Month: March 2010

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HELOC to Finance New Car?

Interesting… so while contemplating on how I should finance my new car, I started to do research on the best method. Originally my 2 options were:

  • Sell stock and buy the car outright
  • Make a small down payment and finance the car at $400-600/mo for 60 months (at ~6.6% interest rate)

However, I’ve been looking at HELOC (home equity line of credit) and it’s looking more and more like the correct action to take. One thing that does have me a bit worried is that HELOCs are variable rate, but according to MarketWatch, the current HELOC interest rate is around 3.25% (is it me or is that exceptionally low?). I’ll need to discuss this further with my dad and Derek as they know a lot more about HELOCs than I do.

Even if the interest goes up to 7%, there’s a huge benefit in using HELOC to finance my car and that’s because the interest is tax deductible. According to BankRate.com:

When you refinance acquisition debt or take out additional debt such as a HELOC, you can deduct the interest on such debt if you use it to improve your residence and on up to an additional $100,000 that you can use for any purpose, except for the purchase of tax-exempt securities such as municipal bonds. If you use the $100,000 to buy a second home, then it gets thrown back into the $1 million pot.

Maybe when I bring this up with my dad and Derek, they’ll knock me on my head and call me stupid for thinking up such a stupid scheme. But so far, it feels like a sound plan. I wonder if I have enough money in my house yet to cover the whole purchase.

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Time for a New Car?

With the recent issues found in my current car, my dad’s been suggesting that I might want to purchase a new car instead of investing $1k into repairing a car which currently has a ~$6k resale value. Plus he says the sales tax would definitely help me with taxes for the year 2010 and if I purchase a hybrid, I may even save more.

That got me start thinking about getting a new car. I’ve had my current 2001 Honda Civic EX since high school and it’s still going great, still giving me ~28MPG, but it’ll turn 10 years old this Thanksgiving. Kelley’s Blue Book says I can trade-in my car for ~$6000. However, a bunch of stuff is going on right now in my life and I haven’t really even decided what type of car I want yet.

After speaking with Derek, I decided I’d probably fix up Civic for now and somewhere down 2010, purchase a new car. As for fixing my Civic, instead of going to the dealer, I’ll be getting quotes from other auto shops around town. @rothgar gave a really good suggestion about checking out AAA certified auto shops. There also appears to be a good list on Microsoft Prime.

So Derek and I were brainstorming ideas of what my next car should be. I decided I’d be willing to spend between $30-50k (funny that I actually have just over that in liquid assets). On an unrelated note, Dad also said I should probably open a HELOC and start borrowing money to accrue interest for 2010 tax purposes.

I’ve always been a big fan of the BMW M3 since vonlobster introduced it to me back in college, but that might be out of my price range. Derek also says that the M3 is a harsh ride where you can feel every acceleration, corner turn, roaring engine, etc., and wasn’t sure if I’d be a fan of that. He also suggested if I was interested in an M3, to purchased it used would be his recommendation, like what he did.

I was initially thinking of a BMW or an Audi, but Derek’s been scaring me with high maintenance costs for BMW and Audi cars (i.e. oil change for the M3 is $250 because it uses special motor oil). The Audi A4 and A5 are looking beautiful. Derek also suggested that I may be interested in the BMW 335 or 135, which look sweet also.

I may also consider getting an Acura or Lexus. For some reason none of the current Acura car line-up looks that great. Maybe I just don’t like the way the front looks. On the Lexus side, the IS looks really nice.

Probably need to get together with Derek someday to talk more about cars.

Update: The more and more I compare, I’m starting to really dig the Audi A4.

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Gendercide

Read these 2 really interesting articles on The Economist:

I originally thought these articles were about China’s one-child policy. It does touch upon that and the policy definitely exacerbates the issue. However, the abnormally higher male-borns to female-borns ratio is also seen in economically-rich and developed countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. The main reason attributed is the “son preference” of many eastern cultures: the fact that the son is seen as continuing your legacy and the daughter is seen as given away when she’s married.

