Brief China Notes and Weekly Roundup

Hey everyone, I’m currently living it up in China and will be for another week or so, poking my head in from time to time to make sure things are okay when I have some free time. The trip has been great so far, we’ve been able to see a lot of the sights in the Shanghai, Huangshan and neighboring regions and now we’re in the midst of buying a lot of goodies to bring back to the states, many of which are wedding related. (yikes) There’s a tremendous amount of construction and growth in the city of Shanghai, much more so than one could picture without actually seeing pictures or coming here. The disparity in wealth is staggering, even within the city itself, you have people driving million dollars cars able to get out and eat dinner for 8 for under $25 USD (and it’s phenomenal food too). Want a tailored suit? $75. Tailored shirts? $12. Silk ties? $1.50. It’s stunning.

The city itself is amazing to look at as well, it’s like they took pictures out of what Asimov would’ve envisioned for the future and built it, lots of glass buildings with unique and quite imaginative designs. Perhaps pictures will be up in the future, until then, feast on these domestic treats:

• JLP discusses his disdain for both payday loans and the implication that borrowers are victims and not willing participants. I totally agree.
• MBH shares his local weekend yard sale loot haul.
• FMF writes about eight work perks you probably wished you had. A break on the mortgage sounds pretty darned good!
• Nickel has a great tip on how Vanguard will waive account minimum fees if you agree to accept electronic documents, a win for you, a win for Vanguard, and a win for planet Earth!
• Flexo writes about the fifth couple living on $47k.
• Did you know that if you have more than $25,000 saved for retirement you’re ahead of the curve? It’s seems remarkably low to me, remarkable and very disconcerting.
• Someone bought a Wii! Consume consume consume!
• Golbguru has a post about how much it costs to repair damage from low speed hits to the bumper (and the lights, etc. that the bumper is meant to protect), something that I think I’ve heard on NPR before but never saw in writing before. Low speed meant 3 mph for corner hits and 6 mph for head on… max damage was to the Maxima at over 9 grand. A good read.
• I’ve been trying to keep up on Jeremy’s series on 24 signs you could be in financial trouble and the second to last one, numero 23, is a good one - lack of a well-defined goal and a plan to reach them. Incidentally, you should read the other 22 he’s put up already because more than a few of those are gems as well.
• Do you have a Bank of America account and ATM card? You can get free admission into 85 museums during the month of May! Details.