There is a greater than 50% chance that the medium BAG of popcorn has more popcorn than the large TUB of popcorn in movie theaters.

I am mildly annoyed with GW for its class schedule.  For the Phud Program, we've got 2 required classes in the fall, the standard Micro I and Macro I.  Macro I is all night on Wednesday (6-10).   Micro I is on Thursday (6-8) but FRIDAY(OMGWTFBBQ) from 5-7.  Seriously?  A class on Friday?  That stinks.  I'm going to change my AWS (I work longer for ( Read more... )

Note:  This is just a back-of-the-envelope calculation and therefore many of the assumptions like constant returns may be as useful as a holey umbrella in a hurricane.  However, it is an interesting bet and

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/04/news/newsmakers/buffett_bet.fortune/index.htm

Will a collection of hedge funds, carefully selected by ( Read more... )

Just a quick finance tip:

If you're looking for a budget / savings planner software out there, you can buy it in a store for about 50 dollars, or you can find a free service online.  The two best free services are Motley Fool's Mint   or Yodlee's Moneycenter .   I've used both, and I'd say that they each have their strengths.

Mint is much more useful ( Read more... )

 When I was in high school, I participated in my state’s stock market game.  It was designed to introduce our economics class to the world of investing.  That’s where I first heard of the Motley Fool, which at the time was an upstart website for financial investors and went against the grain of having advisors manage your money.  Rather, I ( Read more... )

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to visit The Motley Fool.  I unknowningly was sitting next to David Gardner, one of their founders.  Imagine my suprise and excitement when I found out.  I'm going to have a full blog post written and crossposted to GetRichSlowly.org next week.  However, I am excited to say that I'll be sitting down with David ( Read more... )

My wife's scooter was stolen (dragged) from our alleyway driveway Sunday night.  We recovered it a few blocks away Monday afternoon, just on luck of seeing it ( Read more... )

Yesterday at 5PM I received notice from George Washington University that I was accepted into their PhD Program in Economics.  The PhD Department is a whole two blocks away from my current job.  This should make commuting a breeze.  Furthermore, I have a flexible schedule so I'll be able to go to seminars during the day.

With my MA from GMU, I ( Read more... )

Omaha is sometimes referred to as the Mecca of Capitalism.  When Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have their annual meeting, thousands flock in for what's as close as you can get to a Carnival atmosphere of economics, finance, and capitalism.

His annual reports and letters are an excellent read.

It's my goal next year to attend the meeting.  I ( Read more... )

When the sun is shining and the weather warm but cooled by a small breeze, working outside is close to heaven.  On Sunday morning, my wife worked all day (really, all day, sunrise to sunset) laying stone and stone dust to finish our patio.  It looks wonderful.  I spent the morning mowing the lawn with our RealMower (human powered mower), trimming, ( Read more... )