How to Measure your Life?

I came across this blog by Jacki Zehner, the youngest female and the first female trader to be admitted as a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1996.  Jacki cited this wonderful essay by Professor Clayton Christensen at the Harvard Business School. He gave an address to the graduating class of 2010 to share his guidelines which have helped him to find meanings in his own life. The essay helps all the high achievers and as a matter of fact everyone of us to answer three questions: "First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?"  Professor Christensen told that 2 out of his batch of 32 Rhodes scholars spent some time in jail so the third question was not a joke.

It is probably better to read this essay from the original author than to read my paraphrase.  In this article, he  also addressed how to create a strategy for your life, allocate your resources, create your culture, how to avoid doing things "just this once", find the metric for which your life will be judged, and remember the importance of humility.  I enjoy the important reminders and advice and find them invaluable.

Gold stocks

There are a number of reasons for gold stocks to outperform many of the market indices (except US Treasuries) in 2010 including US, world, emerging market equities, commodities, dollar, US corporate bonds, etc. Amidst the global market uncertainty and volatility, gold is viewed as a store of value (or "wealth insurance" as termed by Peter Hambro, owner of a Russian gold miner), diversification tool, inflation hedge, dollar hedge, etc. Investment demand makes up about 26% of the demand for gold (a rising share) while reduction of Central Bank gold sales this year has also been more supportive of price.  Furthermore, very low real interest rate is supportive of rising gold prices.

One way to get exposure is through ETFs (GLD for gold and GDX for gold stocks). GDX is a basket of gold companies so will be subject to equity market risk. Below is a table to show where some of the major gold companies' enterprise value are trading relative to their reserves and resources ($/oz), a useful gauge of their relative valuation.  The companies are ranked by the highest (most expensive) to the lowest (least expensive).

A simple yet very healthy vegetable soup

You will hear many people say they love soup but think cooking soup takes time and is difficult.  I recently came across this Garlic and Green soup recipe by the vegan cook and educator, Ms. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which is really simple to make and tasty.  The ingredients are leafy green such as kale or collard green, garlic cloves, yellow onion, Yukon potato, olive oil, vegetable bouillon or broth and 8 cups of water.  Boil them for about 25 minutes and you will get a hearty vegetable soup and get your daily servings of vegetables.  Enjoy the making of the soup here.

Beautiful painting by Johannes (Jan) Vermeer

As much as I like the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring", "The Milkmaid" as featured above has become one of my all-time favorites with its clever use of light and dark contrast, its sense of flow and many exquisite details. All of his 35 or 36 paintings are a treasure to look at.