Grass is Greener on the other side

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

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

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

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!

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.