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VM Ware Fusion vs Boot Camp

Published on November 6, 2008 in Computer Tools and Software. 0 Comments

For the past year I have been running Windows on my Mac using Apple’s Boot Camp in OS X Leopard. After a few months I decided to give Fusion a try since it lets you run a Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine. I felt like I was getting the best of both world - the convenience of booting into Windows from OS X whenever I needed it, or the ability to run Windows at full speed under Boot Camp when I needed it. Over time however I found myself booting using the virtual machine more often and almost never booting into Windows.

About two weeks ago I finally decided to convert my boot camp partition into a full virtual machine under Fusion. This actually had a few benefits, some of which I planned on, some I didn’t plan on. First is the hard drive space usage. When you use Boot Camp you need to choose how much space you would like to devote to Windows and how much to OS X. I overestimated how much space I would really need, and ended up wasting about 10 GB of space in the Boot Camp Partition, almost 10% of my laptop’s capacity, so not a small amount for sure.

That was the intended benefit. The unintended benefit of running windows in a pure virtual machine is the speed of loading under fusion. When you run fusion off a partition you need to boot up the system as well as fully shut down, just as if you were running the system normally. With a virtual machine however, Fusion will let you suspend an active session, allowing you to close out faster and get going faster too since you no longer have to wait for Windows to load. I have also noticed that Apple’s Spotlight search now includes Windows files and applications, and choosing one will automatically launch Fusion for you. Very cool.

Overall I am very happy that I made the switch over to VM Ware Fusion. Being able to boot into Windows while still using my OS X software like Omni Focus and Mail is great. The only real advantage I can see for Boot Camp is the price (free for Leopard users) and the potential speed gains if you need to use Windows for gaming or some other processor intensive programs.

The process for converting a boot camp partition is a little tricky, but not terribly difficult if you are ready for it. Of course back everything up if you can (another reason for using Fusion is a simplified backup of ALL of your data).

I highly recommend watching this video if you plan on making the switch: MurphyMac.com

You can also read the article at the same site (vmware converter)

I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about trying VM Ware’s Fusion. I think it’s great, and it’s well worth checking out with a free trial.

Obama wins!

Published on November 4, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

It looks like Senator Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. I think this is great news for the future of our country. I hope Obama can provide the leadership America needs that has been lacking in the current administration. He has a tough road ahead of him for sure. I wish him luck for future.

30 days of 120 minutes

Published on November 3, 2008 in Career and Goals. 0 Comments

A few days ago a wrote about 120 minutes to success, and I have been thinking more about it the past week. I really started thinking about all of the things I would like to accomplish and I thought about how huge those goals are.

When you’re in your 20’s it’s really hard to think about how you’re going to save a few million dollars to retire on. It feels ridiculous to even write that I want to have a few million dollars one day. It’s hard to imagine that one day I could be my boss’s boss, or what it would take to even get there.

This originally came about as I was planning a “no-spending month” for November so that I could save money for Christmas presents as well as save money for new work clothes if I need them. That got me thinking about step four of the success plan, and I figured if I was going to do one step I might as well try doing them all. I started thinking more about what I could accomplish if I were to put in a steady effort over a period of time.

Here’s the original “bootstrapper’s/marketer’s/entrepreneur’s/fast-rising executive’s effort diet” from Seth Godin’s original article:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ’spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

* Exercise for thirty minutes.

* Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)

* Send three thank you notes.

* Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)

* Volunteer.

* Blog for five minutes about something you learned.

* Give a speech once a month about something you don’t currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

The recommended time period is six months, except for the limited spending which he recommends doing for one year. That’s a pretty long time and to be honest I am not sure I can keep up the effort for that long. So I am going to give it a shot, but only for one month initially.

That’s one month of spending on only essential items, one month of exercising every day, and one month of reading, learning, and blogging. This month should be interesting, and of course I will let you know how it goes.

How do feel about investing after this month’s volatility?

Published on November 2, 2008 in Investing and Retirement. 0 Comments

Like a lot of people, the recent downturns in the market have really gotten me to rethink how I have my money invested. In Getting Ahead When The Market Isn’t the Wall Street Journal discusses what the recent downturns in the market mean for the average investor.

