Double Journey

I recently read an article describing the cost of a wedding and the impact it can have on your finances for the rest of your life.   It made me extremely glad that I had my wedding the way I did because it ended up being a lot more fun, much more memorable, and , believe it or not, much cheaper.   Don’t believe me?  I’ve decided to lay bare exactly what I spent on the wedding just to demonstrate how one can save money by doing a destination wedding.   I didn’t spend anywhere close to the average of $20,000 that the typical wedding costs today.

A little bit of background.  My wife and I went to Capri, Italy to get married.  We wanted to go to Europe for the honeymoon and we wanted to get married with a beautiful view of the ocean.  Capri provided both of those.  We sent out about thirty invitations and we ended up with thirteen guest (two guest dropped at the last minute).  We only sent invitations to people we really wanted to go but even if we sent out much more I do not think our attendance would have been much higher than it was.  We spent a total of fifteen days in Europe.  We paid for our own wedding and honeymoon, neither of us asked for help from our parents.

Here is a list of typical wedding costs

• Cost of the venue
• Ceremony officiant
• Flowers
• Cake
• Reception
• Wedding Attire (dress, tuxedo rental, etc)
• Entertainment (DJ or band)
• Photographer

This does not include all the little things that people end up paying for in a wedding like various gifts and decorations so cost can end up being much more than would appear on this list.  So how much did I actually spend on the wedding?  My official number is $3840.  This includes

• Photographer - $1600
• Reception Dinner - $1700
• Flowers - $45
• Driver - $225
• Her Dress - $180
• Her Shoes - $70
• Various snacks for guests - $20

I did not however include some other cost that might normally be associated with the cost of the wedding.  Most of these things are not specific to the wedding itself.  Things like my suit and shoes, (which I have used for other things) and our hotel room (which we would have spent anyway since we would have to pay for it anyway on our honeymoon).  However, I will list these items just in case people want a full comparison.

• Flight to Italy - $1500
• My suit and shoes - $700
• Hotel Room - $925

So that at the outside put the total cost of my wedding at $6965.  That’s it.  Things I did not spend any money on included

• Venue - Hotel let us use their balcony, and it’s amazing view, for free
• Officiant - It was hard to coordinate an officiant in Italy so one of our guests volunteered to do the ceremony
• Cake - Didn’t have one
• Entertainment - Didn’t have a huge reception so didn’t have to provide entertainment

Despite “doing without” on some of these things, I have to say it was one of the best weddings I ever went to (I am admittedly biased).  The food was amazing.  We went to the best restaurant on the island and it was better than any Wedding food I had ever had.  Heck, it was better than any food I have had period.  The venue was breathtaking, see the picture above.  I honestly could not have had a better time at my own wedding.  I often hear people talk about how they just never get enough time to talk to their guests.  That definitely did not happen to me as I felt I had ample time to talk to each and everyone of my guests.  I did not waste any money on things that just did not make the wedding more memorable or directly added value to myself or my guests.

To sum up.  Had a great wedding.  Didn’t spend a lot for it.  Couldn’t ask for anything more.

Don’t mortgage your future for one day.

It is Mid-February and I just got my ATM card from Schwab.  I almost canceled my account. I was so frustrated that I had not received my card in over a month but the last time I called they agreed to FedEx me another card.  It finally came, almost two months after I opened my account.  I can’t fault Schwab’s customer service, every time I called they were quite helpful.  It just didn’t end up in good execution.

I decided to open up an account with Charles Schwab.  After getting married, my wife and I needed to setup a joint account.  We have split our finances for a while now, and marriage has not changed that, but we wanted the convenience of having one joint account.

Setting up the account has not been the best experience.  For whatever reason, Schwab seems to not have come into the 21st century.  It was possible to setup a brokerage account online but it was not possible to set up a checking account online.  This required that I physically print out an application.  I thought I would be able to walk it into a Schwab branch and open an account right away.  There was a branch just down the street so this is what I decided to do.  However, all that did for me was save me some postage.  I guess the branch couldn’t setup the bank account either, so they mailed my application to some central location.   They told me they would call me that day to tell me the brokerage account was opened.

No call came that day.  They cashed the check that I used to fund the account and yet still no call.  I called to check what had happened and was told that the account was opened and someone must have just forgotten to call.  OK, no problem.  The next step was to wait for the information on my bank account.  I waited and waited.  I waited two and a half weeks and heard nothing.  So I called again.  It turns out that the person who entered the information failed to enter the apartment number.  So my checks and my bank card seemed to be lost in the mail.  I was told to wait a few more days and it should show up.  The checks did eventually make their way to me, but no card.  I had no means to use an ATM and withdraw any money.

