You Will Be Poor If You Do This! | The 7 Financial Sins

Here is the link.

#1 Most people do not plan their finances

Avoid over spending
Check your bank account every day for the next 30 days

When you actively manage your money you become better at it.

#2 Buying with consumer credit

#3 Making minimum payments on your credit card

#4 Not saving for retirement or financial freedom

#5 Making money decisions based on emotion

Maniac mode/ negative - unpredictable

Avoid making important decisions while emotional
Wait and use intelligence and rationality instead when ready

#6 Focusing too much on money and neglecting the process

You have to love the process
You've got to be passionate
"If you go into business only to make money, you're better off doing nothing"

#7 Not educating ourselves financially

Learning about personal finance
How to manage out money
How to leverage and grow our money
Is our own responsibility

Dream Hoarders: Is the Upper Middle Class Leaving Everyone Else Behind?

Here is the link.

Dream Hoarders: Who’s destroying the American Dream?

Here is the link.

What are possible influence overspending from 1999 to 2001?

Jan. 21, 2019

Confronting suburban poverty in America

Jan. 21, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to quickly understand the main ideas from the book called "Confronting suburban poverty in America".

Poverty rates surge in American suburbs

Here is the link.

The Dream Hoarders: How America's Top 20 Percent Perpetuates Inequality

Here is the link.

Book: Dream hoarder

Jan. 21, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to quickly read the summary of the book "Dream hoarder".

How the upper middle class keeps everyone else out

Here is the link.

980. Unique path III

Jan. 21, 2019

Introduction

It is hard level algorithm. I like to start to work on hard level algorithm in weekly contest even after the contest. I like to challenge myself and push myself to learn and keep myself competitive.

My practice

Here is my practice.

Actionable Items

I need to keep practice hard level algorithms as often as possible. At least I should try to solve one hard level algorithm during one week period. I have not solved a hard level algorithm from Nov. 15 to January 21, 2019 since I work on personal finance research.

Why Anaheim’s low-wage workers struggle to keep a roof over their heads

Here is the link.

4:00 / 7:35
18% Disney worker are sometimes homeless.

6:00 / 7:35
30,000 on a waitlist for affordable housing
20,000 on a waitlist for federal housing vouchers

Year 2022 minimum wage is $22/ hour.

979. Distribute Coins in Binary Tree

Jan. 21, 2019

Introduction

It is the algorithm of weekly contest 120. I wrote one solution in the contest but it does not work. I took some time to learn and write a solution based on the discuss shared by my favorite player. 

My practice 

Here is my submission. 

I wrote a solution in the contest but it does not work. Here is the gist.

I learn the tip in the following:

We traverse children first (post-order traversal), and return the balance of coins. For example, if we get '+3' from the left child, that means that the left subtree has 3 extra coins to move out. If we get '-1' from the right child, we need to move 1 coin in. So, we increase the number of moves by 4 (3 moves out left + 1 moves in right). We then return the final balance: -3 (left) + 1 (right) - 1 (keep one coin for the root) + r->val (coins in the root).

The above image is the copy from the leetcode discuss. 

NEED TO KNOW | Help wanted: The uncounted millions | PBS

Here is the link.

Public teacher was laid off because budget cut.

Long-Term Joblessness Takes Emotional, Spiritual Toll on '99ers'

Here is the link.

This is the video taken in 2010.

For millions, underemployment is a new normal

Here is the link.

Unemployment rate 10%
25 hours a week instead of 40 hours

the underemployed - I like to look into this topic called the underemployed.

35% of employment is underemployed.

Manage labor cost - Human capital management - Ceridian makes work life better.

3 million retail employee - I need to look into the issues.

Case study: 18 years and $25,000 dollar debt

Jan. 21, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. My goal of the research is to push myself to learn the value of dollar based on my own experience. I like to document my home equity line amount and interest, and then how I can learn from the experience.

Case study

I did document my lesson of learning the value of dollar; from 1998 December to 2001 September, I made net income $110,000 dollars, and in 1999 I purchased a condo with $25,000 US dollar mortgage.

$110,000 dollar net income definitely I can pay off the mortgage in Sept. 2001. But I did study my Citi bank credit card statement, I had so many issues to spend on clothing, airline tickets and other wants not needs from Dec. 1998 to Sept. 2001.

The road to learn the value of dollar was so slow.

The condo property tax is up and down. The following is the history.

