Another Good Suggestion to Save Money

For those people who earns so much but are not able to save their hard earned Pesos because they keep buying gadgets and always go out to spend, I have another very good suggestion on how you can save your money. Spending so much can be very addictive. Especially when you go out a lot and spend most of your time in a mall with all of your cash with you. This can be prevented by not sacrificing your bad habit of hanging out in the malls.

Money is a very liquid asset, you must therefore find a way to convert it into something else that will not reduce its value. I have discovered that with the current European crisis, a lot of foreign investors in the country are withdrawing their money, as a result, the Philippine Peso is weakening because of this huge outgoing migration of funds. So you must be aware of this, and because you frequently go out perhaps twice a day, then instead of spending your money for expensive food, gadgets and whatever that attracts you for no reason, why not buy USD? So each you go out, just to satisfy your urges, just buy USD100 each time you go out and you will see that your money does not disappears because you are buying money?

Just keep on doing that and in about 5 months, you will realize that you have been shopping a lot and your money is still there. LOL!

LITE-ON External DVD Burner

I thought I will be able to replace my Qube M1 Netbook 3 months ago so I have given my buffalo external dvd writer to a friend. Unfortunately, I decided not to replace my netbook until probably next year. It is still so much better than than the Lenovo Thinkpad T410 that my current employer gave as a service laptop. The Lenovo Thinkpad T410 does have a bright back led disdplay just like the Qube M1 netbook. But since I already know a burglar that does not steal but only looks around to sabotage my priced possessions, he recently hacked my netbook making it unable to boot because of the error 'Unmountable_Boot_Drive'. The only to reapir this error is to restore the netbook with the supplied restore dvd that the seller provided upon buying my Qube M1 netbook.

SO I desperately need an external dvd reader/writer again. So off I go to Cyberzone at SM Cubao and I found the LITE-ON External DVD burner. I wanted something small, bus powered, inexpensive, and the ability to burn a dual-layer DVD. This unit fit the bill so I pulled the trigger. It is absolute looks as good as my previous External Dvd reader.

 

One particularly nice touch: There is a slot on the underside of the unit which perfectly fits the USB cable when not in use, thus saving you some aggravation when storing the drive. No need to clumsily wrap the cable around the drive or look for it in your bag. This is great when you have to bring it you when you travel because it reduces clutter if you have several gadgets that you put in your bag. But not for me since I dont travel much at all.

My Cockatiel has finally layed an Egg!!!

My Albino(female) and Lutieno(male) pair of Cockatiel have finally had their egg. They shave been with me for almost 4 months now and for 2 months they have been practicing, always kissing each other and always so sweet with each other and now, now, she finally got an egg.

The saleslady at Bio Research was right, she told me the pair will take at least 4 months before the female will lay an egg. Here is the video of my fowl friends and was recorded about a month ago with my Olympus T-100 digital camera:

Gold Price is soaring!

Gold has been climbing the last 6 weeks reaching record high($1830) today while Stock Markets around the globe are shrinking losing their 2 years gain in just 3 weeks. The precious metal has become even more precious because the US credit rating downgrade has brought too much uncertainties in the global financial markets. It even be more precious because on the same period, several Central Banks withdrawn their US treasury investments to increase their Gold stocks not only because of the low interest rate but because they want to diversify their investment portfolio.

As I watch CNBC on CIGNAL, several financial analyst forecast reveal that Gold is still undervalued making it a more ideal way to invest but others are pessimistic citing that jewelry and industrial demands is declining and Gold Stock buildup of the World's Central Banks can't always sustain the precious metal's gains. This means that speculators and passive investors are driving if not artificially inflating the Gold price. I think from my point of view, the Gold has always been gaining since the 1900's and to make it's price fall down to its lowest level will be next to impossible.

Gold investing is still a good way to save money, it does not depreciates nor gets obsolete, it is as good as cash that earns interest but of course gadgets is way to make our life a lot more convenient and keep us occupied and entertained during the times when we feel low. They're absolutely different domains.

Update: After Gold Price has reached the historic $1917, it began to fall and the Gold Bubble has just burst and losing more than $200 in just 3 days. Financial analysts said the resistance level is at $1650, if this level is breached, it will go down further to $1510 and if this resistance level is breached again, the Gold Price will again fall down to $1150. Some other Analyst say the decline is just a mere technical correction and Gold Price will still reach $2000 level at year end and probably reach $2500 by end of 2012. If you might wonder where does the money goes after investors sell their gold, well, the Stock Market where else. Stock Market and Gold Prices are inverse correlated at this time while Gold and US Dollar are directly correlated because while Gold Price is declining, the US$ is getting weaker too. My mutual fund investments has been gaining steadily and I am glad and had no regret why I ever invested in it.

