laborious by the weight of the stolen money.

More than 20 years have passed since then; the burden has reduced a lot, but I can still feel it at times. I wonder when it will go away. Maybe I can put a closure to it when I tell this story to my kid and save him/her from ever carrying the weight of stolen money.

Or maybe not.

Here is a list of 12 random things (popular or not) that will never find a place on my shopping list.

1. Neon Lights Under the Car: Yeah, what? $199.95 for lighting up the underside of the car? Now, as frivolous as it may sound to me, I have seen more than a dozen cars in our small town with these lights. You seriously need to have an absolute dearth of ideas about where to waste your excess money in order to buy this stuff.

Sometime in the past, we were driving behind a Camaro that had some neon lights underneath it. My wife noticed it and asked me:

Why does that car have lights under it?

I still don’t have a good answer for that question, except “to show-off to people who care about lights under a car“.

2. Gillette Fusion Power: I wrote about this a long time ago, but it fits this list so let me mention it here. I haven’t understood why anyone needs an “onboard microchip” in a shaving razor. The razor body in itself is not very expensive (about $12 on Amazon), but the cartridges are a rip-off ($18 - listed as $29.99 on Amazon - for a pack of 8). It has some pretty useless features like this one:

Enhanced indicator Lubrastrip signals when it’s time to change the blade.

The time to change the blade is when it doesn’t shave properly - that shouldn’t need “enhanced indicator signals”.

3. Electric Toothbrush: I think people are going nuts in trying to make everything “electric” and automatic - either that, or we are forgetting how to do things manually - simple things like brushing our teeth. Here is some information on how to brush your teeth properly:

Generally, most dentists recommend a circular technique for brushing. This includes brushing only a small group of teeth at a time and gradually covering the entire mouth. To properly brush your teeth, use short, gentle strokes, paying extra attention to the gum line, hard-to-reach back teeth and areas around fillings, crowns or other restoration. (source: How to Brush Teeth Properly)

Now, why does anyone require a $129 $119 electric toothbrush to do that? Is this 2-minute activity becoming so laborious for us?

4. Color Inkjet Printer: These things are .. well, horrible. In general, printers must be holding some kind of a record for being the least reliable of all electronic products. “PC load letter” must be the most hated term in the office world (remember those guys in the movie Office Space? - I seriously feel like giving that kind of treatment to many printers).

Regarding inkjet printers, if you use them too much, the replacement cartridges will cost you an arm (and a leg) and if don’t use them regularly, the ink is going to dry up in a while and you will eventually end up replacing the cartridges. It’s a loss-loss situation with these printers.

Also, in the last 4~5 years, I have probably “needed” color printouts for like 2 times (totaling about 10 pages). Heading over to Kinko’s works out pretty economical for such needs.

For printed photographs, now-a-days you can get them delivered to your home for about $0.11 to $0.15 each (regular 4″ x 6″ photos). You can use any of such numerous websites for that purpose.

5. iPhone: $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB)? Give me a break - it’s supposed to be a phone. I don’t want the internet in my pocket, and I don’t want the talk to my friends while I am listening to Aerosmith, and I don’t want to type a boatload of text with my thumb. The only free time I have to indulge in activities like watch movies, surf the net, etc., is when I am at home - and have access to other time-wasting products (like a TV and a computer) to do those things, so I don’t see the utility of a $599 gadget for doing that.

Plus, from my personal experience, I won’t hesitate to say that AT&T sucks - big time. I must have spent 238536 hours of my life trying to get due credit on billing errors on our AT&T phone bills in the past. A 2-year contract with these people is just out of question.

I just need something that allows me talk with the person on the other end without any distractions (like dropped calls, horrible receptions, etc) and I don’t need $499 to pay for that. Come to think of it, you can get two Wii consoles in that kind of money!

In fact, with the availability of some good free phones (or phones with negative price), any cell phone deal that costs more than $10 ~$15 for the instrument seems like a bad deal to me.

