It seems everyone is getting in on this thing called Earth Hour. It was a stunning participatory success when it was tried in 2008. But did it really hit home? Did it change people’s attitudes? I wonder… I got a lot of comments from people who asked me why I was not participating in it last year.

Well. Why? Because I already did my part last year. We cut our electricity usage from an average of NT$3650 per month to about NT$2650 in the space of 18 months. And we’re trying to figure out how we can reduce more without impacting our business.

We replaced several older computers with higher power requirements with lower power Asus Eee Boxes, and a newish PC and a notebook. We only have one remaining PC that is less energy friendly. All our monitors have been replaced with LCD types as well. It’s difficult to estimate how much wattage we cut: but it’s easily 50%.

We cut our wattage on spotlights alone from over 450 watts to just under 300 watts. I’m planning to switch totally to LEDs when the technology is ready. But spotlights like the LEDs tend to be very weak in light output. But this is a fast changing market… so it’s likely I’ll replace them all within 3 months. This is a huge saving on carbons since we use these lights almost 7 hours every day.

The one big kicker for our fuel bills was replacing two aging AC units, both of which were old, inefficient and difficult to repair. We opted for a more expensive variable motor type instead of the traditional on-off type unit and the energy savings have been substantial on these two units. The only downside with those units is that the external power units are larger than traditional ones making for space problems for us. We still run four traditional smaller units, but we’ve already decided when we purchase new ones what kind we’ll choose.

All of our school lighting has been replaced with fluorescent tubes or CFL quite a while ago (there were a few recalcitrant bulbs that managed to escape the first round of replacments).

For a minor inconvenience, a few complaints about lighting (which we rearranged), we’ve saved nearly 1/3rd of our energy bill over 2005. It’s difficult to predict the patterns for 2009 yet as some of the equipment is still new. But there could still be additional energy savings.

We will replace our spotlights in the next few months with LEDs to cut an additional 150 watts or more, we will replace one PC for sure, and we’re considering re-engineering the lighting for the classrooms. That alone will be the biggest challenge: each classroom has 16 to 24 strips of fluorescent tubes each burning 18w. We’re loathe to replace these with CFL because it will make the classrooms feel darker. Our main office area is lit with 8 CFLs at 22 watts and that is bright enough, so we could use that model for the classrooms. So there is room for improvement there.

One of the other big changes was turning off the water heater for the drinks unit: it had a lower power chiller for cold water, and a higher power (900 watts!) for hot water. We simply substituted a traditional kettle. And to think we used to leave that machine on all day and night.

So, why wait till Earth Hour to turn off your lights for one hour? You can save that energy every day by being smart. And your wallet will thank you, too.

Be CAREFUL with your Cards

With the second one, we had a bit of a fuss this month. I had just finished upgrading the server at school, when I decided to replace one of the staff computers, too. It was partly to save money on electricity that we switched to low power computers and to save carbon (specifically, the Asus Eee Ebox 202 series, which is a fine complement for teachers in our school).

So I ordered an extra computer from our local supplier. It came, and I took out my credit card to pay the bill. No success. Tried again. Turned out the credit card had been canceled and that it had been fraudulently used abroad somewhere towards the end of 2008. Since I hadn’t noticed any odd transactions, I can only assume that the anti-fraud measures banks use had been successful in preventing the abuse of the card.

I’m still surprised that it happened. The gentleman at Taihsin International Bank was surprisingly polite and efficient. I had my new cards within just a few days, and was able to use them again. But I still have no idea when or how my card details were skimmed. I have checked my PCs for viruses and bugs and other nasties. All of them are totally clean. My only guess is that someone skimmed the details when I was in the UK, perhaps with a small hand scanner, at one of the hotels or restaurants or stores I went to.

This month’s report. Anyway.

Personal Shopping Purchases

1. For school, we bought several memory cards which were unbelievably cheap (2 cards at about NT$200 each for 2MB), a PC computer extension cord with lots of extra sockets, and a USB socket charger for the wife so she can charge her MP3 player without worrying about access to a PC. That cost NT$2477 in total.
2. The mobile phone bill was for two months at NT$376. Google AdWords was NT$8. I pretty much stopped my campaigns for the time being as the clickthroughs were really bad for both my personal sites and my business sites. In fact, the visitors clicking through were just bad quality.
3. We also paid our car insurance again this year for NT$3864: of course on the form that we received we noted that our car had devalued again! It’s quite surprising how F-A-S-T an NT$500K car becomes only NT$200K. And our regular payment of NT$2000 was also made as usual.
4. The biggest shopping purchase damage in January was our trip to Mitsuokoshi at Taipei 101 right at the end of December. Christine bought ear-rings for herself and her sister at NT$4480, and two pairs of shoes that she really liked which cost NT$6552.

Business Purchases

1. With the most recent set of fusses at the Server, I started migrating my domain registrations from Dreamhost to NameCheap. It has cost quite a lot of additional money to do this as I had to pay additional registration fees for extending the registration period. Given that I now control over 20 domains, you can imagine. Fortunately, NameCheap has been running special offers for domain transfers (US$7.99 for the first year). I have to say that I have been solidly impressed with the quality of the help and service I have received from NameCheap. It has been absolutely outstanding as they have dealt with three queries of mine: billing, DNS issues and non-transferred domains. On each occasion, the issue was satisfied. Good service. Damage to my wallet: NT$3241. I know there is at least one other bill coming for about NT2500 as well in February.
2. Dreamhost bills came up twice in December for December and November: total NT$1181 which included one domain renewal. There was another NT$101 for something that I can’t quite remember. I’m still checking what that was for. In fact, that was a payment to Scratchback. I had about US$15.00 in their system that had sat for months. I decided to stop using the widget on my blogs, so to get the money out, I bought a slot myself with one paypal address. And then I was able to withdraw the amount as it met the minimum required. It did cost me a little, but I figured it was better than letting the money sit in Jim Krukal’s Paypal account.
3. A New Theme: I promised a new theme for InvestorBlogger for 2009. And indeed I purchased the theme for InvestorBlogger (to be revealed) at about the same that this server was attacked and it was useless. I implemented it on EeeBlogger for a while, and discovered that there were some issues with the premium theme I bought. I’m still hoping to use it on InvestorBlogger soon, but implementation is a real pain. NT$2385.
4. Database and Scanner: Our business (a language school) decided to start categorizing and organizing the books we have for children to read. In other words, we felt we should have some facilities to start a small lending library. So we purchased software and a hand scanner to start cataloguing the books. We’re hoping to find out how many books we have, how much we spent on them, and have facilities to keep tabs on the books, too. Perhaps I’ll review the software one day. NT$2719.

Final Note: I use Paypal a lot for my online purchases, it’s pretty handy. But it’s difficult to keep tabs on what money goes out and how. So I’ve opted to use one account for money received, and one for purchases only. It hasn’t quite worked out like that yet. But it’s getting there.

Oh, and I earned a little cashback on one of the cards: NT$46.00. There were no penalties, no interest charges, or other surprises, and the total amount owed on each card WILL be paid in full. But I stupidly let over 4000 bonus points expire without using them. What a shame. I just noticed that they expired on the last day of January. Oh, well.

One Christmas my parents bought me a toy called FlightDeck. I wonder if anyone remembers that! The object was to land a plastic aircraft via a pulley system on the deck of an aircraft carrier. I loved it, and it was no doubt fairly expensive. But it suffered three main flaws: it was pricey, it was easily broken, and its play value was limited. In fact, I broke on Boxing Day, and couldn’t play with it after that! I was sorry, and never told my parents.

It’s not a mistake I would repeat on buying presents for any kids of mine! I’ll always try to find toys that have extended play value, such as Lego, Games, etc… One such toy that is perpetually popular: cars for the little boys. If I was able to play ‘secret santa’ to some little boys in our school, I’d be heading for the toy car section in the local department store looking for popular models or familiar models.

I was enchanted especially with the character cars from the movie created by Pixar. This set provides three vehicles for kids to play with as they recreate and relive the scene from the movie “Cars”. Of course, my own favorite has to be Lightning McQueen, but that’s a personal favorite.

For the little girls, perhaps a disney figurine would be great, too. Either way, perhaps the easiest way to a kid’s heart this Christmas is to buy them a gift that helps them to rediscover their innate imagination and story telling skills (or yours!). Three simple cars, like this, can recreate hundreds of variations on the scenes in Cars. Who knows? Perhaps they’ll be able to play with them even when some of the parts have gone missing, or the toys are broken.

Whatever gifts you choose, especially from a store like Mega Brands Toys, you’ll find that the play value will far exceed the monetary value.

But I failed to have a great system for recording these expenses. I read about using Google Docs to create an expense list from somewhere. So I decided to see what I could create in a few minutes. Surprisingly it was easy.

Google Docs now allows users to create forms. Sign into Google, click on Google Docs and on the right hand side you’ll see a short menu that allows you to create four types of documents. Click on the ‘New’ tab. You’ll see the first item is called ‘Forms’. When you click on that, you’ll be taken to a simple form that is populated with the first item already.

Try it out for yourself or read my full post. As you approach a major spending time, such as summer travel or Christmas, this can be a great way to monitor your spending. You’ll find the tool quite easy to use. For more, read this post on Google Docs and Forms.

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The bill can be divided into three sections: vacation spending, online expenses, and regular bills.

Vacation Spending

I stayed at a little guest house near Toll Bridge in Southern Scotland; then I stayed at the Hanover Hotel in Edinburgh, Ardoe House Hotel in Aberdeen, and finally in Imperial College London. The total damage for each of these places was NT$18,418. Each of the locations was notable for something; but the highlight had to be staying in Imperial College London, which was located so close to Hyde Park, Harrods and the price was amazing. I found at least two of these places courtesy of LateRooms.com.

I also bought a few other items over that period including: a router for Mother which I couldn’t really install properly – NT$1984; a pair of shoes from Marks&Spencer in Inverness – NT$1762; gasoline (wow! That was expensive) – NT$2900; Internet – NT$599 from T Mobile; a cup of coffee at Hong Kong International Airport at 9am on the way back… I couldn’t find any money in a currency I could pay with (no reminbi, US$, HK$ or S$…) so I paid by credit card – NT$165. Grand Total: NT$7410.

Regular Bills

We also paid our life insurance term – NT$2000; a mobile phone bill – NT$1970; and a trip to Carrefour for shopping – NT$585. Total NT$4555.

Online Spending

Curiously there was some online spending too. I paid for writers to produce some work for this site, and for an upcoming Dow Jones website which cost about NT$2199. I also paid NT$95 for Google Advertising. Total NT$2294.

There were also several credits to my account of about NT$155 and for some reason, I wasn’t charged any interest on the outstanding NT$444 that I didn’t pay off last month by mistake.

I also purchased several things on my secondary credit card including renting a car from Hertz and purchasing airline tickets courtesy of BMI both of which were quite expensive… but BMI was well worth the cost as I was able to buy return tickets from London to Edinburgh for about NT$6766. The Hertz Rental car was easy drive (if French!) and I rented it for about 9 days, so the total was NT$25,168 for that.

Total Cost of the Holiday Trip

I can now calculate the cost of my trip:

Airline Tickets: NT$50,766
Car Rental: NT$25,168
Hotels: NT$18,418
Expenses from September: NT$16,438
Cash: NT$31350 (est. because of fluctuating exchange rates).

