UCC Instant Coffee: What’s the difference between their light roast blends?

I was in the 99 Ranch grocery store the other day, and noticed the brand UCC had two types of light roast coffee. UCC The Blend 113 was mostly in English, while UCC The Blend 114 was mostly in Japanese (and Chinese). I googled the difference, and couldn’t find anything, so I bought both of them, and here’s my taste test:

UCC The Blend 114

Imported from Japan.

“Mild blend made from coffee beans from Brazil and Ecuador with slightly higher acidity.”

Taste was mild, soft, and rounded, with slightly fuller taste. The flavor profile that came to my mind (not being an expert) was chocolate, nutty, earthy, but not strong or forceful.

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UCC The Blend 113

Imported from Taiwan.

“Consists of coffee beans from Vietnam and Brazil, and has a softer taste.”

For me, the taste was crisp, more crisp than 114, and had a more acidic and fruity flavor to it. While definitely still a light roast, the taste was more sharp and cutting.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two blends tasted very similar. I think I prefer the 113 blend over 114, due to the slightly sharp taste, and fruity undertones. But in the end, they are both pretty good. Pretty good, for instant coffee, that is. I would choose either of these blends over most other instant coffees I’ve tried, but a freshly-brewed light-roast coffee using fresh-ground beans is still a better taste, of course.

Let me know your thoughts! Is this the best instant coffee out there? Have you compared 114 with 113?

Review of COIN investment advisory platform

I’ve now been using COIN investing service for about 4 months (https://www.investwithcoin.com), and thought I’d write a short review.

First of all, what is COIN?

From their website, “COIN is an investment advisory platform that helps you invest in a custom mix of companies making an impact in the areas you care about most.” COIN is under the umbrella of John Hancock. Basically, COIN looks at 8 “Impact Areas” similar to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These impact areas are:

• Better Health
• Clean Water
• Climate Action
• Gender Equality
• Modern Cities
• Quality Work
• Reduce Waste
• Shared Prosperity

The investor gets to pick 3 of these areas, and then COIN determines which companies line up best with the investor’s areas of impact. COIN then invests in these companies, using proprietary percent contributions, and adjusting as companies change.

My final thoughts, after four months:

The process of setting up the account was relatively painless. there is a very simple online interface. I was able to quickly link my bank account, fund my account, and get my money invested.

COIN is a great way to feel good about which companies you’re investing in, while also feeling like you have control over which social missions you are supporting.

However, there are several issues I have related to functionality that make me not recommend investing with COIN, as is.

• Lack of visibility: There is a lack of visibility to the financial performance and structure of the portfolio. I can’t see how my portfolio is performing against the S&P500, or even as a money-weighted rate of return. I simply see my total dollar value return since account inception, along with a line graph, but no way to see values along the line. Additionally, there is no visibility to the quantity of stocks of each company I own, even though I technically own individual shares of specific companies. I want to know how much I own of each company, what the recent growth has been, along with dividend yield. Along the same lines, I want to know what my total account dividend yield is. As a caveat, some people may not care about any of this, and just want to stick their money somewhere, and forget about it.
• Tax-Report-able transactions: Portfolio is re-balanced quarterly, and dividends are automatically reinvested. This is great, from a portfolio optimization perspective, but not great, from a tax implications and reporting perspective. Keep in mind that the portfolio consists of about 100 companies, with ownership as fractional shares. Even only $0.15 of dividend payments result in reinvesting, buying tiny tiny fractions of shares. Then, during quarterly re-balancing, tiny tiny fractions of shares are sold and bought, to get the original target percentages. This information is all hidden from the investor, who doesn’t even see a record of transactions other than downloadable statements. When tax time comes, I get anxious just thinking about the massive amounts of report-able transactions I will have to file. If I had a huge portfolio, it might make more sense, but with a small portfolio, it just seems frivolous.

Changes needed:

• Improved visibility in all areas mentioned above
• Option to turn off dividend reinvesting and quarterly portfolio rebalancing, OR quarterly rebalancing happens only if dollar amount is more than one dollar off target (no tiny trades executed)
• Option to open Roth IRA account (no taxable transactions)

If COIN would like to hire me as a product manager, feel free to reach out ;-).

Invest for free!

When it comes to pain-free, expense free investing, it’s important to find ways to diversify your portfolio using mutual funds and index funds with low expense ratios. But it’s also important to find an investment site that gives you all the tools you need to invest like a pro for 100% less the cost – Free! When it comes to maintaining a properly balanced portfolio with a great user interface, I go with M1 Finance. It’s free, it’s easy to use, and it has all the tools you need to keep track of all your investments. It also allows for fractional investing, so you can maintain a balanced portfolio, owning the right proportions of all the companies you know and love.

Where to Invest?

I love travel. But travel is really hard without money. That’s why you will start to see more on this blog related to finances, work, and funding travel. Of course, I’m still going to share epic experiences, but hopefully you will also get some great tips, hacks, and advice!

Retire Early, and Travel the World

Want to retire in 10 years and travel the world? Here’s how:

1) Learn to live off of 34% of your net income. This is your annual budget going forward. (This is the hardest step, of course!)

