Impact of Irish Bailouts

So the markets are reacting favorably to the Irish agreeing to be bailed out. But I believe this will be short lived.

The bailout has not actually occurred yet so there are plenty of “terms” to be worked out but suffice it to say the market “likes” the stability of an agreement.

The Terms of the agreement will be in the form of loans from other countries such as Germany and these terms will most certainly raise rates and in turn force Ireland to raise corporate and income tax rates.

These rate increases will affect companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Bank of America (BAC), Merrill Lynch, Google (GOOG) and Intel (INTC).

Of course these companies are in Ireland in the first place because of the lower subsidized rates (the lowest in the Euro-Union) that existed before and only helped to fuel the financial and international trade imbalance which existed and contributed to the need for this bail out in the first place.

The companies are not threatening to leave at this stage, but the statement - signed by executives from the four companies - does point out that while Ireland's tax rate may be low in European terms, it is not when compared with Singapore, India and China.

John Herlihy, head of Google's European headquarters in Dublin, said ''anything that impinges on Ireland's competitiveness is going to be a big thing for Google''.
So how did this mess happen? Well in some ways, it is the same greed and deals that ran rampant in the US which has contributed to the Irish demise.

Ireland has three big insolvent banks and several other smaller, equally insolvent financial institutions we won't bother to mention by name.

Ireland also has a large number of subsidiaries of European, British and American Banks. These subsidiaries are often registered as Irish and therefore on Ireland's tab not the nation of the parent bank. This often gets forgotten in the excitement.
Ireland also houses a very large chunk of the world's Special Investment Vehicles (SIV's) which are the shell companies which house trillions and trillions of dollars and Euros and pounds worth of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs).

These are what Warren Buffett described as "weapons of financial mass destruction".
These CDOs, in turn, house an equal or greater nominal value of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) written upon the CDOs.

These subsidiaries were often registered as completely Irish companies. In other countries these same companies faced tighter and stricter policies. So the Irish registered subsidiaries provided a loop hole.

Rumors have it that banks would work the deals outside of Ireland, then send a banker over to Ireland, get them to sit at 'their' desk in Ireland, in the Irish bank, and do the deal there. The legal registration of the deal and the 'oversight' were all Irish. This is known in the financial world as jurisdictional arbitrage. You and I would call it cheating if we were feeling charitable and lying if we weren't.

The deal was properly overseen and approved by the appropriate Irish financial authorities and the profits would be banked at a very happy Irish bank. If any management of the 'deal' was required an Irish company would be hired, there are many, and an Irish manager often living not far from Cork, would 'manage' the money in and out.

Any bad deals, losses and improper oversight is question of wealthy bankers from all countries and the Irish companies, not the people. It should be the bankers who made the losses who should take them.

But as is the case with the US financial and economic woes, it is often the people who pay in the terms of lost jobs, property, income, and higher taxes.

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Something New

OK, so I've been tossing around different ideas in my head for a while mostly about this blog.

At times I was concerned about the duality of my theme. Sports and Stocks. And thought about splitting it out into two different blogs.

At other times I wanted to see if I could try different formats and ideas I had but could not quite figure out a good way of doing it with blogger.

Eventually I decided to try another type of blog or website format to see what was possible.

I started looking at other formats such as Drupal, and WordPress. Yes, there are plenty of apps out there but these are the two which I ended up liking the most. Eventually I settled on WordPress, mostly because of its ease of use.

Eventually I decided to keep the duality, and this blog basically they way it is now.

Note: If anybody else has any ideas, comments or even criticisms, please let me know and I will take it under consideration.

I have decided to keep the investment tracking and watch lists basically the same but have started up a new site which is geared more towards setting goals, both for finance and investments, but for any and all other aspects of life as well.

I call it Charting Success.

Feel free to check it out.

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1 + 1 = 2

That simple equation, one we all learn as kids, is the basic formula anyone needs to remember when talking budgets.

I was originally going to post about one of my new years resolutions, Reducing Debt, but then I realized that before anybody starts talking about reducing debt, one needs to address his or her own budget.

And just like resolutions, budgets should be specific, tailored to your life style, and have goals.

If you make a resolution, or approach the idea of having a budget, by saying “I’m going to make a budget” and stick to it; though noble, I believe is opening the door for failure.

Here’s why.

Lets say you plan on making a budget to go on that Caribbean Vacation you love to go one each year, and or to save enough to one day buy a house.

Hopefully, if these are some of your top priorities, every time you pull out that plastic or cash, you will think, “do I really need this” or “will this help me reach my goal?”

