{"id":19401,"date":"2013-04-23T09:07:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T13:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=19401"},"modified":"2013-04-23T09:07:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T13:07:51","slug":"the-best-presents-you-can-give-your-kid-your-grandkid-or-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=19401","title":{"rendered":"The best presents you can give your kid, your grandkid or yourself."},"content":{"rendered":"

The best thing you can do for your kid is to get him\/her started\u00a0 buying local, rental real estate. Houses. Apartment buildings. That will be his\/her best retirement fund in 40 years.\u00a0 Every decision that goes into finding the property, assessing its financials and its prospects is great financial training — something most kids lack.<\/p>\n

Local real estate has huge advantages over listed securities — from local knowledge, to buying cheap (you’re not competing against buyers from every corner of the globe). Over time, if you pick the right area (a New York, not a Detroit), you’ll do handsomely.<\/p>\n

I quote my father: “The best invention ever was compound interest.” Over time, even a 3% annual appreciation adds up. And up. And up.<\/p>\n

10 iPhone Apps That Made My Life Better,<\/strong><\/span> according to a reporter for Business Insider. The list is quite useful, especially for New Yorkers. I use several of the apps, including Seamless, CardMunch, Uber, PayPal, \u00a0 Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Time’s 100 Most Influential People In the World. <\/strong>The caption on Time Magazine’s two-page spread photo reads: “Hip-hop artist and entrepreneur Jay Z is worth an estimated $460 million.”<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"JayZ\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The accompanying article reads:<\/p>\n

Jay Z. The Emperor of New York by Michael Bloomberg (our mayor)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jay Z embodies so much of what makes New York New York. A kid from a tough neighborhood who grows up in public housing, overcomes lots of bad influences on the street, never lets go of his dream, makes it to the top – and then keeps going, pursuing new outlets for his creativity and ambition. When no one would sign him to a record contract, he created his own label and built a music empire – before going on to design clothing lines, open sports bars and, most recently, represent professional athletes. He’s an artist-entrepreneur who stands at the center of culture and commerce in 21st century America, and his influence stretches across races, religions and regions. He’s never forgotten his roots – “Empire State of Mind” was a love song to our city – and as a co-owner of the NBA Nets, he helped bring a major league sports team back to Brooklyn, not far from his old neighborhood. In nearly everything he’s tried, he’s found success. (He even put a ring on Beyonc\u00e9.) And in doing so, he’s proved that the American Dream is alive and well.<\/p>\n

Most useful recent “discoveries.”<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

+ Tong Oil is wonderful for wood. The best.<\/p>\n

+ Google has the easiest airline information. Search for “flights from New York to Portland, Oregon.” Or simply go to www.Google.com\/flights.<\/a><\/strong> Click on the column headings. You can sort by quickest, cheapest, by departure time, by arrival time. Easiest airline search engine I’ve found. Seems also to be comprehensive, i.e. including all airlines.<\/p>\n

+ Best dental floss.
\n\"ReachTotalCare\"<\/a>
\nSadly, not cheap. $5.99 at Amazon. Click here.<\/strong><\/a> You can “subscribe” to regular deliveries and save a few cents. Subscribing is a neat service from Amazon.<\/p>\n

+ Instapaper lets you bookmark a web site or page for later reading. It’s really useful since you can’t leave every page open in your browser. At some point your browser burps and stops. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ CodeAcademy is the best web site to teach yourself and your kids how to write software. I have always believed that software programming ought to be taught in each school grade. There are schools that actually have it. They find it helps their graduates find better jobs. A lawyer with coding skills gets a better job than a lawyer without. An engineer with coding skills gets a better job. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ GoToMeeting and Skype Video are useful apps for showing someone distant what you’re pitching. GoToMeeting lets you walk through stuff on your computer screen, demonstrating an app or running a PowerPoint. Skype Video shows your face and your your product. Think personalized YouTube. Click GoToMeeting <\/strong><\/a>and Skype Video.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"WayofLife\"<\/a>
\n\"commmunity\"<\/a>
\n\"GeneralPeterssen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton who’s eyeing this peaking market warily. This week’s Economist concludes:<\/p>\n

The odds are, then, that the economy is not really stalling now, which may explain why the stockmarket has for the most part shrugged off the bad news. But the economy has not shrugged off the effect of austerity. Instead, it still plods along with growth of about 2%. A recovery worthy of the name is still to come.<\/p>\n

Read the full piece here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best thing you can do for your kid is to get him\/her started\u00a0 buying local, rental real estate. Houses. Apartment buildings. That will be his\/her best retirement fund in 40 years.\u00a0 Every decision that goes into finding the property, assessing its financials and its prospects is great financial training — something most kids lack. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}