As a Hindu saying puts it, “Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbours’ garden.”

Another interesting note mentioned is that it’s not the one-child policy but rather the relaxation of it that is causing this abnormal upsurge of male-borns in China. Their example uses Guangdong (where my parents are from and apparently China’s most populous province, something I didn’t know). Their ratio is 120 boys to 100 girls, while the natural average is closer to 103-106. However, they did a comparison of ratios between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-borns:

  • 1st born: 108 boys to 100 girls
  • 2nd born: 146 boys to 100 girls
  • 3rd born: 167 boys to 100 girls
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

  • Oooh, I found 2x $100 bills next to my checkbooks. #newfoundmoney #
  • My body doesn't seem to want more than 6-7 hours of sleep. Waking up at 9am on Sunday… what's wrong with me? #
  • Wow. The sun is out! Maybe I should do something outside today. 🙂 #
  • has the sudden urge to acquire a piano, or maybe a keyboard. #
  • The secret of doing more pull-ups: the lighter you get, the more you can do! Started this year at 3. Now I'm at 6. #
  • Booo. Looks like HSBC Direct has dropped interest rates to 1.10%. That's even below ING's 1.15% #
  • Haha. I was trying to read katagana and for a bit , couldn't figure out what deipa-cha- was. Finally figured out it was departure. #
  • @angelgrrl813 I've been having a similar issue. I woke up at 7:45am today. Alarm was supposed to go off at 10. in reply to angelgrrl813 #
  • w00t! Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch is available for Rock Band! http://bit.ly/9RLigf #
  • http://twitpic.com/16ad31 – Apparently Ron Paul fans are also Newegg fans. #
  • YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Step 2 success! #
  • Sigh… @Zune #fail – Apparently it can't find songs when I search for One Republic, but finds them if I search OneRepublic. #
  • @bartonjs What you just said reminds me of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mtclwloEQ in reply to bartonjs #
  • @bartonjs Gotcha. 🙂 in reply to bartonjs #
  • @superekin Unfortunately they're topics I don't feel comfortable sharing with people outside my close circle of friends. Sorry. 🙂 in reply to superekin #
  • What if DRM was an episode of Power Rangers: http://bit.ly/donMRf #
  • @angelgrrl813 Too much exercise the day before? in reply to angelgrrl813 #
  • @jani_s Oooooh! Is someone flying in from Japan to your wedding? in reply to jani_s #
  • @jani_s Hong Kong's been under British rule for so many years. ;p in reply to jani_s #
  • @jani_s The British didn't want to kanji when they were ruling Hong Kong. ;p in reply to jani_s #
  • DUN DUN DUN! SATURDAY! SATURDAY! SATURDAY! 😀 Saturday can't come early enough. Hahahahaha. #
  • This is sweet! .NET Reflector Pro http://bit.ly/a1vuPk supports debugging w/o pdbs and source code. #
  • Interesting, bit.ly converts onion.com urls using onion.com's own domain. #
  • Doki Doki … #
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唔該 vs 多謝

So I was taught the difference between 唔該 (m goi) vs 多謝 (do ze) today. Both of these are used in Cantonese dialog and hardly used in text.

Both of these mean thank you and personally I’ve always used them interchangeably, but was taught the difference between them today. Apparently if money is ever involved, you should use 多謝. 唔該 is usually reserved for something small, like assistance provided. I asked if there’s ever a situation where you can use 唔該, but not 多謝. They agreed that 多謝 can be typically used wherever 唔該 is accepted, but not the other way around. So when I said 唔該 after getting treated to dinner, it was used incorrectly. I should have used 多謝.

I asked them how to write 唔該, since my Cantonese dialog to text is weak. Usually I ask my father these questions. Like the other day, I asked him how to write poke a hole. In text/Mandarin (the Chinese I learnt), it’s completely different. I forget why I asked him how to write poke a hole, but it’s 篤個窿 (duk go lung). Speaking of which, CantoDict is an awesome Cantonese Dictionary if you’re ever interested in learning Cantonese.

