Archive for the 'Reference' Category
Retirement… Now!
So I’ve been thinking about retirement a lot lately… aren’t we all right? Of course the more fun question regarding retirement is not how, but WHEN can I finally kick this job to the curb and live the good life?
I decided to find out. A few things had to be established before we could jump into the math. First of all we will assume that the investments are in the stock market which is the easiest and most common way to save for retirement. The stock market averages 12-12.5% return and inflation runs 2-2.5% so we will assume a real return of 10%. We will compute money invested on a percentage of income basis so that it can be applied to anyone weither you make $20k/yr or $200k/yr. Most people will make more money later in life than they do now. The equations will still hold - the amount you retire with will be a function of your average income during your career.
One last thing had to be decided. How much money do you need to retire? Well the experts claim that you can live off of an amount substantially less than your income due to lower taxes, no kids, (hopefully) no debt ect. Many say 60% - we’re going to assume extreme frugality and say that you can squeek by on 50% of you income and actually retire at that point. We have also setup to less painful levels of retirement. Retirement at your income level - which seems to be working for you now so it should in the future. And finally the good life of retiring to double you current income level. Nice. The results are below:
Ipods Cooler Than Beer
That's right among the coolest kids in town (college kids of course), the Ipod has — at least temporarily — de-throned drinking beer as the number one "in" thing to do. iPods were rated as "in" by 73% of undergrads while beer and facebook.com ranked #2 with 71%.
Does this mean that we are becoming a geek-ier nation or that tech is going mainstream when a gadget and a web site are going toe to toe with getting sloshed?
The Perfect TV… Size
And my preference, Rule #2: Measure the width of your TV screen. Optimum viewing distance for TV is 3-6 times this width and 1.5-3 times for DVD/HDTV. Since you have a nice overlap at 3x you can use it for the best all around viewing distance/TV size. Now since regular TV is 4:3 ratio you can use 3,4,5 triangle math and come up with the one simple rule: TV size (inches diagonal) divided by 5 gives you the optimum viewing distance in feet.
Now remember this is the optimum setting for you Home Theatre/Main TV. So while a 70″ projector image is perfect for a 14′ distance to the main couch in the living room… putting a 55″ screen for the 11′ across the bedroom is a tad overkill.
Credit Averages
While reviewing my credit report, I found some interesting numbers on the national credit averages. I found some of them surprising. The average American consumer has 5 open credit accounts and 1 late payment on their credit report. The average mortgage balance is $106,782 with an average payment of $1,020. The average auto balance $12,141 with an average payment of $416. Meanwhile, the average total debt in America is $79,884. Uh, do that math… (yeah, I know)
Want To Be A Millionaire? Hurricanes Can Help
So Katrina caused a huge amount of economic destruction… people just can’t seem to agree on how MUCH economic destruction. Louisiana asked for $250 BILLION! Mississppi was a little surprised to learn this, since they’ve only asked for $33 Billion. So here’s a little math based on Census data. Louisiana’s $250 Billion translates into
Housing Bubble?
Yeah interest rates are on the rise and house flipping shows are all the rage. Come join the investors in real estate and get rich. Quick, before the whole thing implodes… or at least that is what some nay-sayers claim. Most likely, a slowdown in the housing market will most likely manifest as a plateauing of prices instead of a “crash”. Now that, of course, is in general: condos, commercial real estate, and select areas could all experience a reversal, but we’re talking in general here. Usually the places where a reversal would occur is where the pricing has gotten out of control and grown to quickly. Take these areas for instance:
Metro Housing Increase (vs last year)
Phoenix 47.0%
Cape Coral, Fla. 45.2%
Palm Bay, Fla. 40.0%
Orlando 36.5%
Sarasota, Fla. 34.3%
Reno 32.1%
Miami 31.7%
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Fla. 31.2%
Durham, N.C. 30.9%
Sources: National Association of Realtors, Commerce Department
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Anti-Marketing
Warning these are not approved or endorsed, but they can be a fun way to get back at the man…
Tips for Tele-Marketers
(1) If you don’t have a lot of time or if you’re not -uh- assertive, try this: Just say "Hold on, Please…" Say this while putting your phone down (to keep from getting hooked into a conversation) and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) will increase the Telemarketers average handle time. Longer calls mean fewer calls per worker and therefore increased costs for the Telemarketers. Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
(2)If you DO have a lot of free time and some hutspah try this: When the telemarketer asks if you are the man/woman in charge of the house/phone bill/whatever say "yes." Then let them go through their entire spiel until they finally give you a real chance to talk again — this is typically when they are wanting you to give the green light for whatever product they’re selling. Read more
Size Does Matter
If you’re like me, then size really does matter. I think my affliction started through my biking habit. Once you’ve gotten into biking — i mean real into it so that you spend more money than any normal person would ever spend on a bike (which for most people is probably in the $100-$400 range) — it is easy to get sucked into a world where grams matter. Yes that’s right: smaller, faster, lighter is the biker’s mantra. Shave a gram here and ounce there and soon you will flying down the road faster… unencumbered!
Now the funny thing with us bikers is that we often overlook the heaviest thing on the bike in our search for weight savings: the big guy riding it. Trust me, you quickly get to a point where it is cheaper and easier to lose the next ounce yourself… hmm poly-carbon alloy upgrade: $5000… eating less donuts: free… looking less chunky in those biker shorts: priceless.
Two other biker oversights while I’m on a roll. i have to shake my head at the people that trade in a comfortable bike seat to get the lighter weight “racing” seats (read sitting on a hollow metal pole). Then these same people trade in their normal/spandex shorts for special biking shorts with a gel seat. Ah, HELLO, all you did was move the weight to your butt — and most people consider that a bad thing! No offence J Lo. The other thing that I’ve seen on many an expensive bike is 3 or 4 water bottles. Yes that’s right water which weighs 2.2 pounds for every liter or an ounce for every extra 28ml of H20. Trust me 2.2 pounds can equal 2.2 GRAND on some bikes.
Needless to say this is a rant about size not bikes and so i will get to the point. Below is quick reference to the size of some of my products of choice. With dimensions and weight for easy comparison to new products as they come out and attempt to de-throne these as the smallest, the lightest, the best! Read more
Flash Drives
ArsTechnica has a nice round up of some current flash drives (Flash drives are those key chain looking things that have a USB connector on one side and hold 32-512 Meg of info) if you are in the market for one. I personally like the flash drives that have MP3 player built in.
Segway Insurance
You can get insurance for just about anything. Including your segway. In case you do lots of damage to something or someone while speeding around recklessly at 10 mph! (the max speed of the Segway HT-i) Looks like coverage starts around $300 a year.