Digging one out of the draft archives for your entertainment. I am busy busy so I have nothing new for you guys. So enjoy. The Moby DJ set was late last September. (OMG I was out of my head with the old songs too. Really some DJ’s can make you cry with their awesomeness.)

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Now, I know that most frugal types probably aren’t partying the night away at nightclubs much anymore. And I have definitely slowed down in the past 2 years. But when I go, I like to throw down. Since my last serious club experience was at Nation in DC, on one of its final nights, I hadn’t been to any of the new warehouse-sized clubs downtown, until Moby a few weeks ago. I have been avoiding them for a reason. I’m not a “see and be seen”-person. I like going to clubs for the music and to get groovy. While I care that I am stylishly dressed, I really don’t give a sh*t what other people think or if they are looking at me. A nightclub is the last place I want to meet someone while they are drunk or high or both.

The last few times I’ve gone out with friends, the company has been the draw more than anything. I’m used to warehouse clubs in shady parts of town with very rough interiors and cheap $7 covers. Ambiance is nice, but I can get that from a cool and foggy rooftop and stars with some grilled cheese action rather than a $100K light show for which I’ve just paid $20 bucks at the door.

So, on to my rant… (quite a prelude, eh?)
(more…)

Go read this article by Anya Kamenetz to understand the source of my ire.

I already know not to cash out my 401k. I but I had to do it anyway because of the stupid way the plan was set up not to transfer shares from one institution to another (which I would have done with my S&P and International funds, i.e. 75% of my account). Therefore I HAD to cash out if I wanted control of my own money. I was not going to open a rollover IRA with an institution that I hated with a crappy website and overall lousy service. (They only send you your full account number once so you never see it again if you lose that sheet of paper. Thus making Quicken set up impossible.)

I don’t know what she could have told a person like me. I was stuck with my money in a crappy institution or else cash it out and move it rather than leave it to languish in a 401k plan I disliked.

So what exactly was the point of her advice? All I got out of it was “do not blow your savings.”

When I was in my 20’s and stuck in Silicon Valley with no job, no money and no life, I cashed out my 401k and used it to move back to the east coast as an economic refugee of the dot-com bust. I have no regrets on that whatsoever. That money was my ticket to a new life in a new line of work. While I might have more money in my retirement accounts had I kept that $4k in the bank, I now make double or triple what I would be making back in San Francisco. If I hadn’t moved, I probably would have sank deep into credit card debt while working as a barista. That would have been a bigger hole to climb out of than trying to build my savings back up.

(Side note: SAVE YOUR MONEY. It could save your whole life.)

Generic advice like this article really annoys me. It’s good for folks who have no clue, but it lacks depth. It’s positively shallow and a message you can get from anywhere. I’m not slamming Ms. Kamenetz herself. I’ve read her other articles and find her advice useful, but I guess I’m out of her target demographic anyway.

You can’t write to a financial expert every time you need to sneeze or experience a hiccup, but I really wish they would review various realistic scenarios for people. In this age of infinitely customizable products, why is their product (advice) positively bland?

With the closing of my old 401k plan and the purchase of BRKB, I’ve had to rethink my entire portfolio allocation.

I was overexposed to international stuff before, like 50+% of the old 401k plan. The remaining money was in either an S&P500 index fund or a domestic large cap fund. Either way, all of it stank up the universe for the first half of 2008.

Now that my money is in BRKB, a US large cap company, I need to rethink where my money is going in my current 401k.

Currently, it’s about $4K since I started with my company in January. I’m not maxing out my contributions since I’m trying to pay down my credit card debt at the moment. That $4K is half in international funds, 10% company stock fund, 5% REIT, 5% dividend growth fund, and 5 and 10% slices to some international region specific funds, and some actively managed funds that I wouldn’t normally be able to buy since I don’t meet the minimum account balance. (But my 401k plan is large enough that they let us buy it anyway.)

Now that I’m completely out of an S&P index fund, and I don’t have an S&P500 specific fund, I’m now putting 40% of my ongoing contribution to a total stock market fund. I am also starting to put 5% of my post-tax salary into an employee stock purchasing plan which gets me a 5% discount. I don’t feel the need to stop buying into the stock fund as that is tax-sheltered. I will rethink that if my total company stock holdings are more than 10% of my entire investment portfolio, but that won’t be for a few years anyway.

Along with those two domestic stock investments, I am still putting 5% into a REIT and dividend fund, and small 5 and 10% slices to the same small places as before.

It’s not the most scientific way of doing things, but I’m ok with lots of risk.

