May

28

Prosper: My First Loss

May 28, 2008 | 3 Comments

As it happens, no investment is for sure.  Out of the 127 active loans I have on Prosper, 1 of them decided to go to bankrupcy court - which means is probably lost.
The listing reads like this:  Listing 21399 - Police Officer Consolidates Medical Debt! “A” Credit No DQs!
A single proof that my method of […]

May

23

Contractors: You Are Creating A Market

May 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

When a full time employee goes on his/her own and starts selling his/her services there is one interesting thing that he provides the companies who may be interested in hiring them:  A Market.
Big companies can’t offer services that they can’t deliver.  But since the contractor offers to deliver services on their behalf, now they have access […]

May

23

My Father Was Right: Bachelors Degree is Not Enough

May 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Today I was reading the news that the firms hiring the most recent graduates are Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Walgreen’s, and Progressive Insurance. It almost matches my father’s pessimistic and proven-inaccurate prediction that by the time I finish college the average college graduate would only find a job at McDonald’s, and the average High School Graduate will find […]

May

23

You Either Produce or you Sell

May 23, 2008 | 1 Comment

Over the last few years I have discovered some truth about economics. Whatever you do in life, you have to make sure you are providing difficult to replace value. And the most value happens to be on:

Production – Create a product or perform a service for which money can be charged: more money than it […]

May

4

Where do you think they will get money from?

May 4, 2008 | 2 Comments

Banks have not been doing well lately.  They got caught into a sub-prime mess of their own co-creation (the American Consumer, and overseas mortgage backed investors being their accomplices).  They have also co-created a secondary mess: credit cards.
In the Old Days banks got money from charging Interest.  In the 90’s and 2000’s they got money […]

May

2

Make Sure You Can Own A Home

May 2, 2008 | 2 Comments

Make Sure You Can Own A Home
…. even if you do not want one now.
I am a big advocate of home ownership. In the US, around 70% of the families own their residence, and for a reason: it is the easier step towards financial independence. I have even advocated my tenants to […]

May

2

$5 Gas? We Asked For It.

May 2, 2008 | 1 Comment

Back when I was a kid, I read in a school textbook that we only had about 20 years more of oil. They where wrong. But at the same time, they pointed out one fact: Oil was getting scarcer, and scarce things tend to cost more — especially if people start using more of them.
We […]

May

2

Real Shareholder Activism - Where is It Now?

May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Back in 2000, when we discovered many of the Executives (CEO, CFO, CIO, CxO) where either directly cooking the books or looking the other way when their subordinates did so to please them, many shareholders felt they needed to take more control over the companies where they invested.
Generally, shareholders can exercise some control over the […]

May

1

Be Open About Your Financial Mistakes

May 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

The Simple Wealth had an article published on the Carnival Ethics, Values and Personal Finance of that reminds us of remembering our past financial mistakes.
It is important to learn from mistakes.  In a society where talking about money is taboo, talking about financial mistakes seems to be ever more taboo.  When you do not […]

 

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