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Archive for May, 2010

Bucket list

May 26th, 2010 at 12:01 am

A friend of mine just called me up with an odd question. He asked me if there is something I've always wanted to do but haven't been able to do so yet.

I told him I wanted to win a million dollars. He said, "Uh ok, now is there something else you wanted to do that's a lot more obtainable than that?" Big Grin

I chuckled and said, "Well, realistically, I wouldn't mind taking a vacation to this particular place. What about you?"

"I want to be able to retire comfortably some day." he says.

I said that I understood and agree with it, but then I asked, "So what brought this up? Want to tell me what this is about?"

"Nope!" he says.

Wow.

You have to understand, this is a guy who we've always been open to each other about everything, and the simple fact that he would not tell me what this is about really surprised me! I don't know what to make of this.

I will say that, in the end, we both want the same thing out of life. Come to think of it, I think we all basically want similar things out of life, eh? The only difference, really, is whether we have the resources to make it happen. Be it a vacation or a comfortable retirement, it all takes money....

But that's not saying anything new to you guys. What's got me really wondering is why this friend of mine is suddenly being so dodgy? Anybody have any ideas?

More perks

May 5th, 2010 at 03:54 pm

I just got an email from PerkStreet to do a survey for them for $10. Call me crazy, but I actually had fun doing that survey! It really got me thinking more about my own personal finances, and where I stand right now.

I also spoke to a PerkStreet rep to cancel a recurring money transfer even though the online website showed that it's been canceled. In other words, it was still running even though it shouldn't be.

I wish there was a single account where it pays rewards for spending as well as interest for saving a balance there. That would just be awesome. I don't know if that's possible because I guess banks have to make their money somehow. Still, for the moment, I have to spread out my money between several accounts.

Oh, before I forget, I cashed out my very first

Text is gift card and Link is http://blog.giftcardrescue.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/vanilla-visa-gift-card.jpg
gift card from them. It's kind of neat. They mail it to you in this green, Christmas-like card envelope. The card was immediately usable, and because it's a Visa card, I had no trouble using it just about anywhere. The only thing I had to do was to create a new budget line for the card, so I can keep track of the balance. No big deal at all for a freebie like this.

BP

May 3rd, 2010 at 09:14 pm

I don't know if I should be blogging this, but I picked up a small stake of BP today. The price drop just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The only thing is, oil is a dirty business. Dirty in the sense that they are not surrounded by a lot of warm and fuzzy vibes. A lot of people are upset with "big oil" for the high gas prices, and now, what is shaping up to be one of the biggest ecological disasters in oil history.

And although I am no fan of greedy corporate fat cats, I'm not sure that's really the case here. I mean, it's not like BP wanted an accident like this to happen. No one does. And although I did not like the CEO's first reaction (blaming it on Transocean for mishandling the rig), at least they did come out and vow to pay for the clean up.

Bottom line, as much as I can understand about the anger over BP, I also believe the market is unfairly punishing it right now. It's still a quality stock with a huge dividend, and now, it's selling at a substantial discount. So, I bought a small stake.

I have a limit sell in place, but I may sell earlier pending any legislative changes regarding offshore drilling in the gulf. But mostly, I'm just going to sit on it and collect the 7% (at the time) dividend.