FINANCIAL SAVER GEOMATRYX

Net Worth Update March

2006-04-01T15:37:00.000-06:00

March net worth shows a significant growth at 6.42%, mainly because I added some of the gold/bullion assets worth of $8500 into the tracking after recent evaluation. I have no real estate and haven't included my car or any other depreciable assets.
Apart from this, my actual net worth increase was at 3.50% with investments having lackluster performances during the last month.
I have fully funded my roth IRA, by adding to Vanguard Retirement 2045 fund, and increased my contribution to 401k in order to fully fund it by Sept/Oct 2006.
I also moved some funds from Amertrade ( sold some of ETF- SPY) to fund Vanguard Total international index Fund in a taxable account. I will continue to increase my exposure to International equity, at least for another quarter or so.

Tax Freedom Day - Not a hallmark holiday !!

2006-03-22T17:29:00.000-06:00

Yes, This not another Hallmark holiday, but some thing America can truly be happy about. Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year.

In 2005, Average American had to work until April 17th in 2005 to pay their total tax bill calculated as national average. The high tax burden States Connecticut (May 3rd) New York (April 29th) and low tax burden states Alaska (April 2) Alabama ( April 4th) shows how many days every worker needs to sweat to earn their keep.

As most of the financial blogging community has a better savings rate, the average American Pie is shown here. All the statistics are courtesy to www.taxfoundation.org.

For the entire info http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/

New & Improved Credit Credit Score System

2006-03-19T12:32:00.000-06:00

The three credit bureaus namely Experian, Equifax and TransUnion together introduced a new and combined credit scoring system - the VantageScore last week to compete directly with the FICO score or Beacon scores. This system will have new ranges of credit scores ranging from 500 -990. But it will take a while before the new score takes over the marketplace. Read on...

http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/columns/ask/archive/2006/q0320.htm

Two Americas - May make you think too

2006-03-17T20:21:00.000-06:00

This is something I received as part of a chain email, I was having a quick glimpse before I click delete, 2 paragraphs caught my attention. Looking at the current state our country, the political and social divisions we are experiencing these words made me think..really !

There are two Americas....

One America is a closed, arrogant, inward looking,lazy, pompous and suspicious. It is not based on any universal principles that will stand the test of time. On the contrary, it is a nation driven by reactionary policies that -- at the best of times -- can be described as opportunistic. It is a nation that shakes hands with dictators on one hand, and bombs democracy on another. It is a nation where the flag has come to stand not for a people, but for a ruthlessly efficient mechanism of power. A nation where all other countries are nothing but passive receptacles for its opinions, thoughts and actions.

The other America is a country of ideas that represent the best of the best thoughts from around the world. It is an America that nations have turned to for refuge, for hope, for innovation and for a moral voice, when it seemed that the darkest voices in the deepest woods had come out of hiding to take over the world.

eBAY - Earning pressure making them Greedy and Ridiculous

2006-03-11T21:50:00.000-06:00

I've been an amateur Ebay'er for a few years now. I have see a unique idea becomes a great institution. Along with it comes all the greed and every nook and corner of the web now has a lot of ebay suck stories. Well now its my turn.

I have listed a few items for auction. Since I have only a basic Paypal account with limits, as usual I checked options of payment as personal checks, money orders etc. However in the description I've mentioned Paypal cannot be accepted if paid using a credit card. This was the way I've been listing auctions for a long time.

Two days later I checked by listing and it has disappeared from the listing altogether like magic. Upon checking thru my messages I found out that I am guilty of breaking Ebay's new policy where a seller cannot specify any such Paypal limits or I should be willing to upgrade my paypal and pay fees, accept credit cards..whole nine yards. Customer service later told me that this was in the policy amendment fine prints they published few months ago. Now I know why Paypal is becoming ebay's golden goose. Talk about monopolies..

My Browser got Hijacked !

2006-03-11T03:51:00.000-06:00

My bad memory- I forgot to change back my internet security levels I lowered for downloading some private files, my activeX set ups were too liberal. I learned my lesson in the hard way.