     

The market value is the following.

The interest I paid for mortgage and home equity line from 1998 to 2017

What I learn 

The most important is to learn that I should pay myself first. I should save money to pay off my mortgage or home equity line. The formula should be income - savings = expenses.

I saved less than $20,000 dollars from those $110,000 US dollar net income from 1998 December to 2001 September. My formula is income - expenses = savings.

If I choose to save 80% of net income $110,000 from 1998 December to 2001 September, then I will not take more than 18 years until 2017 to pay off the home equity line.

How to save my income? Delay gratification, pay myself first. That is to pay off my own debt.

Rebecca Bustamante - Prospecting and Selling (PART1)

Excellent teaching.

Here is the link.

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep3 | Rebecca Bustamante

Jan. 20, 2019

Introduction

It is so inspiring story to learn and read more about Rebecca Bustamante.

Here is the link.

Here is the article on her website.

14:00 - 18:00/

How to find her husband after all siblings have college education, she found her husband in Canada.

Due diligence -

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep2 | Arnel Casanova

Here is the link.

Thought Leaders - Howard Sy Storage Mart

Here is the link.

Image makeover pays off for online payroll startup

Here is the article.

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep14 | Jun Palafox

Here is the link.


Jun's daughter explained how she argued with her dad.

How to run a family business? Choose a leader from different generation. Culture ...

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep19 | Ed Chua

Here is the link.

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep1 | Cesar V. Purisima

Here is the link.

The Final Pitch, Season 1, Episode 8: Mica Tan Challenge

Here is the link.

THOUGHT LEADERS - MICA TAN

Here is the link.

Mica Tan and her journey to becoming a millennial CEO

THOUGHT LEADERS | Ep12 | Manny V. Pangilinan

Here is the link.

Manny V. Pangilinan, here is the rank of Forbe net worth.

THOUGHT LEADERS | EP. 48 | FRANCIS KONG [Part 3]

Here is the link.

From passion to a mission

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is the first time in long time I heard this idea from passion to a mission. I heard in the interview of Francis Kong.

THOUGHT LEADERS | EP. 48 | FRANCIS KONG [Part 2]

Here is the link.

THOUGHT LEADERS | EP. 48 | FRANCIS KONG [Part 1]

Here is the link.

Francis Kong at the 8th USLS 2017

Here is the link.

7:00 / 1:38

business world

VUCA

volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity

ANC On The Money: How To Judge Whether A Company Is Worth Investing In

Here is the link.

25:00

Recommended books:

The intelligent investor by Graham
Anything about Warren Buffett and Chales Munger

Leetcode contest 115 - Lee215

Here is the tutorial video from Lee215.

weekly contest 120 tutorial

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is the first time I watched the video related to weekly contest just after the contest. Here is the video related to contest 120. Very good teaching.

weekly contest 120

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is my favorite weekly contest 120. I solved first two algorithms, but I could not solve the third algorithm related to tree algorithm.

My performance

Here is my ranking.

Jan. 22, 2019

Here are two algorithms I wrote in the contest.
977 Squares of a sorted array, here is my discuss link.
978 Longest turbulent subarray, here is my discuss link.

The algorithm I wrote for the third algorithm does not work. The design has an issue.

After the contest, I wrote the third and fourth algorithms.
979 Distribute coins in binary tree, here is my code written in C#.
980 Unique paths III, here is my code

Are You Financially Fit? | S. 2 Ep. 12

Here is the link.

Case study: longest univalue path

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

I studied the algorithm from a casual coder blog. I ran the algorithm and it works perfect on leetcode online judge.

Case study

Here is my gist.

Strategies for Playing Catch-up in Retirement | S.3 Ep. 16

Here is the link.


4:50
Finding your retirement number
. retirement income sources
. current savings
. how much money you will need
. what age you can retire

7:58/ 24:47
Recommended retirement savings

Targets as a multiple of income
Age              Retire at 65
40                 2x
50                 4x
60                 6x
65                 7x
67                 8x

14:34

How to cut costs to save more

Eliminate unnecessary expenses
Eliminate unnecessary insurance policies
Drive used instead of new cars
Eliminate all consumer debt

Afford Anything

Here is the page on youtube.com. I like to spend time to learn from those videos.

Retirement planning: What to do

Here is the link.

Free Investment Classes You Can Take Online

Here is the link.

