Here’s some good news. You can, in fact, retire early by saving and investing wisely.

Case in point: The Furbeck Family. A father (Frank) working as a Systems analyst. His fiance (Trudi) working as an office coordinator. $119,000 combined yearly salary. 2 sons. $1,470 monthly expense + $1,200 real estate property tax.

How do they do it?

Frank places $15,500 a year into a savings plan, while Trudi places around $18K. Aside from their savings plan, they also place some of their money in the money market, in a retirement account, and in mutual funds. They also save for their two sons, who now have around 529 plans.

The key is living comfortably, but not extravagantly. They do carpool to save on gas, use coupons, and raise cattle for additional income. Aside from that, Frank saves a percentage of the sons’ allowances.

As a result, they have managed not to carry any debt and can comfortably retire when they reach their 50’s, after they have earned eligibility to get their pension. Their sons’ education will be well provided for as well.

According to a Certified Financial Planner Ric Martin, “Frank and Trudi are well on their way to millionaire status… Frank can retire at age 53 ½ and Trudi can retire at 53. Both of them will have accumulated $1,910,378 of investment assets by Frank’s age goal of 60.”

To view the complete article, go to:
http://millionaires.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/10/29/43/

Posted: November 3rd, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Have you watched the latest advertisement Coca Cola ad on TV? It’s Grand Theft Auto: Happy Coca Cola city. Just when you think that the advertising industry was getting boring, they give you this.

Grand Theft Auto players will especially love this:

Posted: November 1st, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Do you dread long flights as much as the other person? Singapore Airlines just recently launched their superjumbo A380 which boasts of more space for their passengers. There are 12 Singapore Airlines Suites, 60 business class seats and 399 economy class seats. The suites are enclosed by sliding doors, and have leather seats and a 58cm flat screen, and a foldable bed.

Business class seats have wide beds,  wide aisle space, and mood lighting.

Economy seats have more leg room, USB port and plug for charging, and separate screens for video on demand (not so new, since KLM has that for some of their aircraft already, as far as I know).

Some of the seats of the first flight for this momentous launch were sold for as much as $100,000+.

Posted: October 26th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

My first post for the blog! The title brings me back to fond memories of College life as a Computer Science major student, where my teachers had us create our very first program - which basically just printed out Hello World. As a total newbie to the whole field, I was already quite amazed. Later on, however, I went from amazed to stressed out, when I realized just how complex programming could be, that I had contemplated to even change my major. When I decided to stick it out, I vowed never to program again or work as a programmer.

Here I am now, years after graduation and programming. Funny thing is, I’m happy about it and I thank myself for being too lazy to sign those forms for shifting majors. I’ve gone from amazed to stressed to amazed again.

This blog will be a large pot of alphabet soup of words about programming, arts, and the media, which I hope will amuse you somehow

Posted: July 20th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none