People are always coming and going in and out of life. This happens especially if we choose to strive for change and self-improvement.

Our perception and ideals would continue to change, and the people we use to hang out with no longer share the same feelings or in worse scenario, could become incapable to understand and communicate with our newer, improvedand character. Additionally, when our behaviors change, others will distance themselves from us as they reject us for being “different”. They may also envy us, wish us bad luck, try to deter us, as we strive for success…unfortunately. Of course we wish for them to change for the better together, but we all walk a different path in life. That is something must be accepted in life.

People fear difference. Sometimes people limit themselves because they are afraid to be different.

Consequently, it gets lonelier the more we change and try to become our better selves. Thus, the dilemma for each of us…

In the face of loneliness, how do I respond?
Can I maintain myself with confidence?
Or will I choose conformity out of fear?
Can I presevere, knowing it will only get more difficult?
Or will I take the easy way out instead?
And worst case, will I be okay with the fact that no one in the world can understand me?

Let me share this quote:

Anybody can be famous
Fame is cheap
Fame is easy
Fame is fleeting,
Try achieving greatness.

Greatness is hard
Greatness is lonely
Greatness is work
Greatness is humbling
Greatness is a responsibility and greatness lasts forever,
you don’t want greatness do you?

Therefore, greatness requires determination and perseverance. Striving for greatness is a true test of ourselves, and that’s why we need to know who ourselves really are and what we want.

For those of us who choose greatness, we can safely assume the individuals who stay with us by our side on this path will be the greatest companions we will ever encounter in life. Encounterance with these individuals are truly invaluable, so we shall know and cherish these individuals.

Now we finance blogger always plead frugal living. I have pleaded for us to distinguish between “want” and “need” when we want to buy things. However, there are things that serve great value by saving money and time in the long run. One such thing is Global Positioning System (GPS).

GPS is something that I have owned for awhile now that I can honestly and confidently claim that have save me MUCH time and gas (thus, money) in the long haul. Being a couple hundred dollars investment, I struggled for awhile before making the purchase, but the saving of time and gas was precisely the motive for it, and it is worth its every cent.

Garmin Nuvi 350 is the one I owned. Not only has it saves me time from looking and printing out directions every time I go somewhere, it has frequently save me from being lost and also get me to places on the fly w/o mistake. The point of interest feature on the Nuvi 350 is also excellent, finding me restaurants, ATM, car rentals in the vicinity when needed.

The price of GPS has come down so much that just further expands their true values. For time, for gas, for convenience, get a GPS.

PS. The touch screen on the Nuvi provides a much better user experience than the Garmin i5 with the scroll wheel, which I owned previously.

My dear friend D told me that his friend has purchased a house somewhere in the South Bay Area. Of course it is something to congratulate about as we all know how steep the housing prices are here. But something really confuses me…

Basically the area that is selling the newly constructed homes is only aimed and restricted to moderate income households. The restriction roughly goes something like this: 129k for 1-4 people household, 135k for 5 people household and so on… I asked D for a number of what the house costs his friend. The answer is a little over 800k.

This immediately leads to the next question… how the heck can something with moderate income afford these houses! Mind you, the 800k is the lowest priced model home. The others cost up to 1mil+.

Let us do a bit of calculation with the assumption of a 800k house, a healthy 20% down payment, and an interest rate at 6.05% for 30 years fixed mortgage. The payment comes out to $3,857.72 a month. Also assuming a household with max. income allowed of 129k, it results to around 6k after-tax per month. If we tag on utility, property tax, living/food expenses on top of the 4k~ payment, it is really walking the edge!

The fact is, I have played down the price tag, assumed a healthy 20% down payment (160k!), and also assumed a average interest rate. Let alone there are other living expenses (eg. insurance…) I did not mention.

In a nutshell, I’m just lost how they calculate the income restriction with houses priced like this… can anyone explain? I would love to hear :)

Looking back, there are many occasions that I am annoyed and overwhelmed when my surroundings gets messy and cluttered. Especially back in those student days with schoo, work, and life all going that I really didn’t have time to clean. When I finally get the chance, it’ll be such a clutter that I’m not sure where to start, which makes it EXTRA annoying.

That being said, those are my main motivations to stay clean and organized, and also the reason for spending a good portion of my memorial weekend cleaning my apartment of things from past years. Now that I am more aware, I realize how my mind can be more peaceful having a surrounding that is clean and rid of clutter.

I want to share this because this is something that we all have control over that can contribute to the peace of our minds and put ourselves more at ease. Cleaning is something that we can all do by choice!

So I suggest let’s all allocate time to clean and keep it clean. Not only living area, but also work desk, office, car… Clean up junk mails/paper, recycle things we don’t need anymore, mob the floor, reorganize furnitures for more spacious, cleaner look, etc.

By staying clean and organized, we can focus our energy and attention on other things in life, instead of having the burden of uncleanliness on our minds.

On a side note, I bought a few pieces of furnitures that both help to keep things organized and provide a more unified theme for my apartment. I spent arond $130, but it’s worth it. I brought this up because we need to remember to live frugally without being cheap! :)

Watching TV, we see commercials.
Listening to radio, we hear commercials.
Surfing online, we see online ads.
Driving on the roads, we see billboards.

What do most of these commercials and ads have in common?
They are telling us to spend!

This past weekend is memorial weekend. Along with New Year, Valentines, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the other special days and holidays, what do they have in common?

All the stores will be enticing us to spend money with deals on those days!

I am not against spending. Hoarding money is not our purpose. I believe in spending money to reach a certain quality of life that bring us and people around us happiness, so long as we follow the simple rule of spending less than what we make, distinguish want from need, and/or really understand that the things we are purchasing WILL increase the quality of life. For example, I love music, so mp3 brainer is a no brainer. It is okay to spend!

But observing all the ads/commericals and holiday deals, I am amazed at what these marketers are doing. In this age and days, they have associated the idea of spending with saving. If you pay attention, most of these ads basically say something like “Spend $x to purchase [item] and save $y” or “Get this deal and you will save x%”. Obviously, they want to manipulate/brainwash people into thinking that buying these things will save them money. It would be true IF all those items are a necessity in life.

Maybe I am pointing out the obvious, but I think it is important to point it out in order for all of us who are in pursuit of financial freedom to be clear and understand not to fall fow it :)

Bottom line is, Spending does not equal saving.