Is Buying a Condo a Good Investment?

Here is the article.

I also like to copy and paste here to save into my github folder as LandlordJulia reading material.

More and more people with no real estate investing experience are turning to rental properties as a way of diversifying their investments and securing cash flow for the future.

What to Like About Rental Property

Several major factors have driven this shift:

• Many people are dissatisfied with the meager returns provided by their savings accounts and investments such as Certificates of Deposit.
• Several years of record-low interest rates make people wary of future inflation, which drives them away from the bond market. As an alternative, they look to commodities like real estate, which contain perceived inflation-protection.
• Many people want to diversify their investments, which means moving away from solely investing in the equities/stock market.
• Record-low interest rates and housing prices are causing many people to take a closer look at rental property investing.

If you want to get into rental property investing, you need to know how to evaluate whether or not a potential rental property is a good investment. These two formulas will help.

The Cap Rate

First, calculate the cap rate. This is the rate of return you'd make on a house if you bought it in cash.

Cap rate is the net income divided by the asset cost. For example:

• You buy a home for $200,000.
• It rents for $1,500 per month.
• Your expenses (taxes, insurance, management, repairs, maintenance) average out to $500 per month. (Remember, this does not include the principal and interest payments on your mortgage, but it does include the escrowed sum for taxes and insurance.)
• Your "net operating income" is $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year.
• Your cap rate is $12,000 / $200,000 = 0.06, or 6 percent.

Is six percent a good return on your investment? That's up to you to decide. If you can find higher-quality tenants in a nicer neighborhood, then six percent could be a great return. If you're getting six percent for a shaky neighborhood with lots of risks, then six percent might not be worthwhile.

The One Percent Rule

This is a general rule of thumb that people use when evaluating a rental property. If the gross monthly rent (the rent before expenses) equals at least one percent of the purchase price, they'll look further into the investment. If it doesn't, they'll skip over it.

For example, a $200,000 house -- using this rule of thumb -- would need to rent for $2,000 per month. If it doesn't, then it doesn't meet the One Percent Rule.

Under this rule, the house brings in gross revenue of 12 percent of the purchase price each year. After expenses, the property may bring a net revenue of 6-8 percent of the purchase price.

This is generally considered a good return, but again, it depends on what area of town you're considering. Nicer neighborhoods tend to have lower rental returns, while shakier neighborhoods tend to have higher returns.

Final Note

Remember, six percent or eight percent (or any percent) doesn't mean as much if that interest is non-compounding. To give your returns the same benefit and the same chance of growth as money in the stock market, you'll need to reinvest 100 percent of the proceeds so your returns can compound upon themselves.

How to Tell If an Investment Can Lose You Money

Here is the link.

0105 - ICOD - Rev. Dr. Sharon Anderson Interviews Author Elizabeth White

Here is the link.

How to Calculate Your Internal Rate of Return

Here is the link.

RETIREMENT DECISIONS REAL ESTATE Rental Property Return Investment Tips

Here is the link.

Money Secret #4: Happy Retirees Have Multiple Income Streams

Here is the link.

How to Build a Financial Safety Net for Financial Security

Here is the link.

Suze Orman talks tough | Consumer Reports

Here is the link.

Talk about safety net. I need to look into this topic very carefully. If anything goes wrong, then what you will do.

Talk about saving, cut back; and that is all I have to do.

Stop spending money you do not have. Impress people you do not like.

You want to look cool. You want to live a life.

The more you make, the more you spend.

When Homelessness Reaches Middle-Class Working Families | Megyn Kelly TODAY

Here is the link.

How coming clean about financial struggle -- and counseling others -- became a calling

Here is the link.

Worth Watching: 55, Unemployed And Faking Normal

Here is the article to read on Forbes.com

Fifty-five, Unemployed, and Faking Normal: Your Guide to a Better Retirement Life

Here is the book for me to review quickly. I may take 10 to 15 minutes to look into issues. I am looking for good topics to do the research.

Elizabeth White

Here is the article I like to spend 10 minutes to read. I also like to write down the topics I should study carefully.

An honest look at the personal finance crisis | Elizabeth White

Here is the link.

My citi credit card statements in 2010 are ready for me to review

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It was early in the morning 1:00 AM and I got the email from citi bank. I can review my 2010 citi credit card statements. I quickly went over and called it a day for sleep.

