The Sun's Financial Diary » General

Now We Really Sold Our House

Sun — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:18:03 +0000

It’s official. The house in New Jersey where we called home for more than five years is no longer our property.

Four months after we put the house on the market, the sale of the house was officially closed today. Though we haven’t got the money yet, all the paperwork are signed and the keys of the house are in the hands of the new owner now.

Overall, it’s a long process, but rather smooth one, except the first two and a half months when we had a lot of showings, but no offer. Just as we thought we might have to move to Virginia with the house still on the market (we were also preparing to rent it out at that time), all of a sudden, a flood of offers came in at the end of August and we were able to leave for VA with a solid contract and a target closing date.

Things went quite well afterward. The home inspection didn’t find any serious problems and we only needed to give the new owner $500 credit to fix a couple of minor issues identified in the inspection report. After we left, our agent helped us arrange a professional cleaning of the house and obtain necessary safety inspection from the township. Everything was done on schedule on our part. Though there was a little delay for the buyer to get the mortgage, nothing major happened.

The check will probably be mailed to us next Monday. Once we get the money, we can start to look for our new, permanent place

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Now We Really Sold Our House

How We Saved Money when Moving

Sun — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:34:38 +0000

Early last month, we moved from New Jersey to Virginia due to job changes. It was by far the longest relocation we had and a very stressful event because we basically had to deal with everything ourselves, from searching a new place in VA to the eventual 250-mile move. When all was done, we found that we didn’t take a hit in our wallet. The total cost of moving was well within the budget we allocated for the move.

So how did we reduce the cost of our big move? In a guest post at Quicken Blog, I shared some tips on how we saved money when relocating. Check it out and let me know if you have anything to add to the list.

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How We Saved Money when Moving

Hello Virginia!

Sun — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:14:50 +0000

How was your Labor Day long weekend? Did you enjoy the last holiday of the summer?

For us, the past three days were probably the busiest and crazies days in a long time (and that’s why I didn’t post anything since Saturday).

Ever since we decided to move to Virginia because of my wife’s job change, we had started to pack up and begun to move some of our belongings, those we won’t use for a while, to my relative’s place in Maryland when I was commuting between New Jersey and Virginia every week. Despite the early start, we still had a lot of stuff that needed to be put in boxes until the last minute. Because the moving day was last Sunday, September 6th, there was no holiday break for us. No beach, no pool, no barbecue. Instead, we spent the entire holiday weekend packing, moving, and unpacking

Since we moved from a house into a 2-bedroom apartment, it’s not difficult to imagine what the apartment looked like once the truck was unloaded: We can hardly find a place to sit down and take a break when every piece of furniture and box were moved in. Though the apartment has only two bedrooms, there are enough closets to put our stuff so after less two days, there was no box on the floor.

Tuesday was the first day to work from our new home and I already felt the pain of commuting in the DC area (not that I didn’t feel it when I had to drive back to NJ every Thursday or Friday afternoon): The 22-mile drive in the morning took me almost one hour. Fortunately, I don’t have to go this far for long because our company will be moving to a new location at the end of this month, cutting the distance in half.

Except the commute, we like this new place quite well. So do our daughters. Yesterday was also the first day both kids went to their new school and they told us they like it and look forward to going back tomorrow

*Photo from history.com

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Hello Virginia!

“When It Rains, It Pours”

Sun — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:55:11 +0000

I think this describes the best how we feel right now, but it’s all good.

Our agent says “Things are heating up!” and they really are.

This time last week, we were worried that we may have to leave our house on the market, hoping either to sell it if we are lucky or rent it out before the winter comes, after we move to Virginia in early September. Then we got an offer last Thursday which, after a couple of rounds of negotiations, we accepted though it wasn’t the kind of offer we have hoped to get. Then yesterday, another offer came in, but it wasn’t as good as the first one, so we rejected it. But the competition just won’t stop. This afternoon, we received another offer to buy our house, the third one in five days. And it’s much better than the first one: The price is only $5,000 less than our listed price and the buyer doesn’t ask for concession. Eventually, we will get $7,000 more than what we could get from the first buyer

Our agent called the company which provided the potential buyer’s mortgage pre-approval (another FHA loan) and he said the buyer’s condition seems to be pretty good (better than the first buyer). So the decision is quite easy to make. Our agent told the first buyer we have a new offer and if they still want the house, they will have to remove the demand for cashback. But they didn’t.

Can’t believe all the sudden our house becomes so hot

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“When It Rains, It Pours”

We Sold Our House!

