New Year Resolutions

I dont remember the last time I had New Year Resolutions, but I did a list for this year. May be this means I was not satisfied with my performance last year. Anyway, here they are:

• Get in touch with my old friends and keep in touch
• Start a blog and pose questions soliciting ideas from others on how to solve them
• Try to set up a competition in SCH schools that promote entrepreneurship amongst school children
• Keep in touch with Trichy folks and keep abreast of NITT-USA group
• Go to gym at least 3 times a week
• Write blogs regularly
• Buy a home
• Read a book a month
• Get to know more about photography
• Become a small business owner and get it successful
• Read news at least twice a week
• Help at least couple of friends/family members achieve their goals

Need to check this and see how I am doing in a quarter ;)

Italy tour summary

This post has been long overdue. Not sure why I had it in the drafts until today...

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 Recently I've been on a tour to Italy and it was awesome. Just a few days in another country can teach you so much more than what you can read in books for a month. I intend to write all about what I learnt, what I observed and what I felt. To start off I will summarize my trip in this blog.
We have been to Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence and Venice. Let's start with Rome.
Rome
Of all the cities in Italy I visited Rome was the best. Just walking down the street and you would find a fine blend of history, modern life style and beauty. We visited colosseums Circus maximus, Roman Forum, Palestine Hills, Trevi fountain, Piazza del Popolo , Pantheon etc.
 Colosseum is truly amazing. walking down there you can literally feel gladiators fighting, The Roman crowd cheering and admire the engineering that went into it. Imagining this 2000 years ago would just blow you off No wonder it made into Seven wonders of the world.I was so engrossed in its architecture and marvel.
 Roman forum and Palatine Hills are close by and this is where most of the action during Roman times happened. They had markets, courts, churches, public stages which can be used to further ones cause it was indeed truly democratic. You literally walk the same place Julius Caesar walked. Just on the top of the hill are the palaces of the kings. From their balconies they can see almost everything going on in the city.
 Rome is full of Pianos, Roman version of plazas when people can meet, talk, have fun. Almost all or them have beautiful sculpture around. pantheon's architecture inspired numerous buildings across the world including Jefferson's memorial and Lincoln memorial.
 Vatican
 The smallest country in the world but undoubtedly one of the richest per capita. It's museums and churches are testimony of the riches the country enjoys. St. Peters square is so huge that it can accommodate about 200,000 people at a time. and it is surrounded by amazing architecture.St. Peters Basilica, Sistine chapelare just so gorgeous that theydeserve all the credit they receive.Vatican museum is full of sculptures,paintings and frescos, very gorgeous.

Naples
Probably the worst city we visited. The only season to visit Naples is to go to Pompeii and see the Natural museum where they have the display of things excavated from Pompeii. The location in which Naples is amazing. Mountains on one side and ocean on the other. It does provide some beautiful views.
 Pompeii
A city that was destroyed in 76 AD , it was frozen in time by the lava from Mt. Vesuvius that engulfed it. Pompeii in its peak time must have been way ahead of other cities. they had markets, churches, amphitheatre that can host 50000 people and from anywhere you get awesome views to Ocean. The most interesting part is their street cleaning system. They drain water down the streets.
 Florence
 Home of Uffizi, Academia etc but we truly felt Florence is hyped. Except for David and couple of other paintings in academia they can close it. Uffizi gallery was good but it doesn't deserve so long lines. City of Florence is very small and there is hardly a time you would need to take a bus. Duomo was very interesting and there are some good Piazzas around.
 Venice
 Truly a marvelous story and city, built an a lagoon that is sinking, it offers a great experience that is unique to this place. Cruise down the Grand Canal, walk in the streets of Venice , visit Murano glass factory and have fun at San Marcos. These are the things to doin Venice.transportation is damn slow on water buses called Vaperetti. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the slow life style.

Year End Tax Saving Tips

Ok! So it is year end. Everyone is in festive moods. Great! Lets have some fun with friends and family. Sit around the table and talk about all the crazy things that happened this year. While doing so lets also discuss about taxes, tax saving tips. Remember we have until December 31st to make adjustments and be wise about saving taxes.
First thing we need to do, of course, is to see how we fared so far in the year. Since it is almost end of year, any recent pay stub should tell you how you are faring so far. Check your pay stub to see your income. Get a rough estimate of taxes you gonna pay. You can find the tax table here. Once you got that, here are some of things you can do to save taxes.
Increase your IRA contributions
I know bunch of folks who feel that contributing to retirement is a waste of money. In fact I met few people who think they wont live long enough to see the fruits of 401K. Well, whatever reason they give, it ultimately boils down to the fact that they want to see hard cash right now in their hands rather than years later. Few people think they wont have enough bank savings if they put the funds in 401K. It might be so, but you have to check your assumptions with the facts.
Check your savings/checking accounts and see how much you saved over the year. If the amount is 3 times your monthly salary, it is excess for a single person, and if it is more than 5 times your monthly salary, it is excess for a family person. Money lying around in bank is almost useless money. As Warren Buffet says "cash is probably the worst investment." Contribute part of that savings to your IRA, let the money grow. More often than not, your employer matches the contributions and hence you get free money. Contribute something, a little, whatever you are comfortable with at least to get that free money. Dont you go buy clothes from Macy's if they have BOGO offer. So why is this different? Put money in 401k and save taxes, grow your money.
Clean up your closet
How on earth would cleaning your closet help you reduce taxes? The trick lies in what you do after you clean up. I am sure you accumulated bunch of clothes over the year and you no longer wear few of them, or you feel they are old and hence dont use anymore. Most people just throw them into dumpster. Such a waste. There are people who might actually think that those clothes are luxury. You may want to consider donating them to charities like Goodwill who would donate it to people in need. You would indirectly be helping community, reducing waste, be more environment friendly and get tax deductions on your contributions. Make sure you get a receipt from them. I did this exercise last year and guess what why contributions came up to? A whooping $463. I never realized when I donated, but after a while when I was filing my taxes thats how much I got after calculations. I donated my old clothes, shoes, stereo set, key board, some electrical appliances, books etc.
Consider volunteering work
Volunteering not only gives tremendous personal satisfaction of helping community but can save taxes for you. Any work that you do for volunteering is tax deductible. Any mileage that you drive for volunteering is tax deductible. There is a charity which arranges for rides for senior citizens who cannot drive themselves. Think of them as your grandparents and give them a ride to the grocery store, airport or wherever they want to go. It is very very refreshing and you get to hear their amazing stories.

