Uncommon Cents

2 Responses to “Welcome Readers of the Carnival of Personal Finance!”

1. # Welcome Readers of the Carnival of Personal Finance!on 22 Jan 2008 at 11:30 am

   [...] Praveen Puri wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]

2. # puaimanaoon 24 Jan 2008 at 1:14 am

   I graduated from Hilo High in 1986 and considered myself as having spent my entire adult life living in HI’s bear market until the realty boom of the last 7+ yrs. In 1996, the year of my 10th h.s. reunion that my class was featured in a series of articles the HNL rag was running on “the Brain Drain” and saw my best friends living a far different reality by moving to Santa Somewhere. I vividly recall the negative equity locals were feeling in the early 1990s. And that the Dow was in the 4K range. Yes, as part of the US we had the benefits of refinancing mortgages and other economic associations with those thousands of miles to the east of us, but our economy was nearly as tied to those cats to the west of us who comprised a solid half of our tourist base, and when their real estate bubble burst in the mid 1980s, the ripple headed our way.

   So I do not fear a recession. We lived through it for the first 15+ years of my adult life. Then, as now, I remember our Protective Factors:

   - live beneath our means
   - don’t be afraid to barter services (have a trade as well as a career)
   - be judicious with investments (Vanguard is my fave), avoid equity overlap, fewer funds the better and index funds the smartest of all (if you need to ~tinker~ take some mad money and try daytrading, but leave the IRA alone!) and AVOID EMOTION (fear/greed) DRIVEN REALLOCATIONS
   - buy disability insurance and enough life to cover living expenses for a specific period of time
   - get a money market account and use that for emergencies (hey, if you can do the Tardus thing and learn how to suppress equity with a heloc and cc thang, rock on; not everyone can).

   And get back into life.

   Growing up in a bear market wizened a lot of arrogance out of me. Having come from–and through–that time when rent ate up half of my paycheck, I know “hard”. BTDT. Yet it toughened me up.

   That said, is the US headed for a recession? For my kids’ sakes, I hope so. Clean up a sense of entitlement that their generation is known for. That, my friends, is a good thing. Catch ‘em now when their financial history is an unknown landscape. It was the best thing that happened to me. It teaches the value of a dollar.

   Aloha, PM

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