2) Save 66% of you income. (This is easy, if you’ve done step # 1)

3) Invest your savings (Vanguard index funds and sites like Betterment are the best for novice investors.)

4) When you’ve saved up 25 times your annual expenditures, you’re ready to retire! (Assuming you’ve invested in the stock market, and aren’t just sitting on a lump of cash.)

5) Travel the world by living 3-12 months in a different location, making sure that the average annual cost of living is under your annual budget. (So, if you’re monthly budget is $2k, and you spend 6 months in a place with a $4k monthly cost of living, you’ll need to spend the next 6 months in a $1k monthly cost of living.)

Read these links below to see the details. I just pieced them together.

1. The master theory:

Getting Rich: from Zero to Hero in One Blog Post

2. Retirement calculator:
https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=17000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

3. Travel Destinations, with cost of living:
https://www.theearthawaits.com/

Back in the Swing of Things

So, I feel like I’m pretty much back in the swing of things here in the States. Life here seems so much more complicated than in China in some ways, but that’s probably just because I had a plan set up for my time in China and all I had to do was execute and refine it. Now, back in the States, I have to create a plan, while at the same time stay on top of 16 credits worth of classes. Being out of school and in the real world was really good for sure; being back in school and in the bubble has made me realize how much I look forward to the (hectic and even more stressful?) life after graduation.

Homeless and Happy

I am one of the many homeless, unemployed Americans wandering the streets of Minneapolis, looking for a handout and a place to lay my head. I may not look it, and it may come as a surprise to some. I do own a car. I am going to a private college with a tuition that would blow some out of the water, and submerge others. But it is true. I have no home and have no job. I am a genuine bum. But I can be somebody if you need me. I can be a plumber, a banker, or a house cat sitter. I can design your church’s next work-day logo. I can fix the creaky hinge on your next door neighbor’s fence. Or I can write a blog post. Oh, and remember when Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of these you do for Him? Yeah I think that applies to me. Thanks Dave and Kelsey!

Back (Home?)

Oh America! Land of fattening foods and convenient drivethroughs. Land of lots of land and, well, not that many people. Driving around in a private little car some 50 miles just for random errands. Can’t see my neighbor’s house because my family owns enough land to fit several xiao qu‘s, a night market, five different noodle shops, and a public park. Well, I guess that’s just part of country life. I’ve found that my family eats very little fruits and vegatables. And we eat tons of sugary substances. But I have enjoyed interacting with the locals here. I think I have a new appreciation for the local man. I always took interest in people in China, complete strangers who came from such interesting and different backgrounds and cultures than I. But I am finding fascinating to come back and realize that America has a myriad of interesting people as well. Like, I walk into my local bank, and the teller is having a full length converstaion with the drive through lady, telling her whole life story. And I’m an insider, that is, as long as I can pull off the accent. And the accents sometimes about make me laugh. I mean, I can pull it off, cause I grew up hearing it (speaking it?), but being gone for a year and then coming back, the southern accent is hitting me so strong I sometimes think people are messing around for fun, but then I realize they aint! Them just talk that way! I love the good ol’ South, but of course will be happy to return to Minnesota. Wonder if I’ll have a southern accent by then?

Hot and Muggy (and “on fire”)

I’m making my way back to the States, so Saturday I took the train from west to east China. I went to bed (on the train) to a beautiful sunset, clear skies spotted with clouds, and no haze, and woke up to endless smog, mugginess, and not even a sunrise. It’s about 95 degrees here, 95% humidity, and 95% pollution. Fortunately I’ll only be here a few days, and then back to (even hotter?) North Carolina.

In other news, I got my first facial yesterday, but in all fairness, I didn’t know what I getting myself into. A good Chinese friend invited me and a Swiss guy to go to some place he wouldn’t say. So we get there, and it turns out to be a fancy beauty parlor of sort, with massages and facials. Because he hadn’t called ahead of time, they didn’t want to do any massages, so we just got facials. This included a basic shoulder and back massage, a neck massage, a face massage, and some creams on the face, and concluded with a face plaster made of green sea weed mud. It was actually quite nice, especially after more than 24 hours of traveling.

I also found out from the therapist that I am 上火了 (shang huo le), which literal means “on fire,” but in Chinese medicine has something to do with an internal yin-yang imbalance (I think). The funny thing is, I woke up with a slight sore throat this morning, so I think she was actually on to something, probably my body is having a hard time adjusting to the very different climate here (humidity, altitude, temperature, and pollution differences.)

What a Deal!

So, my (State-side) school just sent me an email, letting me know that as a loyal and patriotic student, I am required to buy a meal plan. As a commuting senior, this is what my meal plan costs:

Commuter Students:	Dining Funds	Dining Fee	Total Cost/Semester
Juniors/Seniors (60+ credits earned)	$100	$95	$195

I can than use the $100 in dining funds to go buy their food at a %20 discount. So I responded to them with the following message:

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Wow! What a deal! You guys take only $195*, and in return, give me $125** worth of food! Amazing! I’ll have to try starting my own restaurant on that pricing plan!

~Josiah

*As a senior commuter, this is the required amount
**$100 with a 20% discount is equal to $125 with no discount
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am quite curiously awaiting their reply.