It was my personal finance research. I like to find out what I should look into by reviewing those statements. I also need to keep pushing myself to learn from articles, youtube.com, and get educated on this topic.

Statements

I only got statements from January to August, 2010 this time.

It is time to show my personal asset

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to present a progress report on my personal finance research. I have college classmate who owns over ten million dollar Chinese currency real estate property, and so many classmates of SJTU to own a property as well. Compared to them, I am still in kindergarden, but God allows this happen for reasons.

How deep is your love? 

I am watching the video while I write this blog. I like to make a mess on my blog once a while. I have hard time to review my personal finance statements, and write so many case studies.

It is tough for me to learn how to stay smart on personal finance, how to grow rich, build wealth, and also keep healthy as well.

One of reasons I like to share is to push myself to be a self-learner on personal finance. I need to find good investment opportunities, starting from $1,000 dollars, and learn how to date my money, and grow rich and build wealth.

Actionable Items

It is so exciting for me to conduct personal finance research. Since the more time I spend on reviewing those financial data, I can find all those leaks in my expense, and also a lot of bad habits like impulse shopping, ignorance of economy, and poor decision making.

One more thing is that I have to push myself to purchase something I can sell 10 year or more later with more value. Otherwise I will live on from a pay check to another pay check. Even though I save some income, once I lose the job, lose work permit, I will deplete all savings, and get into debt quickly.

Case study: Longest univalue path mock interview

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is my mock interview and I had discussion with a young talent from a startup company in California. We worked together and wrote together a solution, but this morning I tested against Leetcode online judge, the code failed one test case, I could not figure out. I decide to move on now.

Case study

Here is my code gist.

Here is the code to read.

My analysis

Failed test case should return value 2, the code returns 5. So I have to figure out what is the possible reason for those extra values. 

I should add one more check, set left = 0 if there root.val does not equal to its left child's value. Same as right child's value.

Vancouver Amazon makes the city more beautiful

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

I start to like Vancouver as a city. I live here more than 9 years now. I went to Amazon Vancouver AWS woman breakfast in Jan. 18, 2019. I like to say that Vancouver Amazon makes the city more beautiful.

A short story

I do not have experience to work for downtown office, but I got up early at 7:00 AM, and walked to sky train station, arrived in the down town Vancouver at 8:00 AM. I went to 14th floor, and went to reception desk. I still remembered 3 years ago in 2016 I had my first onsite interview and sat in the lobby for the exciting moment. The lobby was so familiar and felt like a home.

We had breakfast served with not too much food, remind me frugal principle. The view was so nice through the window, and also the Amazon leadership principles are so familiar since I worked hard on those principles since last June 2018 my second onsite with Amazon Seattle.

I also heard a few stories from those woman working in Amazon AWS team. I checked all the profiles of panel interviewees after the event in the evening at my home office. One of them and I both can connect to internet network industry and get connected through the employee from my ex-employer Trendium Inc in Florida.

I have to work hard to push myself to grow rich; Right now, I am working hard on my personal finance research first to see how I can build wealth.

Vancouver Amazon makes the city more beautiful.

Case study: Longest univalue path mock interview

Jan. 19, 2019

Introduction

It is my mock interview again in Nov. 18, 2019 as an interviewer. I asked the interviewee to solve the longest univalue path. I like to do a case study on the interview.

Case study

I like to push myself to learn how to be a good interviewer. This time the interviewee wrote a solution with a bug, but I did not find the bug in the mock interview.

The interview was on Jan. 18, 2019.

Now it is Jan. 19, 9:54 AM. I put the idea into C# code and run Leetcode online judge. The code failed.

Here is the gist.

Uncover the problem

The problem is on the recursive to solve the cross path.

Line 35 return 2 + LongestUnivaluePath(root.left) + LongestUnivaluePath(root.right);

The counter example is the following:

Line 1:         3
Line 2:      /       \
Line 3      3        3
Line 4:   /   \
Line 5:  3    3

The above tree's longest univalue path is 3, not 4.

Actionable Item

I wrote an email to sam@interviewing.io and ask how I can modify my feedback.

Focus on Fundamentals First

Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed
the richest man in Babylon, Georges Clason

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to read and learn some fundamental first. Here is the article. 

Amazon leadership: dive deep

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is one of Amazon leadership principles called dive deep. Look at data, and analyze the data. I am working on my personal finance research, I learn how important it is for me to learn from my citi credit card statements from 1998 to 2002, I can easily learn from the analysis what I spent, and learn what mistakes I made in those four years.