6. GPS Navigation Unit: It’s not like I drive regularly in the tropical rain forest region or the Siberian wilderness - the places where I drive to are well documented on all paper maps and there are easy to read directions on roads all over the country (except in New Jersey). So yeah, I won’t be spending a few hundred dollars on this electronic doodad as long as $6 paper maps are doing the job.

Also, I have a theory (based on observing a few people) - those who have a hard time finding roads using maps also have a hard time using the GPS technology effectively. Technology cannot solve problems created by lack of attention, lack of planning, and general panic.

7. “Memory Foam” Mattresses: Take a look at this price for a queen sized memory foam mattress. $5,799! are you kidding me? How can people get peaceful sleep after spending so much money on a mattress? (of course, there are cheaper ones available - I am just giving an example)
Here is a typical sales pitch for such ridiculously expensive products:

By purchasing a memory foam mattress, you aren’t paying money for a mattress. You’re paying money for your health. You’re investing money into your better sleep and less back pain in the morning. So tell me, is it worth risking your health by purchasing a cheap crap in this case? Definitely not.

I love these sleazy marketing tactics: create buzzwords –> make up stories –> create unnecessary health concerns –> rope in suckers.

There must be a few genuine products in this memory foam business, but now-a-days, every Tom, Dick, and Harry is using that term “memory foam” and it’s becoming difficult to spot the good from the bad.

8. Regular Incandescent Bulbs: Done with those filament light bulbs already. Will never buy one in future. These bulbs are not very economical in the long run - neither for your wallet nor for the environment. Plus, I am not a great fan of the yellow “soft white” light.

9. Cell Phone Signal Booster Stickers: The concept sounds like scam and probably is a scam. Read more about it here. If it were so easy, cell phones would have come with these stickers built-in. If you search Google for these things, you will come across a lot of “positive” reviews. Seems to me like the signal booster sticker interferes with psychology in certain instances - “I have paid money for this stuff, and hence it must be working” type of mindset.

10. Radar Detectors: Fancy detectors ones can lighten your wallet by as much as $400+. How about driving within speed limits instead? that doesn’t cost a penny and it is completely stress free. If you think you will save a lot of time by driving fast, read this and think again.

11. Services by Best Buy’s GeekSquad: Take a look at these prices and services. I am pretty sure these guys target some old people (or the absolutely ignorant) who hit the monitor when their computer slows down. Come on, $249 for installing Windows?

Operating System Upgrade
Professional installation of the latest version of Microsoft Windows that best suits your needs. Software not included.
In store: $129
In home: $249

A couple of hundred more bucks and you will be able to buy a brand new computer.

12. Two Way Pet Communication Device: This $199+ gadget is not a conventional item, but I found it pretty funny, so I included it in this list. Just read this list of “features”:

Speak to Your Pet up to 12 Miles*

Collar & Harness available for Cats & Dogs

Control up to 14 Pets with one Radio

“Call Owner” Button

LED Lights with 2 Mile visibility

Lol.. things are out of control here.

By the way, this whole SkyMall shop is full of such fancy stuff. Does anyone ever buy products from these people?

There are many other funny/interesting (and pretty much useless) things (for example) out there, but for now this is enough from my side. Feel free to share things on your must-not-buy list.

Image sources: www.andysautosport.com, www.worldnetdaily.com, www.become.com, blog.scifi.com, www.gadgetell.com, images.amazon.com, www.lolkeegan.com, shopping.com, askbobrankin.com, k43.pbase.com

I spent a better part of last night thinking about the analogy between chess and life. It turned out to be a very interesting exercise. As always, images get formed in my head before I can gather the words. So, here is how it appeared to me after some elementary thinking:

Now, it’s time for some words.
Here are seven powerful parallels that you can draw between a game of chess and life.

• Planning for the future: Think long term - that’s the key to survival in this game. Don’t aimlessly push your pawns without a plan. Before you decide to make a move, think a few steps ahead. Ask “what if …?” and try to anticipate the possible outcomes of your actions. Work out a backup plan and decide on an exit strategy. In life, this is the foundation of all financial planning exercises.

