Search found 24 matches

by jim data
Wed Dec 15, 2010 9:34 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Probability Question
Replies: 45
Views: 4806

Besides being a winner, you want to get the most return. The random number has more of a chance of being the "only" winner. Manually picked number have lots of bias i.e. people who pick birthdays tend to concentrate on numbers below 31.

Thus your expected return is higher since you don't have to split the prize. Access to the unplayed number would be a competitive advantage since many weeks, prizes are uncollected due to no winner.
by jim data
Fri Dec 03, 2010 6:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone else enjoy living off the land
Replies: 44
Views: 6056

If they could, early pioneers would be hanging out at Starbucks with the IPADs surfing Boglehead advice on financial and estate planning. Why plant seeds that the birds / bugs will eat when you can order a scone and latte?
by jim data
Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:10 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: [Poll] Computer file backup
Replies: 58
Views: 6719

I used dropbox

Dropbox allows me to syncronize files on multiple computers and mobile devices as well have an internet backup with remote access (i.e. I am in the Bahama's and I need my secret swiss bank account numbers and don't have my pc - HA!).
by jim data
Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:06 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Wills?
Replies: 27
Views: 3294

Wills?

Time to update my will and was wondering about professional preparation. My situation is fairly simple - please make a comment about your estate's level of complexity and why you picked your option.
by jim data
Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:00 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Save for kid's college or not?
Replies: 71
Views: 8763

Sorry I mistakenly wrote AVERAGE salary for art history majors when I meant to say MEDIAN salary. It's his salary that skews the average up to 10$/hr.
by jim data
Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:32 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Save for kid's college or not?
Replies: 71
Views: 8763

What undergrad degree gets you $150k/year starting salary? Degree is computer science with 2 summer internships on protein folding with world renown research teams and 1 summer intership at a hedgefund where he rewrote their pricing server communication backbone. Both of the $150k offers do NOT include the substantial signing bonus (twice as much as my engineering starting salary when I graduated) and any year end bonus. Some equally talented students on financial aid didn't even bother looking for summer internships. Remember WORK is a 4 letter word. The reason tuition is so expensive for most people is that market forces and reasonability has been replaced artificial price supports, weird incentives, gaming strategies and subsidized stud...
by jim data
Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:01 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Save for kid's college or not?
Replies: 71
Views: 8763

I agree with the financial aid scenerio at the top of the post. My son goes to an elite school for which he set as a goal in high school. A few of my son's classmates on full financial aid drive newer BMW's (I don't drive a BMW- and my car is 7 yrs old). Some are even on the 5 or 6 year plan (& don't bother to attend class even though I am subsidizing them). Most don't ever WORK (a four letter word). Some even "summer" in foreign countries on somebody elses dime. His school is over 50K per year all in and we paid all of it. My wife saved since before he was born even though we could have used the money for cable TV, jet ski's or even for a while - air conditioning. It would not have been possible without just under 80 hours of...
by jim data
Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:10 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: WSJ: When It's OK to Walk Away From Your Home (Feb. 26)
Replies: 24
Views: 3521

Guess I don't understand

Not knowing anything about real estate law, so I have a question - assuming you are "walking away" isn't filing for bankruptcy the proper thing to do?

This seems to be the legal method for all debts/assets to be reconciled under the rule of law. It also clears up the difference between "can't pay" and "don't want to pay" (i.e. I am kind of fond of the BMW and the boat/jetski so I'd rather give up the house)



Help with this?
by jim data
Sun Jan 31, 2010 11:12 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Movie Rental Service, Who is Best?
Replies: 54
Views: 8326

NETFLIX - I love to watch TV series (i.e. Lost, Heroes,30 Rock) without commercials straight from the Netflix download. It remembers where you left off. Watch things on your time when you want. I don't even use the DVD stuff. Can't wait to till the DVD is obsolete like an 8track
by jim data
Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:09 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What is the fraud risk after the laptop infected?
Replies: 48
Views: 7743

Compromised PC

Once a pc has been compromised - in the industry vernacular, we call it

COMPROMISED



Reformat or only use a livecd for financial transactions
by jim data
Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:56 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What is the fraud risk after the laptop infected?
Replies: 48
Views: 7743

Secure LiveCD

One solution is to use a liveCD. Leave the CD in your machine and reboot. Change your system to boot from the CD.

The liveCD is a bootable CD that bypasses your existing hard drive. After you complete your banking/investing work, you take out the cd and reboot.

I wouldn't be surprised if banks/investment companies recommend some type of minimal secure system in the future.

You can read this wakeup call at :
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securi ... nk_on.html

For more background,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD
by jim data
Sun Jan 03, 2010 9:36 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Economists are often cheapskates
Replies: 7
Views: 1666

Economics is the study of scarce resouces. The key word is SCARCE. Hopefully economists realize that something to be a resource, it must be scarce (in the tautological, economic sense).

Conversely, the American general public have believed for the last 20 years that stocks always go up, my house will provide for me in my retirement and my credit score is more important than my net worth.

