personal

Since Monday evening, this week has been horrible for me in terms of how much crap life can hand over to someone in such a short amount of time. I don’t know how people tend to look at stuff, but right now, to me, it seems that getting your dreams crushed is far more depressing than any amount of financial loss. I am ready to give every penny I have to get back what I lost - but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

Anyways, without making this a morose platitude, let me come to the point. Here are a few parallels that I have been drawing between life and stock markets - almost in a way as to comfort myself in this chaos.

• In general, there are these daily ups and downs, there are these rare black days, and there are these occasional fears of recession; but on the whole, the hope is that things will tend upwards in the long term. So, it helps to not look at the daily volatilities and to focus on a 20~30 year perspective. For me, it has been nothing short of a melt-down for the last couple of days - but I am going to stick to my “hold” strategy (I am talking about life), think long term, and hope for better times ahead.

  

• In life and in stock markets, smart decisions can help accentuate success and mitigate failure, but there are days of profound realization when the randomness becomes quite apparent and success becomes a game of probability. Makes us acknowledge a multitude of factors, beyond our control, that can affect future outcomes.
• At times, we regret our past choices - “I wish I had that winning one” OR “I wish I didn’t have this losing one” - but no amount of regret can reverse what has already been done. The only thing you can do is to take it easy and think in terms of the future prospects.
• Just like people start wondering whether their portfolio is balanced enough for their long term goals - right when the market hits the bottom - the last few days have made me contemplate on some balancing aspects of my life’s portfolio - why am I doing what am I doing and how am I doing it. Although I understand that, just like in a stock market, a depression is a bad time to rebalance one’s portfolio (think impulsive decisions), the very fact that I became pretty uneasy over these recent unpleasant events tells me that I probably didn’t have all the right equations to begin with. Rebalancing seems to be in order once the dust settles on the present issues.
• DIVERSIFY -your dreams, your ambitions, and your approaches (think backup plans). Banking too much on any given aspect of life with a narrow focus is like betting all your money on WorldCom. Unfortunately, we become so cozy with specific things that work for us, that the importance of diversification is not felt till we sense the threat of an impending disaster. And usually, it’s too late by that time to do anything about it.

All said and done, for now, all I have to do (rather, all I can do) is focus on the big picture, suck it up, and give a fight till the good times return.

Unfortunately, there is no Federal Reserve for life that can boost your confidence by tweaking some interest rates; probably that’s why life’s a beach while the stock market isn’t.

It all started with these lines from the movie Rush Hour, which we watched over this weekend for the umpteenth time:

Carter: …My daddy once saved five crackheads from a burnin’ building, by himself.
Lee: My daddy once caught a bullet with his bare hand.

One thing led to another and we (me and my wife) eventually got to discussing how our respective parents struggled through adverse financial conditions, and yet managed to make the most of their lives.

Here are a few interesting features (although, not as exciting as catching bullets with bare hands) about my parents’ lives that briefly came under discussion:

• My dad and his siblings walked to school on tar roads without any footwear to protect their feet. I often thought that this story was blown to legendary proportions until I visited the village where he lived when he was young, and saw quite a few school children walking on hot roads without any footwear (and this was in 2005!). He got his first flip-flops when he was in 7th grade and didn’t have proper *shoes* till 3 years later.
• Mom was a bit luckier - she had access to footwear when she was a kid (she grew up in an urban area); but, she spent about 18 years of her life sharing a small single room (about 400 sq. ft) with 8 other family members. “Privacy” was an unheard concept among the middle class at the time - even now, it’s not a very popular concept.
• Both of them had to give up their education at some point of time in order to work towards earning income, so that they can lend a helping hand towards educating their respective younger siblings.
• After they were married, their life together started in a small rented apartment which didn’t even have plumbing facilities for the first 4 of the 8 years that they spent there. Drinking water had to be brought from a well that was about 200 feet away from the apartment.
• They couldn’t afford a car until after retirement [it did help that a public transport system was in place and they didn't really need one].
• Luxuries like refrigerator, washing machine, television, telephone, etc. came very late in their adult lives (long after I was born; check my TV story here). They still don’t have an air conditioner at their home - though it does get pretty hot in summer. For them, it’s not really a big deal because most other middle class families around them don’t have air conditioners either (astute readers will have realized by now that I am not talking about the US here).

In fact, in the part of the world where my parents grew up (and in their time frame), such financial hardships were a norm. Many people of my generation (although, not all), who were brought up in middle class families in that part of the world, would have similar stories to share about their parents.

