Always spent every dime that came in.

Let’s pretend that I never put money in my 401k or Roth IRA.

Let’s pretend that I never put 20% down to buy a house, nevermind even prepay the mortgage.

Let’s pretend that I never read any books on personal finance or economics.

Every chance I got I pushed the liberal agenda and looked for a handout and further government regulations.

Pretend that I have never thought of any goals and just drifted like a leaf in the wind.

Pretend that I would be satisfied with working forty years hating forty hours a week.

Pretend that my life would be stuck at a dead end job with ten years at the end, kicking it on a hospital bed cause of cardiac arrest from the stress.

Pretend that buying materialistic objects would fill the hole in my heart.

Pretend that keeping up with the Joneses is the point of staying on the hamster wheel.

Pretend that I couldn’t retire by 35 cause I can’t break away from the crowd and take a risk.

Pretend that I can’t accomplish what I set my mind to cause my life is crap.

Pretend I am always envious of someone else’s new Benz, iPad, and McMansion.

Pretend I want to buy all that shit so I can fill my house up to the brim, only to spend money to store it, maintain it, insure it, secure it.

Let’s pretend I never educated myself, instead ended up deep in debt and having to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Pretend that I could never end up with hundreds of G’s in my bank account, saving for catastrophes, playing with foreign currencies.

I could never have a couple of homes along with a rock solid retirement.

I could never kick back by 35 at the beach, never needing to work another day in my life.

Let’s pretend I never did shit and just wished things would work out on their own, that I would win the lottery.

Wished that people would just give me money, that everybody just looked out for my interests and not their own.

Wished money grew on trees and gold rained from the skies.

I just pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars.

I could really use a wish right now.

* This was inspired by the song Airplanes Part 2 by B.o.B feat Eminem and Hayley Williams. Yea, my version is kinda crappy but I like the overall idea of the song. People don’t get handed chances, they need to go out there and take chances. Things don’t just work out on their own, if you have a goal you need to work towards it and make it happen.

• Been reading various books: The Talent Code, Economics in one Lesson, Superfreakonomics. I plan on finishing all of them (should finish Economics in one Lesson within a couple of days and will definitely listen to it one more time in the future). Overall, all three are very good books.
• The Talent Code expands upon the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. It is a good supplemental to understanding why/how certain people excel in subjects and others don’t.
• I plan on strengthening my knowledge base in the following subjects (in order of importance): Economics, Finance, Voluntary Simplicity, and Success Methods.
• I’m slowly transferring money to relatives to exchange USD for RMB so my bank account is getting kind of dry. Waiting for the biweekly paychecks to replenish it.
• Been hanging out with some peeps and brushing up on my pool table skills. I still suck at it though.
• Yesterday was the first time I played Dominoes. Whodathunkit that there is actually strategy involved?!
• I’ve checked out the gaming room and was able to play Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 2! Both games are hella fun! I will definitely hit up that room again.
• I’ve been checking out two movies from the free movie rental room every three days. So I’m now pretty much caught up with new movies and old movies I never got a chance to see.
• I’m excited about watching Robin Hood, Prince of Persia, Shrek Forever After, Oceans, and Toy Story 3. I will definitely hit up the free movie screenings on base!
• I got approval from management to take a trip to Dubai, so once I get revised official Travel Orders, I will start booking the flight/hotel/tours for Dubai and lay out the details in a post.
• There’s really no secret to saving money (spend less than you earn), losing weight (eat less and exercise), and investing (Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio). But once you kick all the methods into high gear, the waiting around for results is really as boring as watching paint dry and grass grow.
• Real Estate Property #2 should be paid off in one year. My parents are ecstatic about that. Real Estate Property #1 will then be prepaid with Real Estate Property #2’s rental income, so it should be paid off in about 6 years after that. And Real Estate Property #3 should be paid off in 7 years. Overall, everything is pretty much going according to schedule. On a side note, my mom should be retiring once Real Estate Property #2 is paid off.
• I am happy to report that I have approximately one month and three more weeks left in Kuwait! Can’t wait to come back to Socal. Though being here in the Middle East is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, I am glad that the TDY is almost over and I will soon be on my way back home!
• It is only May and the temperature is around 115 degrees already… I need to slap on sunscreen everyday or I’m gonna look like a walking talking piece of charcoal when I come home.
• I am holding onto the edge of my seat waiting for the California budget to get revised. The battle between Schwarzenegger and unions/people on welfare/socialists will be EPIC! I’m going to have a front row seat to all the carnage in a couple of months. And if anyone didn’t get it: Yes, that was said tongue in cheek. So no need to raise arms about it. But it still will be EPIC!
• With all the horrible news splashed across the television, internet, newspapers, I am thankful that I have a job that lets me save money. I am thankful that my parents still both have jobs. I am thankful that we are all healthy and happy. I am thankful that in these times we have the financial security that is so desperately needed.

