Recobbling Shoes to save money

You can get a used pair of decent handmade shoes (such as various American shoemakers, I'm not going to mention any brands lest I sound like paid advertisement) on online auction sites for around $25-$50. These pop up regularly, dozens of new pairs get listed every day. Around 98% of them are junk, but you can find some very nice ones, if you spend some time searching carefully, and there is little competition for them.

Now, for about $100, you can get send them back to the (American) manufacturer, and for that price they will completely resole the shoe, and refinish the uppers. The shoe looks brand new (at least according to the photos on the website), all of the scuffs and discolorations are gone, even the wrinkles get removed and they put them in new box, they look they could pass as new. Alternatively there are plenty of local shoe repair places where you can get this done, which probably is a little bit cheaper, although the replacement parts will be generic and not the original brand.

So for around $150 you get a refurbished pair of shoes which costs $300 or more new, and will last for a long time. I wonder if people have done this?

I haven't done this yet, but this seems like a recipe for a great deal on a pair of shoes. However, many other people are offended by wearing used shoes. Personally I'm not really sure. I don't buy a lot of used clothes myself.

But even if you don't buy used shoes, you could also get your own shoes refurbished. You could wear them for say one year and get them recrafted every year or two, and eternally have new shoes for a fraction of the price of regularly purchasing new shoes.

Somewhere I saw a pair of 40 year old shoes which had been recrafted, and they looked beautiful, perfect, and classic, shoes which I would be very proud to wear. It is also necessary to polish your shoes regularly (I hate doing this myself, but there isn't a service here like there is elsewhere), and also to keep them in shoe trees.

Often the image presented of thrift and frugality (when it comes to clothes) is wearing rags from Goodwill looking like a bum and proudly not caring, here is a frugal and economical alternative, and still be able to look classically stylish if you choose wisely, I think it would be possible to spend less over the long run than if you are buying new $75 rubber soled shoes every year, and you would also look far better than average spending person.

This runs contrary to my disposable, made in China approach to frugality, but shoes seem to be an exception? Good shoes are expensive, so they are worth the labor to repair and maintain, they are not something which you should just throw out. I think clothes in general (particularly outerwear) are something where you can buy good quality and then you can get them repaired periodically and they will last for a while.

Survey: lifetime investment return rate

According to all of the investment dead trees and various blogs, the stock market returns 7% (or whatever ridiculously high rate they claim it is) compounded annually over the long-term.

But I wonder how many people actually have achieved this type of return in real life?

I have invested a total of $124,250.90 in the stock market, since 2001, dollar cost averaging every paycheck and never selling an investment. I have followed all of the rules, I never buy individual stocks, have never sold, and everything is in low-cost index funds. My portfolio is roughly 50/50 mix of S&P 500 and EM.

My total stock portfolio as of today (a day when EM was up 4%) is worth $122,774.90 - that includes all gains, dividends reinvested, minus fees.

That means that the total compounded annual growth rate for me has been -0.15%. Over 8 years, I have less than I have put in. Of course, the exact figure is not really accurate, as it assumes I would put in all in at once 8 years ago, where as I have gradually put in year by year (harder to compute), so the actual return is a bit lower than that.

I would have been much better off if I had never touched stocks and put my money into bonds, or even CD's. If I hadn't been in EM, I would have been much worse off. EM is what has saved my portfolio, making up for the horrible performing S&P 500. My money would have been much better off under my mattress than in the American stock market over the past 8 years.

My speculation is that the hypothetical 7% return rate applies only to portfolios designed after the fact (to demonstrate that it would have been possible), and very few people actually have ever had such a portfolio, and most people don't perform close to that. Yeah you would have earned 7% if you invested a lot in 1965 and cashed out in 1995, but how many people actually did that?

Question: how much has your own portfolio returned over your investment career? I am interested in seeing stories of how actual people have performed in investing (positive or negative), the blogs contain nothing but theoretical scenarios which bloggers read in library books, and not true life stories. I want to see how regular average people have benefited from investing in the stock market, I do not care about how the fat cats on Wall Street did, I want to know how actual middle class people have done.

Thank you setting me straight

Well most of you all told me to stay put, for 6 months (a time period which I like), so I will do that. I'm thinking about moving into Extended stay hotel, that way I can have week-to-week rental agreement and sell all of my furniture, plus get internet, cable, electricity, water all included in the rent.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm a little bit disappointed, and I was hoping you all would tell me to pack up and leave. I can't find a good excuse as long as I have paycheck coming in, but I sure as hell am looking for one.

Honestly, India would not work, anyways, I found out there was no direct flight, and it's not as close as I thought. Maybe some place like Malaysia. Honestly this seems like best option to me, it would put me 2-3 hours away, I could easily visit, and move there w/o making bigger commitment.

