Blogging in the rain

It feels good to be wealthy

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:27:00 +0000

It feels good to be wealthy spiritually and financially. Any body in the business of building wealth will tell you that time and power of compounding are two very critical elements in the process of building financial wealth. An average household with average income can achieve financial well-being by starting the process early on. Added to that, a prudent sense of spending will greatly enhance the rate of wealth accumulation.Here are some young families which are doing it. Click here to read their stories

Term Life

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Last time I posted, it was about Life Insurance. My first post of 2008 is also about Life insurance. I have done some research on what form of insurance would be best for a middle income family. This is what I found: term life to protect employment income till retirement. Premium is lot cheaper than any of the other whole life insurance and the coverage is higher. So buy a term life, then invest the extra left over money. This way one can multiply one's wealth much faster. Also, in this category of insurance, something called T to 100 is also available. This covers you the whole life. This is still cheaper than regular whole life. This is good for estate planning and other tax considerations. If estate planning is in the picture, good to talk to a professional estate planner or someone competent.

Universal Life

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:50:00 +0000

Insurance companies are committed to fund death benefit claims as and when they occur. Therefore, they tend to use low-risk conservative investment styles in order to preserve principals and maximally guarantee returns. There are times, however, when the prevailing market interest rate is higher than those of insurance products. At times like these, investment public tends to move their capital resources from insurance products and invest in higher yielding assets elsewhere. To meet this challenge, insurance industry refashioned whole life policy into interest rate-sensitive policy. There are three types, namely: adjustable premium whole life, variable life and universal life. Among these three, universal life is the most popular interest rate-sensitive insurance product.
Buying a rate-sensitive policy requires the owner to share some of the short-term investment risks. For example: if the current investment returns have gone up then one of two things can happen, either the sum insured increases and the premium stays the same or the sum insured stays the same and the premium will decrease. And when the current yield goes down the adjustments to the premium and the sum insured will be made accordingly.
Premium is used to pay for the cost of insurance and other expenses in whole and term life. With universal, there is an investment aspect added. These three aspects are revealed to the policy owner (Called unbundling) so that s/he can make necessary changes in any of these aspects if there are good reasons to believe that those changes will positively impact the yield of the policy.
In my opinion, investment choices provided by universal life is quite limited. For someone serious about building wealth through investment, it is not the best way to invest. S/he would do better by opening an investment account with one of the brokerage firms.
Like whole life, universal life also has cash surrender value. Account value of the investment account in universal life forms part of cash surrender value. With whole life, cash surrender value becomes part of the contracted death benefit. Whereas with Universal life, the policy owner may choose to receive it in addition to the death benefit. There are four types of death benefits available with universal life. Each has its positives and negatives. Also, the size of premium depends on the type of benefit chosen.
I must add here that these are not the last words on the types of life insurance policies available out there in the market. Buying insurance is a long-term financial commitment. Therefore, one couldn’t possibly overemphasize more the importance of a good homework before making a decision.

of Life and Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:04:00 +0000

As I began to feel the need for a life insurance, I began to wonder if there were very many insurance options available to me. My idea about insurance policy at this point in time is at its most elementary level. It goes something like this, “One signs up a policy contract for a certain face value, at certain premium for a lifetime of the life-insured. And when the life-insured passes on, the beneficiary receives the benefits.” With this level of knowledge on the subject I did not feel confident to contact an agent. So I decide to poke around, do some research before I sign up a contract. With that in mind, one evening, I picked up a few books on insurance from my neighborhood library. To be honest, the stuff made a boring read. I found it difficult to plough through the thick and thin chapters of the book, especially for a person such as myself who do not have any prior knowledge of the industry. But then who would expect that from a book about life insurance? Anything important is intrinsically boring, I believe. Anyway, as the onus being on me, I kept going at it and finally managed to extract some information about life insurance.
First thing I noticed was the advice that anyone considering buying a life insurance policy should request for a Guide to Buying Life Insurance, a booklet produced by the regulatory body of the industry. For Canadians, that body is known as Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association or CLHIA in short. The idea is to familiarize oneself with industry so that one can ask questions and understand what the agent is talking about to help make an informed decision. It seems to me that insurance industry has designed quite a few types of life policies to suit the taste buds of consumers of such financial products. I found that while my rudimentary understanding of life insurance policy still holds good, there are several variations on the theme.

