No Means No!

For the past few days, I’ve gone to work, read books and learned some programming – but these are stories for another time. Instead, here is a brief cartoon because, for the past few days, I have also helped a good friend of mine with his term paper for Urban Economics. To complement his semester-long research, there were ambitions to review multivariate regression outputs for statistical analysis. The only problem was that my friend is armed only with experience from Intro to Stats. So, the past few days has been a crash course of basic econometrics through numerous G-Chat sessions and one “Dude, please be awake” text message at 3 in the morning.

For those who understand statistics, I hope you enjoy the lukewarm humor. For those who detest all forms of mathematics, I hope you aren't easily offended by sexy sheets of paper. 

A Willingness

I had cheesecake a few days ago but had forgotten to snap any food photos. My excuse for this heinous crime? Family.

Sis and her fiancé are visiting for a few more days. Between sightseeing in New York City and shopping at Costco, there are chatters of discussions – mostly on wedding dresses – at the dinner table, over home-baked pork chops and rice.

I forgot to take photos of that dish as well.

Sis and her fiancé are both a bit older and work in finance, so I asked for some mock interview questions. The first one began, “In your opinion, what are the top three factors driving financial markets this past year?” The last one ended, “How do lowered interest rates impact defined benefits pension plans?”

By the end, I was completely, absolutely, utterly disheartened. Even in my mind, I could not articulate a competent response to most all of these questions. Were the last four years just an expensive daydream?!

But the fiancé reminded me, it’s not always about intelligence and how much you know. What’s more important is your curiosity and willingness to know more.

So, here’s to my quest on being more knowledgeable. As part of finding the answers to “why” and “how,” I am going to keep a daily journal of self-reports on what I read in finance-related news. But, this is not just about describing single-index models or knowing what a defined contribution plan is. It is about understanding what happens to people when China’s automobile industry grows or how a US fiscal cliff will affect the Greek economy.

Curiosity, not just intelligence.

Everyone says curiosity killed the cat, but no one mentions that, before the cat went to heaven, he learned to stalk and catch mice, and to rule human beings!

Footnote: The cheesecake was white chocolate raspberry swirl.

Footnote 2: Speaking of the daily journal, be on a lookout for Dear Finance, to be debuted soon!