After a few more days, my wife called in.  The first person I spoke to did not seem to fix the missing apartment information.  Customer Support said they fixed the information and the cards would be coming.  A few days passed and my wife’s new card did indeed come.  My card did not.  So she called again.  It turns out that for whatever reason, my information was not updated until later and a new card was not sent out at the same time.

So here I am.  It is the end of January and it has been over one month since I started this process.  I still have no bank card from Schwab.  On the plus side, the customer support, in terms of wait time, has been pretty good.  Each time I call, I get connected to a human right away.  But I am disappointed by the fact that I have had to call so many times to find out how good the response time is.  I have not used their services too much as of yet, I’ve bought no stock through the brokerage account as of yet, because I don’t want to move money into the account until I have full access to it, so I can’t say too much about the other features of the account.

One last annoying thing.  Setting up money transfers is a real pain in the ass.  Once again, Schwab has not come into the 21st century.  The only way I’ve been able to fund the account is to “push” the money there.  That is, i go to my other online accounts and setup a transfer from them to Schwab.  Schwab makes it VERY difficult to “pull” money from other institutions.  It is impossible to do this online.

So given all my problems, I can’t strongly recommend Schwab.  I really like their customer service but that’s about it.  I don’t think any of this will cause me to close my account, but I’m somewhat disappointed that things just haven’t been smoother.

I recently got a message from this blog asking me if, two years later, I thought it was worth it to move back to California.

Before I get into this, I have to say it did not really occur to me that I have been back in California for two years until I got this e-mail.  I knew the two year anniversary of my job was coming up but it did not really sink in how long it has been until I got the message.  The past two years have been such a blur and it seems hard to believe I have been at this job longer than I was at Microsoft.  Maybe that says more about the job I have now compared to the one I had before.

Now on to the question.  Was it worth it to move back to California from Washington?  Ironically I answer this question the same day that it was pouring rain in Los Angeles.  But this makes my answer to this all the more certain.  Yes, it was absolutely to move back to California from Washington.

I was thinking about this as I rode the elevator to work.  I am in a very high skyscraper and the elevator has a television in it that I find myself catching news clips as I enter and leave the building.  On the ride down today, the news had “Storm Watch” flashing on the screen.  Now, after living in Washington for two years, I can tell you.  The rain wasn’t all that severe.  It came down hard, but it would be a pretty normal day in Seattle.  The reason this made me think of how good I have it is because weather like this is so unusual we make a big deal about it here.  This is the first time it has rained in the last several months.  Think about that for a second.  It is December and it probably hasn’t rained of any significance in several months.   I actually can’t even remember the last time it rained. You can’t buy weather like that.

Of course, that is not the only reason I am glad to move back to California (but it is a big part).  I’m happier with my job and I am glad to be around family and friends.  My wife is happier (weather affects her more than it does me) so that makes my life better.  So if I had to do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.

But I caution anybody from taking my experience and translating it to your own.  My situation is unique in many ways.  First off, I grew up here.  The culture and lifestyle just really work for me since I grew up here.  Moreover, I have a base of friends and family here.  Moving out here, not knowing anyone, can be really difficult. I find it easy to make and meet new friends but this is not true for everyone and California can be a lonely place if you don’t have any friends or family.  But perhaps the biggest deterrent to moving out here has to be the money.  Can you make it work?  Moving to California with no money is not an easy tasks.  It is not easy even if you have money.  Housing is expensive and taxes will take whatever you have left.

My situation is likely not the same as yours.  I make very good money and I live very frugally.  While I certainly “miss” the money that California extracts from me, I probably will not miss it as much as those who live paycheck to paycheck.   The cost of living does not affect me nearly as much as it would other people.  And make no mistake about it, California has a high cost of living.  You combine that with our high unemployment rate and (still) high housing prices, and it can be a daunting financial burden.  This has gotten so bad, I have written how I think the California Dream is vanishing for many, even myself.

So while I have no regrets about moving back here this is not to say I won’t once again leave.  High taxes and high housing is driving me away, I’m sure it will drive others as well.  In fact, I had such a conversation with someone about this on Saturday.  But I’ll write about that in my next blog.

Diverging from my Italy trip for a while because, well I’m back and I’m tired of writing about it.  I may pick it up again.  I may not.  I do have a crazy Rome Airport story.  Seriously, something out of a comedy movie.  But that may be left undocumented.

