Get Rich Slick

My wife collects expensive porcelain figurines and every year, I buy her a figure so it was much to my surprise when I went in to one of these high end shops recently to buy something for my wife that I experienced something new.

The little old lady behind the counter struck up a conversation with me and began to complain about Obama.   She wasn’t a democratic supporter by any stretch of the imagination but she seemed to want to support almost every democratic position without realizing it!

First, her husband was retired, living off social security and in need of medicaid because of his extensive medical problems.  I got the impression that this couple didn’t have a lot of money hence the little old lady working at a shop selling figurines.  The shop lady then says she too is also on social security and medicaid and is terrified that Obama is going to take it all away.  Seriously?  If anything, Obama will tax us all to death for worthless social programs so I don’t know how this lady jumps to the conclusions she jumps to!

This was the most coherent part of the discussion because then it degenerated (by her) into a rant about things I won’t mention here because they’re pointless.   Oddly enough, I ask her who she thinks the Republican candidate should be and she is clueless.    She doesn’t like anyone and doesn’t know but strongly believes that Obama will win re-election.

For the uninitiated, cognitive dissonance is the term used to describe someone’s apparent illogical belief in one thing despite contrary evidence to the opposite.    It was a very strange day.

Oh well, I got the expensive figurines and left.

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Women have long complained of being put in a position of being the “maid” in the family.  You know, lifting all those “heavy” dirty clothes putting them in a box called a washing machine, pushing a button and then transferring them to a drier and pushing another button….

Well I think men can now officially call themselves the “digital janitor” in the household.   As the proliferation of electronic devices continues to increase in our home (DVRs, iPods, laptops, desktops, cell phones, digital cameras, etc), I presume that it is also happening across other households.   With all the photos, music, documents, and other electronic junk floating around I assume that an inevitable pile of digital trash starts stacking up and that’s exactly where we are right now.

I recently installed a 7 TB array in my home to help protect all those precious digital moments and documents and we continue to pile up junk in it.   That’s not the worse part, I recently came back from another business trip and turned the TV and DVR on to see a show I had hoped to watch from a week or two ago.  What I found were countless kid and girlie shows (the wife) on the DVR that no one had bothered to clear up.   I spent the better part of half an hour deleting all the old crap.    It then occurred to me that I seem to be the digital janitor in the house always cleaning up computers of crap, deleting and purging the computers in a periodic clean up and disposing of old computer data.

Suddenly, I smell a business opportunity here for “digital janitors” whereby we come to your home and do a weekly cleaning of your DVR, iPads, iPods, Digital cameras, etc.   I am expecting my iPad 2 soon, is there an app for that?

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I saw this great article in the WSJ about big box retailers rethinking their strategy and it’s about time.   On a personal level, I simply don’t have the leisure time I once had to hang out at malls and big box retailers the way that I used to in the past.    I’ve written recently about my move to order more and more household goods online at Amazon.com whenever I get a chance.

The article states,

“As consumers trim their spending and shift their shopping to cyberspace, American retailers are acting on a realization that many of their stores are too big.  “You have a massive rush throughout retail to get small,” says Leon Nicholas of consulting firm Kantar Retail.”

I think a large part of the drive to online shopping is the tax savings.  Why in the hell would I want to pay 8% sales tax at the store when I can get it online tax free and usually free shipping?   The primary reason why I stopped shopping at bookstores, electronics shops, music stores, and even most retailers is because of the convenience of having items delivered to my door tax free.

Lately, I have begun ordering landscaping online!   Yes, I’ve ordered blueberry bushes, peach trees, avocado trees and lemon tress all online tax free delivered to my door.   Unfortunately, some items like tomato plants I’m not comfortable ordering online but the savings is HUGE on everything else I order.

I recently attempted to preorder an iPad 2 online specifically from an online shop that doesn’t collect sales tax in my state to save $50.   Hell, that $50 means a free cover for my iPad 2.  Why would I wait in line at the Apple store with hundreds of other people with the possibility of leaving empty handed at the end of the day?  Why would I pay sales tax on that iPad?    Unfortunately, no pre-orders for the iPad 2 but I can wait, heck I’ve waited this long for an iPad why not wait a few more weeks?    It’s also unfortunate that Amazon isn’t selling the iPad2, these guys need to grow up and sell the damn thing!