So the total cost of my trip was NT$145,000. Wow! I had hoped to keep it under control, too. Perhaps the biggest expense was the car rental because of the cost of gasoline. Overall it cost about 1/3 of the total expense.

I was privileged to be able to stay with family and friends around the UK, so whenever possible, I would treat them to meals in restaurants as a way to say ‘thank you’. It’s also a much more relaxed way to visit friends and family! It also helped to cut the cost of travel.

While I feel sad that I had to dip so much into our family’s savings to do this, it was necessary because I hadn’t seen family for three years. They live in the north of Scotland, making additional travel expensive, inconvenient and tiring. It was well worth the expense, and I thoroughly benefited from the trip. I’m so glad to reconnect with people, so it was WELL worth the expense.

Now that I’ve established how much it cost to visit the UK, it has me wondering if there are any ways to defray such costs by finding ways to make money while traveling. Could this be the subject of another post?

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We’ve all been using one system as our main tool to play, work, do banking, write reports, … etc.. for a number of years now, but slowly I’m coming to the realization: this is not the most secure way to handle things, if you download a new game or driver, you risk compromising not just your games by inadvertently installing spyware or a worm or a virus, but also you also expose your entire online or virtual life. Perhaps even your personal identity is at risk, too!

So, buy two PCs.

Separating your PCs may be the simplest and most effective way, though, to prevent data breaches: for example, use one PC for general browsing and one PC for secure browsing only (not email). The primary machine you can use for non-secure transactions and every day life, while the secondary PC is set up for your financial and personal information (like wills, finances, reports..) ONLY. Just make sure you don’t logon to your personal information on the primary system!

Virtual or REAL PC?

With windows, it’s possible (though tricky) to install an entirely new partition of Windows on your disk. So it is possible to set up a ‘virtual PC’ … in fact, Microsoft have been giving away versions of its own Virtual PC. You may get away with installing a virtual PC INSIDE your current PC. Both of these are affordable, and viable, ways to handle your data, though neither of these is as absolutely secure as purchasing a second machine.

If you purchase a secondary machine (for financial reasons), you will need to make sure that you can isolate the computer in a number of ways:

1. Add only the MINIMUM of software you need to access and use your financial data – secure browser, any banking software and security protocols, a version of OFFICE (or whatever), AV software, and anti-spyware software, too. Avoid using email on this system (though browser-based email may be okay) to remove the risk of infected attachments getting on your system.
2. Avoid networking the system with other computers in your home, so you can avoid infiltration from another system that is already compromised, (if you can). You may still need to share the internet connection, though, so you will need to arrange a suitable firewall.
3. Make sure that other people in your house DO NOT and CANNOT use the system for OTHER purposes. Ensure that they understand this PC is ONLY for financial and personal information. Do not be tempted to let them use it for anything else.
4. You will need to make sure that there few ways to put data on the system to minimize possible transmission routes: Avoid getting a CD-Rom if possible, a 3.5″ disk or similar device. Restrict yourself to data forms that you are sure are already secure, if you decide to use portable media. Of course, minimizing the media options will also cause you inconvenience when it comes to backing up data.
5. Keeping your PC uptodate with patches and updates will be a somewhat inconvenient and necessary step, too, for all OSes. Believing that you have Linux or Mac so you’re safe will simply expose you to more risks. All systems are vulnerable. PERIOD.

I haven’t done this myself as my machines seem to be fairly clean of viruses and spyware, and have been for some time. But perhaps this is just false confidence. It would be too late to purchase a system AFTER my data has been compromised.

One possible and affordable solution is buying one of the new netbooks that are on the market: Asus Eee PC, Acer AspireOne, or any of a dozen other pretenders. This might save you buying a whole new expensive desktop, can be filed away easiy (out of sight!) and is easily portable or storable.

What suggestions do you have for securing your data? Have you taken this route? Let me know…

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When I bought my little portable PC, the Aspire One in the UK, I was very careful to make sure that I had all the documentation for a tax refund. The ACER Aspire One was purchased in John Lewis in Welwyn Garden City for GBP299.00 of which I was entitled to a tax refund of approximately GBP20.00 (it’s not a lot, granted, but anything to reduce that credit card bill that is staring at me!).

Well, I lost the paper work, I also lost several other sets of paperwork, after carefully keeping them for three weeks on numerous flights and in lots of different places. Last weekend, I reminded myself that I had to go to the post office, and promptly didn’t go. After that, the paperwork just vanished without a trace. Of course, I could have just filed the paperwork in the UK, as I intended to do, but I procrastinated going to the post office, made all sorts of excuses, and finally I lost the paperwork.

Were this the first time, I would’ve been more forgiving of myself but it’s not? I’ve lost items and documents frequently, including…

• 1. leaving my bag with money OUTSIDE all night;
• 2. throwing my passport in the toilet;
• 3. losing my bankbook(s) more than twice;
• 4. losing my ATM cards more than three times;
• 5. lost several wallets; and much more…

I’ve tried all manner of ways to compensate for my own carelessness, including making a much bigger effort to organize myself, file papers and documents properly, and keep money properly… but the systems usually breakdown when I don’t follow it properly for whatever moment of inattention I am prone to. It’s at that point that things go awry. I’m much better organized than before, but still the effort I put into organising my bag hasn’t been successful, so…

When you know your weaknesses, it’s best to work out ways to compensate for them before they become a problem, especially if you can’t fix them!

Have you a ‘financial weakness’? How does it affect your life? What did you learn about yourself because of it?

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A step back in time!

In truth, I’ve been keeping (initially monthly but now quarterly) updates for more than 10 years anyway. I can trace the finances all the way back to about 1995 when I had just got married. In those days, the record keeping was pretty unsophisticated, but I did use Microsoft Works 3.0 to tote up my assets.

I think it was around the time of the 1996 Taiwan Straits missile crisis that focused my mind on how much money we didn’t have. While things were pretty tense here, it made me realize how important having some cash in the bank was. Shortly after that, I set aside nearly HK$10,000 in a bank account that earned a pitiful amount of interest for quite some time, but at least the money was there, for an emergency.

High or Low? Which figure?

Let’s take a look shall we! We had $66,000 or thereabouts actually in the bank, I also held about NT$7000 in HK$, an outstanding (but never repaid) loan of NT$25000 which I subsequently wrote off, and NT$75,000 from a hui (read more about a Taiwanese ‘hui’). Overall, I would say that this was a pretty optimistic statement because it counted approximately NT$100K of assets that weren’t in my control! This was about US$6300 (at US$:NT$ 27.43167 – an average for that month) or about US$2670 at the more conservative ‘unkind’ evaluation!

Any guesses on what the current figures are? When did you start doing your Net Worth Statements?

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There are many reasons why the markets are tumbling right now, and poor lending choices are one of the culprits. If your credit ratings have been affected by the turmoil, you may need to spend quite a bit of time, money and personal energy restoring your credit record through credit repair efforts and renewed borrowing. If you are considering bad credit credit cards from sites such as BadCreditOffers (which provide links to different types of cards, different rates and conditions), I would caution you:

1. Know the Credit Card Interest Rates

Rates for most credit cards are typically between 10%~20%, but can go much higher depending on the card, the agreement, and the penalties. Know this and understand this. Don’t be fooled by “Intro APRs”, “Low Rates”, Freebies, or Minimum Payments. Always know the full rate, work out how much you would have to pay at that rate, and calculate how much interest you would pay over 12 months on a typical amount for your own budget. Oh, and beware those N/A statements. Know why they say “N/A”!

2. Read the Agreement before you sign!

Make sure you read the agreement, esp. if you are going to use the card a lot. Make sure that you understand what penalties may be applied, what rights you have under the agreement, and who you need to contact if you have problems. If you don’t understand the agreement, don’t sign it until you are happy that you do. Find someone who can explain it to you.

3. Check those Statements carefully!

When you get your card, keep it safely along with a record of your usage of the card. Then make sure you check those statements carefully each month. Check off each item as it appears and query any that are incorrect. Then make the payment before the due date to avoid penalties.

I am thankful that I can read my statements (even though they are in a language I’m not competent at), I do have someone who can understand the agreement, and I religiously check each and every statement. It really helps to keep tabs on your credit cards and your usage patterns. But I’m assuming you already do that, don’t you?

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If you haven’t already heard about Kiva, then read about it here.

I want to recruit you to my lending team, Taiwan Gives, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join my lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you – but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!

Check out the Taiwan Gives lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=330&_isc=9e30de34-e503-102b-9b86-b71337deb4ea.

Thanks,
kenneth dickson

This would be okay but for the calls you receive from people you don’t know. For example, it is 3am in the morning UK time, the mobile rings and you pick it up. They’re asking for your wife who is 10,000km away and are unable to identify who they are. So all you have is the phone number: who can it be?

Enter Reverse Phone Lookup services: visit their website, enter the mysterious number and find out who they are, or at least where they’re calling from. Then you can determine whether it’s worth calling them or not. The last time I was traveling in the UK, I spent quite a bit of money chasing calls; but this time I refused, I was able to decide which calls were important or not. Give it a try! Oh, and if you’re getting nuisance calls at 3a.m., then check out the National No Call Registry and see if signing up can prevent it! Either way, you can save a lot of money and trouble!

The only real question is: do you have enough of a problem that purchasing a $40 annual membership will make it worthwhile? I do like the guarantee though if a number is unavailable you get your money back! Perhaps it would be useful for those of us on SOHO business who make a lot of calls daily. Pity there’s no free trial.

Sponsored Post.

Flashy Name: Lousy Service

Their service though competent in face to face transactions really failed on indirect communications: I left email and notes in the system that we were supposed to use – they went unanswered so long I forgot about the query; I had my phone banking closed down twice because I prefer to do online banking; but the online banking service was somewhat lacking – and the occasional service had to be performed through the phone, such as opening a Term Deposit.

I tried to set up my accounts to handle electronic transfers (and was promised that it would be easy and efficient). This would have included my broker in the states, my regular payments, etc., in fact, the service NEVER worked, and I gave up trying to get HSBC to fix it; these weren’t the only problems I had. I also had office closing times that were switched just after I opened my account.

Worse, every single time I went into the office, there was a supposedly ‘new’ account manager to handle things: I never saw the same person twice. To add insult to injury, I never got my regular statements mailed to my home, and it took ages before I realized that they had carelessly written down my address so statements weren’t being mailed: this was despite asking several times and having confirmed my address several times. Wow!

In the end I closed my account. I never managed to utilize their service because there were so many problems just setting up supposedly basic services. In fact, I had planned to put all my assets in their care. But when I saw how little care they took over their clients, I eventually backed off, and left things as they are. Push came to shove, when they closed my phone banking for the SECOND time.

Rich Ironies – Perhaps we’re not rich enough

Today, to cap it all, I went in to see if I could buy traveler’s checks in British pounds. Given that they had branches in the UK, I thought this would be okay. But no. Sorry, this service is only for ‘customers’. Of course, I didn’t bite my tongue when I ‘reminded’ them that I had already closed my account because of their silly service rules.

