Tag: Personal Finance

Weekly readings

Weekly reading – 3rd September 2022

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Weekly reading – 3rd September 2022

What I wrote last week

Two tips on personal finance

Business

($) Disney’s New Pricing Magic: More Profit From Fewer Park Visitors. As a shareholder, I am more concerned than happy after reading this article. Annual pass-holders are loyal customers and should be valued. Instead, the recent changes signal to them that money is more important than the long-standing relationship forged with the company. Disney’s theme parks are unique and hold precious memories in a lot of folks, but there is a price for everything. At some point, customers will realize that however fond some memories are, it’s just too expensive to bring the whole family there. I hope Disney executives wake up today, read this piece and take some actions before any revolting can happen.

Where Amazon is heading in health after the Amazon Care failure. Amazon is known for running lots of experiments and tinkering till they find a solution that actually works. Amazon Care is an example of that. They realized that they were not able to venture into healthcare by themselves. Hence, a string of acquisitions ensued, namely Signify Health and One Medical. There are risks still with this strategy, though. Cultural conflict between acquired companies, and even between them and Amazon. Difference in data infrastructure. Market cannibalization. It’s just the start of a multi-year and likely very expensive project.

Cash is king for EV makers as soaring battery prices drive up vehicle production costs. A good round-up of EV makers

($) Starbucks Is Rethinking Almost Everything, Including How to Make Frappuccinos. What seems to be a straightforward operation at a Starbucks store may be more complex than you think. Read this piece to learn more how Starbucks is adjusting to changing tastes and responding to complaints from baristas

Be good-argument-driven, not data-driven. Data is your prisoner. If you are motivated enough and if you torture the prisoner enough, it will say whatever you want it to say. Whether it’s intentional misrepresentation of data or incapability to analyze data properly (no apples-to-apples comparison, for example), it’s easier to preach “data-driven” than implement it. Too much of anything can’t be a good thing. There must always be balance. There is indeed a place for data, but since it’s just a tool, its effectiveness hinges a lot on how we use that tool.

Medium’s new CEO on the company’s journalism mistakes, bundle economics, and life after Ev Williams. I used to like Medium a lot. So I can’t help but feel like the company missed a gigantic opportunity to strengthen its advantages and grab market share. Now, it’s too late for Medium to rectify its mistakes.

Zenly is still hugely popular, so why’s Snap shutting it down? It’s sensible to reduce headcount when Snap already gets its hands on Zenly’s technology. It’s also difficult to argue against avoiding cannibalization between the potential Snap Map and Zenly. What should be questioned is whether this plan will come to fruition or will be a massive write-down. Why do I say so? Snap introduced a mini drone not long ago only for it to abandon the plan completely later to be more focused. In case you haven’t noticed, Snap’s latest forecast is disappointing and what investors don’t know is how this $250 million acquisition can help the company move forward

Going Private: How to Succeed in Store-Brand Sector. “In the past, retailers could rely more on the in-store environment to promote their store brands. Today, in our omnichannel world, consumers can find a product anywhere, so retailers must have an online presence for their brands. FMI’s report notes that there’s an opportunity for more retailers to tie their loyalty programs to their private brands — particularly when it comes to the online side of the business. Only a third of shoppers using their grocery store’s loyalty program said that they receive extra points for purchasing store brands. This is a way for retailers to promote more online private-brand purchases including the use of digital coupons.“

Other stuff I find interesting

The Godfather of South Korea’s Chip Industry. “His experience at Fairchild solidified his belief, first inspired by his father, that a true “engineer’s mind” requires practical skill as much as theoretical knowledge. In addition to performing experiments, he made a habit of reading internal technical reports and memos that he found at the company library, some of which he later brought to KAIST and used as teaching material.“

Live cheap or live expensive: The choice is yours in Ho Chi Minh City. As a Vietnamese, it’s interesting to me read about expat life in Vietnam. I have my reservation on the $10 daily budget on food for him and his wife (and a beer). Having lived in the US since 2016, I am not too familiar with electricity bills in different areas of Saigon (a local name of Ho Chi Minh City) either. But he made a good point that it’s important to live close to where you work. The traffic in the city is egregious. Even a 5km commute which is like peanuts in the US can take a lot of time and cause so much frustration that a little bit more rent to help you avoid that is worth it.