Sometimes, when I think of all this and compare it with how we are living our lives right now - with all the educational and financial opportunities available to us, with most of the *comforts* in life one could ask for, without having to worry about how we will survive till the next paycheck, without having to worry about how we will be able to provide for our younger siblings, and stuff like that - I can’t help but feel extremely grateful for how life has treated us so far. We may not be among the wealthiest people in the world, but whatever we are getting out of our life at present is a whole lot more than what was even remotely possible for our parents.

It’s truly humbling to look back and think of how much the efforts and sacrifices (mostly sacrifices) of our parents have contributed to where we are at present. Of course, I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of our own decisions and choices towards getting us to our present situation - but, it’s with the full understanding that those decisions and choices couldn’t have been very effective without a solid foundation and unconditional support that was provided to us early on by our parents - in spite of all the financial adversities they were facing in their lives.

In between such sentimental thoughts, I often slip in the future - yeah.. many years in the future - and wonder what kind of comments our would-be kids will have about our evolving financial situation. As things stand now, I am sure they won’t have anything to write about how their parents rose through “financial hardships” and stuff .. so, I don’t know if I will hear about any “grateful” type of feelings … the only thing I am hoping for, is to not see/hear statements like:

• My old man had everything but he blew it away and couldn’t save anything for my college.
• My old man had everything but he still got into huge debt.
• My old man was miserable and greedy, he had money on his mind all the time - never had enough time for family.
• Etc., etc.,

~$$~

Interestingly, in spite of the tough financial conditions early on, my dad and mom retired at the ages of 49 years and 46 years, respectively. More about this sometime later.

I don’t know about you all, but I occasionally get tired of thinking about serious stuff - how to increase my income, how to live frugally, how to shop smartly, whether I am saving enough, whether I am spending too much, blah blah…

And then, there are days when my mind just wouldn’t process anymore information about net worth, debt, retirement, and other such financial topics. Generally, when this happens, I turn off the calculator in my brain and indulge in some wishful thoughts. It’s not productive in the conventional sense, but it’s sure refreshing.

Here are a few of my money fantasies. Some of them are things I wish happened (or will happen) to me, some are things I would do/buy if money was not a constraint, and some are just… er .. silly.

• I often fantasize about winning a *huge* lottery: Hearing about lottery winners on TV/internet provides the spark for such thoughts. Although, I keep revisiting this fantasy when I am tired of thinking/reading about serious financial stuff - this particular thought does throw me back into the numbers. I have often spent wasted time thinking about how I will invest/spend $200 million - and how I (and several succeeding generations of my family) will live “happily ever after” in the interest/dividend income that I earn on that kind of money. Money thoughts - but these are more entertaining than stressful.

• I would like to get an awesome motorcycle: Actually, I would like to be rich enough to buy *many* awesome motorcycles. For some unknown reason, I have a special attraction towards these things. Whenever, time permits, I often find myself browsing motorcycle websites - looking for “mean” machines. Earlier (when I was single) I used to be fascinated by the sports versions, but now-a-days I feel drawn towards cruiser styles. Here is one that I have my eye on (Yamaha Stratoliner - $16,580):

Perhaps, many years down the line, I might really get this one; but, for now, it’s just a fantasy. Strangely enough, I don’t have similar grand thoughts about what car I drive - I just don’t care. I would be perfectly happy with a Toyota/Honda even if I had insane amounts of money.

• I would like to go on a space flight: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is selling tickets at $200,000 per head for a space flight and I would like to have one before I become too old to travel. For the two of us (me and my wife), $400,000 is a very long way to go - and by the time we reach that goal, there will be kids and then we would be probably looking at $800,000 (have pity on me and excuse the inflation). In fact, to extend this thought further, I would like to create my own space travel company, so that I won’t have to wait in line to travel into nothingness.

• I would like to have a few personal cooks: This thought often crosses our minds when we are back from particularly tiring days at school. There are very few pleasures in the world that are greater than getting freshly prepared, made to order, delicious food on your plate - without you having to cook it. On similar lines, I would love to have help with stuff like cleaning vessels, doing laundry, cleaning our house, etc. From a holistic point of view, all these things are eating valuable time away from the stuff I really would like to do.

