Check Out My New Site! Financialfreedumb.com

Still working on finalizing things, but take a look around...drop me a comment on the new site! Thanks for bearing with me through this transition. My RSS feed is still having some problems so, it won't be updating until I get those issues worked out. financialfreedumb.com

I'm Done...

Posting on blogspot.com that is. I'm in the process of migrating over to my own site. During the migration of my posts and comments to Wordpress, all my formatting for my old posts on blogspot.com dissappeared. Luckily they show up fine in Wordpress. So, I'm going to postpone any further posts on blogspot.com until I have my own site up and running. I should be done within the next few days. In the meantime, please enjoy my formatless posts in archive. :)

My Home: Why Not Kansas? Free Land!

Not sure if you've seen this before, but it's been on the news a few times where I live. Free land in Kansas! Some restrictions, but for the most part, it's free. But to each his/her own...I choose to live here in Hawaii. I would consider moving, maybe, if my family and friends weren't here...but I'm not sure I would be able to handle moving to the middle of Kansas. :/

My 401k YTD Rate Of Return Is a Measily 0.4%. What's Yours?

My current rate of return (ROR) for my 401k year-to-date (01.01.2006 - 07.21.2006) is 0.4%. Not that great at all. I'm curious, how are your 401k's doing? What's your ROR? This is how ROR is calculated, per my 401k website: Normally, you analyze an investment based on its Beginning Balance, its Ending Balance, and the schedule of Cash Flows between these 2 balances. Your Rate of Return is calculated as the Rate of Return for your particular Beginning Balance, Ending Balance, and schedule of Cash Flows. A compound daily rate of return is computed by testing different rates until one is found that increases (or reduces in the case of a loss) your beginning balance and all of your cash-flows to equal your ending balance within 0.00000000001%. Then the actual account performance during the investment period is calculated.

Bull Market? What Bull Market? Oh, That Kind of "Bull" Market & Egg-vertising

Since it's Friday, and tomorrow is Saturday, and the day after that Sunday, aka the WEEKEND, what's more appropriate than a little laugh to get everyone ready for 2 days to relax--I hope. If you don't get the weekend off, then just enjoy the chuckle, giggle, or laugh. If you don't get anything out of these articles, I'm sorry. The first article is about the "bull market." If the article didn't have a picture, I wouldn't have guessed it's about a male cow...It was in the "Business" section of MSNBC.com. It's kind of funny... The 2nd article talks about how CBS is taking advertising to a whole new level...Call it "egg-vertising." Too bad most people eat their eggs in the morning before primetime.

Wage Inflation Affecting India. Salaries Increase To $5,763.

I always wondered what do the folks in India get paid. Well, I found this article that talks about how India is dealing with wage inflation. "During Infosys' earnings call the previous week, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani addressed the twin topics of wage inflation and employee attrition, saying that the company will increase starting salaries from $5,122 to $5,763, a 12.5 percent increase, on average." Check it out in its entirety.

Surprise! "Fun Fund" Opened At...GMAC.

Yep, I've opened my "fun fund" account, and it is at GMAC. Why? Well, it offers check writing, ATM card, a fairly low min ($500), supposed fast online transfers, and a pretty competitive interest rate. Not to mention the process so far has been amazingly painless. I'll keep you all posted on the status of my GMAC account opening process. I could not find any bonus/incentive offers though...and if you have, please don't post it! I don't want to find out after the fact. Thanks. :) By the way, I did consider HSBC, but I already have an account there...Paypal, that would've been perfect, except for the possible problems with withdrawals and lack of FDIC insurance...finally, my credit union...I can still use the credit union, but I can avoid their horrid interest rates...

WARNING: Phishing Alert - eBay - But This One Is Different!