Sun — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:35:49 +0000

That’s the good news . The bad news is the final price, after all the costs and cashback (no including the upgrade we did), is likely to be lower than the price we paid 5 years ago when we bought the house . But in this environment, we are still happy that we got an offer before moving.

Thursday eventing, our agent told us that the buyer, who has already come to see the house twice, has made an offer to buy our house for $238K with up to $13K seller’s concession. The offer wasn’t very impressive because that not only the price is quite low, but also the buyer’s financial situation isn’t very solid. Of the couple who makes the offer, the husband is still in the graduate school, so he doesn’t have any income. Only the wife is listed as buyer, but she is now only working in a hospital as an intern (a physician in the future). The buyer plans to put down nearly $8,000 as deposit, but no other down-payment at closing. All the reset will come from loan and they will apply for a FHA loan. We have no idea how much an intern in a hospital makes every month, but the buyer did provide a pre-approval letter for the amount of $250K loan from an institution that I have never heard of together with the offer (I did Googled it and it seems legit).

We discussed the offer with our agent yesterday. Though he also isn’t very confident, he said we can make a counter offer to see if they are still interested in further negotiation. So we lowered the price by $5,000. The buyer almost immediately responded with an increased price, which is a good sign. Then today after one more round of back and forth, we reached an agreement with the buyer: $247K as the sale price with $9,500 cashback and the buyer will put down $9,100. The closing date is one month from now and the total commission is 5%.

After having the house on the market for more than 2 months and having to reduce the list price by $10K, this offer of course isn’t the one that gets us excited. But we will take what we can get at this moment. If the sale can go through, it will save us a lot of trouble because we really don’t want to rent the house out, then one year later go through the same process again. Plus, having the money in our hands will give us the flexibility we need when looking for a permanent place next spring.

Now we still need to keep our fingers crossed and hope the buyer get the mortgage.

BTW, here are some weekend readings:

photo credit: Azhure*

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We Sold Our House!

House and Rent Update

Sun — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:50:17 +0000

Our house has been on the market for nearly two months already and we still don’t have a buyer. Things were looking pretty good when we received an offer in the third week. However, it failed to go through as we were not able to reach an agreement with the potential buyer, even though we accepted the offered price that was $20,000 below our listing price with a few conditions. There are quite some showings every week, but no other offer came in.

After discussing with our agent, we decided to lower the listing price by $10,000 this week to see if anybody would be interested. I told our agent that this is the lowest listing price we can go right now. If it still doesn’t work, then we will have to wait another time to sell it. We plan to give it one or two more months, then we will move it to the rental market before winter comes. According to our agent, we could rent the house for anywhere between $1,800 and $2,100 a month, which is significantly higher than our current monthly mortgage payment plus HOA fee.

Even though we can rent the house at a decent price, we are reluctant to do so because we are not ready to become landlord. There are just too many things to do and with us being 250 miles away, managing the property won’t be an easy job. So instead, we may have to heir somebody else (such as our agent) to manage it for us. Plus, if we only want to rent it out for one year, we will miss next summer to sell the house. We don’t like this idea of getting into the landlord business, but will have to do that if nothing happens in the next month or two.

On the other hand, our search for a place to rent in Virginia has finally come to a close, almost. We made an offer to a 3-bedroom condo last week, however it was turned down because on the same day (maybe a little ahead of us), the owner received another person who can move earlier than we do. I told our agent we are upset not because we didn’t get the house, but that the owner will not let us get the house anyway (because he told me he doesn’t want to lose any rent) if the other applicant qualifies, but he still ran a credit check on both of us. I don’t understand why he had to check our credit when he already has a preference of whom he wants to rent his house to. Then we made another offer to a 3-level, 2-bedroom townhouse, which was accepted almost immediately. We have already received the least, but haven’t signed it because there are some issues need to be addresses. For example, the owner has already agreed that if we don’t ask them to have the carpet professionally cleaned before we move in, they will not ask us to do the same when we move out. However, they still have an item on the lease, saying that carpet, gutters and chimney need to be cleaned by professional company acceptable to the landlord with paid receipts as proof. Even though we have never rented a private house before, I think this is too much to ask us to do. Well, don’t count on us to clean those stuff for them if they don’t clean them up first and show us the receipts.

Update: After going through the contract carefully and thoroughly, we decided that it’s not a contract we want to sign because it contains too many clauses, making it not worth it to rent the place for only one year. Instead, we got an 2-bedroom apartment. It’s much more straightforward to rent a managed apartment then a private house.

