One Family's Blog

Home Ownership Experience in the Bay Area - Lessons Learned

2010-09-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

The seven years of owning two different homes in the turbulent Bay Area real-estate market have clued us into various key points as listed below:Location, Location, Location – an addendum: This oft-repeated rhetoric has spared none on the quest for an abode. But there is more to this adage than choosing a residence based on school district, proximity to work places, view, and the average

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Stamps of Chad - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-09-05T20:55:00.001-07:00

Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa bordered by Libya to the North, Sudan to the East, Central African Republic to the South, Cameroon and Nigeria to the Southwest, and Niger to the West. The country is termed “Dead Heat of Africa” because of its largely desert climate and distance from the sea. The country covers a land area of around 500,000 square miles with a population of

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Stamps of Central African Republic (CAR) - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-09-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

Central African Republic (CAR), formerly the French colony of Ubangi-Shari is a landlocked country in Central Africa bordered by Chad to the North, Sudan to the East, Congo to the South, and Cameroon to the West. The country covers a land area of around 240,000 square miles with a population of around 4.4 million people making it a sparsely populated country at around 18 per square mile –

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Las Vegas, NV – Hot Spots

2010-08-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Over the last twenty years, we have paid homage to this gambling mecca several times. The earlier visits were vanilla ones as they were more of stopovers en-route to other attractions. The glitz of Las Vegas increased exponentially as we witnessed the build-up of Mega Resorts on the heels of the first such resort, the Mirage in 1989. Last year Las Vegas hosted close to forty million

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Reno, NV - Hot Spots

2010-08-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Reno is the largest city in the state of Nevada after the three big cities in the Las Vegas area – Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson. It is about 30 miles North of Carson City, the Capital via scenic route 395. Reno proclaims itself as the Biggest Little City in the World – despite its size, the city focuses on providing outstanding service to visitors so as to keep them coming. The

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Stock Portfolio and Watch List Updates for August 2010

2010-08-23T00:05:00.000-07:00

Following are the activity from the previous month: The Covered Calls we wrote on Advantage Energy Fund (AAV Aug 2010 7.5) on 3/9/2010 expired worthless. Wrote cash covered puts on Qaigen (QGEN Nov 2010 17.5) at $0.90 and Costco (COST Jan 2011 55) at $3.40. The cash coverage requirement for the combined position is about 4% of our total portfolio value. Added about 1% of our total portfolio

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Economy, Business, Credit, and Debit @ the Roundup #22

2010-08-20T00:58:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the August 20, 2010 edition of the Roundup. BudgetSnob presents Most Affordable Places To Retire posted at Budget Snob. David Rahimi presents Money Isnt Everything, Not Having It Is posted at New Age Thinker. Tax Debt Help presents IRS Announces New Regulation that Targets Tax Professionals posted at Tax Debt Help Blog. Jennifer Meyer presents 50 Excellent Twitter

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Carnival of Road to Financial Independence #22

2010-08-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the August 17, 2010 edition of road to financial independence. Frugal Living David presents One Credit Card Rule Above All Else ? Don't Pay Interest! posted at Credit Card Offers IQ, saying, "Tips on how to not pay interest" MoneyNing presents How to Dress Well on a Budget posted at Money Ning, saying, "Looking awesome and expensive clothes really isn't a synonym. Here are

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CREDAI Real Estate Property Expo in Kochi - A Report

2010-08-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India) is an association with over 5000 builders as members and over twenty member associations. The primary purpose of the organization is driving government policy to the benefit of the builders and customers. A secondary objective is ensuring transparency and better practices among builders. A major benefit of having such a

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Buying a Home in a Hot Bay Area Market - An Experience

2010-08-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

Ads marketing newly built homes in Alameda, CA were a mainstay in the San Francisco Chronicle in the early 90’s. These ads highlighted the opportunity to own a home in a beautiful island setting just across from the City of San Francisco – and that too at an affordable price starting in the 200,000’s. Although at that time looking for homes were not even in our horizon, the ads were truly

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Flipping a House during the Bubble Period in the Bay Area - An Experience.

2010-08-06T09:58:00.001-07:00

This log details our experience in owning and subsequently selling our first home. In the mid-nineties, it was our lot to move almost every other year, seeking proximity to work places. The earliest we toyed with the idea of purchasing a home was in 1997. Around then a number of our classmates had bought new homes as a befitting self-gift upon receiving their Green Card. We were then renting

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Stamps of Cayman Islands - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-08-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

Cayman Islands are a set of three islands located in the Western Caribbean Sea, 400 miles South of Miami, 180 miles south of Cuba, and 200 miles northwest of Jamaica. The islands are Grand Cayman (75 square miles), Cayman Brac (14 square miles), and Little Cayman (10 square miles). The islands are flat coral heads covering peaks of an underwater ridge standing 8000 feet from the sea floor.