• A great lesson in adaptation: Your opponent doesn’t follow a given sequence of moves. Hence, whatever your plans may be, you should always be ready to adapt to the changing situation caused by the monkey wrenches that your opponent will throw at you. At times, when dealing with unconventional opponents, you may require a paradigm shift in your thinking. This requires an open mind and the willingness to adapt to changes.

• The value of sacrifices: Sometimes you need to give up some of your smaller assets to achieve bigger milestones later in the game. A great many chess games have been won with brilliant sacrifices at the right time. This essentially requires some forethought.

• The dangers of temptation: Your opponent (the dark side) will occasionally tempt you with small pawns and trivial positions on the board. These small offers will act as baits to draw you into vulnerable positions and to expose your weaknesses. Do not fall for these - they have the potential to ruin the game for you. Always be focussed on your long term objectives and resist the distractions of these momentary temptations.

• The pitfalls of a passive approach: When you play the game passively, you play to just survive and stick around - to avoid a checkmate. You accept all the tricks that your opponent sends your way, and do not question anything. Your actions will be shaped by how your opponent (uncertainties, habits, etc) chooses to play the game. If you are lucky, you may somehow manage to hold your fort till the end but you will be miles away from a “victory”.

• The rewards of an active approach: In this case, you play the game with a positive frame of mind. You play to win. You play to conquer the dark side. You define the pace of the game and you will probably control the outcome. Victory will have it’s own sweet taste. By the way, don’t confuse an “active” approach with an “overconfident” approach - overconfidence is generally not guarded by caution, thought, or adaptation.

• The importance of consistency: Like chess, life is a game of mental tenacity. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are; if you don’t hang in there with consistent positive efforts, your opponent will eventually start eating into your defenses. If you do exceedingly dumb things, you will be eaten alive.

Finally, if you think life is like this:

You really need to wake up and stop dreaming!

Just found these coupons on Spoofee.com while randomly searching for something else.

Click on this link to view and print the coupons. Accepted at Starbucks outlets in Target stores.

Drink responsibly. Too much of Starbucks coffee has been known to lighten wallets in certain instances.

First, the big picture with a time frame:

Obviously, my relationship with television hasn’t been very rosy. Here is a brief description of how things have unfolded over the years.

The Prehistoric Days

It started long long ago with a 14″ Philips black and white television. It didn’t have any *buttons* or remote or any fancy stuff; just a couple of ear-like knobs, 8 channels (of which only two used to work) and some scary tube diodes.

It was probably the smallest (and most featureless) model in the market, but that’s all my parents could afford at the time.

With just two channels available, there was not much scope to waste time on watching anything. In fact, most of the TV watching occurred on Saturdays and Sundays when it was cartoon time for better part of the day.

The TV-free Zone

Then one day, the inevitable happened. The TV stopped working. I remember my dad taking it to a TV repair shop (in those times and in the place where we lived, repairing broken electronic items was the norm - as opposed to getting new ones as replacement). But, it didn’t get any better after the *repairs* - just refused to come back to life. My parent’s never bothered to look for a new one [I now thank them for doing that].

If my memory serves me right, the initial few weekends without the dose of my favorite cartoons were absolutely painful (I was probably already addicted to it). However, as I grew older, I started filling the void left by the broken TV with other activities (there is not enough space to mention all of them here). The TV addiction didn’t take much time to wear off and once it was gone, it was gone for good.

I have to admit that the TV-free zone was the most productive time in my life. Achievements flowed in - academic and athletic. My social presence was on the rise and generally life was pretty good (well, except the occasional taunt of a TV addict friend). Never ever felt the “want” for a TV. There was an information void, but that was quickly filled with newspapers, magazines, and radio.

The Evil Comes Back

I don’t know how the evil thing came back, but it did. It was probably because I became less busier than before - in spite of joining grad school. This time it came back in the form of a 24″ flat screen color TV. Shows like The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond, That 70s Show, etc., became regular (almost daily) features and it didn’t take much for my TV-time to go from 0 to about 2.5 hours each day. Think about it ~ 2.5 hours a day! that’s like 912.5 hours a year! Productivity was certainly on a decline, but I was either blissfully unaware of it or the addiction side of my brain simply refused to accept the fact.

