&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"><channel><title>Finance on Hi from Dwipal</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/tags/finance/</link><description>Recent content in Finance on Hi from Dwipal</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:22:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://dwipal.com/blog/tags/finance/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Bitcoins!</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2011-06-27-bitcoins/</link><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:22:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2011-06-27-bitcoins/</guid><description>&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;Have been playing around with bitcoins lately. Even though I seriously doubt the long-term viability of such a currency, I think its pretty amazing to be able to use it right now.
&lt;p&gt;If you haven&amp;rsquo;t heard about it, &lt;a href="http://bitcoin.org/"&gt;Bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; is a P2P, completely decentralized currency. Its like a digital version of having cash, with all the benifits (and disadvantages) of cash. Its anonymous and can&amp;rsquo;t really be tracked (just like cash), but can also get stolen if someone gets access to your files.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;Have been playing around with bitcoins lately. Even though I seriously doubt the long-term viability of such a currency, I think its pretty amazing to be able to use it right now.
&lt;p&gt;If you haven&amp;rsquo;t heard about it, &lt;a href="http://bitcoin.org/"&gt;Bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; is a P2P, completely decentralized currency. Its like a digital version of having cash, with all the benifits (and disadvantages) of cash. Its anonymous and can&amp;rsquo;t really be tracked (just like cash), but can also get stolen if someone gets access to your files.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;People have been using it to buy &lt;a href="http://www.whimsybags.com/"&gt;t-shirts and accesories&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.vpnrocket.com/hosting.php"&gt;server space&lt;/a&gt; and a physical &lt;a href="http://starburst.hackerfriendly.com/?p=1530"&gt;NY restaurant&lt;/a&gt; even accepts payments using bitcoins. Imagine traveling the world without worrying about currency exchange problems and having a single currency that works everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img border="0" src="https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/bitcoins/WeLv_BC_Badge_128px.png"/&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To get started, check out &lt;a href="http://bitcoin.org/"&gt;bitcoin.org&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="http://bitcoin.org/"&gt;download the app&lt;/a&gt;. on your computer and send me your bitcoin address so I can send you some!. If you are feeling rather generous, my address is 1JcNMmEUYCieADecgUNkjE3vYTanJhD9wu :)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dwipal&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h3 id="comments"&gt;Comments&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;zameer&lt;/strong&gt; (December 01, 2021):&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Karnataka 562123
080736 70915
SHREE SAI PACKERS AND MOVERS
#18/3, 30ft road,, sri krishna colony,
kuduregere main road,, alur post,
Bangalore,
Packers and movers bangalore&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Guru TV Repair
52 shampura main road, Munni veerappa layout
Kaval bairasandra
Bengaluru, Karnataka 560032
080888 33910
Led tv repair in bangalore&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Graphica Gauges and Tools
S. No. 37, Ramnagar, Ramnagar Tempo Chowk,Vadgoensheri
Pune, Maharashtra 411014
098508 84992
Thread Ring Gauges&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;iRobo Wellness Private Limited
AryaHub Mall No. 22
Hope farm Junction Whitefield
Bangalore, Karnataka 560066
099806 58125
Massage chair&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>On My Investing Strategy</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2011-01-27-on-my-investing-strategy/</link><pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:43:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2011-01-27-on-my-investing-strategy/</guid><description>&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;Don't talk to me about investments. Do introductions if someone is doing something I might be excited about, not just about investing.
&lt;p&gt;My primary reason to invest is not to make money (though its a nice outcome), but to get involved in products that I get very excited about.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;Don't talk to me about investments. Do introductions if someone is doing something I might be excited about, not just about investing.
