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$165 million in bonus to AIG execs?!!

Source: NPR News

What?!!  I sure hope the administration puts a stop to this madness!!  We put our OWN money in saving AIG’s butt and what do they do?!!  They give themselves bonuses for making one of the worst decisions ever?!!  (in regards to sub-prime mortgages)  I am beyond mad!!  If this keeps on going, I say pull the plug!!  What is going on with “responsible spending”?!!  😡

EDIT:

CNN Money article

Evidently it was ALREADY paid out!!  😡  And much of the bailout money went to Goldman Sachs & Merrill Lynch along with some European companies!!  WTH?!!  This is stupendous as the PEOPLE/government own 80% of the stupid company!!

Whoa!!  We paid back a German bank?!!  The bar graph on the left is from CNN Money article…

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Roughing it at Pedernales Falls State Park

One of my church friends, Chung, organized a camping trip opportunity so I hopped on.  So six guys set out to rough it out.  Our destination: Pedernales Falls State Park.  It’s a state park about half hour west of Austin.  Here’s the who:

That’s Yong on the left, Mike in the center, and Ken on the right.

Chung was the driver, I sat in the forward middle (which sucked!) and Walter on the passenger side.

The drive was just shy of four hours from the west side of Houston.  Here’s the group shot.

We camped at the primitive site, which meant no running water or electricity.  And this required about a two-mile hike into the site from the parking lot. Here’s some pictures of the hike into the site.

Chung is hard-core when it comes to nature and roughing it.  He’s from Canada after all!!  :p  But it was Mike’s first time and I hadn’t camped in over 10 years!  Last time was at Grand Canyon back in ’96!  Yikes… That’s Walter in the back and as a seasoned hiker, he hiked slowly and eventually I realized he was doing it deliberately to cover the rear and leaving no one left behind, mainly me.  So I really appreciated that.

Here’s a shot of Mike after his very first tent put up!

And Chung & Walter brought burners (since there was a burn ban in place) for cooking.  Leave it to Chung to bring steak to “rough” it!!  LOL.

Yong had brought cup ramen for dinner!  But one of the best had to be Ken’s choice from REI.  They evidently sell these meals in packets where you just pour hot water in the pouch, shake and then eat!  Awesome idea!  The only downside is the rather high sodium content!!  >.<

Here are some night shots…

Mike with his “head lamp”. And at night, the moon was almost full so we could actually see our path in the dark!

And because we didn’t realize they had no water at the site, after dinner, we hiked back to the parking lot to get more water!  So the first night, we had already hiked about 2 and 1/2 hours!  >.<

Day 2, we decided to hike to the top of Wolf “Mountain”.  Why did I put it in quotes?!  That’s because the top really wasn’t a mountain!

Above picture is a site where someone USED to live in!  Wow… now, THAT’s roughing it!!  After we had snack lunch at the “top”, we hiked back down and set out.  However, we did stop by the falls…

And to finish the day, we stopped by the good ol’ BBQ at the Salt Lick BBQ for late lunch/early dinner!  If you are ever near the area, you should definitely check it out!!

All in all, as sore as I am, I really enjoyed the time.  I had needed to get away from work and the busy craziness of life to get released from it all.  Additionally, I had great time getting to know Walter, catch up with Yong, and just chuckle at Chung and Mike.  I wish Ken would walk slower and get to know us but he was all about getting through the hike.  It definitely was a great bonding experience overall.  I am just scared to go again with Chung next time though… since he keeps on saying that he won’t be as “lenient” next time.

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My Resolution to buying used luxury cars (and how to find a good deal)

So as most of you know, we have ended up with an ’05 Infiniti G35x.  So far, I have been very happy with it.  From this researching and buying experience, my new resolution is that we buy slightly used cars from now on.  Slightly used luxury cars to be in fact.  However, here’s what I put in as minimum requirements.

