Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Year 2008 – In the Rear view Mirror

I cannot imagine we are already saying good bye to this year. It is Dec 30th and in just 24 hours we are about to welcome yet another year. A new year full of hopes and promises in many folds especially on the economy front all around the globe. With brand new US president in place, there is lot of expectation from him to the put this economy crisis as the first priority in way to stop us going to depression.
 

Let’s give this final moment to look back and reflect on things which just crossed us last year. I am going quickly few things which I remember about last year.


BAILOUT Year Webster dictionary company every year comes out with top 10 words mostly used in that year. This year “BAILOUT” scored the number one spot and winning the title as “2008 Word of the year”.

This year will surely go in the history books for the financial downturns and economy crisis but especially for quite number of bail outs by the government. Bailout was the sole mantra used by the last oval officials to tackle the financial crisis which devastated the wall street and main street. They developed quite number of strategies to stop the bleed but its too late for many things. According to many analyst, Bail outs just helped to stop the issues temporarily and didn’t help for any long term perspectives. Actually it made things worse for many financial organizations. It is going to take year for those companies to recover and get back to normal after weather this storm fully.

GOLD’s, Golden year


Gold reached his all time highest ever for an ounce this year. It reached $1,023.50 on 17th March 2008 A.M. It bottomed out in 1999, and has been on an uptrend ever since. The previous all-time record high gold price in US dollars, reached on 21st January 1980, fixing at $850.00 on that day’s p.m. On 13th March 2008, it broke through the $1,000 per ounce barrier for the first time ever. Although it retreated to about $995, we think it may fix at over $1,000 tomorrow or soon but it went on to make the history reach $1023. It is still an attractive investment for many with global recession concerns. It is currently lingering around $775-$850.

Beijing Olympics – China’s Class Act It was an Olympics we will never forgot for many years to come. Every Olympiad Games is special and unique on its own. But this time, China made it a point to make it more memorable. It displayed great professionalism and authenticity both in opening and closing ceremonies with high end tradition routines. With billions of dollars spent in the making, China world number one populous country made sure, we take away the splendid memories about this 29th Olympics put up by the 22nd nation.

One more important reason to make this Olympics unforgettable time is because of the Swimming Animal Michael Phelps who made history claiming the most golds in single Olympics. He holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics with the eight golds he won at the 2008 Olympic Games. He also holds seven world records in swimming. With this record, he surpassed American Mark Spitz, who was also a swimmer and had held the previous gold medal total with the seven that he won at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.


All over the world, people glued into their TV set to at least take a glimpse of this human dolphin creating the history in his every attempt at the pool. It was great watching him accomplish his tall feat.

Historic US Presidential Campaign

It was indeed an historic campaign between a Black Democrat and White Republican. Finally, the popular vote goes to “Barack Obama” . It wasn’t hard fought campaign for John Mccain because he is from the ruling party been in the power for 8 years. Obviously, people wanted a change and whether its obama or Clinton (who failed to secure her presidential Democrat seat with Obama), they would have own. It is historic in many ways mainly the first Black American is elected president after US fought its Civil war few decades ago.  It is a welcome news for lot of americans which signs the real change in people’s heart and mind. It is sign of revolution yet to happen.

Mumbai Terror Attack

An unforgetable event unfolded in the Wall Street City of India, Mumbai on Nov 29, 2008. There were a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks across Mumbai devastating many people life killing almost 164 people (civilians and security personnel). Among the dead were 30 foreign nationals from 10 countries as it happened in famous hotels where foreigns usually stay. The attack went on for 2 days and Mumbai police where finally able to end it after a big chaos. After initial investigations, it was determined that its an act of Pakistani terrorists organization to create yet another panic putting this horror show in way to convey the message Terrorisum will never end in this high tech world.

Finally – A Wise Thought

Last week, I got a video from the Toastmaster Speech Champion and speech mentor Darren Lacroix wishing Happy Holidays with a nice message to Thank ourselves first for this year. I like to ditto his message and stress the point. We sometime forgot to take a moment to accolade ourselves for all the effort we put in to get thru his year. We might have faced some real tough times and good happy moments, it is you who made your days meaningful to get through one at a time.