No, I don't have any type of paternity test, I researched this and the only trustworthy method is to go to Cebu, but that is not frugal. There is a whole industry I discovered dedicated to investigation and background check of your girlfriend in the Philippines. Also I do have visa for India (which is one of the reasons it is attractive to me), but not for the other countries. And, no, she is not the first woman I have fallen in love with, but the first in about 4 years, also she is different from the other girls. This is my thinking, if not now, when; if not her, who? And the same questions go for seeing the world.

Thank you for the advice, I will follow it, you all gave me a lot to chew on. I am fortunate there are honest folks who I can turn to ask for advice and who tell it to me like it is, and not lie to me like the rest of the world does, everybody else just tells people what they want to hear instead of the truth. Many of you told me to go for it (even ballot stuffers!), I appreciate your encouragement, but I must save a little more money. Trust me, soon I will, and I will revisit the subject in January of the upcoming year.

My favorite blogger Hobo Traveler is in Manila right now, and he is tearing the city to pieces. Every word he writes is 100% true, resonates with me, and perfectly captures the spirit of the places he visits, unlike most other travel blogs which are too eco-touristy and politically correct; I live vicariously through his blog.

Holy Shit - I can't believe what I did

My apartment lease ends 8/31, and I gave notice to vacate to the leasing company. I do not have another place lined up to live, I do not know where I will be living in 6 weeks.

The last few weeks have been very difficult, I am truly at crossroads. I am facing a large number of difficulties right now, all coming at once. None of which has to do with money! I am under an unbelievable amount of stress, I feel very strong desire to run away from everything and start over.

I have not been thinking straight lately. Possibly I will leave the country on 8/31, either to Philippines, India, or Colombia. That gives me plenty of time to sell my car and get the rest of my life squared away.

I can move anywhere on the planet for about USD$2000, right now I have a little bit more than two bucks US. All of these different countries have pros and cons which I have discussed in detail already, if for any country these are not clear please let me know and I will clarify.

In the event that I leave I do not know what I will do with my job, I may resign or go on leave of absence, I still have a month or so to decide.

I am a bad decision maker, so I will let my readers choose for me. I view my commenters as volunteer therapists, putting my problems on my blog is much easier and cheaper than telling them to my therapist who then afterward asks for money.

1. Move to the Philippines - go on 20 year honeymoon to Boracay with Christina
2. Move to India - get corporate job, visit Christina on weekends.
3. Move to Colombia - whenever I go outside at night like I just recently did, I hear Spanish-language music on the radio, which makes me feels like I am Colombia, riding in taxi during a long night.
4. Stay in Texas - bring Christina here, or live solo.

You could also vote 'none of the above'. Whatever gets the most votes I will do! At the end of the week I will tally up the votes left in the comments.

Everything I thought I knew is Wrong

I went to Mexico this weekend, again, and I got raped by the police, again. This time for the offense of being rich foreigner walking down the street of dirt poor third world country, police decided to search me and rifled through my wallet, stole 800 pesos before my eyes and told me to have a nice day. I am very upset and angry. Mexico is probably the most dangerous country on the planet right now, the police are these 20 year-old hoodlums who speak worse Spanish than me but carry M16's and have the right to do whatever the hell they want. There is no law in that country, and I am never going to go back there again.

On the other hand, Mexico is the foreign country which I understand the most, if I cannot survive there for one weekend, how could I possibly aspire to living in places which I don't understand at all for longer period. This incident is the final straw, I'm sick of third world countries, and subjecting myself to needless danger & bullshit, I want to stay in America where everything is perfect. I also realized last month in Bangkok that chasing women no longer is interesting or exciting to me, and no longer brings me joy. Everything I do is with the intention of avoiding commitment, my life is completely reckless and has no direction.

The state I spent the first quarter century of my life is now a foreign country to me, when I go there, I do not fit in, I am an outsider. People dress different, talk different, they are of a totally demeanor. TX is now home, when I travel I am always relieved to come home. While I thought I wanted the traveler lifestyle and have nothing, I now realize this is not at all what I want. I am very happy here, I could not imagine living anywhere else, this is where I belong. Now it's time to become serious about establishing a base.

I think about purchasing an engagement ring and boarding the 9:35 AM flight tomorrow to Manila and knocking on Christina's door, and proposing to her. I don't know how much she likes surprises, but we could apply for her fiancée visa and we could live together here. And purchase an 1800 square foot house in a cul-de-sac and have children. I asked her if she would like to live here, she said yes.

The mind boggles ....

Your House in 2039

If you purchase a new house, and take a 30 year mortgage, you will be in debt until sometime in 2039. A house is something which you hope will hold its value over three decades, we live a world where change and progress are not constant, but accelerating exponentially. The same world where a century ago, salt was a precious commodity which started wars, now salt is passed out for free. In less than thirty years we went from vinyl LP's to having every performance of every piece of music ever created available in your pocket no matter where on the planet you are, one ten-thousandth the time taken between the discovery of fire, to a method to start one.