To be fair: when I was in the UK, getting money was relatively easy with HSBC, and I did buy T/Cs before through them, though I think I had to order them. Their online security was great, too (since I do banking a number of times each month, the regular hassle just outweighed the benefits). And they did direct me to a bank that could provide me with what I needed.

Christine and I were discussing the situation tonight, and she made me realize that my accounts were just too small for them to bother with. I didn’t use their credit card, and wouldn’t run up a debt, even if I did. We didn’t use their mortgage services as they wouldn’t lend to me – the loan principal was TOO small, they said – which is a pity for them because we later remortgaged through our current provider, and will undoubtedly use a mortgage again in the future.

But, I thought: isn’t that weird? A bank doesn’t want to provide me these services so they think I’m a bad customer. In truth, I would have had the whole lot: mortgage, credit card, car loan, investments, and much more. I would have been a great customer for them, too.

Pause to Reflect: Your best friends are always underappreciated

Later I happened to call my REAL bank, Citibank to move some cash around, tidy up some deposits and get some cash for the trip to the UK next week. And they were so helpful and polite. I have never had problems with services being canceled, their interest rates tended to be better than HSBC, and whenever I’ve been to the branch, things were quickly sorted out. I’ll be testing their service in the UK to compare it with HSBC.

Many foreigners in Taiwan have bad experiences with the local banks, getting stuff done. Truthfully, I have never had any of the similar frustrations that I’ve had with HSBC with ANY of the local banks I have dealt with. Today, I went to Land Bank, one of the stodgiest of banks in Taiwan. I was served politely, accurately and quickly both times I did a transaction. It’s true: some of the local banks don’t have comfy seats, polite manners, but they usually get stuff done – with one big exception TaiHsin Bank. But then I didn’t choose to open an account there: I had to because of work. As soon as I quit, I closed it down.

There are problems with local banks, though: sometimes they have their own bureaucracy that’s hard to get through, if you are a foreigner; sometimes they charge more on international wires; they don’t always have a lot of foreign currency on hand; ATMs don’t always accept cards, and stuff. But I haven’t experienced as much frustration with any of the local banks as with HSBC.

What goes around comes around

HSBC has been in Taiwan for more than 20 years, and its focus on developing Wealth Management Services is undoubtedly a smart move. Overseas, HSBC is quite a reputable bank, and by most accounts, well worth dealing with. Unfortunately, in Taiwan, it’s getting the reputation for being a snob’s bank. That would be okay, if it was backed up by stellar service. In reality, service would barely rate 2 stars out of five. Alienating currently lower-income, lower net worth individuals now in a country with a fast-moving business environment, rising incomes, sharply rising wealth, really isn’t a smart move.

Disclaimer: This post is written by a former customer of HSBC in Taiwan and HongKong. I do not currently own shares or bonds in this company. I have no investments or any relation with this company other than outlined in this post.

It didn’t sound like much but I began paying my utilities with it, buying groceries and gas and just about everything else. It really added up. I just have to be careful not to overspend just because I have a nice credit limit. I have a record of most of my expenses, I save postage by using the card to pay online and I actually get cash back for buying things I have to get anyway!

I don’t have to carry cash anymore, either. Cash tends to be too easy to spend; now I think twice before I stop at White Castle, Safeways, or wherever. In my case, the credit card actually saves me money. I like the buyer protection, too, in case that new water heater is defective and I can’t get the company to fix it. It means I can get my issuer to deny payment if that company won’t accept responsibility for a defective product.

I pay the card off completely every month and I got one with no annual fee so I get all these benefits and the card issuer pays me! That’s a pretty sweet deal, to my mind.”

Share your experiences in this column with tips on good deals and bad deals! I too have applied for a credit card tied to a local store, Carrefour to take advantage of the bonus points and rewards schemes they offer. Still no word on the approval.

At the beginning of the month, I usually withdraw a nominal NT$5000 (about US$165) to last me as long as I can. It covers coffee money, snacks and outside purchases, the occasional book or two (which are hideously expensive here), newspapers (not daily), some daily necessities, or occasional luxuries. So about the 8th of the month I always feel richer than the rest of the month.

I do make withdrawals from the bank to cover additional expenses, so most of this money is pocket money in the broadest sense. Pretty much by the end of the month, I’ll ‘borrow’ NT$1000 from the wife who’s in charge of the general expenses. That usually lasts me from then to the end of the month.

BUT, the biggest enemies of this money are Buckstars where I typically spend nearly NT$200 on coffee and something to eat! It’s surprising how fast that money can go when I go there every day! Even the occasional trip to 85C can speed up the pace of expenses.

The rest of the money goes on small stuff for home or business, and I occasionally forget to reclaim this money! Right now, though, is an exception: I have nearly NT$2000 in my wallet and that’s before my pocket money. I can’t remember why… but it’s there. I should save it.

Identity theft is a serious and growing crime that inflicts serious damage on over 9 million people a year in the US alone. Identity theft can be placed on a par with break-in and robbery of an individual’s home in terms of psychological effects. The financial ramifications can be far more serious than the common burglary.

Identity theft involves the illegal use of a real person’s identity and financial standing to benefit an unscrupulous criminal. The Federal Trade Commission in the US says that over 40% of all complaints it receives relate the stolen personal and financial information.

Identity thieves use another person’s identity, to obtain credit in the form of credit cards, mortgages, store cards and every other conceivable line of credit. The average victim loses out to the June of over $6,000; some victims suffer much larger losses.

Financial identity theft is the act of stealing another person’s financial information such as bank records. This information is then used to obtain lines of credit and loans. They can also aid the criminal in obtaining forged checks, enabling them to raid the victims checking and savings accounts.

Identity cloning is slightly different in that it involves the duplication of the owner’s personal identity. The thief will then use the victim’s id to open bank accounts and lines of credit cards and mortgages. They may keep the assumed identity for long periods of time.

The thieves find their information through a multitude of ways including computer fraud. This can involve impersonating a large company or bank and asking the victim to sign in using their password to resolve some perceived problem with their account.

Less high-tech means of gaining information include rifling through trash to find credit card statements and other basic information gained from financial and non-financial correspondence.

To protect itself from these unscrupulous individuals and criminal gangs members of the public need to be constantly vigilant while online, avoiding giving away even minor personal information, as well as make sure that your computer isn’t infected by spyware or other vile forms of ~ware.

Shopping online, with companies that are not well known, is one particularly well exploited avenue for of obtaining all the information and ID thief needs.

Antivirus and firewall protection, combined with what is known as anti-phishing software and essential tools on all home computers.

To avoid ‘dumpster diving’ credit cards and other financial statements should be shredded before disposal. Credit cards and bank statements should be carefully checked for strange purchasers and other inconsistencies.

Any credit offer coming to the house in the form of junk mail should also be shredded as they often contain vital financial information. Within the home, personal and financial information should be hidden and safeguarded as if it were cash, and not just left out on the kitchen table.

Mail should be retrieved from the mail box as soon as possible to avoid theft of useful information. Unless you are very familiar with the company no credit card information, should have been given out over the phone.

Prevention is the best way to avoid this kind of crime: you should take as much care of your personal information as possible. Other times, though, vigilance may be your best bet to catch any wayward transactions.

Anyway, take a look at the image. The next time you’re away in foreign lands, you can whip out your mobile and do some approximate (I did say ‘approximate’ transactions) to figure out whether you’re getting the best rates or even just what the rates are.

The syntax is a little quirky:

Your Amount + Your Currency + in Target Currency

The result is worked out for you in the first line and presented. You’ll find that you can work out odd amounts, quicker than using a calculator, and you’ll be able to see any typos and redo the calculation faster and more accurately.

If you don’t know the currency code, you’ll need to find a currency list for you to identify your currency. But after that you can simply enter the currency name as normal. It doesn’t work for Gold or Silver but it’d be useful if it could. In fact, working out stock prices would also be a good way to use the function. Wonder why Google didn’t do that yet?

Oh, and did I say you could link to the calculation, embed the link in emails and websites, and so on? No. Try it.

Business Week Magazine, Credit Card Rage by Jessica Silver-Greenberg.

Hah! I should have done. This time I had 18 transactions to keep records for, and I FAILED. Miserably! So if you don’t want to make the same STUPID mistake as I did, read about how to avoid it. It’s pretty easy. It was a busy month for this bank as I racked upover NT$52K worth of spending. So let’s get started.

Life Expenses – NT$15,907

On July 19th I went to FNAC in Tienmou, and they always have a great selection of stuff, so I was tempted to spend NT$734 on SOMETHING. The problem is I can’t remember what it was for. Batteries, Memory Cards, who knows… at the moment, I didn’t find my receipt for that. On the very next day, we spent another NT$1588 on stuff at Mitzukoshi, but again I just don’t remember what that was. So let that be a lesson to ME!

In Taipei we bought a few more items at IKEA (energy saving lights, picture frames, etc.) and had Ed serviced and oil changed: NT$2578 and NT$3485. [IKEA had an odd assortment of lights: I was looking for energy saving spots, but I had to settle for 20W+35W instead of real energy saving bulbs. Still that was better than the original 450 watts we were burning. Got the wattage reduced to about 300W which will save about 1/3 of our spot light bill, and cut heat, too. The original 50W spots were quite HOT.] Additional expenses at Carrefour included another NT$2466. On July 21st, we also were charged NT$2000 for our life insurance policy (it’s a supplemental policy with investment based returns). To my surprise, Emusic also charged me a subscription on my credit card NT$3056.

Business Expenses – NT$6,390

Computer repairs (school system and home system both had ‘issues’ – the school system fried its videocard and had to have its motherboard replaced to remain a functioning system) and I bought a few peripherals for the school: an MP3 system, a new keyboard, and had XP reinstalled on the other system. Total repairs cost NT$6390 for one system, one motherboard, one reinstall plus… We also purchased some spotlights for school (see above) included cost NT$1072 plus NT$295 for a small picture holder for school.

2008 Summer Tour – $29,654

On July 21st we headed to Ilan as the beginning of 2008′s Grand Taiwan Tour. We stayed at a rather mediocre hotel in Jiao-Xi. It was one that we had originally liked a lot but this time we were very unlucky with our room as it was situated on main road, and every four or five minutes large trucks would roar up and down the road even at 2am. We eventually asked to be found a new room, but we were both exhausted by that, esp. after the long drive. Total charge for an uncomfortable night NT$2940. Cheap, yes. Cheap by average, but it cost us a lot in mood, energy and sleep!

Then it was onto Beautiful Hualien where we swiped with frenzy: NT$2100 on new T-shirts and shorts; then NT$2180 for a new pair of Crocs; two nights at the palatial hotel the Parkview Hotel which had good food, great scenery, a lot of wonderful things to do, and nice pieces of art – it was by far the classiest hotel on our trip – cost NT$14,396 (and the costliest); on the third night in Hualien we stayed at Taroko Gorge Hotel which we booked through a local travel agent in Hualien. That was a good experience as we drove through Taroko gorge and into the mountains on two quiet weekdays. The views were incredible, just incredible. The food in the hotel was fine, and portions were generous. Total cost NT$4500.

