FIRE... by 2018

Wow.. it's been a long long time. I was really busy towards the end of last summer, and then just got lazy. I hope I can pick up the slack and continue to post more regularly.

A lot has happened since I last posted. The sale of the apartment went pretty well. I had to lower my asking price to 219k but sold it pretty quickly. I got a promotion at work but still haven't received a raise yet. The bonus this year was pretty good at 25%, pushing my total comp to just over 100k. I made a decent amount of money in 2006 and I also spent a lot of money on a single item. An engagement ring! Yes. I got engaged to be married! It's quite scary. Also, my parents sold their house and they were quite generous with the proceeds. They gifted me $150k with the condition that the interest I earn on it be taxed to me but that they have access to whenever they need. I really don't mind, actually! I'm really quite lucky.

The fiance doesn't quite have the "entrepreneur" itch. However, she did enjoy seeing me buy apartments (at one point i was carrying 3 mortgages), fixing them, and selling them for profit. I found her an apartment over a year ago that she bought and will eventually become her first flip. She's in contract to sell her apt for a profit of about 100k in a little over a year's holding time. Pretty damn good.

The only thing that's still unprofitable for me is the STOCK MARKET! Long term, short term, value investing, dividend stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds... i'm still in the red. It sucks. I hate it.

Our combined networth exceeded $1 million this year. Real estate had a lot to do with it. I'm determined to work with real estate to make more money but at the same time, I have to be cautious due to concerns over the health of this market. The best for me to do is be patient and wait for the right deal to come along and just keep looking for that opportunity.

$1 million may seem like a lot, but the last apartment I looked at was $795k for a 2 bed 2 bath at about 1000 sq ft in a nicer Brooklyn neighborhood. It is outrageously expensive to live in NYC. We'll continue to live below our means to horde as much as we can so we can retire much sooner than we hope to. For now, things are looking good. Let's hope it'll continue to be that way.

This parody is so funny.. makes me want to go home and watch Office Space.

Been busy at work, which is somewhat unusual. Got invited to join a special program for exceptional employees, one where they hope to make us feel more comfortable in the work environment so we'll stay. Right. I think it's a joke and a waste of time.

The good news is a smaller unit in the same building of my rental property went into contract. Don't know how much it's in contract for, but the listing price was 229k. I'll be really happy with that figure. With that sale, I will probably break the half million mark this year.

Been studying for my GRE, focusing hard on my vocabulary. I wrote a little javascript page that picks a random word everytime it loads, like picking a card from a deck of flash cards. I use it on my Treo's web browser. Quite geeky, but so helpful.

I complain about my job a whole lot. Don't worry, I'm working towards leaving, but not anytime soon. I just like to complain about it, cuz, well, I think it sucks. I'm in a role where there's no clear title for me. I have a hard time explaining to others what field I'm in and what I do exactly. I often feel I'm not technical enough at my job, and I don't understand or care too much about the business side either. It's a weird position. I did a breakdown of my job responsibilities and it shows that I do about 40% writing SQL or coding, 45% doing low-level tech stuff, and 15% crap. The 40% SQL/coding is the same stuff I've been doing for a long time, except for maybe a few tweaks here and there. So freshness doesn't exist.



To me, these tasks are pretty sh*tty. I hate this adhoc stuff. It really bores me. However, when I look at some pluses to my job, it really puts me on the fence. Right in the middle of the range of 1 to 10. The hours, benefits, pay, are all pretty good. Darn it, it's so difficult to choose when I'm not willing to sacrifice my short hours and the time off I get. I see people working their asses off and they complain about that too. I get advice to just stick it out and look at the bright side, but I also get advice to do something I enjoy. Well, what I really want is the cake and eat it too! If I have to choose, i'd choose to do something I enjoy doing rather than something that's boring but easy. At the same time, I am not the kind of person to just quit without finding a suitable alternative or enough money in the bank, which is also a reason why I'm selling the rental, so I have the cash if I decide to just quit. Anyway, I've scratched the whole MBA idea. It really isn't for me. However, I may pursue an MS degree and I'm deciding between Computer Science or Financial Engineering. FE sounds really interesting, but I don't know too much about it and I'm not confident I can get into a program (lack of self confidence from spending too much time in a low-tech low-finance position). I can only try. That's all I can say for now.

