Travel Deals

Okay, many people following this blog (surprisingly, there are actually quite a few more than I expected there to be) have expressed an interest in learning how I score awesome travel deals.

This year, I have been on a bit of a travel binge, venturing to Asia twice, Virginia, Seattle, California, Germany, Oregon and (in the coming months) Tokyo, Michigan and Australia.

One of the secrets to traveling cheaply is traveling where the cheap fares lead you. It sounds much less glamorous when put that way, but that's essentially how I travel. Most of the time, I haven't said that I wanted to visit X in Y, but have taken the opportunities to visit my friends when there have been reasonable fares available. (When I do decide to visit a specific person in a specific location, I cash in some frequent flyer miles.)

One of the tools that can help you find cheap travel deals is FareCompare.com's "Top Deals From" tool.

http://www.farecompare.com/maps/compareDestinations.html

Simply enter your origin airport and FareCompare will tell you where you can go (including internationally) for cheap.

Later this summer, I will be doing a bit more blogging on my experiences in certain airports . . . stay tuned.

Back in Germany

Note: This was originally written on April 25th, on a train from Zweibrücken to München.

Well, I’m back in Germany, for the first time in several years. Since I’ve been travelling all over Asia, some of my German friends had felt that I had abandoned them . . . well, no longer. As I’m writing this, I’m currently sitting on an ICE Train (German Bullet-Train) to Munich, in complete comfort, but without an internet connection.

I’ve missed Germany . . . the food, the trains, the scenery, but above all, the people. Since I’ve been working all week (almost 10 hours/day, plus social outings with my colleagues), I haven’t had much time to think about that . . . and it hit me for the first time when I was on a train to Saarbruecken. There’s something about riding a train that makes me realize that I am actually here . . . in Germany . . . and quite a bit at home.

When traveling internationally, even in a country as safe as Germany, it’s important to do basic things like lock the car when you leave. This is a lesson my colleagues found out the hard way. To make a long story short, this resulted in a trip to the police station on Friday afternoon, with me feeling out a police report. Earlier in the week, I had asserted that the German police were both friendly and professional. Fortunately, this was the case. An experience which might have tainted my colleague’s perception of Germany was turned into a pleasant experience with the German police and disaster was averted. (I even got to sign my name to the police report that I translated it.

One of the things that I need to put on my to-do list is to re-learn how to drive a stick-shift. It’s kind of embarrassing that I am a bit afraid of the things, but, you lose any skill you have if you fall out of practice. Some weekend, I’ll rent a stick-shift car and practice. If I’m going to destroy someone’s transmission, it can be Hertz’s. Then, next time when we go to Germany, I can feel comfortable driving.

Now, it’s off to Munich to see Katha and Nowy.

Updating Multiple Social Networking Sites with Ping.fm

I have tried to reduce the amount of time I spend pecking away at a keyboard in front of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. These sites have a lot of utility, but also can be a HUGE time-sink.

One of the things that I would like to do is to get to the point where I can automate status updates across several social-networking platforms, based on location. If, for example, I am at Stomping Grounds in Ames, I can have some application broadcast that to the world, without me having to update the status message. This would save LOTS of time, as my statuses could be mostly updated without any effort on my part.

Earlier this week, I've discovered Ping.fm, which gets me half-way there. In short, it allows me to update my various statuses from a single text message. Now, I can have AIM, Facebook, LinkedIn, gMail, etc. updated from one location. The site also supports a host of other applications. If you have several social networking sites and are constantly trying to keep them all updated, check out Ping.fm. It will save you TONS of time.

What tools do you use to manage your online social networking world?

Book: Hot Commodities

On my recent trip to Hong Kong (which reminds me, I really need to get pictures from BOTH Hong Kong and Japan up for people who are not on Facebook) one of the people I met recommended the book "Hot Commodities" by Jim Rodgers. While on a business trip in Moline, I spent some time reading this book and as a result, have decided not to start investing in commodities.

