December 2008
12 posts
1 tag
Investing in Real Estate with Lesser Risk
I’ve been bearish of real estate since about 2005/2006 as per previous blog posts and not buying turned out to be one of the best financial decisions I’ve ever made. Avoiding losing money (even paper money) is key to making money in the long run.
I’m still bearish, believing that we’ll have another 12-18 months of decline until we find a bottom (and a bottom that...
Hedging the Future Cost of Living
The price of living has come down considerable over the past 3-6 months: gas, commodities and home ownership are all cheaper. To benefit from these lower price over the long-term you might want to lock them in at today’s price (if you believe that we have hit bottom - personally I think that is true for gas but not yet commodities and far from for real estate). The challenge is that there...
“The next time you meet with a prospective client that wants to make a newer,...”
– Steven Bristol (less everything) (via plasticshore)
My Christmas Newsletter
Well, it might be a few days too early to look back at 2008 but I’ll start anyway as we are soon off to celebrate the pagan solstice arriving tomorrow. Just one more night before our days are starting to become longer and lighter again.
2008 was a fantastic year:
I successfully ventured out on my own after several years as an employee. I now run my own consulting gig and have just...
My Brain is My Office
I just finished reading Jaan Orvet and Andreas Carlsson’s excellent book “Noded - The Untouchable Business” about working in node teams. It inspired me to simplify the way I access information and use collaboration tools.
Future productivity gains will come from working smarter (not harder), speed (realtime) and getting the right things done (being effective over efficient)....
Paul Smith rocks!
Maybe I should say BAA Airports rocks. Five weeks ago I bought five Paul Smith shirts at Heathrow airport. The pound was around $1.50 and the dress shirts were tax-free. They came in right under $100 each compared to San Francisco prices of close to $300. And being a british dress shirt aficionado I know that the quality is superb; each usable for at least 3-4 years.
The best thing is that I...
Only 10 days left
We are getting close to celebrating the Winter Solstice on December 21 - the shortest day of the year. Few people know that the Solstice celebration precedes Christmas by far and that many of our Christmas traditions comes from this pagan holiday.
I’m glad once we past December 21 and can count on longer and lighter days. I’m grateful that we’ve had a very mild fall and early...
Wealth is relative to desire →
“One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you...”
– Quote by President-elect Barack Obama