Freelance Consultant's Diary

If you are like me and like to trade commodities like gold, silver, and oil (I have traded IAU, UCO, and SLV), you will simply need to do a lot more paperwork while filing your income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Even if you do your taxes using TurboTax, which pulled all my documents from the TD Ameritrade account, I was still stumped when it came time to complete the form related to these trades.  So this is how it works.  Unlike other equities that are simple buy/sell, the commodities are tricky.  Basically, the owner, iShares, of this exchange traded fund (ETF) sells a tiny portion of your holding to cover their costs, and that is why you will see that each month there are trades that you have not made.  In my case, the actual quantity was zero shares and the total proceeds were just $22. So how to calculate the cost basis?   I suggest that you plug the data in a spreadsheet.  In first column, list the 12 months.  In the...

Yes, the super-rich can lose a billion dollars to gambling , but I thought that was rare.  Elliott Orsillo, CFA, co-founder of Season Investments in Colorado Springs, tells CNBC, "One of my clients had $400,000 in credit card bills. He came to me because it was impeding his ability to fuel his jet. The credit card companies would not allow him to charge his fuel anymore."   If this were not true, I would have thought it was a joke.  I wonder if the wealthy are also "too rich to fail," that eventually someone bails them out.

During the late 90s, I found an awesome job that I loved, but it required a 75 mile commute one way, from Connecticut to New Jersey.  Yeah, it was mostly highway driving and I completed it in about 90 minutes or so each way, but with occasional delays, I was spending about 20 hours each week driving.  Around that time the Internet was just starting and my employer was terrified how their business of information collection and processing would be impacted by it, so they were very reluctant to embrace anything new, including telecommuting (which was emerging as new concept in the dot-com boom).  Since several employees were like me, eventually, they let us work one day from home, that we got to choose.  The company insisted on a separate phone line so that work calls could be redirected and an Internet connection, which was fine for me, but wow, it was awesome.  I got to sleep late, and a minute after my office closed at 530 PM, I was home.  It made such a di...

Ouch!  And that is when we are yet to see the full impact of impending massive immigration of cheap labor from Latin America , spread of free online education , and more visas for high tech workers .  The Times is reporting that a college degree is now a must for jobs that typically were done by high school graduates.  They cite the example Atlanta, GA law firm Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh which has hired newly minted college grads for jobs like filing clerks, receptionist, paralegals, administrative assistants. etc. arguing that they are much more motivated, talented, and smarter.  Job creator (I love this funny term) Adam Slipakoff, the firm’s managing partner proudly proclaims, “Going to college means they are making a real commitment to their futures. They’re not just looking for a paycheck.”  I guess the only winners in this are universities that keep charging ridiculous sums for college diplomas .  I don't see how the college graduates benefit and i...

I have been taking a massive open online course Introduction to Philosophy at Coursera .  I have always been curious about philosophy and this free course sucked me right in.  I have already completed four weeks and wait eagerly for the next week's course material to be uploaded.  I watch the videos, do the reading, and take the quiz.  I must confess that I have learned a lot more this way than I have done in some of my university classes the old fashioned way.  I am already debating what course to take next.  Should I continue to delve deeper into philosophy or try something entirely knew, like genetics or psychology?  I am so excited about the future of online learning that I wonder what will happen to brick and mortar universities where students pay tens of thousands of dollars each year to live on campus, drink lots of beer, party like there is no tomorrow, and then occasionally study.  They also have lots of weekends, holidays, and breaks w...