I have to admit, this phishing attempt is different. It's coming from a unassuming location. Who would think that a question from a fellow eBayer could be attempt to steal your info? On top of that, only the yellow "Respond Now" button leads to a false location. For reference...Give them some fake info: http://alice.ics.nara-wu.ac.jp/~chubo/ebays.html Return-path: Received: from spm02 (spm02) by jem01 (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-5.04 (built Jan 24 2006)) with ESMTP id <0j2o00ci4tq995b0@jem01> for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:54:09 -1000 (HST) Received: from mail.digitrain.ac.nz ([203.97.26.98]) by spm02 (8.13.6.20060614/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k6K5s0SX016030 for <>; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:54:07 -1000 (HST envelope-from donna@digitrain.ac.nz) Received: by mail.digitrain.ac.nz (Postfix, from userid 1030) id 6A349199C10D; Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:16:51 +1200 (NZST) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:16:51 +1200 (NZST) From: eBay Subject: Question from eBay Member To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Message-id: <20060720041651.6a349199c10d@mail.digitrain.ac.nz> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/html Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit\r\n X-PMX-Version: 5.2.0.264296, Antispam-Engine: 2.4.0.264935, Antispam-Data: 2006.7.19.223932 Original-recipient: rfc822; X-Perlmx-Spam: Gauge=XXX, Probability=30%, Report='PHISH_NO_HTML_TAG 1.25, CTYPE_JUST_HTML 0.848, HTML_MIME_NO_HTML_TAG 0.8, PHISH_SUBJ_LOW 0.5, __CT 0, __CTE 0, __CTYPE_IS_HTML 0, __HAS_MSGID 0, __MIME_HTML 0, __MIME_HTML_ONLY 0, __MIME_VERSION 0, __PHISH_FROM 0, __PHISH_FROM2 0, __PHISH_SUBJ_PHRASE1 0, __RUS_MIME_NO_TEXT 0, __SANE_MSGID 0'

WARNING: Phishing Alert - HSBC.com

This a phishing email received today. This is for reference only. If you're bored give them some false info: http://forum.schoschonen.com/event/official-security/upgrading/HSBC-US/login.htm Return-path: Received: from spm04 (spm04) by jem01 (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-5.04 (built Jan 24 2006)) with ESMTP id <> for ; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 17:48:29 -1000 (HST) Received: from alioth.digity.it (mizar.inartis.it [83.103.90.253]) by spm04 (8.13.6.20060614/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k6K3mGI0020397 for <>; Wed, 19 Jul 2006 17:48:26 -1000 (HST envelope-from web@Alioth.digity.it) Received: by alioth.digity.it (Postfix, from userid 1001) id C7E9538F50C1C; Thu, 20 Jul 2006 05:46:51 +0200 (CEST) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 05:46:51 +0200 (CEST) From: HSBC Bank USA Subject: Important Message From HSBC Bank USA To: Reply-to: Message-id: <20060720034651.c7e9538f50c1c@alioth.digity.it> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/html Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT X-PMX-Version: 5.2.0.264296, Antispam-Engine: 2.4.0.264935, Antispam-Data: 2006.7.19.203432 Original-recipient: rfc822; X-Perlmx-Spam: Gauge=XXIIIIIII, Probability=27%, Report='REPLY_TO_EMPTY 1.699, CTYPE_JUST_HTML 0.848, PHISH_SUBJ_LOW 0.5, __CT 0, __CTE 0, __CTYPE_IS_HTML 0, __HAS_MSGID 0, __MIME_HTML 0, __MIME_HTML_ONLY 0, __MIME_VERSION 0, __PHISH_FROM 0, __PHISH_FROM2 0, __PHISH_LOGO 0, __PHISH_LOGO_HSBC 0, __PHISH_SUBJ_PHRASE1 0, __SANE_MSGID 0, __TAG_EXISTS_HTML 0'

Off Topic: When Personal Beliefs Should Be Put Aside For the Greater Good...

I realize that people have beliefs, I have them too, but when the potential exists to help millions of people, I might have to reconsider putting my beliefs aside, just for a second, for the greater good of humankind. That being said, I really am dissappointed that President Bush has decided to veto expanding embryonic stem cell research. No matter what we decide, other countries will move forward, leaving America in the dark. Sorry my fellow citizens, this is a blow to the future of health sciences in America. Looks like we'll be on the sidelines as the next leap of health science occurs right before our eyes. Those who stand with President Bush, are you not going to use the health advances discovered when cures tied to stem cell reasearch are found? What would you do if your father, mother, son, daugther, aunt, uncle's terminal disease could be cured? Would you put your beliefs aside then?