&lt;p&gt;My primary reason to invest is not to make money (though its a nice outcome), but to get involved in products that I get very excited about.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>Price History</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2010-01-25-price-history/</link><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:41:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2010-01-25-price-history/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;If you are thinking of buying something, but are not in a hurry, and want to make sure that you get the best deal, check out &lt;a href="http://camelcamelcamel.com/"&gt;camelcamelcamel.com&lt;/a&gt;. They have an awesome amazon and 3rd price history of different items.&lt;div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Happy shopping!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Dwipal&lt;/div&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;If you are thinking of buying something, but are not in a hurry, and want to make sure that you get the best deal, check out &lt;a href="http://camelcamelcamel.com/"&gt;camelcamelcamel.com&lt;/a&gt;. They have an awesome amazon and 3rd price history of different items.&lt;div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Happy shopping!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Dwipal&lt;/div&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>Health Care or Health Insurance</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2010-01-13-health-care-or-health-insurance/</link><pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:33:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2010-01-13-health-care-or-health-insurance/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Of all the news, debates, articles and bills that are going on regarding &amp;lsquo;healthcare reform&amp;rsquo;, most of the talk is more about &amp;lsquo;health insurance reform&amp;rsquo;, or &amp;lsquo;how to get a net increase in health insurance payments from people&amp;rsquo;.&lt;div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Everyone is talking about taxing the rich to get more money in health insurance, putting surcharges on so called cadillac plans, making it mandatory for everyone to take health insurance, etc. without any significant (if at all) improvement in the actual health care. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;How about our politicians re-think this problem again, and go to the root of this: Healthcare is ridiculously expensive in the US, so try and reduce the actual cost of health care. If this happens, then, automatically, insurance premiums will go down and people will be able to afford it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;From my personal experience, healthcare is a big mess because of these main reasons:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Its ridiculously expensive. Even something like a regular physical runs into 1000s of dollars.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;People are not used to paying from their own pocket: hospitals directly bill the insurance companies. So people who have insurance don't know (or care) how much they got charged.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Every small medical need requires a person to go the insurance company to pay for it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Not that it really matters, but in my opinion, an ideal healthcare / insurance system should behave like:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Basic health care (for regular fever, minor injuries, etc) should be inexpensive enough that no insurance is needed. People who get hurt or get sick very often pay for it from their pockets. As it will be affordable, it will not have an adverse effect on the finances.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Catastrophic illness, accidents, surgery should be covered with a real insurance.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Everyone should first pay from their own pocket, and then claim insurance. Currently, as people don't see the bill at all, they never know how much things cost.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;High emphasis should be given to preventive care (but this is not a part of health insurance)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;Insurance is always against major expenses, but our health system has it for everything. Imaging that you have to claim auto insurance for doing an oil change.. this is what we are doing in health care... it just doesn't make sense.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Of all the news, debates, articles and bills that are going on regarding &amp;lsquo;healthcare reform&amp;rsquo;, most of the talk is more about &amp;lsquo;health insurance reform&amp;rsquo;, or &amp;lsquo;how to get a net increase in health insurance payments from people&amp;rsquo;.&lt;div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Everyone is talking about taxing the rich to get more money in health insurance, putting surcharges on so called cadillac plans, making it mandatory for everyone to take health insurance, etc. without any significant (if at all) improvement in the actual health care. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;How about our politicians re-think this problem again, and go to the root of this: Healthcare is ridiculously expensive in the US, so try and reduce the actual cost of health care. If this happens, then, automatically, insurance premiums will go down and people will be able to afford it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;From my personal experience, healthcare is a big mess because of these main reasons:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Its ridiculously expensive. Even something like a regular physical runs into 1000s of dollars.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;People are not used to paying from their own pocket: hospitals directly bill the insurance companies. So people who have insurance don't know (or care) how much they got charged.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Every small medical need requires a person to go the insurance company to pay for it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Not that it really matters, but in my opinion, an ideal healthcare / insurance system should behave like:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Basic health care (for regular fever, minor injuries, etc) should be inexpensive enough that no insurance is needed. People who get hurt or get sick very often pay for it from their pockets. As it will be affordable, it will not have an adverse effect on the finances.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Catastrophic illness, accidents, surgery should be covered with a real insurance.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Everyone should first pay from their own pocket, and then claim insurance. Currently, as people don't see the bill at all, they never know how much things cost.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;High emphasis should be given to preventive care (but this is not a part of health insurance)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;Insurance is always against major expenses, but our health system has it for everything. Imaging that you have to claim auto insurance for doing an oil change.. this is what we are doing in health care... it just doesn't make sense.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>You have been pre-approved for identity theft!</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-10-24-you-have-been-pre-approved-for-identity-theft/</link><pubDate>Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:49:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-10-24-you-have-been-pre-approved-for-identity-theft/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Talking all about saving paper and things like that, I noticed my mailbox gets totally spammed with credit card offers and such, which I have never ever used. Besides the annoyance that you have to shred those &amp;ldquo;offers&amp;rdquo; so that nobody misuses them, they also fill up the mailbox and make a big mess.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most of those companies get the details from credit reporting agencies. There is now a number you can call that will stop the credit agencies from giving out this information:&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Talking all about saving paper and things like that, I noticed my mailbox gets totally spammed with credit card offers and such, which I have never ever used. Besides the annoyance that you have to shred those &amp;ldquo;offers&amp;rdquo; so that nobody misuses them, they also fill up the mailbox and make a big mess.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most of those companies get the details from credit reporting agencies. There is now a number you can call that will stop the credit agencies from giving out this information:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;888-567-8688&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It seems to be like the do-not-call list for phone, but this one is for mail.