Huiting Zhuang,Sell your business overseas

Heavy snow storm hits New England around 2pm. I took some pictures minutes ago (7:40pm).

All pictures are taken with my Canon 20D with Canon 17-85mm USM IS lens on my Manfroto 3021Pro tripod with 486RC head.

All pictures were taken with out Flash.

This picture is lighted with outdoor drive light. F4.5 and 2Sec.

This picture is lighted with city light which is really dark. That is why it is yellowish. F4.5 and 4Sec.

F4.5 and 6sec.

F5.6 and 4Second.

There has been a long discussion of rent vs own a house.

I would like to analyze the home ownership in terms of home equity only.

When you own a house, you basically pay a monthly interest and accumulate some home equity over time. The following chart makes the following assumption.

1, Suppose the house is worth 200K with 0 down.

2, Interest rate is 6%.

3, Mortgage is for 30 years (360 months).

[Graph generated from my home mortgage calculator. All right reserved Huiting Zhuang.]

The blue line stands for the interest rate paid over time per month.

The purple line stands for the home equity that you accumulated per month.

The yellow line stands for the total home equity accumulated over time adjusted by divided by 100 so that it stays in the same graph.

So apparently, in the very beginning, even if you own a home, you actually own a very small chunk of the total value of your house.

What does mean?

If you do not plan to live in a place for long (say at least for 2 years), you actually do not own too much of your house. However, if you need to sell a house soon, you will have to pay some commission. Also, you also need to pay taxes on the house.

The total loss: (tax+commission+maintenance-your home equity) might be greater than (the total rent) you will be paying.

In other words, you are losing if you own the house for a short period of time. The exact break point will depend on appreciation or depreciation of your house. You need to talk to an economist or experienced realtor to make logic predictions.

This article is written in response to a friend who asks me if it is better to own a house rather than rent one. This analysis only talks about the money part. To make real decisions, you need to talk to a realtor or economist to make a real decision.

I was sick and took this whole week off. Today, I feel much better and attended a workshop sponsored by RI EDC (Economic Development Corporation). More detail can be found by visiting the following link.

Patent and Trademark Workshop

I think I already know quite a bit on patent, copyright and trademark, I still learned from the workshop. So you are running a business, I would suggest you to keep an eye on these kinds of activities. It is one of the few things that is run by the government that actually help the generic public directly.

RI EDC said that this is the first time they ever run workshop like this. About 20 people attended the event. I wish they can offer more like this in the future.

I rarely write posts praising any government but today, I need to bend the rule. I have to praise my RI government.

I sent my registration renewal Tuesday. Today, Saturday, I received my registration in my mailbox. What a big surprise. I know DMV got bad reputation Nationwide. Now my RI DMV really deserves some praise.

Yesterday, I renewed my registration for one car. To my surprise, the fee jumped from $46 to $60. The increase will not break my bank but it certainly says something. I carefully read the new fee update page in my DMV website, I notice the fee was actually adjusted from July 2007.

I remember there was budget debate in the state but I know the state will find ways to raise money. So that is what they did.

I know many states got budge problem so the effect will show up soon everybody's tax/fee bill.

I wonder what else the government will come up to balance the budget deficit.