JangChoe.name

Office Max sells these boxes to recycle your old computer and electronics. They sell the boxes for a hefty price, but they are providing a service to get rid of your old electronics. Since I have so many ancient computers laying around the house (I’m a programmer-that’s required), I decided to get some of those boxes so I can recycle my old computer hardware.

So I paid $20 for 2 big boxes. As I was coming out of Office Max, Hannah asked me, “why don’t you just throw away the computers?” Then it hit me. She’s absolutely right! Why don’t I just throw them away?

Think about it, I’m paying $20 to allow Office Max throw away my thrash. I can do that for free. I think working for The Weather Channel brainwashed me into being green. I guess it’s working, since I’m already thinking like an irrational, enviromental hippy.

Check out Ron Paul’s plan: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/prosperity

The libertarian in me likes the plan. What do you guys think?

My individual stock account for 2007 went up about 35%. This was because of my biggest winner: Google. Google was up 50% for 2007. I had other winners too such as EWZ and PBW which gave me about 25% gain for 2007. I also made some stupid trades. But at the end, I killed the s&p 500 which only had about 3.5% gain in 2007.

My Roth IRA didn’t do so well. I picked some dumb mutual funds for my Roth. I’m only up 6.5% in my Roth for 2007. It’s decent but nothing special. At least I beat the s&p500. I’m hoping my Pepsi stock in my Roth is going to do wonders in the long run.

I have my 401k with Vanguard. I have no idea how well I did. I think I actually lost money. I didn’t really have much control over my 401k because they only offered Vanguard mutual funds. Which is fine. And I also chose their recommended plan for me. Which is fine too. If I notch another loss for 2008, I should concentrate on my 401k more often.

For 2008, the market already has started off on the wrong foot. S&P 500 down 1.4% on high volume today. Ouch. I hope some of my risky positions don’t sting me this year.

Check out this site I discovered called updown.

It’s one of those stock trading sites that you can practice your investing or trading skills. This site is different because you can actually earn money. All you have to do is outperform the S&P500.

The site is ad-driven and it’s backed by a hedge fund–according to their web site. So you don’t have to pay a dime to them. It’s completely free.

So if you think you have the skills to outperform the S&P500, try it out. Also, if you’re going to sign up, please use this link and help me out.

My friends, family, and even my enemies think I’m crazy and stupid for not working towards buying a home. They keep telling me that I’m an idiot throwing my money away by paying rent. Not only that, I’m probably making someone else (landlord) richer by giving them money. That’s a pretty convincing argument.

What they don’t realize is that they have been blinded by old-fashioned thinking. I think that society has pounded the idea of house buying into our heads that it became over-important. Some people think buying a house is a great accomplishment and something to be proud of–so they jump in too early. Some people just do it because they think it’s the right thing to do without much planning and research.

I think that some people don’t look at all the angles and long term impact of buying a house. They forget or don’t know about all the extra costs and negatives of buying a house. Most importantly, they don’t look at their current situation.

I think it’s awesome to own a house. I know a lot of people that bought their house after much research and planning. On the other hand I know some people that jumped into buying a house just because they think it’s the correct thing to do. Or they think it’s just another purchase. For example, I know someone that is looking to buy a $300,000 house. Not only that, that person’s salary is a lot lower than mine.

Here are some great benefits of owning a house that I could think of:
* You gain equity.
* If you get a fixed rate mortgage, your monthly payments never go up unlike rent which goes up every year.
* You can deduct your mortgage interest and property taxes.
* Your house appreciates.
* After 20-30 years, you won’t need to pay “rent” ever again if you choose to live in the same house.
* You can do anything you want with your house. It’s your house.
* You can get roommates to pay for your mortgage. Those suckers.

Those are pretty sweet benefits. But here are some benefits of renting that I could think of.
* No “hidden” costs such as insurace, taxes, home owner’s fees, maintenance fees, closing costs, etc.,
* You can gain other types of equity by using the money you save from fees above to investments like mutual funds, money market, stocks, CDs, bonds, etc. Sometimes, the returns can be greater than the house’s appreciation.
* Renting is a lot simpler and stress free because of not needing to maintain your home. That’s the landlord’s job.
* You can move around freely instead of being locked down. So if I were to get a job that’s an hour drive away, I can always move closer. Or if I get a job that’s in a different state, I can just pack up and move instead of selling the house desperately for a massive loss–so much for it being an investment.
* Right now the market is not so good. The housing prices increased exponentially compared to people’s salary. I would have to live in the ghetto or boonies to get a place that’s in my price range. The recommend price range for a house is 2.5x your salary. So if you make $50,000 a year, you should look for a house that’s $125,000… Yeah, exactly. Like I said, where would anyone find a place that cheap unless you live in the boonies or the ghetto.

