6 January 2008 154 views 2 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

These past few days were very interesting here at Money Socket headquarters (my home office). We had a nasty storm, which is rare in San Francisco, that took out power for over 170,000 bay area residents. Our power was out for roughly 40 agonizing hours. Without the things that I’m used to, I was  bored out of my mind. Yesterday I had to run a power inverter in my car and work with my laptop right on the freezing driveway. As I ate my steam heated dinner and took a shower with dim lit candles, it once again reminded me how much I take for granted. When you look at the simple things like running water, electricity and even paved roads, it goes to show that we are very lucky compared to many people in the world. It was definitely a humbling experience. In a way, it was also kind of fun.

While I was twiddling my thumbs in my cold, dark office, here are some exciting articles from other great websites.

How to Save Your Energy Dollars. Tina gives some simple and practical tips on keeping your bill manageable. Like Thursday said in one of her articles, put on a sweater! Lately its been so chilly I had to take the advice just about everyday.

Earn More by Paying Less. Aaron reminds us about looking at expenses when investing. This is an important aspect that is often forgotten when investing. I never forget Jack Bogle’s words, “performance comes and goes, but costs roll on forever.”

How to Talk to Your Teenager About Personal Finance. Steve gives some good points about talking to teens about money. Although I’m far from having a kid of my own let alone a teenager, I do know that one alarming concern is a lack of financial education for young people. Too many young people simply do not think about investing for the long term, nor do they even know the basics of money. Grassroots education is a start.

2007 Chinese Stocks (ADRs) Return. Sun shows us some returns on Chinese ADRs (Chinese stocks traded in the US) and man were some of them hot in 2007. My portfolio is definitely going global in the coming months.