As I was browsing thru blogger.com bloggers list randomly, I ended up in a rogue blog intended for malware distribution. Before I could react to the warnings from my spywares detectors, it infected my PC with all sorts of trojans and spywares/adwares. Virus protection helped me avoid virus attacks, however the damage was already done on spyware, malware and Trojan fronts.

Next thing I know, my home page on Internet explorer was changed, my browser got hijacked and some kind of a Linkmaker Trojan created pseudo links over any webpages I access which will take me to some ad sites. There are tons of pop up's jumping out per clicks and the system slowing down with all these activity. I started using all my existing adware tools to eliminate these spywares. Adaware and Microsoft defender did very minimal cleanup, spybot clean & destroy identified and cleaned little more. But my browser was still ill.

This prompted me get into offensive against these pests, I went to download.com looking for popular spyware cleaners and I got a few - trial versions of Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster, Counterspy etc. I also got popular clean up and analyzer tools like ewido, hijack this,ccleaner,cwshredder etc.

Spyware Doctor and Counterspy showed me all the culprits -and I advice you to remember these pests - Purity, Elitemediagroup pop64, eZula, bargainbuddy,Bigtraffic Network,Linkmaker Hijacker, Backdoor.hackdef.bo, Ilookup are some of the lowlifes. They can hide very well, rename themselves, create, rename and alter system files, add new entries to your windows registry and are persistent and stealth. Since trial version of Spydoctor do not remove these, I had to go to the registry and manually remove most of these. ( Do not try this at home unless you really know what you are doing. There are procedures for altering and removing system files and registry entries ) CounterSpy helped in removing few of the malwares as well.
HijackThis log is the tool which really helped me to weed out all the buggers - well it took about 12 hours of hard work on a trial and error approach. On the bright side, I learned a few new tricks, I cleaned up some junk from my pc and my tech junkie ego got a lot of joy in researching and solving the problem.

May be we should all think about getting firefox as browser. Spyware's were not impacting Firefox. LinkMaker pranks and hijacking was all on Internet Explorer.

Free Online Money Manager- Yodlee.com

2006-03-09T00:47:00.000-06:00

If you are looking for a free Online Money Manager, go to Yodlee.com, the power behind MSN money and now closed down Yahoo Money Manager. Yodlee offers many services including billpay as well.

I like this over any other online Money managers as it is reliable, secure and has most of the banking, investment, credit card transactions,email, frequent flyer program interfaces through their OnCenter. It even sends you alerts based on your settings. I use this as my 'dashboard' online for allmost all of the above.

I also use MS Money for tracking at home. I consider Yodlee as the best tool I ever used free-online. (Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliations or financial interest in Yodlee, I am just a user who is mightily impressed with Yodlee)

Cliff's Buffalo Theory !!!

2006-03-07T20:40:00.000-06:00

No this is not what you think - nothing financial about it. This is much more interesting for a cold evening thought....

This is credited to an episode of Cheers in which Cliff explains to Norm the 'Buffalo Theory':

"Well you see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive drinking of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

State By State Tax Comparison

2006-03-05T10:33:00.000-06:00

Courtesy to Kiplinger.com - Here is a state by state tax burdon comparison for a family earning 80k, with typical assets. The Rankings shows the tax burdens for a major city and a minor city from each states. Please click on the spread sheet for bigger picture

Networth Report February 2006

2006-03-05T00:25:00.000-06:00

As a result of the lackluster market performance, there are no gains for the month on investments. In fact there were small losses. However I did moved some savings money to investment accounts, thus my stock vs savings ratio become 0.62. Tax returns and the bonus gave a temporary increase in checking but the amount has been moved to savings or investments. Overall Networth increase is a reflection of the bonus and tax returns.

I am still slowly building up my ladder of CD's. My plan is to have 12 CD accounts of 12 months with a month part, with denominations I could afford at that point. Ladders lets me even out the interest rate variations and it gives me flexibility and availability of funds just in case.

