Money Honey SF

3 paydays in April

2010-05-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

April has come and gone and I've been a very bad girl during that month with my financials. My company issues a paycheck to us every other friday which equates to 26 paychecks in a year versus 24 paychecks to those that get paid on the 1st and the 15th of the month.

This translates into a lesser paycheck amount but it does make it up for it in quantity. My next 3 paychecks would again be in October.

To my dismay, I was only able to save 1 of 3 paychecks.

I saved my first paycheck entirely. My second paycheck was used to pay for the mortgage. My third and final paycheck was spent...well.. on vacations. Yes, that is vacation with an "S". But these are just small vacations that I will be taking very soon later this month.

One to Dallas and the other to Cancun Mexico. But all in all, both trips cost under $1500 for airfares + hotel.

How was everyone else's month? Any upticks on your financials.

Why the well-offs are not spending

2010-05-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Even as the economic recovery plods ahead, many American consumers are refusing to come along. They're not spending freely -- and they have no plans to.

Many of them have steady income. They aren't saddled by high debts. They don't fear losing their jobs. Yet despite recent gains, they've lost so much household wealth that they're far more cautious about spending than before the recession.

Their behavior suggests that the Great Recession may have bred a new frugality that will endure well into the recovery. And because consumers fuel about 70 percent of the economy, their tightfisted habits means the rebound could stay unusually sluggish.

They had in mind people like Marjorie Feldman of suburban St. Louis, who retired three years ago as a systems analyst for a utility company. The stock investments in her retirement account have sunk 15 percent from 2007. The value of her home is down 20 percent.

"I had retired assuming I'd make money" off the investments, said Feldman, who's in her early 60's. "I just don't feel as confident in the economy, and I never will again. I won't spend money the way I used to."

Feldman's husband works full time in academia. She has a part time job preparing tax returns at H&R Block. But her prime earning years are behind her. "I don't think it will ever get back to where it was before," she said of her nest egg. "I won't spend money the way I used to."

To be sure, many shoppers, especially the wealthy, are buying into the recovery. Partly on the strength of consumer spending, the economy emerged from recession last year and has been growing steadily, if moderately, since. Major retailers logged solid sales in March. Employers have begun to add jobs, including a net increase of 162,000 in March. The stock market has risen 70 percent from its low in March 2009.
Yet many who became penny-pinchers during the recession are in no mood to start shopping again with abandon for clothes, cars and home additions. They've discovered the peace of mind that comes with rebuilding savings, shopping more prudently and learning to live with less..

Interviews with ordinary Americans suggest a new frugality endures even though consumer spending has risen for five straight months and retail sales for three. In the AP's new quarterly survey, a majority of economists agreed that a new frugality will persist even as the recovery gains firmer footing.

"Consumers will not run up multiple credit cards to their limits, and when buying a house the objective will not be to get the maximum square footage for which they can afford the payment. A higher savings rate will be in place for several years."
Jeff Thredgold, an economist at Thredgold Economic Associates, predicts "less impress-my-neighbor-type spending" in coming years. He isn't worried about losing his job in business development at an information technology company. What's led him to cut back spending is the sunken value of his condominium. He bought it in 2005 for about $270,000.

"I doubt right now it's cracking $100,000," Flowers said.
Household net worth -- the value of assets like homes, checking accounts and investments minus debts like mortgages and credit cards -- has risen for three straight quarters. But economists say consumers would need a stronger and prolonged increase in wealth to lead them to ratchet up spending. Net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent just to get back to its pre-recession peak of $65.9 trillion.

Some economists put their hopes for the economy in the rich, who are spending more freely than the rest of the population. They hold out hope that this will encourage more hiring and stimulate spending by the less wealthy. More spending could increase companies' revenue, which allow them to boost hiring and pay. And that would lead their employees to spend more.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. returned to a first-quarter profit as more travelers vacationed on its ships and spent more money on board. And makers of luxury goods are benefiting from a release of pent-up demand for jewelry, watches and high-end furnishings.

High-end retailers have reported blowout results. Nordstrom's revenue in stores open at least one year jumped 16.8 percent last month. Saks' surged 12.7 percent.
McClaren Automotive has announced it will debut a $200,000 sports car in the U.S. next year. And business is picking up faster at high-end hotels than at mid-priced and budget hotels.

Whether spending by the wealthy will cause the less-well-off to spend freely, too, remains unclear. For now, though, many people have embraced a more frugal approach to spending.

Or maybe they've just learned to go without.

Jan Iris Smith, 57, and her husband of Cabin John, Md., put off furniture and clothing purchases after the stock market's collapse in early 2009. "We were counting on our income from our investments," said Smith, a psychotherapist whose husband is retired. "We just stopped pretending everything was going to be OK anytime soon."

American Greed

2010-04-29T15:18:00.001-07:00

Anyone ever watch this show on CNBC? It's on every Sunday and Wednesday night. I tuned in last night and found this one story outright ridiculous.

It follows 2 sisters that operate a business supplying bolts, nuts, and screws on machineries operated by our troops during the war in Afghanistan.

It's very important that these supplies get to the troops in a quick and fast manner. So the government usually pays a high shipping cost to have these delivered pronto!

These two hardworking sisters were able to accidentally stumble across a loophole with the way they can bill their buyers (US Government of Defense) extravagantly.

It started out innocently when they were shipping some supplies over to the buyer and mistakenly keyed in the wrong shipping cost. They realized that regardless of the shipping cost number billed, the automated system used to generate a check to reimburse them for the shipping would pay the amount billed.

For example, the government of defense orders $4 worth of supplies from them. They were able to bill the buyer $100,000 shipping charge on this transaction. Overtime, they realized they can enter in any amount for shipping and still get reimbursed by the automated bill payout machine.

They spent lavishly over this system glitch for years. They bought vacation homes, jetskis, traveled to New York for an expensive jewlery trip, gambled in Las Vegas, and opened a cookie business. They portrayed a very successful image.

Eventually, all "too good to be true" things must come to an end.

Greed was ultimately their downfall when the sisters inadvertently submitted an order twice in error. The order was for a $0.38 screw and they charged a whopping $998,000 as the shipping cost.

Up until now they were able to escape human detection until this machine declined their request due to a duplicate entry. This was when authorities were called in and they found the sisters had scammed them close to $21mm worth.

It wasn't long until the FBI knocked on their door. This was too much for one of the sister. She eventually took her own life while the other one was sent to jail.

Retirement Mistakes

2010-04-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Investing in your future especially in a retirment account takes time and discipline. You most likely won't see the money grow too fast anytime soon. Remember that slow and steady wins the race.

I've been contributing to my 401K since the age of 22. However, I made a costly mistake to cash it all out to use as a downpayment towards our first home. Since then, I've gotten back on track and is now contributing 15% of my paycheck towards my golden years.

Here are some other costly mistakes that people often make to detriment their retirement accounts. Are you one of these people?

1) Blowing retirement savings early
This happens when people switch jobs and are forced to decide on whether to roll their 401K into an IRA or cash it all out. And guess what the majority ends up doing?

2) Turning down free money
That's right, you heard me. The money is FREE and is waiting for you to collect it. But what do you do, you end up turning this free cash away. You do this by not participating in your company's 401K match.

I've seen this all too many times happening to friends and even current coworkers at my workplace. I ask them why not get a few hundreds to thousands of dollars for free each year. They reply with being lazy = lame.

3)Saving without a goal
Unfortunately, many of us get this magical retirement number wrong. We end up miscalculating the wrong retirment age and not meeting its goal by socking away the correct amount every month. Then when it comes time to retire, you just don't have enough to last you through.

4)Ignoring your investments
Your retirement assets require regular upkeep just like your house and your car. Ignore them and they could fall apart. Be sure to review and rebalance your investments at least once a year to make sure you're comfortable with the level of risk in your portfolio.

5)Procrastinating
Getting a late start is just as bad. For proof, look at the following examples.

Let's say a 25 year-old begins saving $3,000 a year, but stops after only 10 years. Over the next 40 years, she could expect that $30,000 investment to grow to more than $472,000, assuming an 8% return.

If the same investor waited until age 35 to begin saving and stashed $3,000 a year for 30 years, she could only expect to have about $367,000, assuming the same 8% annual return.

By waiting 10 years to start saving, you lose out on the benefits of time and compounding returns, not to mention over $100,000!

How much money is enough?

