money

Should I blog about my own finances?

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One of the reasons I set up my blog on DollarTravels was to encourage me to put more effort into my financial life. While I’ve been very succesful as a blogger, and earned not a small amount of money!, I haven’t really posted any personal financial details on any of the blogs I write before. I do share my credit card spending from month to month, but I don’t share my expenses, my cashflow or my investment holdings at all.

I’ve already settled part of this discussion in my mind: I’m resolved to start posting my investment holdings at some point, but my own financial situation: somehow that seems like a whole new ballgame.

Privacy: is it that important?

Unlike Flexo who writes fairly anonymously, a lot of people in Taiwan actually know me, and they know where I live and work. So this would be highly personal reporting and attributable to some they know. I’m not yet convinced that this is a good thing. An article in Business Week that featured another Money Blog actually has a source that is attributable, known and trackable. I don’t know if this is something I would like to be. Part of me urges caution, part of me wants to celebrate success and share failure with EVERYONE! I’m torn.

Breaking Taboos

Coming from Britain, where I grew up and with friends, personal financial details were rarely shared amongst even the closest relatives. We were brought up such that you didn’t talk about death, sex, politics, religion, health, and money! While some of these seem obviously inappropriate at certain times, such proscription seems so intolerable that it’s a wonder anyone was able to learn anything about any of these sensitive topics. So for me to discuss some aspects of our financial situation, it’s definitely running counter to my experience as a child or younger person.

The Power of the External

Having seen my blog help me focus my mind more on generation money through the number of routes that I choose, I can see how having an external pressure, a barometer, an audience, etc.. can help me keep on the straight and narrow. Perhaps it will stop me splurging on a third 28″ monitor or a brand new BMW when I can ill afford, perhaps not. Even the failures will provide a good lesson: I’m ever hopeful that our ‘shared experience’ online will help others develop their own self-discipline, goals and means, even when I have demonstrably failed.

So what should I do? Reveal ALL my personal financials, lift the veil on some of finances (e.g. Net Worth and Investments), or keep them away from prying eyes? Comment your answer if you dare. I’ll be making a decision by September 1st. I’d like to say that some from my audience helped me gain perspective whichever outcome I decide.

Testimonial: InvestorBlogger Dot Com – interesting, informative site that offers realistic advice

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I stumbled onto Investor Blogger the other day while researching some investments I’ve been thinking about. I never did finish what I’d intended to do because this website grabbed my attention and kept it! The first page I came across was Asus Eee PC News that introduced the new Asus Eee 900 PC. I’ve been looking for a laptop so I read the article and began browsing the index and clicking on the categories there.

The first that I clicked, of course, was Making Money. What a treasure trove! There were links to some very fine writings on finance, business and investing as well as articles by the blogger himself on a variety of business concerns. The business tips weren’t the same old run-of-the-mill unrealistic words aimed at big business but good, solid advice that the small business owner can use. The writing was relaxed and casual, almost as if you were sitting down and talking face to face, a welcome change from the formality of most sites dealing with investments and financial matters. I’ll be going back to that category frequently; you can find it in the money making section.

Next up was the NewsBites section at . This was another fine page full of the latest news dealing with the economy, finding markets for your products, ideas for improving your business and making money. I particularly liked the article that addressed how to survive and thrive during the recession we’re in and got a few good ideas for my own business.

Then it was time for something a bit lighter. I’d spent the better part of the evening reading some fine articles and following the links to fascinating financial information so it was time a change. I clicked on the Little Pleasures category and was greeted with not only an amusing clip from a popular movie but a truly magnificent photo of the Tamsui river in Taiwan that rivals anything you could find in a commercial photographer’s portfolio. There was an article about tea shops competing with Starbucks and accompanied by a video clip, a review of a Sony MP3 player and an account of a visit to San Francisco complete with photos. What a great way to add a little beauty and humor to the dour subjects of money and finance!

InvestorBlogger is an interesting, informative site that offers realisticadvice and a wealth of resources not only for investors but for anyone who wants to manage their finances intelligently. My only real gripe about the InvestorBlogger was the pop-up ad on the first page but it was a minor irritation and after all, someone has to pay the bills!

By Anuj.

Anuj, Thanks for your testimonial. I did remove the popup on the front page. It wasn’t worth the hit on the server or the irritation of my readers.

Saving Money: You can save money by cutting energy use!

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Today we received our first electricity bill of the summer! And we got a shock! It was much…..

SMALLER

… than we had expected originally. We saved about NT$1700 on our bills vs. the same period last year… And we really didn’t do that much yet. But if we focus, we could save about 15%~20% of our annual energy bill, and cut carbons by a similar amount.

