Nothing majorly life-altering going on…yet, so I’m just jotting down various scattered streams of thoughts:
- 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.
I just saw this poem (couldn’t find the author) and felt inspired by it, so I’ll share it here to help me remember it:
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.
In a culture of super-sizing, people compete with one another to see who has the most and biggest amount of stuff. The guy with a 4,000 sq ft McMansion is obviously more successful than the dude with a 2,000 sq ft “Townhouse”. But really, who is doing better? Who has more freedom? And who sleeps better at night? Let’s start listing the pros and cons of having a larger house than a smaller one. The benefits and disadvantages are only exacerbated as the gap widens.
Pros:
- Successful in the eyes of neighbors, friends, and family
- Can hold more “stuff”
- More space to move around in the house
Cons:
- Larger down payment required in today’s financial climate
- Higher monthly mortgage payments
- Higher interest rates (expensive houses get jumbo loans with about 1% higher rates)
- Higher property taxes assessed
- Higher insurance premiums
- Higher utilities costs (more energy to keep more sq ft warm/cold)
- Higher maintenance/repair costs (more things can break and larger yard work surface)
- Less freedom to spend money to do other things because money is tied to the house
To me, I rather have a smaller living space and a larger nest egg. I rather have no property tying me down, forcing me to drudge my way through the never-ending rat race. I rather have less stuff but more experiences. I rather be considered unsuccessful and have all the time in the world.
I’m keeping a running tally of the various material possessions I am accumulating in Kuwait. In order to live a minimized lifestyle (with low housing expenses in a “small” 804 sq ft condo) , it is important that I don’t expand my clutter by buying things without utility. Unless it is strictly a souviner for someone else (and will take up space in someone else’s residence), I avoid buying “pretty” but useless trinkets like the plague. Why? Because although it might hold my fascination for about a week, it will eventually be relegated it to a cabinet’s corner to gather dust and waste space. And even for objects that have utility, it is important to weigh the space it occupies against the increased utility it will bring into my life.
Currently, these are the objects that have come into my possession during my TDY in Kuwait:
- Toshiba Satellite Laptop – 600 USD
- Bose Earphones – 90 USD
- Kuwait Embassy Snap Hook – 5 USD
- Rainbow ID Card Holder – 10 USD
- Stryker Cap – 10 USD
- Aviator Sunglasses – 10 USD (3 KD)
- 2 G-star Long-sleeve Button-up Shirts – Free (birthday present from coworker)
- 2 G-star Short-sleeve Button-up Shirts – 50 USD/each (15 KD each)
- 2 G-star Sleeveless Long Tops – 50 USD/each (15 KD each)
Note: I did not include any consumable items such as cough drops, tissue boxes, cold medicine, beef jerky, body lotion, internet access cards, etc… I only listed the “durable” goods.
Overall, I don’t believe that I have accumulated too many objects. However, I want to stop expanding the list for the final two months left in my TDY.
Recently, there’s been more pressure on China to revalue their currency RMB (also called Yuan). Since interest rates in the US are so low and I’ve already diversified my assets into real estate, stocks, gold, ST bonds, and LT bonds; I’ve decided to pour the excess cash I have into getting more RMB.
Currently, I have around 6,600 USD worth of RMB. I’ve decided to convert another 10,000 USD into RMB and catch it on the upswing revaluation that should happen in 2010. Once again, I’m going to ask relatives in China to convert it for me. But this time, instead of having them bring it back to the States for me, they will set it aside in a China bank account and transfer it all to me when I travel back to China. I will give them 5,000 USD right now and then another 5,000 USD when I am about to go back to China. The spot rate agreed to is 6.85 RMB for 1 USD, which is already netting a tiny profit because currently the spot rate is 6.83 RMB for 1 USD. Thus, when I go back to China, I should have 68,500 RMB in the bank – I be rolling in the RMB! I be a baller! Too bad it’s only in China that I can be a baller…
On a side note, this will accomplish one of the goals I set for 2010. Overall, I think this will be a semi-lucrative move and if nothing else, a well-timed hedge against the US dollar.
Last minute decisions. Those are the best kind right?
Talking to a TDY co-worker that went to Dubai last year has spurned me to take action. Heck, I am probably never going to come back to Kuwait, so why not make the most of it and have one last hurrah?