If I get into a program, I may want to stay at my job to finance the program, and I doubt it will affect my performance at school.. well, because my job is easy and I'd probably get away with leaving early and doing homework at work, as long as my current boss doesn't leave. Reasons like these make it hard for me to leave, but eventually I'd have to for a brighter future.

I am curious to see what others do at their jobs and a breakdown of their overall job satisfaction.

I've decided to list my empty rental apartment for sale instead of renting it out. Over the weekend, I met with a different broker than the one I normally work with to learn about her operation and to get her opinion on how much I should list it for. She impressed me with a long Powerpoint presentation, a better than average website, her tech-savviness and her overall salesmanship. She even brought with her a tablet PC with an air-card, which she said she had used to allow a buyer to sign a purchase agreement. Cool indeed. She was nice. If I were a buyer, I would trust her. She kept showing me her Powerpoint even though I was already quite impressed. Her best attribute, as she was really trying to sell to me, was that her success rate was 100%, and that her ratio of sale price to asking price is highest among the region. Wow. She really does seem to be a "good" broker, much better than the one I've worked with, who I am considering replaced.

I bought the apartment last year for $165k. I want to sell it for $200k at least. Did the market appreciate 20% over the year? Recent comps in the surrounding area seem to show that it has, (for smaller units at least). Now here's something interesting. In the past few weeks, a unit one flight up from me went on sale for $229k, but the apartment is 100 sq ft smaller than mine and has no other distinction in terms of finishes or condition. It is overpriced, and so far doesn't seem to have a lot of activity. This is huge for me. Knowing this, I can potentially list the apartment for $210k and it will seem like a great deal compared to the other unit. Selling an apartment is all about marketing, and you use any angle you can to get you an advantage. They have a whole lineup of shows on HGTV that teach you that. For me this time, it's about a mispriced unit in the same building, and how I price the unit based on this information is critical.

A "good" broker who prides herself on her high selling/asking ratio worries me a bit. It worries me because she may be too concerned about keeping her reputation. She'd most probably list the property way below market price just so she can get multiple full price offers or even offers above asking price. Then, she'll appear to be this awesome broker because she'd done a great job for the seller. I told her about my concerns, and pointed to her about a potential opportunity for me based on a mispricing of another unit. I wanted to see how she can work with me and be the good broker that I am desperately looking for. More importantly, I wanted to see how creative she can be in this situation.

She listened to me but went on with the presentation. It's been an hour and I needed her to get to the point. So I asked her what she think I should list it at based on her research and what I told her. Her answer was $185k, 6% commission to her and to sell it faster, I should offer another .5% to 1% to the buyer's agent. I was pissed that she had wasted so much of my time. At $185k, I would just walk away slightly better than break-even. Now why would I do that?! I told her that this would not work for me, and that perhaps she can come up with something more than her textbook "I think we had a 10% increase from last year and that's how I would price it." She couldn't think of anything new. I told her I would think about it, but seriously, I didn't have to think that hard.

After I left our meeting, I drove to meet with my less than perfect broker. I dropped off my keys with her and let her figure out how to price it competitively with the mispriced unit. She said she'll get back to me and I'm fine with that. Although she's sloppy, forgetful, and sometimes ditsy, she's always come up big for me in terms of getting the price that I want. I'm sure this time won't be different either. I guess more money in my pocket is worth putting up with her flaws.

Darn it. It would have been fun to sign documents on that tablet PC and have copies sent to my smartphone via a laptop aircard. Yes, it would have been geeky, but fun.

A great flash game.

Objective: To accumulate enough money to purchase a mansion by buying and selling properties.

Citibank has always been about convenience for me. With so many ATM locations in NYC and worldwide, I've never had to pay any fees to withdraw money. Just recently, Citi also teamed up with 7-Eleven to add another 5500 ATMs for its customers. It's a bit excessive, but I like the fact that there are more options for me. I also have a mortgage with Citi and qualify for a relationship where I get free certified checks, which normally costs $10. This service came in handy when I had to get multiple checks to bring to the closing table.

