GeekMBA360

I have heard from countless people that their dream is to retire early. Unfortunately I know very few people who are able to retire early and young. I think one problem is that most people never set specific income goal for retiring early. When I ask them how much money they will need to retire, [...]

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The convention wisdom is that Amazon.com offer the cheapest cell phone deals if you purchase a two-year plan with your phone purchase. I beg to differ. My family cell phone recently expired. I was shopping around. I need to four lines in total, plus two data lines. Here is what I found: Most online mobile [...]

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It’s pathetic. One friend hasn’t gotten any pay raise for three years. He works for a Fortune 500 company and he had no performance issues. Most people I knew got 2-5%  annual pay increase in the past couple of years. Even if you switch jobs, the pay raise is no longer the 10-25% you can [...]

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I recently bought a new car. I had to admit that I hate to deal with car salesmen. It was one of my least favorite activities. Unfortunately, I needed a car. And I didn’t want to get ripped off. So, I was determined to get a good deal while minimizing my pain. Here are 11 [...]

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I’ve been a loyal customer and a fan of Toyota for a long time. I’m not a car enthusiast. When I buy a car, all I need is a safe and reliable vehicle that can move me from point A to point B. I’m not the most mechanical inclined person. I don’t like to do [...]

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Yesterday I wrote about the pressure of living in the bay area due to high cost of living. Today, I’m going to write about a fascinating story of how one family made it all worked out although their household income was less than $70K. Uncle John is a long-time family friend. On New Year eve, [...]

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An aspiring entrepreneur is going to quit his job, and start a business. According to his business plan, he will need to survive 12 to 18 months without a regular paycheck. He wants to maintain his current life style. How much money does he need to save before he makes the jump to entrepreneurship? John [...]

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Personal finance blogger The Baglady had an interesting comment on this issue: "I don’t think parents should pay the full amount of their kid’s education expenses. They can get scholarships and loans for their education, but we will not be able to get scholarships and loans for our retirement." Looking around me, I know several [...]

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The recent rising U.S. stock market does NOT make sense to me. Amazon.com stock is trading at $130.15/share this afternoon. Its P/E ratio is 76.74. Google’s P/E ratio is 36.56. Apple’s P/E ratio is 32.28. Given Amazon’s thin margin, its current stock price is absurd. It’s the kind of number we saw during the last [...]

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I hold my hard-earned money in index funds, money market fund, CD and saving accounts. I don’t trade stocks because I don’t have interest/passion in tracking individual stocks. I’d rather spend time doing other things I enjoy doing. I want to have a good night of sleep every night. I don’t want to spend time [...]

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