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Building 5 Bad Habits

Finance

Meth powder hexagon
Meth powder hexagon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Good habits are boring. I mean, yes, they will help you succeed and provide some security, but so what? Bad habits are fun. Except meth. Meth is a bad habit that is decidedly not fun. Don’t do meth.  Seriously.

There are so many entertaining bad habits that I couldn’t possibly cover them all. I’m going to stick to the bad financial habits that will make your life more exciting.

  1. Break your budget. A budget constrains you, keeps you from buying the things you want and traveling to distant, exotic places when you know you can’t afford the trip.   The best way to build this habit is to not only avoid tracking your expenses, but also avoid tracking what you actually spend.  If you don’t know what you owe or what you’ve spent, the end of every month is an adventure!
  2. Impulse shopping. For the next week, I want you to go to your favorite store every day.  Buy the first thing you see that makes you want to hum.  Every day.  Don’t worry about being able to afford it.  That’s what credit is for, right?  Bonus points for buying it on the “no interest for a year, then we screw you” plan.   I’m sure you’ll be making more money by the time the bill is due.   You could get lucky and have a rich relative die and leave you a fortune.   That’s like winning the lottery twice, because you won’t have to buy him Christmas cards anymore.
  3. Meals on the go. Cooking is a drag.  Besides, who wants to slap a slice of meat and cheese on a couple slices of bread, when you can get a drive-through case of the Aztec two-step for $5.    Did you know that the big yellow ‘M’ stands for “Montezuma?”   On your way to practice impulse shopping, pick up some lunch.   For your money, you’ll get less convenience, more additives, and the opportunity to gamble on the lunch employees caring as much about cleanliness as you do.  It’s a win for everyone!
  4. Ego shopping. Actual accomplishments and improvement are hard.  It’s much better to wrap up your sense of self-worth in the smartest phone, the shiniest car, or the Gucciest purse.   Allowing Mastercard to finance your self-esteem guarantees that your next smile is just a shopping trip away.   Who needs the hassle of dealing with things that matter?   After your impulse purchase, buy something fancy!  Show your friends that you are not only a more discerning consumer, but also that you are better than they are. Watch them turn green with envy.  When they shrug and tell your that their phone has the one feature they need–the ability to ring when called–know that it is envy speaking.
  5. Expensive Vacations. You need to relax.   I know how hard it is lugging that iBlackPhoneP(a/o)doid in and out of the designer sportscar with all-leather cow interior and big, brown baby seal-eyes for headlights.   It’s work.    Back and forth buying crap you don’t need to fuel your ego, dodging vicious calls from creditors and having to Dine-N-Dash every time a friend invites you out for dinner makes a dude tired. Take a week in Europe to calm your thoughts.   You deserve it, even if you don’t actually have the money for it.   Isn’t Great-Uncle Horace sick?

What are your favorite bad habits?

Update:  This post has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Why You Should Invest in Oman? Tapping the Help of International Banks

Finance, Misc

Oman - Muscat - Main Highway Light Trail
Oman – Muscat – Main Highway Light Trail (Photo credit: © Salim Photography/ www.salimphoto.com)

This is a guest post.

The Sultanate of Oman is located on the southeast coast of the Arabian peninsula, bordered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Yemen, the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian sea. Oil is an important source of revenue here. According to an article reported in Arabian Business, Oman’s average daily oil production rose 4% to 918,000 barrels per day (bpd) from an average of 884,900 bpd in 2011. However, as reported in the Al Arabiya News, British oil firm BP estimated that Oman’s oil reserves will run out in 17 years unless the country raises its output from the current levels. To reduce its dependence on oil, the Oman government is diversifying its economy into the non-oil sector and encouraging foreign direct investment in order to enhance the economic growth of the country. Here we will find out why the Oman government is encouraging foreign investment, which non-oil industries present attractive investment opportunities and how international banks can assist and advise foreign investors.

Employment

The unemployment rate of Oman is one of the issues faced by the government. The International Monetary Fund has estimated the unemployment rate at more than 20% of the workforce. According to Muscat Daily, since the last census in 2010, the total population has increased by 38% to 3.83 million at the end of February 2013, of which 56% are Omanis and the remaining 44% are expatriates. The expatriate population has increased by 106.4% while the Omani population has grown by 9.7% per cent since 2010. The number of Omanis employed in the private sector remained fairly unchanged, with only 1.7% increase since 2010.

On the one hand, the Oman government needs to maintain global competitiveness by attracting foreign talents to diversify the economy such as developing large industrial and infrastructure projects. On the other hand, the Oman government is struggling to create enough jobs in the non-oil public and private sectors for Omanis. The ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, pledged to support citizens in establishing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the creation of a 70 million rials fund that will be increased by 7 million rials each year. In order for new start-up SMEs to gain a more competitive edge, the Sultan also ordered state land to be given free to entrepreneurs. In addition, the Oman government is hoping that foreign investment will create more employment opportunities for Omanis.

Investment opportunities in Oman

Oman’s Vision 2020 and Oman’s eighth Five Year Plan (2011-15) set clear objectives for economic diversification and development of Oman’s business and investment potential. Oman’s Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (PAIPED) is the government-run authority whose main mission is to facilitate investment in Oman and promote exports of Omani products and services to overseas markets. PAIPED’s 2009 Oman Investment and Promotion Strategy has proposed some industries that would meet Oman’s goal of economic diversification. These include automotive, infrastructure, ports, manufacturing, logistics, ICT, management and professional institutes, venture capital, financial services, international trade, insurance services and tourism.

Due to its strategic location, archaeological and historical remains, varied climate conditions and numerous sightseeing attractions, the tourism sector is an important and growing industry that offers lucrative investment opportunities. According to Albawaba Business, the chairman of Sundus Investments and vice chairman of National Bank of Oman, Mohammed Mahfoodh Al Ardhi, said that the Oman government is committed to boosting the tourism sector by investing in prestigious projects and encouraging foreign investment.

