Mostly Denzell

Advantages of Stock Investing over creating new business

2009-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by defining what I mean by stock investing. When I say stock investing, I don't mean buying and selling a company base on the price movement alone. I don't mean technical analysis or insider trading or investing base on the potential outlook of a certain stock. When I say stock investing, i simply mean value investing or buying bargains as started in the last century by guys like Ben Graham, John Templeton, Phil Carrett, Phil Fisher and made famous by Warren Buffett.

Now that it's clear, lets get on to the reason why I think stock investing has certain advantages for a human in this time or generation than creating new businesses.

1.) There are more stocks that you can pick than starting a business. For every business that you can think of, there's no exaggeration to say that you can probably find 1000 times as many public listed companies to select from.

2.) The one business that you come up with has no track record and only projections whereas the historical business performance of the 1000 publicly listed companies are present on top of performance projections. Think of buying a concept car vs buying from 1000 existing car models with performance review.

3.) There's a lot of things that you have to do and spend in starting a business - build the management, vendor and customer network. You may not have enough time and capital resources on your own to build on those and there's a lot of things you can do wrong when you are handling all of them yourself. According to WEB, when investing in stocks, there are only two things you can do wrong: 1.) Pick the wrong stock (company) 2.) Buy it at the wrong price.

4.) When starting your own business, you generally need to invest 100% of the capital required to kick off the business. In stock investing, there are few but occasional opportunities (approx every 5 years) for you to invest less than 100% of the capital required to run such wonderful business.

The idea of pride in one's culture and history

2008-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, I reluctantly went with my dad to attend a wedding function of his friend's daughter in Makati Shang but thankfully, I had a good time with him! We chit chatted about his friends =)

My dad and I hitched a ride with his Chinese Mafia friends. They are a bunch of old men, mostly 10-20 years older than my dad who are hardcore Binondo like Chinese. Practically all of them were self employed most of their life, speak in a more natural Chinese accent than Greenhills Chinese, married to pure Chinese women, require their children to marry Chinese and to be self employed if you're a son, and best of all they always meet up for breakfast during weekdays in McDonald's.

I'm particularly drawn to one of my dad's old friend, they call him Professor. Unfortunately, I never got his name and he doesn't know my name as well. Mr. Professor is a retired physics professor in UP, a subject that I like a lot next to Math (my favorite), and a school that I think is the best in the country by far. I was drawn to him because I believe we have a lot of similarities in terms of how we think and frankly I admire and like his profession. I wouldn't mind being a physics teacher for 30 years but I would probably prefer to be math teacher. After figuring out that I am an economics major in the small school beside his school, he talked to me about the financial crisis in the States. He asked me about the sequence of events in a recession, Greenspan's tenure, the budget deficit and etc. He also gave his opinion on how he thought CEOs in corporate America are being excessively paid, how lending practices were too loose and needs to be regulated, how unfortunate Bush spent his country's money too much on war and etc. Ofcourse, most of these opinions were not of his own but that of others which he agrees with. I was impressed on how updated he is with the economic events.

I think I made a striking impact on him when I brought up Sun Tzu's little wisdom on war - that one should only go to war when there is a monetary gain (profit) because going into war costs and depletes a lot of resources (money) to a nation's coffers. His face lit up as if I had said something ingenious and striking. But he was mainly impressed because he felt proud of his culture as evidenced by how he later spent a lot of time talking about how the Chinese knew so much wisdom from thousands of years ago. He encouraged me to learn more about Chinese history as there's a lot to be learned from there. When I told him I read the english translation of 3 Kingdoms, he told me that it's different and that I should read the Chinese version (which I would've if I could) which is way better.

I was reading Obama's first book when I came upon what was said to him by a black man that American schools are for white people. They only teach them about white culture, white history or THEIR history etc. As a result, black children should not be expected to be enthusiastic in going to school and doing well. The American schools should teach them about black history and culture and that will make the black children do well in school. He told Obama how bias and manipulative the white schools are. Personally, I think this is his own interpretation or his "own truth" and a disfigured and debilitating perspective on reality.

My soon to be wife, like the rest of the Filipinos and 3rd generation Filipino Chinese, enjoy the idea of going to Europe and taking a look at its very rich history. They get so excited talking about going to the Louvre and seeing all these wonderful White arts and culture or going to visit the Buckingham Palace just to admire its beauty. I try to burst their bubble sometimes by telling them that Britain's bankrupt, Forbidden City is much bigger, the royalties act like clowns and are just an entertainment expense for bankrupt Britain to attract tourist and etc. I always felt that they should appreciate their own culture and history (no matter how big or small) more than they should of others which has no relevance to them nor cares about them. I was thinking like the black man and the professor.

Later on, as I thought about what the black man said and how backward it was, hindering his own people from progress, I realize I was being as racist and as blind and as backward as the black man was. Being proud of my Chinese culture and history and boasting about it to other people is like subtly sizing them up and dividing ourselves from each other. It's like saying: "I have this nice toy and it's mine. You don't have it and it's not yours, it's mine!" Nothing can be further from the truth and backward than the thought of: "This is my history and culture, not yours and you have no claim to mine. That is your history and culture, not mine and I don't care about it."