Then it was over the mountains to TaiChung to catch up with some friends, where we stayed at perhaps the cheapest of our choices: ChongKe Hotel in central Taichung. While it wasn’t the classy type, the facilities were good, it was central, and we both liked it for its convenience. NT$1800 (a special friend’s rate!). We also bought lunch for some friends returning to the States at a lovely vegetarian restaurant we ate at before: lunch was filling, fairly healthy and for four – cost NT$1738.

2008 Summer Trip (part 2) – NT$9677

Then we went to Kaohsiung and were thrilled to take the new high speed train. It was F-A-S-T. Tickets there were prebooked and cost NT$2380. Tickets back were bought at the station and cost NT$2680. But we returned on a Friday which is considered a peak train service. Oddly, booked seats were no cheaper than standby. I’m quite confused by their ticketing prices. Early bookings should be cheap to fill up the trains, standy bookings should be also quite cheap but regular prices should be more expensive. I think the service is having an identity crisis: is it a subway style ticket system (with subway gates), an airplane system, or a traditional train system? It’s quite clear they want to be seen as the last option, but then why have electronic gates, why check tickets ON THE TRAIN… Weird.

We also stayed at the highest hotel in the island in Kaohsiung: the Splendor. Which is a fantastic hotel, and service wise much better than the ParkView, but considerably less expensive: NT$4617 including minibar and one or two other sundries.

And the DAMAGE!

So this month we managed to spend over NT$61,242 (including cashback of NT$386). That’s quite impressive for us. Still, the business will covert some expenses (one repair) and sundries, some of this was regular ‘life expenses’ and the rest was our summer trip. We didn’t set out with a budget in mind for our trip, but I figured we’d spend about NT$50K or so, including gasoline, eating out, hotels, and sundries. I think we came pretty close. Fortunately, last month’s bills were paid off in full, and no interest or late charges were incurred.

Things flopping out everywhere, terrible. Well, a blog I was reading suggested using Google Docs new forms feature to create an expense list. It’s a brilliant idea if you have a mobile device, or prefer to tally your expenses at the end of the day or like to do it at work (when the boss isn’t looking). So here goes: a step-by-step guide to setting it up.

You will need:

1. a bunch of receipts to set it up;
2. a Google Email account so you an access Google Docs;
3. and a little patience!

Step 1: Create a new form – look in the image to see how it’s done. Click on ‘new’, tab down to ‘form’ and release the click or click on it again.

Step 2: You will now see a screen with the form tabs and fields.

A field is the area of the form that you need to type some data. So, in the Untitled form, you can enter the Form Name. In the Question area, you can write: “What is this expense for?” or similar. If you need help text, enter something useful so you know what data to enter. Then choose the question type: “Text” is most straightforward at this point. Then click ‘done’ and ‘required’ (if need be).

Step 3: To add a new field, press ‘Add Question’ and repeat as necessary. Repeat this for the date, the form of payment, and the amount.

Step 4: I’ll show you my completed form which you can see for yourself.

That’s pretty much the form set up. Don’t forget to hit ‘save’ so you don’t lose the changes. You can click to see the form which I have published and you can try it out!

So what happens to the data? Well, let’s take a look. The data is auto-saved in the base spreadsheet for later. You go to your Google Docs again and you’ll see the new spreadsheet sitting there. I’ve entered several of my favorite ‘sins’ and you can see the result.

Each item is stamped with the entry time and the fields you required. You can then perform any calculations you like using traditional spreadsheet functions. You can then email the form, embed the form in your blog or online documents, or go back and edit the form as you wish.

I’ve set my form to be published and republished as data is entered. You can take a look at it yourself, just click on the image above. Please enter some items for purchase, and you’ll see it updated dynamically. Pretty simple, I’d say. No doubt, far more complicated than it looks, under the hood!

Compound interest is the investor’s best friend. But why is it so interesting?

1. The A/C for our office was causing us a lot of bother: it was noisy, ineffective (except when there were few people in the room), old and expensive to run (probably was the piece of equipment that used the MOST power in our office). Thanks to a freak power outage, though, the outside unit was fried about three or four weeks ago, and wouldn’t start. So time to replace it! That’s when we bought a large Daikin replacement unit. The actual unit was an Inverter unit that is supposed to be more energy efficient as well as much quieter and should save us quite a bit of $$$ on electricity costs. Daikin claim

“…A Daikin Inverter has a more advanced technology that operates differently. It works like the accelerator of a car, gently increasing or decreasing power. It reaches the desired temperature quicker and steadily maintains it without wild fluctuations. That means uninterrupted comfort and significant savings on running costs.”

Total cost was NT$53,800 (plus installation fee of NT$1800 paid to the engineers). In fact, the total cost of air-conditioning for our business seems to be about the largest capital expense that we face and can easily top NT$250,000 for new machines. Thankfully, we purchased systems ‘as we went’ rather than laid out that money upfront! However, we have to replace a machine almost every 12-16 months as the older ones just wear out. Some of the expense of the purchase will be recouped through lower electricity bills, fortunately.

2. Paypal charges amounted to NT$7,752 for hosting. As you may remember I was using Dreamhost for all of my sites. Apart from being foolish, it was also getting expensive and Dreamhost wasn’t able to provide stable uptimes for such sites, so I transferred three sites to other hosting arrangements courtesy of Bluehost, Hostmonster and Bluefur. That way I could monitor performance across each site, isolate the sites from one hosting failure, and trim some of my hosting expenses. The results have been positive: ALL of my sites now seem more stable, even those still hosted on Dreamhost.

3. Other minor bills include my own cellphone bill (NT$376) and our regular life insurance payments (NT$2000).

That’s it. The total bill is NT$63,928 for July 2008. Quite the biggest in a few years! That’s for sure.

SMALLER

… than we had expected originally. We saved about NT$1700 on our bills vs. the same period last year… And we really didn’t do that much yet. But if we focus, we could save about 15%~20% of our annual energy bill, and cut carbons by a similar amount.

Exercising our discretion

So what did we do? Well, as luck would have it, it just hasn’t been THAT hot this year so far, so we decided to delay turning on our ancient A/C in the main office. In fact, we only turned it on about three or four times before July started.

We found that we just didn’t need it as much as last year, partly as we had fewer employees than last year, and we turned the other a/cs only as we needed them. In other words, we monitored our superfluous requirements, and exercised discretion. It’s amazing how much energy you waste just out of ‘habit’!

Turning off switches at night

This was also an obvious one: turning off unnecessary appliances AT THE SWITCH. In some cases, we simply turned off the entire power bar, too. It was astonishing how much energy our always on water heater/cooler drinks machine actually used at peak power (that’s 910 watts!). Turning just that off at night saved quite a bit. We also turned off power bars on PCs to cut ambient power going through them.

Switching to more efficient machines

Last March we started transitioning to more energy efficient monitors. We went from having only 3 pcs with 3 CRT monitors that were on 7~8 hours a day, and generated QUITE a bit of heat, to no CRT monitors and four PCs / one notebook. Naturally, the LCDs and notebook are a lot more efficent, and generate considerably less heat. This in turn requires a lot less A/C cooling.

Now we’re about to replace our 8 year-old A/C with a more expensive but smaller machine that is brand new. And we’re considering replacing our older second-hand computers with new ones that are either energy efficient or notebooks.

Substitution appropriate equipment

In one or two cases, substitution works well. Our drinks machine provides hot and cold water, as well as regular temperature water. Since we never drink cold water, it’s not necessary to chill the water. We primarily use the hot water for tea-making, and occasional other use so it is excessive to have hot water on all day or even some of the day. Result: we’ll substitute our hot water machine for an electric kettle that is boiled only several times a day (at most), and turn off the water machine entirely.

Power Saving Bulbs

Installing power saving bulbs was something we had done for quite a few years, as they were just more appropriate than typical strip lighting. But we didn’t use them exclusively at first because we couldn’t find the right sizes in the stores. Now, though, there are all manner of power saving bulbs from 0.5 watts upto nearly 50 watts. So we switched to 100% power saving bulbs about a year ago. There’s little excuse these days NOT to use such bulbs.

With increased interest in global warming, we have all started to become acutely aware of our impact on the situation. To that end, I’m beginning to wonder how far we can cut our power bills. Given our success this year, we’re now going one step further…

The Complete Lighting Inventory

Doing a power inventory will take a while, and will produce some quite exhaustive lists once you get started. I did one for our office and classrooms, and was quite surprised just how many items we had that required power in some form or other. Through the power inventory we were able to detect some obvious places where we were wasting power: especially in our lighting arrangements.

So our plan is simple “LEARS” …

Lights: Eliminate, Add, Replace and Select

We installed 9 spot lights at 50 watts each in two rooms to increase the lighting in the room. And for 4 years we burned them as much. Only when I did a power inventory a few days ago, did I realize just HOW large a portion of the power bill these 9 bulbs represent… over 15% of our bill and we have nearly 135 separate light bulbs in our school. By replacing just those 9 bulbs with LED spots and upping the nearby main bulbs, we figure we could save a large part of our usage, maintain light quality, and cut ambient temperatures in the rooms involved.

Replacing strip lighting with newer power saving bulbs would also save an additional 25% or more because we would cut the number of bulbs in use by about 30%. We’d be able to space out the lights more appropriately and use variable wattages when necessary. In other words, we would make the choices about lighting instead of letting the traditional strip lighting tell us where it goes.

I decided to vary the wattages involved instead of using a standard wattage throughout: not significant until you remember how many bulbs we’re talking about.

• So corridor areas will have 18 watt bulbs, with 25 watts in desk or corner areas.
• Reading areas will be given higher wattages, too, to create visual foci on the areas that are important.
• Classrooms will have the higher ratings (we haven’t decided yet) bulbs, like over 30 watts.
• Spot lights will either be replaced entirely with LED spot lights or removed.
• Kitchen and service areas will receive 11- or 13- watt bulbs as necessary because supplemental lighting is adequate. And these areas are not accessed by students, anyway.

Unlike many cheapskate schools and business in Taiwan where people sit huddled around 1 lamp or lights are simply turned off (I know I’ve seen a few where there’s only one strip light in the classroom or living room, and it’s almost impossible to read because the building is so poorly designed), we’re not about to go down that route. It’s just bad for business.

But such buildings are a reminder: architects should be doing a better job of providing natural lighting for businesses, homes and people. If architects and builders built environmentally friendlier buildings, society as a whole would pay less in unnecessary power bills and emit fewer carbons!

What are you doing to cut carbons in your home or business?

Why? When I usually espouse having only one credit card. The first credit card is the TSIB card. Initially the limit was approaching NT$300K, but I cut that right down by 50%. I was unhappy having such a large credit limit on my card.

#1 – TSIB Card

This month’s spending will be paid off in full, as usual. The expenses are quite minimal: Hosting for my school’s Flickr account (NT$773), the usual NT$2000 life insurance premium, and hosting for BlueHost (for InvestorBlogger) which is for 12 months at NT$1,355. Though this account is less powerful than the one I had, it seems a lot more stable.

#2 – SCSBCC Card

The limit on this card is VERY small, and when I first got the card, I saved up a lot of points that EXPIRED, hence I downgraded this card to online and emergency purchases ONLY. Then I forgot to reactivate the card for ages, its limit is only NT$50K. In the first month, I charged only 2 items: the US$1.95 paypal activation fee, which is credited to PayPal; and the last month’s hosting fees for Dreamhost. The total was about NT$1841.