  • Less than 4 years old
  • Less than 50,000 miles (usually luxury cars have about 4 year/50,000 mile warranty)

Here’s why… when it comes to luxury cars, they depreciate the most in their first TWO years!  It’s ridiculous when you find out that even cars like a ’05 BMW 525i can be had for $24,000!  You can see for yourself here!  InternetAutoguide.com has a decent layout of it.  The only luxury car brand that I’ve seen that held up value is Lexus.  All the rest pretty much loses easily a third to half of their value within 2 years!  How crazy is that?!  I am guessing that most who buy a luxury car don’t hold onto it for too long and upgrade after few years.  So the market is overloaded with slightly used luxury cars and hence the fall of their value.  My recommended procedure:

1. Determine the size of the car you are looking for and start researching on their used values using sites like Edmunds.com, NADA.com, and Kelly’s Blue Book.  I personally prefer Edmunds.com as their value estimate seems to be more reasonable.  Once you find out the levels of values (retail, private sale, and trade-in), try to shoot for the trade-in value of the car.

2. Next, start searching and here are some suggestions.

3. As you search for the car, sign up for a one-month unlimited account on Carfax (about $40) and be sure to do basic background check on the car using VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) number!  You want a car that wasn’t involved in an accident, totaled, salvaged, and/or was in a flooded area!  And shoot for a single-owner vehicle!

4. For cars you are looking at that is out of driving range to go and see it in person (thru sites like Autotrader or eBay), be SURE to check all the pictures and descriptions!

5. Special tip for eBay:

  • Avoid auctions with reserves on them.  They suck.
  • Always underbid at least few thousands below the trade-in value!  Yes, you read that right!  Since you weren’t be able to confirm anything, you want to figure in possible costs of fixer uppers.
  • Be sure to buy from established dealers!  Be sure to check that the seller has lots of good feedback as a seller!
  • Increase your search range (this is a nice feature on eBay and sites like cars.com and autotrader.com) once you start as local to your area as possible.

I will be sure to add more stuff if I remember anything else…

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Craigslist Reader: An Awesome Free Tool

This reminds me of the news group days… for those deal seekers out there, you all know about Craigslist, which is a free classified listing service.  You can find practically anything, including jobs!  However, it is practically daunting to try to find something sometimes because you couldn’t search by multiple locations and/or categories.  Well, your worry days in deal-finding days are over!  Thanks to Motion Technologies’ free software, Craigslist Reader, you can now just do that!   You can search by multiple locations and categories!!  Go get it and start looking for deals … or jobs!!  It’s rather easy to use and awesome at what it does!!

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Hyundai’s Assurance Program

I know I already spoke of Hyundai yesterday with the possible US-release of Equus, but I just had to mention/bring this up.  Hyundai has been one of the 3 car companies that have had positive sales in these tough times.  How?

It’s what Hyundai calls “Assurance Program.”  It’s rather ingenious in that it provides the buyer with an option to return the car within 1 year of the purchase date if he/she gets laid off and can’t make the payments.  Now, that’s a creative way to sell cars.

The bigger question is, how come other car makers (hint hint, GM, Ford, and Chrysler) don’t try something as creative and just ask us for more money?!!  Ah ha… yup.  That’s what I thought…

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Fighting high luxury with Hyundai?!

Courtesy of Autoblog
Courtesy of Autoblog

This new auto year of ’09, Hyundai released a car into luxury segment with its Genesis.  It starts at $33k and if you opt for V8 and other amenities, you can easily go over $40k.  Now, that’s a Hyundai you probably didn’t think of ever seeing!

Well, the shock may not be over yet.  Pending on how well the Genesis goes, Hyundai may opt to add another luxury fighter: Equus.  While Genesis is geared to fight against the likes of BMW 5 series  and Benz E series along with Lexus’ ES and GS series, it is no match against the likes of any of their flagships like Lexus LS series, BMW 7 series and Benz S-class sedans.  Equus is geared to fight against the likes of those cars!  That’s a lot to live for…

Currently, Equus is only released in South Korea at “measley” price of close to $100k!  😮  Yikes.  Granted that cars cost a lot more in Korea, even at half of that, I am unsure how well it would be received.  I guess only time will tell…  It’s definitely a gutsy move though… Stay tuned.