This may be absurd, but why shouldn't the white and black man have as much claim and pride as I do with the Emperor Kang Hsi? Because they are not yellow, but white and black? Because they were not decendants of Kang Hsi as evidenced by their skin and where they were born?

But isn't it also very likely that there could be some black or white folks who were direct descendants of Kang Hsi and that there are some yellow comrades who weren't? Wouldn't they genetically be more related to Kang Hsi than their certain yellow counterparts?

"We are all one people, not I, you, we or they but US" as the saying goes. The sooner we share and realize that, the faster we should progress. The world economy and technology has progressed more rapidly in the last hundred years than it ever did in mankind's history. It's hard to dispute that global trading, sharing of goods, services, knowledge and technology among nations did not have an impact to the fastest growth that we have experienced in our history. Today's Harley Davidson motorcycle (made from all around the world) is better than the Harley Davidson motorcycle (made in USA only) of 50 years ago in terms of quality, technology and price. Now if we share our racial culture, history and wisdom with one another, take out the colored lines that divide us from one another and consider it as ours, wouldn't our own individual humanity be richer?

Now there's a saying by Rudyard Kipling (our kind of people):

Now this is the Law of the Jungle - as old and as true as the sky;
And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back
FOR THE STRENGTH OF THE PACK IS THE WOLF, AND THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF IS THE PACK.

I think this law not only applies to wolves.

Things I learned from a few Americans

2008-11-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

Obama

1.) Audacity of hope - Not blind or ignorant optimism, but hope rather than cynnicism in the face of difficulties, darkness and difficult times. It takes strength to do this.

2.) Everybody, your friends and your team, have faults and will continue making new mistakes. Don't dwell and waste your limited time and effort on the negatives or irritability of others. It can hinder you from progressing with your work or task at hand.

3.) Abraham Lincoln's quote - "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Don't let differences in opinion, ideas and conflict divide you and your family especially when you have the same goals and vision. Don't blame each other. Work on your own faults and weaknesses instead. I know this could sound simple but it takes real effort, development and strength of character to do this.

4.) The most dangerous threat or enemy in a country, team or family is not found outside but rather inside of the country, team or family. This dangerous threat or enemy will try to divide us amongst ourselves. When united, we stand a chance to face our enemies. When divided, our enemies need not face us at all. Remember the stories in 3 kingdoms or just imagine going against a basketball team that's fighting against each other.

5.) True greatness of America is not in its tall sky scrapers, military power or the size of its economy but the pride is based on a very simple premise summed up in a declaration made over 200 years ago: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Come to think of it, this mentality came first before the sky scrapers, military power and big economy.

John Templeton

1.) Stay ahead by working hard.

2.) Hard work is a gift from God. An ABILITY given to us.

3.) Use your time wisely by keeping yourself preoccupied with the few important things only.

4.) We all have limitations including our time, our effort and our mind. We can only do one thing at a time most of the time.

5.) Like weeds, distraction and excess comes to us continuously. We must always discard them. Keep it simple.

6.) When you rule your mind, you rule your world.

7.) You cannot have peace of mind without strength of mind.

8.) Happiness comes not from having a certain set of circumstances but from having a certain set of attitude. I guess that explains how a poor handicapped man can be happier than a rich athlete.

Ben Franklin

-Read Poor Richard's Almanack!

Some favorite quotes:

1.) If you'd be wealthy, think of saving more than getting (a distraction): The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes equal her incomes. (This is harder than it sounds)

2.) You can die quicker by being too lazy than working too hard.

3.) Necessity never made a good bargain. Don't be in that position.

4.) Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.

5.) Wink at small faults - remember thou hast great ones.

6.) Little Strokes, fell great Oaks.

7.) An empty sack cannot stand upright.

8.) Work on getting rid of one habit a year. After 10 years, you'll be a very changed man.

9.) Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

10.) He that lives well is learned enough.

11.) He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one and lets the other go. One thing at a time.

12.) Path to wealth - Industry, Savings and Discernment.

Secondary Companies Part 1

2008-05-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

A young man, Shai Dardashti, asked Buffett the question that if he were running a smaller amount of money ($10 million), would it be better to invest them in good companies at fair prices or fair companies at cheap prices. Buffett answered that for smaller sums, purchasing fair companies at cheap prices would be better.

What exactly are these fair companies? According to Graham, these companies could be secondary stocks. Stocks that are not well known, may not demonstrate a wonderful history as blue chip stocks in terms of profitability and generally out of favor because of some disappointing performance and outlook in their business. When I met Edwin Schloss, he gave me 4 tips on what i should buy and two of those companies are having disappointing performance and facing uncertainties in their future. A broker/analyst that he referred me to told me to take a look at an insurance company that is recently facing massive losses at one of their insurance products.

I must admit that when first faced with these companies, there was a bit of shock and fear in putting money in some of them. I believe that the general market would have the same impressions as I did when looking at these companies. To add to that, the falling of their stock prices would further the fear of people from these companies in general.