I'm quite satisfied with Citi on convenience alone, but more recently, I've even taken advantage of some of its high yielding products. I've signed up for the e-Savings account, which took less than a minute to set up since I was already a customer. The yield is highly competitive, paying 5% APY at the moment. I've also taken advantage of its 6 month CD product, which pays a yield of 5.5%. Finally, I've applied for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard, which earns 5% cash back on purchases at supermarkets, drug stores, and gas stations, and 1% everywhere else.

I also prefer using its online banking over HSBC or Bank of America. The website is easy to use and not cluttered with "useless" information like BofA's. HSBC is far behind in terms of user experience.

In the future, I may even participate in its new MasterCard Paypass contactless payment system for NYC's subway system. Testing is already underway at some selected stations.

Yes, I'm a happy customer of Citibank. Convenience, great service, and great products offered are reasons I bank with them. I see no reason to switch to a different bank, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Over the last 2 weekends, I picked up some nice casual clothes from UNIQLO in Soho. UNIQLO, short for Unique Clothing, is Japan's most popular apparel retailer. Their quality and style is a lot like that of GAP or Banana Republic, but cheaper. Right now, they are having a grand opening sale, so a lot of things can be purchased for cheap.

I picked up a couple of polo t-shirts for $12.99 each. They are not only cheap but they are quick-drying, good for hot humid summer days here in NY. I also picked out 2 pairs of light summer pants for $14.50 a pair, 2 long-sleeve button-down for $12.99 each, and 2 pairs of jeans for $40.

I'm actually a horrible dresser, and when it comes to work clothes, I am even worse. In the summer time, i wear slacks and polo shirts EVERYDAY, and when the weather is cooler, I switch from polo shirts to solid dress-shirts. Only sometimes do I go stripes. =( There's really no one here to impress and if I need to go out after work, I'd go home first to change. But seriously, why would I want to spend $60 on an IZOD shirt just to wear it to work??? It's a good thing my gf loves me for my inner beauty.. *barf*

I guess being Unfashionable has helped me save more of my money. Anyway, go check out UNIQLO.

Overall, June shows an increase in net worth of over $9,000, to $462,477, which could have been more if I hadn't spent like I did.

I finally heard back from my accountant about my '05 tax returns. I am due back approximately $13,000 between Federal and State. She deducted everything she could, including the use of the vehicle, tolls, gas, supplies, and other costs incurred while I worked on my properties. I felt it was legitimate since I really did buy the SUV to haul stuff to those apartments and I seldom use it for personal use. Aside from that, I had a whole year's interest to deduct on my primary residence, depreciation on rental properties, and passive losses.

My stock and retirement accounts suffered a harsh month. I did not collect rent for the month of June since I allowed the ex-tenants to use the security deposit for rent. Actually, I still owe them some money for the remainder of the deposit. The value of my SUV has dropped according to Kelly's Blue Book values. The reality is that it's probably worth less due to the high gas prices and the lack of demand for SUVs. June was also an irresponsible month since I spent freely during my vacation, ate at some fancy restaurants here in NY, and bought myself a new smart phone. It's all good.

A look back at my earliest posts, I started out the year at $394,359. Today, that number has increased to $462,477, an increase of $68,118, or 17.27%. I didn't do anything spectacular. The bulk of the increase was from bonus, the sale of a property I already had before I started this blog, and my upcoming tax refund. Seriously, I think the only things I did related to personal finance were that I increased my 401k contribution and I opened up online savings accounts at both HSBC and Citibank. I give myself a D for my PF efforts. Had I been more savvy on knowing where to park my money and be more diligent at saving, the net worth would sure be a lot higher.

Still, I feel proud that I've done well. Even though I did not save all that I could, at least I spent less than I made. With 6 months to go in 2006, I wonder if I can break the half-mil mark this year. I plan to sell my other rental and park the cash into online savings accounts now paying 5.05% at HSBC and 5% at Citibank. The interests earned can reduce my living expenses and without tenants to worry about, I can concentrate on getting a higher degree, perhaps getting a part-time MBA. Then, I can get a higher paying and hopefully more interesting job.

Hiya. I'm back from my very first visit to China. Thank you all for your comments on my last entry. China was a lot of fun, and even though I hit 7 cities, it was only a small fraction of things to see and learn in China. I am already thinking of another trip to discover the southern regions.

