My thoughts on Personal Finance ...

Back to blogging ... The only difference now is that I am in my 30's and I am happily married now. So, I will be blogging about things that people in their 30s blog about ... like Personal Finance. In the next few blogs, I will write about a few things I learned over the past few years in my quest to achieve my financial goals. The first episode in this series starts with the most important one: Budgeting !

Budgeting is normally the first thing anyone does once they become serious about how they spend their money. But, it is not an entirely straightforward affair, mainly because there exist different allocation methods and tools that one can choose from. For a good overview, please refer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_budget

There are several reasons why budgeting is important. I believe that the following are the most important among them:

1. A budget is one of the best methods to make sure that you LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS !! (I am sorry that I had to over-emphasize the last part of my previous sentence, because these days credit is so much easily available that living within one's means has actually become a challenging thing to do - see this popular SNL video targeted towards every debtor).

2. Budgeting is a proven method to achieve both short and long term financial goals.

Now that we know why budgeting is important, let's take a look at the different aspects of budgeting and the methods that I found to be useful in creating my own budget:

Allocation Method: This refers to the amounts of resources that are allocated to each expense every month. There are several different types of allocation methods available to choose from. The one that impressed me is a lot is Richard Jenkins 60% solution. This is also the default budgeting method in the latest versions of Microsoft Money. The crux of this method is to split the monthly expenses into 5 categories (the percent value in brackets next to each category name represents the default recommended allocation):

1. Committed Expenses (60%): These include expenses such as housing (rent or mortgage payments), living expenses (groceries, gas), bills (cell, TV, internet, electricity, water, heating ...), insurance, and taxes - things that we need to spend every month anyway. Now, this percentage (60) may be a bit higher if you are living in areas with ridiculously high housing costs (Boston, anywhere in California, ...). The living expenses may be higher if you are supporting your family with a single income. In our case, we have a single income stream and we live in Southern California, and we always somehow seem to hit the 50% percent mark for this category. So far so good ... Please note that Charitable donations are also included as a part of committed expenses. On most months, your budgeted and actual expenses on this category must match closely with each other.

2. Savings and Debt (10%): These include payments for reducing any (non-mortgage) debt, and also contributions to (non-retirement) savings accounts and investments. Of course, the highest priority to pay-off all the high-interest debt first (for most people, this is probably payments towards their car). In the case of savings, this could include money saved toward an emergency " rainy-day" fund (more on this later) , or in the case of investments, this could be an investment towards some specific goal - such as buying a house, paying for college etc., My goal is to consistently hit 25% every-time, but on some months with irregular expenses (such as car insurance payments), this may not be possible. On most months, your budgeted and actual expenses on this category must match closely with each other. Exceptions include those months in which you may have to dip into your emergency fund to cover any unplanned expenses.

3. Retirement (10%): This is all the income that you are contributing toward your retirement accounts (such as 401K etc.,). I am sticking with 10%, as recommended.

4. Irregular Expenses (10%): These are expenses that don't occur every month. Good examples are automobile maintenance, health-care related expenses, gifts and other unplanned expenses. Of course, you will notice that the actual expenses per month will be either higher or lower than the budgeted value. This is OK, as long as you plan such that you don't exceed the budgeted amount on the average for the whole year. I am currently budgeting around 5-7.5% per month and this seems to work well for me.

5. Fun (10%): This is basically money that can be used as you please (a.k.a " fun money"). I use this normally on the following activities: dining out, movies, DVD rentals, vacations, electronics gadget purchases, etc., Again, parts of this 10% allocations (such as dining out and movies) can be strictly budgeted, but for the rest (such as vacations), you have to make sure that you are not exceeding the budget limit on an average for the whole year. I budget about 5-10% every month, with the upper-limit (10%) used for months on which I have a vacation planned.

There are, of course, several other allocation methods, but I like the 60% percent method, mainly because of two reasons:

1. It is incredibly simple. Please note that you DON'T have to budget items inside each of the five categories. For some categories, I do use a micro-budget, but this is strictly not necessary.

2. My personal finance tool Microsoft Money has this budgeting method build into it.

Alright, this article is getting too long. I will continue the rest later ...

Album Review: My Arms Your Hearse (Opeth)

"This day wept on my shoulders ..."

Opeth is testament to the fact that there is always beauty to be found in places where one would least expect it - in this case, an album labelled under the "extreme progressive metal" genre. Sure, this album is heavy in the truest sense of the word, but if you invest some time and dig through the imposing wall of sound, you will realize that it has been built on a solid base of scandinavian folk melodies and layered twin-guitar harmonies.

For a while, I have been trying hard to find a way to describe Opeth in words. This is what I been able to put together so far: take a bunch of hopeless romantics (who also happen to be gifted musicians), give them guitars and drums and ask them to play mind-numblingly heavy and blisteringly fast music. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Opeth ...