Term Insurance: It is the least expensive way of getting insurance coverage. As the name indicates, the period of coverage could be anywhere from 1 to 100 year term. It is cheaper to buy this type of insurance product because it does not have what is called Cash Surrender Value (CSV). I will describe what CSV is in the Whole Life section. While buying limited term insurance policy, one might think about adding renewal and conversion options. Having these options is beneficial in case one decides to continue the same policy or convert into another type at the end of the initial term. During conversion or renewal, premium will be most likely higher than the one you have been paying. To note, if it is not term-to-100, this type of policy covers only a limited period.
Whole Life Insurance: Whole Life is more expensive than term policy. It has something called Cash Surrender Value. In the initial phase of the policy, it seems, one pays more than the actual cost of insurance resulting in the build-up of extra cash. This accumulated cash is paid out to the policy owner when the policy is terminated prematurely; therefore the name cash surrender value. At death, CSV forms part of the face value of the contract. It is not paid out separately. There are quite a few things one can do with it. One can borrow from the insurance company against CSV. Interest rate fixed by the company will have to be paid though. Also, in the event that premium payment is delayed due to whatever reasons, the accumulated cash can be used to keep the policy in force. Again, this is essentially in the form of policy loan and will have to be paid back to the company with interest. Otherwise, it will affect the amount of benefits received at death. There are myriads other options and riders that can be added to a basic policy to suit anybody’s insurance need. An in-depth discussion with the agent should thrash out those needs.
Universal Life: This is the most expensive policy to own and its features are very flexible. This one requires an in-depth look and I will do that in my next post. Till then, happy reading!

Building a House (Financial)

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:40:00 +0000

Insurance is a tool to manage financial risks of magnitude and proportion that one does not want to settle with one’s own money. It allows the policy owner to transfer major amount of the risk to a third party. It was designed as a vehicle for creating a win-win situation. Agreed, the system is not the most perfect, but still it works.

For a couple with children, buying a life insurance policy with appropriate coverage is a good place to begin with. Life insurance is critical in building a sound financial house. Additionally, one could also think about income replacement strategy during periods of disability. This is covered by a category of insurance called disability insurance. This type of insurance can be purchased by an individual who is either employed or generates income by means of self-employment. There are various other types of insurance products to cover any number of situations. Anybody considering purchasing an insurance contract should do some good home-work before signing any contract.

I do not like buying any insurance product beside the one I have for my car. I think it drains money from bank account. I hate it. But I would hate it more if I have to settle any large insurance claim with my own money.

The Day Sun Forgot to Rise

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:49:00 +0000

O night, silent and dark!
O night, without sky!
From the vast labyrinth of darkness,
From a land of unuttered words,
The night of unknown race and creed arrives
Among criminals and righteous,
Amidst poor and rich homes,
Temples and brothels.
O night of the peaceful rivers
And furious wartime,
You unfold yourself effortlessly
Upon water, space, time and trees.
With your nocturnal wings,
You disguise as dawn
The harsh sun of the noon.
Also, you give us a refuge,
Though fleeting,
In the lands of strange thoughts
And violent images.
Someday,
If I should chance upon
My own self crossing,
As a nation,
The last bridge,
The last river,
Let me look back
Through the cracks
In the door
Which is closing already
To watch you
Release
My restless spirit
Of wild immigrant ancestry
From the dark pages
Of your unedited diary.

O night, silent and wise!
O night, without limits!
O dark night of the brilliant rays of hope!
I shall not forget what you taught me.
See,
I can walk on the turbulent waters!

Not to Name

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:10:00 +0000

Under a cloudy sky of dreams,
My voice is made of water,
And my spoken words are the waves.
Song is rhythm and conflicts,
Like the ocean.
But I am not the ocean.