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

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House and Rent Update

A New Day, A New Job

Sun — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:12:10 +0000

Today is my first day at this new job.

The job is from the second employer that I was interviewed a few weeks ago. It’s a division of the same employer who offered my very first job 9 years ago and does business mostly with the government. I got offers from the first two employers rather quickly. After evaluating the nature of the jobs, locations, and benefits, I decided to take the offer from the second employer mainly because the job is much more related to what I did before and the location is closer to where we are going to leave. So the decision is relatively an easy one.

The salary of this new job is about 15% higher than the salary of my previous job. In addition, I also get 4 weeks of vacation to start, 8% match of 401(k) contribution, plus an annual bonus that’s 10% of the base salary. The benefit is much better than what I got from my last employer. After the first day at my last job two years ago, I was very disappointed by what I had to do every day. For the time that I spent with the company, I never liked what I did, even though it also paid quite nicely. I hope that won’t happen to this new job

Now I am still waiting to hear from the last interview I took last week. It’s a very nice company (one of Forbes 100 Best Companies To Work For) and the job also matches my background quite well. I don’t know whether there will be an offer or not. If it does come, then it will be a much tougher decision to make between the job I am having now and the latest offer. But that’s not something I need to worry at this moment.

Now I am just going to enjoy my first day at my new job

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A New Day, A New Job

House and Job Update

Sun — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:37:34 +0000

After some delay, we finally put our house on the market.

This afternoon, we called one of the agents we talked with before and signed all the paperwork with him so we can get the process started. Originally, the plan was to list the house at the beginning of the month, but now it’s the middle of the month already. We can’t afford more delays if we want to sell the house before the new school year begins. We were told that June, July, and August are the best time to sell a house.

The realtor we hired seems to be quite easy-going (we didn’t use the realtor who helped us buy the house five years ago because she was a little pushy). He has been in this business for more than 12 years, bought his first house also in this community, so he’s very familiar with the market. After we mentioned to him that we prefer to sign a three-month first instead of six-month, he gladly agreed. As for the commission, the maximum we will pay is 5% under normal condition. If the agent finds a buyer himself, then the commission is reduced to 4%; if we can bring in a buyer, then we only need to pay him 2.5% commission.

Now let’s wait and see how it goes.

My job search, on the other hand, went much more smoothly than I thought. As expected, I got my first offer yesterday, from the second interview a couple of days ago, not the first one last week. Speaking of the job offer, it’s quite ironic that after more than 8 years, I may work for the same employer who offered me my first job after graduating from school. And more ironically, I finally could make more now from this job than from my first job That’s 8 years, back to where I started as a new graduate.

The job hunting could end very soon, given how it has gone so far. Next week, there will be another, maybe the last, interview with one of the 100 Best Companies To Work For. Since it’s a big company, I don’t expect it to be a quick process. So I guess my best bet is take the offer I just got, then see what will come out of the next interview.

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House and Job Update

Strep, House, and Job

Sun — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:43:09 +0000

There are just so many things going on recently that I wasn’t able to find time to post anything.

First, our 4-year old was diagnosed with Strep last Thursday. She started to cough a little bit on Tuesday, then woke with a mild fever on Thursday. Since New Jersey is one of the hardest hit states by the Swine flue virus, her symptoms really made us nervious. When we called the school she attends, we were told that there were other three kids called in sick last week. Fortunately, she tested positive for Strep and that explains the fever. After a couple of doses of antibiotic, she appeared to be recovering very well.

But that’s not the end the of it. Since Strep is highly contagious, we tried to separate the 4-year old from the rest of the family. But our effort failed badly. First was my wife, then me, then our 2-year old, all feeling ill over the weekend. And I was the worst. I had to bed rest for entire weekend to just get some strength back. Haven’t felt that sick for a long, long time. While nobody else was tested positive for Strep, we all had a little fever and sour throat and I have to take antibiotic as well

The timing couldn’t have been worse for us. Last week, we hired a contractor to fix a few minor issues around the house and plan to use the weekend to do some final clean up before putting the house on the market. That, of course, didn’t happen and it’s at least one more week of delay.

Then there are job interviews. My search for a job in the DC area has yielded some very positive results. After a few phone interviews, I went down to Maryland last Wednesday for my first face-to-face interview and will go to Virginia again for another interview Then there will be one more, at least, in two weeks in Virginia. I’d love to do all these interviews in a couple of days so I don’t have to drive 500 miles every week or two. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.