We started out in Beijing where it was obligatory that we checked out Tiananmen and also the Great Wall. Then, we flew to Urumqi (I have never heard of it nor knew it was a major city in China before this trip!!) where we began our Silk Road Tour which included the following cities: Urumqi, Kashgar, Turfan, Dunhuang, Lanzhou, and Xian. The Silk Road Tour was awesome and we saw many amazing things. We even visited local families and took pictures with them. In the very western part of China, where Kashgar is a major city, most people look middle eastern and spoke Uyghur, which is a Turkish based language. However, many of them also spoke Mandarin so that was kinda shocking. There are over 56 nationalities in China in which Han Chinese is the majority, sometimes referred to as "descendants of the Dragon", which is what I am. The Chinese currency note has the words "People's Bank of China" as well as the denomination in the Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongol and Zhuang languages on the back. All of this was so fascinating to me.

Overall, things were pretty cheap when converted back to USD. A Big Mac value meal was 15.50 rmb, which is less than $2. Local foods were even cheaper. A complete meal can be purchased for about $1. When buying touristy stuff, one must haggle! I hated the whole process but my friends enjoyed it so much. By the end of the trip, we were such experts that some of us were able to purchase things at 15-20% of asking price. Woah!

Of course, my sick real estate addiction made me ask all the tour guides how much an apartment costs in each of the cities we visited. In Kashgar, a 100 sq. meter apt (1076.39104 sq ft) costs roughly $15,000. In Lanzhou, the same apartment would cost about $30,000. That is the price for a 3 bed 2 bath apartment in a highrise building!!! Something similar would cost $1.25 million in Manhattan. I thought about FIRE and living in Lanzhou, but naah.. the air is too polluted. Speaking of pollution, Beijing was the worst! I got an upper respiratory infection and red eyes while the gf got a sinus infection. We had to be confined in the hotel 1 day because we were that sick! Uhm.. don't go to Beijing. That's my advice. And Beijing real estate was ridiculous. Some apartments were just as expensive as Manhattan condos, in USD!

I spent quite a bit of money on my trip but it was worth it. I am making it a goal to take at least 1 long trip a year. The only drawback on being on the other side of the world for a long time is the amount of time it takes to get readjusted. For the first few nights since I got back, I've gone to sleep around 8pm. Working got a lot tougher too. There was also the "Vacation Withdrawal Depression" I kept feeling, which made me an unpleasant person to be around.

Well.. good to be back. I'm all refreshed and ready to earn/save/invest so I can fund my early retirement and many trips along the way.

Going on this year's big trip today. Won't be back for 2 and a half weeks. The trip is costly, but preparing for it isn't cheap either. I've spent over $400 bucks in the past week just getting the necessary items for the trip, including some recommended shots not covered by my health insurance. Heading to Beijing and other cities in China. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. It is my first time into China.

Some thoughts before I go:

1. Brooklyn real estate bubble? Yes, I agree that prices have come down a bit, but not drastically and sellers are not really having that hard a time selling. If it's in a good location and of good quality like this $499k 800 sq ft 1br 1.5ba I saw in April, it will not have problems selling. That apartment had 1 open house on a rainy day and is now in contract. Wow. I never even got a chance to view it.

2. I tried using Google Adsense Preview on the real estate website I built and saw too many "competing" brokers on the preview. There will be too many sites to block. So for now, that project is still on hold. Not sure if I'll ever capitalize on it.

3. Tenant confirmed ending the lease in June. I will try to rent it out again. If I can't get good tenants, I'll sell it and maybe move the gains to another property that's closer to where I live. To be honest, I'd rather sell than rent it out.

4. Still taking a beating on the stock market. Still clueless why a stock behaves the way it does. Purchased LQDT at $12.xx. It trades today at $19.xx, up over 50%. Why? I don't understand. What are people seeing that I am not??? Too bad the gain doesn't cover the losses on the ETFs I bought. Put a stop order GTC for $18 to cash in on the gain while I'm away.

5. Prosper.com - Did not look too much into it, but was wondering if someone can be both lender and borrower. With good credit, can this not be a money making idea?

That's it for now. Happy pf-blogging.