The Midwit Trap. “An intelligent person will know that there is no correlation between the simplicity of a solution and the sophistication of the reasoning that led to it”

Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size

Stats

July U.S. eGrocery sales climb 17% versus year ago to $7.8 billion

According to Edison Research, 35% of adults in America own a smart speaker (their sample size of about 1,200 subjects gives me a little concern)

Average transaction price of new vehicles in the U.S. was up 11.8% year-over-year in July 2022

Roads that need repairing in Nebraska cost each driver $461 per year

iOS US market share hits all-time high and exceeds 50% for the first time

life, Personal Growth

Two tips that will help your financial planning

by MQDuong1 Comment on Two tips that will help your financial planning

Plan future expenses

To ensure that your financial planning is set up properly, it’s NOT enough to consider only current expenses. It’s very important to take into account for future expenses, particularly those that you know will appear.

Let’s run a simple scenario as an example. For simplicity sake, imagine your after-tax take-home income, from both you and your spouse, is $100,000 a year. You expect to get two promotions in 2025 and 2028, which will increase your income by 15% and 10% from the year before respectively. Except those two years, your income will grow on average by 3% every year till you retire. Regarding current and future expenses, here are the big items:

  • Your current monthly expense is $4,000. The natural increase in this expense line item is 2% a year, unless specified otherwise.
  • You plan to have two children. One born in 2025 and the other in 2028. It will cost approximately $20,000 to deliver each kid.
  • The first kid will see the monthly expense grow to $5,500 and the second will push it to $7,000.
  • The estimated amount that you want to give them for college tuition fee is $100,000 each by 2043, when they are 18 years old. Hence, the combined college fund will total $200,000 by 2043.
  • You and your spouse understand that unfortunate events can happen to anyone. As a result, you both want to set aside 10% of your annual take-home income for emergencies.
  • For investments, you budget it at 20% of your annual income.
  • Life is short. You want to see the world and travel. Hence, travel will take 5%, if possible.
  • Whatever left will go to the disposable fund that can be used for any purposes.

Using the information above, here is what the numbers look like every year between 2023 and 2035

financial-planning-2Download the Excel file I use for the above screenshot

If you notice, I am pretty conservative with the income estimate. Growing the top line, as long as other expenses don’t grow proportionately, will bring more flexibility, freedom and choice. This is why folks want a higher salary or have a side gig. One source of income isn’t sufficient to sustain various financial needs. Also, I don’t include the fund for retirement which can be $2 million for person. The exclusion is driven by the fact that our 401K already comes out of our paycheck prior to the scenario and that the Emergency, Investment, Travel and Disposable Fund, if unused, can all be funneled into retirement.

Regardless, it’s obvious that the paycheck now doesn’t seem very big any more, does it? If it’s not possible to grow income sustainably, then there must be restrictions on the number of financial needs and there must be also compromises. That fancy car that you dream about, that new TV and furniture set that you crave or that yearly trip to Europe that you brag about, they need to be either axed or paid for by money slated either for emergencies or investments. It all comes down to preferences and willingness to compromise. But without an exercise like this, a normal person with little adequate personal finance awareness would get themselves deep into debt or make decisions that would not leave much margin for accidents.

Nobody knows what their future holds. Hence, the point of this exercise is not to be 100% accurate. Rather, it’s about putting more thoughts on one’s financial status and life priorities, which is ultimately what all this boils down to.

The 2x Rule

I “stole” this tip from a book called Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways To Save Money And Build Your Wealth. Essentially, this rule dictates that anytime I want to splash money on something, I must put the same amount of money on investing (most likely an index). This simple tip is a brilliant way to tamp down my urge to spend impulsively or too discretionally. It creates a moment of doubt in your mind and makes you wonder how much you want the item at hand and whether you are willing to pay double for it. For example,I have told my wife numerous times in the past year that I wanted to buy new Apple gadgets, but the thought of having to put the same amount in investing deterred me and made me realize that I didn’t need those new toys that much. The end result is that I am still using a 10-year-old Mac and a 3-year-old iPhone.