The main points in the article:

  • U.S. Stock Markets have lost an entire decade of returns (WOW!). The S&P 500’s annual returns over the past 10 years are negative
  • Dollar-cost averaging is still the way to go for steady performance and emotionless investing according to most financial planners
  • Most 401(k) plan investors don’t have the desire to actively manage their investment portfolios (a topic we will look at when I review the book Nudge later in the week)
  • If you are frustrated by the huge downswing in the market, it’s time to rethink your asset allocation to something less risky. This usually means a higher allocation to bonds and cash and less money in stocks

My thoughts:

I read a book a few years ago called Unexpected Returns by Ed Easterling that says the stock market goes through periods of extended uptrends and downtrends which the author called secular bull markets and secular bear markets respectively. We are currently in a secular bear market, which the author argues we will be in for some time. It’s a book that I plan on revisiting and reviewing soon, but it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in market cycles.

That takes us to asset allocation. In a period where you are expecting stocks to downtrend, such as in a secular bear market, it’s wise to put a larger percentage of your assets in cash and bonds, as the Wall Street Journal suggests. This is tough to do when common ‘wisdom’ tells young people like myself to put a majority of our assets in stocks. If you’re closer to retirement it’s a good idea to keep a larger percentage of your assets in less-risky classes anyway since you will generally have less time to recoup any losses. Imagine if you were planning on retiring next year and had 100% of your assets in stocks. You would have lost about 30-40% of your total assets, and your retirement standard of living would be way down, assuming you could retire at all after losses like that.

I do think dollar cost averaging and market index funds are still the way to go for most investors who want a hands off approach. I think 90% of your returns are going to come from good asset allocation strategies. If you don’t have the stomach to watch your portfolio fall 40% in one month, you had better increase your bond allocation.

Did anyone else reading this lose a large amount of money in the market in October? What are your plans for the future of your portfolio?

Getting paid less at a new job

Published on October 29, 2008 in Career and Financial Basics. 0 Comments

Last week I started a new job in San Francisco. The new position came with a small increase in salary, but I thought this would be a good time to talk about real hourly wage.

I first read about the real hourly wage in Your Money Or Your Life. Most people think of their wage as simply the amount of money they make divided by the number of hours they work. But what many don’t factor in are the small things that are affected by your job everyday. Commuting time should be factored into the number of hours worked, and the cost of commuting should be subtracted from your wage. If you wear jeans and t-shirts to work that’s awesome, but most of us are required to buy some sort of uniform, whether it is a typical uniform or a business suit. This should also be factored into cost.

Even intangibles, like money spent on alcohol or cigarettes to relax after a long day at work should be figured into how much you actually make. So your real hourly wage is the amount of money you make at your job, minus the costs required for you to work, divided by the total number of hours you spend doing work related tasks, including commuting or going to business dinners. It’s very likely you make a lot less than you thought you did when you look at work this way.

So now back to why I started this post.

Before working in the city I commuted to work by car, about 20 miles each way. Not a short commute, but not terrible either. Now I ride BART everyday, which is actually pretty expensive for public transportation, about $10.50 a day. So while I am spending less on gas, I am spending a bit more on BART fare. On top of that I still need to drive to and from the BART station which requires gas. And thanks to the many traffic lights between me and the station I feel like I’m not saving that much on gas.

In addition to the added cost of BART, I am required to dress a little nicer in my new office. So I will need to go out and by some nicer clothes than what I have, and I will probably be spending more on dry cleaning bills.

On top of the increased costs of working in San Francisco, I am now spending more time at work AND spending more time commuting. So it looks like my real wage took a pretty big hit. I was well aware of that when I took the job, but the new job presents a lot of opportunity for me. So for the time being I will have to suck up the small hit until my pay increases, which hopefully doesn’t take too long.

I encourage everyone to think about how much your job costs you. Does working more really get you more when you factor in all of the little things? If your work requires you to spend money is it worth it? If it’s not, what are you doing to make sure that one day you don’t have to work for money anymore?

I thought I was the only one who noticed this

Published on October 29, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Whenever there are problems in the stock market it seems like every newspaper and financial magazine likes to print pictures of stock market traders with their hands on there face.

Case in point: The Brokers With Hands On Their Faces Blog. I only wish they would link back to where the pictures came from so maybe we could mock the newspapers for their unoriginality.

Thanks to Credit Slips for the link

Net Nutrality and How it Affects You

Published on October 27, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

A friend sent me a link to this article in Popular Mechanics on network neutrality. For anyone who uses the internet (probably all of you since you’re reading this online) net neutrality is an important topic to pay attention to. What net neutrality boils down to is whether a cable provider has the right to control the bandwidth you pay for, and control your actions online.