2010-04-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you happened to see the recent lists of 2009 compensation packages for CEOs or hedge fund managers, you may have found yourself trying to wrap your head around some staggering numbers.

Larry Ellison made an estimated $84.5 million last year while hedge fund alpha-dog David Tepper took in about $4 billion.

What do those numbers mean? Was Tepper 473 times more "successful" than Ellison in 2009? And how do they compare to you? Let's say you're a Bay Area resident with a median individual income of around $50,000.

Ellison's compensation was about 1690 times yours. Does that sound about right for the respective jobs you did last year?

Leaving aside the arguments about whether or not such ratios are logically or morally out of whack, let's consider the meaning of this money from another perspective: what does a $4 billion or an $84 million, or $50,000 income mean in terms of personal satisfaction?

In other words, if you were making $4 billion a year, would you be happier? If so, how much happier? What if you (you, median Bay Area person, with a $50,000 a year income) were making $100,000 a year? Would that be enough? What about $200,000? $2 million?

Is there a point of diminishing returns -- an income level after which happiness stops increasing along with income?

***
Marty Nemko, a Bay Area career coach and radio host says his clients put "too much" emphasis on money when considering their career choices.

"I just saw a client who makes $500,000 a year, and he's pissed off that his peers are making $700,000. Like it's going to affect his quality of life!

There are legitimate cases in which more money does make a real difference in well being, Nemko says if you can't afford health care, for example but too often, he says, he sees people pursuing careers they would "never in a million years have chosen" simply because those jobs feed a consumptive, "designer-label lifestyle."

Be conscious of what you're trading away in the quest for a higher salary, Nemko cautions. "Normally, the people who make big dollars are the people who are bringing in big dollars for some other entity," he says. "They're corporate lawyers, bond traders, or they sell insurance -- stuff that may or may not make the world much better, and that they don't even like that much."

If you're still convinced that an increased income will improve your well being, Nemko has another important caveat: "What counts is after-tax dollars. If you fight for an extra $20,000 a year but you're really only getting $12,000 after taxes, how much is that really going to change your lifestyle?" he says.

So is there a magic number that Nemko pegs as sufficient for getting by happily in the Bay Area? In a recent blog post he details a plan for living well on $20,000 a year, but Nemko says the income-satisfaction point will vary depending on one's choices of things like housing, cars, and whether or not one spouse stays at home.

"I can't give one number" for how much is enough, he says.

***

Jean Chatzky, the financial editor for NBC's "Today Show," did come up with such a number after conducting a survey of 1,500 Americans in 2003 for her book "The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness."

Chatzky says the amount of money required to "live comfortably" varies by region, but her survey of Americans' attitudes suggested that "once you've got enough to put food on the table, gas in the car, go out to movies occasionally and go on the occasional vacation, more money doesn't make you happier."

She found the point of diminishing happiness returns was about $60,000 per household, annually. In other words, after $60,000, gains in income didn't bring corresponding increases in happiness.

Like Nemko, Chatzky emphasizes that making more money to meet basic needs can significantly affect well-being. "When you look at what has the ability to make people miserable, the leading factor is health. If your health is not good and you are so poor that you are struggling on a day-to-day basis ... that's an economic problem."

Beyond these basic needs, Chatzky says what makes people happier is "having greater control over whatever money they have." Her survey reflected higher happiness ratings from people who "set goals for themselves and benchmarked those goals; people who paid their bills as they came in instead of saving up their bills to pay all at once; and people who saved something."

***

Nemko's and Chatzky's conclusions may come as a relief: forget keeping up with the Joneses (or the Ellisons and Teppers). The sacrifices aren't worth it.

As Chatzky puts it, "Measuring up doesn't help anybody. If you can get yourself to a place where you are really focused inward instead of outward, you're going to be significantly happier."

That may have been the end of the story, had I not called Justin Wolfers, associate professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

In 2008, Wolfers and his Wharton colleague Betsey Stevenson published a study rebutting the so-called Easterlin paradox (the finding, in a 1974 paper by economist Richard Easterlin, that, while rich people within a country are happier than poor people, increases in a country's GDP do not correlate to an increase in national happiness).

(You can find a link to Wolfers' and Stevenson's paper, along with a good explanation of its context and reactions to it -- here.)

"I'm biased, of course," Wolfers told me, "but my sense is that most economists have gone from believing in that Easterlin hypothesis to believing it looks like income and happiness are quite strongly related."

OK, so maybe more money creates more happiness, but only up to a point, right?

Well, maybe not.

Wolfers says he and Stevenson are halfway through a new research paper investigating precisely that hypothesis, and so far, they've found it to be false.

"If you look for evidence that there's some level above which money is unrelated to happiness," Wolfers says. "You simply can't find it. Using American data, [from sources such as Gallup polls], it's true that people earning $50,000 are happier than those earning $25,000, people earning $100,000 are happier than those earning $50,000, and people earning $200,000 are happier than those earning $100,000."

So can we conclude then, that Larry Ellison is 169 times happier than you?

Well, not exactly. But Wolfers and Stevenson have, in fact, quantified the relationship between income and subjective reports of well-being.

"It's what we call a linear log relationship," Wolfers says. Translation: "At any point in the income scale, a 10 percent rise in income buys the same rise in happiness."

And the Wharton professors have found this formula holds cross-nationally, too. "A 10 percent rise in income for someone in Burundi buys about the same change in happiness as a 10 percent rise for people in the U.S.," says Wolfers. "That's the sense in which we say there's no evidence of satiation. There's no evidence of it running out at income level whatsoever."

(Wolfers' analysis spans multiple studies, but he says one of the recent Gallup polls he analyzed listed ">$500,000" as the highest income category.)

The upshot is that hedge fund honcho David Tepper would, in theory, need to earn an extra $400 million to see a 10 percent increase happiness. You, Bay Area median income earner, just need to find $5,000 more per year to make the same jump in your sense of well-being.

mid month April Net Worth Review

2010-04-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I'm a bit lazy when it's time to report my net worth for the previous month. It is now almost mid-month and I'm just getting around to it. So it's fair to call this a mid month April Net Worth Review.

So let's see how I did from the end of February til today, April 13th, 2010. The magic number appears to be $448,129.83.

ASSETS

Savings/Checking - I'm surprised that we have a decrease in this category. Shame shame, have we not been saving? Actually we have because you can see a decrease to the Misc. Debt by about $7000. Because of this partial debt repayment, we have a slight decrease to our savings & checking this month.

Beehives' 401K - Did relatively well this month due steady contribution to our 401K and also because first quarter end dividends were paid into our accounts.

Mrs.Bee Luxmobile - Just a slight depreciation my car.

Mr.Bee Luxmobile - Mr. Bee no longer has his junkmobile. He traded it in for a new shiney, safe, and workable ride. I'm proud of him because it was causing damage to the environment and posing danger to his safety.

Primary/Rental - No changes here because we have not gotten an appraisal for months.

LIABILITIES

Credit Cards - Only $1200 in debt for the month.

Misc. Debt - This was debt money owe to a family member. This number now has been reduced by $7000. Horray. Hope to get the rest squared the away in a few months.

Mortgages - Just the usual monthly payment consisting of interest, principal, and extra principal payments.

Auto Loan - So now this is a new category added because we now have a car loan. We don't like loans other than mortgages but we feel that having cash on hand is more important than paying off the loan entirely at once. So here we are with a car loan. The life of the interest on this loan is around $600 which is not too bad.

Flexible Lives, Flexible Rules

2010-04-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Contributing to a 401(k), getting two weeks of vacation or creating a health savings account are standard practice for many working adults. But standard doesn't work for Anand Gan and Landon Westbrook.

The duo, married four years, have spent much of their lives working temp jobs as they tried to make it big in New York City -- Mr. Gan as a drummer, bassist and guitarist, Ms. Westbrook in musical theater. While Ms. Westbrook has held down a few staff positions over the years, Mr. Gan says he's had only one "real" job.

Mr. Gan, 37, splits his time between his communications consulting firm, DT Media New York, and a music production company, Flytrap Music Production, which he co-owns. Ms. Westbrook, 38, works full-time for DT Media, which Mr. Gan founded nearly five years ago.

Because they rely on unpredictable project assignments, Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook must set aside a part of each check for taxes and business expenses before paying themselves. What they do get, they save. "It's always in the back of my mind, 'What if I never work again?' I have to have the money there," says Ms. Westbrook.

Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook live a relatively modest life, sharing a rent-stabilized ($1,350 a month) three-bedroom apartment with their 22-month-old son, Harrison. Flexible work schedules allow them to keep child-care costs low. The couple's biggest indulgence, they say, is fine food.

Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook each have traditional IRAs, worth a combined total of about $39,000. While they try to contribute the annual maximum allowance, they admit it doesn't always happen. "For us, these things are a priority, but sometimes other things get in the way," says Ms. Westbrook. Harrison's birth and some health issues forced them to forgo some IRA contributions.

Because of their need for fast funds in case work dries up, Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook keep the vast majority of their money in cash. They have $160,000 in the bank, though they are looking at putting some of that money into retirement accounts.

In addition to a few individual stocks and a small 401(k) from an old job, Ms. Westbrook also owns a cheap fixer-upper in Savannah, Ga., where she's originally from. She used proceeds from the sale of her old New York apartment to buy the house. A renter had been covering most of the costs, but that lease is ending and the house may sit empty for a few months before a replacement moves in. Ms. Westbrook and Mr. Gan talk of using the property as a second home in the future.

With all the cash and investments added up, says Ms. Westbrook, "It doesn't seem like a bad chunk of change. But we also couldn't quit working on that kind of money. It's better than nothing, I guess."

The couple says their plans grew more focused once Harrison was born, as they bought life insurance and started contributing to a 529 college savings plan. But they recognize it will be easier for him to find loans for school than it will be for them to do the same during retirement, so they haven't put much into the account.

ADVICE FROM THE PRO: Annette Clearwaters , a fee-only certified financial planner and president of New York-based Clarity Investments + Planning LLC, is impressed with how the couple holds the line on expenses. "It seems like they're self-disciplined in the spending area," she says.

To avoid situations when life events "get in the way" of contributing to retirement accounts, Ms. Clearwaters recommends setting up automatic deposits. She says Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook could take a certain percentage of each check and put it into their IRAs, just as they do for business expenses and taxes. Any consistent schedule is better than a lump sum, Ms. Clearwaters says. "If you wait till the end of the year, I don't think you'll ever be as successful in putting money aside," she warns.

She also recommends the couple look into opening a SEP IRA because of the higher contribution limits and tax benefits.

Ms. Clearwaters commends the couple for having saved so much and keeping it liquid, explaining that they should have up to 12 months of expenses set aside because they're both self-employed. She says they could invest in index funds, spreading contributions throughout the year. Ms. Clearwaters recommends a conservative allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, since this is where they would turn if their cash runs low and business dries up.

Ms. Clearwaters says Mr. Gan and Ms. Westbrook could afford to put some more money into the college fund because they're sitting on so much cash, even if it's "some nominal amount" like $50 a month.
Article by Finance Yahoo

Expensive weekend

2010-04-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

And it's not like I went on a trip or anything either. Just a day around town with my friends and it ended up costing me $267.

Brunch - $17
Costco - $100
Shopping - $150

I've just used up 1/3 of my projected monthly budget and we're only near mid month.

Receipts with Discounts

2010-04-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

The next time you purchase a meal at a restaurant or items at a clothing store, be sure to check the back of your receipt before throwing it away.

Businesses like to entice shoppers to come back and visit their stores by giving out discounts on their next purchase. These discounts can be found in the back of the receipt by way of participating in a survey.

I had dinner the other night at a local chain restaurant. After paying, the cashier pointed out to me the discount I could receive on my next visit. It was a simple phone survey to tell them how my experience was at the restaurant.

There is usually a code displayed for you to refer to in order to participate. All it took was a mere 2 minutes on the phone.

1.I dialed the number.
2.Followed instructions to enter the code found on the receipt.
3.Answer their survey.
4.Then a confirmation code was given back to me.

So the next time I eat at this restaurant, 25% will be taken off my total bill.

I think this is a good way for people to save money and for businesses to welcome back their customers. Don't you?

All it takes is a few minutes to save a few bucks.

Car Shopping

2010-04-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, this will definitely be of some damage to our bank account.

However, we need to make this new car purchase because DH has over 220,000 miles on his junkmobile and it's been misbehaving such as sudden engine stoppage for no reason. 220,000!!! only if we were paid $1 to drive each miles. I'll be $220,000 richer. Kidding.

We've been eyeing Japanese cars in particular. At first we opted for European cars but it was out of our price range and since being used as a commuter's car raking in an average of 12,000-14,000 miles annually, it just doesn't make sense to spend so much on a nice european luxury car. Repair expense down the line will also be a headache.

Therefore, we've decided to go with the Japanese brand models.

We're looking into either an Acura or a Lexus. Both have very good reliability ratings and are pretty luxurious in its class. We're hoping to spend around $25K to no more than $35K for this car with an average of 25MPH on the highways.

In terms of payment, I think we're leaning towards financing with a reasonable down payment.

$200 for Pet Health

2010-03-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

So my sister's pet guinea pig has an eye infection and we brought him into a vet this past weekend. The visit set us back $200. We thought it was just a routine check-up which is $65 with prescribed medicine another $40 but the vet recommend us to check his teeth to see if the eye infection is caused by his cavities.

The darn piggie won't allow them to check so we had to sedate him which cost another $70. Once sedated, they were able to examine the teeth and concluded that it was not the cause. So they prescribed him additional medication for another $25.

All in all, this visit was $200 for just a guinea pig. Pets are expensive.

I'm thinking of buying pet insurance for him. Do you think this is a good idea?

2009 Tax Return

2010-03-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

So I got a phone call from my tax accountant that he was done with our 2009 Income Tax. Both DH and I dutifully drove down to meet our accountant and signed documentations to prepare our filing.

Usually around Mid-March, we should have our return money in the bank by now. But this year, we got a bit lazy and procrastinated.

You're probably thinking why in the world would we let the government hold onto our money interest free? We knew we were getting a nice return but just didn't know how much.

Low and behold it was nice to see that we were getting back $15K from Federal and $5K from the State of California. Well this return is justifiable since we paid close to $80K in tax withholding in 2009. Moreover, we were able to claim the interest of our two mortgage.

I already have $7K of this return money earmarked to pay off the lingering debt of $12K.

Husband also decided to give $5K of this return to his mom. She has fallen on some tough times and he wanted to help out.

Costco Auto Program

2010-03-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

It's been so long since my last blog. Been inundated with work and personal events.

I have convinced husband to buy a new car. He's been driving his toyota camry for 7 years. He purchased it used with close to 80K miles and clocked in another 120K since.

With our jobs being stable and many car dealerships hoping to revive their business amidst this see-sawing economy, there are some great deals to be had.

A friend refered us to a Costco Auto Program. This program is offered to card members. Costco is similar to Sam's Club where you can buy items in bulks for cheap.

With this program, it's said you can get below invoice pricing on selected vehicles at participating dealerships. All you need to do is provide them with your membership number and the car of your choice.

We then proceeded to give this a try. We put in our card number and the vehicle we wanted. Hours later, the dealership contacted us via email and gave us a quote of $4000 below the MSRP price.

This sounds too good to be true. We'll take this current quote with a grain of salt while still trying to get multiple quotes from other dealerships that are not participated in this program. We're in no rush so we have time and negotiation on our side.

What's the best car deal you've gotten and what was your haggling experience like?

State with the most Millionaires

2010-03-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope everyone has a bit of green on. If not, here's a little cyber pinch sent your way. I of course put on a cute green shirt along with some greenish eyeshadow.

Since it's St. Paddy's Day and the mood is green, let's talk about MONEY-honey-MONEY. A survey came out and reported a significant decline to the number of millionaires in America. Specifically from 5,607,989 in 2008 to 5,139,385 in 2009. But if you're one of them rich folks that's able to hold onto your ranking, kudos to you! Why? Because you're in the top 4.46%!

Keep in mind this excludes real estates. So that's very impressive!

As you know, I'm HOUSE rich but CASH poor. So I'm definitely not even close to being a millionaire. Surprisingly California is not #1 on the list but #9. It said that CA has the most millionaires but because our state has so many households, this dragged down our ranking. Can you guess which state is #1?

For more fun reading click here: The Richest States in America.

Warren Buffett

2010-03-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

Talk about living below one's mean.

The "Oracle of Omaha" Mr. Warren Buffet has been doing that for 52 years. That's almost half a century despite the fact that he's a billionaire, with 9 zeros.

Warren Buffett epitomizes living modestly in today's tough economic climate. Despite a $47 billion fortune, the legendary investor and the world's 3rd richest man lives in the same five-bedroom, gray stucco house he bought in Omaha, Nebraska's Happy Hollow suburb in 1958 for $31,500.