Personal finance, as the name may already give it away, is very personal. What works for me may not work for you. These tools are helpful, but their usefulness depends on how you use them, whether you do so religiously and what your life circumstances are. Mike Tyson said it best: everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face. Nonetheless, it’s better to be prepared to some extent than to be caught completely off guard.

Book

Book Review: Just Keep Buying

by MQDuong3 Comments on Book Review: Just Keep Buying

If you are a normal Joe like me and want to learn about investing as well as personal finance, do yourself a favor and get “Just Keep Buying“. The lessons contained in the book are popular and well-covered by many other authors. So don’t expect any earth-shattering discoveries there. But great lessons remain great and it’s always delightful to regularly re-acquaint with them.

Just Keep Buying covers essential issues from rent vs buying a house, focusing on income instead of expense control to dollar-cost-averaging vs buying the dip, traditional IRA vs Roth IRA, individual stocks vs ETFs, REITS vs stocks vs bonds etc…The book doesn’t give a deep dive into each of these issues. Instead, it analyzes the pros and cons or when an investment option makes and when it doesn’t. The arguments are supported by recent data and written in a way that each a dummie like me could understand. If you are new to investing or personal finance, great. Take it as a great inspiring starting point. If you are relatively experienced in some investment areas, there may still be some valuable learnings to gain from the book.

What I also like about “Just Keep Buying” is that Nick offered some great personal perspectives with refreshing honesty. He talked about missing his saving goal by the time he was 30. He mentioned that he didn’t feel rich years ago because unlike his classmates, he never visited Europe. These admissions, if you will, make the book more relatable and credible. It’s a rare quality in books, I find.

All in all, I highly recommend this book, along with The Psychology of Money, to anyone who is interested in money, investing and personal finance. Below are a few highlights from the book

“The first tip is what I call The 2x Rule. The 2x Rule works like this: Anytime I want to splurge on something, I have to take the same amount of money and invest it as well.

So, if I wanted to buy a $400 pair of dress shoes, I would also have to buy $400 worth of stocks (or other income-producing assets).” This makes me re-evaluate how much I really want something because if I am not willing to save 2x for it, then I don’t buy it.

“When it comes to housing as an investment, unfortunately, the data isn’t that promising. Robert Shiller, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, calculated the inflation-adjusted return on U.S. housing was “only 0.6% a year” from 1915–2015. More importantly, most of that return came after the year 2000. Anytime you look at U.S. housing as an investment, you have to compare it to what an investment in another asset would have done over the same time period. This is known as the opportunity cost of the investment.”

“For example, my grandparents bought their $28,000 home and paid a $280 monthly mortgage from 1972 to 2001. Around 2001, their home was valued at around $230,000. If they had put $280 a month into the S&P 500 from 1972 to 2001, they would have had over $950,000 by 2001, after reinvested dividends. And this doesn’t even include their down payment! Had they invested their down payment as well, they would have had over $1 million by 2001.”

“Given that the transaction costs of buying a home are 2%–11% of the home’s value, you will want to ensure that you stay in the home long enough to make up for these costs. For practical purposes let’s choose the middle of this range and assume that the transaction cost of buying a home is 6%. Using Shiller’s estimate for real U.S. housing returns of 0.6% per year, this means it would take ten years for the typical U.S. home to appreciate enough to offset this 6% transaction cost.”

“Just 4% of stocks from 1926–2016 created all the excess return for stocks above U.S. Treasury bills. In fact, “just five firms (ExxonMobil, Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, and IBM) account for 10% of the total wealth creation.”

“As Geoffrey West calculated, “Of the 28,853 companies that traded on U.S. markets since 1950, 22,469 (78 percent) died by 2009.” In fact, “half of all companies in any given cohort of U.S. publicly traded companies disappear within 10 years.”

“The main purpose of this chapter is to reiterate that saving up cash to buy the dip is futile. You would be far better off if you Just Keep Buying.”

“For example, if you had picked a random month since 1926 to start buying a broad basket of U.S. stocks and kept buying them for the rest of the following decade, there is a 98% chance that you would have beaten sitting in cash and an 83% chance that you would have beaten 5-Year Treasury notes as well. More importantly, you would have typically earned about 10.5% on your money while doing so.”