When I started investing, I could easily find so many companies that were selling way high from their appraised value than I could find companies that were statistically cheap. I guess this must be because I was always looking at companies that had been performing really really well in the last couple of years. I wasn't looking at companies that are out of favor. I guess you can say my first exposure to companies that are out of favor and with uncertain future came from my experience with Edwin Schloss. I must admit that if this came from somebody else, I might have immediately dismissed it without further thought, but this came from Edwin Schloss who along with his father has one of the world's best 50 year track record.

Does Edwin Schloss really put his money into companies as uncertain as the ones he recommended to me? I believe so. I've read a book that says that when the Schloss' father and son team started, they revealed some of their holdings and in turn lost some of their clients who got scared. I also read a recent article online that has Walter Schloss looking at a company that manufactures OEM wheels for big car manufacturers. That company has been performing pretty bad recently and they have been buying it when the price went down. Also, this approach to buying out of favor companies or secondary companies is consistent with their mentor Benjamin Graham's teaching and is also consistent with the world's best value investor's, Warren Buffett, approach when he started with smaller sums of money.

At this year's Berkshire annual meeting, Buffett was again asked what would he invest on if he only had a few million USD. Buffett said he would look at smaller companies and distressed bonds. Now I've been looking at smaller companies recently (over 700) and I can't name you companies that have a great outlook. Smaller companies in general are secondary companies. I also read a book where a man named Heilbrunn went to Benjamin Graham to have him become his financial adviser for his portfolio. When Benjamin Graham first looked at his portfolio, he told him to immediately sell all of them. Heilbrunn was shocked and told him if he's sure because the portfolio was invested in great companies. Graham replied saying that yes he is sure because the portfolio will never perform better than those great companies will. After selling them all, Graham immediately invested the funds in DISTRESSED BONDS! Ever since then, Heilbrunn's portfolio record has progressed really really well until he died. I believe he donated a building to Columbia University.

It's very easy to find secondary and out of favor companies that have a certain level of uncertainties in them. What you must screen for are companies that are low risk and uncertain when looking at out of favor companies. Many uncertain companies have high risk levels in them. We cannot underestimate the market's ability to appraise companies given that they can be irrational and not always correct.

Benjamin Franklin

2008-03-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

I was reading Benjamin Franklin last month while I was in HK. I started getting interested with Benjamin Franklin after reading a book on a guy named Charlie Munger.

Benjamin Franklin's life was a series of progression from start to finish. He was a student, then he worked long hours for other people while writing at the same time. He became a business owner and a rich individual. After earning his financial freedom, he went on to become an inventor and politician, to which he was able to steer and mold the American culture for generations to come.

As an inspiration, I plan to adopt some of the tools he used to better himself. I plan on defining the habits I wish to have, prioritize them and work on them one at a time only. Realistically, I don't expect to ace them but I hope that in time, it will prove better that I did them and attempted to follow a structure than if I had not. I'll be evaluating myself from time to time and see how it's been.

I realize that I've let a lot of distractions in my life. tsk tsk.

26th birthday

2007-10-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

I started off the night of my birthday by receiving two presents which were unexpected and beyond expectation.

The unexpected present came in the form of an ixus 75!!! I got my first camera when I was a dumb little 9 year old duped into buying someone else's canon slr. My mother paid for it back then. After years of tinkering around with it, I never became a great photographer because it just cost too much time, films and money (aside from the fact that I don't have a good eye). I did however learn some facts about photography and a little bit of the technical aspects of a camera. I still have that same camera up to this day but it's quite useless now since repairing it costs more than buying a 2nd hand model. This new ixus would probably stick with me for a loooong time. Despite all the complexities and flexibilities you can get with an slr, a point and shoot camera will produce better pictures in my hands than a sophisticated one. Not to mention the obvious fact that it's so much easier to carry around.

The beyond expectation gift came in the form of a scrap book compiled by no one else but thy beloved. Inside were pictures of friends and their greetings for my birthday. Beloved also wrote in the scrap book as well. But there was something in the book that ruined it, pictures of my face. This is the first time I ever received a gift like this and it really means a lot to me and it will continue to do so in the future. I'm very thankful for all those who sent their messages but the greatest thanks goes to wang ming mei. Without her, none of this would've been possible.

After receiving my gifts, I got treated to a wonderful dinner at l'opera. Among all the Western dish, Italian is my favorite. I only started liking Italian food when I got older and credit goes to my Kath. Because of Kath, I learned how to cook noodles without sauce. I still have to learn how to make my own sauce. However, I started learning more about the ingredients in a tomato sauce. It's also because of her that I was able to sample the ingredients of a dish individually before mixing and cooking them together. I was able to slowly (vvveerrryy sloooowwwly) learn where the flavors come from. There's no better way I can learn about food than from Kath's way. With her by my side, I'm sure the time will come when I can EASILY cook my own favorite food and hopefully hers as well.

In L'opera, Kath had a spaghetti that was deliciously spicy and I had an awesome foie gras that was sandwiched by a medium cooked steak! We also had onion soup and carpaccio for appetizer as well as bread with a dip made of olive oil mixed with tomato and basil leaves. The dip was so simple, yummy and healthy. What a combination!

We ended the night by watching Knocked Up in GB3. The movie was very good. It was better than what we thought it'd be. It wasn't as shallow and it was funnier than we expected.

