Money Green Life

I am a strong advocate of Netflix. I just love it. For awhile, I used blockbuster online rentals but once I switched to Netflix, I never turned back. Although Netflix already boasts over 15 million subscribers, they’re not done yet. They’re preparing themselves to tap into Canadian market and will start offering streaming only service in a few months.

Currently, due to lower profit per subscriber numbers, the Netflix stock price is declining. As of right now at 11:32 am EST, the price is down 10.66% at $106.81. I believe this might be a good time to invest in some Netflix stock. The fundamentals haven’t changed and the future still looks bright.

If you have not taken advantage of Netflix service, you can still try it out for free for two weeks. You can cancel within the two-week trial period and pay nothing. You can simply cancel the service online so you won’t have to deal with trying to come up with excuses talking to a real live representative.

I wrote about Netflix service a few times already. I have listed them here so you can refer to them easily.

Netflix Streaming Review: Save Money With Netflix
Roku Becomes Friendlier with Netflix
Use Your Wii To Stream Netflix, Save 10%
Hulu Competes With Netflix

I was fortunate enough to lock in my mortgage rate at a low 4.375%. There’s still some chance of going lower, but at this point, the chance of going up is greater than it is to go down further. But before you lock it in now, you must still be careful not to get ripped off. Yahoo Finance released an article today about some of the warnings. It’s a short article, but allow me to briefly summarize it for you.

Reliable lenders will help you as much as they can to give you the best rate as possible. But there are still some shady lenders out there and will oftentimes confuse the consumers with rate quotes, which is much different from rate lock-ins. Typical rate lock-ins take no more than a day or two, so if your lender is requesting more time, it should give you a red alert signal and stay away from this lender.

I didn’t have to worry about foul play during my refinancing process because it was through a friend who is a mortgage lender. I knew I could trust him. So, when locking in your rate, always have a documentation indicating such, instead of relying on the lender’s verbal statement.

To read the full yahoo article, you can do so here.

Stephen Strasburg is a rookie baseball player who made his major league debut couple months ago with the Washington Nationals. He has been amazing so far and his stats confirm it too. Because of his tremendous start to his career, the value of his baseball cards have been super hot, often selling for 5-digits, some going for as high as $30,000 for a single card!

Why would anyone even consider purchasing such card for such a high value? Are they die-hard fans? How can anyone be a die-hard fan of someone who just entered the league? My only guess is that these people are buying now and probably flipping them for even higher price tag for a nice hefty profit.

So, what does this have to do with trading? Oftentimes, we are taught to only buy low and sell high, that this is the only smart way of trading. I believe this statement still holds true, but it’s so hard to pick the bottom, buy the stock, and then sell it as it climbs up in price. I have personally testified to this in my previous post, Jim Joyce is Forgiven: The Worst Call Ever. So investors are doing away with this method and buying stocks high and then selling them even higher for a profit. I believe that’s what these baseball card investors are doing. It’s risky because Stephen Strasburg cards are not actually as valuable as they seem. It’s all hype and speculation. Just like stocks, if you can ride the hype and speculation of a hot stock pick, you can make a good chunk of change.

To start trading right away, open an online brokerage account with low trade commission fees. I previously wrote how you should wait to , but I rescind that statement. I fully support and suggest TradeKing as your online broker. Their commission is one of the lowest I can find at $4.95/trade.

Do you still own baseball cards you collected from years back? What’s the most valuable card you own now?

I bought my house back in August 2006. Back then my mortgage rate was at 6.75%. It was absolutely the worst timing I could possibly be in. The rates had just started to go up and the housing boom peaked in late 2006 to early 2007. Fortunately, the rates started to come down again and I was able to refinance at 5.5% in January 2008. This lowered my monthly mortgage payment from $2250 to $2020, about 10%. I recouped all the fees in less than 18 months from the money I was saving. Now, the mortgage rates are down to new record lows once again and I didn’t hesitate to jump in to refinance again. Once again, I should be able to recoup the fees in about 18 months. It might even help me increase my credit score. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night during a fierce storm, my entire neighborhood went dark as I was in the process of writing my next post for this blog Money Green Life. We lost power from 8pm to about 2am. There was nothing to do except play a few games from my iPhone. While that kept me entertained for an hour or two, it was slowly becoming really hot inside the house. Without any air conditioning, it was also a struggle just to fall asleep comfortably.

Fortunately, I was able to quickly discover a few tips on my own to help me fall asleep at night when there was no power.

Open Windows Strategically

Yes, I know. This one is a no-brainer. But what people generally don’t know is that simply opening windows is not enough and will not necessarily allow outside air to flow into the house, especially when there is no breeze outside. Air in a typical space travels from higher pressure to lower pressure, just like water (Bernoulli’s Principle?). So when you consider this principle, open your windows so that windows that are located in higher elevation is directly across from windows that are located in lower elevation. This causes a natural pressure gradient ventilation through the openings of these windows.

Take A Cold Shower

Yes, this one is a no-brainer as well. A very quick way to stop sweating is to cool off, with a cold shower. Not only will you feel cooler and refreshed, you’ll feel cleaner from washing away all that sweat. Additionally, using cold water to cool off helps maintain your hot water in your hot water heater. When the power is out, the hot water heater stops heating water, but the reservoir in the tank is still hot and can still be used if needed. This hot water shouldn’t be wasted in case you might need it for something more important.

Use Ice Packs

After taking a cold shower, wrap ice packs in a cloth and place them under your arms and on your forehead. These are the warmest parts of your body and keeping them cool will help you not sweat as much as you’re trying to fall asleep. Hopefully, by the time all that ice melts away, the power will be back on and you’ll already be sleeping like a baby.

These are very common sense practices to help you keep cool at night when you have power so you can sleep comfortably. I was able to sleep well last night using these tips and when I woke up in the morning, the power was back on and it was as if nothing had happened.

What are some of your ways to keep cool when there is no air conditioning available?