NT

Credit Card Expenses for October 2007

Posted by

Well, this month I got my credit card statement. Like in past months, it’s become part of my financial discipline to report on the expenses that I charged to my card.

OK. What have we spent? Let’s see:

We bought a few items for the school/business for NT$1,205, mostly small items and stuff for day to day expenses from Carrefour. We also bought a few items from Marks and Spencer’s which just opened a store in Taipei, at the East District, but mostly it was edibles from Blighty NT$1,014.

One of the more satisfying purchases, of course, books from Amazon which were only about NT$1,383. We bought a couple of teaching books to inspire us in our work!

erin gruwell

  • Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers
  • The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

by Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers.

Of course, the two most important items in the list are: the virtual hosting for the websites, which serve this website and a few others (cost NT$8,688); and the new camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC Model (cost NT$10,589).

The last item on the list is the NT$2,000 regular insurance payment.

So overall we spent about NT$25,059, with no penalties and no interest payment fees. We also earned 1,253 bonus points, but I’m not sure what we are going to use them for.

So, what lessons can I learn from this month’s expenses? Well, not that much.

Beringer’s White Zinfandel 2006: light, delicious and refreshing

Posted by

white zinfandel 2006

This post starts a series of posts on this blog called “The Finer Things in Life” (or should it be subtitled “Life’s guilty little pleasures”?)

Step up #1 in the list: Beringer’s 2006 White Zinfandel. We found them at Costco in Taipei City, and purchased several of them. Each time I have found them to be consistent in flavor, delicious and inexpensive.

The Beringer Website notes

The nose has lovely floral notes that are reminiscent of the wonderfully refreshing Spumante’s of Italy, with citrus and strawberry fruit nuances. The palate begins with a nice, classic “mousse” mouthfeel, and strawberry, brown spice and citrus flavors interplay with a refreshing acidity that carries everything into a long, delicious finish.

While it was recommended to eat with pasta, chicken and seafood, we tried it with steak and salad. It went well because the steak was lightly cooked and served with salad and other lighter foods. Ideal for summer food! But then I’m no expert!

Priced at $6.00 on the website, I can’t really remember what we paid. I’ll update that when I find the receipt. It was about NT$269, I think… but I could be wrong. So don’t forget to pick one up on the way home.

Refinancing Your Home: Keep your head on!

Posted by

I have a mortgage refinance story to share with you guys. One that involves a certain levelheadedness to show that refinancing CAN work, but you have to be cautious.

We lived in an area where we had purchased property about 7 years ago. Prices were in the toilet at the time, but soon they they went further down, down by 5% to 10%. We didn’t flinch we just kept paying our mortgage, and concentrated on other issues. Our house price dropped from NT$3.5 million to a little over NT$3 million.

Stupidly though we forgot to check interest rates, as they dropped. Our mortgage payments didn’t drop much at all. By then my wife and I thought it about time to buy a car. We had an opportunity to purchase a parking lot in our community as the investment company was getting rid of the stock, before being liquidated. Never occurred to me to ask why! We delayed purchasing the car for quite some time, though.

So we decided to jump: we renegotiated our house loan with the original financier. We increased the total amount to about NT$2.7 million from the total outstanding. That provided us with a check to purchase our parking lot (about NT$380K). In addition, we negotiated a new mortgage payment about 2/3 of what we had been paying before. It was a win-win deal.

Since then, we have noted that the property prices have increased here by about 50%-60% conservatively. So we benefited in a number of ways:
1. cheap property purchase
2. lower interest rate and lower monthly payments
3. increased property value
4. convenience of personal parking space

But, before you refinance, you need to make sure that you:
1. work to increase the potential return
2. take advantage of poor market
3. can handle the post refinance payments
4. your life is better as a result.

Season’s Greetings.

This posting is sponsored by Personalhomeloanmortgages.com