Schools don’t teach personal finance. Hence it’s your job as a parent. Some areas to cover:
+ Why learn? Because decent net worth can be pleasure. Rich is better than poor.
+ + The joy of getting work you enjoy. When you love it, you will be happy, and often prosperous.The evils of debt.
+ The charm of compound interest.
+ The importance of control and the idiocy of gambling on investments your have no control and limited knowledge.
+ Don’t trust advisors, institutions or your friends. Trust only in your own knowledge.
Reading the Wall Street Journal will not make you a better investor. Studying financials and reading balance sheets will.
Photo things I learned yesterday.
+ A big, clunky, heavy SLR camera has only one big advantage over my Canon G10. The big one (e.g. a Nikon D90 or a Canon EOS Rebel T21) has no shutter lag. the big one won’t produce noticeably better pictures unless you’re doing sports photography. The keys to great photography are lighting and Photoshop. Bounce strobe is the best portable light. But a unit can be heavy.
+ Red Eye Pilot is a plug-in for Photoshop which really gets rid of red eye.
+ A digital 35mm photo is 24″ x 36″ (i.e. in the proportion of 4″ x 6″) . But other “standard” photo sizes are the wrong size, .e.g. 5″ x 7″ or 8″ x 10″. Hence the printing labs typically chop your If you don’t want your print your photos missing Aunt Emma on the right, use Photoshop and its canvas size tool. Make your own white space, but include everyone.
+ The photo lab Mpix does great prints, in unusual sizes and unusual formats. Many professional photographers use Mpix. Click here.
+ Download a free trial of PortaitProfessional 9. It will make fix even your ugliest, pimpliest friends. The software is magic. Go here.
+ Prints are for walls. Picassa is for sharing your photos with your friends. Picassa is Google and is free. Click here.
+ There is no easy way to organize the zillions of digital pictures you were stupid to take. First, delete the crap. Second, organize them by event and/or family. Third, don’t take so many pictures. I can take 4,115 pictures on a 1″ x 1.5″ 16 gigabyte SD card. That’s a license to shooting insanity.
+ My Epson V300 photo flatbed scanner is great. But you can buy it cheaper than I did. Figure $85. Check Google and Shopping.com for comparative quotes. Remember scanning is ultra-time consuming. Don’t be ambitious. “Today I’ll scan all our 1980s photos.” Don’t do it.
+ Don’t shoot an indoor wedding with a zoom lens on your digital SLR. You won’t be able to see through the lens. Use a fixed focus lens, like an 85mm which is great for portraits. Or use the Canon G10 or like which works in low light.
+ The new Sony NEX-5 looks interesting. I don’t have one. Click here for David Pogue’s review.
You become obsessed with photography when it’s Wednesday and your only son is getting married on Saturday.
I don’t do restaurant reviews. But Celeste Ristorante E Pizza on New York’s Upper West side at 502 Amsterdam Ave at 84th Street is the best Italian restaurant in New York. (212) 874-4559 It’s open seven days a week. Four words of caution: It takes no reservations. You’ll have to wait 20 minutes outside unless you come early or late. The place is tight seating. You sit in your neighbor’s lap. They only take cash. The food is to die for.
Great news. Yes, it’s happening, though slowly and often at much lower rents.
Harry’s obsession with bottles. From WD-40 to New Skin, bottles of good stuff are your way to instant wealth. I study bottles and tubes for “creativity.” this one blew me away: A sunscreen with green tea! With what?
It’s been hot in Texas. How hot? Look what happened to the ice cream truck.
Beer
“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.” — Lyndon B. Johnson
“When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.” — Paul Horning
“24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not.” — H. L. Mencken
“When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!” — George Bernard Shaw
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” — Dave Barry
Beer. Helping ugly people have sex since 3000 b.c.! — W. C. Fields
Remember “I” before “E,” except in Budweiser. — Professor Irwin Corey
Harry Newton,who really loves his upcoming new daughter-in-law. Funny thing: Anne wants to change her last name to Newton. Michael told her the Newton name came from a 500-year old dynasty of royalty and ancient lands. Little does she know that it came out of the Sydney, Australia telephone book in 1939 when my parents arrived in Australia nine days before the outbreak of the second World War. Our original name came from some obscure ghetto language and is translated into English as “nut tree.” Newton is more classy. Marginally so. Little does Anne know what awaits her.
Anne and Michael dancing. They’re nuts about each other. It’s nice to see.
On parents and personal finance: I started learning about investing at 16 when my mom did the math and realized her pension, Social Security, and T-Bills weren't going to supply her with the funds for retirement she had in mind. She used me to bounce ideas off of, for lack of anyone more suitable and she developed a good eye for investments that panned out. Between that and weapons-grade economic defense, she's retired now with a very comfortable nest egg. Because of her, I started my IRA and investment accounts with my first job, developed the ability to delay gratification, stretch a dollar, and appreciate what I have, and have developed some personal finance expertise of my own – too many people I know simply don't. Thanks Mom!
Actually, “Nussbaum” is a German surname (sometimes given as Nusbaum). It is usually translated as nut-tree or, less often, as walnut-tree.
Harry, the mpix link doesn't work.
Does now.
Nice column today. Good to get away from the obsession with depression.
Weddings are “up.” harder to organize than a convention of 26,000 people, however.