In a moment, man is conceived,
Out of endless undulations
Of ecstasy.
Thus, a creature of rhythm is born,
In a moment of limitless agony,
To toil endlessly
Under a cloudy sky of graying dreams.
He is simply a phoenix, laughing in delirium
While the insomnia of songs scatters him
Amidst the ashes of random thoughts,
Wondering how far beyond the horizon
He can expand his chaotic vision.
But I am not the vision.

I am simply someone
With an immeasurable longing.

Like Ivy on a brick-Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:02:00 +0000

Yesterday, I saw a willow tree,
Happy under the diamond-lit sky.
It was all by itself, humming,
Humming a song I had long forgotten,
And I remembered you.
I remembered you as you were,
When you came charging,
Charging on a chariot of fire
Against my defenseless shoreline.

You conquered my country,
You demolished my freedom.

Just as suddenly as you came,
Without giving a second thought,
Without giving another look,
On the first signal, you left,
You left my impoverished country,
Impoverished by your absence.
From time to time, I wonder,
As I am wondering now,
Where you are and
Where you would be.
Perhaps, you are busy,
Busy raising stone butterflies,
Or reading lost letters of history.

As I walk these abandoned streets,
Streets abandoned by Sunday afternoon,
I remember watching you,
Watching you what you do to your movement,
Your feminine movement of the Pacific gracefulness
And Mediterranean brilliance.
But, I , most of all,
Remember wanting to do to you,
What Ivy does to the brick-wall.

Is that You, O Lord?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:02:00 +0000

Someone beside me,
Someone in my mind,
Someone entangled,
A face among
Uncollected thoughts.
I can not see you with clarity.
Memory: a river that returns to gather
What it left behind.
Memory is a mirror of remembrance.
On the other side of remembrance is forgetfulness.
In forgetfulness, we remember,
The shadows passing -
Lovers, strangers, friends and foes, life
And death.
I can not say I remember you.
And I can not say I do not.
Between remembering and forgetting,
My thoughts are like a multitude of sunflowers,
Detached from the stem, suspended in the vast sky,
Looking for a sun of umbra and penumbra.
In my infinite recollections,You stand,
Opaque, transparent, very much human, full of irony.

In this field of uncollected remembrances,
Through all these layers of shadows,
I can not see with clarity,
But is it really You,
O Lord?

Revisiting the Balance Sheet Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:02:00 +0000

In the previous blog titled “So, We Ask”, it was mentioned that a good management team of a company on the right side of the business should be able to increase market value of its company by an amount equal to or more than the retained earnings. Another way to arrive at the same outcome is to look at the “net cash” position of a company. Roughly, net cash is obtained by subtracting the long-term debts from the sum of cash, cash equivalents and other marketable securities. Next thing to do is to divide net cash with the number of outstanding shares. This would give how much net cash is available per share. So, if you bought a stock at X dollar when the net cash was Y dollars per share, it would not be unreasonable to expect the share value to appreciate to an amount close to X+Y.

P/E Ratio

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:30:00 +0000

This expression combines two important company variables. This establishes a relationship between stock price and earning for the past twelve months. This ratio is normalized value for per unit earning. In other words, it tells us, for every dollar earned, how much the market is paying for one of its shares. Therefore, if one is considering investing in a company, an examination of its historical P/E values would readily indicate if the current price is more or less than what others have paid for the shares of the said company in the past. P/E also reflects investor perception of the future earning potential. During periods of economic boom, general P/E ratios tend to be high. And the reverse is true when economy does poorly. Fast growers tend to have high P/E ratios as compared to mature companies which tend to grow at slower rate. While looking at multiples, it is good to keep things in perspective. There is no hard and fast rule that says that a particular company ought to have a certain multiple. If there is, then is it two, five, twelve or what? Here, I have not seen any compelling argument to convince me with a number. Therefore, I think it is a good idea to compare a specific P/E ratio with industry standard. If the number is too high, then it would be safer to touch the face of a Royal Bengal tiger than to invest in it. The stock price is bound to come down sooner or later. P/E ratio can also be viewed as number of years a company will take in earning an initial investment, assuming that it will maintain the current rate of earning. Stock price (P) is very strongly influenced by fluctuations in earning (E). One does not change without changing the other. I would consider it a great investment opportunity, if I came across a company having a low P/E multiple while its earning-growth is red hot. Sooner or later, its P/E is bound to catch up. One can say that a company is fairly priced if P/E is more or less equal to its rate of earning growth. If the P/E is less than the growth rate of earning, it is a bargain!

