Quarter-Life Crisis

I've been meaning to blog about the Quarter-Life Crisis, as I've been in this mode for the past 2 years. What better time to write about the quarter life crisis than 5AM on a Saturday morning right? I guess I'm not going to live to be particularly old, reaching quarter life crisis at 19... I guess some can claim that I'm not going through the same QLC as some late 20 year olds, but as far as I know, I meet most of the symptoms on wikipedia listed under quarter life crisis. Let's just say that I have all but ONE of the symptoms, and I won't say which one. The symptoms are as follows:

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at one's academic/intellectual level
  
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
• confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• loss of closeness to high school and college friends
• financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
• loneliness
• desire to have children
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

So after some googling and personal experience, I have found practical ways to deal with the infamous quarter life crisis.

1. Grow up. I think this is what i mainly struggle with. I have to accept that I am old, and no longer a child. I have to accept the fact that I have responsibilities and am an adult. I can't get away with crying and fussing to get my way. No one really cares if I fuss and cry and surely will not change your your circumstances.
2. Acceptance of Reality. Stop being in denial! You are no longer a child. It will not change if you date younger people 10 years your junior to feel young, or if you date older people to feel younger relative to them. Stop lying about your age.
   
3. Interpersonal Relationships. According to The Happiness Trip, which I highly recommend, one part of the formula to reaching happiness is interpersonal relationships. Establish key friendships that are more than just people you can party with.
   
4. A search for something meaningful. For me it's religion, specifically Christianity. That's all I'll really say right now. i think religion helps me with my sense of identity. How I do pity the lonely atheists...
   
5. Finding your passion. By no way am I advocating to quit your day job and start your own band. I'm a cynic, I don't believe people LOVE their jobs, but that doesn't mean that you can have things you are passionate about. I love playing basketball and the guitar, and I work in finance, and am not a professional basketball player or a rockstar. I don't have a problem with that, as long as my job doesn't take over my leisure time in that I can't pursue what I want to do.
   
6. Random Acts of Kindness. Still remember my junior high teacher who championed "random acts of kindness." I think this is actually the most selfish thing you can do. Not only does it makes you feel better about yourself by helping others, it also brings positive karma. I recommend nycares.org for volunteer work in New York City.
   
7. Engage others. I guess this point is a combination of #3 and #7. Talk to random people you encounter! Compliment them. Strike up a random conversation. You will find out that you are not all that alone.
   
8. Love life. I think this is the most important point. I've been striving so hard towards certain goals that I don't have time to "stop and smell the roses." Just slow down and do things that make you happy. Do a little window shopping. Enjoy the sunset. Whatever it is, just slow down and appreciate the little things in life and just LOVE LIFE.
   

Don't know if this is helpful as I am struggling with this myself. Now excuse me while I kiss the sky.

Woman's Scorn.... Country vs. Hip Hop

Country Music..... featuring Carrie Underwood in Before He Cheats

Right now he's probably slow dancing
With a bleached-blond tramp
And she's probably getting frisky
Right now, he's probably buying
Her some fruity little drink
'Cause she can't shoot whiskey

Right now, he's probably up behind her
With a pool stick
Showing her how to shoot a combo
And he don't know

I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped-up 4 wheel drive
Carved my name into his leather seat
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires
And maybe next time he'll think before he cheats


Representing Hip Hop, Jazmin Sullivan in Bust Your Windows

I bust the windows out ya car
And no it didn't mend my broken heart
I'll probably always have these ugly scars
But right now I don't care about that part

I bust the windows out ya car
After I saw you laying next to her
I didn't wanna but I took my turn
I'm glad I did it cause you had to learn...

I must admit it helped a little bit
To think of how you'd feel when you saw it
I didn't know that I had that much strength
But I'm glad you see what happens when...

