memoryloot

The realization of my age didn’t hit me until recently. I’m getting lower back pains which I never remembered getting or ever getting this bad. Its been over a week since this discomfort began. It could be the way I’m sitting or excessive amount of time I’ve spent parked in front of my workstations at work. It could be just poor posture while I am sitting at home as well. It could also be me being out of shape. It’s sad that one’s body deteriorates while the mind and spirit continues to believe that you’re still young. In retrospect, I don’t think I’m that old but my body is telling, “Oh yes you are!”

On a brighter note, I’ve been winning recently at our home games. Won $105 tonight but treated the remainder of our poker party to dinner and walked away practically even. Oh well, you play for the fun and challenge, right? I guess this makes up for the $120 I won 2 weekends ago which I didn’t justifiably return the same favor to the contributers of my winnings.

In a recent post, I had dabbled in the idea of compounding interest. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Today, I learned something even more incredible and worth sharing. Ever since that last post, I wanted to figure out why more people are so excited about compounding interest. I mean I can figure out how long it will take for me to double the amount of money just by using a simple calculation, but why was this important?

To my surprise, the answer was right in front of me. Well, not really in front of me, but it was in the form of a podcast I was listening to. I subscribe to Doug Fabian’s podcast. The author of “Maverick Investing”. Even though I listen to him on a daily basis, I was never intrigued with what he had to say. But recently he had his dad, Dick Fabian, come on the show and explain the idea of trend following and importantly compounding interest. For some reason Dick Fabian had an incredible appeal where I was paying more attention to what he had to say. You can tell he was very passionate about the subject even to this day after retirement.

After his interviews, I went to visit his web site and found his document explaining the power of compounding. It basically described how you can invest $100,000 and retain an earning of 20% every year for 15 years, you will earn $1.5 million. That isn’t the amazing part. The amazing part is that the earning is equivalent to gaining 96% return on the initial $100,000 every year until 15 years. Meaning even though you’re gaining 20% annual on your lump sum, because of compounding interest where the interest is applied to the lump sum plus all previous gains, you’re actually getting more than 20% every year and eventually returning a much higher interest as you let the amount compound. This to me is truly amazing since you don’t need to find an investment that yields higher than 20% to get a higher gain. All it takes is time and working to find investments that gives you at least 20% gains. He quickly points out that there are hundreds of mutual funds that yield that much or more. All we need to do is go to the library to see the year-end edition of Barron’s, WSJ, or USA Today to look at mutual funds listings. And more importantly, if you use his worksheet, you can monitor your investment every week to make sure they are retaining a 1.67% growth every month. Why 1.67%? That’s 20% gain for a year (1.67% * 12 = 20%). I think I might just subscribe to this trend following methodology in investing. Its basically monitoring the trends using the 200-day moving average, which you can get from Finance Yahoo! page for any symbol you’re looking up. I’m sure there’s more to this so I’m going to find out what else I need to do. But for now, the reality of possibly retiring a millionaire by age of 45 is a reality and not a dream.

This video is making its rounds around the Internet this week. Thanks to Lex who sent me the link from the Czech Republic to the SoCalSportBikes forum post on this. She definitely knew how to handle that situation correctly. I would have done exactly the same thing she did. Taking the left would have definitely been unpredictable so the logical choice to me was to try to steer towards the right. That Civic driver was a complete dumbass. Situations like this reminds me that anything can happen whether you’re riding or driving. I think I’m going to look into a full leather suit and maybe camera set-up like hers after I finish paying off my student loan. Learn from your mistakes as well as others. Just a friendly reminder to stay safe out there and if you’re on 2 wheels be extra careful.

For our 3rd annual Singles And Dating / Valentines Party, we decided to have a murder mystery dinner. Our gracious host did a great job as well as my gf who prepared all appetizers. We had alot of fun playing our roles and just a general good time mingling with people.

Happy Valentines Day!

As a response to SNL’s Chronicles of Narnia Video, these guys put out something equally as funny.

Edit 02/20/2006: Ironically enough, my own employer decided to pull the video of the SNL skit. Oh well, I’m sure you can catch it on iTunes or somewhere on the Internet.

My weekend began with some time with the guys celebrating Wilson’s birthday. It was good being with only the guys and just bullshitting about old times. Nothing really says friendship like 7 guys making fun of one another about their weakest moments in high school and college. We had a great dinner at Lucille’s again. I love that place! We ended up in Corona playing a very competitive poker game at Shon’s place. At 5am I finished the game being up $126.

The next day I had another birthday to go to. But this time, it started at Tokyo Delves and ended at Saddle Ranch (again). Nothing says “Happy Birthday!” like getting wasted with your friends! Again, a birthday wish to my good friend Ann. You can probably guess which one she is.

Super Bowl Sunday was ok. Had some good food and spent some more time with my gf. The game was boring. Nothing special but a laid back Sunday. Back to work again. Sigh

I got this in an e-mail forward today. Thought it would be interesting to share here.

DORMITORY
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET’S RECOUNT

MOTHER-IN-LAW
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

SNOOZE ALARMS
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z’S

A DECIMAL POINT
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA
When you rearrange the letters:
(With no letters left over and using each letter only once):
TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS