Nehal : Feb 12, 2009
Here’s my update for January
- Financial
- Limit spending on dining out
- Doing (sort of) okay here. Trying to limit lunches to 2x per week. Still needs improvement
- Travel
- Visit Mom & Dad in Chicago.
- Trip is planned for Dad’s Bday weekend
- Friends & Family
- Call someone I haven’t spoken to in a while once a week.
- Been doing okay on this one
- Work
- Re-establish discipline in day-to-day task
- Getting there. Kind of hard to keep up with so many fires and interruptions.
- Health & Fitness
- Stay on the Zone diet and track my progress using FitDay
- Have not started tracking on FitDay yet, but I need to
- Perform Fran as prescribed in under 12
- Made one step in this direction. Did it with 75lbs and only lost about 14s vs. my time with 65lbs
- Learning
- Read 12 books
- Catch up on, and stay current with, my magazine subscriptions
- Not much progress, but I’ll be spending some time on a plane, so there is an opportunity.
Nehal : Feb 11, 2009
I recently finished reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William G. Danko. The book provides interesting information learned from their study of America’s wealthy. The book reveals some facts that would seem alarming at first, but after some consideration seem pretty obvious. What is interesting, though, is that the authors actually back up their conclusions with data from the study.
Basically, they place people into two buckets – Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (*PAW*) and Under Accumulators of Wealth (*UAW*). PAWs are the high-net-worth group – either millionaires or on the way to being millionaires. UAWs tend to live beyond their means – they buy expensive homes, cars, jewelery, and the like. The UAW’s net worth is generally less than their age times his annual income divided by 10. The people who are wealthy don’t necessarily look it, and those who look wealthy are not necessarily so.
The PAWs are the bulk of the discussion, and they examine their habits with regards to earning and saving. For example, PAWs tend to be more frugal, live below their means, are business owners or self-employed professionals, and don’t receive financial assistance from their wealthy parents. While they may go about purchasing a vehicle differently (new vs. used, etc), they usually don’t spend much on it and tend to hold onto it for a while. Likewise, not many have spent more than a couple hundred dollars on a suit, shoes, or watch.
So while much of the information in the book was not all that surprising or exciting, it was reassuring to read that becoming a millionaire is possible. But there is no “magic pill”; it’s a long, slow, disciplined journey. Near the end of the book, the authors describe how one could capitalize on the knowledge in the book – choose a profession whereby you cater to the wealthy. They need accountants, attorneys (especially those specializing in estate and tax law), and other professionals they can trust. It is not that they don’t spend money; it is that they are very discerning about how they do so.
Nehal : Feb 5, 2009
I’m out. I am no longer master of my burpee domain. I made it 35 days and 630 total burpees into the Burpee Challenge, but had to drop out because my shoulders were starting to act up. They were constantly sore and were starting to feel a bit tendinitis-y. I figured it was best to stop before I injured myself. At least I made it this far, though.
Nehal : Feb 3, 2009
We went to see Gran Torino last weekend, Clint Eastwood’s latest movie. I’ve enjoyed many of his recent movies, and this one does not disappoint. Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who has just become a widower. He still lives near Detroit in his old neighborhood, which has grown more ethnically diverse. The story unfolds as the Thao, the neighbor is bullied into trying to steal Walt’s mint-condition Ford Gran Torino by his cousin’s gang. Walt catches him in the act, but the kid gets away. The rest of the story is fairly predictable (without giving too much away) – Thao apologizes, Walt eventually befriends and protects the neighbors from the gang thugs, and helps them out in various other ways.
The acting by the main Asian actors is a little inexperienced. The dialogue and delivery feels rushed or unconvincing most of the time. But the real center of the movie is Clint Eastwood’s character. He is a surly, tough, culturally intolerant old man who tosses out racial slurs so freely that it is almost comical. As his character develops, you learn more about his past and experiences that have made him this way. That was the real interesting part of the story – what made this man so callous and angry?