Overall, this was a very wonderful night and a wonderful celebration. Thank you Kath for tonight. You made a big impact on me.

Tio Pepe

2007-07-30T05:38:00.001-07:00

According to my friend, people are criticizing the unfair advantage of Tio Pepe over its competitors in the karinderia industry in Philippines. My friend believes that it's wrong to put small businesses out of business.

As a business owner, would you replace a manager who runs your pin factory with 10 people producing 200 pins a day against a manager who can run your existing factory with no additional inputs yet produce 10,000 pins per day? Is it more beneficial for all the participants as a whole affected with this factory such as customers, suppliers, workers, competitors and etc. to have a factory producing 10,000 pins or 200 pins per day assuming ceteris paribus?

From a qualitative perspective, would you replace a manager with another one who can produce better quality pins to run your factory with no additional inputs in your factory? Again, which one is more beneficial for all the participants involved assuming ceteris paribus?

For a nation or society, is it beneficial for the nation as a whole to have superior players in an industry replace the sub par players? Will a nation progress at a faster rate and have higher standards with superior players running their industries or sub par players running their industries?

I don't know about you but I'm obviously for Tio Pepe and Adam Smith.

To my agnostic friend's question on God's goodness

2007-07-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Although there aren't really answers that we can universally accept when it comes to God's goodness, here's one that I have found to be helpful to me.

Agnostic: God has been good to me but that doesn't mean he is good. There's no way for me to objectively say that he's good just because of my personal experience.

Me: It's true that just because your dad gives you candy all the time means that he is a good person. My belief that God is good is because he gives you freedom. Freedom not in the sense that you can do anything you want but in the sense that you are free to accept or reject Him, to acknowledge or to ignore Him, to love or to hurt Him :)

The agnostic being mentioned believes there is a God if i'm not mistaken. he just cannot really define him and prefers not to ascribe Him to any particular religion that we know of for he feels it's too limiting of a perspective.

Question on B Shares of Berkshire

2007-07-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

To my Wei Yi,

B shares is equivalent to 1/30th of A shares :) If you cannot afford the A share and can only buy half of it, you buy 15 B shares :) As of this moment, 1 B share is equivalent to around $3600, 1/30th the amount of A share :)

So with 1 B share, you also get the same assets and same proportion as you do with the A share except it's smaller :)

On Berkshire again

2007-07-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

I don't quite understand how it's better to buy 1 A share rather than 30 B shares. For me, I would prefer to buy B shares because it gives you more flexibility. For example, since Berkshire probably won't be paying any dividends in the future, when it gains 15% in a year and you want to encash half of the gains, you can do so by unloading a few shares. You won't be able to do that with A shares because you'll probably be only having less than 10 shares. With B shares, at least you can have more than 30. I think the only reason to buy A shares is if you want to have voting rights. 1 A share is equivalent to around 200 B shares in terms of voting rights. That's the only advantage that I see with the A share. In terms of price fluctuations, I don't think B share will be more volatile than A because it's value is pegged at 1/30th of A shares.

I'd still go with Berkshire over any other mutual funds for reasons that I mentioned earlier, especially the leverage part which enables Berkshire to grow at a faster speed. In addition to that, you won't have to worry about investing in different kinds of mutual funds (such as bond funds, equity funds, international funds, currency funds and etc.) when you invest in berkshire because Berkshire do all those asset class diversification for you as determined by Warren Buffett. It's like a one stop shop.

If you buy 1 A share, currently valued around $110,000, you get around $155,000 worth of assets working for you which is composed of the following:

1.) $71,000 worth of private businesses majority owned and controlled by Berkshire. There are around 73 companies here such as Dairy Queen, Geico, Flight Safety International, See's Candies and etc.

2.) $38,800 worth of public equities, such as coca cola, walmart, johnson & johnson, petrochina, procter and gamble, US Bank, Wells Fargo and etc.

3.) $45,290 worth of cash & bonds mostly denominated in USD but also contain mix of international currencies.

I think it's difficult if not impossible to find a mutual fund where if you put $11, you get $15 worth of high quality assets with virtually no interest attached working for you. Because of this, it seems that Berkshire is cheaper than mutual funds.

10 years from now, Berkshire seems likely to perform better than mutual funds even without Warren Buffett.

A Recommendation

2007-07-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

My aunt was asking me whether she should put her money in mutual funds investing internationally or Berkshire. My answer was Berkshire. I'm posting it here so that I can look back in the future some of the factors that I had in mind for Berkshire. Here's a reprint of the email...

Aunt _______,

Well if you're too lazy to read, make ________ read it. I'm sure you can force it on him :)
Ofcourse, if i recommend something to you, i can be wrong. So it's your own risk :)

I strongly recommend berkshire hathaway B shares over any mutual funds whether American or international because of the ff factors:

1.) Cheapest expense ratio for mutual funds amount to .25% but with Berkshire, the expense ratio is equivalent to less than .0015%. There's virtually no expense.

2.) Berkshire has a better portfolio of companies both public and private companies than any mutual funds plus they have access (or network) to more investment opportunities than mutual funds. Mutual funds can only invest in public companies locally and internationally, berkshire can invest in both public and private, local and international.