Count the hours for my personal finance research

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I learn the mistake I made to sell VIGRX mutual fund in 2002, I sold it when it was low price. It was more than 17 years ago. I did not take time to learn how index fund works. Later I played on stock market, and never considered VIGRX mutual fund again. I like to be patient to myself, count hours to study personal finance first. If I did not sell it in 2002, then the fund will have market value $10,000, with $7,000 dollars gain.

100 hours mark

Knowledge is power. I should start to learn basics first.

I spent 4 weekends in November, 4 weekends in December, and also one week holiday break to study.

Total hour:
  8 * weekends (10 hours a day)
  5 week days ( 10 hours a day)
---------------------------------------
130 hours

200 hours mark

300 hours mark

400 hours mark

500 hours mark

Actionable Items

I do not save my VIGRX statements in 2001. I should parent myself and give myself warning since only thing I care about is to make profit, but I do not give myself chance to learn. One thing is to learn from my own mistake, my own experience. In order for me to do that, I have to save those finance records, so I can easily review all the transactions and learn from the mistakes.

This is basic personal financial habit. I should learn to build a good habit at the very beginning.

16. Majority element

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my mock interview algorithm I chose to work on. 

Six solutions

Here is the link for me to read and have discussion with the interviewee.

Hash table

Sorting 

Randomization

Divide and conquer

Moore voting algorithm

Bit manipulation

How to Hedge Your Portfolio

Here is the link.

Market Too Risky? Here's How To Hedge Your Portfolio

Here is the article for me to read. I plan to read it in 10 - 15 minutes.

Are You Too Materialistic?

Here is the link.

Materialism is bad for you, studies say

Here is the link.

 Kasser argues that when people turn to material things to feel better, they compound the problem, because they seek experiences that "don't do a very good job of meeting their psychological needs."

Less stuff, more happiness

Here is the link.

Large credit card debt.

The goods on good materialism: how to have a better relationship with your stuff

Here is the article.

Excess materialism is also partnered with unhealthy realities like hoarding, addictive shopping, consumer debt and antisocial behavior.

8:34 PM
Look into those keywords:

hoarding
addictive shopping
consumer debt
antisocial behavior

9 Steps To Financial Freedom Audiobook * Suze Orman

Audio book, two hours 52 minutes.

Plan to spend time from 8:22 PM - 12:00 PM, Jan. 18, 2019.

Can I say that over $5,000 dollar cloth purchase is money wasted?

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I did research and come out my 1998 to 2002 citi credit card clothing purchase. I never believed that I spent over $5,500 us dollars, in my memory, I only remembered that two sofa set, black leather sofa and projection TV. But there are so many leaks in my spending. All those expense have nothing left on those $10, 000 on citi credit card in 1999. All money are wasted. It is the fact, a truth.

Build a new mindset

I like to figure out how to research, what topic or concept I should learn based on those impulsive shopping of clothing.

Suze Orman on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Here is the link.

How to hedge my asset after my first laid off in Sept. 2011?

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I did my first analysis of my citi credit card statement analysis from 1998 to 2001. I like to look into some idea how to hedge my asset after my first laid off in Sept. 2011.

How to come out ideas?

Now it is 2019 January 18. I like to come out some ideas how to analyze and come out the ideas what I should in Sept. 2011.

I need to read a few article related to hedge first, and I will come back later.

Barbara Corcoran on Risk-Taking, Failure and How to Get Back Up

Here is one hour video. I like to write a few blogs when I watch and listen the presentation.

20:00/ 1:05

Phenomenal sales person - great people different from the ordinary people.

Secret? Facts? Argument?

They take less time to feel sorry for themselves.

Separate from great sales from ordinary people.


35:20/ 1:05

#3: Everybody wants what everybody wants.

Creative idea related to weight control

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. One of ideas I come out recently is to limit my expense on grocery, cut to $200 dollars. I used to spend $500 or $600 dollars on weight control back in 2014 to 2016, unprocessed food, avoid red meat. I like this new idea.

My motivation

I need to learn how to budget and then one area I can control is to cut down my grocery expense. One motivation is to invest those saved money on stock market, if I lose 50%, then I know that those money I may spend on the grocery, I should live without.