Dubai is about 1.5 hrs away from Kuwait and IS considered the city of decadence. I could tack this trip on the end of my TDY in July, right before I come back to the States, just squeeze in a three night stay over at Dubai. I looked up airfares on Jazeera Airways (the airline my co-workers booked their flights) and a round trip with taxes and fees comes under $100 USD (on a side note, it costs around $1,800 for a round-trip flight from California to Dubai). The largest expense for me will be the hotel, budgeted at about $200 per night that comes to $600 total. Another $100 budgeted for cab fares and $250 budgeted for food (though most likely breakfast will be free at the hotel). That leaves me around $150 for any personal souvenirs or other stuff I might want to buy. Total budgeted is $1,200 for the trip.
These are definitely more generous estimates, so I plan on undershooting it. But I know that I have this kind of money in the bank and I haven’t taken a real vacation out of the country in a long while, so this is an awesome opportunity.
I think I’m going to bite the bullet and do it! Now I just need to rearrange my previously made flight plans back to the States and book the hotel/flight in Dubai.
Dude, people in Kuwait have it made! Check out these perks if you work in Kuwait:
- It is prohibited for employees to work more than 48 hours per week or 8 hours per day
- Employees get 14 days of holiday per year
- Sick Leave policy:
- First 15 days – get paid 100% of salary
- Next 10 days – get paid 75% of salary
- Next 10 days – get paid 50% of salary
- Next 10 days – get paid 25% of salary
- Final 30 days – do not get paid salary
- Employee gets 30 days of paid annual leave per year AND the employee is entitled to be paid in advance for their annual leave before going on leave
- If the employer terminates the employment contract the employee shall be entitled to the terminal indemnity (which means more money!)
- It is prohibited to employ females at night from 10 PM to 7 AM
- Female employees are entitled to a 2 hour break during work hours to nurse their babies
Now, if you have been keeping track, you can see that Kuwait employees get (14+15+30) 59 days off per year that are paid. Furthermore, their normal work week is from Sunday to Thursday (their weekend is on Friday and Saturday). This means 59 days off is just about 3 months off!!! That’s crazy, it’s almost a teacher’s schedule! And, if you really do take another 30 days off (which is about 1.5 months) due to being sick then you still get paid on average 50% of your salary.
Unfortunately, I don’t get these perks because I work for the government (only foreign and Kuwaiti companies have to comply with them). But dude, seriously these labor laws make me want to look for a position here with a private company. Imagine that, taking three months off in a year! I could fly back to LA and relax my butt off. They also don’t work more than 8 hours a day! And they also get paid much better than any government worker does (I know cause I audit their books and records). I’ve never seen such employee-friendly labor laws before in my life.
“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.
Everyday all we hear on all the media outlets is about unemployment and how it is going up up and oh did I say up? If you google unemployment rate you get 10.2%. But then if you look at another news article it is actually at 9.9%. And then if look at another one, it says that the true unemployment rate is at 17.1%. Now, as if that isn’t confusing enough, people are saying that a rising unemployment rate is good news! Whereas, other articles are saying the uptick in unemployment rate to 9.9% is an indication of long slog of sluggish wages in the future.
Now let’s first figure out why some news outlets are saying the unemployment rate is 9.9% while other ones are stating a much larger 17.1%. The reason is because they are based on different unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The 9.9% is the U-3 number while the 17.1% is the U-6 number. Here is where it gets kinda sketchy. According to the Labor Department, you are only considered unemployed if (a) you are currently out of work and (b) you have looked for work within the prior four weeks. So only if you meet that criterion then you show up in the U-3 rate, which is considered the “official unemployment rate”.
On the other hand, the U-6 rate includes all of the people that are discouraged (unemployed people who have stopped looking for work because they couldn’t find any) and all of those who want to work full time but can only find part-time work (underemployed workers). The U-6 rate represents actual real world conditions and isn’t as sugar-coated as the U-3 rate.
But hey, conditions can’t really be that bad right? Can’t we just use the U-3 rate? It feels a lot safer and doesn’t make me worry as much. Well, consider this, during the depression era there weren’t these cavity-inducing calculations such as the U-3 rate. The doom and gloom catch-phrase generating 25% unemployment rate during the Great Depression was based on the U-6 rate. And what do we have now? We’re already up to a heart-stopping 17.1%. So things are not as bad as the Great Depression yet, but it’s important to keep in mind that the unemployment rate didn’t reach 25% until four years after the market crashed. In 1930, the year after the crisis, the unemployment rate was 8.9%. That’s about half of what it is today. It’s only been two years since the markets crashed… we got another two years to see how bad things are really going to get.
No matter what the talking heads say, we are definitely not out of the woods just yet. Especially since I’ve started hearing people saying “Hi Greece. Welcome to America.” Personally I believe things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And I’ll keep an eye on the reality-based U-6 rate instead of the incomplete U-3 rate.
Often times we lose track of what is important to us and get sucked into the never ending cycle of craving what we don’t have.
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!