Life is too short,
Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
Laugh when you can,
Apologize when you should,
And let go of what you can’t change.
Love deeply and forgive quickly.
Take chances, give everything and have no regrets.
Life is too short to be unhappy.
You have to take the good with the bad,
Smile when you’re sad,
Love what you’ve got and always remember what you had.
Always forgive but never forget,
Learn from your mistakes but never regret.
People change and things go wrong,
But always remember…
Life goes on.

“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” – Marcus Aurelius

How simple yet how powerful at the very same time. If you take every action you make as the very last thing you will ever do, then everything else just falls away. There is no rush, no distractions, no envy, no jealousy, no regret, no sadness. There is just extreme focus on that one act. No worries about the past nor the future. Instead you are just present, your full attention on this very moment.

And if it is the very last thing you do, then you will make it count. You will put all your energies into it, you will make it your priority, you will do it well. You will act with kindness, with forgiveness, with strength.

This is not something I do normally, but it is something I can strive to do consciously.

Note: This post was inspired by Zen Habits.

Being here on TDY has given me time to think and gain a fresh perspective on life. Instead of focusing on how much more I want, I’ve been pondering on just how fortunate I am and being grateful for what I do have. I try to remind myself daily because it is too easy to get used to your situation and surroundings and believe this is the way it should be, to believe that it is your god-given right to have all these things.

To do this, I wrote down a list of all the things I am thankful for, that I shouldn’t take for granted because hundreds of millions of other people don’t have these:

• Close-knit family that I spend time with
• Good friends that I can talk to and hang out with
• Dogs that we love and are loyal to the end
• Healthy body that lets me experience new things
• Good looks gotten from my parents ;)
• Living in the land of opportunity and truthfully the most freedoms
• Roof over my head
• Bountiful food to eat
• Comfortable bed to sleep at night
• Comfortable clothes on my back
• Internet access to contact people around the globe
• Education that gives opportunities
• Stable job with full benefits and a good salary
• Investments to hedge on the future
• Retirement accounts to prepare for the future
• Savings that equate freedom
• Chance to live another day
• Freedom to do what I want, where I want, with whom I want

And to quantify it even further, I assessed myself on the Global Rich List. Based on my yearly income, apparently I am in the top 0.82% richest people in the world! Of the 6.7 or so billion people on earth, I am the 49,322,169 richest person in the world. That’s crazy right? So there is no reason for me to not be thankful for all that I have. It is important for me and all of us fortunate people to keep in mind how great our situation really is compared to a lot of other people on this earth.

Btw, it was also shocking to find out that 50% of the world lives on less than $1,000 income a year and 75% of the world lives on less than $1,500 income a year!

Weird.

I think it is because I feel more isolated in Kuwait and I really don’t need to spend money here. No large weekend spending sprees. No unplanned emergency costs. I don’t even need to spend money at all if I didn’t go off base (or care about my looks I suppose). Everything from housing to food is covered. Guess when you take money out of the daily equation, it just loses significance.

