Success is my topic on this blog. Success is not simply one thing and definitely not about money.

That is why I have a tendency to write more about concepts in personal development and less about personal finance. I write much less about in specifics and details in what to do with your money. Besides the fact that there are plenty of info and references on the internet already, the truth is that if you can master the basics, success in life (and therefore personal financial life) will soon follow. Kinda like martial arts practice – the ability to a more advanced move comes from the mastery and understanding of doing a more basic move.

How do I mean? What are the basics? These qualities quicly come to my mind:

• Understand Yourself
• Responsibility
• Awareness (part 1, part 2)
• Discipline
• Open-Mindedness
• Compassion

You may be thinking, “Compassion? Wha…?” Don’t laugh because compassion IS a basic and requirement in success in life.

Use the “Search” on the right to locate my posts on these topics.

I’m here to confess today. I don’t have Roth IRA nor do I plan to open one, au contraire to just about any books, blogs, or references you may have read about personal finance. I do contribute to my 401k to get my company match. It’s my way of putting the personal aspect in my personal finance.

I dislike the illiquidity of retirement account due to the fact that withdrawal without penalty is not allowed until retirement age, which is a long freakin’ 40 years away for me. Enough of my money is “locked up” in my 401k, especially because I made extra contribution to kick start the account in the past/1st year of my career. I switched back to the company matching percentage in the new year.

It’s not like I’m guaranteed to live that long. And honestly, I don’t plan to live that long, pass 80s and such. There is only so long one can stand the absurdity of human society :P Among various factors like not living ’til I have saggy skin, 401k, my wonderful(boring) discipline with money, taxable accounts, and the hopes of a very established future spouse(a.k.a. sugar mama), somehow I have faith that I will manage.

I’m done with my rant. Now is your time to call me stupid.

Oh, I was just kidding about the sugar mama since, bluntly, no one can cover your own a** better than yourself.

I hate traffic. I hate traffic with a passion hotter than hellfire. It’s such a waste of time. Despite that, I decided to brace the stormy weather and rush hour traffic because I miss my family and beautiful little niece who I haven’t seen for couple weeks.

The result is a supposedly 50-minute trip turned into almost 2 hours of driving. My daily commute is 30 minutes one way and that’s the maximum I would endure in terms of everyday commute. If you ask me to commute 2 hours everyday, you may as well make me watch 24-unbroken-hour of Oprah, or just bury me six feet under. Today, I did it for a good reason so I’m not too angry.

Nonetheless, it’s such a waste of time. This makes me wonder if anyone else can stand to voluntarily waste hours in a mobile-metallic-prison everyday. Surprisingly, there are countless in the bay area! People here willingly sacrifice their life in commute in order to own a bigger house in area further and cheaper. They also do so all for a better paying job. The loss of time means less time to do things you want and less time to spend with family and friends. I can’t see how a bigger house or a little more money is more important.

I can even go as far to summarize those people’s day: eat, shit, commute, work, and sleep. All for the sake of a bigger house. All for the sake of a 6-figure job. All for the sake of money. All for the sake of greed.

Besides the cost of time, there are also the cost of air pollution with the hive of cars on the road… brake and gas… brake and gas… thousands and thousands tottering at snail pace. The situation is exacerbated in the past few years by what I said above. I guess they are driven by the supposed American dream. Ultimately, this contributes to the increasing air pollution and the ever increasing oil consumption. This also leads me to theorize that low-emission vehicle is not a practical solution to lower green house gas.

Of course, you can argue that over population(humans) and over concentration(companies) contribute to our traffic condition, but undeniably, greed plays a role in the situation. Einstein said that human stupidity is infinite. This demonstration of greed provides some proof.

It sounds like the world is ending out there these days. And people are not happy if they do not freak out like chicken without head for a day. It’s a party out there. Actually, it’s the crashing of a long lasted party out there.

Regardless, I guess everyone’s wondering what to do with their money these days, if they have any left over that is. I hope that you have been nice with yourself and saved money and avoided debt like my blog and many PF blogs talk about out there. Yeah, I know it’s boring, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I don’t usually talk about investing much because I am no expert. I simply have some experience from the last 2-3 years of participating in the market. At the same time, there are many more resources and blogs written by people with expertise. Though let me share a little bit today…

Despite all the chaos and bawling out there, I will simply continue doing what I have been doing – putting some money in saving and investing the rest. In fact, I will put what I can afford into stocks and index funds as they keep falling and into bargain price, given that I am in it for the long haul. Plus, the banks’ savings rate will soon follow the massive rate cut by the Fed.