3.) The biggest advantage in my opinion that berkshire has over any other mutual funds is that berkshire has leverage. For every dollar that you put, berkshire gives you about two dollars to invest for you. They "borrow" and use other people's money that they acquire from their insurance premiums to invest. There are many hedge funds that are loaded with debt but with berkshire, the "debt" from insurance premium that they have is "interest" free. It is interest free because the premiums they receive is always greater than the claims of the insurer. If you're a little concerned about Berkshire's credit quality, maybe you can take comfort in the fact that it is one of the 10 companies in the USA to have a AAA credit rating.

4.) Would you rather have a professional mutual fund manager invest for you or would you rather have Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (who i think is the smarter of the two) invest for you?

5.) Berkshire has lots of tax advantage over the typical mutual fund. The deferred tax along with the insurance premium is another source of Berkshire's leverage. Because of the huge amount of interest free leverage that Berkshire has from their insurance premiums and tax liability, Berkshire has very low debt from banks.

6.) Berkshire is selling at a discount to its fair value at present.
I do believe that index funds or mutual funds with very low expenses and long term focus are good investments. However, I think that realistically, they have a hard time beating berkshire not because of Warren Buffett alone, but because berkshire is equipped with lots of advantages such as the leverage, portfolio and access to more investment opportunities.

A more simple analogy i can give is that mutual fund managers are driving a car to get somewhere whereas Warren Buffett flies an airplane. He is better equipped than mutual fund managers.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Did anything i wrote here made any sense?

Uncredited Success

2007-06-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Although it's too early to say, there are some accomplishments or hurdles that i don't have to tackle anymore because they've been put behind me. These ones that I'm referring to are ones that I don't get credit for because others achieved them for me.

In fact, truth is that i would've probably failed in tackling these circumstances which led me to think whether i should be proud about these kinds of accomplishments. I decided that if i were to be proud about it, that would mean i'm an idiot. But i suppose there's nothing wrong with enjoying the fact that you don't have to face the problem anymore.

What's more important, i realize, is that you should learn humility when this happens. Humility will keep your eyes and mind clear of reality. With a clearer mind, you're better positioned to become a better person.

Let's hope that at the end of our lives, we've progressed a long way as a HUMAN PERSON (haven't used that term since college) from where we started.

2007-06-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

What is serving God? It is doing good to man - Benjamin Franklin

In my last blog, i tried to illustrate what life with options is like vs life without options. When you reach a certain stage where you are more than financially well off for the rest of your life, what do you do next? According to Andrew Carnegie, it is the obligation of the rich to share their wealth. Actually a more accurate statement for me would be that it is the obligation of the rich to share the wealth that is entrusted to them. Entrusted by whom? For me, it is said in Matthew 25:14-29.

Matthew 25:14-29
"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents saying 'Master, you entrusted give talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours' But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."

As you can see, we really don't own anything in this world. Resources and wealth are only entrusted to us and at most, we just borrow them. As Benjamin Franklin would say, if your wealth was really yours, why don't you take it to the other side of the world with you?

If you believe as I believe, that the resources and wealth that we have access to belongs to a higher power and not to us, you may also believe as I do that we will be held accountable for what we do with it. I believe that the true owner of the world's wealth wants us to grow and maximize our wealth and more importantly not waste it. One of the best ways to waste wealth is to hold it just like the wicked lazy slave did. Imagine living in a small world where there are only 10 of you and you control 90% of the world's resources such as food supply and just held on to it for fear of losing it or simply for indulging in it. That is what most of the rich do with the wealth and resources they control, especially in poor nations. They don't find ways for their society to enjoy it so as a result, their society is impoverished. Because their society is impoverished, they sometimes complain and wonder why they live in an impoverished society.

Ofcourse, the wealthy cannot simply give out wealth and resources to the poor and must allocate it WISELY. Andrew Carnegie would say that it would be just as bad as not giving it in the first place since they probably won't use it properly and only waste it. Only a few in this world know how to allocate resources properly whereas many don't. For Andrew Carnegie, he believed that it's the people who amassed their own fortune in this world that is best fit and required to allocate resources to society. This makes sense since it is also the rich who controls a major portion of the resources in his (or her) society in the first place.

Anyway, this is just a matter of personal opinion that I'd like to share.

Maintain and Increase Options

2007-06-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

What i am about to write are thoughts from my own and from others that i've learned about wealth, focusing on the mechanics and general principles of its nature.

What is the general characteristic of a rich man vs. a poor man other than the rich man having more money? My conversation with an elderly man (for many men are wiser than I) told me that in general, the rich have more options available to them than the poor. So by having more options, the rich can afford to reject more options than the poor can. By being unable to reject options, the poor have to swallow up whatever's offered to them including oppressive offers. "Necessity never made a good bargain" as Benjamin Franklin would say. Perhaps we can also say that it is difficult to bargain against someone with many alternatives. It is clear that the more options one has, the more choices he can make. The more choices he can make, the more FREEDOM he has.

So how does one who is in his 20s and starting out his career create more options and opportunities for himself so that he may one day be free from money troubles? To begin with, most people rely on one source of income. It could be from one's employment, business or family (spouse or daddy and mommy or even grandpapa). Given that we live in a dynamic world where things go up and down continuously, odds are that your current source (or sources) of income have a limited life span and it is out of your control. Like people, what was once there will turn into air, and it is also out of your control. If you don't believe this, you should study business history. So while your current source of income is pumping out cash for you, save and preserve that cash and look for ways for it to generate more cash for you. I guess it's called investing. This takes some work and effort but it could save your financial life when your only source of income goes down or when you're unable to maintain it (because you get physically injured and unable to work). However, becareful not to spread yourself too thin when diversifying. Maintain a balance. Neither under diversify nor over diversify. Should you be successful in generating sufficient income from other sources, you'll be more ready to lose your original source of income, which in time becomes more possible whether you're ready or not. When you already have multiple sources of income, don't get too complacent. Continue to look for other sources. Your multiple sources of income still have a good chance of going down if you give it enough time (again, it is out of your control). The dow, since 1928 have continuously been going up and along the way, it dropped 26 out of 30 of the 1928 components and continuously replaced it with others. Maintain and increase your options. Maintain and increase your sources of cash flow and perhaps you shall be set free.

Dialogue from Katie Jordan

2006-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

"That's not why I'm saying Chow Funs. Funs, I'm saying Chow Funs because we're an us. There's a history here, and histories don't happen overnight. In Mesopotamia or Ancient Troy there are cities built on top of other cities, but I don't want another city, I like this city. I know what kind of mood your in when you wake up by which eyebrow is higher, and you know I'm a little quiet in the morning and compensate accordingly, that's a dance you perfect over time. And it's hard, it's much harder than I thought it would be, but there's more good than bad and you don't just give up! And it's not for the sake of the children, but God they're great kids aren't they? And we made them, I mean think about that! It's like there were no people there, and then there were people and they grew, and an an an I won't be able to say to some stranger Josh has your hands or remember how Erin threw up at the Lincoln Memorial And I'll try to relax, let's face it, anybody is going to have traits that get on your nerves, I mean, why shouldn't it be your annoying traits, and I know I'm no day at the beach, but I do have a good sense of direction so I can at least find the beach, which isn't a weakness of yours, it's a strength of mine. And God your a good friend and good friends are hard to find. Charlotte said that in Charlottes Web and I love how you read that to Erin and you take on the voice of Wilber the Pig with such dedication even when your bone tired. That speaks volumes about character! And ultimately, isn't that what it comes down too? What a person is made of? That girl in the pin helmet is still here 'bee boo bee boo' I didn't even know she existed until you and I'm afraid if you leave I may never see her again, even though I said at times you beat her out of me, isn't that the paradox? Haven't we hit the essential paradox? Give and take, push and pull, the yen the yang. The best of times, the worst of times!I think Dickens said it best, 'He could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean', but, doesn't really apply here does it? What I'm trying to say is, I'm saying Chow Funs because, I love you"

Blaise Pascal Pensees (#110)

2006-10-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them. The skeptics have no other object than that, and they work at it to no purpose. We know that we are not dreaming, but, however unable we may be to prove it rationally, our inability proves nothing but the weakness of our reason, and not the uncertainty of all our knowledge, as they maintain. For knowledge of first principles, like space, time, motion, number, is as solid as any derived through reason, and it is on such knowledge, coming from the heart and instinct, that reason has to depend and base all its argument. The heart feels that there are three spatial dimensions and that there is an infinite series of numbers, and reason goes on to demonstrate that there are no two square numbers of which one is double the other. Principles are felt, propositions proved, and both with certainty though by different means. It is just as pointless and absurd for reason to demand proof of first principles from the heart before agreeing to accept them as it would be absurd for the heart to demand an intuition of all the propositions demonstrated by reason before agreeing to accept them. Our inability must therefore serve only to humble reason, which would like to be the judge of everything, but not to confute our certainty. As if reason were the only way we could learn! Would to God, on the contrary, that we never needed it and knew everything by instinct and feeling! But nature has refused us this blessing, and has instead given us only very little knowledge of this kind; all other knowledge can be acquired only by reasoning. That is why those to whom God has given religious faith by moving their hearts are very fortunate, and feel quite legitimately convinced, but to those who do not have it we can only give such faith through reasoning, until God gives it by moving their heart, without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.

I can certainly imagine a man without hands, feet, or head, for it is only experience that teaches us that the head is more necessary than the feet. But I cannot imagine a man without thought; he would be a stone or an animal.

Best Quality (another tickle test)

2006-04-18T03:17:00.000-07:00

Here's my supposed "best quality" What do you ppl think? please leave your comments on this blog and the previous one. Thanks!

your best quality shines through in how Honest you are

The fact that you're an honest person who values the truth and is sometimes willing to make sacrifices in order to uphold it really draws people to you! But that's not the only thing. Your answers on the test indicate you're psychologically and emotionally stable and better able than most people to tolerate even the roughest situations. You are a smart person who is more able to understand complex concepts than many other people are, too.In all, there are 15 qualities that help define you when you're at your best. Those are the traits potential employers, friends, and partners look for in you. What makes you unique is your particular distribution of those 15 qualities.We've found that your particular combination of qualities is rare — only 2 in 10,000 people share the same general mix of traits. Those are great odds if you're trying to show a potential employer, colleague, friend, or date why you're exactly the right person for them.