Taxi Cabs in 3rd World like Metro Manila

With the introduction of Official Receipts in 3rd World countries where it is such a challenge to earn a decent living, it is now easy to spot who is honestly earning for a living. It is really so fascinating how people would do anything to just to survive in a highly competitive world.

I have collected several Official Receicpts issued by 3 taxi cabs the past 3 days. The route is just the same but the difference is huge. I will leave the rest for my readers to interpret what is in the OR itself.

Taxi 1 Fare : Php 173.00 + Php 7.00(I gave him Php200 be he returned Php20.00 only and drove off quickly)

Taxi 2 Fare : Php 138.00 + Php 2.00(I gave him Php140 and did not bothered getting the change)
Taxi 3 Fare : Php 169.00 + Php 1.00(I gave him Php170.00 and did not bothered getting the change)

I am still puzzled why there is huge difference between the three OR's when the distance has not changed. I am so glad I still have my Olympus T100, it is so useful to take pictures as clear as those pictures shown  here.

My LG 32LD330 and CIGNAL HD -- really so WOW!!!

I signed up for CIGNAL High Definition programming service. I have chosen the post paid plan because there were 9 high definition channels available. I signed up to justify that my LG 32LD330 is already outdated and it needs to be replaced with a bigger size 46" Devant 3D capable tv but upon seeing its performance, I think the picture quality is still at par with the best and therefore I decided to keep it for at least 1 year more. Watching high definition programs provided by CIGNAL can really glue me inside my apartment because the viewing experience that the LG 32LD330 is amazing!

Yesterday, I had a freaky experience, my Php 15000 18k gold necklace was almost stolen! Thank God, the necklace and the pendant did not fell, it cling on to my walking sports shorts when the thief supposedly should have just picked it from the ground where he had hooked my necklace from my neck to remove it from my neck and he expects it to fall on the ground. That technique is done in split seconds. Luckily it did not fell. I did not know that it fell not until I went out in my apartment short after I arrived to buy a bottle of mineral water. I touched my neck while paying to check my necklace if it still there and then I did not feel its presence, so I panicked. Losing Php 15000 in 1 day is such a huge amount of money already, good enough for me to survive 2 months already. So quickly, I went back to my apartment hoping that the necklace just fell on the floor, and yes, I found it just in front of my 32LD330 tv. But the sad thing is my necklace was damaged.


Probably if I did not changed my shirt before I left my apartment, I could have lost my gold necklace forever. I am so lucky, the thief failed and probably will not able to eat his dinner and could have died of hunger, well too bad for him.

I need to choose between a gadget and a parrot

For so long now, I have been thinking of getting me a nice Blue Naped Parrot, a bird that can only be found in the Philippines. The nice things about this parrot is that it can learn how to talk and is a lot smarter than dogs, grows much bigger than my cockatiels and the most important of them is I like the green colors.

But while I am on my 1 hr break this late afternoon, I don't know what came over me that in just a minute, I found myself inside an Apple store. I was like just looking at the MacBook Pro bat was not impressed, then I looked at the Ipad 2, but it is not windows based, then I looked at the gigantic 27" Big Mac and found it too expensive and I saw the MacBook Air, and wow, so good looking, I want it!

I could not make up my mind. I know it is a very hard decision to make and this really should give me a lot of sleepless nights.

Update: I checked the blue-naped parrot in Cartimar (the silicon valley version of pets) here in the Philippines and found 1 vendor so I interviewed him for almost two hours asking him how should I take of them, why do they sell when they are still babies and played with them for awhile coz they're so adorable but I decided not buy them because first, I have a day job and I will not be able to feed it on time and might be putting him at risk. So instead, I bought a third pied male cockatiel. My reason for buying this cockatiel is because it so adorable and he's already tamed so it will be easy for me gain his trust and soon I can let him out of the cage and play with him or teach some nice tricks just like what I see in youtube where the cockatiels are taught to sing, talk or perform some tasks that can differentiate them from dogs when it comes to intelligence. With the new release of MacBook Air mid-2011 version, I am thinking of buying the 4Gb, Dual Core i7 model in the near future. With this new version, perhaps it will be very difficult to say that it be obsolete in 3 years time.