#3 – Carrefour Card

In Taiwan, Carrefour have their own branded card, that doubles as a membership card, allows cashback, and bonus points. The membership function is the reason we were particularly interested as we shop there regularly. I can’t see too many reasons for having this card, except earning some cashback/bonus points on spending we already do. Also, the card is able to use VisaWave technology, making spending at convenience stores, and other places more convenient. We also get points for regular spending. It’s UNLIKELY we’ll ever use this card for paying off larger amounts. But it will come in handy. We usually spend NT$4~5K there each month on groceries and items for home as well as school. In fact, we managed to get lots of points for replacing one of our school’s airconditioners.

That’s it on the personal credit card front for June. How many cards do you have? Is three too few or too many?

Would it make sense? Apart from keeping some cash for emergencies… what would you do?

Would it make sense? Apart from keeping some cash for emergencies… what would you do?

The Totals sections will update automatically as you enter data. The right hand totals in the main page are the total cash in your accounts + income from the 1st of the Month and total cash + expenses from the last day of the month. These totals should be the same. A check has been done for you in the ‘Unaccounted’ box which will keep a check of the amount of difference. As you can update data as you go through the month, you will be able to monitor the total cash on hand to make sure that your cash reserves aren’t running low at any point.

If you have a lot of receipts each month, you’d be wise to set up some categories (you can use the ones I provide here, and adapt as you go along). The second page provides space for once a month billing, and the third for receipts and bills that come several times a month. You can always add more rows as you need. It’s wise to set up a small number of categories at the beginning, stick your multiple receipts for the same categories in large manila envelopes (each marked) and calculate the total when you need to update the figures.

Once you’ve done this for a few months, you can on to getting control of your budget, but if you’re just starting out, it’s wise to try to monitor your expenditure as best you can at the beginning before you implement any budgetary controls.

Oh, and if you’re a pen’n'paper freak, just download the PDF with blanked out spaces. That’ll work nicely, too.

Notes:

Also, when you open this sheet, you will get a Macros error. Just ignore, and click ‘ok’. You should be fine. I wrote the spreadsheet in Excel, but switched to OpenOffice a few years ago. Hence when you are using the spreadsheet in Excel, you may notice a few differences in the layout. Also, for US users, the pages are designed to be printed in A4 format (NOT letter format) landscape style. You may need to alter margins, cell-size, and spacing for your own printer. It should print on 3 pages only.

The Totals sections will update automatically as you enter data. The right hand totals in the main page are the total cash in your accounts + income from the 1st of the Month and total cash + expenses from the last day of the month. These totals should be the same. A check has been done for you in the ‘Unaccounted’ box which will keep a check of the amount of difference. As you can update data as you go through the month, you will be able to monitor the total cash on hand to make sure that your cash reserves aren’t running low at any point.

If you have a lot of receipts each month, you’d be wise to set up some categories (you can use the ones I provide here, and adapt as you go along). The second page provides space for once a month billing, and the third for receipts and bills that come several times a month. You can always add more rows as you need. It’s wise to set up a small number of categories at the beginning, stick your multiple receipts for the same categories in large manila envelopes (each marked) and calculate the total when you need to update the figures.

Once you’ve done this for a few months, you can on to getting control of your budget, but if you’re just starting out, it’s wise to try to monitor your expenditure as best you can at the beginning before you implement any budgetary controls.

Oh, and if you’re a pen’n'paper freak, just download the PDF with blanked out spaces. That’ll work nicely, too.

Notes:

Also, when you open this sheet, you will get a Macros error. Just ignore, and click ‘ok’. You should be fine. I wrote the spreadsheet in Excel, but switched to OpenOffice a few years ago. Hence when you are using the spreadsheet in Excel, you may notice a few differences in the layout. Also, for US users, the pages are designed to be printed in A4 format (NOT letter format) landscape style. You may need to alter margins, cell-size, and spacing for your own printer. It should print on 3 pages only.

Go and read the story, since I can’t repost it here. In summary… KJ bought a house very near the peak of the market in 2007 for £154,000. Obviously she’s worried now that prices are falling, and is thinking of selling up. The respondent unfortunately seems to have poor math in the article, missing out on £2000 in the calculations. … She put £8000 down in the first place, and the other 95% was a mortgage.

Where did she get the 10%?

In sum, here’s a lady who bought near the top of the market. With the terms she employs in the article, like ‘invested’, and ‘valued at £185,000′. Now she’s panicking over a 10% variable rate (I have no idea why or how she came up with 10% pa). Top rates these days in the U.K. are about 6.5% to a little over 7.2%. It would be quite a jump to 10% (unless she’s saying something I don’t know). Australian rates are another story though.

She ‘believes’ her flat was worth £185,000 in February, but has no independent way to verify this assumption. All such ‘values’ are only theoretical until someone ACTUALLY puts down the cash. However, the current offer she’s got is £167,000. In such a difficult market as this, she’s actually lucky. She’d actually be sitting on a gross profit of nearly £21,000. Of course, early redemption fees would eat some of that, as would transaction fees. Still she’d make a reasonable profit on her ‘investment’.

Is this a place to live?

It seems though that we have what we might term a ‘weak’ card. I don’t see how if she were actually living on this property she would be thinking like this. It seems that she may really have ‘invested’ in the property as a buy-to-let, and may be unable to rent it out at the moment. With the threat of higher interest rates, lacklustre rentals, and a likely profit, she may be willing to cash out. If she were the owner, would she be thinking like this?

Why does she have to remortgage?

She writes “I have to remortgage in January 2010 and am panicking over the possibility of negative equity”. I would guess that she’s is currently struggling to make the mortgage payments at the moment, if she is living there. She is naturally concerned that rates are rising (they are), and they could go much higher (remember that rates have been at historical lows in MANY countries), and her mortgage is an ARM with favorable upfront terms (likely and common scenario) due to reset in 2010 at much higher rates than a year and a half ago. It seems unlikely she may be able to meet THOSE payments, never mind the payments that might result from additional rate rises between now and then.

From the tone of the letter, it seems that this ‘house-owner’ was seeking to make some kind of profit in the short-term while taking a longer term gamble that would allow her an exit strategy before the three years were up. It seems she has been wrong-footed by the market, and is now seeking an early exit. But will she succeed in taking a profit?… Let’s see.

100% profit, that ain’t bad?

Why? There are early redemption fees (approx. 3% of the mortgage amount), a likely stamp tax of 1% on the amount of the property, ie. approx. £1,670. It’s difficult to assess other fees on transaction costs, but they could easily range from £2500~£6500 plus fees of £500 for lawyer fees. Then you have removal fees, too, and other sundry costs of setting up a new home. Suddenly that fat profit of £21000 is looking a lot smaller! You could be paying out £13,000 or more in expenses, fees, and taxes. You’d still have a net £8,000 on your initial investment of £8,000. Which would be a return of 100% on a year and a half. Not too shabby. But certainly a lot less than KJ was hoping for when she gambled on the market.

That calculation only includes exit costs. To assess the true profit, you’d have to include the transaction fees, duties, and other costs that she incurred to get into the transaction in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if she spent a similar amount on the set up costs of the property transaction as she does getting out of it. Goodbye 100% profit!

What would you do? How would you get out of this mess?

Getting a cheaper rate: reduce your interest payments!

Balance transfer credit cards can be very useful in reducing interest rates on bank loans and other loans. If your credit limit is high then you might just be able to complete your loan payment. Some credit cards even provide checks solely for this purpose, however, you need to be very cautious about this. There are some cards checks that can cost higher rates more than the card itself. It is advisable to carefully read the fine print first before anything else. Most credit cards are generous enough to allow you in making balance transfer. This is the best resort after undergoing intense shopping spree.

Choose your balance transfer card

There are two types of balance transfers that you could choose from. A lot of companies offer consumers a chance to male balance transfers for a 0% rate at a certain fixed period, which may run from6 to 9 months. The moment the card expires, the rate of the outstanding transferred balance will go back to the standard rate. This will come out to be naturally a higher rate. The best way to utilize the benefit of 0% transferred balance is to get a new one before the credit card expires. You can transfer your remaining balance to a new credit card and continue the benefit of having 0% interest rate.

Don’t apply for too many cards

Be sure that you won’t apply for numerous credit cards all at the same time as this may affect your credit rating. Another type of transaction balance offer is the fixed rate of money that can be transferred granting that it will remain on the card. This is quite a good option if you are paying a high interest rate. This will offer a rate of 5% that is much lower as compared to the standard interest rates. Which ever type you choose, it will be a great help in lifting your burden in paying your outstanding balances.

Check the Purchase Rates, too!

Consider also the purchase rates of the credit card. This kind of offer allows you to check certain rates that can be applied to your purchases. Credit cards that offers lows transfer balance rate most of time have higher rates of credit card expenditure. It is also advisable that you make your payments to lower rates at first. This means that you will be paying a little because of spending on your credit card.

Regardless of the type of the card balance transfer, each of them have their own offer that could be of great advantage which basically depends on the outstanding amount of your debts and the way you spend and pay your balances. Shopping around with a balance transfer card in hand could give you a lot of savings.

The first few days have been quite a breeze on BlueHost, but we’ll see the how things go. I’m not easily impressed as I was with net stuff.

Other notes on this website: I lost a few comments from a few readers, especially from MoneyEnergy. Sorry about that… I was desperately trying to get the blog working and had a lot of unwanted spam as a result. I think I lost about a week’s worth of comments or so.

I’m noting how different things are from Dreamhost, too. Some things that are easy in one are difficult in the other or, at least, not obvious.

Other soon-to-be changes include the theme: I’ll be looking for ways to simplify the theme, and make things even snappier. On Dreamhost, InvestorBlogger used to be a little slow at times. I’d like the first page to load in under 10 seconds (for me), and subsequent pages to be even faster. Right now, it’s loading in about 18-20 seconds for the blog page.

Please do drop me notes on what’s not working or missing images and stuff, … I haven’t done a full audit on what I had installed yet… Will do soon.

Best Wishes

Kenneth

After seeing the ads in a local newspaper, I started investigating LED spots (there don’t seem to be any other type for energy saving), the usage seems to be between 2~4 watts: a considerable saving on power consumption. Also, the lights are cool, not hot to touch. And with an expected lifespan of 30K hours, it should be a sensible replacement. Except I couldn’t find any in B&Q… I’m looking for this type: LED Lamp with GU10 twist lock fitting, intended to replace halogen reflector lamps. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

It seems the technology is evolving but is somewhat expensive, cumbersome to produce, and prone to problems with not producing enough light. We bought two samples: one to replace a full-size traditional bulb. It was quite expensive (NT$495), and when installed it was relatively dim compared to traditional bulbs and even the new energy saving bulbs. Also the light color was quite cold (almost white/blue). It is ideal for garages, less seldom used hallways, but for livingroom light these LEDs have some way to go. But the wattage was a little over 2.5w compared to over 100w regular bulb, it’s quite a saving and it should last quite a while. We already have a place for it.

At home we’ve reduced also our consumption of electricity for light from over 600 watts to a more respectable 325 watts. But we are using candle type bulbs, we can’t find anything in LED that resembles the shape, light color, or size that we need. I’ll keep looking. In the meantime, I was surprised at the different kinds of lighting that LEDs make possible. Click on the link in the image above, you’ll see some more unusual uses.