Blogging vs. TV

Fortunately, I recently got hooked on to blogging and the busy lifestyle started coming back to me. TV-time has been compromised in favor of blogging and things are getting better now. Every time I switch ON the TV, a nagging thought bothers me - “dude, you could probably be doing something constructive with your blogging instead of wasting your time watching TV“.

I start thinking of wasting 912.5 hours per year (that probably sounds like thousands of dollars in blogging income) and that quickly makes me very uncomfortable. Such nagging thoughts keep reminding me of the value of the unproductive time lost in watching television and have been largely responsible for the recent decrease of my attention towards the idiot box. I am hoping that the trend continues in future and eventually tends towards 0 hours per day.

Here is some more trivia about my relationship with TV.

• I have never watched a single episode of The Sopranos, The O.C., Lost, 24, Law & Order, Oprah, and many other popular TV shows. I don’t think my life has lost any value because I didn’t watch those.

• Part of the reason why I haven’t ever watched a lot of TV shows is because I have never had a cable connection ever. We have always used an indoor TV antenna and that catches a few channels with sufficient clarity (already enough reception to cause a 2.5 hours/day wastage). Plus, honestly, I have seen my friends who have cable - generally, they are simply wasting their time flipping channels and watching nothing.

• I have never owned a video game console. I have tried my hands on my friends’ XBox and PS 2 (played Halo and God of War, respectively), but the total time spent on playing those games till now must have been less than 4 hours.

So, that’s my TV story.

Before I end this post, here is just one tip (from my personal experience) for those who are looking to reduce their time spent on watching television - just get busy and keep yourself busy (with something other than watching television) !

For children who are too young to decide anything for themselves, the tip goes to their parents - just keep your children busy, distract them away from the television. Later in their life, they are going to thank you for doing that.

I was just having some fun at work creating images of a penny to demonstrate a certain technology to some new students. Here is an example image:

Can you guess how this image was created? Hint - think out of the box; except for the size, it has not been edited in any way.

Interestingly, not many of the students knew how the penny looks up-close. They have probably *seen* it for years, but never *observed* it closely. Some of them knew what “E Pluribus Unum” means, but none of them knew what “FG” stands for.

The letters “FG” are not clearly visible in the above image, but you can check this detailed photograph of the penny for that.

For those who are not aware about the significance of those letters - they are the initials of the designer Frank Gasparro.

By the way, the other side (Lincoln side) of the penny was designed by Victor Brenner. But, check out this detailed photograph of the Lincoln side of the penny - here only the letter “D” appears below the year, instead of the initials. Now, what is that for? Well, that’s a mint mark of the US Mint at Denver, Colorado.

So, the other side doesn’t have Victor Brenner’s initials? If you ask that question, then you haven’t yet *observed* the Lincoln side of the coin closely enough.

Here is this week’s list of interesting thoughts.

• Comment on “Think About Your Finances Before Having (More) Children” by Stidmama on this blog. This is one passionate comment by one of the most loyal readers of this blog. I would encourage readers to go through it carefully and think over it for a while.

• Make Money From Credit Cards: 0% Balance Transfer Profit Calculator Tool by Jonathan @ My Money Blog.

• Top 10 Wealth Building Ways Of Ordinary People by SVB @ The Digerati Life.

• Do-It-Yourself - Do The Basics and Save Money by Super Saver @ My Wealth Builder.

• Think the Stock Market is Going Down? Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and Profit From It by Jeremy @ Generation X Finance. A must read for people who are sweating about the recent downwards trend of the market.

• Is Your Child Ready for the Cash Crunch of College? by Ben @ Money Smart Life.

• Merger Arbitrage Funds: The Weak Link by Sun @ The Sun’s Financial Diary.