Like I mentioned, you have to look at the situation carefully. When you buy a house, you’re “throwing” away your money on interest, maintenance, home-owner’s association fees, etc. Even if I get a house that’s the same value as the apt I’m staying, my monthly expenses will jump up nearly 80% with all the extra fees. Also, I won’t have a second job as a landlord for my roommates. House roommates are a bit different than apt roommates because they expect you to fix and maintain everything. Besides, why would I want roommates anyway? I hate them. I can just get a nice, simple efficiency apt for cheap and I’ll be content.

Also, I have a ridiculously low rent. For the rent I’m paying, I would need to buy a $150,000 house and live there for 30 years to get the same value. For $150,000, it would probably be a condo or somewhere in the boonies. When I need to upgrade or move, I would need to go through the hassle of selling the place and paying closing costs–which are added work and stress to the moving and cleaning. If I were to move out and upgrade in 5 years, who knows how much the property has appreciated? Perhaps I’ll be selling for a loss instead of a profit because of the closing costs.

So I’m renting because I’m trying to simplify my life. I’m just too lazy to worry about the maintenance of the house. But I’ll definitely look at buying later in life. When? When my rent is comparable to the costs of buying a house. When I have enough money. When I find a lovely place. And I have other reasons too.

Once I was making about $7500/year. That was a really rough time. I usually went hungry, and I would bum food off of people as much as possible. I was single at that time too. On dates, I forced the chicks to pay for their part of the meal. Our dates usually included cheap food, no fancy-smancy places (this resulted in me learning a bit more about dating that’s different than society’s current views on dating. But that’s a different post). I also lived in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apt with 2 other people. I think that’s when I learned that I don’t like roommates anymore.

Back then I always thought making $30,000/year would be awesome. Of course that wasn’t true. I actually found a job that gave me around $30,000/year. But as my salary rose, my expenses rose too. I got rid of a roommate so I had one roommate for my 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apt. Naturally, my rent went up. I also ate food–no, I gorged myself with food. So my food bill went up. I was living comfortably. But it still wasn’t enough because I wasn’t able to save.

Later, I got a job where I made about $50,000/year. I was excited, but it still wasn’t enough. I kicked out my roommate and lived alone. That, of course, raised my rent. I ate out more too. Not only that, I needed to start saving and tithing. I was very rigorous in my savings and tithing. I was saving for a house at that time, and I put away a large chunk of money to my ING savings account. I still wasn’t comfortable.

Now, I have a job making more than $65,000/year. I’m still not comfortable. I tithe more. I also save a lot more. I probably save and invest about 25% of my salary–some before tax some after tax. My new co-workers also love to go to _high end_ restaurants. I’ve already ate at Fogo De Chao three times this year. I also pay for Hannah’s food bill. And that could get expensive especially if she likes to order Cowboy Ribeye steaks.

It’s weird. I live very simply. I live in a small ass apartment, I don’t have cable, and I don’t have much expensive hobbies. In fact, do you know what my current hobbies are? It’s reading and writing. Now those are cheap hobbies especially if you read only 1 used paperback a month (I re-read books too). When I go to clubs, I still pay less than $20 for the whole night (unless I go see a special DJ).

My only indulgence is food, but I’m learning to cut down on that (no more Fogo for me). But I’m still feeling the crunch. It just feels like no matter how much I make, it’s never enough. I can’t imagine how I lived with only $7500/year. It wasn’t that long ago either. It was about 5 years ago. I lived like that for 2 years.

I was watching ??Hogan Knows Best?? one day at Hannah’s house. Hulk Hogan has a mansion in Miami, a private jet, two kids, a high-maintenance wife, bunch of pets, and so on. And I can see he’s not comfortable with how much he’s making. Even though his knees are completely useless, he still has to wrestle to cover his expenses. He’s over 50 years old too. Maybe he should’ve opened his own restaurant called Hogan’s House of Ribs and Chinese Food. Although that doesn’t sound as cool as Abdullah the Butcher’s House of Ribs and Chinese Food. But the fact is, he wants to retire but can’t. He still needs to work to maintain his family’s lifestyle.

So I began thinking, how much money should I be making until I’m completely satisfied and comfortable? I’m gonna just guess and say $85,000/year. But just like that $30,000 I thought back when I made $7500, I doubt $85k would do me any good. I think once you make more money, your human tendency is to over-indulge in whatever your indulgences are.

If you’re disciplined, however; you can probably predict how much you really need to live on–especially if you’re single. It becomes different when other factors come in like a house, marriage, kids, pets, etc. But you know what? I don’t like this feeling of needing more money. Especially since I live a pretty minimalist life. So I decided I’ll force myself to become comfortable once I reach that magic $85,000/year salary… unless I get a wife, kids, house, pets, etc.

I’m not bitter about it, I’m actually very thankful that I’m able to make this much money today. I’m just not happy with my level of greed now.