Which gets me to the basic components of the formula.

Needs and Wants:

Needs are what you have to spend. Fixed costs, bills and expenses that you need or know you will have to pay every month.

Some people put these into basic categories of Food, Shelter and Clothing. However, there are usually more than just these three. Such as; Utilities, Loans, Taxes, Transportation, and don’t forget those once or twice a year bills such as insurance payments.

Wants are those things that add enrichment, entertainment, and pleasure to our lives. Wants is where your goals really come into play. Your top want, top goal, should be what you really want to obtain, what you are really saving and spending your money for. Not your bills. Not your budget.

A budget is nothing more than a tool, a means of balancing and prioritizing all your needs and wants in such a way so that 1 + 1 really does = 2.

So, where do some of us get into trouble?

Well, one area is separating needs and wants. Example: Housing. A basic need. But do you pay for a luxury condo, or split rent with others in on a 2 or three bedroom apartment, or even (hopefully temporarily) live with parents or relatives. Example2: Transportation. Walking vs. Biking vs. Public Transportation vs. Porsche. I think you get the idea.

Budgets are not easy. They require us to make choices. They require us to look at ourselves, our habits and life styles. They require constant attention and yes, sometimes become quite a balancing act. But they are necessary. It is these reasons that people often view budgets as limiting; and therefore not necessarily a good thing.

But they are good, and in the end, not limiting but rather enabling and liberating!
When making a budget, and sticking to it, adjusting it as needed, it is important to view it as a means to an end. And, just as we are all different, so too are budgets. Budgets should be tailored to what is important to you and what you value and how you live.

So, what is my budget?

Here are the top level categories. I have each with sub categories but here are the top.

Housing:
Groceries:
Transportation:
Bills & Utilities:
Shopping:
Education:
Time Outs:
Misc Taxes:
Savings:
Debt:

Unfortunately, that last one has crept back into my budget and the topic of one of my New Years resolutions and future post(s).

Until next time, and with all things…

Be good, do well, have fun.

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New Years Reflections and Resolutions

RESOLUTIONS:

Lets face it. Most people do not keep New Year Resolutions.

According to most studies, only about 1 in 10 people actually accomplish or keep their New Year resolutions.

Why?

Well, maybe people just do not put a lot of thought into it?
Why are they making the resolution in the first place?
Are they picking something realistic?
Are they making the resolution too generic? Like I’m going to lose weight.
Maybe they should pick something relatively easy and simple to do? Like put pants on every day...

BTW – I tell my three year old to do this most every day. He’s almost there!

But what is a resolution? I did a quick lookup of the definition, scratched out all the answers that had the work “resolve” in them (ignored the ones relating to music, audio/visual, and medical fields) and came up with this short list.

- A firm decision to do something
- A determination or firmness of mind and purpose
- A formal expression of opinion or intention
- The act or process of separating into constituent or elementary parts.

I particularly like the last one because I think it has just as much, if not more, to do with the success of a resolution as do the first three.

REFLECTIONS:
















New Years is also a time that a lot of people reflect back on all that happened, both good and bad, over the past year. It is also a time to reflect on what you have done, not done, where you are in your life, and where you want to be. I believe it is these reflections that should drive our resolutions.

So, what about me? What has happened, not yet happened, where am I now and where do I want to be?

For this post, I’m going to limit my answers to the context of my blog.

* First and foremost: this blog. I started Fumbled Returns last January. Not because of a resolution or anything but mainly because my wife started blogging Hope and Greyz and I just did not “get it”. Why would anybody “blog”. So, strangely enough, I decided to try it out to find the answer “for myself”. And so far this is the result. And yes, I am hooked on blogging.

* Another thing that happened, and I have tracked with this blog, is that I got back into the stock market and started trading stocks. At first I stuck to my strategy, then I took a couple chances, and ended up doing really well. Then I got distracted, got lazy, did not stick to my strategy and, well, ended up not doing as well as I would have liked. So, I have to work at this and do better.

* Other stuff that has happened is, like many fellow Americans, my family finances and savings have taken a hit in recent years and as a result, I have built up a bit more debt than I care to have. So, I will incorporate this into my resolutions too.