• I would like to visit *all* the exotic places around the world: Here are two places that are on top of my list - 1. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (I want to go there before the glacier there melts - which is probably within the next 20 years), and 2. Iguassu Falls in Brazil. Being tourists is an expensive proposition for us (I really hate to think about money when we go on a vacation or something) - so having a *lot* of money is critical to my tourism fantasies.

Apart from these, there are other minor money wishes that I harbor (or used to harbor):

• When I was a kid, I read a lot of Disney comics. A particular money fantasy in those days was to have as much money as Uncle Scrooge - which meant having a room full of gold coins and bank notes.
• Be wealthy enough to travel First Class on international flights. I don’t care about the status here - I just care about being able to sleep peacefully without cramping my legs.
• Be rich enough to blog without worrying about the money part. I enjoy blogging and hate it when it gets tied to my monetary temptations (which I often fail to resist). *cough* advertisements *cough*.
• Have enough money to give my wife whatever she asks for (this is included for *strategic* reasons ).

From some the things I wish for, I think I am realizing that I probably just want to be a lazy bum if money wasn’t a constraint. Oh well!

Interestingly, there are things I will probably never wish for even if I had all the money in the world. These include: expensive clothes/shoes/watches, *big* house (or mansion), private jet, yacht, Hummer-like car, diamonds, gold, eating out in restaurants, etc - but I can understand that there must be a lot of people who wish for these things.

What are your financial fantasies? What things would you wish for if money was not a constraint? … and please don’t give us Miss America answers.

Want more inspiration? Check this out - scroll down to the dialogue between Lawrence and Peter Gibbons, starting with “What would you do if you had a million dollars?“

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day (from a graduate student’s perspective).

I bought a few SPY shares at $144.53 each - when the market was almost at it’s lowest point in the day; was called to our payroll office for the first time since the last couple years - met some new people; got a letter stating that my pay would be cut; and so on…

Then, here is what happened when I called my wife to inform her about the pay cut:

Me: Hey, are you busy? I just called to inform you of a new development.

Wife: Huh.. weird, I was about to call you to give you some news too!

Me: Is it good or bad?

Wife: It’s really good.

Me: Then hold on, let me go first because it isn’t good news on my side. I just came back from my payroll office and they told me that they are reducing my pay by 12% … starting 10 days ago. And that’s just because they suddenly decided that teaching assistants can’t be paid so much! &#$%@ … idiots [some swearing was in order].

Wife: What!? I don’t believe this…

[.. some related conversation took place..]

Me: .. anyways, let’s discuss this when we meet at home. Now, what’s the good news?

Wife: You are not going to believe this! My teaching supervisor called me a few minutes ago and asked me to permanently take up the extra section that I was substituting for another teaching assistant - that means I am going to get a pay raise! And, since I substituted from the start of the month, they are going to make sure that the last 10 days counted.

Me: Wow.. congratulations. That’s awesome. You made my day!

Wife [sounding pleased]: So looks like we won’t have to worry much about your pay-cut after all!

Me: Not sure about that. What’s going to be the dollar amount increase for you?

Wife: $YYY.00 per month.

Me: Huh.. you are kidding me! [taking time to confirm my own numbers] … that’s exactly the amount by which they are cutting my salary!

Wife: Really? .. looks like we are even. That’s interesting.

Me: Indeed very interesting. That’s an incredible coincidence… come on.. how can both these things happen within the last few minutes and nullify each other…. blah.. blah… [I suddenly become a bit philosophical and digress into some deep thoughts]

Wife: OK, I got to go [read it as "I can't make head or tail of what you are saying"]; you can calculate the probability later and let me know in the evening.

Net effect: after two totally unexpected changes to both our salaries, our gross household income didn’t change by even a single dollar at the end of the day!

I think I now have a better understanding what a “great coincidence” is.

Apart from the coincidence part, this is the first time I ever had a pay cut in my life (for whatever time I have been earning) and it sure doesn’t feel very good. For me, it felt very powerless for two main reasons. First, they announced the pay cut 10 days after my job started (apparently, there was some kind of a glitch in my file) - I think that’s totally unfair. Second, if I rejected the cut, the only option they gave me was to quit the job - which would have resulted in losing university’s tuition and fees contribution and my health insurance coverage (read thousands of dollars over the next few months). So, basically, I was forced to be spineless sucker in this situation.

I intend to protest (will complain and whine - just to let them know that I can complain and whine), but I have decided to wait for a couple of days to let my initial impulsive anger subside - I don’t want to mess up the situation even more with some rash disproportionate response. A calm and composed response will probably take the message across in a better way without much sweating. Call it emotional frugality or whatever.

Earlier on this blog, I have actively supported the concept of assigning higher priorities to bigger expenses in your life to improve your financial situation. However, every now and then, it helps to look at the smaller things that might be steadily leaking money from your wallet.

Occasional indulgences are perfectly fine, but if you are habitually spending money on certain items, then some financial plumbing might be in order. The point is to either seal the leaks completely, or to keep them in check so that, eventually, they don’t grow into massive drains on your resources.

Some typical popular sources of money leaks are as follows:

• Paying for cable - in spite of the fact that you don’t regularly watch more than a few channels and don’t even have enough time to watch TV.
• *Addiction* to certain foods/drinks.
• The habit of not shutting off electronic equipment after use.
• Making only the minimum payments on credit card balances (other than 0% APR balances).
• Making payments on small low interest loans first, instead of large high interest loans (yes, it may be psychologically satisfying - Dave Ramsey style - but it’s still a money leak).

And so on… you get the idea by now.

Fortunately, because of our lifestyle, serious money leaks like expensive cable and debt do not exist. However, there are other small spending irritants that I am dealing with. Here is a list of some of them (that I have identified as of yet):

1. Books: Yes, we have a massive library available to us on campus, but we still head down to book stores (usually Half Price Books) every once in a while and browse through a lot of books. Most of the times we end up purchasing a few books we like. They are usually cheap enough so that we can afford them (or at least that is our perception), but they are really not *necessary*. Usually, it ends up like this: “Wow, this book is awesome, I want it” - and the thoughts of checking it up in the library, or trying to see if I can get it cheaper online just vanish.

Current fix: Avoid visiting book stores.

2. Diecast vehicles: This issue has been existing since more than 20 years - I think it’s been hard-wired in me by now. I just can’t take my eyes off good quality diecast vehicles. Cars, motorcycles, tractors, aircrafts - you name it and I have bought it. Usually, they are not very expensive, but at times, good ones cost more than a few decent dinners.

Current fix: Avoid stepping into shops that sell diecast vehicles. The other indirect fix I am working on is to get my wife to shorten her shopping time for clothes (too much time in a clothing shop makes my mind wander in the direction of diecast vehicles).

3. Chocolates: These are evil - especially the miniature ones. I devour them like some people eat peanuts. Generally, they never make it to our shopping lists but, in spite of that, I often find myself in front of the chocolate aisle, drooling over the “rich dark” variety of chocolates.

Current fix: Again, avoidance rules. Another great idea that’s working right now is to keep the chocolates out of sight after we buy them. We store them in a drawer at the bottom of our refrigerator. The extra work of opening the refrigerator and then opening and closing the drawer has reduced my consumption rate, so now they last longer - discourages additional purchases.

4. Library fines: Great, I spend on books … and I also spend on library late fees on borrowed books! The real culprit here is procrastination, but I prefer to blame it on the geographical positioning of our school library - it takes me a good 20~30 minutes of walking time to just return a book (I haven’t given a lamer excuse in a long time). Also, our library charges fines by the minute on certain issues and that doesn’t help me much. Here is a screenshot of the late fee schedule:

Current fix: I will try and stop procrastinating… in a few days.. or months.. sometime.

5. DSL + Landline Phone: This is a bit mindless. We need high speed internet access (else, I cannot really work on this blog from home) and the cheapest option is DSL. The problem is we need to carry a useless landline to get DSL connection and that really raises the cost by almost 100%. The only other option is a cable+high-speed-internet connection, but that turns out to be more expensive than DSL+landline (in fact, just the high speed internet itself is expensive when it is offered by a cable company) ~ so we are sticking with the DSL for now, even though that means wasting about $20 every month on landline.

Current fix: Don’t have one yet. Will someone please provide high speed internet for cheap?

So, there… these are the little holes in my pocket. It looks like temptation and procrastination are the roots causes these money leaks (duh!). So far, practicing avoidance has been working very well against temptations, but the procrastination part is a bit tricky to handle. Working on it.

Have you recognized your money leaks? how do you handle them?

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.

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 am not a fancy stock market trader and my current practical knowledge about stock trading does not extend much beyond the “buy and hold” strategy of investing.

A few months ago, I mentioned about my almost-all-cash portfolio. Slowly, but surely, I am trying to move some of the cash into the stock market. Because of this, I am in a buying mode at present.