Simply put, long term is the simplest way to go. Trying to time the market is more or less gambling (been there, done that). It takes time and effort and is not even worth it, especially for my lazy behind.

If you don’t trust me, listen to the great “Sage of Omaha” Warren Buffet:

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.

Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.

Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

So invest in stocks(companies) that have solid foundations and hold. Personally, I like to find them with dividends. Or to make things easier, you can put your money in various index funds and just wait.

But before you go diving in (now or ever), there are prerequisites:

• You can feed and put a roof over yourself and your family. You may think this is silly, but if you think about what a silly gambler husband/wife/father/mother/sibling can do to a family, it’s not so funny anymore.
• You have a certain amount of saving. They call it emergency fund out there, and it should include 3-months or 6-months living expense. To plan for the worst, save enough so you feel comfortable even if you lose all the investing money.
• You have minimal bad debt. This includes the ones without tax deduction and with high interest rate.
• You are not emotionally attached to the money you invest. This is why I said you need to have a comfortable amount of saving. Also in other words, don’t gamble with your shirt, or you most likely end up…naked. This will prevent you from freaking out like others and moving money around to “unintentionally” time the market.
• For the sake of long term, invest money that you won’t need in the next 5-10 years.

Yes, it’s not a good feeling to see BOLD RED across the portfolio, but once you learn to look 5-10 years down the road, it’s not so bad. Okay, I’m done with my investment talk and probably for the last time :P

One last word, investing is supposed to be simple.

The theory of relativity is one of Albert Einstein’s greatest achievement. Today, I apply it to our perspective on money to explain the pay for being directors and CEOs. And don’t miss out the wonders of CEO perks.

From $21,000 an hour, at your expense:

In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, 85 corporate directors took home more than $1 million.

From Is a CEO worth 364 times the average Joe?:

Top execs at Fortune 500 companies averaged $10.8 million in total compensation in 2006.

In terms of relativity, the passage of time is drastically different from someone sitting on an Herman Miller chair to someone sitting on a porcupine. Likewise, the value of money is different for owner of an Enzo Ferrari vs. owner of a 20-year-old rusty beat-up Corolla. In literal terms, for commoners and middle class folks, including myself, a dollar is just a dollar, but for the people who peer down on earth from Mount Olympus, they speak in terms of thousands. Base on the said theory base on relativity…

Directors who earn $21,000 on an hourly basis, that is a whooping $21 dollars. That’s a couple happy meals there.

For CEOs who make millions each year, their salaries are reduced to a couple thousands dollars. Ah, poor bunch living in poverty. No wonder they needed company-sponsored social security. With high inflation and increasing energy cost, I see them needing help from their companies more than ever.

Now that we have applied relativity to the dollar, those people no longer sound so impressive. That should bring us some solace and comfort knowing that they feel as poor as we do. Yeah! It has also become clear why they strive so hard to become billionaires because it’s no different from us trying to become millionaires!

And guess what, today’s Dilbert comic ironically is on the same topic!

Below are some notable(laughable) perks mentioned in The worst CEO perks, though I beg the difference and would title it best instead of worst. And if you apply relativity to all the numbers by removing the last 3 decimals, then all the perks will make perfect sense. In fact, they are of the same value as the perks the white collars get – unlimited supply of paper, staples, post-its, and what not. More fortunate ones may get international long distance phone calls, like CEOs with their private jets.

• Chairman and former Chief Executive Vincent Gierer Jr. [of UST Inc.] got $6,500 for his wine allowance, despite making more than $6 million.
• At Anheuser-Busch, execs enjoy unlimited free beer “for personal use and entertaining.”
• Shareholders of Nuance Communications footed the $25,911 bill for a personal assistant used by Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Ricci. [And his] $3,896 tax bill.
• Motorola executives get personal health coaches.
• i2 Technologies paid $942,000 to shuttle CEO Michael McGrath back and forth from his home in Maine and his office in Dallas during the year.
• United Technologies CEO George David wasn’t far behind. His shareholders forked out $612,000 in 2006 for his personal use of the corporate jet.
• Even CEO Martin Glynn was paid $13.8 million in salary, stock incentive grants and other pay in 2006, HSBC paid him a $177,600 rent allowance, plus an additional $150,000 to cover the tax on the value of the rent.
• Liberty Media shareholders last year chipped in $319,278 to help Chairman John Malone pay his taxes.

After reading all that, let’s begin singing what I learned in singing class, “Oh what a wonderful day~~~”.