So only a quick post tonight.  I’m just getting back into the swing of the markets.  I had not made any trades in quite some time because of the wedding and the honeymoon.  I also just don’t think it is a good time to enter the market one way or the other.  I knew the market would probably trade sideways for a while and it has for the most part.  I was in no hurry to either go long or to go short the market.

So my question for all those out there today is, do you ever notice that your spending happens in bunches?  My credit card bill for the last two months is, as you might imagine, quite high.  But it is not just the wedding and honeymoon that is causing it.  I had to get new tires for my car.  The bill for my internet hosting came due.  I had two separate membership fees come due.  My wife had to register for classes this month.  And there were more things than that.

Now, lucky for me, I’m a good little saver and these random and volatile spurts of spending can easily be managed but I have noticed this happening to me in the past.  I wonder if this is really a phenomenon or you just happen to notice those medium size purchases a little bit more when you have had other large expenses to pay for?  How about it, do you ever notice that you spending fluctuates greatly and that you will just have one or two months a year where it seems everything comes due at the same time?

One thing that I have thought about over the past few weeks seems to be this bifurcation that seems to be taking place between those who are struggling in this economy and those that seem to be doing just fine.

In the news, I continuously here about how ordinary Americans are struggling.  Unemployment is nearing double digits in most parts of the country.  It is even worse around here as California is above 11%.  The U.S. is printing money to cover up the problems and big companies like GM and Chrysler are going under.  It seems all is doom and gloom depending on where you are looking at things.  Of course there are the “green shoots” that we all want to see.  This is the reason that the market rallied over the last ten or so weeks.  We are up over 30% from the lows because the market has decided that we are not going to reach armageddon.   But if you really read the news it does not look good for most of your average Americans.

But I get the feeling that we are really coming down to a society of the haves and the have nots.  Throughout all this bad news the one thing that has really struck me is how little some things have not been affected.  I went to the mall this weekend and it was pretty crowded.  Of course I have no idea if people are actually buying things.  Maybe they are just looking and needing to get to the malls to get away from their problems.  But I’m definitely not seeing the scracity of people I would expect to see.  It was the same thing this past holiday season where the malls and outlets were much more crowded than I would expect given the dire situation much of the nation faces.

For more proof just look at the movies.  Hollywood is having a fantastic year at the box office.  People are going to see the big blockbuster movies like Star Trek  and Terminator.  By many accounts, this might be a record year for Hollywood.  Now much of it is due to higher ticket prices but that in itself is a good sign.  It is not easy to raise prices if there is no demand for your product.  And clearly there is demand.   With ticket prices over $10 in most places, I would expect this to be a luxury most people skip as times get rougher, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Now everything I’ve written is mostly anecdotal.  Maybe people are really cutting back and I’m just seeing it from a different perspective.  But it has me thinking.  Maybe this recession is hitting the population in very disproportionate ways.  Most people would immediately jump to a rich vs. poor conclusion but I’m not so sure.  If that were really the case, I wouldn’t be noticing the activity I am seeing simply because the “poor” should greatly outnumber the “rich”.

So what is it?  Are things really either that good or that bad? Who do you think is most being affected by this recession?

I have officially crossed the line.  I fought it off for years but I think my time has officially become more important than my money.

I love a good deal.  In fact, I can not buy most things without getting a good deal on it.  I’m the type of person who will spend hours making sure I not only get the absolute best product to fit my needs but that I also get the absolute best deal I can find.  Well I have been in the market for a new video card for quite a while.  Like usual, I scoured the internet to figure out what the best card was and find the best deal on it that I could.  The problem was that I could not find a card that met all my needs so I kept searching.

Now usually, I have a lot of patience on this type of thing.  I waited almost 5 years before I finally bought my TV.  But I hate not having the use of my computer so it really bothered me to not have my computer working.  I kept looking for a good deal, looked every day.  I went to the brick and mortar stores to look but was not crazy about the prices there.  Then last week, I finally found what I was looking for at Frys (I had been there several times before with no luck).  It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty close.  The only problem was that I was going to have to pay full retail price. 

I am Chinese.  If there is one thing I hate doing is paying full retail price for any sort of electronic device when a deal is almost always to be found on the internet.  But I was more tired of waiting to fix my computer and I was even more tired of looking every day to try and find a deal on a card.  So rather than keep looking, and maybe save $20 or $30, I decided to just buy it.  When I think back on it now, the hours I spent looking for the card was nowhere near worth $30.  If someone offered me $30 to just nothing but search for a great price for a product for several hours, I am certain I would turn it down.  Why is it that I find it necessary to do when the cost is not as explicit?  What about you?  Do you do equally illogical things?