My networth do not include Cars, I dont own a house or have any loans or mortgage. I am hoping to cross 300k mark by the end of the quarter if the market picks up steam.

Free stuff

2006-02-22T06:31:00.000-06:00

Block buster has another free trial offer (code: friends). Any one who wants a trial and see how fast they send movies. Make sure you cancel before next billing cycle starts if you dont like it.

Those who wants some assistance with formula coupons, go to the respective websites of similac and enfamil and register. You will get free samples and coupons worth upto $100.

Best interest rates in town (with reliability and ease of transactions): HSBC bank 4.80% APY (Savings)+$25 for new customers, GMAC Bank 12 months CD: 5.05% APY

Need a free Ipod shuffle 512mb (worth $70-$99 retail), Try NETBANK (12 months CD 4.90% APY) minimum $2500.00 investment, minimum 1 year deposit.

Free pharmacy coupons: CVS pharmacy sends out a ton of them thru newspapers, magazines. You may even be able to match with other pharmacies in town, for new or transferred prescriptions.

Federal returns received - within 11 days!

2006-02-17T12:26:00.000-06:00

Other than the fact that I've overslept and was late to work the day after a snow storm, things were pretty crisp.

On personal financial front, I've received my federal tax return - within 11 days.
This is the first year on my e-filing and I liked it very much. I am planning to buy some index funds partly funded by tax returns. I am thinking about Vanguard indexes on Total international stock index fund and small cap index (NAESX). Funded another 1 yr CD at 5.00% APY. I am in the process of building another CD ladder so that I have emergency cash support if needed, in every 30 days.

Impulsive stock picks today !

2006-02-13T06:30:00.000-06:00

I am not sure what got into me, I bought two stocks in an impulsive action. Altria ;MO(formerly Philip Morris) at 71.10 a piece and Infosys Technologies ADR; INFY at 71.95 apiece.
I was planning to buy some SPY today, but somewhere I made a mental Uturn. I always wanted to buy MO, I already have few INFY in my portfolio. Hope I picked this at the right price.

GMAC 1 YR CD 5.00% APY

2006-02-11T11:07:00.000-06:00

I've noticed that GMAC rates has gone up again. Its now at 4.88 APR/5.00 APY. They are aggressively increasing the rates to attract investments, good thing that the account is FDIC insured especially its mothership GM is burning cash like it is an internet portal. GM is trying to sell its controlling stake in GMAC to make some change (in the range of 10-15 billion).

Received my state tax return -in 3 days !!

2006-02-10T21:09:00.000-06:00

Wow that was quick. I used turbo tax just for the state and filed it on 2/7/06. I filed federal using Turbotax as well. Well I tried to take advantage of free software and free e-file. I have an income higher than free efile limits, however I found out from a friend that I could get it free thru State Farm sites link, if I register with state farm insurance. (You don't need state farms insurance to register). Now I am waiting to see how quick I would get my Federal Tax returns.

By the way my AET investments seems to look impressive. More than 10% gain in few weeks and a stock split declared too !

Networth Report Jan 2006

2006-02-05T09:39:00.000-06:00

Discover card has 5% cash back on Hospital bills too!

2006-02-04T22:50:00.000-06:00

I received my CapitalONE cash back bonus of $25.00. I also realized that Discover Card has a 5% cash back on any health/health care related expenses(need sign up, until 3/31) which includes hospital and doctor bills. So I've decided to pay off my balances from the child birth expenses. Most of it were on an interest free payment plan. Now I can get a 5% back when I pay it off in 3 month span!

I love my citi-universal card for groceries - 5% Cash back.

I want to share a small tip when I shop from SAM's club. I buy Walmart gift cards from walmart super centers using CITI card( cash back 5%) and use it to pay at SAM's. Discover does'nt have that good rate.

Jan 24th - Just another day wasted

2006-01-24T17:51:00.000-06:00

Nothing much to add.. Feeling lazy..really lazy

Yesterday I bought Aetna(AET)for $90.00 Ameritrade commission 10.99. Received the check from Universal Citi card cashback bonus for $130.00. Blockbuster.com free 1 month trial (coupon code USATODAY9)is too slow for me - just six movies in 13 days so far even after I viewed and returned every movie within 1 day. I prefer NETFLIX !
Postponed PC files backing up one more day coz I am too lazy.