This is Opeth's 3rd album, and in my humble opinion, the one that will eventually stand the test of time. Their first album was like - "Dude, we just discovered something new and incredible, now what the heck do we do with it ?". Their second album, "Morningrise" improved on the first, and had better musicianship (in fact, it sported several acoustic twin-guitar harmonies that made that album very special to me). MAYH marks a turning point in Opeth's sound - it is much more organized with shorter songs that don't meander into netherland (not that there is anything wrong with "meandering" - it is subjective), and also the overall sound is much heavier (yet the melody is still there). This is arguably one of Opeth's heaviest albums, and probably the first one to consistently feature Opeth's trademark "melodic/heavy/sad/powerful/epic"-sounding riffs (or just "Opethian"-riffs for brevity).

Just like other Opeth albums, MAYH is a concept album that describes an over-the-top love story - though, with a slight twist - one of the lovers is a dead guy (or a ghost to be precise). This guy dies before the beginning of the album and for a short while he doesn't know that he is dead yet (and by the way, this album was released in 1998 - an year before "The Sixth Sense" was released). For most of the album, this ghost watches in agony as his wife (or lover) suffers in grief unable to cope with the loss of her loved one. He (being a ghost and all) is powerless and unable to comfort her. The only time they are able to have a real conversation is through her dreams where "she laughing and weeping at once, says: 'take me away'", for which he responds, "I don't know how or why, and I'll never know WHEN.". And so on and so forth goes the story as his other attempts to reach her (as in the "Demon of The Fall") end in disaster as she starts to think that she is being haunted, and it drives her further into madness. Realizing this, he decides that the best way out of this is to let her be, and he simply walks away ...

A few special notes are in order about this album: the ending lyrics of all the songs are the same as the title of the following song (the ending lyric of the last song is the same as the title of the first song). All the songs represent different seasons - the first full song "April Ethereal" starts (obviously) in the spring, and the album moves on to summer (on the "Amen Corner"), and into the fall (on "Demon of the Fall") and finally ends in winter's "Epilogue" (which starts the next "Prologue", and so it goes on ...).

Musically, this is clearly one of Opeth's best works. It starts with "Prologue" that sets the mood for the rest of the album. You hear raindrops on the background followed by a gentle piano intro that forebodes the sadness that is to follow ... "April Ethereal" then starts with fade-in vocals and immediately bursts into massive riffs followed by Akerfeld's imperious growl and the rest is ... well, you just have to listen to find out. Trying to describe Opeth's songs using words is always a very difficult thing to do.

I do want to mention a few highlights though: this album features several unique riffs that follow some sort of a "question/answer" format - more precisely - the first part of the riff appears to ask a question that is answered by the second part of the riff (Ok. maybe, I am imagining things here ... or maybe not). Just listen to the riff that begins around 4:40 into the "April Ethereal", or the riff around 5:50 into "When", and you might understand what I am trying to say. Also, a special mention is in order for the outros of "April Ethereal" and "Demon of the Fall" - these are priceless gems, and the absolute head-banging beauty that launches the "Amen Corner".

All said, I do have a few minor quibbles. For example, I felt that the gear shift from the "Prologue" to "April Ethereal" was bit too abrupt for my taste. Also, some middle sections of the "Amen Corner" could have been a bit more interesting. It is definitely the album's weakest point (although, for an album of this calibre, that doesn't mean much).

Overall, this is a masterpiece - enough said.

"... Amidst the forest one would hear that I had been there. Draped within a fate I could not change, and always welcoming Winter's EPILOGUE ..."

Album Review: Damnation (Opeth)

"There is a wound that's always bleeding ...
There is a road I'm always walking ...
... And I know you'll never return to this place"

What can I say ... somewhere in the middle of "Hope Leaves", I remembered having watery eyes ... I have listened to a lot of music from Norah Jones through Dream Theater to Pantera, but no music has ever struck such a strong emotional chord than this one 43-minute effort from a death metal band. The songs are generally about post-relationship sadness and depression. I believe that there is a certain beauty to the feeling of sadness that Opeth has captured in a highly emotional outpouring of melancholic guitars, mellotrons, amazing drums and the gorgeous voice of Mike Akerfeldt.

There is absolutely no moment in this record that sounds boring, "Hope Leaves" being the strongest point. The only moment that I was dissapointed was at the end of the last song when I longed for the sadness to continue ...

A lot of negative reviews for this album are based on comparisions to other prog. rock legends. Please folks, this is a unique piece of work that needs to be appreciated on its own.

PS: It really helps if you imagine yourself alone in a dark alpine forest in Sweden during peak-winter before beginning to listen to this album. (Or better yet, imagine yourself in the place that appears on the album cover of Opeth's Morningrise).

"Summer is miles and miles away ..." - indeed.

Album Review: Still Life (Opeth)

OK. Back after a long time. This time, instead of spilling my liberal guts out, I am trying something different - reviews of what I consider some of the best albums ever made. Starting with this masterpiece from Opeth ...