Tickle Test

2006-04-18T02:58:00.000-07:00

My cousin had me take this online test where i answer a couple of questions and it determines what color my personality is. Here's the result!

Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them — your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness — trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

Who are you?

2006-03-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be the ones who can't read or write but the ones who can't learn, relearn and unlearn" -written by someone who I forgot.

Whenever I think of someone in my head, I always visualize their face especially when I am differentiating one person from another. But it doesn’t stop there sometimes. Sometimes I have to go further and recall their voice, gesture, name and other tangible features that I distinguish him/her by. Although it hasn’t happened in real life, what if what happened in the movie hot chick (rob Schneider) were to happen to my KLGO and some guy thug? Who is my gf Kath? Is she this old thug or is she still this young girl? Although this hypothetical event causes confusion, it is nonetheless an absurd thing to think about for some people because this doesn’t happen in real life. But I must contest that serious thought must be put into this for something similar, though not as exaggerating, does happen in real life.

An example that I can give is Terry Shiavo. Since Terry had her permanent accident back in the 90s, was she still the same person from that day until the day that they stopped feeding her or was it someone else or not a person at all? There will be more disagreements on the answer to this question compared to which one is my gf Kath since the exaggeration is not as great as that of the movie hot chick causing it to be more confusing. From a scientific point of view, terry should still be the same person. From a human point of view, it’s a little more confusing. Everything tangible about her (face, features, blood, bones genes) are still intact but the intangible things about her (characteristics, personality, humanity etc.) seem to disappear. From a scientific point of view, two identical twins are more similar (or more at one) than any other siblings but from a human point of view, two identical twins are as distinct as they are with their other siblings simply because the intangibles between them are still different.

Base on this premise, maybe we can narrow down the question on who you are to are you the tangible or the intangible? To my readers, I hope you give me your answers or thoughts to this. I will wait for your feedback and leave you with some quotes which conform with my opinion for now :)

"What is man? Man is a soul. What is a soul? A soul is a relation that reflects itself to itself." -Kierkegaard

"I think therefore I am." -Descartes

"Underneath this mask is a face. I am no more this face than I am the muscles beneath this face or the bones beneath this muscles." -V

"Beneath this mask is a flesh. Beneath this flesh is an idea. And ideas Mr. Creedy are bulletproof." -V

Remember Remember The 5th of November

2006-03-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

I saw an excellent film last night. A film that has enlightened my intelligence by showing me how a revolution can happen and moved me by inspiring me to the direction of idealism that as some say dies with age. The Wachowski bros, have done a really good job once again in this film. Every scene, every word, every happening and every moment in the film has relevance and so much time and effort were put into it. As a result, everything that happened in the film is connected not just within in the film but also outside the film into my life and yours. In short, everybody can relate with everything that happens in this film because it was so damn good (just like every beat of a music moves you).

I cannot help but think that the Wachowski bros are Christians. It is so obvious unless if i'm wrong. equations, mathematical laws, balanced equations, harmony in the form of an ordered society of a Totalitarian Gov't (which continuously and severely lies to its people), V, unbalancing the equation, there are no coincidence, V creating chaos by the principle of for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the matrix it goes something like this as well: Architect, creating equations, balancing equations, harmony, order (in the form of deceiving the people), Oracle, unbalancing the equation (in the movie matrix, i do not believe that the oracle predicts and sees the future, her role in the movie is simply this, unbalancing the equation), there are no coincidence, creating chaos. According to the bible, the Devil is our father and ruler of this world (Christ said this. not me.), his (Devil) purpose at least in this world is to drive people away from God (the truth) by deceiving us and making us concentrate and spend our time on earthly things (continuously feeding us with lies), he is doing a good job at it (since people don't really spend time with God and feel independent of him) and so you can say that he has created his own harmonious and balanced equation. Then came Christ, who as he said has come in this world to turn every son/daughter against his parents, family friends and etc, creating a chaos to this perfect and balanced world. Again, when Christ came here 2000 years ago, he said he came here not to bring peace but to destroy. But this is another matter of discussion. Let's go back to the movie that i saw last night.

What happened in the movie was this, the chancellor through his own genius rose to power and absolute power by drawing up a grand plan. He created a biological warfare (biological warfare??? why don't i just replace it with the simple word virus) or other people did but he has the complete authority and power to it (it is said that in order to see a man's true character, give him power). He unleashed the virus into his own country instead of other countries causing so many deaths in his own country. As a result, people were AFRAID. That's when the gov't came in and took control of the country by military power because it was under a state of emergency. The gov't didn't stop there though. it fed the people with more lies by telling them how dangerous the world is becoming (with truths and lies) causing the people to be MORE AFRAID. Hence, you can see that it wasn't the virus nor the guns, nor the military that the chancellor used as his ultimate tool to gain power. it was fear (according to V). What V needed to do was find a way to take away that fear. He knows what he is after or what his aim is, taking away the fear. Thus, you know the effect that you want in the cause and effect principle but what is the cause for this? How do you trigger this? Go watch the movie! :)

12 Years Ago

2006-03-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

12 years ago was the probably the time i felt so free to do anything i want. it's not that i'm constrained by my family right now but rather it's because there was so much i could do back then that i couldn't do now.