New vehicle purchase - The frugal dilemma

2006-01-23T17:17:00.000-06:00

It has been almost a 9 year itch now. I haven't had that sweet exotic smell of a new vehicle for a long time. I keep driving my 9 year old car and 10 year old van for such a long time now, I really getting that urge to buy a new vehicle. I have all the means to justify it, wanting a new and much reliable vehicle, with all those new gadgets, spacious roomy cozy looking interiors and trendy look. I have available finances, ( I have a great credit score, good income - if I want i could finance it with cash). I often rent van for long distance trips anyway. Hey after all money is for enjoying, to have a better living and happiness,,right ? One must take time to slow down a bit and smell the flowers..right ?

As I am looking into some of the practical choices, a mini van with reasonable equipment package should be around 26k to 28 k. Well you know these trendy japanese market leaders mostly has a high mark up. Hmm..now that number is not very tempting..how about a used vehicle, may about 3 years old where I could get the best value on the depreciation curve, may be a vehicle still within manufacturers warranty ?

I did some calculations...including the mathematics of all hidden charges to find out the REAL cost of owning a new vehicle in comparison with keeping my existing workhorses for another 3 years. I know, another three years is a real stretch, may be my considerations will change in the due course. The results really shocked me.

1)Cost of the Money raised for the vehicle ( either lost interest or APY on the loan), In my case I would say I am going to use cash of 27k, otherwise would have fetched me a very conservative interest rate of 5% across 3 years= 4370.00
2)Higher Insurance Cost for newer vehicle with full coverage=2700
3)Depreciation in 3 years(avg-various blue books)=9800.00
5)Higher taxes on registration etc =300.00

That is a whooping 17,170.00 for 3 years !!!

Holly Molly !! For now, I am going to just scratch that itch and drive my vehicles as long as I can. May be I will buy a used vehicle, may be I will even buy a new vehicle..but not for now. Looking at the calculations, renting a van for long trips sounds good. But I still need to stop and smell the roses on the way.....

A tale of two births - Expenses again

2006-01-22T12:31:00.000-06:00

Now that I've created a spread sheet of the second birth and provided the details, it forced me to walk through my memory lanes to the birth of my first born. It was all together a different tale all together. Year 2003, It was relatively a complex birth, new experiences, more stressed, a lot more anticipation. Everything was great until the labor, then it was very stressful until we left the hospital. We stayed 4 days instead of a normal 2 day for a natural vaginal delivery.
Yes, every birth is truly unique.

Back then my insurance was worse too. Higher deductible of $1000.00, Hospital copay of $250.00, Rx COPAY OF $25.00 and coinsurance for hospital stay was 80%.

The total expenses(out of pocket) from pregnancy test, prenatal care thru OBGYN, delivery and post partem visits and medications amounted to $4204.70. (Insurance company paid total was $7846.42) . OBGYN visits are part of a prenatal+ delivery package so there were no individual charges, there were 4 additional Ultrasound scans due to a suspected fetus problem. The Hospital expenses-delivery for the mother $2586.62, for the baby $1248.11. anesthesia costs $176.00. It was 3nights and 4 day stay.

Baby Birth - Expenses

2006-01-20T16:10:00.000-06:00

People out there who is either expecting a baby or planning to have one, must be wondering what are the costs involved with a hospital delivery. I did and I never could find anything. Yes each pregnancy and child birth is unique, so you cannot plan every expenses.

Well we were lucky to have a normal un-complicated delivery and a reasonable insurance coverage this time. I have documented all Doctor, labs, medication and delivery related expenditures here. My insurance coverage has a $20.00 copay, doctors visits are 100% covered after the copay, annual deductible $500.00, Labs are covered at 100% if it is part of a doctor visist and the lab work is billed by the doctors office. After deductible expenses are covered at 80%, and hospital stays are covered at 90% with no hospital copay.