Are LEDs a good choice for InvestorBloggers? Perhaps: look at some of the companies producing or selling LED lights…

These days, though, the price of oil is now greatly increased in the four years since I bought the car. In my first year, we could fill the tank for less than NT$1000, but now we can only fill 2/3rds of the tank. Four years ago, we’d have a couple of hundred in change, but not now. It’s not the only thing that has risen in recent months, too. For many people, interest rates are rising on mortgages, and ARMs are resetting for many recent mortgage owners at much higher rates than they originally settled for. So, owning a car is now a much less affordable option for many people. Drivers in the UK have had to deal with significantly higher gasoline prices than in the US, so we’re well accustomed to looking at the efficiency of cars. But even now, there is still pain at the pump when drivers fill up.

If we were buying now, we’d probably make some changes to what we bought, how we financed it, and how we drive it. Making these changes would mean that driving is more affordable than it currently is, but there is no denying that owning and using a car is a lot more expensive than it used to be.

1. Choosing the model

We didn’t spend a lot of time researching the model of the car or any of the statistics of the particular kinds of cars. We had no idea about such things; instead, we went shopping for a dealer we could relate to, who’d help us through the first-time purchase, and whom we could call if we had stupid questions.

Korean or Japanese?

This time, though, we’d definitely spend more time researching the models and brands to see what the relatively better cars are. Living in Taiwan, we’d have a preference for Japanese brands, which are more reliable, easier to repair (available parts), and broader dealerships. In addition, we didn’t think that European cars were offering good value for money; American cars were either hideous, hideously big & expensive, or just unavailable; and Korean cars weren’t as good as Japanese in terms of reliability. Worse, Korean car parts were difficult to get hold of. So, we’d choose a Toyota or another Mazda definitely. Suzuki have some interesting offers in the small car size, but their sedans aren’t good or particularly safe.

Engine Size

Given that one of the predictors of economy is energy size, last time we chose a 1.6 liter. We wouldn’t shoot for much smaller than that, though. Perhaps we’d consider a 1.5 liter, which in a smaller or lighter car would be quite enough. We’d also consider choosing a diesel model. Toyota now produces some interesting models in the Yaris series. Suzuki also offers a great mini-car, called the Swift. This is a very popular model in Taiwan, but I’d definitely prefer the 1.5 model.

Efficiency

Given the cost of choosing less efficient cars, I’d be striving to find a car as efficient as possible. You’ll be looking to find one that uses gas meagerly, even in city driving; and one that is light on emissions. Carbon taxes are in everyone’s future.

2. Consider the financing

We originally financed Ed about three years ago, but four years for a car loan seems a little long now. Perhaps this wasn’t the best choice we could’ve made. But we didn’t have a clue about financing a new car, so we just took the deal at the showroom, and hoped we didn’t get screwed over. Could we have shopped around? Probably.

Shop Around for Financing and Insurance

You should always shop around for good rates. But you will need to be aware that there are additional costs that will need to be taken into account. Sometimes these additional costs will be included in a higher APR, but in lower APR you may find that the additional fees are separately charged. Do your homework.

Trade-In Values

If you already own a car, and would like to trade that in, this will likely offset some of the cost of the deal. Of course, you will need to get some idea of what is a fair market value for your car before you agree to do a trade-in deal.

Consider Second-Hand

Purchasing a good quality late model second hand car may save you a lot on the first few years depreciation. In fact, this is perhaps the single most effective way to save money on purchasing a car. You will also be likely to find a good deal in the model you want. Of course, you won’t get ALL the latest frills, but if you are considering price, perhaps the frills aren’t all that important to you. And you can get good financing on second hand carsnow.

3. Consider your driving

Once you purchase your dreamcar, you will need to give some consideration to how you want to drive the car. Let’s give examples to highlight what I mean.

Burn, baby, burn!

Gasoline is the single largest expense after ownership (barring any accidents!). While shopping around may help you save a few dollars in the short term, how you drive and when you drive will also affect your gasoline bill. For example, driving in rush hour with heavy traffic will significantly impact your fuel economy. You may decide to switch to carpooling to save time, money and stress. Also, you may decide to alter your route to work or school.

Parking: No longer an afterthought!

Going downtown in Taipei in recent years has increasingly given me sticker shock when I try to park. Though I shop around now for good quality inexpensive parking for longer periods, I now recognize that driving and parking is becoming more expensive than simply taking a taxi or subway. Parking downtown Taipei can cost more than $2.50 an hour in some public lots, and more than double that at more expensive urban locations.

Insurance: Choose the RIGHT products for YOU!

Don’t let the salesman strong arm your insurance policy. We just accepted the salesman’s recommendations for the first couple of years, but as the company kept changing our renewal terms and conditions, we began to feel that we were a conduit for the insurance company’s finances. Eventually, we went through the insurance plan and cut most of the items that we were being charged for. It’s wise to find out what is legally required, what is good policy, and what is excessive. When the policy exceeds 1/10 of the secondhand value of the car, we realized that we were being gouged.

We’ve only owned a car for more than three years, but when we do purchase a new one, we will be much more astute than before. But we do like our salesman, Mr. Hwang, so it is likely we will seek him out first. That’s got to be good advice, isn’t it?

Brought to you by NetCars.Co.Uk Car Finance.

These days, though, the price of oil is now greatly increased in the four years since I bought the car. In my first year, we could fill the tank for less than NT$1000, but now we can only fill 2/3rds of the tank. Four years ago, we’d have a couple of hundred in change, but not now. It’s not the only thing that has risen in recent months, too. For many people, interest rates are rising on mortgages, and ARMs are resetting for many recent mortgage owners at much higher rates than they originally settled for. So, owning a car is now a much less affordable option for many people. Drivers in the UK have had to deal with significantly higher gasoline prices than in the US, so we’re well accustomed to looking at the efficiency of cars. But even now, there is still pain at the pump when drivers fill up.

If we were buying now, we’d probably make some changes to what we bought, how we financed it, and how we drive it. Making these changes would mean that driving is more affordable than it currently is, but there is no denying that owning and using a car is a lot more expensive than it used to be.

1. Choosing the model

We didn’t spend a lot of time researching the model of the car or any of the statistics of the particular kinds of cars. We had no idea about such things; instead, we went shopping for a dealer we could relate to, who’d help us through the first-time purchase, and whom we could call if we had stupid questions.

Korean or Japanese?

This time, though, we’d definitely spend more time researching the models and brands to see what the relatively better cars are. Living in Taiwan, we’d have a preference for Japanese brands, which are more reliable, easier to repair (available parts), and broader dealerships. In addition, we didn’t think that European cars were offering good value for money; American cars were either hideous, hideously big & expensive, or just unavailable; and Korean cars weren’t as good as Japanese in terms of reliability. Worse, Korean car parts were difficult to get hold of. So, we’d choose a Toyota or another Mazda definitely. Suzuki have some interesting offers in the small car size, but their sedans aren’t good or particularly safe.

Engine Size

Given that one of the predictors of economy is energy size, last time we chose a 1.6 liter. We wouldn’t shoot for much smaller than that, though. Perhaps we’d consider a 1.5 liter, which in a smaller or lighter car would be quite enough. We’d also consider choosing a diesel model. Toyota now produces some interesting models in the Yaris series. Suzuki also offers a great mini-car, called the Swift. This is a very popular model in Taiwan, but I’d definitely prefer the 1.5 model.

Efficiency

Given the cost of choosing less efficient cars, I’d be striving to find a car as efficient as possible. You’ll be looking to find one that uses gas meagerly, even in city driving; and one that is light on emissions. Carbon taxes are in everyone’s future.

2. Consider the financing

We originally financed Ed about three years ago, but four years for a car loan seems a little long now. Perhaps this wasn’t the best choice we could’ve made. But we didn’t have a clue about financing a new car, so we just took the deal at the showroom, and hoped we didn’t get screwed over. Could we have shopped around? Probably.

Shop Around for Financing and Insurance

You should always shop around for good rates. But you will need to be aware that there are additional costs that will need to be taken into account. Sometimes these additional costs will be included in a higher APR, but in lower APR you may find that the additional fees are separately charged. Do your homework.

Trade-In Values

If you already own a car, and would like to trade that in, this will likely offset some of the cost of the deal. Of course, you will need to get some idea of what is a fair market value for your car before you agree to do a trade-in deal.

Consider Second-Hand

Purchasing a good quality late model second hand car may save you a lot on the first few years depreciation. In fact, this is perhaps the single most effective way to save money on purchasing a car. You will also be likely to find a good deal in the model you want. Of course, you won’t get ALL the latest frills, but if you are considering price, perhaps the frills aren’t all that important to you. And you can get good financing on second hand carsnow.

3. Consider your driving

Once you purchase your dreamcar, you will need to give some consideration to how you want to drive the car. Let’s give examples to highlight what I mean.

Burn, baby, burn!

Gasoline is the single largest expense after ownership (barring any accidents!). While shopping around may help you save a few dollars in the short term, how you drive and when you drive will also affect your gasoline bill. For example, driving in rush hour with heavy traffic will significantly impact your fuel economy. You may decide to switch to carpooling to save time, money and stress. Also, you may decide to alter your route to work or school.

Parking: No longer an afterthought!

Going downtown in Taipei in recent years has increasingly given me sticker shock when I try to park. Though I shop around now for good quality inexpensive parking for longer periods, I now recognize that driving and parking is becoming more expensive than simply taking a taxi or subway. Parking downtown Taipei can cost more than $2.50 an hour in some public lots, and more than double that at more expensive urban locations.

Insurance: Choose the RIGHT products for YOU!

Don’t let the salesman strong arm your insurance policy. We just accepted the salesman’s recommendations for the first couple of years, but as the company kept changing our renewal terms and conditions, we began to feel that we were a conduit for the insurance company’s finances. Eventually, we went through the insurance plan and cut most of the items that we were being charged for. It’s wise to find out what is legally required, what is good policy, and what is excessive. When the policy exceeds 1/10 of the secondhand value of the car, we realized that we were being gouged.

We’ve only owned a car for more than three years, but when we do purchase a new one, we will be much more astute than before. But we do like our salesman, Mr. Hwang, so it is likely we will seek him out first. That’s got to be good advice, isn’t it?

Brought to you by NetCars.Co.Uk Car Finance.

How far does your dollar travel these days?

Stay tuned. Many of the posts before July 1st, 2008 can be found in the archives in the Expenses, Making Money, and Expenses categories.

Yes, that’s right… each one cost NT$6500 and I bought TWO… Was I crazy?

I don’t think so… But I DID hide one of them for nearly a week before I brought it out so that my wife wouldn’t scold me TOO much. Does it help? In actual fact, it does. It helps to make me more productive: using two CPUs and systems is always going to be more productive than one SUPER processor. I had intended to buy bigger monitors (22″ LCDs) but was worried about the optimal settings for the monitors on my graphics cards. Turns it wasn’t an issue. The computer configured the display automatically.

I don’t have to have multiple windows open all the time: switching between numerous windows just helps one to lose focus on the primary task – that’s already a challenge on the Internet. Second, I can allow one computer to carry out several functions: playing music, uploading files, downloading programs, looking at my brokerage account… whatever. The other computer can be the main task I’m doing right now: but a quick glance at the other screen is often all that I need to help me focus and finish the task. Neat.

