No!!! Not me!! I've been reluctant to jump into a real estate market that I simply cannot afford. My mom actually tried last month to get me to buy vacant land in Lancaster for $400,000!! I was like ummm...do you know anything about owning vacant land? The fact that is about as hard to sell as nicely preserved 1982 Chevy Nova? And the fact that having that sort of "investment" on my rap sheet credit report would effectively bar me from participating in picking up a place of my own in the next year or two. Then again, I understand that my mom just wants me to make some cash and is really trying to help. But then she pulls out the classic mom card, "Look at your friends from your childhood...they've all bought houses in the past couple years...their houses are worth a lot more now and they will be rich very soon." That set me off. I was livid. I told her that my "friends" from the temple back in the day are basically asking for a beating in the coming housing bust. She was like "what housing bust"? Oh man...I'm sorry but she just doesn't understand that these friends of mine have fallen into the same trap as this poor sap. I mean she did sell her apartment building right BEFORE the housing boom and was trying to get me to buy into the real estate bubble (in Lancaster of all things!) right AFTER the price has skyrocketd. She was listening to the real estate agent of all people! Of course the want you to buy it! They make money when you buy. When you come back to sell it after loosing your ass on it, they will make money again! She doesn't understand the whole commission based sales thing. She's one of those "CNN Investors" that sees on TV that the housing market is good in June 2006 and calls up the RE agent to "become an investor." She didn't even invest in her company's 401k and just pick up the free money with the company match until I forced her to get it afew years back. Luckily we did that just after the dot com bubble burst and she has been dollar cost averaging for about 5 or so years now. Too bad it's Vanguard funds...ugh.

So what have I been doing with my dough:

Thinkorswim Traditional IRA (for options experimentation): Calendar spread auto-trades. Breakeven so far but I take it as learning experience. I will probably switch my strategy into something a little more bearish. I will still do autotrades though since I like to see what they've picked and read the analysis. It's like an options education for $20 a month and with shot at making (or losing) a bit of cash along the way. No biggie though....this account is a throwaway since I rolled it over from my 401K back at BDO I've grown it about 700% in the last five years off of some luckily trades in Chinese internet stocks and other insanely speculative plays. I like options trading since you can make large percentages off of small moves. Of course you can loose a bunch too. But the idea is to have many smallish trades going rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. For me, I made about 100% off of a MSFT on some calls I bought right before some nice price bumps....too bad I cashed out. I would have had a 4 or 5 bagger.

GOALS: 1) Gain 0-20% with purely options trades. 2) Maintain 10K account value floor in order to use as part of house down payment in the future. 3) Open Traditional IRA for Hongyun and contribue MAX ($4K) and contribute MAX ($4K) to this account. Goal 3 will occur if and only if business explorations fall through by December (see below).

ESPP - maxed at 15% of my daily (pre-tax) bread (but taken after tax). Can't beat the MSFT stock at a 10% discount every quarter. I mean I would love something that is more like "pick the lowest price during the quarter and get 10% off that price" but this is still a solid gain nevertheless. So far I've held through the price wobbles and am enjoying the nice rise of late. My only complaint: MORE DIVIDENDS PLEASE! 1.4% yield?!? Double that and it'd be holdable for a while. Triple it and you've got a long term holder.

GOALS: Use current balance and rest of year's savings for business deals (see below). If these fall through, go for the debt servicing gold and get down to zero as soon as possible. Longer term goal: Grab my 10%, roll it into IRAs (not sure about Roth or Traditional...lean on traditional for immediate tax savings and sacrificing longer term tax-freeness). When IRA contribs are maxed out then hold MSFT stock long and sell lots after considered long to pay off mortgage at a quicker rate (assuming I have one at that time). If no mortgage, find other investment vehicles.

401K - 8% of my daily (pre-tax) bread with 3% match (50% match of 6% of paycheck). I was originally thinking to up this, but now I'm thinking to hold it where it is or even pare it down to 6%. By dropping it down, it'll free up some cash and reduce my debt to absolutely zero over the next 12 months. Actually, this will happen no matter what, but it's nice to have a little extra cash and pay down stuff. I've been in debt payoff mode for so long it's a lifestyle for me. I don't think I'll ever need very much...a place to sleep some cheap clothes to wear...food to eat...and a Mac Pro octoCPU beast with dual 30 inch cinema displays.

GOALS: Steady as she goes...keep contributing at least 6% and up it if I have more cash.

Prosper.com: This is an experiment in person to person lending. So far I have about 55 microloans out and about 9 of them are late. I reinvest every penny I get from there into new loans each month (minimum $50 per loan). So far it has been an uneven experience. I like the fact that my average interest rate is 19% or so, but I also have 9 loans that are currently at risk of default. If they do default, they'll wipe out a substantial portion of my projected gains (eventhough I will still make a bit). My plan is to just keep relending whatever I make through the end of 2006. At that time I will either stop relending and start profit-taking or just keep relending till the cows come home. I figure I can build up a portfolio of hundreds if not thousands of loans eventually and make a decent return over the long haul.

GOALS: Let's see how far the rabbit hole goes. I'm not heavliy invested here. I took a loan out within prosper to reloan at a higher rate. I'm making about 12% my rate. Pay off the loan at the end of the year. If Prosper seems to be doing well and potential default rate declines then I will take out another loan to relend. If not then just stop borrowing from others and just keep reloaning what I have in there already till the cows come home.

Cash: EmigrantsDirect @ 5.15% APY....because everyone needs a little bit of cash just in case.

GOALS: Add to it when I can and don't dip in unless it's truly needed.

Debt: Car loan: 11K @ 3.9% - 1K per month. 3 0% credit cards in HY's name totallying roughly 14K - 350 per month. Student loans: 7K @4% - 290 per month. I'm thinking to shift payments from my student loans into my car loan so I'd be paying 1200 per month instead of 1K/mo. That way I pay off about 2 months earlier than my originally projected August 07 time frame.

GOALS: 0% cards paid in full the month before interest starts getting tacked on. Car and student loands paid off @ end of year if business deals fall through (I'm getting there I promise). No more debt except for HY's student loans which are minimal considering she goes to Berkeley. No more car buying until 2018-2020 at which point I'll buy the hybrid fuel cell powered Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Business deals (finally): Since I've built a minor (very minor) cash hoard, I've been exploring business opportunities...here's the run down:
1. Franchised business of some sort (probably food joint), 75-300K startup costs
2. Domestic real estate purchase, the Trump way. Start making ridiculously low offers on places until one sticks. Buy it, condo it, rent them until you sell them. Make a friend in the banking biz to get the inside track on foreclosures.
3. International real estate purchase: Thailand because ti's a cool place and because I speak the language. Also it's cheap (relative to US of course). China but man that place got on my nerves last time. Maybe wait until the real estate bubble here truly bursts then China will implode and THEN scoop up prime real estate in Shanghai for pennies on the dollar. Booyah.
4. Domestic land purchase: Buy land with soil tests on the outskirts of major cities with high IQs, rates of innovation, etc. Make sure they're buildable. Small towns become big cities 30 years later when they're near population centers.

So far 1 & 3 look plausible by year's end to at least fully research and get the ball rolling on them. I have 3 buddies of mine working on #1 right now. Which reminds me...I gotta get in contact with the developer of a shopping center near my work. They just opened a Starbucks and a Quiznos there so you know it's a good spot for other stuff too.