You see can't just play with people's feelings
Tell them you love them and don't mean it
You'll probably say that it was juvenile
But I think that I deserve to smile

I bust the windows out ya car
You know I did it cause I left my mark
Wrote my initials with the crowbar
And then I drove off into the dark



Country wins, hands down. Carrie Underwood is gangsta. Would not want to mess with her! And how much do you love those lyrics, "right now, he's probably buying her a fruity little drink 'cause she can't shoot whiskey."

Valuations for Dummies Part 3

So I'm super pissed off that Morgan Stanley blocked blogger (what am I going to do at work now since they already blocked facebook earlier?!?!?!), and super pissed off that I got an A- on Equity Valuation. Like wtf, reallly? Was really counting on getting an A for the class. Probably going to ask the professor how he arrived at the grade considering I got A on both midterms, so I assume I didn't do as well on the final. The class was really fucked up as I had to do the valuation project all by my self in a 6 people group. Took me 5 days at work to complete. Ok enough about me..

Anyways, today I'm going to go into the Cash Flows in the Valuations.

So I've talked about the WACC as a discount rate to use in discounting your cash flows from the business. But how exactly do you arrive at the cash flows? Intuitively, it makes sense. The value of the company is simply the cash flows that are paid out to the investors or debt holders, and the company's value lies in these cash flows. Now, the cash flow we are concerned with is the Cash Flow to Firm, which encompasses the cash flow to equity holders as well as debt holders.

First you need the revenues of the firm. Any firm generates revenue... it's bascially the sales of goods or services. From your revenues you need to subtract the expenses to get a profit, or what we call earnings. This is known as the operating earnings, since it is the earnings from the main function of the firm, not taking into taxes or interest. We also call this the Earnings Before Interest and Taxes, or the EBIT. This is what the IRS looks at and taxes, so therefore, if the marginal corporate tax rate is 40%, what the company ends up retaining is 60%. So therefore, we take EBIT(1-Tax Rate) to arrive one step closer to our cash flow to firm.

It's important to know that we are not finished here! There are many charges that are not CASH outflows or inflows, just accounting measures so we need to adjust for them. We need to add back depreciation and amortization since they are taken out of the earnings, yet no cash was paid for these expenses. We need to subtract capital expenditures since accountants feel like capital expenditures add value back to the firm, so they are not subtracted out of earnings, yet cash was paid for these investments. Lastly, we need to subtract the change in net working capital. Any increases in net working capital ties up cash to the company, and we need to subtract it out of our after-tax operating earnings.

Therefore, our formula should be as follows: Free Cash Flow to Firm = EBIT(1-Marginal Tax Rate) + depreciation and amortization - capital expenditures - change in net working capital.

Our company valuation will be the sum of all the Free Cash Flow to Firm (FCFF) from year 1 to year infinity (since the company will be assumed to be existence forever), but discounted properly by the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC).

Mathematically, the value of the company works out to be the FCFF / (WACC - growth rate of the company). Keep in mind that since we are using the FCFF and the WACC (as opposed to the Free Cash Flow to Equity, and the Cost of Equity), this is the value of the company as a whole, not only to equity holders but also to debt holders.

All this may seem dry and boring, but there are real life applications to this! For example, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_NBA-Team-Valuations_Rank.html is an article by Forbes about the Valuations of different NBA Teams, with the New York Knicks valued at $613 million. I can count on it that Forbes used the same method to arrive at these valuations!

Guilty Pleasure...

I LOVE ALY & AJ. They are 2 sisters from California, one 20 and one 18. I am obsessed with their song Potential Breakup Song. The beginning of the song goes as follows:

It took too long
It took too long
It took to long for you to call back
And normally I would just forget that
Except for the fact it was my birthday
My stupid birthday

AHHH I love it... story of my life.. haha

And plus I love their style!!! Pop-rock princess... I LOVE IT!! SUPER CUTE! Just googled a place where I can find their outfits! http://www.michalkastyle.org

It also makes me feel shitty that they are both younger than me! :(