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Weekend Reading for February 3, 2012

Melissa Batai — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:51:32 +0000

You may not know the name Heather Peters, but perhaps you soon will. Peters sued Honda because her hybrid car did not get the 50 mgp it advertised it would get. Surprisingly, the judge awarded her $10,000, the estimated amount she paid in additional gas since buying her car in 2006. Honda is appealing, but they could be looking at future payouts for other Honda owners if Honda loses its appeal.

Here is what I am reading this weekend:

Facebook Is a Miracle of Capitalism: Business Insider Now that Facebook has gone public, many of those who work there will become millionaires, and perhaps try to start their own companies. The ripple down effect will be felt for quite some time.

Well, Now We Know What Facebook’s Worth – And It’s Not $100 Billion: Business Insider Here is how much the social media site that is now used by 1/7th of the world’s population is worth.

Experiment: Buying on a Dip: The Finance Buff How much can you gain by waiting to invest your money for two days? For this writer, $100 and 4 shares.

Peter Schiff Favors Ron Paul, Says Settle for Romney: Yahoo! Finance Schiff favors Romney because he can do less damage to the economy than Newt Gingrich.

Adam Corolla on Occupy Wall Street: The Rich and Poor Are More Similar than You Think: Yahoo! Finance On a lighter note, hope you enjoy Corolla’s take on how the rich and the poor are actually quite similar.

Remembering 9/11

Larry Ludwig — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:46:31 +0000

Like others it is a day I’ll never forget, yet would love to erase from my memory. Even though now it’s ten years later, I remember that day vividly like no other. I was fortunate, and did not lose any friends or family from the event. Unfortunately, many others in the tri-state area weren’t so lucky.

On September 11th, 2001 at around 2AM, I was at a stop light going south on the West Side Highway. I believe I was stopped at the Murray Street intersection. It was a late night coming home from seeing my favorite band Jamiroquai perform in concert, and was driving home with my date. While stopped, I remember having to stretch my neck up to look at the Twin Towers through my front windshield, and taking awe of them.

This wasn’t the first time I laid eyes on the mammouth buildings. Being born and raised in New York, I frequented NYC many times. When I eventually graduated from college, I went to go work in New York City. A few years prior to 9/11, I worked for a company located in the World Financial Center, which is directly west of the World Trade Center. For the next year, my daily commute consisted of walking through the World Trade Center.

Most of the time the plaza above was a desolate place. A concrete jungle, with an ugly bronze sphere in the center. During lunch breaks I would frequent that area, and it was only busy if they had a jazz concert near the Marriott hotel.

The real action took place below. Below was a city within a city, and where capitalism commenced. It was a decent sized mall with all the major shops, PATH trains and subway. Once getting on the Long Island Rail Road train, I could literally commute to work without ever stepping a foot outside.

Ironically being massively afraid of heights, one would think I wouldn’t like visiting the Twin Towers observatory or the Windows of the World restaurant, but I did on a number of occasions. I always felt very safe in that building, unlike visiting the Empire State Building’s observatory. Perhaps it was because of Yamasaki’s design of the window width between pillars that made the difference.

When outside on the plaza, I was always in awe of the towers. They weren’t attractive looking, they stuck out like a sore thumb downtown, their architecture design was cold and lifeless, and in fact thought they were ugly.

To me though, they always meant much more to me than the concrete, steel, glass, and aluminum. They meant success, capitalism, America’s wealth and ingenuity. That if you put your mind to something, you can achieve anything. Before they were built, there weren’t sure if it was possible to construct a building that tall. Not only one 110 story building, as if that wasn’t enough, but two! They were engineering marvels of their time. Unfortunately these were all the same reasons why they were attacked by terrorists. These cowards didn’t just destroy buildings, they tried to destroy everything they represented.

Fast forward back to me being at the stop light on that fateful day. I remember not having good vibe when stopped on the West Side Highway. Maybe it was just coincidence, or maybe I have some sort of sixth sense. I don’t know.

Little did I know in less than 7 hours, the workers above the crash sites would have their destiny changed. They went to work expecting their day to be like any other. Instead, they had to determine if they should: jump to their death, burn in flames, or die of smoke inhalation. After 8:46 AM their life, their families, and the United States would be changed forever. This is still something I have a tough time comprehending. Seven hours prior to the event, the buildings were still standing. Everything in the world was normal, and this is how I like remembering the Trade Center.

What can be learned from this evil act?

Good eventually prevails over evil. We had real heros emerge from that despicable day. The firefighters, police, Mayor Giuliani, and passengers on Flight 93 were real heros. Not some pontificating politician, sports star or actor much of our society idolizes. When put to the task, many individuals became real leaders in an instant. I’m sure there are many untold stories of these brave men and women, and they paid the ultimate sacrifice.

That capitalism, even with it’s flaws, is still the best “ism” known to man. Economic freedom is what made our country great, and will continue to do so in the future. Terrorism is the act of a coward, and a tyrant.

Regardless if we’ve been beaten down, like a phoenix, the American spirit will eventually rise again. The Freedom Tower, once completed, will be a monument to this event. We must never forget!

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Plutus Award Nomination

Larry Ludwig — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:16:19 +0000

I’ve been nominated, and I didn’t vote for myself. First off I would like to say congrats to all of others who were also nominated. For 2011 I’m one of the finalists for “Best Investing Blog“. I would like to thank my mom, my dad, my wife my children… wait a minute I didn’t win yet .

This is the second year of the Plutus Awards. The awards were created by Flexo of Consumerism Commentary fame to celebrate the hard work, many who are part-time, independent personal finance bloggers.

While I feel honored I’ve been nominated, I feel I can do better with my articles. I hope to improve on my writing skills, and articles in the next year. To step things up a notch if you will.

Like what you see on my blog? Vote for Investor Junkie.

I’ve put my vote in, have you? You have until September 21st to vote. The winners will be announced on October 1st 2011 at the Financial Blogger Conference. I unfortunately will not be attending the conference, but wish everyone the best of luck. Maybe next year I’ll have the opportunity to meet my fellow financial bloggers.

The Most Important Thing To Consider When Voting

I’ve Joined the Yakezie Challenge!

Larry Ludwig — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:50:47 +0000

I finally joined the Yakezie Challenge! For those who regularly follow my blog you are probably wondering what too me so long? For those do don’t know much about it the purpose of the “The Yakezie” is it’s dedicated to promoting high quality personal finance content on the Internet.