That is $200 to $300 dollars/ month investment to stock market. I like to try out this idea.

If I cut down expense 

If I cut down the expense on grocery, then it will be much easy for me to lose some extra weight.

Case study: How should I understand the market based on my own experience?

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to work on the area and I start to develop strong interest in the area. I do not see there is any different from the area I like to work on, algorithm and data structure. Problem solving is the key. I like to learn how to catch day by day through one idea a day.

Barbara Corcoran | How to Achieve Success Over and Over Again with Kelsey Humphreys

Here is the link.

I like to get some good business education. I like the teaching style from Barbara Corcoran. I like to figure out how to learn day by day through the short interview like this one.

44 minutes is good time for me to relax and also surf the internet to read some article related to the topic.

AWS - women's panel breakfast - Jan. 18, 2019

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my vacation day and I spent time in the Amazon office in the city of Vancouver, I had chance to learn more from AWS women. Such great time to learn so many things.

Sweat memory

It is the beginning of 2019. I like to work hard and push myself to learn more and open my mind to find a few things to work on, like personal finance, and other personal related area.

I also like to thank those ladies who shared with us their stories today.

Daryna bronnykova

Jenny Fang

Rebecca Sanders

Julia Lasarte

Tara Van Unen

DNA test - second sampling

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal sponsor project.  I need to go to Genetrack to get second sample for my DNA test. I need to sponsor my relative and need to do sibling test with my brother. Somehow, last December the sample did not work very well.

Case study: what activities hurt me most in down time (Series 2 out 3)

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to write a blog about the topic what activities hurt me most in down time. This one is called time is on my side; How should I embrace my failure?

Case study

In 2001 Sept., I got laid off from Tredium Inc. I think that is the down time. The activity hurt me most, I think, I made decision to throw away some personal finance records. I could not analyze in Jan. 2019, after 18 years.

What should I do at that time is to figure out how to invest some money left after I made net income over $110,000 us dollars?

I should figure out something for me to hedge loss of my asset, cash or hard working net income. It will take years for me to figure out how to be super talent programmer in the world. But I believe that there is a plan for me to come out how to hedge against all possible risks and come out reasonable plan.

Always work on personal finance habit

I am so surprised to learn that I have to build so many personal finance habits until January 2019; I made decision to start my own personal finance research starting from Nov. 2018, I try to push mysef every day to learn something, write down in my blog, and then look for data like credit card statement, saved printout invoices, and old emails in my Google gmail, Microsoft outlook, yahoo email. Dive deep on those data, I like to put together my analysis based on those financial data.

I will have to work on so many day one. I need to get annual credit report, I need to do my monthly income expense report similar the one I do at work every month. I did the first one this January, 2019, I need to do my annual asset report the first time, counting the inventory of cash, clothing, and all other items in the home. 

Case study: what activities hurt me most in down time (Series 1 out 3)

Jan. 18, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to conduct a topic called what are good activities in down time.

Case study

I like to get an example about my first laid off from a startup company called Trendium in 2001 Sept. I did a few things to surprise me, and I had no ways to recover those data for my personal finance research.

What I did is to destroy those personal return checks, and bank statements from Chase, and all the letters from my relatives in China, and all other personal documents from 1996 to 2002.

I am lucky to have those W2 Form, and a few pay stub for each company I worked for.

How are those decision made? I had no idea. I learned the concept called parent myself after I turn 18. It is hard for me to do the job, because I am single. And back in 2001, I did not have a roommate to talk to, I purchased a condo, 2 bedroom, I left extra bedroom empty from August 1999 to August. 2002, only used for my mom two times for her USA visit.

How to parent myself? 

In 2019 January, I started to get the credit card statement from 1996 to 2018. So I can analyze my expenses from 1998 to 2001. I had net income over $110,000 dollars, citi credit card statements from Dec. 1998 to Sept. 2001 are available for me to analyze. Those amount of purchases are $40,000, but there are still $70,000 dollars, more than 60% I could not analyze dollar by dollar since there are no returned check, bank statements.

60% of those net income $110,000 are hard for me to analyze, so I only can do some estimation. But I can not learn the truth from those financial data.

Case study: Longest univalue path algorithm as an interviewer

Jan 18, 2018

Introduction

It is hard to be an interviewer. I have over 144 interviews as an interviewer on interviewing.io. On Jan. 17, 2019, 10:00 PM, I worked with a young engineer and then we worked together to come out the perfect solution together using JavaScript.

