Tag Archives: News

Stopped Reading or Watching the News But Then the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Happened

March 17 9:14 am ,

Replanting, Rebuilding

I used to love reading newspapers.

It was in fact the highlight of my day.  I could not get enough of them, and would read not one but two or more of different newspapers.  And if I make it home before 7 at night, I would switch on the television and hungrily watch the news, letting it envelop me, allowing the visuals – grim or otherwise – to reiterate what I already know.

It is funny really – the way news would explore every avenue and have every possible slant and not stop until a news story is exhausted.  And I mean, exhausted.

But after some time, I realized – all the news I have been reading and watching, all that corruption and greed, all that plummeting of the stock market and political upheavals and the skyrocketing of gasoline prices – all of those would get me to a panic, and get me depressed.

I was engaged, involved, but depressed.

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Posted in: World Events , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Accounting, Math and Newscasting

August 18 1:34 am ,
The Universe Says Yes

The Universe Says Yes

I used to love numbers and would spend countless hours doing my trigonometry exercises.  I could not explain it except that I (probably) had the genetic predisposition for it – dad was an accountant.  I could have been one too, but for some twist of fate, it was my younger brother who became an accountant (okay, okay, he’s also pretty good in Math) because I wanted with all my heart to become a newscaster, and shunned what I now call my lost inner talent.

In one desperate (yes) moment to get into a tax law firm, I told my interviewer that my dad was an accountant and my brother was an accountant. Silence. Without batting an eyelash, he told me, “Maybe I should hire them”.  He’s got a point.

Imagine my surprise when they hired me.

Imagine my surprise (!) when Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in Rich Dad, Poor Dad that if he were to do everything all over again, he would be an accountant.  And that this is the course he would recommend to kindergarten students.

The destiny that I denied.

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Posted in: Life Stories, Mentors, The Basics of Finance , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Stocks on the Upswing

July 15 11:11 pm ,
To Financial Freedom

To Financial Freedom

Stocks are on the upswing again.  How do I know?  I look at the stock market reports daily.

This was one of the first tips given by my financial planner to me – to look at the business page, particularly the big rectangular block full of numbers and letters, read it over, pick at least 10 stocks that I would watch daily, and watch them daily (yes, it is a commitment).  He said that this way, I would develop a feel for it.  This, he tells me further, is how the pros do it – everyday, full time.  I looked at him, half-smiling (I was trying to convince him that I could do it) and half-wincing (I imagined it as a painful exercise).  Sure looked like it was a lot of hard work.  But I found out – it was not.

Let me tell you, I hardly ever looked at the business page before.  It screamed boring! to me.  After all, who cares about companies and mergers and acquisitions when there’s news that Actress A is pregnant and the dad is Actor B who is married and their story is played till kingdom come and I had 30 minutes to spare?  Even the cartoon page would get first dibs.

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Posted in: Stock Market , Tagged: , , , , ,