I’ll admit that previously money encompassed a lot of my time, from reading about world business news to various personal finance blogs. But now it’s just kinda “eh” for me. Instead I am more focused on eating healthy and working out. I want to get in shape before I head back to Los Angeles.

It is an odd sensation, especially since money was such a focus for me before I landed in Kuwait. In a way it is kind of nice…feels like there is less stress. I wonder if this is how most people feel. Downside is I’m not motivated to post on anything else other than my weekly expenses and update my personal balance sheet/income statement.

I know that I will go stir-crazy if I don’t have access to the Internet or can’t use my computer to play videos/music while I am here. Think about it — work 10+ hour days for thirteen days straight (just one day off every pay period) and when I come back to my lodgings I can’t even unwind on my computer??!! No. No way. I need to have a computer. And besides, I already spent $35 to buy one month of Internet service.

Thus, I started looking online to see if I could buy a replacement computer. Unfortunately, even websites such as Dell, Walmart, etc… state that shipment to APO locations would also take up to 30 to 45 days. Hence, my last recourse was to buy a laptop here at one of our onsite APO stores (basically like a very tiny itty bitty Walmart). So I went and browsed through the selection of laptops they sell (very limited quantity). Fortunately, their prices are comparable to online prices and the big plus is no sales tax!

I chose one of the cheapest laptops they had (I stayed away from the netbooks cause a ten inch screen is too small for me to watch movies on for the next six months) and got a Toshiba Satellite Model#L505D-S5992 for $600. Sucks to spend $600 all at once but it is a necessary expense to keep myself sane here. I’ll try to limit my spending for the next four weeks in order to minimize the impact of my spending in this week.

• Contacted the HOA and found a way to billpay the HOA fees. Set up automatic online payments to pay the fees. Now everything related to the condo expenses (mortgage, prepay, HOA, electricity, internet) are automated except the property tax payment that I distribute once a year. One less worry during my TDY.
• Set up automatic contributions for my Roth IRA in 2010. I will contribute $1,000 per month from April to August 2010 to max it out.
• Revised the Goals for 2010 to add on one additional goal: Construct a Prototype of a product idea I have.

Case Study #1: A person believes they are poor and as a result they cut frivolous spending. They cut out the fat and only keep the bare necessities until they can save up some money and have more flexibility in the choices they make. They learn the techniques of Dave Ramsey: they pay off high credit card debt, they build up an emergency fund, they start paying things in cash, they keep track of their budget, they buy only used cars, and eventually they have enough capital to buy a house. Because they defined themselves as poor in the beginning, they work towards saving money so that they have a reasonable amount of money and end up no longer feeling poor but rather creating wealth. This person has a long-term view towards life and is able to resist the attraction towards instant gratification.

Case Study #2: A person feels poor because they feel deprived of all of the objects in life they see other people possessing. They believe they are entitled to the big house, fast cars, expensive toys, and luxurious vacations because their friends/neighbors have them. They put all those things under “needs” and cannot separate them from the “wants” in life. The person might make more money than the person in Case Study #1 but lives in a perpetuous cycle of paycheck to paycheck in order to pay the minimums on their credit card debt, lease payments on their new car, and Option ARM mortgages on their underwater 3.5% down FHA mortgage loan. If the person lost their job then they would not have enough to survive for more than a few months; since there is not enough padding in their savings to do so. They live in the here and now and are not concerned with the future. As soon as they exchange one slightly used shiny object for another shiny object, they are attracted to another slightly newer shiny object. There is no talk of retirement because that is too far off in the distant future to even contemplate. Besides, they plan on living off of Social Security (hah!) when the time comes. Because they feel poor in the beginning, they are constantly working to alleviate that feeling through material purchases that put them further in the hole. To this person, spending is essentially a sign of wealth.

In both case studies, the person feels that they are poor but their reactions to their situations are wildly different. One has an attitude of dogged perseverance while the other is one of entitlement. The single most important thing to know is that changing your attitude can change your life. Which attitude will you choose?