Happy New Year to all the readers, whether you are from the US, or China (would be very hard these days), or Europe, or somewhere else,…

I started this blog about a year ago. My original intension is to share things related to my work and life experience in mid-west US, from software to things in St. Louis. This has been changed a bit since I changes focus to stocks, and personal finance lately. While I don’t think money is the most important thing in life, I do believe financial freedom is a dream for myself and many ordinary people. I hope we can all come close to that in the not too distance future.

The “STL” portion of STLPlace is obvious, it’s the airport code for Saint Louis. I got “place” mainly because in the city where I live, Creve Coeur, there is a business park called “City Place”. Unlike many cities in St. Louis area, Creve Coeur does not have a downtown. The city is planning to build a downtown now, and City Place is an integral part of all this. I like this idea very much. As some of you may know, I wrote many blogs in a Panera Bread Co near my house (5 minutes walking distance). I like this place because its relaxing environment. I hope the new downtown will have more places for Panera Bread for people to walk, eat, shopping and just hang out. Life in the US is a bit hectic for many ordinary people, sometimes we just need to slow down a little. I remember one afternoon before Xmas, I met an old black lady in Sam’s Club. She asked me to get a drink for her because she is just too tired. I guess she had lots of stress for shopping etc. She just need to sit down and drink a soda.

Happy New Year to Everyone, from the St. Louis Bread Co. at Olive Blvd (near Spode).