Happy Birthday Will Chen!

Taxes are due in 6 days.  You can still contribute to your Roth IRA for 2007 up until April 15th.  Vanguard.com is really good place to open one.  They have really low fees.  Low fees and diversification are the most important ingredients in a successful retirement portfolio.  Don't have a clue about mutual funds or stocks to buy when you start a Roth? If you are going to retire around 2045 then buy VTIVX.  Takes about 30 minutes to open one.

There has been so much talk about how real estate will decline for couple more years.  I have good news for everyone, it is coming back NOW.  You should start buying now because prices have softened in the past year.  Act fast before you are priced out of the market and before interest rates go up.

Real Estate Agents are doing very well now.  Are you tired of your job? Maybe you should consider becoming a real estate agent or mortgage broker.

I hope it is obvious that I am pulling your leg .  We are still seeing double digit annual declines in Southern California.  I have no clue how rookie real estate agents or mortgage brokers are feeding themselves.  Here is something I read yesterday in the oc register. 

"Forty-five percent of all agents affiliated with an active Orange County real estate office had no income last year from commissions, Veling said. Of the 55 percent of agents who had a sale last year, half did just one or two transactions apiece.

To put that in perspective, a sales agent's typical commission split amounts to a fourth of the overall commission, or about $8,900 for the sale of one median-priced home in 2007.

Fewer than 28 out of every 100 agents did more than two transactions last year, according to Veling."
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/agents-real-year-2005508-estate-percent

Maybe as an April fools joke, you can make a full price offer on a home.  I doubt they will believe you because no one does that anymore.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

It is always hard to stay calm when the stock market is volatile.  It takes a lot of discipline to just sit back and keep investing.  I am a big fan of vanguard because of their low fees and value they offer to individual investors.  So here is a real good article from vanguard about staying calm.

2008 Resolutions

#1   Get out of Credit Card debt

#2   Stop leasing a new car every three years

ok ok....I am just messing around...

#1   Keep my blood pressure at normal levels by doing cardio and eating low sodium meals (once a day)

#2   I think up a lot of ideas, but don't really implement them. I want to try two ideas.  Even if I fail, I know I will learn something.

That is it for now...