Inseparable Under Mesopotamian Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:06:00 +0000

Under the blue Mesopotamian sky
There is a land where barefooted raindrops
Dance on the bloodstained leaves of grass.
Some call it homeland.
For others,
It is a battlefield
Where ravens of war devour the expanse of the sky
Where every lintel is marked with blood of impossible peace
Where stray dogs greet dwellers in the morning
And vultures feed on their lifeless bodies in the evening.
How did we, after having traveled so far, after having learned so much,
Arrive in a nightmare such as this?
Where can one find that neglected hope?
Will God raise wise children of Abraham
From the exploded remains of conscience?

It is true that we have fought bitterly as foes.
But let us not forget, we have also lived together long
In this parenthesized geography.
It is time we realize,
How inseparable we have become
Under the blue and beautiful Mesopotamian sky!

Something Beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:12:00 +0000

I want to share a poem titled “Where the Mind is Without Fear” with those who enter the blog world. It is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore who lived and died in pre-independent India. You would find that this poem tends to leave its footprints in the mind of those who read it.

Where The Mind is Without Fear
WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath Tagore

I am dreaming

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:29:00 +0000

You invade my thoughts
With your eyes closed.
I visit you with bouquets of dream.

Your eyes illuminate my dreams!
And your face decorates my thoughts!
Together
We arrange and rearrange the stars
Into constellations
In the sky of my imagination.

Your shadow would, so often, fall on my dreams
And become a flower in my hand.
And your name,
A love poem that I recite in my dream.

Only in dreams, this is possible,
And only in dreams, you are real.
My beloved, reality is a circle inverted many times!
And inside this circle, I am.
And the circle has its center
On the other side of the horizon.

It is all about performance

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:26:00 +0000

One may not always be able to control what one earns, but one can definitely do something about what one spends. This can make a great deal of difference both in corporate and personal financial health. A company which judiciously practices cost-cutting without hampering the productivity is the company that can deliver strong financial results. As many of us have seen while reading annual reports of various corporations, some companies seem to bring in revenues from sales that increase year after year and yet the net profit margin remains stuck at the bottom of the chart without showing much sign of gathering any steam anytime soon. That is depressing. While others operating in the same sector seem to produce much better net profit margin from a comparable levels of sales. To arrive at the net profit margin figure, several deductions have to be made from sales. They are: cost of goods sold, administrative expenses, marketing costs, taxes etc. Therefore, a management team that promotes and integrates company-wide cost-cutting efforts into the psyche of its company is a team that would go far. Net profit margin is simply obtained by expressing the earning after tax as a percentage of sales. Return on invested capital and return on equity are also important performance measures. All these ratios and numbers are readily available in any of these financial websites. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to look at these numbers and see where they would fit in the scheme of things. When investment analysis enters meditative phase, you begin to see all the parts assembled into one whole structure – a company represented by pure numbers.

Is money the root of all evils today? Do you agree?