This folksiness is in line with his famous investing philosophy. "If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years," he once told a reporter, "then don't own it for 10 minutes."

Few billionaires are as frugal. Even in these tough times, modesty is a relative term among the super rich.

Donation

2010-03-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

The rain has drifted back into the city. I hope the bag of donations I left on the curbside for pickup this morning is not too drenched let alone stolen! You see, I had placed a barbegue gas grill last summer in front of our house for a disposable pick-up. Little did I know that my unwanted item was another man's treasure. Someone had stolen my grill the day before my scheduled pickup.

Our semi-annual donation drive is in full effect today. I love these events and think it's such great charity work. Not only are we able to give items we no longer need away to someone that has better use of it, the company comes over to our house to pick these up. Talk about saving time, effort, and gas.

My bag of goodies included a brand new mini sized portable grill, a semi worn pair of tennis shoe, a brand new video game pad, and some worn clothings.

Retail price for all these would be in the few hundreds. Instead of cashing in on these items on eBay or Craigslist, I thought it would be a good cause to just donate it off free of cost to a person in need.

I believe there are also tax write-off for such contributions.

Trading compliance checklist

2010-03-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Just got out of a mandatory meeting with our compliance department. The meeting was surprisingly long and very mundane. This clearly shows why I do not have a personal stock trading account. You see, our company is very stringent with the way their employee handles their own investment accounts. Every quarter, we have to disclose information about our assets.

This is industry policy when working for an investment firm. We are under strict provision from the SEC which is a group that regulates the stock market and prevent corporate abuses relating to the offering and sale of securities and corporate reporting. Our compliance group is the middleman between us and the SEC making sure everything is handled and reported diligently.

Every investment company have this requirement whether they are extremely strict having to know every detail information or rather lenient having to know only minor info. In my case, you can tell it's the former. Failure to comply to such reporting can result in termination of my employment and serious monetary fines.

Here are some key points, but the list goes beyond this repertoire. Therefore, this is a reason why I do not have a brokerage account with securities other than a 401K. I just feel this isn't worth my time for now atleast to go through this checklist of reporting every 3 months.

February 2010 Net Worth Update

2010-03-08T14:02:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy during weekdays and weekends that I have yet to post my February 2010 Net Worth update until now. Luckily, I was able to jot down my ending values as of 1/31/10 from my financial statements and online accounts.

Savings/Checking +5,931.96
Nothing much going on here. Just both of our net income for the month contributed into this account along with expenses that were paid for.

Beehives' 401K +$27,178.51
This was a big month for us. DH got a nice profit sharing and company match in February. Both our investments were up and our contribution amount remains at 15% each from our paycheck. I wish we could report a monthly uptick in the 10s of thousands but February will be the only month out of the year with a such high increase.

Mrs. & Mr. Bee Luxmobile -$97
Nothing much going on here either. According to KBB, both of our cars depreciated by $97 total which is not too shabby.

Primary & Rental property
The values remain the same.

Credit Card Debts
None since it's always paid off in full. I believe we spent clost to $2000 in total this month.

Misc. Debt
Unchanged. We plan to pay off $3000-$5000 real soon in the next 2-3 months. In hopes to bring this figure down.

Mortgages
This is how much we are only able to pay into our principal each month. On the other hand, the interest on our mortgage run close to $1500 which is taking out of our savings/checking tab.

preview to my annual review

2010-03-05T16:12:00.001-08:00

I had a one-on-one monthly meeting with my manager. To my surprise towards the end of my meeting, he mentioned that he is preparing to write-up our yearly review. I joked and mentioned to him that our company must be doing well since they offered us a 1% profit sharing match to our annual salary.

He responded by saying we are indeed profitable this year and hinted to me that a raise might be in the horizon. You see, last year he had lobbied for a raise for me but due to the state of the faltering economy, our upper management rejected the idea to give me more money. So this year, he did drop some hints that he had requested a raise of more than 3% for me.

It made my day to know that the company had a good year and that I might see an increase in my next paycheck. More to come.....

paying down credit cards and not the Mortgage

2010-03-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting article detailing the fact that many U.S. consumers are skipping payments to their mortgage just to use the funds available to pay off their credit card.

U.S. consumers are starting to look like a frugal, debt-fearing lot as they pay down billions of dollars in credit-card obligations. But an alarming trend is emerging: A small but growing number of people are skipping mortgage payments in favor of paying their credit-card bills.

In an unprecedented shift, for some consumers having a credit card in good standing appears to have taken priority over having a roof over one's head, experts said.

While overall consumer debt rose unexpectedly in January, consumers continued to pay off their credit cards that month -- a record 16th straight month of lower credit-card debt -- with such debt dropping about $1.7 billion to $864.4 billion, according to the Federal Reserve on Friday. For further reading, click here.

Company Profit Sharing

2010-03-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

So I came into work today and logged into my company's email account. To my surprised, I saw something flash before me about our Employer Discretionary Profit Sharing Contribution. Like a bee in a honeycomb I was so excited. I knew it was free money honey but just didn't know how much.

Our company use to have a pension plan where they would contribute a 3% match to our annual salary. But this plan has now been frozen due to the economic situation. So seeing this was a huge surprise.

Nonetheless before opening the email to continue my pleasant reading, I thought my profit sharing would be atleast 3% or better to make up for the lost in pension.

I opened the email and read the following:

I’m pleased to announce that the Board and senior management team have approved an Employer Discretionary Profit Sharing Contribution (“Profit Sharing Contribution”) to your ABC Company 401(k) Plan account. Despite the challenges of 2009, your hard work helped make it a year of great achievement, and the Profit Sharing Contribution recognizes your efforts.

Here is when my jaw dropped:

You will receive a Profit Sharing Contribution of 1% of your eligible pay.

Really! That was sure a buzz kill... 1%. All I'm getting is a paltry 1% match to my annual salary for this profit sharing. I didn't know whether I should be happy or nonchalent. I understand that 1% is alot considering the size of my company and the number of staff employed. We have a little bit over 250,000 employees so the payout can easily run up into the millions.

But when comparing my company's sudden profit sharing to my husband's company profit sharing, I was downright ambarassed. I don't have the exact percentage, but DH company profit sharing this year was almost 35% of his salary. Then again, DH company size of 3,000 is not as big as mine. So there's more cheese to go around, but I'm just getting the crumbs.

Again, this is discretionary. They have the right not to profit share. I know there are companies out there that don't even offer a company profit sharing plan.

Am I just being plain right ungrateful? Does your company give our such perks?

Grass is Greener on the other side

2010-02-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

I love my front lawn and I try my best to maintain it. It's been raining alot lately so the grass has gotten greener. This weather has saved me time and money. However, during the summer months, it gets dry so it needs more attention and upkeep.

Currently, a gardener is hired to service my lawn. He is paid $25 to mow and hedge my lawn twice a month. DH thinks this is a waste of money spending $300 a year just cutting grass. But I feel this money is well spent. It helps to maintain the look and vitality of the grass since most of our neighbors outsource this kind of service to a gardener. Our community also fines a penalty if grass is not well kept and maintained a certain height. I also think it's beneficial that we are giving our business to someone since so many have cut back on spending during such tough times.

As I buzz down my neighborhood in my luxmobile, I can't help but admire the front lawn of this certain neighbor. I have pointed this out to DH everytime we drive by. Their grass appears to be healthier, greener, and more luscious. I sometimes wish I could trade lawns with this neighbor.

But today my DH pointed out to me as we pushed out of our driveway that our grass is just as green and nice as that neighbor's. I realized he made a good point. Our grass is just as green and well kept.

As the old saying goes "Is the grass always greener on the otherside?"

It's human nature to want what the other person's got. After all, we have greed in us. I know this term often times apply to relationship, but I also think that it applies to money, wealth, and material things.

We're always going to compare ourselves to what our neighbors have - bigger houses, nicer cars, bigger boats, nicer clothes, and a nicer lawn (as with my case). But this constant comparison won't make us happy. We need to be happy with what we currently have.

I need to stop looking at my neighbor's lawn and start noticing that I have as good as a lawn as theirs.

Sometimes the "grass is just as green on our side".

Prize: a $2,000,000 house

2010-02-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, sorry that I've been MIA. Work has kept me busy. Usually around this time, I have to prepare financial statements to be sent out to all our clients. Before the release, all financial data has to be checked for accuracy. This is a long and tedious process so it's kept me from blogging.