I'm always skeptical of any book that starts off sounding like a sales pitch for some "hot new thing" and this book was no different. Jim's first chapter explains that you are missing out on a great opportunity to make a lot of quick cash if you do not start investing in this hot market. It sounds much like hyperbole . . .

To its credit, the book does touch on a number of investing strategies which jive with my thinking, including investing with a long time horizon. But, I will remain out of the commodities market with my personal investments because commodities do not fit with my investment strategy. The things that I really like about stocks, compared to commodities are:

1. With stocks, the intrinsic value of the companies I am investing in is increasing. Generally, companies are growing, developing new products, improving their operations, etc. An ounce of gold is an ounce of gold and will never change.

2. I do not wish to take the risks of timing the speculative whims of the market. Jim Rodgers flatly states that you make money in commodities because of speculation. Since there is no increase in the intrinsic value of any given commodity, the gains made are purely speculative. At best, success requires time and effort spent doing analysis that, quite frankly, isn't a good use of my time. (At worst--and most likely in my view--this is a game that nobody can win in the long-term.) Since the intrinsic value of commodities is not increasing, for every dollar (or euro, yen, etc.) that is won in the market, another is lost . . . and the brokerage houses are always taking their rake . . .

What are your thoughts on commodities? Are you investing in commodities? Have you made money? Have you lost it?

Understanding the Financial Crisis

So, you want to know more about the financial/housing crisis? I've scoured the interwebs for you to bring you these three links:

1. This short video explains how the mortgage stuff happened . . .

http://vimeo.com/3261363

2. NPR's "Planet Money" podcast recently collaborated with "This American Life" on an hour-long special entitled "Bad Bank" which does a fair job explaining the collapse of the banking system:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=375

3. If you still need more, "Planet Money" and "This American Life" also collaborated last year on another hour-long special:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242


Do you feel like you understand enough about how financial markets, banks, subprime mortgages and corporate paper work? If not, what do you want to know? What do you read/listen to/watch to find out more about this?

Book: Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work

Yes, the title sounds kind of gimmicky, but I heard about this book on NRP's Marketplace . . . and a mention on NPR lends anything quite a bit of clout with me, so I decided to pick up this book for some weekend reading.

Tamara Erickson's book is geared toward Y-Generation members who are soon to enter (or have recently entered) the workforce. The book is very approachable and can be read casually over a weekend. In the initial chapters, she defines what it means to be a member of the Traditionalist, Baby-Boomer, X and Y generations and describes the events that shaped each generation's perceptions during its formative years.

She then continues to describe how these differences play out in a work context, notably pointing out that Y-ers think about work as something they do, not somewhere they go. (I've commented before about asynchronous work, something that she seems to agree that the Y Generation is naturally able to do.) Other points of discussion include: relationships with parents, competitiveness, attitudes toward money and our natural ability to use technology.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone under the age of 25 who is entering the workforce; it was written to help Ys understand how the working world works and I feel that it accomplishes this very nicely. Additionally, I think that this book is worth a look for those who work with Ys on a regular basis . . . we do need to learn to work with you, but you need to learn to work with us, too. :-)

Sick Days

CNN recently posted a piece entitled: “Don’t go to work if you’re sick – please!”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/02/02/cb.do.not.work.sick/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

My mother and I probably disagree on this strongly; she prides herself on only having taken 2 sick-days during her 25+ year career as a nurse, whereas I take the view that you should stay home whenever you’re feeling under-the-weather, so that you don’t infect your colleagues.

In my view, the best sick-day policy is as follows:

1. If you’re sick, we don’t want you infecting the rest of us, so you get the day off, free.
2. Don’t abuse #1.

This is more-or-less the policy that John Deere IVS uses for sick days. (If you’re sick for more than 3 days, I believe that you must either go on short-term disability leave or take vacation. This policy deincentivizes coming to work sick. Of course, it requires a bit of trust in your employees . . . but if you don’t trust your employees, why are you still their employer?

What is your employer’s sick leave policy?