This is a cautionary tale that as gas prices rise, baby boomers get old, and a whole new paradigm envelops America, the traditional way of doing things is going the way of the Dodo bird.

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We’ve now been through at least two major oil shocks within the last five years and the last MAJOR oil shock was in the late 70′s and it should be pretty obvious that the shock frequency is increasing.  I compare this to the Doppler effect, the louder the sound a train makes as it gets closer to you, and it is an indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with supply and availability of gasoline and oil.   When you hear a loud train coming, you do something like move out of the way.

In an effort to look at options, I started looking at possibly buying a natural gas powered car and was shocked to learn that my options are very limited in the United States.    There is a Honda Civic GX available in some locations but not anywhere near my state.   I would need to drive hundreds of miles to the closest dealership that has them in stock.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to buy a natural gas powered car.

-Natural gas is cheap at $4.32/mbtu which would make an equivalent fill up costs about $1.20 per gallon compared to $3+/gallon now.   Even if gas were $2/gallon  I would still be better off with a natural gas powered car.

-Natural gas is already in my home.   I love the idea of just filling up at home which means no “driving” to the gas station to fill up.

-Natural gas is cleaner fuel.

-Natural gas isn’t taxed $0.50/gallon like gasoline is at a gas station.  The savings here alone would make it worth my while!

There are a few drawback of course and that’s mostly around the lack of fueling stations that carry natural gas and the driving range of  a gas powered vehicle but I still think it’s worth the difference.    My oldest child is still a few years away from driving but when it’s time to buy him a car, it will either be an electric vehicle or natural gas powered car.   I would prefer a natural gas powered car because I know lithium batteries wear out and are expensive to replace so natural gas would be a much better option.

As I understand it, in Brazil you can buy cars that simultaneously switch from natural gas, ethanol and gasoline.  In Europe, the cars there can switch from diesel to natural gas but in the U.S. we’re stuck with a monofuel car.  Why?

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Wow, I’ve been traveling a bit and I usually have a car pick me up and drop me off at the airport.  I repeat this cycle most of the time I’ve traveled lately and I haven’t rented a car in a while so I haven’t had to put gas in my car for a few weeks.   Well that all changed last night when I noticed my gas gauge dangerously low so I stopped to fill up.   It was a whopping $61 for gas!   Yeah, SIXTY ONE dollars for gasoline!   That is closer to $100 than $0.

I was floored by the final price because that’s the equivalent of two kobe beef NY strip steaks I could have been grillin’ at home!   I have long worried about the price of oil staying as high it has been while we were in an economic depression but if the economy is showing signs of life and recovery then what will it be when the economy hits on all cylinders?  $120/barrel?  $150/barrel?  $250/barrel?

So here we go again, high gas prices, bad economy, and a huge leadership void.   It’s like deja vu all over again!

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Twenty years ago I would never have imagined that I would have too many choices for entertainment but that day has finally come.   I just found out about www.cackle.com where you can watch movies and shows for free.   The library isn’t wildly extensive but between that and Hulu.com, Youtube, Netflix, Uverse and soon Amazon’s offering there is exponential growth in options.

One thing I did envision 20 years ago was the demise of Blockbuster and retail outlets handing out “media” (DVD’s, etc) so people could consume entertainment.   The technology just wasn’t there back then but it’s here now.    What I didn’t envision though was how disruptive new technology would be to the various business models.  Netflix has all you can eat for $8.99 while Uverse attempts to charge $6.99 for a single movie.

Ultimately I think the push is toward lower and lower costs so we may see $0.99 or even $0.25 rentals in the near future and I can hardly wait.

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I got my Costco rebate and was somewhat disappointed that it was only $600.  I had upgraded to Executive membership and purchased some new TV’s at Costco along with a ton of wine and other goods and I thought I would have broken the $800 mark but it didn’t happen.

I’m going to downgrade back to the non-Executive membership since I didn’t think it was worth it for the executive card.

In other news, I found Costco’s Kirkland Turkey Burgers again!  It seems Costco is carrying them again and I’m glad as it is a staple of my diet.    It’s the little things in life that make all the difference.   Hey Costco, maybe you can muscle in on the college book cartel!