Consider selling your investments for loss
This might sound crazy to you and of course this is not applicable to all. If you have an investment portfolio and you see you did well in couple of places and not doing so well in other places and you doubt your recovery, may be it is time to sell those and take losses. All losses are tax deductibles. You can compensate the gains you made on other parts with the losses.

I deliberately left out ideas like claiming job search expenses, student loan interests, etc since there is not much you can do now. These can anyway be taken as tax deductibles even though you dont do anything now. I will summarize tax preparation check list in another post some time soon.
If you have a tax saving tip, do share it with us, so that we can grow as friends together and get maximum tax benefits out.
Happy holidays folks!

New Digital SLR Camera

I wonder which SLR camera to buy. My constraints are around $600, mostly automatic, just for a beginner in photography, not too bulky so that I can carry it with me on travel easily.
The ones under consideration are:
















Wondering if any of you have any idea on which one to buy.

Microtrends

'Microtrends - the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes' is a wonderful book for those who are interested in learning about socio-economic trends and in general how people behave. The book doesnt explain why people behave that way. All it explains is how people in small groups act like microcosms and why their needs are different. It is a wonderful treatise on the way these small groups are changing the political scene and the policies. It also talks about potential business opportunities targeted to these small groups.
I did think about a few of business ideas (not a million-making ones, but good enough to live ones) while reading the book. A couple of them I share here.
Idea: Mobile pantry cafe
Target market: local train stations for commuters
This idea is very simple. There are estimated 3.4 million extreme commuters (traveling more than 90 miles one way). If you could figure out the places they are headed to, you could have all the early requirements for them and help them out at cheaper prices than starbucks or a simple breakfast at much cheaper price. For example, in San Diego, where I live a lot of people head to Mira Mesa, Sorrento Valley Blvd in the morning. This is a perfect place to have mobile cafe. In fact I saw one a couple of weeks ago. So I presume people are already acting up on it.

Idea: Social network for empty nesters
Target market: there are estimated 10000 people retiring every day. Most of these people are empty nesters with either their spouse or no one who live with them. They would be pretty bored at home all day along.
The idea is to create a social network, but with much more active participation. Find out empty nesters in the community and arrange for simple fun games or activities for them, for a very nominal fee. An online facebook like of application would also work, if we can streamline the applications to suit their needs. Of course it got to be less technology oriented than facebook and just no nonsense kind of network.
anyway, there a lot of niche markets that can be targeted. i strongly recommend all my friends to read this book. If you like to buy it, here is a link for it.
Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

Do not procrastinate

Even though I make it a point not procrastinate things, once in a while either I get lazy, or I dont look down the timeline to see what is in future, which leads to procrastination of few things. And sure, these things come back to bite me in the ass :). A while ago, I had to write a test code which required me to install a plethora of tools, compilers etc just for a small test code. I figured out if I just use some machine which has all these I can get away with it and avoid the delays in installing all the unnecessary tools that will eat away my PC's memory. So I went to a friend who had all these tools installed and got the work done. What I overlooked is the fact that once you write a piece of code, it will forever be yours and you would be help responsible for it. Sure enough a few days later I got a call asking to change this and that in that small piece of code. Again, I had to scramble again to find the friend who helped me earlier. This time he was in a hurry which basically meant he is hinting you at getting your own tools. I was like, yeah, just this time. Well that just this time was just another time. Now I am at a position where I cannot live without installing those tool set. So, I am going to install all those tools which if I had installed the first time would have saved time, a bit of humiliation and given me an opportunity to learn more.
My passport is about to expire in February next year. I thought I have plenty of time to get it renewed when I realized it in August. So I procrastinated it. Before I realized it is October without me following up on it. And then suddenly one day I realized we have holidays coming up. We planned to go out of US, may be to Europe, Mexico or New Zealand. In the process I realized I cannot go out of US unless I get my passport renewed. Even then by the time we figured out expenses, we kinda said no to a trip outside US. And hence I procrastinated again. But later on, we thought we can go to Mexico for cheap, just to realize my passport needs renewal. So now I am scrambling to get all the documents together and get it done.
Procrastination is never good. It might save you time in the short run, but in the longer run is always a hassle. By far procrastination is the main negative point in me that I need to work on. Unfortunately it will always come back in the most wrong time.
I wondered about ways to get over procrastination. Here are few that I came up with. Please leave a comment if you have more on this.

• Make sure you always look at long term before you decide to procrastinate a thing
• Know the consequences of not doing it now
• Find out the time it would take to do it now, compare it with the amount of time you mgiht be spending later on if you dont do it
• Make a list of things to do and keep track of them regularly. You may use any of the things to do software, if you like, for example tracks (written in Ruby on Rails)
• Clear up your things to do once in a while, so that pile is maintainable

Holiday Time!

Its holiday time and I just want to help my friends to find good gifts. Amazon has a good collection of gifts. Follow the banner and see!