Before you step into the new year, take some time to Thank yourself for all the things you have done and able to accomplish. Give yourself a nice treat and welcome this new year. That will surely help to make the coming year another fruitful one.


I like to end this post wishing Happy New year to you and your family.

My 3 Good Money Matters Articles at Investopedia.com

I have recently started contributing to Investopedia.com, a forbes company which encourages articles from money savvy writer and professionals who works in different money related areas. They concentrate on evergreen articles which doesn’t really relate today’s market condition but more like an encyclopedia type of topics. I happen to write few important ones which are published last month. This blog is to give a sample snapshot of them and links for you to check it out.

Types of Bank Accounts

At the economic crisis, everybody needs the direction on what to do with their money and which account is suitable for their purpose.This article is well suited for those who are looking to make a decision on “which bank account they might need for personal and business use”. It explains in detail the types of accounts like savings, money market, checking account, CD’s including subtopic about documents needed to open certain account and summarized with comparision of the accounts.

This article also takes in both banks and credit union perspective since many of us nowadays have one or more credit union accounts. Check out the full article titled as “Demystification of Bank Accounts

Improve your Car’s value

This articles talks all about “Top 10 things to improve a car’s value”. Car is a one among the life time investment for many of us. We either wanted to get good return back when we are in the market to sell or trade it in. But it is not always an easy job to keep up ever deminishing car value in check to get good money. This article will atleast help you to pin-point easy steps which you can do to keep your car in tic-tack condition to get better market value. So don’t forget to check out the full article titles as “Top 10 ways to get top dollar for your car

Guide to Auto Insurance

As many of you know, I love to talk about topics which affect in our real life adding my experience into the context to shed some light for my readers. This article is one of those type which has some realistic pointers for shopping Auto Insurance. It is not an out-of-box tips type article except few overlapping points. It covers all things which one must need to know before shopping for Auto Insurance. Check out the full article titled as “Beginners Guide for Auto Insurance

These are my 3 good articles actually best ones which I happen to spend good amount of time to give a realistic approach on the matter compared to any similar type of articles over the internet.

Money Smart Tips





From this blog onwards, I am planning to share some useful money smart tips whether its about saving money on deals, spending wisely or making extra money. This tips might be something I found on the web, heard over the radio or read on books. I love to spread the happiness around.

Woot.com, an online bargain store. The speciality, it only sells one item at a time. It is not like any other shopping site like amazon. It one of a kind bargain store which sells electronic items which are either not available in the market yet or a test product. It will be only available for 24 hours or until it is sold out.

I saw a 64 inch flat TV for a damn cheap rate. So keep looking and you might find some cool stuff you can present somebody for christmas. I found this site from my coworker. Happy Shopping!!

Hurricane IKE’s impact on Houston & Galveston

Hurricane IKE showed it’s wild act by devastating Texas coast – Galveston and Houston on Saturday – Sept 13th, 2008. After a week long speculation of whereh and when IKE will be headed, it finally made the landfall on Texas coastal line with the eye just brushing Houston on Saturday inking his footprints in the history of Space city. It will be talked for years to come as one of the hurricane which devastated the city like Hurricane Alisha and Carla.

Houston, the fourth biggest city was totally devastated and halted from it regular busy schedule for the few days because of IKE’s horrifying act. It was big storm labeled as Category 2 Hurricane with 110 mph wind speed when it hits Galveston and inland it was like 60-80 mph hitting us pretty hard. I never heard a wind gust like that ever in my life. It was that bad and fast. I can see out of my window, the trees were torched and many couldn’t withstand breaking into pieces. As of Sept 16th, the death toll was 40 and expected to increase as the rescue teams move into more destructed areas of the Galveston coast.
Due to well planned Preparedness by the city officials both in Houston and Galveston compared to the never came Hurricane RITA few years ago, loss of life was reduced. Traffic Jam wasn’t bad for people who tried to evacuate the day before the storm. It was very well managed except some hicupps in getting the help for the aftermath.