A personal finance and investing blog
Dow 9,319.83 -5.18 -0.06%
Nasdaq 1,726.33 +5.38 +0.31%
S&P 500 966.30 -2.45 -0.25%
The stock market was mixed today as it awaits for tomorrow’s presidential election results. The economic data do not look good. Downbeat economic news expected on Election Day
The 2008 U.S. presidential election is only one day away, on November 4, 2008. I want to do a post on the presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, and how they will affect your money. During my research, I found a great article on Yahoo and in that article CNN Money has done all the research plus more. So, I will link to the article, and you will be the judge of which candidate will be better for your money.
I would like to hear your thoughts about the economic policies proposed by the candidates.
This week’s links roundup.
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Natalie MacNeil has trouble answering the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She wanted to be so many things when she grows up, so it was difficult to pick only one. Well, I found this post interesting because I can totally relate to the dilemma. As a kid, I wanted to be a scientist, an inventor, an astronaut, a video game maker, etc. And even today, I want to do be more than just “one” thing.
My manager always tells me that people can take on more than one role in their life and be good at all of them. People can become an engineer, an artist, a carpenter, and an accounting and be successful at all those roles. The whole purpose of assigning people with one specialty is only a corporate way of controlling people. There is no limit on what you want to become.
And I agree with him. Humans can achieve more than one role in their life. I am always working on multiple projects across different fields, from technical to finance to health. Hey, that means I am a software engineer, business analyst, stocks trader, entrepreneur, financial blogger, salesperson, mentor, landlord, and a natural medicine researcher at the same time.
Speaking of multiple role-playing, Silicon Valley Blogger (SVB) is a super woman.
She is a full-time problogger at The Digerati Life
She is a contributor and member of Work It Mom, a web site for working mothers.
She helps promote her spouse’s project: Best In Class, which is a recommendations site for various products.
She is the blog editor and owner of The Smarter Wallet, a consumer-oriented blog.
She worked as a contributor and the interim corporate blog editor for Mint.com, a personal finance software company.
She is a contributor to Prosper.com’s blog, an online peer-to-peer lending company.
Idea – More Efficient Highway Lighting
Nev talks about the idea of using alternative energy for highway lights such as solar and wind. When I was investing in solar companies earlier this year, I also had tons of ideas of making everything powered by solar and wind. For example, I thought, “Why can’t we install solar panels on all the buildings in NYC?” The skyscrapers would certainly benefit because they would stand higher and capture more of the sun’s energy.
Coinstar: The Big Lie
PF Stock bashes on the fees the Coinstar machine charges. I agree that it’s not worth to pay the 8.9% fee to convert money from one form to another. Coins are still as good as bills, and we can still pay with coins. However, it cost money to make the Coinstar machines, so I can see from a business standpoint why they charge a high fee. They make lazy people’s life easier.
Dow 9,325.01 +144.32 +1.57%
Nasdaq 1,720.95 +22.43 +1.32%
S&P 500 968.75 +14.66 +1.54%
Finally, we see the stock market closed higher for the week after a huge recent sell off. The DOW opened last Monday (10/27/2008) at 8,375.92 and closed at the end of the week at 9,336.93, a gain of 961.01 or
11%. If you take the close price of the DOW before Monday (10/27/2008) at 8,175.77 and compare with the close price on Friday (10/31/2008) at 9,336.93, the gain is really 1161.16 points or a staggering gain of 14% for the week.
While we did have a rally in the previous week, we are still very deep in the water. The DOW is still far below the 13K mark at the beginning of the year. We will have to see where the stock market brings us next week.
The daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 and the official clock will be moved back one hour at 2:00 am. That means when the clock strikes 2:00 am, it will turn to 1:00 am. Remember to adjust all your clocks and replace them with fresh batteries if necessary.
In spring, we have to move our clocks one hour forward, and in fall, we have to move our clocks one hour backward. We do this every year and it has become a part of our lifestyle. But what is the reason behind this? Are we playing with time? What is the purpose of Daylight Saving Time?
I did some research on the history of Daylight Saving Time. There are many stories about the creation of the daylight saving time. One story is that some rich and powerful man wanted to prolong his golf games and decided to extend the day by one hour during the summer. Another story is that during the World Wars, the United States need to save fuel and increase factory productions by making the days longer.
Regardless of the how it came about, the idea of the daylight saving time is to save energy. Apparently, by shifting the clock one hour forward during the summer we would better utilize the sunlight outside and save electricity by not turning on our home lights.
However, there are arguments that the daylight saving time may not help save energy. One study from the University of California found that people from Indiana actually used more energy during the summer. In an article from National Geographic News, they agree that energy is saved during the evening from not having to turn on artificial lights, but energy is used during the morning to turn on artificial lights before sunrise, and therefore it is a wash-out effect. In conclusion, there are questionable benefits of the daylight saving time, but while we have this law, it serves as a great reminder to put in new batteries for our portable time-keeping devices.
The U.S. presidential election is on November 4, 2008, only 2 days away. I have been following the news on both campaigns and watching both parties debate/fight on TV. The race is heated up and there is little time left. According to CNN’s estimate, Obama has 291 electoral votes while McCain only has 160 electoral votes.
McCain makes an appearance tonight (November 1st) on the tv show, Saturday Night Live. Not long ago, Sarah Palin also showed up on Saturday Night Live. I am not sure how much their appearances have helped them with the political image, but it was pretty interesting seeing Sarah Palin and Tina Fey on TV. Below is a short clip.
How will your taxes be affected by McCain and Obama?
An article from CNN Money shows the breakdown of the average increase/decrease for the various income brackets.
In a nutshell: McCain wants to cut taxes for everyone. Obama wants to cut taxes for the majority of the people and only raise taxes for the highest income earners.
The numbers on the tables show that if you make between $66K and $161K, you would not see much difference between McCain’s and Obama’s plans. If you are in the $161K – $227K bracket, you are paying slightly more taxes under Obama’s plan. But if you are in the $227K+ bracket, you will be paying significantly more taxes under Obama’s plan.
However, if you are on the bottom of the income bracket table, making under $66K, you will see more tax savings under Obama’s plan.
I would think a majority of the people in U.S. would fall in the $38K – $112K brackets. If you take the average tax savings of those two brackets, you would get a tax savings of $1,048 under McCain’s plan and $1,191 under Obama’s plan, a difference of about $114. It looks like that most people will have roughly the same amount of tax savings in either administration.
The tax savings are more significant for the people on the top and bottom of the tax brackets. For the lower income earners, they would fare better with Obama for taxes; for the higher income earners they would fare much better with McCain.
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