From the article:

Stepping back, underlying the issue of net neutrality is a more fundamental policy question: Is Internet service a public utility? If the answer is yes, then many people would assume that it should be subject to robust yet flexible regulation on par with what exists for water, natural gas, telephone and electrical service.

I tend to agree with the idea that internet service is a public utility versus a luxury good. Over the past decade internet use has become a standard way to access bank accounts, search for information, and find news. Many politicians believe in an “ownership society” where the average American invests for themselves or finds information on healthcare themselves. The internet is by far the easiest, quickest, and most efficient means for people to do this. Add to that the difficulty for many to switch internet providers and you have an example of a natural monopoly, which is a classic case of when government intervention is necessary.

If it came down to a company managing your bandwidth, would it be unreasonable for them to manage what websites you visit? Here is another possibility:

netneutrality.jpg

If internet providers are given the leeway to control how bandwidth is distributed, could certain companies pay to have there websites given special treatment? If you want to use higher bandwidth services such as youtube, would you have to pay for it? I realize this is a bit of a landslide argument, but given today’s financial problems I think it’s wrong to assume that companies will do what’s best for everyone.

This is something that everyone should pay attention to, and vote accordingly. The article in Popular Mechanics is a good place to start reading. Wikipedia has a good article on net neutrality if you’re interested in reading more. As always if you have something to add, leave a comment!

Portfolio Rebalancing

Published on October 23, 2008 in Investing and Money Managemenet. 0 Comments

After the recent drops in the stock market I thought it might be a good time to take a look at my portfolio to see what has done well and what has not. I also went ahead and rebalanced everything to my original allocations.

The biggest thing I noticed about my portfolio is that my company stock has reached an amazing 38% of the portfolio. My company has done fairly well relative to the rest of the market, which is part of the reason the percentage is so high. The other reason is that my employer match comes in the form of company stock.

This is important for anyone to watch. If you receive your company match as company stock instead of cash you should rebalance your portfolio often to minimize the risk of loss in that stock. What percentage of your portfolio you keep as company stock is up to you, but I prefer to keep a low percentage in my own. If my company does well then I will likely be compensated well at bonus time. If my company does poorly, however, I could loose both a large portion of my portfolio and my job depending on what happens. So for me it’s a matter of risk control to keep the portfolio percentage of my own company stock low.

Here’s a link to my retirement post regarding rebalancing. Have you looked at your portfolio recently? Do you know right now, roughly, how each of the parts of your portfolio have been doing? If not it’s time you take a look.

Another credit card paid off

Published on October 22, 2008 in Debt. 0 Comments

Today the last payment went through on one of my credit cards, which means I am now officially down to one credit card, and last month’s camera is paid off.

Now that we are down to one credit card, which has a 0% offer, and my student loan, we plan on switching gears slightly. Due to problems with my wife’s unemployment checks (their timeliness sucks), we are going to boost the amount of money going into the emergency fund for a few months so we have enough money to cover the rent if times get bad.

I now own freefrommoney.com

Published on October 21, 2008 in Blogging. 0 Comments

When I began this site I thought of the name free from money, which I thought was appropriate. The dot com version of that name was already in use by someone who was parking ads, so I had to settle for the dot net version instead.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email in my inbox last week offering to let me ‘bid’ on this domain name. I did a quick search on Google for Pat Kennedy and Leader By Choice and found a website claiming the offer is a scam (surprise surprise). So I did nothing, since it wasn’t that important to me to have the dot com domain anyways.

I receive multiple emails over the next few days, but I waited. Apparently there is a 5 day return period on domain names. This is so that you can ‘return’ the domain if you realize you made a spelling error or something similar. So there is no risk for a company to buy a name on the cheap, and then turn around and try to sell the name to you for a profit. If you don’t take the bait they simply return the name.

So 6 days after I received the first email I checked to see if freefrommoney.com was available, and sure enough it was. So I went ahead and ordered the domain through dream hosts, which worked out even better because I still had a free domain name that came with the hosting service.

Now I need to decide whether I should change the name of the site to FreeFromMoney.com, or keep the site as FreeFromMoney.net. In either case I will have the secondary domain forward to the main page. The question is which one to keep. Any thoughts on which is better? Does one domain sound more appropriate than the other? Please leave a comment and let me know!