“And if your net worth exceeds $93,170, which is similar to the median net worth in the U.S., that puts you in the top 10% globally. I don’t know about you, but I would consider someone in the top 10% to be rich”

“There is no right answer, because being rich is a relative concept. Always has been and always will be. And that relativity will be present throughout your life.”

“I would be willing to bet that not one of you, if you were offered every dollar of Warren Buffett’s fortune, would trade places with him right now… And I would also bet, by the way, that Buffett would be willing to be 20 years old again if he was broke.” Consider Attia’s trade for a moment. Imagine having Buffett’s wealth, fame, and status as the greatest investor on earth. You can go anywhere you please, meet anyone you want, and buy anything that can be sold. However, you’re now 87 years old (Buffett’s age at the time). Would you make the trade?”

Weekly readings

Weekly reading – 23rd January 2021

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Weekly reading – 23rd January 2021

What I wrote last week

A few simple tips to save money that I have from personal experience

I wrote about the debate on whether social media should censor Trump

Business

Internal deliberations at Twitter over whether they should ban Trump

Checkout.com vs Adyen

If you aren’t too familiar with Fintech, this article is a good place to start

A piece on a16z and its media-savvy founder

Apple TV+ is said to have only 3% of the market in which Netflix still remains the leader

21% of Chime’s revenue per user as of June 2020 came from ATM fees for out-of-network withdrawals

Nintendo – capitalizing on nostalgia

A survey shows that Apple may have a problem with Apple TV+ churn on its hands

A profile of the CEO of Edwards Lifesciences

The Story of a Cap Table: Affirm

Technology

The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase. Such an interesting read on the development of applications and infrastructure

The insider story of PDFs

What I found interesting

A beautiful beautiful letter on living a life worth living

Nikkei Asia has a nice piece on Covid-19 as an opportunity for Vietnam, given how the country has masterfully managed the crisis so far

Why cats love catnips

Axios has an 8-part (till now) series of great reporting on Trump and his post-election madness

life, Personal Growth

Simple tips to save money

by MQDuong2 Comments on Simple tips to save money

Saving money is something that many of us share interest in, especially when the financial situation is tight. Here are some methods I use to save money

Use public library

I talked about this on my blog before. With public libraries, folks can have some serious savings on books. The public library in Omaha allows free borrowing of many books and as long as the books aren’t in demand, members can renew their withdrawals several times. Even if you turn the borrowed books late, the overdue fees are usually pretty low. I believe that should be the case for other cities. If you don’t have a problem with reading good old-fashioned physical books, why waste money when you can borrow them for free? Take the book below as an example. I had to read it for a course at school. Instead of $12-$15 to Amazon, I could borrow it for several weeks for free from Omaha Public Library.

Buy international version or used books

There are three versions of books: US Edition, International Edition and Global Edition. The content is essentially the same across three editions. What differentiates them is the copyrights and whether you can resell it legally. Here is what Abebooks says about International Edition Books:

Looking for cheap textbooks? Consider international editions – textbooks that have been published outside the US. These books are usually significantly cheaper than textbooks published in the US. Offering tremendous value, international edition textbooks are created to be sold in different regions and are often printed on cheaper paper and are usually softcover. The content may be the same as the U.S. version, or may have differences such as the book cover, ISBN, pagination, or region code.

Customers located in the US can now purchase international edition textbooks. However, note that the publishers of international editions generally do not authorize the sale and distribution of international editions in Canada and such sale or distribution may violate the copyrights and trademarks of the publishers of such works.

Source: Abe Books

In the US, the difference in prices between US Edition and International Edition can be outrageous. Take Marketing Management by Kotler as an example. If you look for a brand new US Edition of this book on Amazon, it will cost you around $140. The same title in International Edition costs $72 on Abebooks. A used International Edition version costs $5. Even if you could resell a US Edition for some money, that would take away your time and require you to pay up front. Think about how many books you are requested to buy during your degree and how much money you could save.

Buy groceries at Aldi

Almost everyone in America knows about Costco and its appeal, but if you are a lone wolf or don’t shop enough to justify a Costco membership, I highly recommend Aldi for groceries. I get it. The retailer doesn’t do much advertising and its stores don’t look fancy at all. What you get; however, is cheap groceries. I wrote about why Aldi manages to sell their goods at a cheaper price. The gist of it is that many popular items such as vegies, milk, yogurt, bread or fruits are available at a significantly lower price than they are at other stores, including Walmart. If it’s cheaper than Walmart, how much money could you save from not shopping at Whole Foods or Hyvee?