Anyway, this is a pretty busy period for us with a lot of things to do. Hopefully, I can keep up with the posts, when I have time

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Strep, House, and Job

8 Random Things about Me

Sun — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:50:06 +0000

I was tagged by Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge last week to list 8 random things about myself. Actually, both Jeremy at Generation X Finance and Super Saver at My Wealth Builder a couple months ago for five obsessions, but I didn’t reply last time as I thought I already have the 5 things you may not know about me. Well, looks like I can’t pretend it never happened this time, so here it goes:

When I open a bank account, I always ask for debit card. However, I have never charged a penny on any debit card. I don’t like spending money without getting some in return. Therefore,
I charge almost everything with credit cards, even if the purchase is only several dollars. If they accept credit cards, why not?
I don’t have “no-spending day” or “no-spending week” because I almost don’t spend any money during the week. Thus, it makes sense
To have only $40 in my pocket and they can stay there for a long time;
I don’t read any book with “Millionaire” in the title and I don’t read articles from the so-called “money gurus”;
I collect stamps and coins and my collection includes coins from more 100 countries and every Chinese stamp issued in the past 25 years;
Like many Chinese, I play table tennis and play quite well;
I love soccer and used to stay throughout the night to watch world cup games, but not now as I am getting *old* .

That’s it. No more tagging from me

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8 Random Things about Me

My First Day at New Job

Sun — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:31:56 +0000

was quite boring actually.

I showed up at 9:00 am this morning (that was quite early according to my standard) and spent the whole day doing nothing but sitting there and reading some document that doesn’t require much time to finish. No computer, no internet. It’s a big company and, as expected, everything is slow. I was told that I can expect to get my account ready within a week. Tomorrow, I will have to bring my own computer so I can do something else (like write a post, for instance ).

My real feeling on this first day isn’t about lack of things to do, but what they are doing isn’t really for me. From what I saw today, most of the time they are on the phone doing customer support like issuing/resolving a ticket and fixing a bug. It could be that I underestimated the job, but I don’t think they need a PhD to perform that kind of daily duty. Yes, they develop some software and could use some wireless technologies (I was recruited as a software engineer, though I am not a pure software person), but most of the work were outsourced and the people I talked to today said they are doing some “enhancements.”

What I am worried is that if I stick with this job, I could lose touch with what I have been working on all these years since my graduate study, the wireless communication technology, and that’s not what I want to see happening.

Today, the second company confirmed the interview next month. I will wait till then to see how that one works out for me. If nothing happens, I could see myself back in the job market in a couple of months, despite the 6-figure salary (and why?). But then there will be no pressure on me. I cant wait till I find one that I really like. For now, I will just stay because, yes, I need the money .

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My First Day at New Job

New Week, New Job

Sun — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:49:06 +0000

Tomorrow, after two weeks of lay off, I will start a new job at a company that’s not really in my area.

The start up company that I worked for in the past two years last month decided to significantly reduce man power as the product we developed failed to win any customer (at least till now) and I was let go. The result was kind of expected since there were signs late last year that the company could be in trouble, but I didn’t prepare myself for the outcome until it happened. The main reason for me to stick around is that the company is very close to home and I like what I was doing.

Well, despite the “unexpected” event, the job hunting was really a short one. There were two interviews scheduled last week, and the first one I went to last Monday decided to make an offer right after the interview. Seriously, that was the fastest job offer I ever got and I was totally unprepared for the quick action. Between the two interviews, the second one is from another telecom company and what they are doing marches my background perfectly and the location is even closer to my home. Naturally, I am hoping to land a job over there. So after the first company made the offer, I told them I need some time to think about it. I want to see how the second interview goes before making a decision.

However, one day after the first interview, I was told the second interview, which as initially scheduled for late last week, has to be postponed till the second half of next month. The news really forced me to make a quick decision as the first company is expecting me to start right away. I don’t know if they are willing to wait for me for more than a month, plus there’s no guarantee I will get an offer from the second company. So I told the first company that I accept the offer and can start to work next Monday.

Because of the short lay off, I didn’t have time to come up with a plan to cope with the *emergency* situation though we have the emergency fund in place. Last week, I called to apply for the unemployment benefit, but was cut off before the application was completed. I also thought about getting a few credit cards with 0% balance transfer offers so I can borrow some money without touching anything we currently have. Fortunately, I don’t have to do any of these .

Tomorrow, when the new week begins, I will have a new job.