• Rent a Pet: Only for the Wealthy by Lazy @ Lazy Man and Money. I am thinking of some highly creative answers to fill in this blank - “Rent a ________ “, so that I can start a new renting business. So far it has been difficult - almost every dang thing on this planet can be rented now. Suggestions?

• 101 Ways to Put $101 in Your Pocket This Month @ Blogging Away Debt.

• Thinking About a Housing Addition by Nickel @ Five Cent Nickel.

• Don’t Pay Late Fees by FMF @ Free Money Finance.

• We Liquidated Our Target Retirement 2050 Fund by Jim @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I am still not fully conversant with stock market analysis, but my first instinct says that probably Jim would have done better to hang on to it through the rough patch. In contrast, I am on a buying spree about now.

• Lots of Cancelled Loans on Prosper.com? by MBH @ Mighty Bargain Hunter.

• Dramatically Cut Your Cooling Costs by Brian @ Financial Dominance.

Did I say “academic success”? Sorry, I meant “shoving consumerist lifestyles down the already-choked-by-debt throats of Americans.”

I was visiting a local Best Buy store to pick up some blank CDs, when I saw this “Back to School Tech List” displayed near the customer service desk. It starts with a nice Lifehacker-style title: “Top 15 must-haves for this year’s college students“, but the rest of it is essentially a big load of crap.

Here are the first eight essential tips for academic success:

And here are the remaining seven essentials for college life:

They probably missed #16 - apply for a Best Buy credit card with 32424531% APR, and then keep making minimum payments. Now, that’s also an essential aspect of academic success and college life.

A more appropriate title would be “Top 15 must-haves to start school with credit card debt“.

All these years I was under the impression that academic success depended on how hard you study, how well you understand, and how diligent you are with your homeworks and assignments. Things have probably changed now.

I am just picking on Best Buy because I happened to have their ridiculous list in my possession; however, these type of lists are fairly common in many retail shops around this time of the year. The back-to-school shopping business is really bloating up into a Thanksgiving/Christmas style shopping mania. Sharon @ The Frugal Duchess has some interesting thoughts and numbers on the subject. She also refers to an interesting report by National Retail Federation (NRF) which says that back-to-school spending will exceed $18 billion this year. It’s probably a coincidence, but this is what I found in the report:

“Electronics have evolved from luxuries to necessities, not only for college students but also for their younger siblings,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “While some students may be pleading with mom and dad for an iPod or a cell phone, parents are also investing in desktop or laptop computers, educational software and printers to support their children’s learning.”

I guess that’s where Best Buy picked up it’s *essential* tips from.

Many months ago, I wrote this post “Students, Laptops, Digital Cameras, Huge Cars, and Debt“. Some of you will find it interesting in light of the above discussion.

[Quick note: I mentioned "porn" near the Geek Squad logo in the first image above; read this article and this article on The Consumerist to know more about it.]

Here are some of the top posts from the month of July that generated interest.

• Buying A Car With Cash: Smart Or Not? (36 comments)

• Think About Your Finances Before Having (More) Children (35 comments)

• Life After Spending A Ton Of Money On A Car (35 comments)

• 10 Simple Steps To Becoming Wealthy (27 comments)

• Olive Oil Attitude (25 comments)

• The Interesting Problem Of A Railway Trolley - What Is Ethical And What Is Not? (24 comments)
  

• A Dollar Amount Cannot Be An End Goal (14 comments)

July was essentially a “car month” for us. We learned a lot of things between the breaking down of our old Nissan and the subsequent purchase of the Toyota Corolla. I tried to compile all those lessons in the form of a series of posts under this running title - “Used Car Buying Tips”. Here is how the series was presented.

• Part 1: Classic Confusions

• Part 2: Understanding Vehicle History Reports

• Part 3: How To Inspect A Used Car

• Part 4: How To Deal With Car Dealers

• Part 5: Certified Pre-owned Vehicles Make Sense?

• Part 6: Lease Or Buy?

I am still working on a “Part 7″ which will summarize all the above parts in a concise ebook format, but I am not sure how that is going to turn out. If you have some experience with ebooks, I will be glad to hear some words of wisdom about that business.