Exercising our discretion

So what did we do? Well, as luck would have it, it just hasn’t been THAT hot this year so far, so we decided to delay turning on our ancient A/C in the main office. In fact, we only turned it on about three or four times before July started.

We found that we just didn’t need it as much as last year, partly as we had fewer employees than last year, and we turned the other a/cs only as we needed them. In other words, we monitored our superfluous requirements, and exercised discretion. It’s amazing how much energy you waste just out of ‘habit’!

Turning off switches at night

This was also an obvious one: turning off unnecessary appliances AT THE SWITCH. In some cases, we simply turned off the entire power bar, too. It was astonishing how much energy our always on water heater/cooler drinks machine actually used at peak power (that’s 910 watts!). Turning just that off at night saved quite a bit. We also turned off power bars on PCs to cut ambient power going through them.

Switching to more efficient machines

Last March we started transitioning to more energy efficient monitors. We went from having only 3 pcs with 3 CRT monitors that were on 7~8 hours a day, and generated QUITE a bit of heat, to no CRT monitors and four PCs / one notebook. Naturally, the LCDs and notebook are a lot more efficent, and generate considerably less heat. This in turn requires a lot less A/C cooling.

Now we’re about to replace our 8 year-old A/C with a more expensive but smaller machine that is brand new. And we’re considering replacing our older second-hand computers with new ones that are either energy efficient or notebooks.

Substitution appropriate equipment

In one or two cases, substitution works well. Our drinks machine provides hot and cold water, as well as regular temperature water. Since we never drink cold water, it’s not necessary to chill the water. We primarily use the hot water for tea-making, and occasional other use so it is excessive to have hot water on all day or even some of the day. Result: we’ll substitute our hot water machine for an electric kettle that is boiled only several times a day (at most), and turn off the water machine entirely.

Power Saving Bulbs

Installing power saving bulbs was something we had done for quite a few years, as they were just more appropriate than typical strip lighting. But we didn’t use them exclusively at first because we couldn’t find the right sizes in the stores. Now, though, there are all manner of power saving bulbs from 0.5 watts upto nearly 50 watts. So we switched to 100% power saving bulbs about a year ago. There’s little excuse these days NOT to use such bulbs.

With increased interest in global warming, we have all started to become acutely aware of our impact on the situation. To that end, I’m beginning to wonder how far we can cut our power bills. Given our success this year, we’re now going one step further…

The Complete Lighting Inventory

Doing a power inventory will take a while, and will produce some quite exhaustive lists once you get started. I did one for our office and classrooms, and was quite surprised just how many items we had that required power in some form or other. Through the power inventory we were able to detect some obvious places where we were wasting power: especially in our lighting arrangements.

So our plan is simple “LEARS” …

Lights: Eliminate, Add, Replace and Select

We installed 9 spot lights at 50 watts each in two rooms to increase the lighting in the room. And for 4 years we burned them as much. Only when I did a power inventory a few days ago, did I realize just HOW large a portion of the power bill these 9 bulbs represent… over 15% of our bill and we have nearly 135 separate light bulbs in our school. By replacing just those 9 bulbs with LED spots and upping the nearby main bulbs, we figure we could save a large part of our usage, maintain light quality, and cut ambient temperatures in the rooms involved.

Replacing strip lighting with newer power saving bulbs would also save an additional 25% or more because we would cut the number of bulbs in use by about 30%. We’d be able to space out the lights more appropriately and use variable wattages when necessary. In other words, we would make the choices about lighting instead of letting the traditional strip lighting tell us where it goes.

I decided to vary the wattages involved instead of using a standard wattage throughout: not significant until you remember how many bulbs we’re talking about.

  • So corridor areas will have 18 watt bulbs, with 25 watts in desk or corner areas.
  • Reading areas will be given higher wattages, too, to create visual foci on the areas that are important.
  • Classrooms will have the higher ratings (we haven’t decided yet) bulbs, like over 30 watts.
  • Spot lights will either be replaced entirely with LED spot lights or removed.
  • Kitchen and service areas will receive 11- or 13- watt bulbs as necessary because supplemental lighting is adequate. And these areas are not accessed by students, anyway.

Unlike many cheapskate schools and business in Taiwan where people sit huddled around 1 lamp or lights are simply turned off (I know I’ve seen a few where there’s only one strip light in the classroom or living room, and it’s almost impossible to read because the building is so poorly designed), we’re not about to go down that route. It’s just bad for business.

But such buildings are a reminder: architects should be doing a better job of providing natural lighting for businesses, homes and people. If architects and builders built environmentally friendlier buildings, society as a whole would pay less in unnecessary power bills and emit fewer carbons!

What are you doing to cut carbons in your home or business?