Interests and Dividends

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:33:00 +0000

There are those who like the periodicity and predictability of interest and dividend income. Financing philosophy varies from company to company. Some like to use debt as a leveraging tool. I personally do not like debt of any kind. They say debts are good during good economic times, because, they accentuate returns. Debts magnify losses during bad years too. However, anybody considering investing in corporate debt issues purely because of the attractive yields and expected constancy in payment, one would do well to consider whether the earnings are large enough to back the interest payments of all the debts (Bank loans, short- and long-term and any other cookie jar of loans the company has put its hand into). This information can be simply obtained by dividing the Earning before Interests and Taxes (EBIT) by total annual interests payable. A ratio of three or higher together with a good past records, say five years, of continuous interest payment is considered good investment candidate. However, there are exceptions one may make from time to time. For example, there are companies which are able to pay interests and continue to do so without ever meeting the theoretically determined margin of safety. One could invest in the debt issues of such companies and still expect the predictability offered by companies with iron-clad finance. Also, most companies try hard not to default on the interest and preferred dividend payments. They would rather hang by the skin of their teeth than default. Unlike interest, preferred dividend distribution, on the other hand, is made after taxes have been paid. Therefore, when calculating adequacy of dividend coverage, it is grossed up to its pre-tax value. Tax rate can be calculated from the company income statement. The grossed up dividend is then added to total interests payable. This value is then used to divide EBIT. The ratios so obtained from past five or more years can be plotted and see if the trend is improving or declining. Records of interest and dividend coverage can be made more meaningful when examined in the light of company fundamentals. If the company fundamentals are expected to remain comparable to or improve upon those of interest and dividend paying years, then one can assume with high degree of confidence that interest and dividend payment would continue.

Some feel that life is a terminal disease. Do you disagree?

An Experiment In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:07:00 +0000

To spread the chromatogram of thoughts across
A meadow of electricity.
To rearrange the bisected hemispheres of the earth
Into time without its days and nights, and
Into space without dimensions.
To transform the evening moon into
A butterfly, luminous and flying across the sky of dreaming.

Imagination, a bird of prey, hunting for an idiom,
In the vertigo of riddles and paradox, and to resurface
As a chameleon with crown of flame amidst darkness.

Two Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:28:00 +0000

Two birds flying side by side,
And love becomes the wind.

Two birds flying side by side,
The sky is the storm, and
Time - the violent clouds.

Two birds flying side by side
In a sky sometimes vacated by
The silent absence of wind,
And
God becomes the wind beneath their wings.

For those who toiled all night in vain

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Luke 5 (from the New Testament - New King James Version)
1 Now so it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret,
2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.
3 Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 Now when he had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.
7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken;
10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”

Instead of Words

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:38:00 +0000

With clarity in my vision I step off the cliff-edge
To ride on the back of a beam of light

My head explodes inside my mind
I am thinking and my thoughts have no voice
To speak is human I speak a language
And my language has no vocabulary

Where I am the space is filled with sky
And I fill the sky with invented words

My body is inside another body
Which is not mine
Her lips spell me out
And it is the silence

With silence I erase all the other words
Instead of words
Silence
Silence like the crystals
!

Liquid

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:55:00 +0000

In a balance sheet, there are sections labeled as current assets and current liabilities. Anything that is achievable in a period of one year is termed as current. Readily available cash or cash equivalents that can be converted into cash within a short period, inventory, account receivables are included in the current asset section. While, interest payable, account payable, and interest on current portion of the long-term loans are included in the current liabilities section.
If anything is left after subtraction of current liabilities from current assets, that leftover is called Working Capital or net current asset. These numbers can also be rearranged in the following manner:
Current Assets/Current Liabilities = Current Ratio.

Both Working Capital and Current Ratios are used to examine if the company has source of cash to meet its day-to-day expenses, and if it has what its comfort levels are. The recommended levels of comfort in the cash position vary from industry to industry. An industry with quick inventory turnover can afford to work with lower levels of cash comfort than a company in an industry that takes long time to convert raw materials into product. Two things that require closer attention in the current assets section are account receivables and inventory. Sizes of these two items over a period of time, say five years, should be looked at. Increasing account receivables over a number of years will indicate that company has a problem in collecting its sale revenues. And increasing size of inventory without a concomitant increase in sale will indicate that the company has a problem in selling its product(s). If such problems do exist, then are they chronic or temporary? That can be judged using data from the past years. Inclusion of unsellable inventory can distort the actual levels of comfort. Therefore, a more stringent quantity called Quick Ratio or Acid Test is developed simply by excluding inventory from current assets. Boy, this ratio is really acidic! It burns! It is sulfuric or nitric or whatever else that burns!

