Growing Money

I was cleaning up this weekend and I find a lot of things I no longer need anymore. I was about to throw or give them away but I thought maybe I can make a little experiment out of this. I’ll put up the items on the Internet and see how much I can make out of this trash and see if it’s worth the time and effort to post everything up as opposed to just giving or throwing them away. My instincts and experience tell me that it’s not worth the time and effort to post them up. I have posted items up on the Internet before and it is very time consuming to write up a post and attach pictures.

Here are some of the items that I’ll put up for sale. I used to post items up on eBay but eBay takes up too much time and fees. I have recently signed up for Craigslist and I have found it to be a much faster way to post up items. I like the simple interface and it only takes a few clicks to post up items, much quicker than eBay. And postings on Craigslist are free.

Some items for sale:
NetGear MR814 082.11b Wireless Router (box, almost new) - $20
Airnet 108mbps Wireless USB Pen Adapter (Retailed Box, sealed) - $30
Gigafast Wireless USB Adapter 802.11b-g (Retailed Box, almost new) - $25
Belkin Ethernet NIC (Retailed Box, sealed) x2 - $5 each
Linksys Fast Ethernet NIC (Retail Box, almost new) $5
Fast Etherlink NIC (as is) - $2
Motorola 56K modem (as is) - $2
Monitor Switch Box (as is) - $2
Battery Charger & Meter Tester (as is) - $5

As I hate doing the packing and shipping, I will be requesting for pick-ups. Packing and shipping just takes too much time and will make selling these items a drag. It took me half an hour to take pictures and put up those items on Cragislist. I wish there’s an easier way to post all the items up. I would like the idea of a virtual backyard sale where people can browse virtually to see what they want without me having to individually going through every item. That would be an awesome idea. I’ll put a mental note on the virtual backyard sale idea.

I also have a lot of books that I would like to get rid of. Does anyone what is a fast way to get rid of books - say a yard sale or even a donation place that would take books?
I’ll post updates on this experiment in a week and we’ll see how things go.

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Dear Readers,

I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to do a post. I thought I’ll write some updates about myself in this post.

Firstly, I have noticed that my blog does not load up well on Internet Explorer. It may be because of the Google ads. I’m planning to take down the ads in the center of the page, especially if it’s hindering the performance of the blog. It seems to slow down the load time. Please let me know if you feel the blog loads up too slowly. I’ll try to improve the performance.

Secondly, the traffic has gone down slightly in my blog, perhaps because of my lack of posts. I’ll try to do more posts and connect more with the readers. Most importantly, I’ll update more about my goals and progress.

I told you about my vacation in East Asia in October. My trip to Hong Kong/China was great. There is a lot to see in that place. It’s a fun vacation place. Also, the economy is booming and there are many business opportunities.

My stock portfolio is taking a hit now because of my holdings in the financial companies. I am planning to sell some of my losses to offset my capital gains. This year was a financial roller coaster ride for me because I invested in the oil market in the beginning of the year and then the financial market during the summer.

I have a rental property in Philadelphia as some of you may remember. This house has been rented out as of September. I plan to do a post on that later.

I definitely would like to hear some feedbacks from you. Please feel free to post a comment or email me at growingmoney (at) gmail.com

Thank you all for visiting this blog.

Happy Investing,
Smarty

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Apparently, the depreciating US dollar is causing the rise of the oil prices. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a meeting on Sunday, “They [US] get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper.” Iran and Venezuela are proposing to have oil traded in currencies other than the dollar to prevent the falling dollar to further inflate oil prices.

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I have noticed that the cost of living in New York City has increased, especially for food. I used to spend about $6-$8 for lunch and now I spend at least $10 for lunch. The dinner plate prices on restaurant menu has gone up as well.

Two days ago, I ordered food from a Korean restaurant for a bunch of friends and when they delivered I saw the bill was different from what I calculated from the menu. Each plate has gone up two dollars. Yesterday, I ordered from a Buffalo Burger from an American Restaurant and the price was increased from the price they had on the menu posted on the wall. The Burger has gone up two dollars.

I eat out very often. I can see my expenses from eating out has gone up before, particularly due to the higher prices on the tab. Could this be the result of inflation in the US economy? Have you also notice the increase in food prices?

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I recently signed up for the NMM IPO and was allocated shares. But the stock has gone downhill since it went public on November 13, 2007. NMM was opened at $18 and closed at $19.17 today, a drop of 4.15%.
I have noticed that some IPOs are being put on hold indefinitely. The EnteroMedics and Stewart & Stevenson, Inc. are two that I have seen recently, but I’m sure there are more. This is not a good sign of the IPO market.

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I am currently holding a large position in Washington Mutual and took a huge hit when WM stock price dropped like a rock. I am planning to hold it long term so I was not paying attention to the stock prices. One of the main thing that concerns me now is dividend payout. Will WaMu continue to pay 56 cents quarterly dividend? Here is an article there talks about these concerns, Dividend-Cut Anxiety Rises as Banks Wobble.

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Oil Prices are ridiculously expensive now, approaching $100 a barrel. With the cold winter coming, heat is definitely coming in at a price. People are starting to worry about the increased costs of warming their homes. In this article, High Oil Prices Fuel Winter Heat Fears, Maine will be one of the states with the biggest concerns for keeping the heat on. Homeowners are going to see an increased amount in their spending on heat. Car owners will see an increased amount in their gas bill.

Unfortunately, there are no signs of oil price stabilizing in the near future. And natural energy has not been efficient enough to help reduce our consumption in oil. Our demand in oil will continue on.

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I was in Hong Kong recently and one of the main things I notice was the stock market. The Hang Seng index had surpassed the 30,000 mark while I was in Hong Kong. Stock talks were all over the place, from grocery stores to shopping malls. And almost everyone was trading stocks - young adults, moms, and even grandma’s. Some people even quit their job to trade stocks. Every morning most of Hong Kong is focus on the Hang Seng index and their stock portfolios. And it seems so unreal, everyday the market is going up.

At the time of my departure from Hong Kong, the Alibaba company was about to go public. It was said to be one of the hottest stocks and everyone had their eyes on that stock.

It seems like deja vu to me. I remember seeing this type of market in 1999 in the US stock market. Anyone can buy any stock and make money in a short period of time. There was no reason to look at fundamentals of companies. Why? Because in the amount of time you would spend doing your research on a company, you would have already made a 20% gain. It was about buying the company with the best value, it was about buying something that was hot and would trade on news. People tell me the stock market is the best way to make money. Every time someone talks to me about stocks, I would just listen, nod my head and smile. When asked for my opinion, I would give the most unexpected answer, “Risky market. Tread carefully.”

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