Case study 

I need to push myself to write down the process to explain the solution, and share the interviewee how I hack the solution for this tree algorithm.

The problem was that I memorized the solution, I wrote the idea with a bug, and then the interviewee helped me to fix the bug.

Here are a few steps to show how we work together. Another comment is to have a lot of fun to work with a senior developer from California sillicon valley startup. I checked the website and learned that the culture in the startup is pretty interesting and very good experience to work with people from the company.

The Secret of Waking Up Early | Best Inspirational Speech (ft. Mel Robbins)

Here is the link.

The hard truth about making your dreams come true | Mel Robbins Live

Jan. 17, 2019

Introduction

It is called to parent yourself after you get 18 years old.

How to Stop Buying Things You Don't Need

Here is the link.

Five second rule to stop materialism.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Getting Out of Debt

Here is the link.

3 Things You Should Never Do In A Job Interview | Rachael Ray Show

Here is the link.

What to Do if an Attacker Grabs You By the Hair

Here is the link.

Tips for Protecting Yourself and Your Home

Here is the link.

Meet Jordan Page from FunCheapOrFree.com!

Here is the link.

Super simple budget technique (old version - see my new video!)

Here is the link.

Be the Queen of Your Finances | Jordan Page | MyMommyStyle

Here is the link.

Here is the page "Meet Jordan (AKA, the "Fun Cheap & Free").

I am lazy in fashion

Jan. 17, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I did come out the clothing purchase amount I put on Scotia credit card from 2010 to 2017, it is more than $6500 Canadian dollars. I like to write down my analysis how those clothing is such huge problem to take away my space in a small bedroom.

I am lazy in fashion

I bought so many coats for winter. I used to wear one by one. But I am too busy to change coat in this winter season. I have so many things going on, my personal finance research and full time job.

I worry about the fashion complaint. Since I wear same sweater in December, 2018. I changed another sweater and wear the same one in January, 2019.

The Double Life Of Rachael Ray

Here is the link.

The Terrible Things People Have Said About Rachel Ray

Here is the link.

This is my most favorite show as well.

0:50

Entertainer not a good teacher

Too amateur for E...

1:53
Not gellin's with Giada

2:14

Giada De Laurentiis

Do we hang out all the time? No. Are we best friends? No.

2:45/ 4:11

Too brash for Anthony Bourdain

3:55/ 4:11
Sara Dikerman

50 personal financial habits

Jan. 16, 2019

Introduction

It is time for me to spend 20 - 30 minutes to build my own check list weekly, monthly, annual related to personal finance. One thing I can read is to read more articles on this topic.

Personal finance habits

Here is the article I choose to read today.

No. 2  Tracking your income and expenses.

I should work hard to try to track my income and expenses from 1988 to 2018. I like to learn from my own personal finance research. 

I like to find more topics to work on. 

No. 4 Paying attention to mortgage interest rates — even after you buy a home. People who fail to do this may miss out on refinance opportunities that could save them tens of thousands of dollars over the life of their loan.

I did good job to get home equity loan in 2006. So I could use the home equity line from 2006 to 2017. 

Rachael Ray: What You Can Learn From Her Rise To Fame

Jan. 16, 2019

Introduction

It is my favorite thing to do. I like to read the article written on Forbe.com. I like to look into success story of Rachael Ray. Here is the article.

Thank you citibank

Jan. 16, 2019

Introduction

I like to write a short blog to give thanks to citibank since the citi credit card has product feature to allow me to download statements from 1996 to 2017.

Facts

I went to Florida in 1996 and my account was closed in 2017 since I stopped to purchase using citi credit card starting from 2016.

I had tough time to handle my first laidoff in 2001, I made wrong decision to destroy those returned checks and also I did not keep all bank statements from 1996 to 2010. I have hard time to do personal finance research.

I have hundred of pages of documents, I keep them and brought to Canada. I learned my appeal for leave case in 2009 for my Canada skilled immigration case.

I did not spend time to dig into until Nov. 2018. I like to be my own finance analyst, and be my own problem solver. I think that it all takes the determination, hard work, and also good intention to document journey and share with others.

Big hero

I came cross the product feature on citi bank credit card website. I found the product feature to download statements from 1996 to 2018.

That is such great feature, I like to write a big thank you blog to Citi bank.