I came across this article in our local news about a raffle winning of this $2 million home a few miles away from San Francisco. It is actually located across from the famous Golden Gate Bridge in a very expensive upper middle class community. The person who won this is only 26 years old. I heard from a friend who knows of this winner that he only purchased 2 raffle tickets for a total of $300. Can you imagine the luck he had a few hundred dollars into a couple million dollars? I knew about this raffle from advertisements and commercials, but never did I imagine that this was a legitimate contest.

He has the choice to either move into this $2 million house which would require him to pay $22,000 in property tax a year. Which is not bad if you think about it as being $1,833/mo which is far less than a monthly mortgage on a single family home. His other choice is to redeem the cash prize of $1,600,000.

If you were him, which choice would you make?

I would highly consider the sweeping view of the SF Bay in this nice and secluded neighborhood. Moreover, the monthly payment is less than 1/2 of my $3500/mo mortgage which is a plus. However, it would cost me $6 every time I cross the Golden Gate Bridge back into the city. Alright, Mrs. Bee can dream!

Click here for more reading: $2million Larkspur Home

Deadly Sin: Gambling Addiction

2010-02-19T09:44:00.001-08:00

This is going to sting because I just found out from my best friend a few days ago that her husband is in $12K of credit card debt. She inadvertently found the statement and confronted her husband about these charges. He had no other choice but confessed to having advanced the cash to support this addiction.

When I was told of this along with my other friends, we were appalled! We all are very close and often share our personal life stories with one another. It just threw me off track because I never knew my friend (her husband) had this kind of problem. This is very serious because they recently had a kid and are saving to buy their first house. My best friend is currently living with her parents.

I consoled my friend and told her that she is lucky to have found this problem early on. $12K in gambling debt is not too serious if the buck stops here. It's comparable to traders that sometime lose this much money over bad investment decisions. As of now, my friend is thinking of dipping into her own savings account to pay off this debt that her selfish and irresponsible husband has created. Could this be an early indication to a serious problem? Should my friend bail out her husband so easily without letting him realize how long it takes to save $12K? I just hope she is able to convince him to go down another path and put his family first before himself!

On a personal note, I know first hand how this addiction can tear a family apart. My DH's dad leads this kind of life. He has always been a gambler. He has no self control and frequents the casino on a daily basis. The mentality of these gamblers is that they believe they are able to win back their losings. But next thing they know, they get deeper and deeper into debt. Their whole paycheck helps pay for the existence of the casino. We have another friend of whom we do not keep in touch with anymore that has this problem. He constantly bet on sport games and also has an affinity for casinos. He works just to pay off his bookie.

I guess I will never understand what drives a person to gamble away their life savings that they work so hard for on a daily basis. There's so much potential in these people and the money that could have been used to fund for their retirement, savings, buying a house, vacations, and just living an ordinary day to day life outside the casino.

Stay the course with your 401K

2010-02-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

I learned a huge lesson since the start of the recession in early 2009. No matter what happens to the financial markets, don’t stop contributing to your 401K. In fact, during a downturn and when everyone panics, we should be doing the opposite. Stay calm and invest like there's no tommorrow. The real winners are the ones that goes against the crowd; the non-herd followers. I know many coworkers, friends, and family panicked when the financial market was spiraling out of control. For example, my mother did not feel safe during that time with her investment choices. She invested in mid caps, large caps, and foreign funds. With her balance decreasing daily, she panicked and moved all her money out of these funds and into more stable ones. By her action, I felt she had declared defeat by realizing a loss. Had she left her investments alone until today, she would have been able to recoup most of the negative return during that time.

What have I learned from this? I learn that the following three formulas matter in order to stay the course to a healthy retirement: Savings, Employer contributions, and Prudent investing.

Savings. Continue to invest in your retirement account and ignore the performance of the current market. Don’t stop saving. In fact, save at least 10% if you can or better up to the maximum allowed.

Employer contributions. Take advantage of free money your company has to offer you. If your employer matches 6% to the dollar, try to contribute up to this 6% in order to get the match.

Prudent investing. Keep stashing away cash from each of your paychecks. Stay the course and don't get distracted from all the negative news around you. Retirement money is here to stay and for the long run. 1 to 2 years of bad returns should not have an impact to your retirement approach. Most importantly, remember to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket. And above all, be patient and give it time so your money can grow.

Loyal financial bee followers, what is your approach to your 401K?

what a trip!

2010-02-17T16:21:00.001-08:00

I'm going against the notion of "What ever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" by blogging about it. Well let me tell you, there was alot that happened to me in Vegas. It was the best Vegas trip I've ever had maybe because I came back a winner. I know winning close to $900 is not much to some, but a win is a win especially from Vegas. 100% of this amount came from table games. I'm not a big fan of slot machines for I feel that it's rigged by robots. With table games, you have more control of your destiny by playing your card correctly. And of course luck has to be on your side to be dealt nice favorable cards which increases your chance. Unless you're playing a game such as poker, then skill might dominate as some would say. But I won't go into that topic since I'm not an avid PP.

If I factor in my winnings and the expense for the whole trip, DH and I would pay no more than $220.00 for this 3days/2nights trip. I had estimated prior to our trip that our expense would run up to $1,500. Now that the tallys are in, we managed to avoid around $1,280 worth of expense thanks to my luck. So that's $110 per person which included flights, hotel, meals, transportations, souvenirs, and tons of gambling. This was a great vacation because there's no other vacation destinations out there that offers you the chance to break even or even pay for itself.

On an off note, we ran into several celebrities while having lunch at a cafe inside Planet Hollywood. A red carpet was laid out expecting the arrival of several stars to promote the grand opening of a candy store. Within an hour or so, celebrities such as Mel B (Spice Girl), Holly Madison & Kendra Wilkenson (Playmate former girlfriends of Hugh Hefner and from the show "Girls Next Door") made the appearance. We were within inches away. I was so starstruck along with all the revelers.

Please share your wonderful vacation stories where you felt your trip was justified by the great deals or therefore lack of with extravagant expenses.

short update on Las Vegas trip

2010-02-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! Sorry I have been MIA for the past few days. Like I mentioned on my post below, DH and I took a trip to Vegas for Valentine's Day. I have so much to blog about but have been really busy at work. Promise to provide update in a day or two. Please check back.

But the good news is that I won close to $900 on this trip and attended a red carpet session with the celebs from a close distance.

Valentine's Day can complicate finances

2010-02-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

Love is in the air! It's almost Valentine's Day. Everyone is giddy and in a romantic mood. But for some, this may spell doom especially for the couples that are never on the same financial page.

I'm glad DH and I are pretty much on the same page with our perspective towards money and the way we handle our finances. But I do admit turbulent times during our dating years and early marriage life. We'll be celebrating our 3rd Anniversary in October.

We recently refinanced our house so I was able to get a report on my credit score. Mine is 805 and DH's is 780. I believe the reason for my high score is due to a luxury vehicle I had financed 6 years ago. It was later paid in full shortly after. This may have contributed to a bump in credit score and also by paying off my credit card in full every single month.

Looking back, we did not enter into a marital agreement until we both made decent money. Our income has doubled in this 3 year span. Not just that, we did not commit into buying a house together until we both had stability in our jobs, comfortable incomes, and a decent down payment.

We fight about money from time to time. DH feels I spend money frivolously. He was raised with a conscience to spend money wisely and carefully. He does have his occasional splurge here and there but not as often as I. Although he makes around 60%of the income, I admire him with his money principles because he can easily afford to spend recklessly, but he doesn't. Therefore, we make a great team together. I remind him to spend sometimes while he motivates me to save a bit.

VEGAS here we come

2010-02-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

Want to wish all you lovers out there an early Happy Valentine's Day!

DH and I will travel out to the desert this Valentine's Day weekend. It's not just any desert, it's LAS VEGAS. We wanted something special this year and not just the usual stay in town celebration. Because of the rare sunday/monday holiday combo, we saw it as an opportune time for a short getaway.

We made plans to book this back in January. The economy must still be in a doldrum because there were some amazing deals on flights & hotel. Our stay is at MGM's newest hotel and casino called ARIA. After doing an estimate on other costs for this trip, it turns out to be quite expensive. Close to $1,500!!! (That is if we really do lose all of the $500 allocated to gambling)

Fixed Expense
Flight & Hotel - $519.96 which includes a $75 casino credit for us to spend freely at the resort. We can redeem it at their restaurants, shopping, spas, shows, or in the form of money to gamble.