* I mentioned that my wife runs her own blog and the theme of that blog features Greyhounds. Specifically retired Greyhounds. This is another facet of my life that has happened this past year because of my wife, and she takes all the blame I give her all the credit in the world for it.
We adopted a Greyhound and called him Hero. We liked it so much that we decided to foster. Initially I agreed to foster so long as it could be guaranteed that it would not cost overly much to do and that a “foster” would not become a permanent member of the family.
We have 5 kids and two dogs! OK, 1 dog that adopted from the ASPCA and a Greyhound. I still refuse to call Greyhounds dogs because they are unlike any other breed of dog I have ever met.
So far, everything has worked out well. We are now on our 4th foster. All others graced us with their presence for about a month and then found their “forever home”.

Because of fostering, and my wife's blogging, we have met wonderful people (Virginia Greyhound Adoption) (Greyhound Rescue Inc), been blessed with the experience of knowing Greyhounds and learned lots of new information such as the wonderful research that folks at Ohio State University - College of Veterinary Medicine and Dr. C. Guillermo Couto, DVM, Dr. Paulo Vilar, DVM and Dr. Liliana Marin, DVM do.

I too, have had the chance to meet lots of wonderful bloggers as well, and proudly promote them on my blog. Please take a moment to visit some of them: That Damn Sam Presents Snot Bubble Football, Gimps Wonderful Thoughts, In Historic the sports history blog and The Mission (once your finish reading here of course)

* One other thing that has happened, is that certain people I have known all my life have either become terminally ill and or died. One person, my mom, has been fighting Ovarian Cancer for close to 2 years. I have not mentioned this before in my blog but suffice it to say that by the time the doctors discovered it in 2008 it had already progressed to stage 4. Since then she has gone through surgery, chemo, technically gone into remission, and recently started chemo once again. Ovarian cancer and subsequent treatment thereof is nothing I would want anybody to go through, not even my worst enemies.

So, what does this have to do with my blog?
I’ll get to that in a bit so please keep reading...

RESOLUTIONS:

If you are going to be serious about resolutions, then I believe one needs define them simply and define how and when success will be achieved.

So, for my resolutions I am going to follow these suggestions for new years resolutions...

1. Be specific and break big goals into bite-sized pieces that you can handle.
For example, instead of resolving to save more money, resolve to save a specific amount such as $100 a month.

2. Create a plan to support your resolution.
How are you going to do it? Where will your money go? Will you have it deducted from your paycheck? Will it go toward retirement, building a cash reserve, or another goal? Will you need to adjust your budget?”

3. Track your progress and celebrate your victories.
Set benchmarks along the way, such as a three-month savings goal, and then celebrate when you make it with a low-cost fun and special activity.

4. Think of resolutions as opportunities to try new things.
Resolutions are a time of the year not only to try and “fix” the problems in your life, but also to try out a new way of being, a new activity or hobby, or a new attitude. Resolutions should not seem like punishments; if you try to make them fun, you will be more likely to stick with them. If your goal is to be healthier, try going for a 10-minute walk before work and enjoying your neighborhood.

Here are the resolutions that I am going to publish and track via the context of my blog.

Stocks and Finances.
1) Eliminate non housing debt. (credit cards etc.)
2) Beat all DJIA, NASDQ, S&P averages with my investment income and do at least 50% better than the 16 % return I had this year. That means 24% annual return.

Sports and Fantasy Football.
3) Conspire/Rig/Cheat as commish To have the east coast win back the Borderless League Fantasy Football Trophy next year. Oh wait, Conspire/Rig/Cheat as commish, would not be very fair and ethical, so I’ll just put down that I will make the playoffs and the East Coast will win the Championship next year.

Blog Related.
4) Double the number of people following my blog. I currently have 10 listed.

New Enterprising and Rewarding.
5) I’m starting a web site dedicated to donating to charities and activities that are most important to me and my family. Specifically The American Cancer Society, and Greyhound and Veterinary Research.

I was thinking of adding more such as the Alzheimer's Association and St. Judes Hospital, and I probably will as time goes on, but I think I will start with the first two for now.

In the past, we have given to each of these charities and will continue to do so. But, I wanted to and felt compelled to do more.
Volunteering was a possibility, but a lot of our time is already dedicated to our kids, their activities in the community and fostering and promoting Greyhound adoption that I felt we had the volunteering part down.
Then I thought about selling extra stuff on EBay and donating proceeds to various charities but then I looked at all the fees associated with doing this and I thought sheesh! What a racket.
I really liked the idea of having an auction site that acted as a sponsor with a charity. But in doing my research, each charity had/has different criteria that one needs to meet in order to officially sponsor and partner and use their logo. Some require a company to be in business for a certain amount of time (such as a year). Some require a certain amount or percentage of proceeds (such as 10%) or $25K/year .
So, here is my multi step resolution #5.