After seeing the kanji, I began breaking the word apart. First, 多謝 means many thanks. 唔 means not and 該 means should. In other words, 唔該 means you shouldn’t have, which I guess can be interpreted as thank you. I’ve been using this phrase for who knows how long and it’s the first time I realized the meaning. Chinese is so fun sometimes!

Update： Thanks to superekin for providing an extra point of view. He said to think of 唔該 as どうも (doumo) and 多謝 as ありがとうございます (arigatougozaimasu).

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Wrong Restroom and $500 of Repairs Required for My Car

Today I went to get my Honda Civic serviced. There was a recall noticed and they needed to replace my airbag. I actually received this notice some time last year, just never really got around to acting on it. Anyway, the service was going to take 4 hours, so I decided to drop by Factoria mall and hang around there. Turns out there’s really not much to do there or I just suck at shopping.

I got Jamba Juice for lunch; went to Big 5 and purchased some knee pads; even went to Target and purchased some workout gloves (I was getting blisters from lifting weights). With that all said and done, I had only spent an hour so far. 3 more to kill.

Anyway, when I was about to leave the main Factoria mall and try other stores on that street, I needed to use the restroom. Found the restrooms on their map and went for it. I was sure I saw the men’s sign before entering the restroom, but once opening the door I noticed something strange. There were only stalls, no urinals. I stepped back outside and looked at the sign again. Turns out I entered the women’s restroom. %$#@! Good thing no one was around or outside the stalls. I quickly left and went further down and found the men’s restroom.

I walked around some more. Turns out they were selling girl scout cookies in front of QFC, so I purchased 2 boxes of thin mints. I felt bad that I didn’t have $8 and needed them to break a $50, but all in all, I now have 2 boxes of thin mints in my freezer.

Anyway, walking around aimlessly for 1 more hour, I explored all of Factoria and found many stores/restaurants I never knew existed. But even then I still had 2 hours to kill. I thought next time this happens I should bring a laptop and find a coffee shop. I found a plaza across from Factoria that had 2 Star Bucks, literally ~10 stores apart. I would’ve expected that in a major downtown city, but Factoria? I ended up playing games on my cell phone to kill another hour.

For the last hour, hoping they would be done early as I’ve got to be somewhere later tonight, I walked back and sat in the customer lounge. My car was ready around 1:45pm, but there was some bad news. Apparently they found tears in my suspension as well as tears in some boot. Cost to fix is ~$500. He also suggested with my car’s age, I should probably consider getting my timing belt replaced (usually every 7 years or 110,000 miles, whichever comes first; my car is 10 years old, but has less than 70k miles on it). He said that would cost around $500-700 depending on the package I select. I scheduled an appointment for Tuesday to get all this stuff done.

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Credit Lines Shrinkage

It looks like credit card companies are cracking down hard on unused credit. As I had blogged about previously, Citi had began charging an annual fee for inactivity. I actually called in this past weekend and inquired about switching to a different account with no fees. Unfortunately the customer service rep told me that it didn’t really matter which account I switched to, I’d be getting a similar letter soon afterwards telling me about the inactivity fee. I ended up closing that account. I believe I had about $6,000 in credit limit on that card.

Today I received a letter from American Express stating:

We’re writing today because we noticed that you’ve only been using a small portion of your available credit limit. To more closely match your spending history, we have adjusted the credit limit on your account to $6,500.00 The cash advance limit is $1,3000.00. If this new credit limit is not sufficient for your business, please call us at 1-800-660-2454 between the hours of 8:00am and midnight Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

I believe my previous credit limit on this card was either $10k or $11k, so basically reducing it in half. Technically, I only put about $100/mo on this card, and mostly for gasoline purchases since it gives me 3% back instantly.

Banks must be hurting.