Freelance Consultant's Diary

If you feel like me you are not alone.  Over the years, except for an occasional bill that I get in the snail mail, almost everything else is junk.  So why is it that the less junk mail we read, the more we get.  Well, it is complicated why that happens.  First of all, some idiots still read their junk mail and actually buy stuff based on it.  Two, the more USPS struggles financially, the more it lowers the rate for shipping junk mail , so marketers can flood our mailboxes at increasingly lower rates (junk mail accounted for 56% of all postal deliveries in 2011, compared with 45% ten years ago).  That means that they can still turn a profit on direct mail and not spend that money on online advertising .  And finally, as technology has improved, direct marketers now have highly detailed profiles on you because they have married the data they have collected online on you and the ones available from traditional resources like county records, neighborhood statistics, and surveys comple

For last couple of years, I had been beating myself up for not buying Apple (AAPL) stock.  As a management consultant I should have anticipated that people will go nuts wasting their money on iPads and iPhones.  Instead, I kept my money in XLK and QQQQ, index funds that track technology stocks.  The stock kept rising and I kept getting depressed for blowing the chance, until now when I heard that after the sales cooled off, investors dumped the stock and people lost a lot of money.  Yet again, a reminder that it is so hard for individual investors to accurately figure out the best time to enter and exit a stock.  The best thing to do is to invest in a basket of stocks .  So yes, the downward pressure on Apple did impact index funds, but not as much.

I learned this new term today and basically what it means is that when you have too much of something you are unable to progress.  You know how they say that necessity is the mother of invention or that lack of resources makes people resourceful.  That is why when you have things available without even trying, you just waste your life.  This paradox explains that despite having so much wealth, the Middle East is so screwed up with people basically becoming terrorists or not doing much with their lives.

According to University of Canterbury researchers Carsten Grimm -- surprise, surprise -- making love, partying , and drinking alcohol make us the happiest and we should be doing more of them.  Some people also found happiness engaging in listening to music , hanging out with people they like , and volunteering.  Again, do more of these.  And what not to do?   Working, doing chores around the house , commuting, and believe it or not, using Facebook.  The last one really surprised me because I see so many people spending hours Facebooking which in reality makes you depressed because you only see the happy side of other people's life.  People share their photos dressed up in beautiful clothes or vacationing in exotic places or hanging out in bars and restaurants .  Almost no one updates their status saying that they don't have money to pay their bills or that they failed in an exam or their boss called them incompetent.

Background:   My wife and I are both self-employed.  We have 800 plus credit and except for a car lease of $300 a month, have no other debt.  Our net worth is more than a quarter million dollars and during the last two years our income exceeded $100,000.  We have lived in the house since 2001 and have paid each and every bill on time.  We also have more than one third equity in the house. Bank:   From the moment we bought out house our mortgage has been with Wells Fargo.  I am no fan but it works for us so we have even refinanced it with them twice.  This was our third time refinancing but first time since the banks tightened their standards after the 2008 financial meltdown.  The first person we talked to convinced us that we were better off just using HARP to keep things simple.  Not that we were afraid of property valuation but this was going to keep things simple. Interaction with Wells Fargo:   I am a well organized guy so all my paperwork was in order.  When the first set of docu

In addition to Render and Masa , we decided to go to lunch at this Indian restaurant in Boston's South End neighborhood.  On a Sunday, contrary to our expectations, it was dead.  In any case, there are several places to eat in the area, so we probably would not have liked to wait.  Thankfully, we also found street parking.  It is a small place but decorated well and I really appreciated the white napkins and nice dishes, things that are typically lacking in Indian restaurant brunches.  There were about a dozen dishes to choose from and I ate lentils, tandoor chicken, spinach paneer, stuffed dosa, and nan bread.  Overall, nothing worth talking about and the bread actually may not be as fluffy as it sometimes is.  Definitely, a pleasant experience eating there but I would not categorize it as anything special, but then lunch in Boston for about $13 is a bargain.

After a lot of thought we bought a Frigidaire Refrigerator FRS6L9EFSS4 and we were generally quite happy until the water dispense broke when a visiting teenager pressed it too hard (it was only then I realized that this part should have never been made from plastic considering how heavily it is used and how someone can apply extra pressure).  When I called Frigidaire, I was told that they could install it at a cost of $200, which sounded way too high considering that we paid a little less than $1,000 for it.  That is when I decided to research if we could repair it ourselves, even though I had never done a job like this, nor does the manual have any instructions on how to do it, but there are YouTube videos from DIY types, who make it look quite easy. After buying the part on Amazon for about $40, I could not even make myself open the water dispenser unit because I was afraid that I might damage something.  This is where Craig's List came handy and I put an ad for a handyman who ha

Since I live in New England, I know what dry skin feels like.  Fortunately for me, being married to a woman who is an expert in beauty and health, we use plenty of body lotion.  We were big fans of L'Occitane until we discovered the EveryDay Shea Moisturizing Body Lotion that was parabens free and fair trade and so we switched.  It generally works most of the time but when it gets really cold and the air dries up completely, it does not matter how many times you apply these lotions, the skin still itched.  In fact during a cold snap this year, it got so bad that I literally had blood on my nails because I was scratching so hard.  That is when someone recommended Cetaphil.  I had never heard of the brand and was a little skeptical, but boy, it worked.  I can't say enough good things about it because my dryness disappeared completely and I need to apply just once a day.  I do it right after my morning shower.  Strongly recommended.