There are many benefits of investing in Oman, including a world-class infrastructure, incentive packages, attractive corporate tax and tax holidays, competitively priced industrial and office space, free zones and ports and a talented multilingual workforce. The Oman government also encourages foreign investors to collaborate with local companies in utilising its untapped resources, facilitating technology, innovation and management skills transfer and opening new markets for Oman products and services.

Roles of International Banks

Companies and entrepreneurs seeking to set up, expand and relocate to Oman should use international banks, which offer a range of products and services for corporate customers such as trade services, treasury services, corporate credit cards, and custody and clearing services.

If you are an exporter and need a loan to fill the gap in trade financing, you can apply for export financing in Oman to transport your products overseas. For example, with HSBC Bank, you can get pre-shipment finance to bridge the cash-flow gaps as well as post-shipment finance. If you are an importer, you can apply for documentary credits to help reduce the risks associated with international trade.

While there are numerous opportunities in the non-oil sector in Oman for foreign investors, the benefits and risks should be weighed before venturing abroad.

 

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-09

Misc

  • Up at 5 two days in a row. Sleepy. #
  • May your…year be filled w/ magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you…kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful. @neilhimself #
  • Woo! First all-cash grocery trip ever. Felt neat. #
  • I accidentally took a 3 hour nap yesterday, so I had a hard time sleeping. 5am is difficult. #
  • Wee! Got included in the Carnival of Personal Finance, again. http://su.pr/2AKnDB #
  • Son’s wrestling season starts in two days. My next 3 months just got hectic. #
  • RT @Moneymonk: A real emergency is something that threatens your survival, not just your desire to be comfortable -David Bach # [Read more…] about Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-09

5 Reasons to Quit Saving and Start Living

Finance, Life

paycheck
Image by owaief89 via Flickr

Life is all about trade-offs.  You trade your time for a paycheck.  Your trade your paycheck for food, rent, and security.  Don’t get so obsessed with saving and security that you forget to live your life.   There are many good reasons to put your savings on hold in order to really live.  Here are five of them:

1.  You have an adequate emergency fund. You will never hear me advise against an emergency fund.  If you don’t have one, stop reading this and get one.  Go.   Without an emergency fund, your budget is a financial crisis waiting to happen.  With an emergency fund, you can weather life’s speed-bumps without watching them become total train-wrecks.

2.  Your retirement is on autopilot. You are not allowed to stop saving and investing for retirement.  Ever.  Assuming you have a traditionally scheduled career that involves you working until you hit 65 and deferring a huge chunk of living until then, your income will cease when you retire.  Do you know how long you will live?  Do you want to spend your retirement broke and bored?  Are you relying on the responsible financial management of the federal government to make sure you will still get your Social Security?  Invest in your retirement and get this investment on autopilot so you can stop worrying about it.

3.  Your income is set. I don’t believe in the fairy tale of a company being loyal to its employees.  The aren’t.  However, if you have a stable-ish job, an in-demand career, and some side-income coming from alternate sources, your emergency fund can be enough to carry you through the low times.  That’s what it’s there for.

4.  You have dreams. If you’ve always wanted to travel the world, follow a band on your, volunteer extensively, or anything else, it’s time to do it.  Don’t postpone your passion.

5.   Deathbed regrets suck. Very few people lie on their deathbed lamenting the things they did.  Regrets tend to be focused on opportunities missed, skipped, or indefinitely postponed.  Do the things that are important to you before it’s too late to do them.  Don’t abandon your future in favor of current pleasures, but don’t forget to live, now.

Do you have any other reasons to stop saving?

My Favorite Present

Parenting

My favorite Christmas present this year was the one I gave to my 13 year old son.

Allow me to walk you through his evening….

First, he opened one of his presents.  It was just a small box, about 3 inches by 4.  A Japanese puzzle box.  Inside the box was a note that read:

Closed off in the smallest room you will find a clue to bring you closer to your prize.

When he checked the cabinet below the sink in our basement bathroom, he found another note that sent him to my business website one a page with a url that contained “the square of my children”.   When he eventually figured out that I meant their ages, not their quantity, he found a clue on my website.

This lead him to a section of his Minecraft server.  It’s effectively a no-man’s land because he and his friends set off a nuke and turned it into a giant pit.   They fall down and die there.   Inside the pit was a cave.  Inside the cave was a clue.  The clue read:

Grandma and Grandpa love you.

What do you do when someone says they love you?  You either get scared of the commitment and end a perfectly good relationship, or you say “I love you, too”.     When the kid finally called his grandparents to tell them he loves them, they told him to give his parents a kiss.

I’m a jerk.

He came over and gave me a hug and a kiss.  I handed him a piece of paper.   When he looked at it, he asked if it was supposed to be torn in half.  I reminded him that he has two parents, so Mom got a hug and a kiss, too.   The resulting clue read:

The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

Naturally, this points to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but the boy hadn’t read far enough into the book to understand the reference, so he had to hit google.    After spending time looking for chapter 42, he finally thought to look at page 42, which had this clue:

My Little Pegasus

Two steps to the right

Two steps forward

Two steps up

This clue started at the My Little Pony I set next to a Pegasus in my daughters’ room.   The boy was in dense mode because he had to ask his sister what a Pegasus was.  She also had to suggest he open the closet door when one step forward made him bump his nose on it.

For all of that work, he got the Ticket to Ride game.  He laughed the entire way through the treasure hunt, then decided he hated the whole process.  However, for two nights running, he’s stopped the video games to play his new game with his family.

It’s a present he’ll remember forever.

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