Year: 2010

Daddy’s responsibility

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on March 14, 2010 by omaha

We took the “new parents” class at St. John’s before delivery. That’s quite informative, the topics ranges from preparation for labor, to feed the baby, to home safety, there is even a short presentation by a pediatrician: on the basics of baby healthcare matters. I also remember the instructor asked us (the future dads) two tasks: put the cribs together; install the infant car seats.

Life would be too easier if that’s the only tasks for dads. From emotional support when the pregnant wife have cramps and/or difficulty to sleep due to growing belly size, house chores, to big picture issues like child development and education. I am not saying this to make myself and other new dads to worry, I think the important thing is we have a game plan. It’s hard to predict which college our kid will go, which major will she pick, but we can think about the college funds, put away some while building our nest eggs, etc.

Grandpa fix

Tags dad responsibility, grandpa

Uncategorized

Why this blog (website)?

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Last Updated on March 12, 2010 by omaha

Our daughter Serenity Youyang was born a week ago, as 悠揚 in Chinese. Her arrival obviously has changed our lives, forever. As I quote one of my former coworker, I will not have a dull day for sure.

A lot of emotions, anticipations, before March 5, when she actually came to the world, I was a bit intimated, after the sleepless night at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. Obviously my wife has been through much more.

This past week, last 7 days, we went from panic parents to more-at-ease parents. One interesting thing I noticed our baby girl has some new change everyday, esp. her facial expressions (like smile). Upon further examination like this article “First Signs of Intelligent Life“, it appears our baby is not at the stage of sophistication.

Why this blog/website?

Continue reading “Why this blog (website)?”

Tags new baby, new dad, new daddy, new dads

Investing

Stock lessons 2009/10: sold stocks for tax reasons

Post author By stlplace
Post date March 11, 2010
1 Comment on Stock lessons 2009/10: sold stocks for tax reasons

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Last Updated on March 29, 2010 by stlplace

Sold stock ((NYSE:BEE) at a loss for tax deduction (in year end of 2009), but forgot to buy it back in Jan 2010. Now the stock doubled the price from where I sold it. I am not trying to predict the stock price in near term, or think “what if” from hindsight here. I think one key reason I did not hold the stock is still due to my ignorance: I don’t know how to value it (as REIT). I saw someone put an quite optimistic est. at around $2.50 in last Dec.

Back the topic, another reason I think I did not hold the stock is because it dropped precipitously in last Dec., and I started to sell some after initially bought quite a few shares. As I sold when the stock started bouncing, I sold too early. After a while I only have a few thousand shares, I sold them at around $2: thinking to take advantage of the loss for tax deduction, and hope to get back when the price drop again the the Jan.

But obviously I did not jump back to this bandwagon in Jan.

Think long term and trade less

Life

We got a baby girl

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Last Updated on March 10, 2010 by stlplace

She was born in St. John’s Mercy Medical center St. Louis, labor room 5, at 6:55 AM CST, on May 5 2010 (Friday). She weighs 7 pounds (3.15 kg). Mom and baby were both doing fine. Obviously our lives changed forever since her arrival. For me personally, I need to worry about two people instead of one; and vice versa. The first 2 days at hospital after baby born is a bit overwhelming. Things calmed down quite a bit after the initial panic. And I think we both become more confident about taking care of baby as time goes: diaper change, swaddle, and feed the baby (for my wife).

Babies are fun
They are a million times fun than iPhone, or at least a thousand times fun than computer programming. Maybe my wife will disagree with me on this one. Nowadays because I work in office (instead of home), I see my baby only in early morning and evening, so I tried to spend some quality time with her (like changing diaper and burp). It seems to me our baby has some change everyday. The first 24 hours is obviously very sleepy. After that she is more active, besides the cries every baby does, I can see her smile a little from yesterday.

Some trivia stuff
A year ago this time (March 5, 6 and 9) is the 10 year low of US stock market (Dow Jones stock index).

I found some iPhone apps for baby: like this one “baby brain” and “total baby” (available at iTune app store), both tracks baby diaper change and feeding, among other things. I thought about this when my wife started write those information on a notebook (although she has iPhone).

Master Series

Reading Buffett letter to shareholder 2009

Post author By stlplace
Post date March 3, 2010
No Comments on Reading Buffett letter to shareholder 2009

Reading Time: 1 minute

Last Updated on March 3, 2010 by stlplace

link to 2009 PDF annual shareholder letter here.

Buffett CNBC interview
(part 1 here, following the link from part 1 to get to part 2 to 8 )

Recommend reading by Buffett
Keynes’s *General Theory*, chapter 12

Intelligent Investor Chapter 8 and 20

My Notes

Tags berkshire, berkshire-hathaway, Buffett, Munger, shareholder-letter

gadgets

Palm only way forward

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last Updated on March 1, 2010 by stlplace

1. Come up with products that is consistent (not sometimes work, sometimes don’t, see this old post from PreCentral guys).

2. Also come up with some smart ads (with Sprint and Verizon), something like this one from German carrier O2.

O2 has about 11% market share in Germany per Yahoo Answers.

Tags palm-pixi, Palm-Pre, Pixi, Pre, webOS

401k and Personal Finance

5 Ways to Start Building Credit As a Student

Post author By CreditShout
Post date February 23, 2010
No Comments on 5 Ways to Start Building Credit As a Student

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last Updated on February 23, 2010 by CreditShout

The average age of your credit history is one factor that goes into determining your credit score. At fifteen percent of your score, having a longer credit history can make a big difference. This is one reason why it makes sense to start building credit as a student; the younger you are when you get your first card, the longer your credit history will be. You may also need to start building credit as a student so you’ll have a good credit history when it comes time to make all those adult purchases, such as buying a car or a house.

While building credit as a student is a great idea, your efforts can also backfire if you don’t go about them properly. Fortunately, with a little bit of research and effort, you can start building your credit responsibly. Start with these five tips to help you out.

401k and Personal Finance

401K, IRA, Roth IRA

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Last Updated on February 20, 2010 by stlplace

How to deal with 401k when leaving a job?
Some options:
1) Take it out, with 10% penalty, and potential income tax later on. This is usually not recommended.

2) Rollover to an Rollover IRA; or Rollover to the new employer’s 401k.
I did this once: not because of change of job, but because of change of company ownership, I have opportunity to rollover some of the 401k money into Vanguard Rollover IRA in year 2007. That money didn’t recover to the initial value so far.

3) Leave it alone (until 59 1/2 years old).
I did this when I left my former employer in Oct. 2008 (the middle of financial crisis), it turns out to be a good move (or no-op), as the value recovered from the crisis.

Should I open a traditional IRA or Roth IRA?
Tax deduction: IRS publication here.

Tags 401K, IRA, Roth-IRA

Career Software development

How to find a job in this difficult market?

Post author By stlplace
Post date February 18, 2010
No Comments on How to find a job in this difficult market?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on February 18, 2010 by stlplace

Particularly in the IT (software development) field. Obviously the No. 1 thing is “never give up”. I started looking about 9 months ago when I felt “the need to look”: both for defense (fear of lay off) and offense (opportunities better matching my interest and skill). I had to admit finding a job is not an easy thing in this environment. Why look for another job while one still has a job (besides the main reason behind the change)? The simple answer is, only when a person still has a job or other sources of income, he/she will have the space to look for something better.

(Source: Brandies U.)

Strategy and Job search sites I used

Tags IT-job, job-search

Uncategorized

Hello world!

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Last Updated on February 15, 2010 by omaha

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!