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Stamps of Cape Verde - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-08-02T00:25:00.000-07:00

Cape Verde is an archipelago of ten islands and eight islets located about 375 miles off the coast of West Africa. The islands were uninhabited until they were discovered by European navigators in the mid-fifteenth century. The next century saw the archipelago prosper from the transatlantic slave trade. Although that prosperity was transient, the islands’ position in the mid-Atlantic

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Stamps of Canada - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Canada is a country in North America bordered by USA to the South & North (Alaska), North Atlantic Ocean to the East, and North Pacific Ocean to the West. Human presence is established in the Northern Yukon areas as far back as 26,500 years ago. The aboriginal peoples of Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. European presence started when the Vikings settled briefly in

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Goodbye Alameda, Hello Kochi!

2010-07-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

On our quest for financial independence we relocated to Kochi in Kerala, India. Kochi is the industrial city in the tiny state of Kerala bordered by the Arabian Sea along the southwestern coast of India. We considered several locations for relocation before settling on this unlikely place. These factors contributed to our decision:Cost of Living: As we expect a lull before generating income

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Economy, Business, Credit, & Debit @ the Roundup #21

2010-07-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

<!-- The next few lines insert the BlogCarnival LogoLink for the July 20, 2010 edition of "road to financial independence" here. Presence of the BlogCarnival LogoLink allows this carnival edition to be listed at blogcarnival.com. This example puts it in the upper right corner, but it can go

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Carnival of Road to Financial Independence #21

2010-07-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

Stock Portfolio and Watch List Update for July 2010

2010-07-15T21:09:00.001-07:00

Following are the activity from the previous month:Doubled down on Frontline (FRO) and added 50% more Harris (HRS) with about 3.5% of our total portfolio value.Added Becton Dickson (BDX) with about 2.5% of our total portfolio value.Wrote cash covered puts on Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Jan 2011 40 at $2.11 and Ameritrade (AMTD) Feb 2011 15 at $1.35. The cash coverage requirement for the

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Stamps of the United Republic of Cameroon - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-07-13T09:44:00.001-07:00

Cameroon is a country in Central Western Africa bordered by Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, and the Atlantic Ocean (Bight of Bonny – Gulf of Guinea). Human presence dates back to the Neolithic period (around 9000 BC). The earliest continuous presence was by groups such as Baka in the early 6th century AD. The colonial period started when the German

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Stamps of Cambodia (formerly Kampuchea) - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-07-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Cambodia (Kampuchea) is a country in South East Asia bordered by Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and the Gulf of Thailand. Radiocarbon dating has established human activity in the area as far back as 6000 BC. More recently, the Khmer Empire was established around the ninth century. The Khmer Empire flourished till the 15th century when it became a vassal state of Ayutthaya Kingdom. The next four

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Stamps of Burundi - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-07-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

Burundi is a land-locked country in Central Africa bordered by Rwanda, Tanzania, and Democratic Republic of Congo. The southwestern border of the country is Lake Tanganyika, the 2nd largest fresh water lake in the world by volume. Early history of Burundi dates from the 16th century when a Burundian state was established by a man named Cambarantama. It became a part of German East Africa in

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Stamps of Burma - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-07-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

Burma is the largest country in Indochina. The area is bordered by China to the North, Laos to the East, Thailand on the South-East, Bangladesh on the West, India on the North-West, Bay of Bengal to the South-West and Andaman Sea to the South. Roughly one-third of its perimeter to the South forms an uninterrupted coastline. The early history of Burma dates back to around 1000 BC when the

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Summer Reading List for Adults - A Compilation with ISBNs and Prices

2010-07-06T22:42:00.001-07:00

This is a continuation of the series of articles on summer reading lists. The post is a recommended summer reading list for adults collected from various sources.Fiction:.nobrtable br { display: none }ItemISBNRetail PriceBest Price The BelieversB002SB8P5G$25.99$10.40Brooklyn978-1439148952$15$10.20Cemetery Dance978-0446580298$26.99$12Water for Elephants978-1565125605$13.95$8.37East of Eden978-

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401K and Retirement Accounts 2010 Mid-Year Performance Summary

2010-07-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

The total returns so far this year (July 2, 2010) was a loss of 4.78%. The performance compare well with the returns of domestic indexes, which are up down around 9%, emerging market indexes, which are up down around 7%, and other developed markets, which are down about 14%. We started the year with an allocation of 35-35-30 among Domestic, International, and Bond Funds respectively. The

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Stamps of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) - Philatelic Country Profile

2010-06-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) is a land-locked country in Western Africa bordered by Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. The northwestern part of present day Burkina Faso is known to have been populated between 14,000 and 5000 BC. More recently, the Mossi kingdoms dominated the area starting around the fifteenth century until they were defeated by French Colonial Forces

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