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New Week, New Job

Top 5 Reasons I Started and Continue A Personal Finance Blog

Sun — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:07:14 +0000

Early last week, Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money shared 10 ways personal finance blogging has helped him to get better financially. Looking back at the short history of this blog, I found myself also a beneficiary of blogging. So what are the reasons to get me into blogging in the first place?

1. Nothing is possible without passion

If you ask me what’s the one single reason I start this blog, my answer will be: I LOVE finance. I care about our financial well-being and like to discuss with other about investing. When I stumbled upon a personal finance blog for the first time last June, it was like a window to the new world of finance to me. I have heard about weblogs and have been tracking my money from day one, but I never thought about combining these two together with my own blog. After reading personal finance blogs for a month, I just couldn’t resist the temptation of setting up one for myself. Back then, I had two objectives on my mind: Share what I know and learn what I don’t know. Nine months into blogging, this blog is now my biggest hobby and I am enjoying it every day.

2. Holding myself accountable for all financial decisions

If you go through the archives of this blog, you will find that most of the posts are about what I do on saving and investing. It’s more about my personal (yes, that’s the personal part of this blog) experience than telling other people that I don’t know what to do (I don’t qualify for giving advice anyway). Since I know I will expose all my financial decisions to the public through this blog, I now think more thoroughly before making a move, weighing the pros and cons and evaluating possible consequences. This helps me make better judgement on my own investments.

3. Enriching myself by reading more

One limit of being very personal with a blog is that sometimes it seems there aren’t a lot exciting things to write about. In order to come up with fresh ideas when the personal part runs low, I force myself to read more books and articles on finance to gain insights on what other people are thinking on the same topic and how they are doing. Besides, I don’t want to sound I don’t know what I am talking about when writing a post on investing, though I still make this and that mistakes. Without this blog, I can use all kinds of excuses to not to pickup a book.

4. Interactive with people, another learning process

I am a long time visitor of Morningstar’s Diehard forum and what I like about the forum is that there are many knowledgeable people in real life who are willing to share their experience and answer your questions now matter how simple they seem to be. This blog gives me the exact platform I want to be interactive with people on various issues in personal finance. I consider this a mutually beneficial learning process. Yes, I can always read books from gurus, but the personal touch from this blog making the learning even more valuable and rewarding.

5. A little side income for the long run

When I started this blog, the idea of making money from it didn’t occurred to me. As the site grows, it started to bring in a little extra cash every month. If I spend the money, it probably won’t make any difference in our life right now. Considering the time I spent on this site, I want to make the money, though a very small amount, special. So instead of treating it just as a number in our checking account, I used the income from this site to fund our daughter’s 529 plan since the beginning of this year. By the time our daughter goes to college, I want to tell her that her Dad supports her education by staying late every night when she was only two years old, ).

Of course, networking with people and developing writing and analyzing skills are also handy reasons for me to continue blogging, but since Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net has limited it to only top five to participate in his latest Top 5 Group Writing Project, I will just stop here.

Now, do you feel you want to have your own personal finance blog as well?

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Welcome Readers from AllFinancialMatters and All Other Places

Sun — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:24:14 +0000

JLP at AllFinancialMatters today named this Diary the Blog of the Week. It's nice to be recognized by a successful blogger in the personal finance arena.

If you are a new reader coming from AllFinancialMatters (as well as all other places), I welcome you to the Diary and hope you enjoy your stay. A good place to learn more about me and the reason I started this Diary is the About Me page. To share with me your thoughts, click Contact and send me an email, or simply leave a comment. And don't forget to subscribe to the RSS feed before you leave if you find the information on this Dairy helpful.

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Neither Will I

Sun — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 03:56:07 +0000

Not just that I love my ears. I don't want my hair look like as if it was ganwed by a dog.

Actually, my wife used to cut my hair for me until late 2004, several months before our daughter was born. Since I bought the hair cut kit from BJ's in 1998, every two to three months, I asked my wife to be my barber. Over the past six years, we probably have saved hundreds with the kit which cost us 19 bucks. Not a bad investment.

Now I got my hair cut at my neighbor barber shop and last Saturday I paid $20 ($17 hair cut and $3 tip) to get it done. Definitely, there are other shops that charge less $17, but I like that shop the first time I was there. To make sure that I don't have to visit the shop in the next three months, I asked for a short one. It was so short compared to what I had before the cut that when I showed up at work this Monday, one of my colleagues ask me what happened with my hair and if I want to join the Marine or something.

Well, since I can't totally avoid going to the barber shop now, at least I can reduce the frequency.