Variable Expenses
Shuttle/Taxi - Shuttle transportation is needed to and from the airport. Taxi cabs will be used to get to far away casinos and venues.

Dining - There will be 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners. This is a total of 7 meals. I would guess an average of $40 per meal is enough although breakfast tends to cost less so extras will be allocated toward dinner or other munchies.

Shopping - I probably won't be doing too much shopping. But if I was, it will go towards souvenirs and maybe clothing.

Gambling - Now this is the fun part. Who goes to Vegas without trying out their luck? Who knows, maybe I'll come back a lucky winner. But we plan to do some serious light gambling at the tables, slots, and poker room.

This pretty much covers everything. We don't have plans yet to watch any shows since we've seen a couple from trips before. No plans either to hit the clubs or bars.

Recently, President Barack Obama made a remark on people that takes vacation out to Las Vegas. He said “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” I feel this comment was a bit harsh. At first I thought maybe I shouldn't go ahead with this trip since so many Americans are still struggling financially while I blow away money in Vegas. But then I realized that our jobs are pretty stable and we deserve to have a mini vacation from all the hard work. So I didn't feel as bad.

Do you agree with Obama's comment and what are your plans for these special days?

Steps to Saving Money or Getting out of Debt

2010-02-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

A poll was set up at the bottom of my blog asking my viewers to rank what their highest money priorities were for 2010. Even though voting doesn't seize until next month, we can see so far a majority of voters elected to pay down debt. I would like to thank all of you that participated so far in this poll.

It is interesting to see that people get hyped with money resolutions once New Year hits. But statistic shows that often times most people abandon such goals within a few months once their “moneymoon” stage (as I would call it) is over. There are others that only make it pass a few weeks. So here we are barely the 2nd week of February 2010 and the feeling of the New Year celebration seems so far behind us. Therefore, I am here to remind not only MYSELF but YOU the faithful FB viewers to not lose sight of these money goals.

To make these money resolutions stick, it’s important to take baby steps toward your goal. As with anything in life such as dieting, recovering from an addiction, or trying to better oneself, it’s important to set your sight on it one step at a time and don’t lose focus. Next thing you know by year end, you would be alot richer and that mountain of debt will either be out of sight or more scalable.

Here's a tip or two as my approach.

BEEE SPECIFIC - Like a bee, map out your honey route. Come up with the amount of honey you want to dispense or save for the whole year. Once you have that magical number, dissect it into smaller monthly goals, then weekly ones, and finally a daily goal. Thus, the number will not look too BIG or too daunting and you won’t need to fly around with all that honey.

KEEP TRACK OF SPENDING & SAVING - Tracking your daily spending is an important exercise in financial management. Just like how a bee tracks where they have deposited their honey in a honeycomb. If you don’t know where it all goes, you won’t know how to plug up the holes! On the flipside, tracking your saving at the end of each day is helpful as well. Then at the end of each week, add it all up. It’s important to be able to see figuratively the progress you’re making. Make it a habit to keep a money diary on paper or by a mental estimated calculation.

USE YOUR HONEY JAR AS A CHANGE BANK - It’s practical and you can find one in your house. Each time you pay cash on something, you’ll be sure to find change lying around in your wallet. Empty out the loose change and accumulate them into the jar. It doesn’t necessarily have to be coins, it can also be bills. I like to sneak in a few dollar bills or even bigger bills from time to time. By folding the bill since they’re all colored green, it will keep as a suspense when the time comes to count up your savings.

$900,000 of fraud money

2010-02-10T14:37:00.001-08:00

Okay, I know $70 is not alot of money since that is the amount siphoned from my credit card by an unknown intruder. It is a pea-sized concern compared to Dave's massive fraud amount in this featured story. But a theft is a theft no matter what the amount is. It is the intention that has me worried. So here lies another interesting article related to ID fraud. This horrible event is so prevalent that it is happening every minute of the day to someone.

IDENTITY THEFT AND FRAUD HAVE RUNIED DAVE CROUSE'S LIFE

In fewer than six months, some $900,000 in merchandise, gambling and telephone-services charges were stolen out of his debit card. His attempts to salvage his finances have cost him nearly $100,000 and have bled dry his savings and retirement accounts. His credit score, once a strong 780, has been decimated. And his identity – SS#, address, phone numbers, even historical information - is still being used in attempts to open credit cards and bank accounts. The new credit card rules that go into effect on Feb. 26, 2010 are supposed to protect you, but will they?

"I have no identity," said Crouse, 56. "I have no legacy. My identity is public knowledge and even though it's ruined, they're still using it. "It really ruined me," he said. "It ruined me financially and emotionally."

Crouse is among the 11.1 million adults - one in every 20 U.S. adults - last year who have the dubious distinction of breaking the record of the number of identity-fraud victims in the U.S., according to a recent study. The cost to the victims: a collective $54 billion. The odds have never been higher for becoming a fraud victim. It's an easy crime to perpetrate, a crime that's almost impossible to catch when done in a sophisticated manner and a crime in which enforcement is very limited.

Endless paperwork
Crouse can attest to that. Once an avid fan of online shopping and banking, the Bowie, Md., resident would auction on eBay.com, download songs from iMesh.com and use his ATM card like a credit card. He first noticed suspicious activity in his account in February of 2009 for small charges of $37 or $17.98. He had a full-time job then and was spending out of an account that generally held $30,000. "All of a sudden it really got bad," he said. "In August the charges hit big time -- $600, $500, $100, $200 - all adding up from $2,800 to $3,200 in one day."

He called his bank immediately and started what began a tiresome process of filling out what he said finally amounted to about 20 affidavits swearing that he was not responsible for the charges. He said one day he filled out an affidavit about a charge and the next day the bank had accepted similar charges approaching $4,000.

Now he is in double jeapordy after being unemployed: His $2,300 a week net income had dwindled to $780 in unemployment checks every two weeks and his accounts were getting drained daily - even after he closed his debit account. He opened a new account at a new bank and the next day both accounts got hit with a $1,100 charge. The new bank told him it was keystroke malware that had likely done him in. Someone had hacked into one of the sites he visited regularly, his computer got infected and picked up all his personal information by tracking every key he struck.

While much of the fraud came from online purchases and at gambling sites, there were new accounts opened in different names but linked to his bank account. There was one purchase of a plasma TV from a Best Buy in Florida that was shipped to a New York address. In another case a woman in North Carolina was writing out checks tied to his account.

High-value targets
Identity thieves steal mostly through two means. They take an established address and phone number of an identity that "has some value," like a doctor or a lawyer. In many instances, they can go to the Internet and acquire the matching Social Security number for as little as $50. They then have enough information to get an address changed with your bank account or a credit card account. They apply for new accounts as you. Others take over existing accounts through keystroke malware that you - and probably hundreds or even thousands simultaneously - have picked up through the Internet. Listening software then sits on your computer, perking up when you go to a bank site. It copies all your key strokes -- your user name, password, challenge question, account numbers, everything.

Identity fraud on the rise - up 12% to 11.1 million adults affected in 2009

2010-02-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

There was an article that came out today pointing out the severity of identity theft. As you all know, I fell victim to this sort of fraud a few days ago. It amazes me that up to 11.1 million people are affected by this silent and invisible crime. But it comes at no surprise since society nowadays rely so heavily on credit cards and other form of identifications for transactional purposes.

So please remember to reconcile your financial statements on a monthly basis to make sure all transaction are accounted for. You should also request from the credit bureaus to send a report showing the number of credit cards open under your name. And when making purchases on the internet, be sure to check if the site is secured. Lastly, I know how we all hate getting spam/junk letter mails soliciting us to apply for credit cards. Before throwing them in the recycle bin, shred them in a paper shredder first.

Be Safe and Happy Spending!

Credit card fraud

2010-02-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

Bad News! Just logged onto online banking and noticed two suspicious transactions pending in the account. Called billing dept and voiced my concerns to them. They said they cannot do anything about the charges until it hits my account. In the meantime, a new card will be issued to me in about a week. Now this is really scary because I still have the credit card in my possesion so I'm really not sure how the perpetrator managed to charge up the card. The inconvenience in all of this is that I only have 1 credit card. So in the meantime, I would need to go to the ATM to withdraw cash for all my usage. I feel so helpless without the plastic.

Has this happened to you before or anyone you know of?

