LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME

Its been exactly a month since my last post. I’ve been busy traveling in India for a field study project towards my MBA and also getting a bit of vacation in as well.  The project involved studying the impressive operations of Akshaya Patra, a non-profit organization which feeds over a million kids a day as part of a school lunch program.  I traveled to 10 different cities, finally saw the Taj Mahal along with various assorted forts and palaces,  and spent the new year in Goa (where Jason Bourne’s girlfriend died in one of the Bourne trilogy movies).

I also read a lot of good books, one of which was Shantaram, probably the best fiction book I’ve read in a long time .No, it wasn’t the best piece of literature but it was immensely entertaining (in the way that a Bollywood movie is).  Other interesting books were Outliers, SuperFreakonomics, and Jack Welch’s Straight from the Gut.  Read more... (200 words, 13 images, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Regular readers know that I’m a full-time MBA student. I haven’t had much time to post mainly because I was spending a lot of time looking for a summer job. With the economy being as bad as it is, it’s been quite hard to get a paid job this summer. Unpaid internships are a dime a dozen and I was able to procure a few of those, which I turned down.  Eventually, I was able to find three paid gigs. One was in the IT department of a large cruise line company which didn’t really excite me.  Another was an online marketing analytics job that was very tempting. However, I turned that down in order to research distressed commercial real estate at Marcus & Millichap. Finding any sort of paid real estate job is tough in this environment and I figured that spending 3 months over the summer was a good way to gain some experience in the field of commercial real estate.  Read more... (429 words, 8 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

As someone who’s struggled with finding meaning in life, I can understand the frustration young high schoolers feel when they ask me what they should be doing with their life. Unfortunately, I never have a good answer.

But now thanks to Penelope Trunk, I can direct them to this page and get them off my back:

There is no other way to figure out where you belong than to make time to do it and give yourself space to fail, give yourself time to be lost. If you think you have to get it right the first time, you won’t have the space really to investigate, and you’ll convince yourself that something is right when it’s not. And then you’ll have a quarterlife crisis when you realize that you lied to yourself so you could feel stable instead of investigating. Here’s how to avoid that outcome.  Read more... (1004 words, 8 images, estimated 4:01 mins reading time)

No, I haven’t abandoned my blog. I’ve just been busy packing up and moving to Los Angeles and settling in to my new digs in Westwood, which is close to UCLA. And it’s incredibly difficult to pack (or even sleep for that matter) when you’ve sprained a back muscle, especially the serratus posterior superior muscle. Don’t even know how I sprained it. Probably from too much partying around the Labor Day Weekend.

Anyway, I’m all settled in and I start pre-term Math, Accounting and Excel courses tomorrow followed by week-long Orientation and Leadership classes. After 3 weeks of this, the the regular MBA courses start and it’s going to be an incredibly hectic first quarter where I’ll be taking 5 core courses in just 10 weeks.  Read more... (317 words, 8 images, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

Today I got a letter from the University of California, San Diego’s Business School. They’ve offered me a full fellowship for the MBA program! I think it was based on my GMAT score.

It consists of a complete waiver of all tuition and professional fees for both the years of the course. Getting this means I won’t need any student aid, nor will I have to sell any of my investments to fund my education. Considering that I have a very pessimistic outlook on the direction of the US economy, I believe the unemployment rate will be a lot higher when I graduate in 2 years time. I’d rather save up my money for the rainy days ahead (which means they’ll be more opportunity for good investments at that time). Not having to sell my investments also means I’ll be able to use the income they generate for living expenses.  Read more... (516 words, 8 images, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

As regular readers know, I’m quite keen on getting my MBA. I gave my GMAT late last year and when I scored 740, I thought getting into a top MBA program seemed feasible.

The only problem is that a top MBA program costs about $100,000 plus living expenses. Also there’s the opportunity cost of lost wages which increases the total cost of the MBA program to nearly $250,000!

With the country looking like its heading in to a severe recession, I’m wondering if there will be any jobs when I graduate and have all these student loans to pay. I’ll still probably go for the MBA program , but hopefully, I’ll get some sort of scholarship to defray the expenses. Also, if we see hyperinflation like I think we will, in 15 years $250,000 will be worth only $25,000 in purchasing power and it might not seem like a big deal at all!  Read more... (321 words, 9 images, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)