Moving anywhere with no money can be a pretty daunting tasks.  Moving to a state like California can seem downright impossible if you do not have any money.

One of the more popular ways people come to this site is looking for information on how to move to California if you have no money.  I have actually never blogged about this, I blogged about the advantages California has as a place to live, but I think it is a pretty interesting idea so I decided to actually write a blog post about it.

First let me say I think it is impossible to move anywhere with absolutely zero money.  There are just cost associated with any move so you are going to need some amount of money, even if it is just to pay for the bus ride here. So rather than talk about moving to California with absolutely no money, I am going to talk about what would be the absolute cheapest way to get and live here.

I also want to address one other issue.  Are you sure you want to move here?  I have left and come back to California three different times so I am well aware of the advantages of living here.  If you are planning on moving here with no money, it seems you are pretty desperate to move here and are probably running away from something than running to California.  While I love living here, I have lived in many other places and would say that most places are livable.   It is a much better idea to continue to live in your current area, save some money, and move to California when you have some means than to try and move here with nothing.  Moving to California will not be some sort of magical cure that fixes all of life’s problems.  In fact, moving here with no money will cause you a lot of problems that will probably be worse than almost anything you are now facing.  It may not seem like it, but being broke in an expensive place to live is no fun either.

If you are still set on moving to California, keep reading. Be prepared to leave everything behind. I do mean everything.  If you really have no money to move to California, you do not have the money to haul your stuff over here either.  Not having stuff means you can save on moving cost and you can have a smaller place.  It also means you can sell all your stuff and raise some money to actually get here.  Put all your stuff on sale on Craigslist.  If you own the computer you are reading this on, you should put it up for sale.  If you own an iPod, you should put it up for sale.  You might not get a great deal for your stuff but it will put money in your pocket and that is the most important thing right now.

So now you have nothing to burden you down and you (hopefully) have at least a few bucks in your pocket.  The very first thing you have to worry about is not getting here but where you are going to live when you get here.  This is your biggest problem.  You have to have somewhere to live.  It is not OK to come here and go live on the street.  If at all possible, you want to find a temporary place to live that will not cost you anything.  Why?  Because to get a place to live you have to have a job.  But to get a job, you often have to have a place to live.  It is a vicious catch-22.  Find or make a friend here that you can crash on their couch for a while.  Find a long lost relative who might be willing to put you up for at least a month.  Whatever it takes, you need to find a place where you can live for very very little money.  This likely has to be with someone you know because no landlord is going to take you in with no job.  Your only other alternative is to find a place where you can live week to week.  There are many motels that you can do this at, but it is not going to be a pleasant, or even cheap option.  If you can find somewhere you can live rent free, your life is going to be MUCH MUCH easier.  Rent is by far the biggest expense that you cannot avoid.  Eliminating this as an expense means you can go much longer on a lot less money.

An alternative is to scour the classifieds for work that will provide housing.  This is often the case with nanny type positions.  While looking after kids might not be your ideal job, it is better than living in the street.  If you are desperate enough to move here without money than even the thought of looking after someone else’s kids should not scare you.

The next order of business is to get a job.  If you have no money and no job options, it does not matter what type of job you get.  Even if you are going to have to take minimum wage, do it.  You need to have cash flow.  You are in no position to hold out for just the right job.  You have no money and are probably bumming off of people so swallow your pride and take what you can get.  If the job pays minimum wage than it will not be a big deal to leave the job once you line up something else.  But under no circumstances should you continue without a job.  Even a minimum wage job at 30 hours a week will put about $200 in your pocket.  That’s nothing to sneeze at when you have nothing.

Spend on nothing but the necessities.  There are only so many things you actually need.  You need to have a roof over your head but you should have taken care of that by now.  You need to have food.  That is pretty much it.  Anything else, you need to cut out from your life.  Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a car.  I know people in California who get by just fine, albeit inconveniently, on public transportation.  Cars are expensive to maintain.  You need to do repairs, pay for gas, pay for registration, and pay for insurance.  This is not an option if you have no money.  If you have a car, you should have already sold it by now to raise money.  You do not need to have cable TV.  You do not need to have a cell phone (you do need somewhere that you can be reached if you are looking for a job).  You do not need internet access.  Almost anything you think you need can either be cut or obtained some other way (use the internet at the local library). If something is not actually helping you to survive you do not need it.