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I’ve been traveling again and I finally got around to reading most of my mail.   A few bills, some junk mail and amazingly a zero percent credit card offer from Chase.   It’s been a while since I’ve received any type of zero percent offer on my credit cards.   The offer was for 0% balance transfer through April 2012.  It was interesting and I might have jumped on it until I read the fine print which include a 3% balance transfer fee with no cap.

If I transfer $20,000 with a 3% fee, I’m looking at a painful $600 and only worth it to me if I were paying higher interest rates on anything which I’m not.  My mortgage is still at 3.25% so it doesn’t make sense.   My credit unions are pushing hard on auto loans as low as 3% on new vehicles too!

I also watched a bit of TV this weekend and was amazed to see 0% financing through 2015 on furniture and other wares advertised locally.    If these trends continue, I definitely see debt bubble returning although I don’t think we ever truly got out of it.

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So I finally began enjoying Amazon shipping groceries to my door.   To be honest, my wife and I continue to work like dogs and both of our companies continue to either lay off or offshore work and we’re left to pick up the pieces so we don’t have much free time to do grocery shopping.

Interestingly, I don’t miss grocery shopping one bit;  The crowds, the parking lot fights, the traffic and the long lines at the checkout make grocery shopping an unpleasant experience and I think the future of the grocery store my be grim unless things change.

The more I think about it the more I think that grocery stores may be dinosaurs in some respects at least for dry goods.   When we shop at a grocery store we are essentially paying for the lights, the ac (or heat), the staff, etc.   When I order from Amazon, although there are computer and electric bills to pay, I doubt they are as high as the aggregate grocery store chain.   Ultimately, I would imagine that this will lead to cheaper prices online than at the grocer store as there is less overhead.   Additionally, 80 million baby boomers that can’t drive to the grocery store or probably shouldn’t be on the road will benefit from this in the near future.

Well that’s all theory anyway because this is what I got today when I realized that I hadn’t received my boxes of Apple Jacks.

I am not sure if this has proven too popular for Amazon or if inflation is eating into profits or they just can’t source the goods but I hope they fix it soon!   I am ready to expand.

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So I’m sitting in a bar in London waiting for my limo to take me to the airport and I can’t help but notice the bar staff.   It was a slow night so  I start talking to them by asking them where they are all from because most of them have accents when they speak and I thought it odd for a single bar to have so many different people from Europe.   Girl #1 is from somewhere near Milan, Italy; Girl #2 is from Poland; Girl #3 is from Ukraine; Bartender is from Italy.

I ask them why they’re all in London and they respond the same: to earn a living.   Evidently things are bad in Italy, Ukraine, Poland and almost anywhere east of checkpoint Charlie.   The bartender starts telling me that he came to the UK to go to the university to get an advanced degree.   He complained about paying the school fifteen thousand pounds ($23k USD) and not being able to find a job.    He tells me he things UK universities are a scam, conning people from around Europe with the promise of great education and perhaps high paying job but what the University neglects to say is that if you don’t speak near perfect British English, you’ll be looked down upon in interview after interview.    He earned a Masters Degree in Logistics hoping to work in the shipping industry but the market was dead and now he was bar tending.

“If you sound like people from east London, you’ll stay in east London,” he says sardonically.   I felt so much sympathy for these people and they asked me how things were in America.    “About the same,” I told him thinking if indeed that was the case and wondered how many American bartenders had Masters degrees or how many would have too much pride and simply stay home collecting unemployment checks.

I ask the cute Italian girl if she has another job and she retorts, “no, the more you work the more they tax you here, it’s not worth it to have another job.”  I found a strange comfort in that statement because the more I earn, the more I get penalized with higher taxes  (more on that in a future post).

I only talked to these guys for about 35 minutes then my car arrived.  I got up and checked my wallet to leave a generous tip but all I had were three Franklins and three one hundred pound notes.  I look at the tab and it reads, “Included is a 12.5%  gratuity in this bill.”   I check my pockets and quickly realize I have a ton of coins in a variety of lots: 2 pound, 1 pound, xx pence.  I take them all in my hand and plunk them down on the table.  God I hate coins and pocket change!

“I wish you the best in all of your hopes and dreams guys, farewell.”   They all smile and bid me farewell and move about their business serving new customers as they come in for the evening.

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