Filed under: Finance
You have to be more aggressive with Comcast. Here’s how you start the conversation about lowering the price: "Hi. I’m calling to cancel my service." It’s not like doing that with the gas company or something where they just shrug and say "OK, we’ll have it disconnected in a couple days and send you your final bill soon afterward." No. They turn you over to the Retention department. They act like a desperate, clingy lover that you’re trying to break up with. "Why do you want to leave us? [sob] I thought everything was going great. Is there anything I can do to get you to stay?" It’s hilarious. At that point it’s not time to say "it’s not you; it’s me." Instead, say "my rates have risen to a level where the service is not worth it to me. Also, FiOS is available where I live now, and they’re making some very attractive offers." They’ll definitely make you a new offer. Ask "is that the best you can do?" Finally, "OK, you’ve given me something to consider. Which number should I call back after talking to Verizon?"
Worst case scenario is they call your bluff and you go with fiber optic service, which you were considering doing anyway.
Filed under: Career, Development, Life, Management, Personal Development, Work
Good nuggets from a well written post
You’ll always find yourself in situations where you’re never “paid back” for what you give. But even in those cases, I find a surprising result – there’s usually a positive payback, but it’s really indirect.
I can associate very well to this, as in my current NGPA project, I am not well rewarded with respect to money. However, I go beyond my specified duties and make/made sure people using it had no blocking issues / concerns and that earned me a very nice name and trust in the organization.
So, if you can help someone out without disadvantaging yourself, do it. That means sharing ideas, making connections, and doing little tasks that don’t eat up tons of your time and energy. Don’t worry about the return – if you do it often enough and with enough quality and value, the return will take care of itself.
More than anything in return it makes you a better person. Relevant comment …
I believe, aside from the paybacks, that habitually helping other people helps you by making you a better person. When you help others you become more patient, generous and selfless. When you only look out for yourself you tend to become narcissistic. People who are completely focused on themselves tend to self-destruct, sooner or later.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Being a leader is not about abilities, its about responsibilities. Its not taking responsibility for success, but taking responsibility for failure.
Nice post:
To Generate Income In Early Retirement
As outlined in this previous post about One Way To Track Your Progress Towards Financial Independence, you can say you’ve reached financial independence when your “passive” investment income equals your monthly expenses (”crossover point”):
The above chart was taken from the Your Money or Your Life, which also says the best way to generate income is by purchasing 30-year Treasury Bonds. But there are a variety of other ways that retirees generate income for retirement. Each one has their own pros and cons.
High-Grade Bonds or Certificates
U.S. Treasury bonds are a very safe and reliable way to generate regular income, as it is guaranteed by the U.S. government and they are very liquid. A similar situation results you invest in bank CDs or other investment-grade corporate or municipal bonds. The primary drawbacks are lower returns, especially relative to inflation. The 30-year bond is currently yielding somewhere around 4.5%. The current real (above inflation) yield for a 20-year TIPS (inflation-indexed bond) is only about 2.20%.
This means that if you want both the highest safety and you wish to only live off the interest of your money without ever touching the principal, you can only withdraw about 2.2% each year. That’s only $183 per month for each $100,000.
60/40 Asset Allocation with 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate
Although there is still much ongoing debate, the “4% rule” is based on on research by William Bergen:
William Bengen, a U.S. researcher, has back-tested a 4% withdrawal rate with a balanced portfolio of U.S. stocks and government bonds earning overall market returns and found that you would have been able to safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio over any 30-year period since 1926. [source]
The general idea is that if you have a portfolio with an asset allocation of 60% stocks/40% bonds, you can withdraw 4% of the portfolio each year with only a small chance of running out of money somewhere down the line. A 4% withdrawal rate would be $333/month for each $100,000. However, your portfolio will experience wilder swings, and this rigid method is very sensitive to the returns in the first years of retirement. If you have a bad decade upfront, your chance of going broke rises quickly.
Income-Focused Mutual Funds
These are mutual funds who primary objective is not growth, but to create a stable income stream from a combination of stock dividends and bond interest. The secondary objective is some capital appreciation, which ideally will help the income stream to keep up with inflation.
A passive index fund example is the Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund (VTINX), which is currently yielding 4.05%. A popular actively-managed example is the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund (VWINX), which is currently yielding 4.71%. Both of these funds hold roughly 35% in stocks/65% in bonds. Wellesley has been around since 1929, and many retirees swear by the reliable income it produces.
Managed Payout Mutual Funds
A new breed of mutual funds actually adjusts to help you spend your money as fast as you like. You choose how fast you wish to withdraw your money (3%? 5%? 7%?), and the fund does it’s best to accommodate that without going broke. Vanguard has their Managed Payout Funds, and Fidelity has their Income Replacement Funds.
These funds help you create regular monthly payments like an annuity, but still include risk from the stock market. They are also very new and could be seen as unproven.
Individual Dividend Stocks
I know of several retirees who manage their own portfolios of individual stocks. These people accumulate shares in companies with a history of reliable stock dividends, like General Electric and Coca-Cola, and live off the dividends. An ETF of top dividend producers, DVY, currently yields 5.14%.