Source: CNN

Save before spend

I set aside 10% of my monthly salary for my 401k and then a few hundred dollars every time I receive a paycheck is automatically transferred to my Robinhood account for my own portfolio. Thanks to these little tactics, my savings are guaranteed before any expenses kick in. I can safely spend all the rest, though I rarely do, without worrying about whether I will have any left for savings. How many of us end up with no savings every month after all the expenses, even though we plan to in the beginning? Save before spend

Avoid premium gas

I’ll let CNBC explain it

Other small and simple tips

  • If you have a medical procedure, try MDSave. I wrote about my own experience with MDSave.
  • I make my own coffee and food at home
  • Instead of paying a gym membership, I use free and helpful resources like this channel for workout at home. No equipment, no driving and no membership needed
Weekly readings

Weekly reading – 12th December 2020

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Weekly reading – 12th December 2020

What I wrote last week

How much money could you save from drinking coffee at home?

Business

The economics of the $2B+ Christmas tree industry

Bloomberg’s profile on OnlyFans, a potential major social media on the horizon

Uber sold its autonomous vehicle arm to Aurora. This move isn’t a surprise given that Uber has been trying to offload cash-intensive and loss-making businesses in order to focus on the ones that do make money. Though there is a big write-down from $7.5 billion to $4 billion, investors may find this deal good news

CNBC has a good article on AT&T, HBO and their effort to compete with Netflix and other streamers

Inside Google’s deal with French Media

Many Google employees came out with their version of the story involved Timnit Gebru, contradicting what the company publicly said

WSJ’s profile on a few men that helped build Microsoft’s gaming business today

Online grocery slowed down in the last few months compared to the height in the summer. The basket size continued to be relatively big, compared to the same period last year and pre-Covid months.

https://www.brickmeetsclick.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/1/495948404a0913f7ced51b6524a17539/files/bmc_scorecard_nov_2020_sm.png
Source: Brickmeetsclick

Clover, which belongs to Fiserv and sells hardware & software payment solutions to small businesses, a competitor of Square, seems to have a higher GPV as well as a higher percentage of sellers with $125k in annual GPV. As Clover has more than 90% of its sellers above the $125,000 GPV threshold, the figure is far smaller for Square.

Source: Fiserv

Technology

John Gruber’s review of Apple’s latest product: AirPods Max

What I found interesting

A story on a small coffee business in Vietnam that prioritizes sustainability

Benefits of walking

The US Department of Health and Human Services published a presentation on how unhealthy Americans’ diet is. The information is informative and use, but the presentation is hilariously terrible.

The old Americans get, the more they spend time alone

Personal Growth

How much money you may be wasting on coffee shops?

by MQDuong2 Comments on How much money you may be wasting on coffee shops?

We have all heard about the importance of savings. But what if we look at savings from another perspective? What if we look at how much potential earning excessive spending could cost each of us?

Take coffee consumption as an example. All credit to this Twitter user for inspiration to use coffee as an example. Many of us love to drink coffee every day, but a coffee from a branded or local indie shop can cost around $5-6 per cup. Depending on the consumption level, one person can spend a lot of money on drinking coffee outside per year.

Cups Per Week12345
Total Cost Per Week ($6/cup) (including tips) $              6  $            12  $            18  $            24  $            30 
Total Cost Per Year (52 weeks) $          312  $          624  $          936  $       1,248  $       1,560 

What if we substitute drinking coffee at a shop for drinking coffee at home? We all know that drinking coffee at home will save us a lot of money, but let’s run an experiment and find out approximately how much money can be saved. Here are two combos A) one 12oz bag of ground coffee that is in the cheap range and a French Press from IKEA that costs $9 and B) a slightly more expensive bag of coffee and a Metallisk at $20.

