About

About This Site

A lot of people wonder why I’ve called this blog “The Digerati Life”. To be honest, it was because it sounded cool. The reality is, my background is in engineering and I live in the technology mecca called Silicon Valley, so I thought to acknowledge those roots in this blog. Here’s what the term “digerati” actually means, for those who are curious:

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, American Heritage Dictionary, the word “digerati [dij-uh-RAH-tee]” refers to those “people who are knowledgeable about digital technologies such as computer programming and design”.
[Origin: 1990—95; dig(ital) + (lit)erati]

Here, I intend to write about money, technology, my entrepreneurial endeavors and what the culture is like where I work and live. Here you’ll find a mish-mash of these subjects that interest me and what I have something to say about. This site is mainly a personal finance blog, where I hope to offer educational and informative topics on money management (heavier weighting on this), self development, and business and entrepreneurship, while perhaps being entertaining as well. I’ll be adding commentary on how engineers work and play in the Valley. And of course, it will cover whatever strikes me about the Internet. Admittedly, I also have a little bit of a taste for macabre news stories so if it fits the theme here, I’ll be talking about it.

Over the years, I’ve realized that quite a disproportionate number of financial bloggers are engineers! But most programmers I know personally like playing with gadgets and games and working 14 hour days subject to surges of creativity and caffeine. I figured I would be one of those who would try my luck in the web publishing world.

Check out media and other online coverage of The Digerati Life by visiting our Media Page! Or if you’d like to see a few fun elements about my friends and community, then do visit my community page.

Profile Of A Valley Girl

Who Am I? Just call me the Silicon Valley Blogger or SVB for short.

I am a software engineer by trade, working and residing in Silicon Valley, California USA, the land of technologists, venture capitalists and liberals. I have lived here for over 20 years and have witnessed some amazing things first hand, such as the incredible prosperity befallen so many of my colleagues and peers.

From the moment I graduated from one of the Bay Area universities as a foreign student, I’ve had rather an amazing ride through companies like Oracle during its juvenile years, Hewlett Packard during its real heydey and Cisco Systems when it was a major high flyer and juggernaut in the techno landscape and equity markets. I’ve been through a handful of startups and seen friends go from 0 to Ferrari in one year. I also know a few who lost half their savings to the dot com bust but still manage to hold up pretty well in the “Valley”. I’ve heard only of very few who have left to strike it new elsewhere — perhaps casualties of the bust only due to their being late to join in the party (as transplants from other locales or career shifters). Somehow, everyone I know fairly well seems to have left with some reasonably sized goody bag.

Now wait. Lest you think I’m on easy street, I will need to remind you that everything is relative. From where I’m situated right now, I’m but a mere farm rat in a barn full of large sized mammals, especially considering California’s insane cost of living. Nevertheless, I do feel fortunate to be in a geographical location that affords a melting pot of opportunities and a chance for me to exercise my creativity and be rewarded for it. So wherever you are, before you bemoan your own farm rat status, why don’t you try your hand at this.

I did not think I would be doing this, going into what you may loosely call “web publishing” and such. I am a fairly busy person with a young family, a full time job and a household to run. I tried blogging on a fluke, as a “socio-economic” experiment at an incredibly micro level. I had some business ideas I was tossing around and to do market research, I went into blogging. Then I guess the bug bit me, as they say, and so far this experiment has stuck. Here’s hoping to keep this blogging venture going on for a really long time!

Update: I’ve now quit my engineering job to blog full-time. Since February of 2008, I’ve switched gears to become a “problogger” (web entrepreneur)! I now run a few sites and have turned my blogging hobby into a business. For more on the things that have inspired me and resources that have helped me to get where I am, check out these articles I’ve written:

• Make Money Blogging: Top Bloggers And How Much They Earn
• Cheap Web Hosting Services For Those On A Budget
• Start an Online Business: Open an eBay Store, Build a Website or Blog
• Basic Business Advice from an Accidental Entrepreneur

If you’re at all curious about my thoughts on finance, business and blogging, do check out this Wise Bread Q & A forum thread where I conducted a lengthy dialogue with Wise Bread readers.

Current Online Projects:

• I have joined the Wise Bread team as a contributing writer. Wise Bread is a premiere personal finance site, and counts as one of my all-time favorite money sites to visit!
• I help promote a consumer site, Best In Class, which is a recommendations site for various products.
• I run a few blogs in various niches.
• I help companies with their blog outreach and internet marketing projects.

Past Online Projects:

• In other blogging escapades, I also contribute to the ePlay entertainment blog. ePlay is an interactive entertainment site that allows you to vote and predict the outcome of events. If you get things right, you get points and win prizes!
• I’ve worked as a contributor and member of Work It Mom, a web site for working mothers.
• I’ve worked as a contributor and the interim corporate blog editor for Mint.com, a personal finance software company.
• I’ve worked as a contributor to Prosper.com’s blog, an online peer-to-peer lending company.

Disclaimers and Policies

The customary disclaimer: I would like to remind everyone that I am not a professional financial adviser and what I share here with you is based on my own personal experiences and research, and is heavily riddled with a lot of subjective opinion. Read, learn, surf, lurk and form your own conclusions. If you find anything here that is yours which you’d rather I not borrow, that’s cool — just let me know and I will take it down. And my employer has absolutely nothing to do with this blog.

My comment policy:
1. Readers are solely responsible and liable for their comments.
2. I will not publish comments I personally don’t understand (e.g. written in a different language), are irrelevant or are considered spam.
3. By commenting, you grant The Digerati Life license to use, modify, delete all comments.
4. Link backs made by commercial sites may be deleted.
5. Policy subject to change at any time.
6. Reader questions to my email box may be reprinted and used as the subject matter in posts.

Advertising and Other Inquiries

The Digerati Life has grown to the point where we are now able to accept sponsors and advertisers. Please contact me at the following email address if you are interested in advertising on this site:

thedigeratilife [at] gmail [dot] com.

Privacy Policy for The Digerati Life

The privacy of our visitors to The Digerati Life is important to us.

At The Digerati Life, we recognize that the privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit The Digerati Life, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
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Cookies and Web Beacons
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We also use third party advertisements on The Digerati Life to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

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