The housing industry is stagnant, has made no significant breakthrough in centuries, and needs a gigantic kick in the ass. In 2039, houses will be built by machines - technology to enable this is in development today (do search for 'Behrokh Khoshnevis')

The implications of this are profound and world-changing. Combine this type of innovation with revolutions in materials engineering and atomic scale manufacturing, and the world is a completely different place.

By 2039 the following industries may be eliminated:

• Housing construction
• Real estate agents (house appraisers, land surveyors, etc.)
  
• All Banking & Finance operations related to mortgages
• Home maintenance (plumbers, roofers, electricians, etc.)
• Insurance
• Home-Improvement industry

If your bathroom sink springs a leak, it will be cheaper to recycle the whole house, and reconstruct the entire thing from scratch, than to call a plumber, or even go to the supply cabinet to get your wrench. No longer will you rearrange furniture or paint a new room to create a new look, you will select a new housing design on a computer display and your house will be converted to it minutes. Have children, become an empty-nester, or maybe just throwing a party on the weekend, you can reconfigure your house all instantaneously. Remodeling projects will go the way of acoustic coupled modems, and real estate agents will go the way of encyclopedia salesmen.

Tens of millions of American workers who currently dedicate themselves to the housing industry will be freed up to work on more important and creative endeavors. The economy will zoom at an accelerating pace like has never been witnessed before in the history of humanity.

Western style accommodations will be built out around the world, and available for everybody, causing housing prices to plummet globally. The newly constructed houses will be better, cheaper, and more efficient than all houses currently standing. Everybody in the world will be able to afford a nice house, they will no longer be limited to the planet's elite. A billion plus people who live in shacks in urban slums, a billion plus people who live in housing made out of mud and sticks will now be on the same level as people in the richest countries. Natural disasters are no longer a problem, because people can relocate everything instantaneously. People no longer need to stick around in rotting cities (such as Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc. are today) just because that's where their house is located, they can pick up and relocate to the boom cities, and let the old cities die overnight.

No longer will the world be limited to the cycle of the 30 year mortgage - it will move to the rhythm of the 20 minutes it takes to build out a totally new city. This will profoundly impact how humans live, and will dramatically accelerate the pace of business, industry, and human well-being, and will make everybody's life better in unprecedented ways. The world in 2039 be unrecognizable and a very beautiful and very rich place which we will all savor.

Wealth & the Cheapening of Society

I used to understand wealth as people moving up, now I understand wealth as goods/services moving down, becoming cheaper, and more accessible to the masses. The distribution of wealth, and the rise of the 21'st century global middle class centers around making everything more economical. The reason countries like America have moved up so much is not because there was a discovery of a precious commodity such as Gold within the land, it is because everything has become dramatically cheaper for us.

You can look at something like shoes. One hundred years ago, the only type of shoe you could buy was handmade leather-soled shoes. You either had to buy expensive shoes, or you had no shoes at all, which was the norm for plenty of people, even in rich countries. In the past century, everything in the world has completely changed. Now you can buy plastic sandals for $1.00, or cheap shoes made of synthetic materials for $15.00, and witness the result, almost everybody in the world who wants shoes now has them. Hand-made shoes are now only worn by the very wealthy; fewer people have them than they did 100 years ago, but yet we are a much wealthier society! If shoes never became cheap, then only the wealthy would have shoes.

Some folks denounce the cheapening of society, and yearn for the ways of yesteryear. This is true not just for goods, but for services also, which are becoming more automated. When you call your insurance company, the phone is answered by a computer instead a person. You almost never get anything repaired, you just throw it out buy a new one. Everything is disposable. But the cool thing is that whenever something gets cheaper, not only does it open up that good or service to a greater customer based, but usually the wealthy (who were able to afford to original more expensive product), also switch to the cheaper product. The end result is that product takes up a smaller percentage of their budget and becomes less of a problem, so they build more wealth. You can look at a household budget from 100 years ago, and most of the expenditures wouldn't make sense any more.

"They don't make them like they used to" - indeed, but look at the result! Whenever a product is cheapened, it should be a cause for celebration and rejoice, because it just means the world becomes a little bit wealthier. Whenever a Wal-Mart is built, whenever a factory is shuttered and moved to China, or whenever a call center is closed down and farmed out to Indian workers, but best of all when these jobs are replaced by machines, it should be a reason to be very happy.

This trend of cheapening can only accelerate. Housing is an example of something which hasn't changed much in the past few hundred years, but is very hungry for a fundamental overhaul. Healthcare is another. I am sure that the automobile can never be adopted by more than a few percent of the world (due to scarcity of roads & fuel), but maybe something like a self-driving hydrogen-powered flying personal transporter can, and is better than a car! The challenge for 21'st century business is to make everything they create accessible to the world, not just the rich. This is the natural ebb & flow of business. The way to impact the world and promote world wealth (though not necessarily the way to make money yourself) is to focus on the masses. This will create the global middle class of the 21'st century and beyond.