Start an auction website dedicated to Charities.
Done – Please check out The Gift Exchange.

Promote this site and generate enough traffic to achieve my other steps.
On going---
- One thing about The Gift Exchange which makes it different and hopefully more appealing to folks will be that it is completely free of any and all registration, setup and listing fees!
- I only charge a percentage/commission if and when your item sells. Everything else is Free!

Free to register
Free to place an auction or want ad
Free to trade you item for another
(this is another somewhat unique feature to the site)
Free to upload, pictures, video, etc
Free to enhance your item listing such as Bold, Category Highlight and even Front Page Feature with large format! This alone could save you over $50 in fees !

I do not require you to donate any of your proceeds to any charity.
- Instead, I take the commission from each sale and do two things.
• First I pay my expenses such as the fee Paypal charges me for the transaction and any operational expenses such as those from my hosting provider.
• Second, the remaining proceeds from the commissions collected will be donated to the charities.

Currently I have only one payment gateway setup with PayPal. As you may or may not know, PayPal accepts payments from other PayPal accounts and from major credit cards. So most everyone should be able to sell and buy on my site.
- Having one payment gateway is advantageous in that I can track all incoming and outgoing transactions in one place and report on those transactions on the web. That way folks will see the following:

o All commission proceeds are collected from the completed auctions.
o How much goes toward paying expenses.
o And how much goes to the charities.

This will enable me to hopefully achieve my goal of becoming a partner or sponsor of the charities and successfully keeping the site up and running contributing to these very worthy causes and organizations.

So please, if you have any items you would like to auction, I of course would like you to try out The Gift Exchange, tell others about it and help me promote the site.

If anybody knows other stores, companies, or organizations who might be willing to help sponsor my The Gift Exchange, I would gladly display a sponsor logo and link back.

But if you end up using another auction site, please consider donating some of your proceeds to any one of the many worthy charities out there.

Thank you.

And I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.

Sincerely
Doug at Fumbled Returns

And thanks for following my blog.

Be good. Do well. Have fun.

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Good Company...

1972 Jamal Willis, NFL running back for the San Francisco 49ers
1972 John Walsh, NFL quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals
1971 Tito Wooten, NFL safety for the New York Giants
1970 Orlando Brown, NFL tackle, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens
1968 Chris Walsh, NFL wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings
1968 Kurt Schulz, safety for the Buffalo Bills
1967 David Szott, NFL guard for the Kansas City Chiefs
1967 John Randle, NFL defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings

1946 Emerson Fittipaldi, Brazil, Indy-car racer, over 10 wins

1970 Kirk Cameron, actor, Mike-Growing Pains, Teen Wolf II
(my wife made me put him on the list)

1953 Bruce Kulick, guitarist/singer, KISS
1946 Clive Bunker, rock drummer, Jethro Tull
1943 Dickey Betts, West Palm Beach, Florida, guitarist, Allman Bros-Ramblin' Man
1943 Grover Washington, Jr., jazz artist, Mr Magic
1942 Mike Pinder, Birmingham England, rocker, Moody Blues
1940 Dionne Warwick, born in East Orange, New Jersey, singer, Solid Gold, Way to San Jose
1938 Connie Francis, born in Newark, New Jersey, singer and actress, Where the Boys Are
1915 Frank Sinatra, born in Hoboken, vocalist/actor, old blue eyes

1805 Henry Wells, founder, American Express Co and Wells Fargo and Co

1924 Edward I Koch, New York City, Mayor-D-NYC, 1977 - 1989, judge, People's Court



But perhaps the best company of all, and the ones I am most thankful for, are my wife and family.

Just don't try to put all those candles on the cake...

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July Updates - End of Month

I should probably title this DON'T DO WHAT I SAY !!!

Once again, my bench beat my starting lineup.

But on the up side, both my lineups once again beat both the DOW and NASDAQ monthly returns.

And to top it all off, I also kept a July MSN 50 list; which also lost to my lineups !!!

Nya Nya ;-)























Stay tuned for the August Watch Lists!!!

Oh, and just in case you could not tell...

It's football season once again ! Hurray !!!

GO SKINS !!!

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It's Automatic

I like automatic, except when it comes to cars and airplanes (or basically anything one has to steer and control acceleration and braking)

But when it comes to certain things like, paying bills, depositing checks, saving or investing; I like automatic.

Most of my bills are automatically paid.
My salary is automatically deposited into my bank account.
My monthly deposit for my 401 is automatically deducted from my pay.
I automatically save a certain amount into a savings account and investment broker every month.

