Sales tax in my county is now 9.25%.That’s basically 10%!

Buying online from places without a brick and mortar store in California automatically saves me that much. Or I can wait until I visit my friends in NYC where clothing under $100 isn’t taxed. Oh yes, I do look for reasons to shop don’t I? But it just makes going to Loehmann’s in NYC that much more fun

I need to buy stuff for the house soon and now seriously tempted to purchase most of my window coverings, home stuff, and furnishings online just to get around the sales tax. That and there’s such a better selection online because online stores on confined by limited floor space.

Along with Jim Cramer from Mad Money, I am personally calling a bottom on the real estate market for summer 2009.

Today’s Fed move basically is giving everyone a ~4% 30 yr fixed mortgage. Mortgage is either less or equal to rent in a lot of the markets.

Additionally, people will be refinancing, stimulating end consumer spending, driving overall economy. Confidence will increase. Home prices will stabilize/increase.

Yup, I’m using this blog to make a bottom call on real estate, and proclaiming it as the ultimate deal of the year.

I didn’t get it when I first joined. A lot of my colleagues/friends don’t get it either. I think I am getting a better handle on it, so let me try to put together a quick overview

How to make the most out of twitter

1. download TweetDeck (Adobe AIR) application. I was using the web only for months, until I discovered TweetDeck. WOW, what a difference it makes. Most powerful tool: you can search for a term (example “coupons”) and you can keep monitoring the tweets with the would “coupons”
2. follow people that you might want to have a conversation with. how do you find people who aren’t your friends already? search for some terms! (see step one) Follow people wiht @replies and RT (retweets) because they probably are more conversational. Follow brands, webistes, and you can almost use twitter as an RSS feed.
3. Join some # chat parties. You’ll start seeing them when you’ve followed enough people.
4. Sign up for TwitterFeed so all your latest blog posts (via RSS) will get posted onto twitter. If you have a website/email list, link to your twitter page so users can communicate with you there.

Tips: Don’t try to follow too many people too quickly or they think you’re spamming. Try to have some updates before you start following anyone.

Still learning myself, but that’s what I know so far!

I think most girls go for the designer handbags, then maybe wallet or some other accessory, and then shoes. Well, I just worked myself up to the shoe level this past weekend.

Classy Tory Burch leather black pumps. Gorgeous, high quality, and super comfy for the 6 extra inches it gave me. And yes, this was a deal. Found it at Nordstrom Rack in my size.

The designer deals at the outlets right now are quite ridiculous. I went to Neiman Marcus Last Call outlet also, and there were racks of DVF (Diane Von Furstenberg) dresses and Tory Burch apparel. There were some excellent deals (dresses around $100 that were normally $450+), but I still held back. My reason is that I am already way to dressesd up for Silicon Valley California super casual. But I think a lot of people are holding back even in the outlets due to all the bad news about the economy.

Lots of inventory out there right now if you are looking for quality stuff in your size at the outlets.

TARP

There’s been a lot of news around the new stimulus package. But what about TARP? How are we fixing the root of the problem, and get money flowing in the system again?

Yes, the subject matter is difficult (assets that are impossible to value, securitization, the lack of appetite for all sorts of financial products that provided so much capital in the past two decades). But it is the root of the current economic problems we are facing, and worth discussing.

Main Street

In the past two to three months, the economy has been on this downward spiral, and now the impact is truely felt. I personally know at least half a dozen people out of work across different industries and companies. It’s scary.

On slightly more positive note, my older uncles and aunties don’t seem as worried and have a longer term perspective. One said, “this isn’t that bad! At least you still have food and aren’t going hungry like in the war times!”

I know the economic environment is scary right now, so much that even people with money are not spending as much because everyone seems to be in conservation mode.

But here I am proposing a new way to live… and it’ll help stretch your money in the long term.

Spend less money when economy is booming, and spend more when it’s hurting

When you are spending when economy is down like it is right now, you just get a lot more for the same dollar you are spending. Things are on sale at 50% off or more. I mean, you can get a Tag watch for 50% off or more in the LVMH friends and family sale right now! And it’s not just about luxury goods. I just got a 4-star hotel in the soho area of London for $100USD per night for an upcoming trip. But during economic boom, you would never find such good deals and might even have to pay a premium.

It’s all about supply and demand. When demand is high (during the boom), prices are high. When demand low (right now), prices are low. So doesn’t it make a lot of sense to buy low?

Spend money if you have it. Go travel, redecorate your house, buy that expensive watch or purse you’ve craved for so long. You are no only saving yourself money in the long term, but also helping the ailing economy out.

In college when I really needed to study and cram for a test, I force myself to go to the basement section of the library. There was nothing for me to do there except study. No email. No instant messages. No snacks. No TV. No visitors.

These days, with internet/wifi available everywhere, text messages and phones with web access, it is so hard to find a time and space where there is little distraction. The only place that forces me into the “library mode” is when I am on the plane or in the airport.

I think it’s my restlessness. When I’m awake, I need to be doing something, anything. And there really isn’t much you can do on a plane.

On my most recent plane ride, I read 4 weeks worth of the Economist magazine, wrote two blogs, brainstormed high level features of DealDivine that we will implement this coming year, planned the next release of DealDivine, and made minor changes to the site. And during my 1.5 hour stop at Dallas, I hopped onto WiFi, posted deals and coupons.

Goal for 2009: Give myself more “airplane” time when I’m on land.

I attended my first Ladies Who Launch meeting last week, and I loved the energy and warmth I felt from the other aspiring women entrepreneurs.

It was personally satisfying, especially after attending a startup panel where I was one of five women in a group of 150+. I got warm fuzzies the instant I walked into the all-women meeting, and left more energized than ever.

Another reason why this intimate all-women event was refreshing: it was the opposite of a geek fest! Women of all ages with interest in a variety of business (retail, apparel, restaurant, consulting, interior design, author) shared their success and what they want to accomplish. In Silicon Valley it is sometimes easy to get in a tech bubble, and miss seeing the opportunities outside the capital of geeks.

I’m not sure if there will be more meetings like this from this organization, but I think women business leaders and entrepreneurs do need support groups and an environment where they can “talk shop” but also encourage and inspire each other.

http://www.wwd.com/business-news/the-price-of-the-new-frugality-1910836

I was just reading the WWD article above and this paragraph jumped out at me:

“… price still counts for a lot. According to a new study by Young & Rubicam Inc. advertising, price triggered purchases of 80 percent of 2,500 brands people bought from 2004 through the first quarter of 2008, well before onset of the economic crisis last fall. “

Brand and quality matters too, but sometimes price and the discount amount is just that trigger that you react to. I got a black wool dress from J Crew for $30 and thought it was the best deal ever because that was like 70% off. But if I found that same dress with an original price of $30 at a no name brand at a store, I might pass… Maybe it’s not the absolute price people react to, but the perceived discount and “value” they are saving.

DealDivine’s rss feeds have been added to deals.alltop.com!

I think Alltop.com is a great idea. I am a religious user of my.yahoo.com for the past decade, so I am rather set in my rss reader habits (switching cost is just too high!). But if you have yet to get started on a good “home page” of relevant rss feeds, I think places like Alltop and Popurl are good places to start.