I was the same and different as a person before. the same in a sense that i'm still me. Different in a sense of my behavior. i don't think i was ever as candid and extroverted as i was back then. nothing held me back before. i was a skater who bought a board for $170 canadian and skated a lot with a distant cousin and some other friends. my outfit before was an adult sized large shirt and size 38 pants/shorts. i remember the tricks that i used to pull. the ones that i can do pretty well are ollie up on a sidewalk, shove it and nollie. sometimes i can do kickflip but my skateboard would have to stand still. the trick that took me the longest to learn was jumping down 4 steps of stairs. it was a real pain learning all these tricks. my legs were full of blue and red spots. Aside from skateboarding, i did all kinds of other sports. more than what most students get to do in the philippines. Our PE composed of running, basketball, volleyball, hockey and dodgeball. During recess, we would play football and soccer (sometimes tackle football illegally). i was in the volleyball, basketball and track team back in elementary. we never really did well though. we were mediocre whenever we'd compete with other schools like vancouver college. Once in a year, our school would require us to attend skiing lessons. that i have to say is one of the best experience a person can get in a sport. imagine the thrill of rushing down a slope with all these majestical views of the sky above you and the city below you or sitting on a chairlift relaxing.

But even without all these things, there were still other little things i can do back in vancouver that i can't do here anymore :( the most i miss is when i'm bored in my house i would just go out and take a walk around the neighborhood and sometimes beyond it (night times were the best). sleeping over at a friend's house or having friends sleeping over at my house while watching saturday night live (i watched the versions that are even older than the classic SNL on ETC. 1992-1994 baby!).

Vancouver was a good city to me. it's the BBC (Beautiful British Columbia). Growing up in the West is a really fun experience for children since they have so much freedom but it can also be dangerous. Had i stayed longer, i would've been exposed to a lot of "naughty things" by 13 years old. i knew i was probably going to get into those "stuff" before i graduated elementary since i was very curious but before i had the chance to do so, i was brought back home to manila where i had to learn some discipline :)

First Entry

2006-02-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

To my readers,

i can't help but think who will read my blog. however, i have a certain opinion on people who read the blog of their friends and it's a positive one :) Before I start writing, I want to begin with a eulogy that i wrote a little over a year ago. It's about my grandmother, my mother's mom. It's my first ever eulogy and i hope that in this life time of mine, I wouldn't have to write much of this. I want to post it here so that this this eulogy that i saved in my computer will never be lost for I think it's an accurate picture of someone. And as my dad used to always tell me, you can't just buy your pictures when you lose them.

Enjoy! ;)

Like some of my cousins, I was taken care of by ama aside from my mother during the first ten years of my life. Ama was 68-78 years old already during those years. I ofcourse didn’t know it at that time. As one of the last grand children to be raised by her, I was (for most of the time) spared by the strict discipline that we once feared her for but grew up to respect and admire later on.

Just recently, one of her grandchildren asked me if I remembered anything about her before the last few years of her life. Looking back, I realized I don’t remember much about her during the last few years as much as I did during my earlier years a young kid for it was those earlier years of my life that I spent so much time with her and depending on her. When I was younger, everytime during dinner, I could only choose the kind and amount of food that I want only after she has put enough food on my plate and I could only walk away from the dinner table after I have finished everything that I had to eat. She was very strict on this. I would be thankful in the years to come when I realize that this influenced my taste and preference of choosing the healthier foods over junk foods (at least for most of the time) and drinking plenty of liquid everyday. I mostly showered in her bathroom for years and her bathroom always remained the same which was probably why I had to end up using Johnson’s baby shampoo until I passed 9 years old. I used to get sick a lot forcing her to spend sleepless nights watching over me when I stayed in her room or to come over to my house to bring me food, medicine and toys. But I had to pay the price when she had to inject me with suppository. Yes! You heard that right. Every new year’s eve after fireworks, she would tell us the young kids to go up and sleep. We would always be stubborn refusing to sleep but it’s a good thing we would end up always following her. However, one night, Ama had to pay the price for that when I woke up in the early morning and puked all over my own face and she had to watch over me again in her room for the next few days because I was sick.

I would like to take this opportunity to share the blessings that Ama gave me to her family. If it weren’t for ama, I don’t know if I would be able to speak fookien as fluently as I can right now. It was only when I grew up before I realized that so many Chinese in my generation can’t speak fookien anymore because their parents and families hardly speak to them in that language. Ama was undeniably the source and common ground linking her grandchildren together. I realize that it was because of her that allowed me to know the personality of all my cousins and form strong relationships with some of them. To this day, I’ve only seen few families like that. Most don’t even get to know all of their cousins. The past few years of Ama’s life may be causing us grief, sorrow and sadness right now, but the entire life of Ama, how she wisely spent it and its blessings is also enough cause for us to be happy during this difficult time including this moment and for the years to come in our life that’s ahead of us. For if it weren’t for ama, we wouldn’t be where we are today and I wouldn’t have had the good blessing to be close to some of my relatives.