How long have you gone without needing to use your credit card?

About Me... Mrs. Bee

2010-02-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Mike from the blog "PersonalFinanceNinja" asked if I can write a bit about myself and background into my field of work. So here's my response. Hope I don't bore you.

I graduated from a State University with a major in Finance and a minor in Accounting. Yes, you can call me a number geek. Anyhow, business has always been in my blood since childhood. I recall having an entrepreneur spirit during fund raising week at school. No matter what the weather was rain or shine, I would go door to door around my neighborhood in pursuit of selling the most candies/books/gifts/etc. Growing up, my parents were into stocks and talked alot about their rental properties. That intrigued me as I began to realize that we can do so much with our earnings by the way of investing and tinkering with it creatively. And so my goal was to learn as much as I can about this field through school, magazines, internet, and television. That was when I decided to Major in Finance. But while attending college, I was lucky to work part time in an Accounting position. That was when I decided to also graduate with not only a Finance degree but a minor in Accounting.

Upon graduation, I immediately landed a job with a medium sized investment management firm. This is where I got introduced into the basics of equities and fixed income securities. Had worked there for a few years and ventured into the world of hedge fund working to settle trades alongside floor traders and portfolio managers. Found that hedge funds operate differently than investment management firms. The salaries were higher with bonus options and security structures were traded differently. Lastly, after leaving the hedge fund due to the company’s bad financial standing, I am now settled into this current company for over 5 years as a financial reporting analyst. So you can say I have pretty much worn the hats of a few if not some positions in my short investment career span since college. I intend to stay in this securities investment field for many years to come due to the nature of the work where I find challenging and ever changing due to the economic climate and the attitude/demand/philosophy of the client investors.

My job is not investment banking such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan where the hours are so demanding but their salaries sure are high with great bonuses. My job is quite at ease and not as stressful as these high flying firms. I enjoy this balance in my life currently. Thus, if you’re a people person who enjoy looking at numbers all day and working in a so-so fast pace dynamic environment dealing with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, derivatives and all these crazy “jargonic” investment terms, then this field maybe right for you.

Speaking of the Devil

2010-02-09T11:26:00.001-08:00

The MONEY devil to be exact. I just received a call earlier this morning for an interview tommorrow. I'm estatic at this point to hear back from the hiring manager. The meeting is scheduled with 2 different managers. It's so sudden so I better start prepping.

This position is a bit different from my current role. Currently, I perform financial reporting on portfolios invested in Fixed Income and Equity securities and some mutual funds. So this is more on the operational side so to speak. However, this new role offers the chance for me to broaden my knowledge into the world of Municipal Bonds and Derivative Products on the investment accounting side.

Another JOB but only 15% higher

2010-02-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

It's been exactly a week since I've applied for the job that is 28% more than my current salary. The depressing news is that I have yet to get a call back from that department. Now I'm beginning to doubt my chances and qualifications. It's hard for me to swallow that a follow up call was not even made. You see, it has been 5 years since I've applied for a new job, so testing the water is foreign to me. Before then, every job I applied for, I would always get a call back and even an offer. But the market has changed and is no longer the same environment as 5 years ago when it was easy and not as competitive.

But in the meantime, there is another position that caught my eye which is 15% higher than my current salary. I realize the range is not as high as the previous position but an increase is still an increase to my overall current pay. In addition, the location is a few floors up in the same building. Now I'm thinking to submit my resume for this job.

Is it worth taking a PTO?

2010-02-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Bee was not feeling well yesterday and had to dip into the PTO jar for a day off from work. I realized my action cost me a few hundred dollars. Was it worth losing out on $260.66 by not going to work? It sure felt nice lounging around the house in my PJs especially being sick, but I felt somewhat guilty to lose out on this chunk of money. Perhaps I could have toughed out the 8 long miserable hours at work. Anyhow, I understand it's not all a lost since PTO days are designed for employees to take. My workplace dishes out 25DOP on the 1st calendar day of the year. If my company would have gone with the accrual system, I would slowly accumulate 2.083/DOP per month instead of all 25 days at once. Therefore, this program is very appealing.

I did an analysis which assumes that in a perfect world where sickdays nor vacation time was taken, I would have accumulated 125DOP during my 5 year tenure at work. If I decide to quit my company today, they would owe me $33,000. Now let's assume if I didn't leave the company today and my salary increases over time, that means my company would have to pay me for the unused PTO days multiply by the salary I'm making at that time. This translates into even more money. But is forgoing 5 years worth of vacation time and other paid time off worth the $33,000 or even more in the future?

randomness: is Blogging soooo 2006?

2010-02-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

A survey came out and reported that teenagers and young adults now spend less time blogging. They just don't blog as much since the introduction of social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. 28% of teens age 12-17 and young adults age 18-29 use to actively blog in 2006. Fast foward 3 years later, the percentage dipped to 14.5% for both group. That is a massive drop by about 50%!

I have to fess up that I don't have membership to either of the 3 social media outlets. My friends and family think I'm an outcast for not joining in on the social networking craze. But I think I'm perfectly normal and sane to withstand my own. Besides, I've enjoy blogging though I've enter onto this scene rather late (helping to increase the number up to an even 15%). And I am not just blogging about ANYTHING, it's about the CASH MONEY Honey baby!

To become rich, stop acting like it

2010-02-03T10:09:00.001-08:00

We all fall victim from time to time with the "Keeping up with the Joneses" effect. I admit, quite often than not, to having a hard time differentiating between my NEEDs versus my WANTs. Thus, by the hopes of me blogging and bringing awareness of my spending to light, I hope to dampen this urge. I remind myself that delayed satisfaction is the key to becoming rich in the long run.

I'm currently reading this book called "Stop Acting Rich . . . and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire" and would like to share a few interesting facts.

Fact #1: 86% of all luxury vehicles are driven by people who are not millionaires.
Mrs. Bee response: True! I drive an old luxury vehicle and I am no where near miilionaire status (YET). But I hope to be one day in hopes to become that 14% that is a millionaire who continues to drive a luxmobile.

Fact #2: $16 is what most millionaires pay for a haircut
Mrs. Bee response: False! I'm so guilty of paying around $55 for a nice haircut every 6 months. Again, it goes to show I am not a millionaire (YET). However, this excerpt is misleading because some places around town charges less than $16 (tips included) for haircuts. And those people sure don't look like millionaires or are they!

Fact #3: The #1 shoe brand worn by millionaire women is Nine West. Their favorite clothing store is Ann Taylor.
Mrs. Bee response: This again I feel is misleading. Nine West shoes are not cheap nor are Ann Taylor clothing. I don't own either brands so again this proves that I not a millionaire but my shoes are compareable to their prices.

The author points out that many people end up in financial trouble because they PRETEND to be rich. He believes there is a cure to this pretentious disease and quotes "But for the treatment to work, you must take a cold hard look at your balance sheet and at your life, and determine if you would be wealthier if you would stop acting rich."

Do you agree that there are way too many people in this soceity that act and pretend to be rich? Will the recession motivate pretenders to hit the reset button and not just act rich but live modestly like many real millionaires?

Please share your thoughts.

Where Are the Women on Wall Street?

2010-02-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

Scroll down below to read the article. In the meantime, here's my reaction:

Mrs. Bee's reaction: This featured article has some substance to the truth. A few year's back before this current job of mine, I landed a FT position with this hedge fund company. To my surprise, it was a small size firm with less than 30 employees. All of them were men except for myself, my manager, and the receptionist being the only women. (Can we say too much testosterone and not enough estrogen?) However, I did find another FT job shortly after working at my current job. That job just didn't work out the way I had hope mainly due to the long distance commute. But I was surprised by the ratio of the gender inequality.

You will also notice if you tune into MSNBC in the morning where they show the trading floor of the NYSE, not only is the floor littered with paper, but also MEN. There is hardly a women in sight except perhaps for a reporter on site. My DH works on the trading floor and he admits that his coworkers consist of all male. Do you see this kind of disparity in your workplace or anywhere else?

Here's the article:
When Sallie Krawcheck was hired six months ago as president of global wealth and investment management at Bank of America, she was besieged with e-mail messages from current and former Wall Street women celebrating her return to the fray.

The outpouring over Ms. Krawcheck’s return reflects deep anxiety among women in the financial industry that their career paths are narrowing even as business picks up again. Women have always been drawn to finance in smaller numbers than men. But after nearly two decades of increased hiring and promotion of women on Wall Street, their ranks appear to be shrinking again.