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I just got mine removed, time shall tell how well it works.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h3 id="comments"&gt;Comments&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;None&lt;/strong&gt; (February 08, 2007):&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hi,If you have a complaint about credit card, load or any financial institution, please postthem at this website:Review your credit card @ &lt;a href="https://www.pissedconsumer.comor"&gt;www.pissedconsumer.comor&lt;/a&gt; you can also check out our blog atBlog your complaint @ pissedconsumer.blogspot.comRegards,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;None&lt;/strong&gt; (August 24, 2007):&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Oh&amp;hellip; Thank you. I&amp;rsquo;ll use your links.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>Car Value and Deprecation</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-10-21-car-value-and-deprecation/</link><pubDate>Sat, 21 Oct 2006 08:56:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-10-21-car-value-and-deprecation/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;I ran some numbers to find out what is the optimal time to sell a car. This is what came out of that.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As most people know, a car deprecates the maximum in first year, and then when its around 5 years old. After that, the deprecation becomes lower.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" src="https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/car-value-and-deprecation/g1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;"/&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6151/1688/1600/g2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"&gt;
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" src="https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/car-value-and-deprecation/g2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;"/&gt;
Numbers for Toyota Camry Solara SE Coupe. Original Cost $ 18,500. Source: edmunds.com&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I ran some numbers to find out what is the optimal time to sell a car. This is what came out of that.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As most people know, a car deprecates the maximum in first year, and then when its around 5 years old. After that, the deprecation becomes lower.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" src="https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/car-value-and-deprecation/g1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;"/&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6151/1688/1600/g2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"&gt;
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img alt="" border="0" src="https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/car-value-and-deprecation/g2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;"/&gt;
Numbers for Toyota Camry Solara SE Coupe. Original Cost $ 18,500. Source: edmunds.com&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>When to buy air tickets..</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-08-21-when-to-buy-air-tickets/</link><pubDate>Mon, 21 Aug 2006 07:42:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-08-21-when-to-buy-air-tickets/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;We all wonder what will be the optimal time to buy an air ticket. It typically is a couple of weeks beforehand, but if you have already missed that, there is this new website &lt;a href="http://www.farecast.com"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farecast.com"&gt;http://www.farecast.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/a&gt;which helps.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The site gives a graph of fares for your destination across a few months, and gives you recommendations on whether they are expected to rise or fall. They recently added a lot of cities (were only seattle previously), and chances are you will find your city there.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We all wonder what will be the optimal time to buy an air ticket. It typically is a couple of weeks beforehand, but if you have already missed that, there is this new website &lt;a href="http://www.farecast.com"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farecast.com"&gt;http://www.farecast.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/a&gt;which helps.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The site gives a graph of fares for your destination across a few months, and gives you recommendations on whether they are expected to rise or fall. They recently added a lot of cities (were only seattle previously), and chances are you will find your city there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A really useful &amp;ldquo;web 2.0&amp;rdquo; website which is not about social networking :).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h3 id="comments"&gt;Comments&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;None&lt;/strong&gt; (August 22, 2006):&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yeah :-) This website started with Boston and Seattle. It&amp;rsquo;s out of USC and U of Wash in Seattle. They have some 6 billion records to predict. And they are also trying to come up with Hotel fares prediction. &lt;a href="https://www.farecompare.com"&gt;www.farecompare.com&lt;/a&gt; is good too, not as sharp as the one you have cited.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;None&lt;/strong&gt; (September 11, 2006):&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Use farecast along with kayak.com and jetblue and southwest, and you have the cheapest fare on the web&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded></item><item><title>A way to prevent spending..</title><link>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-03-22-a-way-to-prevent-spending/</link><pubDate>Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:54:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://dwipal.com/blog/posts/2006-03-22-a-way-to-prevent-spending/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Starting March 5th, I had decided to put a 1 month moratorium on all the spending except basic necesseties like food and drinks. There were multiple instances during these 10 days where the moratorium saved me from spending, which I would have done otherwise. This is specially to stop spending money on &amp;lsquo;impulsive purchases&amp;rsquo;, which are the things that you don&amp;rsquo;t need.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you feel strongly for buying something, make sure you don&amp;rsquo;t buy it for a few days. It will kill the desire of unwanted spending, and will actually make you happy that the money didn&amp;rsquo;t go wasted. Now, even after a few days, if you feel the need of that item, then you can go ahead and buy it. Most of the time, you won&amp;rsquo;t :).&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Starting March 5th, I had decided to put a 1 month moratorium on all the spending except basic necesseties like food and drinks. There were multiple instances during these 10 days where the moratorium saved me from spending, which I would have done otherwise. This is specially to stop spending money on &amp;lsquo;impulsive purchases&amp;rsquo;, which are the things that you don&amp;rsquo;t need.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you feel strongly for buying something, make sure you don&amp;rsquo;t buy it for a few days. It will kill the desire of unwanted spending, and will actually make you happy that the money didn&amp;rsquo;t go wasted. Now, even after a few days, if you feel the need of that item, then you can go ahead and buy it. Most of the time, you won&amp;rsquo;t :).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Following are the list of items I would have bought otherwise:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sony Erricson P910 PDA Phone&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Building a custom DVR (Tivo)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Playstation 2 with Katamari Damacy&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, during this time, I have learned to delay purchasing anything by atleast 10 days. If you can live without it for that time, you probably don&amp;rsquo;t need it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Enjoy!
D.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:78%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;p.s. I am not sure how long this kind of control will last, and the bubble will burst&lt;/span&gt; ;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded></item></channel></rss>