Either of these combos should be enough for a cup of coffee at home every day. For the sake of argument, let’s say every year a person needs 18 of these bags to have one cup of coffee a day. Combined, 18 bags of Dunkin Ground Coffee and the French Press will cost $120/year. Since we like to drink coffee with some milk, let’s throw in another $30 of milk and round it to $150/year. Here is how much drinking coffee at home would save a person:

Cups Per Week12345
Total Cost Per Year (52 weeks) $           312  $          624  $           936  $          1,248  $          1,560 
Total Cost Per Year From Combo A $           150  $          150  $           150  $             150  $             150 
Saving from Combo A $           162  $          474  $           786  $          1,098  $          1,410 

Over a long period of time, the compound interest will make these savings much more valuable in the future. Let’s look at four scenarios where the annual interest rate we can earn from these savings, whether it’s from a bank or investment in stocks or from dividends, is 3% to 10%

Cups Per Week12345
Total Cost Per Year (52 weeks) $           312  $          624  $           936  $          1,248  $          1,560 
Total Cost Per Year From Combo A $           150  $          150  $           150  $             150  $             150 
Saving from Combo A $           162  $          474  $           786  $          1,098  $          1,410 
Annual Rate at 3% $      12,215  $     35,740  $      59,265  $        82,791  $      106,316 
Annual Rate at 5% $      19,570  $     57,259  $      94,949  $      132,638  $      170,328 
Annual Rate at 7% $      32,341  $     94,627  $    156,913  $      219,199  $      281,486 
Annual Rate at 10% $      71,700  $   209,789  $    347,878  $      485,967  $      624,056 

Essentially, what the table above means is that drinking coffee at home using Combo A would save a person on a 3-cup-a-week routine more than $300,000 after 40 years at the annual rate of 10%. Even at a more moderate rate of 5%, it would still be around $100,000, a significant sum for most of us.

Here is what the savings would look like with Combo B and the same criteria

Cups Per Week12345
Total Cost Per Year (52 weeks) $           312  $          624  $           936  $          1,248  $          1,560 
Total Cost Per Year From Combo A $           200  $          200  $           200  $             200  $             200 
Saving from Combo A $           112  $          424  $           736  $          1,048  $          1,360 
Annual Rate at 3% $        8,445  $     31,970  $      55,495  $        79,021  $      102,546 
Annual Rate at 5% $      13,530  $     51,219  $      88,909  $      126,598  $      164,288 
Annual Rate at 7% $      22,359  $     84,645  $    146,931  $      209,218  $      271,504 
Annual Rate at 10% $      49,570  $   187,659  $    325,748  $      463,837  $      601,926 

From this example, there are two lessons. 1/ the compound interest is a powerful tool to learn and have in our favor. The sooner a person learns about it, the better and 2/ If a person is even only decent at maths and knows the power of compound interest, explaining savings in this manner could be more powerful than just talking about it. Personally, I wish my parents or teachers in Vietnam had taught me this when I was 15. I would have saved so much money from all the shenanigans and earned some from putting the money into an index fund or a high dividend yield stock.

You may argue that the scenarios are a bit extreme and that each of us should enjoy what life has to offer. Well, that may be right, but coffee isn’t our only sin, is it? How about regular food from Chipotle, the 5th streaming service of the month, the 20th bottle of perfume or the 15th pair of shoes? The point of this exercise isn’t to arrive at the exact figure, but to look at the opportunity cost of excessive current spending. A moderate control of spending and savings will help each of us save a lot of money, even after we enjoy the occasional delicacies.

FYI, here is a Future Value calculation I made, using Financial Calculators

Book

Book Review – The Psychology of Money. Likely the best book I read this year

by MQDuong1 Comment on Book Review – The Psychology of Money. Likely the best book I read this year

I waited for this book to come out for a while, and it surely doesn’t disappoint. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel is an excellent book on personal finance, our thinking towards money and how that drives a lot of our decisions in life. Not only does the book contain a lot of wisdoms and high quality content, but it is also well and crisply written that you can finish it in a weekend, unlike a lot of other books that are unnecessarily lengthy.

If you care about growing your net worth, investing and making important decisions in your life (who doesn’t?), I really recommend this book. It will transform what you think about money and life. Below are a few nuggets from the book. Have a nice weekend!

The premise of this book is that doing well with money has a little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

Few people make financial decisions purely with a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a company meeting. Places where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together into a narrative that works for you.

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”

“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.”