The total expenses(out of pocket) from pregnancy test, prenatal care thru OBGYN, delivery and post partem visits and medications amounted to $1906.65. Insurance company paid total was $7793.27 . OBGYN visits are part of a prenatal+ delivery package so there were no individual charges.

The Hospital expenses-delivery for the mother $1221.32, for the baby $515.33. Anasthesia costs $221.31. It was 2 nights and 2 day stay at the hospital spanning about 56 hours.

Hospital Bills

2006-01-18T12:42:00.001-06:00

I wonder why they make the hospital bills are so difficult to understand. From my previous bad experiences with Hospital bills and Insurance, I always make sure I get a detailed itemized bill from them and check for every line item, compare the benefits from my insurance plans and how the claims are being paid. It always has errors, it makes me wonder is it deliberate.

Corruption is every where, that's why some Health insurance companies provide you incentives to review your bills and if you find that you been over charged, they pay you a reward. Check your health plans.

Thoughts on Mutual Fund selection

2006-01-17T11:55:00.000-06:00

I am trying to compile a list of criteria's for choosing Mutual funds and write it down. I remember, when I first started investing on Mutual funds it was easy - yes stupid, but it was easy. Its was my 401k and employees were offered only 7 choices. Without knowing much about investing itself, I choose 4 funds, which had the best previous year return. Needless to mention it turned out to be the worst choices. I wonder why didn't I read that fine print in bold then... PAST PERFORMANCES ARE NO GUARANTEE BLAH BLAH. Well, even today the past performance history are main criteria but I have improvised. My thoughts are like this, and to certain extend I do follow these nowadays.

Buy only a NO-LOAD fund - I am not paying up 5% of my hard earned $ as front, middle or back load. I will live with smaller returns than paying another set of premium to invest.

Low expense Ratio, preferably less than 1.0% - Just like the first point, when you do the mathematics you would know how much these management fee etc eats into your funds. For an international fund, we could relax it limit.

Better returns than the S&P 500 index in both bull and bear periods - If the manager is not good enough to beat S&P500 consistently, why bother ? I have my index funds with minimal expense ratio.

Not more than 2 down years in any 6 year span - If the fund can't turn around the ship from two years of bad experience, that Manager is not worthy to manage your $.

Funds with at lease 5-10 year of existence with a long serving Manager(s) - well I have cheated on this criteria, may be I think that boom years of late 90's and bear market of 2000-03 changed some old philosophies, some alternate hybrid strategy funds are doing great.

Low turnover ratio for taxable account : Other than the obvious tax issues, If the manager is too trigger happy, its not a very good thing

Rest of the 2006 investment planning

2006-01-16T19:20:00.000-06:00

As I am still pondering how I would plan my investment for the rest of the year, I am keeping a list watch list of my potential buy's - stocks and No-load mutual funds.

I am planning to increase my investments and reduce CD/MM holding. Yes I am mildly bullish for 2006. I do contribute maximum to my 401k, still waiting to fund Roth IRA and other taxable brokerage. Experts says in the long run market timing doesn't really help, but I am not convinced. I strongly feel there will be a short term pull back in prices between the earning season and Fed's meeting end of the month.

On the stock front MO,AET,WLP,GE,PFE,YHOO are front runners - that's for now.
On the Mutual Funds arena, I am not sure how to proceed. I already have Fidelity and Vanguard accounts. I would like to increase exposure to Large Cap's and International. Seems like my options are narrow with my existing Brokerages.

Figuring out..

2006-01-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

You know what, My NFL predictions on play-offs so far are a 100% accurate. Seahawks,Panthers,Pittsburg & Broncos. I should have been in vegas betting...woohoo !

Broncos all the way - beating Seahawks in Superbowl Extra large (XL)

Well we all know that we don't have any crystal balls - especially one that works in Wall St. Only thing we could do is to follow the usual advices.. Work hard, spend carefully, save more, invest, diversify...