I would be wary though that the share value of these stocks can vary widely without the cushion of bonds. DVY has dropped by over 20% so far this year, which is indicative of many similar dividend stocks.
Income Annuity
With a simple version of an immediate annuity, you hand over a lump-sum upfront in return for fixed income payments for life. Of course, if you die early then you don’t get your lump sum back. However, you could live until 110. It’s almost like life insurance in reverse. A special risk here is that your insurance company must stay solvent the entire time, so you must check credit ratings.
I went to ImmediateAnnuities.com and looked into a Joint Annuity, where the income payments keep coming as long as one of us are alive. A rough quote for a 40-year old says that each $100,000 paid will get me about $450 a month. That is the same as saying I can earn 5.4% interest forever, but remember that I lose the principal. Of course, this value goes up with age. For a 60-year old couple, you can get 6.4% forever. At age 70, you can get 7.5% forever.
How much income will a million bucks get you?
Based on these numbers, with $1,000,000 one could get anywhere from $1,830 a month (very little risk, no principal loss) to $5,833 per month (fixed annuity at age 65, all principal is given up). I’d probably end up going with something in between, but it is food for thought.
I’d want to go back 50 years. I’d tell myself: “Think very very carefully about the choices you make. Write down what you want when you’re my current age. (Hint: You didn’t get it because of those choices.) And, remember that in the future, the “Shouldas, wouldas, and couldas” will really annoy the ever loving out of you. Looking back you’ll say SWC!”
Success for the current generation IMHO is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a white collar job in order to save big bucks; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.
Work exceptionally hard and step up from day one, despite being junior. In the first three to four months that you’re in a job, you can create positive or negative momentum. I got to Merrill already hungry to prove myself and exceeded expectations; from that point on I got staffed on the better assignments and was given the opportunity to move to London. Hank’s advice has always stayed with me. It’s key to starting any new job because you have a few months to make a first impression, and a finite window of time to create professional momentum and start building a brand for yourself. – Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
The advice that sticks out I got from John Doerr, who in 2001 said, "My advice to you is to have a coach." The coach he said I should have is Bill Campbell. I initially resented the advice, because after all, I was a CEO. I was pretty experienced. Why would I need a coach? Am I doing something wrong? My argument was, How could a coach advise me if I’m the best person in the world at this? But that’s not what a coach does. The coach doesn’t have to play the sport as well as you do. They have to watch you and get you to be your best. In the business context a coach is not a repetitious coach. A coach is somebody who looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you in [his] words, and discusses how to approach the problem. — Eric Schmidt
There was a brand-new second lieutenant who was very ambitious and wanted to be a general. So one night at the officer’s club the young officer spotted this old general sitting at the bar. So he went up and said, "How do I become a general?" And the old general answered, "Son, you’ve got to work like a dog. You’ve got to have moral and physical courage. There may be days you’re tired, but you must never show fatigue. You’ll be afraid, but you can never show fear. You must always be the leader." The young officer was so excited by this advice. "Thank you, sir," he said, "so is this how I become a general?" "No," said the general, "that’s how you become a first lieutenant, and then you keep doing it over and over and over." Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to do my best today, think about tomorrow, and maybe dream a bit about the future. But doing your best in the present has to be the rule. You won’t become a general unless you become a good first lieutenant. — Colin Powell
Lately I been worried (or should say, concerned) about my old age. Not necessary old, but the concern rages from mid-end 40’s to very old years (more fear on the very old age, after 60, and so the title). You can call it mid life crisis or whatever, but there are some concerns
1. Would I be able to keep my self fit and up date in my career around 45+
2. What would be like to keep working like this around that 45+ age, would I be having the needed energy.
3. Would I be able to provide the needed education to my kids, with the raising cost of education (not to mention the health care)
Along with this I happen to watch a debate session in TV, whose topic crossed lines with my old age fears
One that hit me was
When you get old, you won’t have people around to sit and talk/listen to you. Its the loneliness that kills a person more than anything else. It was pathetic to hear a person say he lost most in his life when his wife passed away. He quoted – When your mom pass away (in your young age), you loose the good food. When you loose your dad(in your young age), you loose your education. When you loose your wife, you loose everything.
I think that’s very true. The show also had a psychiatrist, who went over the current trend and advised that, people are so busy doing things that they need to accomplish for their family for their work etc and get so busy that they don’t take the time to think about them self. He advises we all need to take a back seat once in a while and think what we like most, what we are going to do around that age. How we plan to entertain our self and keep our self engaged during that old age. He was very specific (though not explicitly mentioned) in making sure it was through our self effort, not involving others (you cannot expect that there will be others to help you entertain or spend time, at that stage). So something like reading books, watching a game and knowing more details about the game. Be whatever it is, create a passion around that and try to get happiness out of it. All these will only happen, if we start thinking what we like most and have a plan for it (slow and steady), even while we are young. The logic of, I will have all these books read when I retire won’t work. You may not need to read the entire collections of books while young, but habit of reading books comes only if you were having that early in the lifestyle. So have a plan, take some personal time in your early stage of life, as a regular routine, to adopt to that plan and then you take it full time when you retire. In each of your moves adopt where you can be independent.