After you have secured a job, you need to find a better job.  You need to spend every waking hour doing something toward this goal.  You should be searching job sites, fixing your resume, or obtaining skills or knowledge that will help you find a job.  Searching for a job is a full time job.  If you are not spending 40 hours a week doing it, you are not trying hard enough.  This plus your day job means you are just working 80 hours a week.  That is no big deal.  Just do it.

While this plan may sound unpleasant or even frightening it can be done.   My strong advice is to still not do it.  If you can hold out, not move, and save money you should be doing that.

I went away for a mini-vacation this weekend.  It was the girlfriend’s birthday, and we decided to get out of town.  The destination was Palm Springs, something that was a complete surprise to her.  Neither of us had been there, and that was part of its attraction.  I did not really know what to expect.  I knew it was hot.  I knew that the residents there tended to be older.  And I knew that there tended to be lots of casinos around the area.

Now, I’m not much of a gambler.  In fact, I’ve never actually even approached a Casino table.  I have played slots before, and it is the only thing I ever plan on doing since the tables don’t have much draw for me.  So the casinos of Palm Springs just were not a big attraction.  That being said, we still decided to go to one, Fantasy Springs Resort to be exact.  We just walked around the floor for a while and got a few drinks.  The girlfriend likes to play the penny and nickel slots so we started on those.  Now, the penny and nickel slots are designed to just take your money.  It seems like you should be able to play quite a while this way, but it is a big con.  They are some of the worse odds in any casino.  But it makes her happy, so it was a relatively small price to pay.  All told, we played until we had lost $25.

Now I happen to know that you will get much better odds on the higher denomination slots.  Casinos do this to keep the higher bank roll people interested and in the Casino.  Like all gambling, the longer they can keep you in the casino, the more likely they are going to take money away from you.  So I found a bank of $1 slots that was promising a 98% return.  Not the best return on your money in the world but probably the best you will find on the casino floor.  (Actually given the current market, maybe it is the best return you can find)

I have simple rule.  When I play slots, I set aside a fixed amount of money.  It is an amount I feel perfectly happy going to $0.  In this case, it was $40.  I play until I either hit $0 or I can be up by 50%.  In this case $60.  I leave the casino whichever one comes up first.  By doing this, I have the discipline to not let the casino get too far ahead of me.  So as I played on Friday night, my bank roll continued to go down.  When I got down to about $12, I decided to go for broke and just play $3 at a time.  I figured I would get 4 more plays, and be done with it.  But then, the slot started turning in my favor.  I got back above $20 in a few spins.  It then climbed up to $48 after a few more.  I was tempted to leave at that point, just to take a small winning away.  But I stayed disciplined, and kept playing.

In two more spins, I got a row of triple bars, and that netted me $150.  At first, my girlfriend was excited, thinking I just won $50.  But she forgot I was playing 3 at a time, and so that tripled my winnings.  I immediately cashed out and left the casino.  I made sure I was going to get out while I was ahead, and not give the Casino a chance to take it back from me.  The thing is, my strategy usually works for me.  Of the half dozen or so times I’ve actually gambled at a casino, I may have only lost money one time.  So overall, I’m definitely ahead.  I think I’m only ahead by about $200 or $300, but I’m ahead.

So how about you?  Do you gamble much, and if so, do you win more than you lose?  Do you have a strategy.

I was in a training class today, and we had to answer two questions as a means to introduce ourselves.

1. What did you want to be when you grew up  (NBA Baskeball Player, Astronaut)
2. What would you be doing now if you had all the money you wanted.

My answer was relatively boring.  I honestly don’t think I would be doing things much differently.  I might be doing it with more style, but I think I would still be doing what I’m basically doing, leading technology teams.  I love working in technology.  I love the challenge of trying to solve a complex problem.  I love the strategy of trying to put together a winning formula of business and technology.  Now if I had all the money I wanted, I’m sure I would be running my own company rather than being a little bit further down the chain that I currently am (although I’m closer to the top, my boss’ boss is the owner/founder, than I have ever been) but I would fundamentally still be doing what I’m doing now.

I also would probably be driving a nicer car, and probably writing this from the Bahamas in my yacht, but I honestly don’t know if I would choose to do too much differently.  Perhaps I’m just one of the very few lucky people out there.  How about you, what would you be doing if money wasn’t an issue?