I do follow these, I read a ton of garbage on finanacial ideas as well. Most of it are the same ole, same ole - repackaged, recycled materials. Today with all these information technology advances, we have too much of data, too little useful information anyway.

Personally my current biggest issues are - well few of them, My job is not something I could settle in one place, so I cannot own a home. I did not took a chance and bought a home, I was not sure howlong I would be working here. Now I feel like living in a shoe box, every year my possessions increase and apartment become more conjusted.

Along with another 100 reasons, this makes me want to change my job, but when I want to change my job, I want to make a good move. I am hoping I will be employed by someone who would match some 401k contribution unlike my current one. I thank God, that I am debt free - except my credit cards which I pay in full every month.

First balancing act - Fund exchanges

2006-01-08T13:05:00.000-06:00

I will be completing an exchange in Vanguard holdings (IRA). From a balanced TARGET fund, I am moving 10k to start a new investment, Vanguard PRIMECAP CORE. With my load and management fee, expence ratio sensitivity -call me frugal, I have a certain fondness to Vangaurd. Even though I am not very happy with the change in minimum investments amounts from Vangaurd, I own few of them; Vanguard 500 index, Total stock market Index, Windsor II, Wellington, STAR fund & Target Fund.

I have completed my 401k Fidelity funds balancing, well its not an overall balancing, just getting ride of some of the 'pigs' from past year, Now Fidelity accound has 50% large caps which includes my favorite Contrafund holding 20%. Midcaps holds 20%, Worldwide 15% Small cap 8% and Bond portion of Balanced fund at 7%.

Tis the New Year ! Networth Update !

2006-01-06T18:25:00.000-06:00

The year 2005 on the rear view mirror, the networth increased from 206,886.16 to 273,316,21.
I am happy about the progress, infact I exceeded my target's well. I have been too cautious about the market direction with interest rates increases becomes a regular federal reserve exercise. I sticked with a conservative approach , mainly my investmenst were in index funds, balanced funds, Large caps and a very little on midcap and international.

Overall my 401k Mutual funds provided a 9.8% return, IRA stocks returned average 20% and Non retirement mutual funds returned an average 12%. The 12% is mainly due to a lucky market timing, otherwise those funds has an average annual return of 6.5% for 2005.

I am planning to increase my investments, but after seeing the bulls jumped out the gate in newyear I am not very sure if I should be jumping the band wagon. Bulls got a shot in the arm with the minutes from fed's - the wording has changed, but I am not so sure if I should be cheering that much. Initially my plan was to immediately contribute to 2006 Roth IRA, but now I think there will be a small market correction.

Another thought, I would like to move some funds to international, not just european but to other emerging markets of India and China. Have not decided if I should move money from a maturing CD or exchange from existing funds.

For the past few years I have been laddering CD's which is a good time tested strategy. From Jan 2005 I am enjoying the great rates from GMAC in comparison with my Credit unions savings rates.

December 1, 2005 First day of your rest of the Life

2005-12-01T20:52:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog !

Well Let me start this with the baseline statistics, the first year I started tracking my investments methodically.

Let me start my blog with where am I am standing financially. As I go through the process of learning economics, hopefully evolve emotional maturity in financial matters,hope to achieve my dreams and goals...

My first venture into financial market was during the boom years of 1997-98. Like most everybody I too thought I am a finacial genious, most of my stock selections turn out to be awesome. I started with 4k, mostly in technology and retail stocks. I watched my investments grows through as I steadly pumped money into more and more tech stocks, into the bubble waiting to burst. I made huge profits from many of the internet boom stocks, but instead of diversification, i pumped more and more.... and the rest is history !!

It took a few years for me to get back to investments from the devastating losses, however the market crash made did some good things to me. From a carefree big spender lifestyle, i become savings minded, and as years go by I become frugal and very careful where and how I spend.

Today my overall ratio of investment risk stands at 58%, Thats the total money I have invested in the market. As I progress, I am planning to get increase my ratio towards more aggressive.

As we wind down the year, I am planning for my next year moves, I will publish those in due course.