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What Was My Savings Rate
A lot of times while talking to people about my early retirement, I get to the point of someone wanting to know what percent of my income I was saving. Unfortunately I never tracked that metric. So I wanted to find that out myself which is what this post is all about. The information may not be very accurate but it should be a ballpark figure and has sufficient details in it. The reason for inaccuracy is primarily because I don’t want to track down all my investments and income to the minutest detail. That would take too much time. In fact I don’t even remember my salary information and used my ITR (income tax returns) as a guideline. Then I had to go through my CAMS statement to figure out my investments every year. Hope this helps answer the question about my savings rate.
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Virtual Meet-up #7
I'd like to invite you to join me in a virtual meet-up to discuss random things on the topics of financial planning, early retirement, home schooling or sustainable living. We can share our stories and ask each other questions or give suggestions. As a group we can learn from each other's experience, learnings and pit-falls. Since I post a lot about myself on this blog, you probably already know everything about me. But if you ever wanted to ask me something this is your chance!
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Laptop Price Inflation
Last time I did a review of my electricity bill inflation. Conveniently I was tracking the utility bills since 2012 so I had enough data. That got me thinking. May be I can find other expenses for which I have long enough data to calculate inflation. Remember, inflation is different for different products. For example, your food inflation will be different from your medical bill inflation, or electricity bill inflation etc. So you will need to find the inflation for each category of expenses. Since I recently purchased a laptop, I thought if I can dig up some old bills, may be I can calculate my laptop expenses inflation. Which is exactly what this post is all about.
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What Is Stoicism
When I interact with folks who read my blog, a few of them eventually ask me about Stoicism. It is either to know what Stoicism is or it is about resources related to it so they can also follow Stoicism. The funny thing is that I don’t have any formal training nor did I read any books on the topic. It just so happened that one day I chanced upon some videos on Stoicism and loved the concept. Then I started reading about it in a few blogs, listened to a few audio books and watched some videos. I never took any notes or kept the resources handy. So every time some one asks me for the resources, I just had to tell them that I don’t have any. I want to change that with this and some upcoming posts.
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Installing Linux On Acer Aspire 7
It is now old news that I purchased a new laptop. While it proved its mettle as a gaming laptop for what ever casual gaming that I do, its primary purpose is for work. And work I cannot do in Windows. I had to install Linux. Some of you might know that installing Linux is not quite as straight forward, especially on new hardware. There is a saying that you should buy hardware that is 6 months old for Linux to have all the drivers working and quirks ironed out. The reason is that many companies (read Intel, AMD, Nvidia etc), write drivers for Windows first and then they may write one for Linux. For when there are no drivers, some one from the open source community will have to reverse engineer and build drivers. This has been the state of affairs but Linux is now catching up. Anyway, in this post I will cover all the things I had to do to get Linux working on Acer Aspire 7 with Nvidia GTX 1650.
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Acer Aspire 7 Review
As you already know, I recently purchased a budget gaming laptop – Acer Aspire 7 with Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics card. I really did not need a gaming laptop because I barely play games anymore. But the deal was so good compared to a similarly spec’ed laptop without the graphics card, that I could not pass up the deal. It’s been only 10 days since I have the laptop under my possession, but that does not deter me from writing a review. If you are also looking to buy this laptop, this post might help you in making a decision. If you are not planing to buy one and are still reading, you might be here to pass some time. Either way have fun.
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Tactical Asset Allocation vs Fixed Allocation
If you have been reading my blog for some time you probably already know that my asset allocation changes based on market conditions. I have my own set of rules using which I decide whether to be equity heavy or debt heavy. Of course there is no secret sauce involved you can do the same with data available on the internet. My question however is whether it is worth doing tactical allocation or is it just better to follow a fixed asset allocation plan. That is what I set out to find and here are my findings.
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Purchased A New Laptop
The festival season has begun, well at least for Amazon and Flipkart. So it is time to find some good deals on all those things that you wanted to buy. Err, I mean the things that you needed to buy. Strictly speaking for a minimalist it should not matter whether it is sale time or not. If you don’t need something, don’t buy it. But of course we are all human and we fall prey to some temptations. At least I do. I have been wanting to buy a laptop for sometime now. Astute readers of my blog might already know that I have a budget. And according to my annual budget, I am allowed to buy a new laptop every 5 years. Now, I know it is probably too frequent to be buying a laptop every 5 years. But since I spend a considerable amount of my time on a laptop, it would be nice to have a decent upgrade. You know where I am going with all this don’t you? As if the title didn’t already give you a clue.
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Not Thinking Clearly
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why one should avoid unforced errors (a situation you are completely in control and you make a mistake). So I thought about the unforced errors I made in just one aspect – stock picking. And boy there are a ton of them. But before we get to those mistakes, I had also finished reading (or rather listening to) The art of thinking clearly. An excellent book on all the biases we fall prey to. So I thought I should give a name to my biases and delusions as I tried my hand at stock picking. If you don’t know, I performed very poorly at picking a stock and the story is available on one of my previous posts if you are interested.
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Sensex Touched 60,000. What Should I Do Now?
I never imagined that BSE Sensex (Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index) would touch 60,000 so soon! Especially given the uncertainty due to COVID-19 pandemic. It took just 8 months to go from 50,000 to 60,000. Which is a 20% gain in that short duration. We have all heard of stock markets giving great returns, but this one is special because it is happening at a time when economic situation isn’t that great and we are still fighting a virus without cure. Oh well. Markets will do what they do best – surprise everyone. So what should an investor do in such a situation? My response may not give the answers you are looking for, but that doesn’t stop me from writing now will it?
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