Now I know what the "Wintry Mix" is

I had heard people talk of this "wintry mix" that descends on the region, but didn't understand until last night what it really was. The conditions have to be just right for this little phenomenon.

It was raining, half the rain was frozen, the other half was wet. The ground was cold, and the mix of precipitation was forming several inches of slush. It's like that stuff around the chairlifts on a sunny day at the ski slopes. The slush has just enough body stack up like snow, but when you step on that layer it's like walking in a puddle. So walking back from the subway I got to walk in the rain and in a perpetual 2-3 inch puddle of slush. What Fun! So that's the wintery mix.

Paul Kedrosky's iGreed

My favorite blog lately has been Paul Kedrosky's blog Infectious Greed. There's a good mix of tech and business news, as well as interesting posts. And theres always lots of links to other media.

Jim Rogers Interview

I listened to a very good interview with Jim Rogers. Jim Rogers helped found the Quantum fund with George Soros.

Rogers talks about his investment strategy and his ideas about investing in China. Rogers sees China as being a new frontier in investing, much like the US was in the early 1900s.

The low down:

The dollar is going down, get out of dollar denominated assets. You can check out www.everbank.com for a bank account that will allow foreign currency trading. It's FDIC insured too.

Consinder investing in commodities (especially agriculture at the moment)

An easy way to play commodities is through ETFs and ETNs. Barclays has a number of these products. iShare.com.

I thought it was an enlightening interview, and it made me think a little deeper about my investment strategy and search for markets that were less correlated with the US market.

You can also find this on iTunes by looking for "dorsey wright & associates technical analysis podcast." There is a similar interview (text)in Forbes.

Underwithholding Your Taxes

Update: Thanks to my friend and his excellent investigative accounting skills, I've learned this is not such a good idea after all. Unless you are very productive with that money you withhold, you won't beat the tax they asses you. I appreciate the tax advice Tyler.

Why didn't I think of this before. You can gain interest on the money that is withheld from your paycheck to pay your taxes. Simply choose to withhold no money in the beginning of the tax season, and then greatly increase your withholding as tax season draws near. With a little bit of financial discipline and some buffer income you can put that money to good use --instead of giving the government and interest free loan. Mental math says at 50k per year, that money in a no risk investment will return at least $300. That's about $100 per hour of work that it takes to do the research and fill out a few W-4 forms.

And with that money in a trading account you have enough money to chase a more sizable return. Be careful of course, because the taxes will still be due at the end of the year.

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