Operating Cash Flow Ratio

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:00:00 +0000

I like a company with solid operating cash flow. When it comes to cash flow, start-ups generally do not have much to show. Because, they are start-ups. They generally fund their operations by means other than income generated from their own operations. Beg, borrow or what have you! At some point, they have to turn into a self-perpetuating entity. That is the whole principle behind origin of life. Self-perpetuation! Generate, preserve and replicate faithfully, still leaving enough room for innovation, the information required for organization of an entity as complex as life itself. That has been the modus operandi of life on earth. A business venture, if it wants to survive and thrive, has to follow the course what evolution of life has followed on earth. Or else, it would turn into dinosaur in a couple of years. Therefore, it is a great occasion to celebrate when the first dollar of profit shows up in the company wallet. It has arrived though not quite! It has begun its journey towards independence – a step towards self-perpetuation! Cash flow ratio will provide a glimpse into the financial soul of a company. In business vernacular, cash flow is expressed as Cash Flow (from operation)/ Current Liabilities. It simply tells us if it generates enough cash to pay for its day-to-day expenses, or it needs to borrow.

Absence

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:48:00 +0000

Between the departure and arrival,
From one home of disfigured fortune to another,
You have barely lived your shortened biography.

On the water were your footprints
And some unreadable names written in your blood.
In that geography of brilliant sunshine and endless searching
We discovered the excavated landscape of your fragile anatomy.

Ah, Angel!
With your innocence, you faced the monster.
With death, you paid the price!
And in return, we admit in shame,
We could not give you
The justice you so deserve.
We failed you!

Oh, child of imaginary parents!
To be left so high and dry,
Is it to be your fate always?
Oh, those imaginary parents!
Are they real only in a hallucinated world?

Rise, Angel, rise from the belly of the beast.
Rise from your deep eternal slumber.
Rise with the rising sun and the freshness of morning.
Let the ripples of flowing water cry out.
Let the stones of river also cry out in protest
Till absence itself rises with the elemental mist
To unriddle the enigma you left us.

In your memory, I plant a drop of ink
In the center of this vast and blank page.
May it become a witness to the horror you saw
In the twilight hours of your frightened eyes.

"Who Ever Loved, that Loved not at First Sight?"

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:27:00 +0000

“Who Ever Loved, that Loved not at First sight?”
Ah, love at first sight! Most of us mortals would like to fall in love, if possible the one at-first -sight variety. If love is not love-at-first-sight, is it still love? May be not quite. Therefore, we say, “Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight is a bogus love.” True, I have twisted the Christopher Marlowe original from “Hero and Leander” into something almost vulgar. I did not mean to be crude and offensive. But I am. So let me try rephrasing it. Here it goes, “Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight is a love after due diligence.” Hope it sounds more acceptable. Gurus of all stripes warn that we perform due diligence before we sign on anything resembling a piece of paper with fine prints on, particularly those that are likely to produce big waves on the Richter scale of finance.
Looking at company ratios goes towards fulfilling that duty. Ratios represent signs and symptoms of company health. There are four types of ratios. They cover most aspects of company affairs. They are: liquidity ratios, risk analysis ratios, operating performance ratios and value ratios. It is worthwhile spending some time on these small calculations. Because, it is like signing a prenup.

A Poem for a Harlot

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:00:00 +0000

In the evening,
Clad in your diaphanous skin,
You walk the streets
which have no name,
Not knowing where they will take you.

Tlok, tlok, tlok,
These are
The sound of your feathered footsteps.

With the sound of your heartbeat,
You time
The passage of epochs and eras.
And your walk becomes
The unalterable rhythm of living.

In your gait,
All the elements of life are woven
Into a seamless piece of fabric: your skin of gold.
Epithets of shame, when sewn onto
Your skin of ether, become stars
And your skin is the limitless sky.
And you, dear lady!
You become a constellation.