Even though women are gaining ground on men enrolled in business school — they constituted 39.3 percent of full-time students in American business schools in 2009, compared with 34.1 percent five years earlier, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools — the percentage of those women headed for finance or accounting jobs is dropping.

Of those female graduates, 21.1 percent were pursuing finance or accounting in 2009, down 6.6 percentage points from 2005, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit group of business schools. The rate also dropped for men, but less drastically — falling 4.7 percentage points this year to 25.4 percent.

But in the heart of Wall Street, the aggressive environment on the trading floor is often cited as a reason that women are rare at the top. Others cite the dearth of women to aid in career networking. Whatever the reason, ascending the ladder is much harder for women, said Bruce C. Greenwald, a professor of finance and strategy at Columbia University Business School.

“It is more difficult for women to come back because the environment in financial institutions is generally more hostile to women,” he said. “This culture has developed over a very long period of time, and it has been exacerbated as the firms’ emphasis has shifted from traditional investment banking to sales and trading, which is an even more macho culture.”

Yearly return of 28%. Would you take it?

2010-02-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

I found some down time at work today and was mindlessly browsing around my internal job site and came across this posting that grab my interest. My annual review is just around the corner but I doubt we will be getting a hefty raise. So I'm wondering if I should make a leap into this new position which pays 18% more. On top of that, there is a 10% bonus. I currently do not get any bonus in my position eventhough I work closely with PMs and clients. My position elsewhere would for sure get a bonus. Here are a few things I would need to consider.

SALARY - This is the biggest factor to making the switch. We're talking about a 28% increase. And the employer matches dollar for dollar up to 6% into retirement. The more money I make, the more I would get out of the match which in this case is $700 which is not much. But any increases are still good.

COMPETITION - The advantage I have is that I only compete with internal employees. The job does not solicit outsiders.

CULTURE - I have been with this firm for over 5 years so I'm pretty familiar with the firm's vision and culture.

LOCATION- It is very close to my current office. Therefore, I would not need to worry about revising my commuter route.

I remind myself everyday about how much I enjoy working with my current coworkers. We all get along very well. The hours are super flexible with little to no supervision. However, my salary is average and it could be better. The learning curve is plateuing because I just feel like I need more stimulation/challenge. But my fear is that if I leave, I will not find such nice coworkers like the ones I have now. Suze Orman says "People first, then money, then things." And what if my hours are not flexible where I can't even blog at work?

My title is misleading since I have not been accepted by this job yet that will guarantee me a 28% return. But what if I had a chance for this kind of high return? If you were in my shoes, would you take it?

January 2010 Net Worth Update

2010-02-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

Ding!Ding!Ding! I'm excited to blog about our first ever Net Worth Total. The numbers are in but I have nothing to compare it against.

Although I know we've lost close to $5K in our retirement plan since the pull back of the stock market. On a parallel note, Both DH and I have increased our 401K contribution for 2010 from 6% to 15% for me and 10% to 12% for DH.

The credit card balance will always be zero since we usually pay it in full the first day of the first month. Therefore, it would be a decrease towards our checking/savings number which would then be reflected in the following month's net worth total.

$10.95 for all this food!?!

2010-01-31T17:47:00.000-08:00

A friend reserved an area for his daughter's birthday inside this all you can eat buffett restaurant. It cost $10.95 for a lunch buffett. This place host the same business but to a new owner. The previous owner(s) failed at their attempts by charging patrons $19.95. Maybe it was at this price that their business failed. That is a huge difference of $9 per meal. Let me tell you, I have not seen that many people packed at this place before. The wait was out the door by 30-50 people long. They mainly serve asian cuisine and lots of sushi. If you're a sushi fan like myself, paying $10.95 is worth it. However, the hidden cost in all of this is that my husband and I gifted $60 to our friend's daughter. Therefore, it boiled down to paying $30 a person for lunch. But the cost included money gift to our friend and we also got food out of it.

What do you think of our monetary gift and lunch experience?

til DEBT do us part

2010-01-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

I have no kids so spending is just between DH and I. However, we tuned into an episode of MSNBC called "Til Debt do us part" where a financial wizard name Gail helps families get out of debt by altering their destructive spending habits.

On this episode, she follows a couple with $25K worth of credit card debt. The wife is a SAHM with 2 young kids and a baby on the way. Her husband is the sole provider of the family earning $80K annually. So this is a family of 4 soon to be 5 living on merely $80,000 per year. What bothered me was that they seem oblivious to their current financial crisis. They continued to live a care free high consumption lifestyle. They spend on average $900/mo on organic food. The wife does not drive so she pays an additonal $120/mo to have food delivered to their house. Add in the mortgage, entertainment, utility/gas, and other kid expenses, we can all see why this couple was bleeding red. When confronted by Gail with a money makeover, they felt nothing was wrong because they were able to keep up with the credit card payment. But we soon discover that their payment was only on the interest portion.

This family was clearly out of control and not in touch with planning and budgeting. Spending $900/mo on organic food was mind blowing. On top of that, another $120 for delivery services. Just this $1,020 in expense already equates to my monthly spending in food/entertainment/utility/etc. We make 1.5 times more than this family but spend much much less. It goes to show that there are many couples out there either in denial or blindsided by their financial reality. This show serves as a great purpose to motivate families to get out of debt. Planning and saving for a secure future is more important than high consumption. Especially if there are children involved.

DIY projects = saving money

2010-01-29T22:47:00.001-08:00

DH and I have always been DIY-ers. Our bedroom walls had evident of mold growing inside since we live in a fog dense area. For the sake of our health, we decided that it was time to replace the two damaged walls.

Here's a comparison of how much we saved by getting our hands dirty.

Contractor's estimated cost
Labor-$700
Materials-$300
Garbage Disposal-$40
TOTAL: $1,040

DIY cost
Labor - $0
Materials(dry wall, foam insulation, mudding sheet rocks, and paint) - $250
Garbage Disposal - $0 from our weekly service
TOTAL: $250

By tackling the project, this translates into a HUGE saving of $790. That's $790 we can allocate back into our home expense fund in case something else needs repair down the road. Now this is what I call "sweat equity."

Apple's new iPad

2010-01-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

Steve job sure is a great salesman. The new Apple iPad which is set to launch in March 2010 is said to be magical and unbelievable. It sure is magical being only 0.5 inch deep and weighing in at 1.5 pounds with an LCD screen of 9.7inch. But is it unbelievable? I sure don’t think so given the starting price of $499. As much as I love Apple product having owned 5 of which all broke down on me, this new gadget is nothing but a gigantic iPod Touch. The $499 is 16GB in memory and can only be connected through Wi-Fi from home or areas that offer such service. If you want a set data plan of $30 with AT&T a month, you would need to buy the $599 32GB or $699 64GB. As much as I want to get my hands on this new fancy purchase, I think I would have to wait it out for a price drop to $299 before considering. The wait begins.

My 2010 Goals!

2010-01-28T16:34:00.000-08:00

I'm glad lousy 2009 is in the history book. It wasn't a good year for most people. The stock market was terrifying (although it gained back some but not all), housing was in the dumps with mile high foreclosure rates, and unemployment is now at +10%. But I should be thankful that both DH and I still have a job and eventhough we are still a bit underwater with our house, we are still able to make monthly payments on our mortgage. So cheers to that! In honor of our gratefulness, I have set forth the following goals for 2010:

1. Max out retirement 401K plan
2. Pay down $10K debt
3. Save 25% of paycheck towards rainy day fund
4. Open a Roth IRA (now that the maximum income restriction is eliminated)
5. Pay additional $200-$300 of principal towards our monthly mortgage
6. Eat out less and bring lunch (estimated savings of about $3000-$4000/yr)

The Bears are back and Bulls are hiding

2010-01-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

My first blog ever will be about the stock market. I tune into the market virtually every day. It's the first thing that pops up when I log into my computer at work. The market reached its highest point at 10,710.55 a week ago since the recession back in Feb 2009 (Now I'm refering to the DOW Jones since I'm using that as my benchmark). But as of today, it tanked triple digits down to 10,120.46. I thought it was a good move to transfer both DH and my money from stable bond funds over to more aggressive allocations. But since our transfer around 10,300 it has now tanked again to 10,120.46. Maybe I should have waited before transfering since the economy is still really shaky. But we're never able to time such investments.

Do you have a story you want to share about your timed investment as being either successful or a bear bust?