So here’s the bill for May 30th.

• 2 19″ LCD Monitors – NT$13,000
• 1 Phone Bill – NT$376
• 4 CDs – NT$1,222
• Life Insurance – NT$2000
• Total = NT$16,598

That’s it. No interest fees, no late penalties, no outstanding balance. And some bonus points.

You’ll notice in the ad how we are encouraged to ‘save money’. That’s a great idea! But how? By buying their product! We’ll save over $900.00 (that’s 31%) of the total. That’s impressive.

Now let’s look at the meaning of the words “Save” or “Save $900″! But for the savvy shopper, these are warning signs about how companies play with common meanings of words to highlight their own products, appeal to our emotions and encourage us to open our wallets…

There are a number of meanings that we need to note:

Meaning #1: to put aside as a store or reserve

Naturally, this indicates that we are putting money away somewhere, somehow in a store. In the modern world, stores would include a bank, a broker (perhaps), ETFs… any of a hundred ways. The actual meaning of the word ‘reserve’ means to keep something for a particular purpose or for future need.

Money is defined by Merriam Webster’s as “…a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment”. So the term saving money means “putting away something of value for another reason or for future use”.

There are lots of typical examples of ‘saving money’: a single man saves money for his new car, a couple save money for a deposit on a house, an older woman saves money for retirement, … whatever. The idea is that when you save money you are delaying gratification of your purchase of items that would be bring you present comfort, joy and possession. Such gratification may be increased later by purchasing a new car or retiring in comfort to Tuscany.

Meaning #2: to save money on a deal or special offer

Like the advertisement said, you could buy and save at the same time. How? You buy a brand new LCD TV for your living room AND you would save an extra $900 on the purchase price. Let’s forget about price competition, product rotation, and such like…

The term “save money” here simply means to spend less money than previously or than elsewhere. We’re all accustomed to this idea of saving money!

If you buy this LCD TV, are you really saving money?

No, of course not. You are simply spending less than you would otherwise have had to spend.

• For some people, this may be an added bonus (unlikely) since they may well simply spend the extra $900 on a bigger screen size, a more expensive buy-and-save offer, or lots of extra cables and doo-dahs.
• For others, this means that they would buy this model rather than a smaller one because the extra $900 brings the TV inside their budget.
• Still others would simply finance the whole deal, forget about the $900 and worry about how to make the monthly minimum payments on a loan purchase agreement, consolidated loan or credit card. They would likely end up spending more than $250-500 over two years in additional interest payments (based on 13% and 21% financing).

What each of them would likely fail to take into account is that in saving money on the purchase price, they are still spending a whole bunch of money that could be otherwise saved and put in a future store. Of course, the advertisement wants you to spend your money on that item. That’s good for the company selling the item and the company that makes the item. It may not necessarily be good for you.

By playing with the language, these companies will try to confuse you by encouraging you to spend while saving despite the fact that it is impossible. You may delight yourself in this fantasy for a while, but when you open your credit card statement, you WILL know the truth: that LCD TV still cost nearly $2,000; and that money must come from SOMEWHERE.

But is it legal?

This is not the only instance where companies will play with language to confuse, befuddle or intimidate the customer. Some of the tricks that they use are legal, some may be gray, and some will be illegal. Whatever the nature of the legality, it is always in your interest to put your interests first, because the advertisers CERTAINLY won’t. Whatever they claim in their commercials or advertisements.

Such tricks may include: time-limited offers, only x in stock, best value in town or the difference back, seasonal sales, … the list goes on and on. Whatever: we live in a world of abundance, and esp. in tech items, the next generation will ALWAYS be more powerful, less expensive, smaller, lighter and more desirable. In less technologically related areas, you will always be able to buy more towels at great prices, or shoes at 50%… why? Because next season there’s another sale. There’s always going to be another sale.

With sales revenue down in most stores, more people trading down, and customers leaning towards more economical purchasing, stores are going to become more aggressive in their sales tactics, pricing strategies and marketing campaigns. Since wallets are tighter with increasing mortgage payments, skyrocketing fuel and food costs, and increasing weakness in the economy, shoppers may increasingly find themselves vulnerable to smarter strategies in the markets, supermarkets, malls and department stores of America.

Have you seen advertisements that tempt customers to spend by creating confusing slogans? I always remember the “buy now! pay later” ads that were common when I was growing up in the UK. Who cares when you have to pay, YOU STILL have to pay?…

My own sales pitch – Two for the price of one!

So, share some of the more egregious examples here! Come on, you know you want to… oh, and for each comment on this blog, I’ll comment in this thread and follow you to your blog and comment there, too! And that’s a promise! What are you waiting for? Comment today, comment tomorrow, but COMMENT!

1. grace periods,
2. 2-cycle average daily balance, .
3. pre-approved card tricks,
4. “fixed rates” periods, and
5. default rate trap.

Watch the video for some good advice. And remember you should shop around for your credit card.

First, carry only the card(s) you’ll use on your shopping trip and leave the others at home. If they are stolen, you still have cards that haven’t been compromised. Don’t keep your cards in your wallet or purse when you shop or travel; if your wallet is stolen, your credit cards are still on your person. I typically put my cards in a separate pocket from my wallet, to prevent losing them all.

Second. Never, ever give your CSC (card security code) to anyone over the phone unless you initiated the call! Your card issuer already knows it but impersonating card issuers is the most effective ruse for identity thieves. Your CSC is the last three digits on the reverse of your credit card. This transaction is a means to verify the transaction.

Thirdly, always check your charge slip for blank spaces. Draw a heavy line through those spaces so that extra charges can’t be added without your permission. Lines in the tip column are often omitted and people sign the total without filling in the tip area, assuming the running total is the final total. BUT sometimes less than scrupulous staff will fill in the missing line under total.

When traveling in Spain, some friends of mine were robbed in the middle of the street in daylight. Taking some simple safety steps can prevent a total washout: separating cash and cards, getting a safety deposit box at the hotel, wearing a secret passport belt, dressing more casually, keeping expensive items like jewelry, iPods, cameras, etc., in the hotel, and being generally street wise.

It’s not hard to keep your credit cards safe if you use a little caution and common sense. Have you ever had your cards stolen or misused? What happened? Comment in our thread!

Mr Credit Card here. I am conducting a survey among personal finance,
investment bloggers about their credit cards and would appreciate if
you would participate in this survey. I would compile the results and
publish it in my blog

http://www.askmrcreditcard.com/creditcardblog/

and credit you and your site for participation. Below are the questions :

This kind of request could be great linkbait!… Anyway my answers!

1. How many credit cards do you have?

I currently have two credit cards in my wallet only. My wife has a dependent’s card on my primary account. Is this an average amount?

2. Which are the credit cards you have (please be specific about the actual cards – eg Amex blue cash or Chase Freedom)?

I don’t have any American cards at all: both cards are from local banks in Taiwan.

3. Do you have any credit card debt and if yes, how much?

I don’t currently have any amount of outstanding debt on either card. I do occasionally let a little amount ride over but I always regret it when I see the additional interest charges to be paid.

4. What is the apr you are paying?

If I have any outstandings, I’m informed that my APR would be 11.50% on that amount.

5. What is your average FICO score?

I don’t know. It’s not relevant in Taiwan.

6. Have you got any credit cards solely for balance transfer?

I’d like to, but banks here don’t do this to my knowledge.

7. If yes – which card?

N/A.

8. Do you charge your utilities, cable bills and internet bills etc to your credit card?

I only charge my mobile phone bill to my credit card because I usually pay most bills at 7-11.

9. Is your credit card bills set up such that it is automatically paid every month?

No, it isn’t. It should be. But I didn’t do it.

10. Do you use your credit cards at gas stations and supermarkets?

Gas stations – No. Supermarkets – Not regularly.

11. Which is your favorite credit card? (be specific, not visa or mastercard as an answer pls)

I prefer my Gold Card from Taishin Bank.

12. Which is your favorite credit card issuer? (banks, not visa or mastercard)

Citibank. But I don’t have one because they’re too fussy about financial details.

13. When did you get your first credit card? What was the card?

I had a credit card in University which undoubtedly was a mistake. I think it was a British card from Co-op but it was so long ago, I can’t remember.

I think there are several ways that I could really profit from using my credit card more, though. Reading these questions helped me think through the benefits.

I could charge all my gasoline to the card, and get bonus points. I could also charge almost all my larger purchases to it, and get an effectively interest free loan for the first 30 days or so. By putting that money in the bank, I could certainly earn 2.5% pa on my monthly expenses. There are also quite a few offers that my Credit Card company provide, some of which I could take advantage of.

What answers do my readers have to some of these questions? Share your answers in the comments.

Don’t delete that FTP user!

I was clearing out the backlong of files for my server, emptying databases, and tidying up other stuff as well. Having been on Dreamhost for four years, I had accumulated over 50 mysql databases, twenty or so users (some now redundant), lots of installs, etc.. I began emptying the server in August last year, but only went part of the way. So last night I started deleting unused databases, and one or two infrequently used FTP users.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you are careless…

I’m told that Dreamhost has backups of sites for such emergencies, so I wrote begging for help. I wonder if they’ll get back to me soon or not. I don’t have a backup of that site myself, either. So I’m hoping that the owner will have a backup … he should. Right? If you don’t have a backup of your site, esp. the database and the files… you shouldn’t be reading this. Go and do it. NOW!

This is the said email: it’s just like that 911 call you hear on the news, distressed voice on the other line…

HELP!

I was checking through the users on the manage users tab… and I don’t know how it happened but I deleted user ‘kuixing’… everything is gone!

I swear I didn’t hit delete or anything… but I backtabbed from the delete user screen. Then I refreshed the main FTP user list page… https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=users.users&

And boom! Everything for user ‘****’ was deleted!

Is it possible to restore this user’s data?

Kenneth

Of course, I want to hear good news, but I’m braced for the worst. Let’s hope the give the news soon. Dreamhost service hasn’t been as good as I experienced before especially since I upgraded to their VPS hosting. Let’s hope they come through!

Don’t put your glasses on the floor!

I had a quick nap in the afternoon. I must have taken my glasses off, and put them on the bed as I slept. After getting up, my wife came in and fluffed the blanks. Glasses became aerial and end up on the floor whereupon her left foot comes into contact with the left lens (the expensive lens) and suddenly I have several lenses of varying sizes. Naturally, since she is my wife, this is *not* her fault! My old IBM notebook met a similar fate at her feet.

Of course, this is going to be expensive to replace, but fortunately the frame is fine somehow. I’ll give you a quote. Since I spend a lot of time at the computer, I need glasses so I have three pairs in all. I’ll be pressing my other pair into action this afternoon.

I want to hear good news on that one, too. But I know that it won’t be cheap to fix them!

Don’t drop the last coffee beans!

Then we’re almost out of coffee at work, the last precious coffee beans in the coffee jar. I put them in the grinder and hit grind. Then I stopped to see the quality of the grind, and the lid flew off scattering coffee half-ground beans ALL over the floor. Result: we all had half size cups of coffee. It was all the more delicious because it was so precious! The lack of coffee will affect productivity, too. I’d like to hear good news about those beans, but I have to go to Costco . That’s always bad for the budget and the waistliine.