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Neither Will I

Marquis Who’s Who Really Wants Me

Sun — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 21:59:12 +0000

Late last month, I was informed by Marquis Who's Who that my biography will be included in the 2007 edition of Who's Who in America and Who's Who in Science and Engineering. Prior to these inclusions, I was also selected for the 2006 edition of Who's Who in America, but the Science and Engineering inclusion is new. It all started in 2004 when I was contacted by Marquis and asked to submit my biography for consideration. At that time, I was teaching in a university.

I have known Marquis Who's Who for some time. Back to those years when I was a student, I used the books in the school library for some research and my advisors (I had two) had all appeared in various Marquis' publications. I didn't know how they were selected, but it must be an honor. So when I first learned that I will join many famous names in Who's Who, I felt overwhelmed. Frankly, even as of today, I am not very clear why my biographical information is considered as valuable and useful. I am just an ordinary person with an ordinary life. But I take the honor.

However, things kind of went beyond my expection when I received two letters from Marquis yesterday: I will be included in the coming Who's Who in the World and a new publication called Who's Who in Emerging Leaders. Sure they are all good news, but me? In the World? And Emerging Leaders? I don't know and don't understand.

I was very happy when I was first selected, but now my feeling is just like a Chinese idiom: Things will go to the opposite when they are extreme. This's just too much.

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Marquis Who’s Who Really Wants Me

How Do You Fund Your Domain?

Sun — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 05:37:21 +0000

Do you have a budget for your own domain?

It really took me some time to make up my mind to switch from free blog at Blogger.com, which I started in June, to this domain. First of all, I am not sure if it’s worth it. Secondly, where does the money come from to pay for the hosting? After taking a look at the paid survies I have completed since June, I knew at least I found the answer for the second question.

My diary is hosted at Bluehost.com and I signed up for a two-year subscription with $6.95 per month. That’s $166.80 and how much have I earned from paid surveis and posts? $175, though I received only $14 so far. If at the current rate (about $50 per month), I could raise enough funds to keep this diary domain for a couple of more years before 2007 starts!

Now I can concentrate on addressing my first concern: whether or not it’s worth it. Well, time will tell!

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How Do You Fund Your Domain?

Up and Running

Sun — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:47:20 +0000

After several days of hard habor, my new site is finanlly up and running. I have been switching back and forth in the past couple of days between different templates WordPress offered, trying to find one suitable for me yet not too difficult to make modifications (I am a newbie of CSS and php programming, so I don't push myself too hard). Eventually, I settled with the one developed by Isnaini and made some small changes here and there. Well, if you ask me, I think it's pretty neat. What do you think? Though I can start blogging in my site, which is very exciting, there is problem of porting my old post at Blogger.com to here. As I was trying to log in my Blogger account for the importing, I got an error message saying my logging was incorrect. The only reason I can think of for this error was I switched to the beta version of Blogger.com when it became available last month and used my Gmail account to login instead of the original login name and password. I guess I have to wait till the current beta version becomes a full release to do the transfer. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the fresh smell of my new site!

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Up and Running

Hello world!

Sun — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:48:52 +0000

Finally, I got my own home! Isn't that exciting? Well, considering that I have to move my blog posts on Blogger to this new home and set all the functions and tools, it probably will take a while before it finally gets into shape. But I look forward to the challenges ahead. Again, welcome and stay tuned!

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

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Hello world!

My First Post

Sun — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:53:00 +0000

OK, now I have setup my Blog and am ready to write my diary. Before I move on, it’s probably a good idea to introduce myself a little bit.

I am in the middle-thirties, married, and have a daughter. I have been living in New Jersey in the past nine years (long enough but doesn’t mean I know every place in New Jersey), moved several times but never left. Now I am working for a wireless company as an engineer after several job changes in the past five years.

I started investing in 2001 (which many of you may consider quite late if not too late) and have been making regular contributions to my retirement accounts, as well as my taxable accounts. While trying to avoid impulsive buying, I however don’t have a monthly budget and my spending sometimes seems out of control (I know that’s bad, but it just seems difficult to plan ahead what you are going to do every month).

In terms of saving or investing, I don’t have a target number (this may just give me an excuse of not hitting it), but I do have three goals I want to accomplish at three different stages. In short-term, we are considering getting a bigger house as the baby grows fast (maybe another one is coming), so we want to save for the down payment. In mid-term, we should be able to provide the necessary financial means to our children so that they can go to the colleges at their choices. In long-term, we want to be worry-free when it comes to enjoy our golden years.

Hope this Blog will help me achieve me goals.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

My First Post