How to effectively kill your social life!!!

Hi everyone,
Its been quite a while since i blogged. I've been so busy with my MBA classes and other responsibilities, I've hardly had any free time. This brings me to to this blogs' topic: How to effectively kill your social life!!!

 Its actually not all that hard. If you are a working individual or one that goes to school, your have already taken the basic steps that you need to take to accomplish total social life annihilation. In fact, almost every person on this planet has or will eventually take these steps willingly. But this is just the beginning; you have a long way to go. Another thing you could do to take away your social life is get a job or if your already working, go back to school while working (like i am). Now most people would work full-time and go to school part-time or vice-verse; work part-time and go to school full-time. If your are really adamant about  accomplishing this goal, you could try working full-time and got to school full-time. I can guarantee that this combination will take enough time out of each of your day so that you have just enough time to travel to and from home, eat lunch/dinner (if you are one that can have a full meal in under 15 minutes on average), sleep (about 8 hrs), and some other basic chores. If you are one that doesn't sleep much you could take up some extracurricular activities (e.g. gym, professional organization, local sports teams, etc).

The point is there are so many things that you could do to kill your social life. You might be wondering why I am talking about Killing you social life as oppose to improving it. Well, in the last year, i have taken up some of these extra activities (going to MBA school and working full-time) to improve my future. I just couldn't help but ponder why I am doing all this. I wasn't able to fully justify living miserably now to live lavishly later. Despite my lack of justification I am killing my current social life. I just hope it all pays out in the end.

What do you all think? Is it worth it to life with bare minimum and live a life of self-inflicted hardships now to live lavishly in the future? What would you do or what do you do?

- Raj

INDIA WON THE ICC WORLD CUP!!!!!

Hey guys,

I don't know if any of you are die hard cricket fans. I for one am not to much into it. How could I have been? Although I was born in India, I moved with my family to America at the age of 9. I was pretty much raised in the American culture. As I was saying, I am not to much into Cricket, but my Dad and sister-in-law are. My sister-in-law tells me how people in India are so over the top that stores all around are closed and people perform pujas (religious ceremonies). Heck, they'd even perform a puja of their T.V.s before each match. She mentioned how people take vows just so their favorite team would win. For example, her Mom vowed to travel to some temple and donate money (they call it "prashad chadhana"). All this is just down-right crazy if you ask me.

Anyway, so after hearing all the craziness surround around the sport, I figured I'd watch it. I watched the semifinals, which was India Vs. Pakistan and India won. Apparently it was a big deal as India and Pakistan have a huge rivalry going on for ages. It was a bit interesting as i was trying to learn all the rules (there aren't too many) and more importantly all the techniques they were using in the game (i found some to be pretty silly, but i guess it was just my view). Anyway, so i decided to watch the Final Championship match, which was against India Vs. Shri Lanka. This was suppose to be a very big deal because India has only won the championship once, which was 28 years ago in 1983. You'd think for a team that hasn't won the championship in so long to get into the finals, it be a very interesting match. Sadly, most of the match was almost mundane. It wasn't until the last 5 overs (each over has 6 balls/pitches by the bowler/pitcher), when the game got a bit interesting because India was batting and they were inching towards their required number of runs needed (keep in mind that the game was 50 overs after which the game ends.) At the point in the game when India needed 6 runs (points) and had 13 balls/pitches left, even i got excited. I was at the edge of my seat murmuring "come on India, hit a 6 (kinda like a homerun)" The batsman grounded the ball and they take two runs. The new pitcher comes on and again i find myself murmuring "Come on India, add insult to their injury. Hit a 6 instead of a 4 (grounding the ball to the boundary at the outskirts of the field)" Sure enough, the batsman, coincidentally the captain of the Indian team, hits a fly ball right into the stands for the win."

I learned something that day. Cricket is a fun game to play, watching it is only fun with a group and its only fun to watch the last few overs. What really got me was the fact that I sat with my Dad while he was watching the Indian news on T.V. and for the duration of half an hour all the newscaster talked about was how India won the Championship. That was evidence enough of all that my sister-in-law told me out the people in Indian and their craziness pertaining to the game. What are your thoughts about this sport and also about the nation of die hard fans and how this is the only news they have to talk about now (lol)?

Tax Laws....

Hi everyone,

So last week on Friday morning (March 18th), I am sitting in my Financial Tax class taking my exam. As i am taking this exam (to a degree, even while I was studying for it), I couldn't help be thinking to myself; who actually remembers all the tax laws and that countless variations and exceptions. It seemed quite ridiculous. I mean for one thing, many of the tax laws change every year so by the time you finish memorizing the current laws it'll already be time or at least close to the time you'll have to start learning all the new laws. Another reason it is silly to memorize these laws is because in this day and age, all these laws are at our finger tips with the power of the internet and more importantly all these tax software that are available for use (TurboTax, H&R Block, etc).

I just couldn't help myself. Last Friday (March 25th), when the professor was returning are graded exams, I asked him why he is requiring us to memorize these laws, when soon enough they'll be obsolete. All he could tell me is that "this is how its been done for years." I am not very happy with is answer, to say the least. I have spoke to many tax professionals since than and all of them concur that memorizing these laws is a waste of time. All the tax professionals i spoke to use tax software, which applies the appropriate laws simply by a few clicks. I think tax courses in college need to change the way they are thought. What do you guys think? Let me know. Maybe you guys can change my mind :)

Higher Education...Then and Now

Hi everyone,

As you all may or may not be know (not really sure why anyone would not know), we have been going through a recession here in the US since 2008. With crazy things happening such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch being sold at fire-sale prices, Goldman Sacs and Morgan Stanley becoming commercial banks and the financial market just going down under, the economy has been experiencing hard times.

You might be thinking where I am going with this. Well, to answer that in simple terms: Jobs!!!! Just ask anyone that graduated in 2008-2009 with a bachelors degree, particularly one that was in the business related field and more specifically in Finance. It was and still is to a degree a horror to go to countless interviews and find yourself among the large number of people that got laid off from the above mentioned firms. Almost all of them having 5, 10, 15, or even 20+ years of experience is their respective positions. To add to that was their company financed MBA, CFA, CPA or other certification degrees. Among them are people like me and myself included; fresh out of college with a bachelors degree in Fiance and Investment and minimal real world experience. I am sure many of you can relate.

It is this very notion that has driven a very large chunk of the labor force back to school. Lets face it, a Bachelors degree in today's job market is comparatively as good as a high school diploma. The big difference between the people working towards their MBAs and/or other certifications now compared to before this recession is that back then people would acquire these further education completely or vastly financed by the firms they worked for. Now, instead, people are acquiring these further education completely out of their own pocket only to be able to land a decently well-paying job. Before these further educations where a means of getting a promotion; advancing within your firm. Now it is a means of actually starting your career.

I just hope that all my effort to stabilize my career will payoff. I wish you all that are in similar predicaments the best of luck. Hope all of you are able to come out of this recession healthy and financially sound.

- Rajat