Diversify Your Life - A Blog by Vijay Narayanan

When you're into cars like me, it's hard to come to a conclusion on which car to buy. New, Used, Certified... Audi, BMW, Lexus, Acura, Subaru... RWD, FWD, AWD... Coupe, Sedan... And the list goes on. Let's be practical, you won't see me listing Ferrari, Porsche, or Lamborghini until I've cashed out my 401k. The point here is that the idea of financing cars is like dating women... in the sense that when you finance, you're making a financial commitment to that vehicle, similar to making a commitment with a woman. As we all know, vehicles are depreciating assets, and jumping from vehicle to vehicle will only hurt your bank account, just as jumping from woman to woman will hurt their feelings. My 2 cents for today.

This might as well be the rant of the week... it's been a while. The yellow 'cheese' bus as they call it, is what I have a problem with.. The bus that usually pulls in front of me while I drive to the train station stop on a straight road about FOUR times. Not every quarter mile, but every block. Is this really necessary? When I took the bus in middle/high school, I walked the length of my street to catch the bus. It saves time and prevents blockage of traffic by integrating those four bus stops into one.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the coldest/snowy winter on record. With the windchills, temperatures are close to zero. You know it's freezing/snowy when it takes 45 minutes to move 10 feet in your driveway, and when 32 degrees feels like a heat wave. Just yesterday and the day before it was 42... so warm I felt like playing basketball outside while driving with my sunroof open. I'm just glad the snow melted away during the "heat wave" so I didn't have to skip slush puddles in NYC, park my car on the grass, or slip on black ice in the driveway. Of course they all say it could be worse. Thank god we don't live in Snow-klahoma or Chicag-snow.

What's the point of Daylight Savings Time? I've read several articles on the significance. I'll keep Benjamin Franklins in my wallet, although I hate his initial proposition of DST to have longer summer days and shorter winter days. I don't see a reason to change the clocks forward and backward during Spring and Fall respectively. At least 4 of the clocks I own remain unchanged, because I'm too lazy to change the time on so many devices (unless it's automated)...not in protest to the idea. Going back one hour in Fall provides a false sense of security... how many of us have said "an extra hour of sleep." I bet criminals are saying "an extra hour to rob banks and wreak havoc."

Let's just hope taxes stay the same over time. But what are the chances of that? The prices of everything are going up: food, tuition, cost of living, transportation. Those are the more obvious things affected by inflation but minor things such as the cell phone bill, utilities, car insurance, and cable TV/internet are also affected. If boredom ever becomes a big part of my life, I'd love to do the math and come up with a number for what cost of living will be in a few decades. At this rate, new hires out of college will be making six figures (barring any U.S. economical woes), yet their lifestyles will be same as new hires today. You can't escape death, taxes, and...inflation.

Earlier this year, President Obama signed a legislation to reduce the Social Security payroll tax. This is great! But at my age, contributing to Social Security is like throwing your money into a bottomless pit - and it looks like we're going to do it until the year 2037: the year in which it is anticipated to run out. Around early 2010 I attended a financial planning seminar hosted by Ric Edelman , a very knowledgeable financial advisor. He compared the Social Security problem to refusing to fix a car until things start falling apart. Each president we have had keeps putting off the problem, and eventually Social Security will crumble - in 2037! Max out on your 401k and IRA's people!

I knew there was an app for everything, but an app to file your taxes, just by taking a picture of your W2?! TurboTax has a new app called SnapTax which does just this. Would you trust this app? Before you all get giddy and make an impulse decision, consider that your SSN is being transmitted over the internet. I assume when you take a snapshot of your W2, a picture in the form of .jpg, .png, or .gif is sent over the net, and this picture sits on TurboTax's server. As technology evolves, so is the knowledge of hackers. So I'm sure you can put two and two together. If you can't put two and two together, just know that although the chances are slim, it is possible for a hacker to obtain information transmitted over the Internet. Technologists (including myself) know this can be done using packet sniffing, brute force algorithms, or a trojan virus that sends sensitive information back to the hacker. Make a well-informed decision... - Vijay

This isn't your common rant, where I complain about people driving slow. It bothers me when people behind me at traffic lights stop very close to my bumper. Especially on a hill. My car rolls back on hills, as do other vehicles on steep hills, but people continue doing it... until they get nicked. Give me space! I think people who drive manual can relate to this the most.

All of you have new years resolutions, and what do I have? My blog... I've been wanting to create a blog since 2000 B.C...OK maybe since 2011 began. Not only for giving you all a sneak peek of my life, but to voice my opinions on controversial topics, provide insight on things people love to argue about, and just share my thoughts with family, friends, haters, and whoever else is interested. I look forward to updating this as often as it's snowing this winter (almost every day). I hope all of you in the Internet world can relate to at least some of my posts, atleast one... - Vijay