So why put off immediate gratification especially if somebody else (the "sucker" savers who have to finance the government) will take care of me. Some economists study this large group and get quickly run out and get a piggy bank (on sale)
by jim data
Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:12 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: iPhone: Purchase what extras?
Replies: 15
Views: 2437

Another thing for the iphone

If you have any inhouse business data that you would like to easily integrate/serve up to your iphones or would like to integrate mobile workflows, I would look at http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/StudioiPhone/ which allows your IT people to build easy web based apps for the iphone without the time/expense of native iphone apps. Most businesses can greatly benefit. Recently built a remote app for large corp... employees are sooo glad they don't have to tote around a laptop. Although emails work, one of the biggest mistakes I see in business is how much workflow runs in email. Employees have an excuse to drop the ball. Email is not a workflow. I love my Iphone just got a great Scrabble game (Words with friends) allows approx 20 simu...
by jim data
Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:49 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Does the Bond market "price in" expected Fed moves
Replies: 15
Views: 2709

Pricing in???????

Need to put in my 2009 SEP plan contribution but want to use the contribution to help balance my asset allocation towards a higher bond percentage.

Also keep hearing interests are going up. Wouldn't the price of the bonds drop a lot if I bought them now and interest rate went up 3 or 4 percent in the next 5 years??????

What to do?

Jim
by jim data
Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:08 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Do you purchase insurance from car rental companies?
Replies: 20
Views: 4899

thinnning margins at rental car companies

In addition to the insurance issues... I would also suggest that you do a FULL inspection of a rental car before driving off. Document ALL scratches, dings and dents you find. Hertz and others are planning on digital picture inspection to increase profit margins. I rented over 30 cars last year and can say that most rental cars with over 5000 miles have something wrong with every body panel. As a "courtesy" to their customers, many rental cars are stored in dark garages where it's very difficult to see. Pull under a light if you have to. Always rent with credit card that offers coverage too. I've heard of insurance agents that recommend you take ALL coverage since they don't want the hassle of dealing with the rental car companies...
by jim data
Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:06 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: "Guaranteed" Annuities - bad feeling about this...
Replies: 36
Views: 5020

How come I don't get a discount on my Farthest I walk is to

When I was 18 years old and driving a sports car and drove a long distance to work, the insurance company charged me extra since I was a greater risk than the average driver. When I purchased my health insurance I had to take a physical and got surcharges for anything outside perfect health. Same with my term insurance. Today, if I purchased a Single Premium Immediate Annuity, why doesn't the company take into account that I Smoke two packs per day Cholesterol of 350 Still drive my sports car fast and long distances Skydive every weekend Farthest I walk is to the refregerator Put salt on my salty pretzels Belong to a street gang involved in a turf war Have relationships with lots of partners of ill repute Talk on a cell phone at my ear all ...
by jim data
Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:45 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: "Guaranteed" Annuities - bad feeling about this...
Replies: 36
Views: 5020

Too many eggs in one basket

Not that I advocate annuities and their expense ratios... but for those that do, it would be nice if you could buy 25 separate/diverse units of annunity from 25 companies at $10,000 than one single unit at $250,000. Or to take it a step farther, 2500 of $100 units of annunity with 2500 companies, thus further diversifying the transaction. The fact that these products have to be "sold" usually means the expenses are high.

Who in 1976, when GM owned the auto marked would believe their eventualy bankrupcy. Not only that, the "secured" creditors got screwed too.


Too many eggs in one basket.
by jim data
Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:45 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Insurance to replace leaky roof
Replies: 14
Views: 6749

Insurance for maintenance?

In a small way, find this analogous to the health care debate. Regarding insurance: Why would I expect my car insurance to pay for oil changes and wiper blade replacement. I laugh when I hear about corporate employees covered by large health car plans complain about their $4 perscriptions. Many of them are hypocondriaks that leave work to see the doctor every couple of weeks Sure I'd rather not pay but in my mind, insurance is for catastrophic risk. This attitude removes people from the real cost and benefit of things. If gallons of milk were covered by health insurance, people would grab 4 gallons per person per day and 90% would be wasted. And, since we don't care about the cost, it would be $20 per gallon. Roofs leak sometimes. If you wa...
by jim data
Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:37 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: New Car Bug
Replies: 35
Views: 5927

Wanting something

Did you ever notice that "wanting" something is more satisfying and interesting than when you actually get it and it disappoints in some way? I really "wanted" a windows phone a few years ago, bought one and was very disappointed. The nice thing about wanting a new car is that as soon as you have the least trouble with your old one, you are totally convinced you need the new one. So just wait until the next problem with the old one (may be two more years) Remember that sometimes the "wanting" wanes when you have to may 60 monthly payments and you hate the car on payment 14.

I would have to agree that most new cars are much better than the old ones in terms of equipment, safety, etc.
by jim data
Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:55 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Over 60? Would you have retired at 50 if you could?
Replies: 56
Views: 8351

Over 60? Would you have retired at 50 if you could?

Need advise....

Question: If you had the opportunity to retire at 50 instead of 60 but had to leave a more modest lifestyle, what would you do?
by jim data
Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:54 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Anybody out there have an individual defined benefit plan?
Replies: 3
Views: 971

I didn't know that you could have BOTH a SEP and a defined benefit plan. Assuming a sole proprietoryship with no employees - what would the contribution limts be?
by jim data
Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:41 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Anybody out there have an individual defined benefit plan?
Replies: 3
Views: 971

Anybody out there have an individual defined benefit plan?

Self employeed - 49 years old and considering a defined benefit plan as opposed to my current SEP plan. Would require a committment to work another 5 or 10 years but looks like you can sock away lots of tax deferred income.

Anbody else done this?


Thanks
Jim
by jim data
Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:35 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: IRA "Scheme"....would this be legal?
Replies: 21
Views: 3379

rothizize

I fail to see any benefit to convert ira's to roths. Unless you plan to withdraw tons of money and pay big taxes in retirement , i think it's better to defer the payment of tax