uninteresting :: rich

just finished The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Rich. interesting findings about the characteristics of the ‘truly wealthy’ (as opposed to people who appear wealthy but really aren’t). basically, the truly wealthy are cheap bastards (like me!).

Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? How do they invest? How did they get rich? Can you ever become one of them? Get the answers in The Millionaire Next Door, the never-before-told story about wealth in America. You’ll be surprised by what you find out.

just started: You: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition.

Here’s an insider’s guide to the body that will make you healthier and younger.

Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, two powerhouse doctors in both the medical profession and in the media, have made a virtual cottage industry around the YOU series. They team up once again to bring us this updated edition of You: The Owner’s Manual - the audio you should listen to before you listen to any other audiobook. The doctors have included a new chapter on the liver and pancreas, which will finally demystify the most exotic part of our bodies; a new workout chapter; and a Q & A.

big fan of this podcast. i used to listen to this guy’s radio show about finance and money management a few years back, and now he’s got a podcast. he gives a clear, concise summary of what’s going on in the market, and why. sometimes it’s a quick 10 min recap of the day, other times he’ll go into detail for 30 mins. give it a shot if you wanna learn.

podcast: rob black and your money

i’m finding that i hardly ever read books anymore, so i signed up for a membership at audible.com. for $15/mo ($7.50 for the first 3 mos), you get a free audio book credit and 30% off all other purchases. and of course, it’s all integrated right into iTunes/iPod.

my first purchase was Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything“, and it’s great. in plain english and amusing anecdotes, he takes you through everything we know about everything, from the beginning of time. the focus is on science, and how and when we discovered things throughout history.

out of the 5 or so months we were in the market to buy, this was the only official offer we submitted. it was for a beautiful 2BR condo in the Mission. we offered 3% *over* asking, and didn’t get it…turns out there were 8 offers. who knows what it ended up selling for.

anyways, we used Redfin to make the offer. they’re an online real estate agent - you find & tour the properties yourself, and they will handle the paperwork for the offer. in return, they give you back 2% of the buyer’s commission and keep 1% for themselves. on a $600k home, that’s $12k!

the scam in real estate is that every home has about 6% commission built into the selling price; 3% for the selling agent, and 3% for buying. if it’s a straight up sale of a property we found ourselves, why should a buying agent get $18k of our money?

traditional real estate agents *hate* Redfin because it’s disrupting their industry. but the reason it’s able to disrupt things is because the opportunity exists to make things much efficient. same way travel agents got disrupted by travel websites.

on one property we really liked, the seller’s agent wanted to represent us as well (it’s called dual agency, and a very shady practice. illegal in many states, but for some reason not CA), which would have netted him the full 6%. when we mentioned using Redfin, he became rather agitated. he said exactly the thing Redfin said they’d say: “but the buyer doesn’t pay commission, it’s all free for you.” which is complete B.S. because at the end of the deal, the buy is the only one whipping out the checkbook.

working with Redfin was great. we saw the property on Sunday, found out they were taking offers the next day, and the Redfin agent worked with us all day Monday to put together our offer by 5pm (we literally made it at the last minute).

the upside to using them is, obviously, the money you get back. the downside is, if it’s a property you absolutely have to have, you’ll miss out on the person-to-person schmoozing that agents do with each other to make themselves feel important and get the inside information. Redfin does not deliver offers in person; in fact, you’ll never even meet your agent - everything is done by phone/email/fax. the analogy they use is that they are the “DIY” real estate agent.

i just took a survey from them, and liked this answer choice:

i’ve always been a fan of turbotax.com, filing online for about as long as it’s been possible. this year my tax situation was more complicated, so i decided to use H&R Block’s online return service where one of their tax pro’s does your return electronically…and they stand by their work. if they make an error, you’re covered up to a $5k mistake. and for $30 more they’ll even represent you in the event of an audit.

you sign up, they assign a tax pro, and you communicate via email - sending in pdfs of your tax documents. he does the work, sends the return for review, and that’s it! we spoke briefly on the phone maybe twice. he took care of all the work: federal return, 2 state returns, 3 employers, relocation expenses, investment property & rental income, capital gains, etc…and voila - i’m gettin a big fat return about twice what i was expecting!