The only cash I’m holding is in my rollover IRA for whatever was left over after buying the Berkshire shares and I’ll probably just sit on it till I find something else that’s good to buy.

One other thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve crossed the threshold mark of having over $25K in assets with one investment house. It doesn’t really gain me a whole lot since I don’t have enough to get a break on commissions, but if I was an active trader it would. (Which I’m really not. Like 5 trades a year.)

Hat tip to boyfriend, the DC resident. I have no other details about this other than the source of this information was his ANC rep via the ANC newsletter.

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Last week, I finally rolled over my old 401k account. The reason I closed it 7 months after leaving my job was that my last paycheck triggered account activity in two of my funds and I would have had to pay a penalty to move that money out within 60 days of the last transaction. CRUD. So I decided to wait the 60 days. One of my new co-workers told me that they could transfer the shares from one company to another, but he was wrong about that. Most plans don’t work that way. You can keep the shares if you roll over the balance and stay with the same company, but I hated the investment company that held this account and wanted to move the money somewhere else.

If you know you are leaving a company and you have to wait 60 days from your last transaction to move our money out of a fund, stop contributing to that fund 2-3 months before you leave your job. Then you can rollover immediately upon quitting.

As for me, I decided to wait till the balance rebounded, which never happened. (Can you say high of $28K, low of $21K?) Finally, I said forget it. I know where I can get a better return without the stress of staring at a depressed balance.

So I liquidated it by telephone with CSR’s from my current IRA company and the old 401k one. I have no idea why they need to do a paper check overnighted, but the money landed in my account on Tuesday night and was available for trading on Wednesday at market open.

When will these companies reach the 21st century and do an EFT for account rollovers?

That’s just nuts. You can online trade but not move money over a wire? Stupid. Oh and then I was charged a $10 fee for the overnight service, which wasn’t truly overnight, i.e. access in 24 hours.

I turned around and bought 5 shares of BRKB. I finally fulfilled my dream of owning Berkshire Hathaway and getting a coveted copy of Warren Buffett’s annual pearls of wisdom. I’m not the savviest investor, not by a long shot. But I feel like I can keep my head down and go with Berk B for a long time. It was a good time to buy it since it’s down about 20% for the year and backed off the 52 week high.

Now there’s just a little money left over and I’ll be shopping for some depressed stocks to buy and hold. Anyone out there got some good dividend stocks they like?

I’m starting to think I’m turning into a bit of a skinflint. I don’t mind spending money on food. (Our spendy dinner last Friday night at the Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray in Alexandria is a good example.)

Two perfect examples from this weekend were the purchase of a bathmat and some ironing supplies.

I was cruising Target for a bathmat and found a super soft Fieldcrest mat for $18. I looked around at other mats, but they were neither deep dark blue enough or soft like the luxury Fieldcrest mat. For a $6-8 premium, I really thought I’d be happy with the expensive mat. However, when I checked my receipt and saw it was actually a $26 mat, I began having second thoughts.

I took the mat home, but now I’m deciding if I want to return it. The mat was now about $14-$16 more than the other mats in the store. *grumble* I’m not sure I want this mat anymore now that it’s so expensive.

The second frustrating thing is the cost of an ironing board. It sounds dumb, but I feel like I should be able to find a full-size board for $20. I don’t mind buying used, but I haven’t seen a used one yet. Since I live in a studio, I looked at some over the door models, but I didn’t think they were worth the premium or large enough for large bolts of fabric.

Also, Target had a $7 iron, but it was too cheap. I know there is a discount store in DC called AJ Wright where I’ve seen nicer irons for the same price. They might not have them in stock when I go look, but I think it’s worth waiting to see if they have them.

So how cheap am I that I’m bristling at the price of things? Or is it that I don’t actually need these things and so I really want them to be as cheap as possible?

ps- I am irate with Target for NOT having unit pricing on its tags like a regular supermarket does.

A friend of mine was killed on Sunday morning on his way to work. He was run off the road on his motorcycle. He got airlifted to the hospital and went into surgery. Afterwards a clot formed and caused a stroke. He is an organ donor and he will continue on helping other people survive, just like he did, overcoming addictions in his younger years.

I will always remember my friend for driving down from Delaware just to help me move furniture I bought off Craigslist into a room I was renting in Georgetown. I will always remember him for being a huge Eagles fan and having a tattoo of his seats in Veterans’ Stadium.

At any rate, please, while you are driving, keep an eye out for motorcyclists.