The idea of having “enough” might look like conservatism, leaving opportunity and potential on the table. I don’t think that’s right. “Enough” is realizing that the opposite—an insatiable appetite for more—will push you to the point of regret.

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”

Think of it like this, and one of the most powerful ways to increase your savings isn’t to raise your income. It’s to raise your humility.

Be nicer and less flashy. No one is impressed with your possessions as much as you are. You might think you want a fancy car or a nice watch. But what you probably want is respect and admiration. And you’re more likely to gain those things through kindness and humility than horsepower and chrome.

Go out of your way to find humility when things are going right and forgiveness/compassion when they go wrong. Because it’s never as good or as bad as it looks. The world is big and complex. Luck and risk are both real and hard to identify. Do so when judging both yourself and others

Less ego, more wealth. Saving money is the gap between your ego and your income, and wealth is what you don’t see. So wealth is created by suppressing what you could buy today in order to have more stuff or more options in the future. No matter how much you earn, you will never build wealth unless you can put a lid on how much fun you can have with your money right now, today

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”

Jim Simons, head of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, has compounded money at 66% annually since 1988. No one comes close to this record. As we just saw, Buffett has compounded at roughly 22% annually, a third as much. Simons’ net worth, as I write, is $21 billion. He is—and I know how ridiculous this sounds given the numbers we’re dealing with—75% less rich than Buffett.

Why the difference, if Simons is such a better investor? Because Simons did not find his investment stride until he was 50 years old

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”

Savings in the bank that earn 0% interest might actually generate an extraordinary return if they give you the flexibility to take a job with a lower salary but more purpose, or wait for investment opportunities that come when those without flexibility turn desperate.

If you have flexibility you can wait for good opportunities, both in your career and for your investments. You’ll have a better chance of being able to learn a new skill when it’s necessary. You’ll feel less urgency to chase competitors who can do things you can’t, and have more leeway to find your passion and your niche at your own pace. You can find a new routine, a slower pace, and think about life with a different set of assumptions. The ability to do those things when most others can’t is one of the few things that will set you apart in a world where intelligence is no longer a sustainable advantage

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”

The idea is that you have to take risk to get ahead, but no risk that can wipe you out is ever worth taking. The odds are in your favor when playing Russian roulette. But the downside is not worth the potential upside. There is no margin of safety that can compensate for the risk.

Room for error does more than just widen the target around what you think might happen. It also helps protect you from things you’d never imagine, which can be the most troublesome events we face.

Excerpt From: Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.”
Business

Where debit meets credit – This debit card features credit card benefits

by MQDuong1 Comment on Where debit meets credit – This debit card features credit card benefits

I came across an interesting startup called Point, which offers Point App and Point Card. Point App is a mobile wallet application from which you can apply for and manage your Point Card. Point Card is a debit card that offers benefits similar to those of a credit card. Benefits include 5x points on subscriptions such as Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and some others, 3x points on food delivery & ride share, 1x points on everything else, no foreign transaction fees and more. Instead of banking on your missing your payments, Point makes money from interchange fees which are a small percentage of your spend and a subscription fee. In order to use Point Card, a customer must pay $7/month or $5/month on an annual plan.

I think this card will be helpful to those who are conscious of their budget and interested in credit-card-like benefits. 47% of Americans carry credit card debt that amounts to $890 billion in total in Q1 2020. Failure to make payments on time results in a high interest which often comes in the range of 13% – 26%. Further inability to make payments repeatedly will put a revolving customer in a vicious cycle as in that case, compounding interests work against him or her. I work for a bank and a credit card issuer and let me tell you: we want you to be delinquent on your credit card debt. It’s a significant source of revenue and profit to issuers. With Point Card, the risk of delinquency is taken away as you can only spend money that you actually have. There is no temptation to make impulsive purchases on credit and break personal budget.

Point Card may not make sense for every one, though. I mean, if you are willing to pay a few bucks a month to have a cool-looking debit card and some nice features that mimic those of Apple Card, by all means. If you want to break even on a $5/month annual subscription at 1x points redemption rate, you’ll need to spend at least $500/month for this investment to make sense financially. If a family puts all utilities, car insurance and subscriptions, and other discretionary expenses on a Point Card, it can easily exceed $500 while the family can avoid the risk of delinquency.