I have always believed that good music has three dimensions: Virtuosity, Complexity and Melody/Emotivity (well, the "catchy" part of the music). I am on this eternal quest to find music that has significant presence in all the three dimensions. After listening to this album, I can now safely say that there is atleast one band in the world that has come close to achieving this three-dimensional musical brilliance.

Opeth's music is well-known for its dynamics (mix of acoustic and heavy metal sections). Of all the Opeth material I've listened to so far, the transitions between the acoustic and heavy sections play very well in this album than any other. Morningrise had great acoustic and metal sections, but I thought that some transitions between sections were a little too abrupt - just my opinion. Now, to the actual album review ...

In short, Still Life is a concept album describing the story of a man (the narrator) who is banished from his village because his beliefs were different from those of the other villagers. He comes back to the village after 15 years to find his love interest Melinda ("The Moor") - hoping the villagers won't recognize him ("Godhead's Lament"). He manages to find her and tries to convince her to come away with him ("Benigted"). To his dissapointment, he finds Melinda married to another man. He still decides to have her back ("Moonlapse Vertigo", "Face of Melinda"), but something goes wrong in the middle and Melida ends up dead ("Serenity Painted Death"). Filled with rage, he goes medieval on the villagers (the councilmen, especially), until he is finally caught and is awaiting to be put to death ("White Cluster").

If I had to describe the first song "The Moor" in just two words, it would be this : Striking Dynamics. This song has it all. It has one of the greatest intros one could hope for in a metal song (just listen to it and you'll know why). A few amazing riffs, lyrics and a short acoustic break later, the song enters into a dreamy and beautifully crafted acoustic section, where Mikael displays his "other" vocal talent - after which the song ends in the same heavy note that it started. The amazing thing about this song is that it vividly portrays the picture of a man running swiftly through a moor (an open area filled with peat bogs) trying to get back into the village he was banished from (try to open up your imagination a little bit and you will immensely enjoy this song).

The second song, "Godheads Lament" is a monstrously heavy track with amazing riffs (er ... that description applies to just about any Opeth song). But, the highlight of this track is the bizarrely catchy rock section in the middle (the paragraph starting with "Searching my way ..."). Throughout this song, the narrator is trying his best to disguise himself so that that the villagers won't recognize him, and continuing his search for Melinda. He manages to find her at the end of the song ("In crumbling faith I saw her ...").

The third track, "Benighted" is a soothing all-acoustic track with a simple verse/chorus song structure. This song has an amazing outro, and it provides a much needed break after the sonic assault unleashed by the first two tracks. In this song, the narrator tries his best to convince Melinda to come with him.

The fourth track, "Moonlapse Vertigo" is my personal favorite thanks to some truly colossal riffs, and a positive and uplifiting (terms not usually associated with Opeth) chorus section at the end. This song carries the story forward, and is about the narrator's disdain for the village councilmen and his desire to protect Melinda from them.

The fifth track, "Face of Melinda" is something that anyone with any appreciation of rock music will enjoy. The first half of this song is acoustic, and it explodes at the end with some of the best guitar riffs I've had the pleasure of lending my ears to. A bizzare thing about this song is the entirely straightforward (yet poetic) lyrics that is unlike most other Opeth songs. During this track, the narrator painfully learns of Melinda's marriage to a another man, but still has difficulty giving her up. Melinda's stand on all this is clearly represented in the song's final lyric: "My promise is made, but my heart is thine". This song also features an amazing outro riff.

The sixth track, "Serenity Painted Death". Well, if "The Moor" had the best dynamics, then this track has the best variety. This track starts with two 'amazing/epic/melodic/sad/heavy' riffs that Opeth can now come up with in their sleep. These give way to a 80's Sabbath style mid-tempo heavy riff that is almost impossible to avoid headbanging to. It gives way to a bizarre hiphop-style (gasp!) section where Mikael almost raps (gasp!) the paragraph "White face, ...", and the guitar almost does a turn-table like (another gasp!) sound. The heavy riffs continue and out of nowhere comes a Dream Theateresque epic solo and a chorus section. The song then enters a brief acoustic break, before exploding into a monstrously heavy section (the heaviest on this album) - with some violent lyrics. Then comes another epic solo that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Dream Theater album, followed by another chorus section, before ending with the "White face .." paragraph. I know that I am not doing any justice to this song by attemping to describe it like this, but all I am trying to say is that you can tear apart this one Opeth song, make 10 normal metal songs, and probably even release a hit metal album. This track is when the narrator finds Melinda dead and goes medieval on the village councilmen before losing his strength and getting caught.

The final track, "White Cluster" has been my least favorite track on this album for a while simply because I am always exhausted by the time I reach this track (I usually dont play this album out of order). This is another amazing Opeth song and if you loved the previous tracks you will love this one too. In this track, the narrator is awaiting this death by hanging ("The noose is tied ...").

If this is not the best heavy-metal concept album ever created, then it certainly comes close.

(this review is also posted at Amazon.com)