I am probably naive about analyzing the market fluctuation, but in the current situation (with the “buy and hold” thinking and the eagerness to buy more stocks), a fall in stock prices seems like a “grand sale” for me. So when I read headlines like this:

Dow stumbles 280 pts Friday amid broad market sell-off

I get all excited.

To me, that sounds like “stocks on sale“.

It was too late to act on Friday, because I didn’t read about the sell-off soon enough; but, I did place a buying order for a few SPY (an exchange traded fund (ETF) tracking the S&P 500 index) shares which was executed first thing on Monday morning - right before the rally. I got the shares at $143.61 apiece. During my earlier purchase in June, the price was $151 per share. Apparently, I have now effectively reduced my average buying price for the share.

This sounds like “market timing” - a risky game for frequent traders, but I am not too worried about it right now because I am in the buy-and-hold mode. If the price drops further, I am going to buy more aggressively. If the price increases, I will switch to my normal investing frequency, but still keep buying. I am probably more of an opportunist than a market timer.

Also, I may be playing it too safe by buying SPY in these times (instead of individual stocks), but my comfort zone doesn’t extend much beyond SPY (and at times, VWO - Vanguard Emerging markets ETF), so that’s as much as I could take advantage of the situation.

For now, it seems like a good thing that I don’t know how and when to sell.

By the way, I have to mention that Zecco is really making investing fun - it’s been a rather smooth ride with them till now.

I mentioned earlier that we spent $12,200 cash on our new used car.

Spending that kind of hard-earned money (all in one day and on a single, constantly depreciating object) has caused some subtle (mostly quirky) changes in our lifestyle. Here are a few quick observations on that.

1. I realized that I love our money more than our car. Now, don’t get me wrong; I love the car - it’s wonderful (although, it’s the characteristic bland Toyota) and one of the smoothest vehicle I have ever been in. However, the loss of the cash brought more agony to me than the gain of the car. It gave me a weird *hollow* feeling. I know that’s not the right way to look at it - money is saved for a purpose, and it’s alright to spend some of it for the right reasons at the right time. Anyways, it’s probably going to take a few more days to come to terms with a $12,200 drop in our net worth (I don’t consider the car in my net worth calculations).
2. Panic. I still keep trying to reassure myself that we did the right thing by putting cash down for this. At times, this has led to mildly panicky situations resulting in diminished math skills.
3. Crazy stuff. Every morning I peep out of the window to make sure that the car is still there. My wife will have more to say on this, but I am not going to allow her to write about it. Also, I am contemplating on buying one of those steering wheel locks (or “club“) as a theft deterrent. I am not sure how effective those things are, but I still feel the urge to get one.
4. Parking changes. We have been extra-careful about where we park our car. We avoid parking near cars that are not parked *neatly* or cars that major dents in them. Also, I thoroughly examine our car from all sides to make sure there aren’t any dings/scratches before driving off from the parking lot. We weren’t so picky with the old Nissan.
5. Change in driving habits. This is true for both me and my wife. Our sense of *safe* driving has been elevated to a new dimension with this purchase. It’s probably the unconscious pressure of sitting in such an expensive box-with-four-wheels. Over the last week, we have been driving like people play chess - we can almost figure out how the driver behind us will react based on the traffic situation around us. So far, we have correctly anticipated the actions of at least three jackrabbits and (fortunately) steered away from them in time.
6. People’s reaction to our cash purchase. We generally avoid disclosing any details of our financial transactions to even close friends and relatives. However, we try not to lie if some of them ask us specific questions. So, the story about our cash payment got out among some of our friends. Somehow, the answer “We paid cash” does not go down well with most people. We have been greeted with replies ranging from “Ha, funny. What was the loan APR?” to the all-encompassing “What… !?” (as in WTF!) to just a disbelieving silence. I just don’t understand what’s so dramatic about paying cash - we saved the money and then we used it - that’s it, it’s not at all a big deal. Anyways, in retrospection, I don’t think it was a good idea to be that honest about how we purchased the car. In future, for all acquaintances (work colleagues, etc.), other than close friends, we have decided on a “We got a good loan rate” story - if that’s what people want to hear, then that’s what we are going to tell them.

So that’s how things have been.

Hopefully, all the excitement (and the quirkiness) will wear off in a few more days and we will be back to our normal lifestyle. Also, hopefully, the good things/habits we have learned/developed over this entire car-buying business will stay with us for a long time to come.

By the way, I am still working on the final few parts of the used car buying tips series; will try and publish them in the next couple of days.