Viraj's Weblog

Planet Money had a really good episode on bill collectors. I thought the most important thing the collector said was that after speaking with so many people he felt that most don't understand the concept of compound interest.

Here is a good explanation.

Here is an interesting 2-hour documentary about money. Definitely worth checking out to learn about the history of our trading.

Here is a great episode of PBS' NOW explaining the role of credit rating agencies in the financial meltdown.

Here is an interesting video on the Church of Stop Shopping. Here is the transcript. Resist the urge!

I attended a talk by these guys. This is a rather amazing service. It lets anyone be a money lender in a safe way (or a borrower). Set your own interest rates, diversify to many borrowers, etc. I predict this will be big and may even be a threat to banks.

Saw a very good Frontline about retirement planning. Probably the most interesting thing from the show is that you really need to put away 15-18% of salary in your 401k for 30 years to have enough for retirement.