Does anyone else think I’m kind of clumsy? Let’s see: I’ve lost my camera, lost several wallets, bank books, ATM cards, credit cards, ID cards, …

You’ve got “One Chance”

For those of you who like Paul Potts CD, I just bought the CD at a local retailer in Tamsui, one of the biggest in Taiwan. While this retailer is known for its aggressive pricing strategies, its behind the scenes pricing looks (to be polite) disorganized at best.

Beware the sale price gotcha’s

A few months ago, I noted one sign advertising filing boxes for NT$279. I bought one, but didn’t note the actual price until I got home on the receipt. It was over $300. This isn’t a big amount of money. I naturally assumed that I had made the mistake and brought the wrong model.

The next time I went to the store I bought several more of these items for colleagues in our office who thought they would be useful. This time I checked carefully the model number ‘DD105′ and I took them to the counter. I thought I had bought three of them with larger drawers, but turns out that the DD113 models were also on display (undiscounted) right next to them. I had bought the wrong models, and again paid through the nose.

What a potty pricing scheme?

So this time I was shopping in the store, and bought a CD of Paul Potts for my wife who liked the video she saw on YouTube! As you can see from the picture, it was priced NT$348 on the shelf. I tried to scan it myself in the store, but couldn’t because the in-store scanner wouldn’t read the barcode on the item properly. I bought it anyway because it didn’t matter that much, I wasn’t price sensitive on that item.

On checkout, I found that I had been charged NT$378 for the CD, despite it being priced on the shelf at NT$348. I also found another display showing NT$358 for the same item. Of course, this time I did complain. You can see the receipt pictured here with the price. I can’t ascertain if that is the result of product substitution or not, because the product numbering schemes were somewhat different.

InvestorBlogger sez…

It doesn’t matter the reason: the store should price each and every accurately to the best of its ability and remove old pricing. Nowadays, most products are not priced at all in Taiwan. The price label is only on the shelf. By the time you get to the checkout with thirty or forty items in your trolley, who will remember what each item cost? Who will take the time to check their receipt? And if you’re dragging children, husbands or wives, and your phone is ringing, who will be able to remember?

Fortunately, the store seems to have a no-quibble refund policy in such cases, and indeed refunded me the NT$30 on the spot. But I’m wondering if the policy of insufficient and/or misleading pricing is somehow discretely approved of, quietly practiced but publicly disavowed by the management of this hypermarket.

Advice to Shoppers

The only thing I can urge: if you are facing a budgetary pressure, scrutinize your checkout receipts for both prices and quantities to make sure that you are being overcharged, wrongly charged or leaving items sitting on the supermarket checkout.

Still I learned how to magnify pictures on my camera from the clerk! He was pretty nice about it all! I’m still not sure what the real price should have been because inside the box were two cds, not one. But there was no other pricing on the CD stand or the CD itself to indicate what the correct price was.

The upfront fees are ridiculous and the terms are such that no sane person would sign up for the deal.

If you have a less than stellar credit history, you can still shop around. With such a deal as this, you SHOULD shop around.

photo credit: helmet13

What is a “hui”?

But how did people lend in ancient societies where banks were non-existent? Time Magazine ran a story in 2004 that explained one of the ways that Chinese society uses to raise money when getting credit or loans from banks is impossible. And in China it tends to be very difficult to get any kind of credit, even now.

The story was called “China’s Shadow Banks” which in tune with much of American journalism these days preyed on the idea of fear… In reality, the system is quite simple, and as a former participant (through my wife) I was afforded an insider view of the process from beginning to end.

Our Personal Experience

Way back in 1995, we were planning to get married; of course we had almost nothing at the time, and so my wife’s friends organized a ‘hui’.

American Enterprise Online describes the process, albeit inaccurately.

The most common type has about 15 members (carefully chosen by the organizer to make sure they are harmonious and feel bound to honor their promises to each other), and each member is expected to contribute $500 at every monthly meeting. This provides a monthly capital pool of $7,500. At the first meeting, a hat-drawing or other lottery decides which of the 15 members will get to take the fund home. At the second meeting, the remaining 14 members hold a drawing for the $7,500. By the 15th meeting, every member will have taken home the $7,500. In practice, this means fourteen out of the 15 rosca members will have received an interest-free loan.

In Taiwan, there were a number of differences in the process that were not accurately described.

Interest paid

When we did the Hui, interest was payable. In fact, because of that, each pool was less than the theoretical maximum. Interest rates were fixed at the start of the term. Another difference is that if it was the recipient’s turn, then that month the recipient did not need to make any contribution at all (after all, that would be a payment to oneself).

So for the first recipient of the pool, each of the other 14 members would pay the premium less the interest rate. Thus, if the premium was 1%, then each participant would pay $495 to the recipient. Then the recipient would make payments each month at the full rate until the term of the Hui in fifteen months. The second month would come around, and the second recipient would make no payment, but would receive the full payment from the previous recipients, and the discounted premium from those who had not yet received any pool.

This would go on through to the last recipient, who would receive the full premiums from the other 14 people, not pay a premium himself. In this case, the last recipient would pay no interest on the money at all, but would have paid 14 months at the discounted rate. Thereby, he’d pay $6930 but receive back $7500 (including his own premium).

Rotation: Fixed or Random

Another difference with the article (worth reading) is that the rotation was either agreed by the members: if one person particularly needed the money for a wedding or house, then they would get it. If more than one person needed or no one needed it, a lottery would be used to determine who gets the money.

In our experience, it worked well with a small enough group of friends, though when I first heard about it, I was quite puzzled and fearful of the process. In practice, we were involved in two hui’s over the early years; and both worked out. The second hui actually resulted in us being picked last, and making a little money.

Fraud, Scams and Outrageous Risk

photo credit: jepoirrier

However, just a few years after, I heard of several cases where local people in Sanshia where my wife’s family lived either were so involved in huis that the whole scheme came tumbling down because they were using one hui to pay another. In another, the organizer ran away with the pool before the end of the term.

Also, there is risk that the hui will collapse but, another difference that I noted is that in Taiwan, the ‘hui’ had legal status as each member signed an agreement, and I’ve heard of ‘hui’s where members absonding has forced the hui leader to pay installments on behalf of the absconded members. And this does happen.

One of my friends married to a local asked me to participate in a hui with them. Since I didn’t quite trust the female partner, I baulked at the offer. Some months later, their business collapsed and they absconded. Of course, the hui would have been unpaid as the typical hui runs for 12 months or more.

Overall Impressions

In communities or groups of people where relationships are vital and everyone is interconnected, the social pressure would make huis more difficult to collapse as personal and family reputations were at stake; neighbors knew where you lived! In groups where relationships are not so tangible or direct, it’s much more difficult for the organizer of the hui to evaluate the ‘creditworthiness’ of each participant.

It is an effective way for Chinese to collect capital; it’s faster than savings, can be interest free, there’s no limits on how the money can be used, and it’s fairly secure. There’s an interesting discussion on Forumosa from a few years ago on how it worked.

I’ve been searching for an old spreadsheet which I will upload, but I can’t remember where I saved it. I’ll add it when I find it.

Pay Off the Balance!

Most issuers will only extend these rates to borrowers with good credit. You can help pay down your debt with such cards as long as you change your spending habits! Pay off the balance; don’t add to it by racking up the debt on the cards that are now paid off. A balance transfer card should not be used like a regular credit card; many issuers will not extend the zero or low rates to new purchases using the card.

Read the Fine Print

Pay attention to the introductory rate, when it expires and what the interest rate will be at the end of that period. Is there a fee to transfer the balance from your high-interest card or an annual fee? Some transfer fees are as high as 4%, which would cost you $400 on a $10,000 balance. Some cards offer a zero or very low teaser rate but increase it to nearly as much as the card you’ve transferred from! The initial no or low interest rate usually lasts from six to twelve months. If you can pay down that debt as much as possible during that time, you’ll see significant savings when the higher interest kicks in.

Zero-Tolerance: Can you pay late?

Many balance transfer cards have a zero-tolerance policy. If you’re late with a payment or skip one altogether, the agreement between you and the issuer is void and much high rates kick in. If the issuer does allow late payments be sure to know the fees and any increased interest charges you might have to pay.

So Shop Around

Be sure to shop around for a balance transfer card the same way you would any other product. A 0% interest rate for 6 months then 9% after that will cost you more in the long run than a card that starts out then maintains an interest rate of 4-6% unless you pay the entire balance during the life of the introductory rate.

Balance transfer cards can be a real help in paying down debt as long you know exactly what you’re getting into. Remember, always read the fine print!

When I bought my house, my mortgage company offered me a credit card that seemed like a very good deal. They would apply 1% of my purchases to my mortgage principal when that one percent reached $25. I accepted the card and I paid off the entire balance every month but found myself getting into a bit of trouble after about four months.

I paid off the balance each month and incurred no interest, but I was beginning to spend more. That end table was great and less than fifty dollars. A garden hose for next summer was on sale. I could replace my cheap microwave at 60% off and help pay down my mortgage.

One month the bill came in and I was glad I was sitting down. I’d gone from buying essentials to just buying and believe me, that was a very tough month to live through! Now I subtract charges from my checking balance, writing the amount in red. No more surprises when I treat the card as a debit card. I keep a better eye on expenses and don’t overspend. I’m still paying down my mortgage from my everyday purchases—just a little more sensibly.

Thanks

Shopper

InvestorBlogger writes:

However you pay when you out shopping, it’s always good advice to keep a track of the expenses that you incur. A little note in your notebook, an SMS, or a message on your answer machine/in your email-box… all of these are good reminders in case you threw away the credit card receipt. Of course, you shouldn’t throw them away, either. But this way you can double check your purchasing, and keep tabs on whether you are exceeding your budget or not.

More importantly, though, tying other financial products to your mortgage may not always be a good idea. Additional lines of credit, such as personal loans, 2nd home loans, credit cards, etc., may increase the loading of loans on you, increase the rates that you may for such loans, and may (as the writer found out) make repayments even more difficult on the primary mortgage, as well as other outstandings.

 

Ideally, credit card balances should be paid in full each month. Many consumers, for whatever reason, can’t always do this. If you have a financial crisis or come up short when your credit card bill comes due, you’ll most likely make the minimum payment and carry the balance through to the next month.

Consider this example: Let’s say you had to replace your water heater suddenly and had to charge the purchase to your card. At the end of the month, that $450 comes due but you can’t pay the full amount. By making the minimum payment (usually 2-10% of the balance) you may have a little more cash to spend but it will cost you. If your minimum payments are 3% of your balance you would pay $13.50 per month. That would free up a lot of cash, right?

Wrong. By making the minimum payment each month, it will take you nearly 4 years to pay off the debt and the credit card company will charge you (at an average of 14%) $165.46! It would be a little better to make a flat payment of $50 per month, extending the loan for ten months and only paying $28.26 in interest but you can see that carrying a balance on a credit card is very costly. This is why credit card issuers allow minimum payments—it’s very profitable for them!

Minimum payments can occasionally help in times of short-term financial straits but paying off your credit card balance every month is much more economical.

This calculator below should help you work out some scenarios.