Piggy’s Blog - Journey of Success and Greatness

I never thought U.S. government can be such great and well-rounded employer, who takes care of the employees’ every need. It puts all tight-wad corporates to shame.

If you are a government employee and you…

• Need to find your soul mate?
  Swipe your government credit card for online dating service.
• Want to fill your musical void on commute or at work?
  Swipe your government credit card for an iPod.
• Need help to afford a shelter?
  Write government credit-card checks to your landlord or roommate.
• Desire to please your partner behind the bedroom door?
  Swipe your government credit card for some sexy lingerie.
• Have the sudden urge for fine dining and dessert?
  Swipe your government credit card for the 3-course luxurious meal at a 5-star restaurant, and a super-duper-mega-Himalayas-sized sundae served in a 24-karat gold-plated swimming pool.

It’s nice to see our tax money being used for good cause.

Highlights from the article:

• GAO: Federal employees charged millions to government credit/debit cards
• The charges include: Internet dating services, iPods, expensive clothing, lingerie
• The audit also found agencies could not account for nearly $2 million worth of items
• Nearly half of transactions made in the 2006 fiscal year were improper

I saw an interview on CNBC yesterday featuring Warren Buffet. It is the first time I see him live even though I have read quite a bit about him. He gave me the impression of being as wise as his words and also a no-BS kind of guy. Just compare him to other financial analysts or talk hosts, it is not hard to see why. His answers cut right to the chase and don’t beat around the bush with jargons that leave people confused.

Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Warren is also a noted philanthropist. Nonetheless, there are criticism out there about him being hypocritical in terms of making business decisions in the cost of being philanthropic. They maybe true, and a capitalist he may be. Whether the criticism is true or not, he appears a man who knows his priorities, and at 75-year-old, he has one heck of a clear mind. That’s my humble opinion, and I have respect for him in these regards.

Being one of the richest man on earth, no doubt someone wants to be him. Perhaps you think so yourself. I feel like I want to be him too! However, this leads me to think that when someone says that he wants to be somebody, he doesn’t really want to be that person per se. He means that he wants only a particular aspect of that person’s life. So when someone says that he wants to be Warren Buffet, he probably means that he wants to be rich like Warren Buffet. All the other stuff that comes with his life? Probably not so much, because let’s take the extra step and think…

Do I want to go through some grind your teeth kind of hard work involved in his success?
Can I deal with the many uncomfortable occasions that Warren put himself in but did so knowingly anyways? (I don’t know what the occasion are but I am sure there are plenty.)
Am I ready to make the changes neccessary and keep learning to get to where Warren is today?
Do I even want to make business-critical decisions that affect billions of dollars on daily basis like Warren?
Will I enjoy managing business like Warren?

I will leave it up to you to ponder those questions. We need to see beyond the glamour of a succesful person and see the effort and hard work involved in the success.

The fact is, we can always learn from other successful people, and we should. It is also a wonderful thing to have a role model or idol to imitate and to get motivated about. Those are very positive things. But you don’t just want to be someone else. You want to be the best of yourself, and you should be the best of yourself. Do your best to improve yourself everyday and perhaps you will even surpass your role model or idol, in your own unique kind of ways.

The 5+% days are no more for high yield saving. All the banks had dropped their interest rates according to the federal rate cut, and more cut could be on the way. As such, it is becoming less apparent as to where to put my money.

On one hand, I want to keep adequate liquidity(cash) in order to save up a down payment in foreseeable future. On the other hand, it’s quite depressing that these money is growing at only sub-3% interest rate. Shall I say screw down payment so I can invest the money? Shall I invest everything and keep renting? Or shall I wait and expect the Fed to raise the rate soon enough, or perhaps with the cash, I may have a chance to purchase a place to call my own?

Now if I say screw down payment, I ponder if I should put some of the saving, if not all, into investment to grow at a faster pace. I have been eye’ing the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund (VWINX) and Vanguard Wellington Fund (VWELX). Wellesley appears to be a conservative version of Wellington with 60/40 bond vs. stock ratio while Wellington is 40/60 — different fund manager aside. The tough part is that Wellington has a hefty $10,000 minimum, and I don’t want so much money locked up, due to long-term horizon. Also if not it’s a $3,000 minimum instead of $10,000, I may be able to keep enough to still save adequately for a down payment in time. Together with the volatility in the market, that’s why I am leaning toward having Wellesley added to my portfolio, but Wellington’s rate of return does beat Wellesley in the long run. Any one with experience with these two funds?

*SIGH* I feel kind of stuck. I’m still a good distance from a full 20% down for a Bay Area property, and I hate to see money uninvested and losing value to inflation.

Shall I give up buying for a year or two?
Shall I suck up the sub-3% interest rate?
What’s your thought?
What’s everyone doing out there with their money?

I came across the MSN article today — Foreclosure ‘crisis’ is overblown — amidst all the doom-and-gloom financial news.

Excerpt with the main points to save you some reading time:

Though the national rate of foreclosure increased by a whopping 79% between December 2006 and December 2007, the rate was still only 1.033%. Because about 30% of all homes are owned mortgage-free, this means that for all the noise about a crisis, only seven-tenths of 1% of all homes were in foreclosure.

In the top 100 housing markets, the average foreclosure rate was somewhat higher — 1.38% — and it was up 78% over the previous year. But if you rank-ordered the list of the top 100 areas, only 34 had foreclosure rates above the group average. Fifty-one areas had rates of 1% or less.

Foreclosure rates actually fell in 14 of the 100 areas. More important, many of the areas with the highest increases in foreclosure rates were rising off rates that were tiny. The Bethesda, Md., area, to offer the most extreme case, saw foreclosures rise 1,288% — to a rate of 0.682%…

Does this mean we can stop worrying and planning and saving? No, it does not mean that we can overlook the entire real estate ordeal and what’s really happening. However, I think this demonstrate that we need to be skeptical and understand the bias of the authors of the materials we read, despite whatever useful information exist in them. Further more, we must understand the possibility of some financial writers/analysts who exaggerate and write with the agenda to destory/hike a stock for their affiliated short/long position.

This is definitely an emotional time as people’s livelihood may be on the line as the market rises and falls like roller coaster these days. Yet, it remains important to not get carried away by our own emotions and thoughts. Don’t just take other people’s words for granted. Go find out on your own. Keep reading. Keep learning.

Since I said what I did, shall I even trust the article? I’m stumped.