Cutting Your Losses

I know the last few posts sound like I am either obsessed with money or think about everything in terms of financial worth...well what is it all worth? Sometimes, even I am guilty of it we invest in something, have it be a friend a significant other and that investment of time, emotions, and energy we fail to foresee the ups and downs of that relationship. We keep at it hoping that it will get better when it declines and will be worth it in the long run. Unfortunately there have been multiple relationships that were some of the best investments I ever made that when down faster than they went up. Sometimes, we have to stop looking in our rear view mirror and simply cut our losses now. I fear that if you don't, you will blindly miss out on new opportunities because you were putting all your energy or eggs into one basket. Life's too short. 

I want to wake up in a city that doesn't sleep!

Technically I have never been there, unless movies and the entire collection of Sex and the City counts. Goodness if I thought about it how many of my favorite movies/shows have taken place in NY... I Am Legend, Gossip Girl, Center Stage, Elf, Serendipity, Breakfast at Tiffanys...

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving on the 28th of December I am going to the very heart of it, New York New York! My intenirary includes the empire state building (how Sleepless in Seattle) the statue of liberty with a little green hat, Central Park, ice skating at Rockafeller center, the Sex and the City tour, the Met, and possibly a Broadway play. What a perfect time to go to New York, and I will be there for New Years to see the ball drop! 

We were fated to pretend...

Finance teaches us that in terms of stocks, the greater the risk the greater the return. Small cap stock funds are more volatile than Large cap stocks and especially more than investing in a index fund. Growth funds, particularly aggressive growth funds typically invest in IPO's and start up companies. How risky is that, the company is just entering the stock market for the first time and you decide to pour your money into them. They must have done something to convince you that it was worth it. See the thing is that like risks in our daily lives, the ones with the greatest risk have the least supporting evidence convincing you that you won't just loose it all. The greatest risks in our lives are called dreams. Unlike the stock market what we are risking is more valuable than money, its emotions, time, and it all comes down to an opportunity cost. I think we all need to dream on...and if it's bitter in the start then its sweeter in the end.    

What's it all Worth?

While studying frantically for Finance on a sugar Starbucks latte high I came across this quote..."I always knew I was going to be rich. I never doubted it for one minute" Warren Buffett. One of the richest men in the world always had his mind on the prize and even though not everyone may strive to be billionaires, we should do the same. Someone once told me that when you discover your passion, what makes you sizzle, excited, the thing you love to do that will actually feed you and put a roof over your head, you will inevitably become successful. Passion=drive=innovative thinking=success=$$ and in that case $+passion= even more success. If the things we invest in makes our worth, well what other investment to put effort and money into than ourselves. The you that is furiously typing finance notes on your macbook, the you that is drinking that $4.50 pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, the you that is up at 7 lifting weights and running on the treadmill and the same one that is out on the town downing dirty martinis in a dark bar. What we do makes us what we are worth, and only the choices we make rise or lower our own stock.    

Fakes Are Never in Fashion

I myself love a designer handbags and I wish I had more but I don't. When I was walking to the Trevi Fountain in Roma I saw groupings of Italians selling fakes, anything you want, Gucci, Prada, Fendi, LV. Most people do not think beyond their own desires, and see these bags that mean status, wealth, style, and they purchase. The common person would not be able to distinguish an authentic Louis Vuitton monogram canvas speedy 30 from a fake impostor made practically of plastic by some child in China. The fakes are cheap for a reason and according to an article in Harpars Bazzar "sales from counterfeit merchandise go to fund drug cartels, terrorist acts, money laundering and child labor" now is that where you want your monies to go? No, think! Be a good girl, and go to Saks or Neimans and buy things the way they should be bought, from a store and not off the streets or the back of a van. If you can't afford them, buy what you can afford. According to an article by LV, the brand is highly counterfeited, and just over 1% of the items bearing the trademark  monogram are authentic! What! 1%! Most people think, well no one will know, but you yourself will know. If you are carrying around a fake just for the pleasure of tricking people into an image you would like to portray, you are doing the brand (the designer), and yourself an injustice.  

"Do you think the other ones know he's white?"

If you go to UT you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. None other than the most highly sought after creature on campus...the albino squirrel. For a semester and a summer I looked for this furry creature, obsessed about seeing it and even forced a friend to constantly show me a picture of it as proof of its existence. Well it does exist and it took me 1/3 way into the Fall semester to see it on Whitis. It is adorable and I think seeing this UT phenomenon is something every student should put on their "list of things to do before I graduate" along with being promiscuous in the library (which has been on my list since...freshmen year and is still on there). Anyways the squirrels, they are so adorable but very crazy. The bums feed them shrooms most likely and the students feed them anything, well they will eat anything you give them. Walking down Whitis, (the location of the original sighting), with my french classmate we noticed a particularly plump squirrel eating a nut. And it wasn't just one. The adorable campus creatures are preparing for the winter by putting on the poundage as we are with our scarves, vest, turtle necks and North Faces, not to mention the ever so popular Uggs. Winter is finally here, yay!

KIDS

I absolutely love Kids, and no not the kind that ruin your lives but the amazing song by MGMT. (Other favorites Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, Weekend Wars, The Youth). MGMT is hands down one of my favorite bands, whose music in one word is simply sublime. "MGMT is: Andrew Vanwyngarden (left) and Ben Goldwasser (right), two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002." They are eclectic, electric, psychedelic, ridiculous and genius. Listen to them, love them, watch them. I am in love with Ben Goldwasser, that sex pot in the white coat.