This is the main reason I haven’t yet gotten my motorcycle license. I’m scared to death of people driving who do not see me. In the past week, a friend of mine was at a red light and tapped by a driver who was on a cellphone who did not stop. She was slowing down and misjudged the distance. While this particular friend did not sustain injury, he was so startled, he dropped his new bike. (A used Suzuki)

If anything, I am resolved now to sell my motorcycle before the season ends in October. Someone else can take all the risk.

This weekend, at the fish market, I made an observation to my boyfriend. I only bargain in Korean. I usually do not try to bargain in English. I feel like overtures for bargaining or asking for a discount are more well-received in Korean. The only other group I try to bargain with are other immigrants. Is it because I think that they come from a culture that also bargains?

I always get a discount now at the Korean dry cleaning store near my house and I tell boyfriend that next time we go to fish market in DC, I want to check the stall with Koreans first. Even though there were places that might have better fish, I’d like to get a good deal too.

So what about you? When do you bargain? Do you use another language? Do only do it in marketplaces or inside formal stores too?

I pulled out a huge allowance on Saturday morning. More than usual, but I have a few social events coming up. First, I got two rolls of quarters for laundry and dropped off my dry cleaning and got a 20% discount. Then I drove to two different shops to get one of my out of commission sewing machines back into shape. (Not that many places fix them anymore.)

I got gas for 13 cents cheaper per gallon while I was on my errands. I bought lunch for boyfriend and me on Saturday, along with a bottle of wine. ($33. Boyfriend bought a spendy dinner the night before.) After lunch, I hit Target and stocked up on laundry detergent since it was 10 cents an ounce. (But WHY doesn’t Target post unit pricing?! I had to whip out my calculator on my cellphone.) I also bought a few new bathroom items to match the new decor, including a bathmat, squeegee and toilet brush. I put this stuff on my Target card (and I’ve scheduled the outgoing payment already).

I found about $20 dollars in cash in my pockets while I was doing laundry on Saturday afternoon.

We skipped out on a house party on Saturday night, saving ourselves time in the car and gas money. (Plus we heard the next day that the plumbing backed up and people were going outside. Glad we didn’t go!)

Sunday we hit the market. First was lunch for about $25 (split between me and boyfriend). We got a crabcake sandwich and a fresh haddock sandwich with sides and drinks at Eastern Market from the lunch counter. The haddock was expensive, but I have wanted to try it for a while. It’s a $10 sandwich, but it’s an entire deep fried filet. It was moist and juicy inside, and crispy tasty outside with lots of hot sauce in unmarked bottles. I’m glad I got it, but I’m not sure I’ll get it again since it was so expensive. I also bought a little loose sausage meat for 75 cents for a lentil stew later this week, and a brownie ($1.50). Outside, we purchased some corn ($2) and fruit ($4) and headed over to the DC Waterfront for shrimp and clams ($20 total).

I started out Sunday with about $65 and I came back with $23 and some change. Not too bad for the day.

All in all, a good weekend. I finished a knitted baby blanket, washed some clothes, gathered some stuff for eBay and cleaned my apartment a bit from the mess of construction. I have $100 left for the week.

Tom Konrad at AltEnergyStocks.com emailed me to let me know of a new post he has on a Wind ETF called FAN. Personally I have some issues with wind power. The turbines are louder than you think and can shred a bird pretty bad. On the other hand though, wind power farms aren’t usually in densely populated areas. If you are interested in energy investing, an ETF is a good way to go because it spreads your risk in a basket of stocks, similar to a mutual fund, but not quite the same thing. There just aren’t that many alternative/clean energy investments out there unless you go with some smaller riskier companies or large conglomerates that only make a small fraction of revenue from this sector as Tom points out.

I especially liked the post because there is a model portfolio at the bottom with a sample of dollar allocations. Sure I don’t have that kind of money to invest, but it’s interesting that he’s put CREE in there as a power company. I’ve been watching CREE for years because they were the first to make a blue LED. I just never bought it because I never had the money at the right time. To me, it’s a stock to buy only when it’s priced right. I’m glad that he thinks it’s a winner too.

The LA Times recently ran an article on other low-carbon emissions power efforts. There’s geothermal & solar/mirror/steam power. Some of these companies are worth noting because they have super star backers like the founders of Google. A lot of the mainstream energy companies are dipping their toes into these technologies so keep an eye out for some of these technologies to emerge over the next decade.

FWIW, a friend of mine told me that rail transport uses less fuel than trucking for freight transport. Apparently Warren Buffett has put more money in rail stocks as well. Some food for thought.

For disclosure, I’m still holding AMAT in a long position. It’s considered an alternative energy stock since they make capital equipment for making solar cells. And man, I’m glad that oil fell $4 a bbl yesterday!