I do think it’s an interesting concept that can appeal to a group of consumers. As a fan of personal finance, I want to see more folks in control of their own finance and stay away from the temptation from card issuers. I hope that as Point scales and continues to be nimble without a big budget in marketing as well as physical branches, it can offer more rewards to attract more customers.

Book

Book review: The Wealthy Barber Returns

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Book review: The Wealthy Barber Returns

I saw a hedge fund manager recommend this book on Twitter, but accidentally grabbed the newer version instead of the recommended original. Nonetheless, here is my review. This short and easy-to-read book which is a compliment contains some common sense regarding personal finance. If you just begin to dip into the personal finance space, this book can be a good place to start, though I am sure there are better books. If you want to enrich your personal finance knowledge, there may be some ideas from the book that can be interesting. If you live in Canada, this book may even be more interesting as the author spent a significant part of the book discussing matters specific to the Canadian systems only.

The two main take-away points from this book, if that’s all you will leave it with, are this: 1/ live below your means and 2/ save early.

There is no surer way to approach financial independence than keeping your expenses below your income. In fact, the lower your expense is than your income, the better. It’s quite common to see folks who spend most or all of their income every month. Those are the paycheck-to-paycheck folks. When life throws them a twist as it very often goes, there will be no saving for a rainy day. If you look at the current pandemic (as it is still going on), not only is it not a rainy day, it is a freaking storm. People lose jobs and health insurance. Income is gone, but bills are still there to pay. In fact, 40% of Americans are reported not to have $400 for an emergency. That’s so crazy to think about. Even though the idea of living below your means is so laughably obvious, the reality clearly shows that it is a foreign concept to many.

The book emphasizes a key trick in making sure that you save money every month: save before you spend the rest, not spend and save the rest. Say, if you earn $3,000 a month, put 10-20% somewhere as savings and spend the rest. That approach allows you to save at least $300 a month. After two months, at least you can say that you are NOT among people who don’t have $400 in cash for an emergency. On the other hand, if you decide to save whatever is left after the first 28-29 days of the month, you likely won’t save much. As human beings, we are terrible in self-control.

“You don’t have to become a miser and live a life of austerity. You just have to exercise a little discipline and a little common sense. You’re probably wondering, “If that’s the case, why aren’t there more successful savers? Why haven’t we all been able to slightly reduce our spending?” The blunt answer? A little discipline and a little common sense are a little more than most of us can muster.”

Excerpt From: David Chilton. “The Wealthy Barber Returns.” Apple Books.

The second key take-away is that you should start saving early. The earlier and more consistent you save, the better. Instead of typing out why you should, I’ll let these charts from JP Morgan demonstrate the power of compounding interest, which is usually called “the 8th wonder of the world”

chart jp morgan retirement
Source: Business Insider
monthly savings chart new
Source: Business Insider

As you can see, the earlier and longer you save, the more compounding interest works in your favor. To reach $1 million at retirement, you can either save $361 monthly, starting at the age of 20, or save $1,400+ a month at the age of 40. Which one do you feel is more daunting? Especially given the more responsibilities and expenses that come with being older? Exactly!

There are other topics addressed in the book such as:

  • If someone asks you to do something that involves spending, practice saying “I can’t afford it”
  • When you should take out a line of credit
  • What is good debt and what is bad debt?
  • A basic primer on index funds and why you should strongly consider them as an investment vehicle

Overall, I think the book does offer value. I can see that it’s even more helpful to teenagers who are interested in building wealth and strategizing their life to financial independence and happier life. To those who may argue that saving fir the future will come at the expense of today’s sacrifice and the enjoyment of life, here is what the book argues, which I agree with

One of the most damaging misconceptions in personal finance is that saving for the future requires sacrifices today that lessen people’s enjoyment of life. Surprisingly, it’s quite the opposite! People who live within their means tend to be happier and less stressed. That’s true not only for the obvious reason — they know their financial futures look bright — but also because they’re not consumed with consumption. They’re not in the emotionally and financially draining race to acquire the most stuff they possibly can. A race that, it should be noted, has no finish line and thus no winner.

Excerpt From: David Chilton. “The Wealthy Barber Returns.” Apple Books.