So, when the VA lottery site was upgraded last year and 'totally' broke the online automatic entry feature I was really upset. At least when my yearly subscription ran out.

This meant that I could no longer enter my numbers into the lottery once a year. I liked being able to "set it and forget it." Of course, one can play multiple drawings at any lottery retailer, but you still have to fill out the card (resisting the temptation to add just one more set of numbers or another auto-pick), go to the retailer, wait in line, pay for the ticket(s), get back into your car and go back home. Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, I've been waiting for months for them to get around to fixing this. I don't know what the problem(s) were, I did not ask, but I am sure who ever did the upgrade is no longer working for the lottery organization and will not be getting a good recommendation.

So, finally this weekend when I was checking the numbers online I noticed they had a prominently displayed ad for this feature. So, I immediately signed up my 1 set of numbers for a years worth of drawings. Hooray!!! No more having to try and remember to play the numbers. No more worrying about spending too much on the lottery. ( yes there are many who say 1 dollar IS too much to spend on "the poor mans tax" and such a lousy rate of return). But hey, somebody has to win the jackpot once in a while and I see no reason why it shouldn't be me. So, here's my $1.00 - Well, $104.00 to be exact(twice weekly drawings for a year) and not a penny more.

I like automatic!

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Read My Mind – A Review and a chance to win $6,000 …

OK. This post is a follow-up to one I did in February where I reviewed an article found on MSN Money. The article talked about various financial and budgeting sites.

Over the past few weeks I have set up accounts on the first three mentioned.

Mint.com
Geezeo.com
Wesabe.com

Here are my impressions and review of these sites.

I think that I am most impressed with Mint.com simply because it is most like what I am used to from other traditional programs such as Quicken. These apps tie together all your accounts, investments and transactions and not only categorize them but can track them over time.

For a free service, I was definitely impressed with this site. Of course it takes all this good tracking and categorizing to the next logical step where you set budgets and even compares what you currently have and do to, perhaps better deals. This is how they make their money, from sponsors and affiliates. But to their credit, the deals are legit and can definitely help save money and consolidate finances to make them more manageable.
It can even send you alerts when your particular budgets go over the target.

It definitely helps to track stuff in real time and stay connected to how your finances can ebb and flow even on a daily basis.

The other two sites; Geezeo.com and Wesabe.com are also good for the way they are set up; as social networking sites.

Contrary to the article, I had absolutely no problem connecting to my accounts in Wesabe.com but did with Geezeo. Eventually I did get everything to work, it just took more time.

A drawback to Wesabe was that it did not automatically attempt to categorize all your transactions. Instead it seems to want you to develop your own tags. Now I can see the benefit to personalizing tags and categories, but I hate to go through each type of transaction and come up with something. I prefer to have the app / site at least come up with basic categories and trends so I can review and adjust as I see fit.

Geezeo is very simplistic in design. This is good because you can see and view goals that you have set up and in an instant see how you are doing. It also has some more trendy things like a twitter styled public confessional. I’m sure there are lots of people who really love this type of interaction and even feedback; hence the emense popularity of Facebook and Myspace; but I suspect that perhaps there are many who are already doing this on these type of sites. I just do not get into divulging all this frivolous information. Nor do I get into always viewing everyone else’s frivolous information either.

Where I think the real good potential benefit to a financial social networking site is; in constructive comments and suggestions others may have about alternatives. Alternatives to eating out, deals and bargins, ways to save, etc etc…

Example: If you eat out all the time at a particular restaurant; comments or suggestions regarding alternative places to eat, similar food, certain advertised or unadvertised specials, that other people know about could be helpful.

Mint.com did this on one level by looking at the terms of your banking and credit cards and automatically searching for better deals.

Wesabe did this on another level by offering comments and suggestions from other community members and seemed to try and connect them to certain tags and categories you had – though sometimes I found myself scratching my head trying to figure out how what I was reading was in anyway related to my profile tags and categories.

Of course the beauty and power of social networking is that you can do all this by joining groups, discussions and posting questions and getting feedback.

What would be really cool is if you could combine the two, and come up with much more stylized hints, tips and tricks. Of course this is getting into more data mining aspects and I should probably stop here before my IT integration self gets any crazy ideas…

Oh and one last and very cool thing that I feel I have to mention – consider this my social networking tip of the day –

Geezeo has a promotional contest going on until the end of the month.

It’s called “The Great Geezeo Bailout” and is an opportunity to win one of several great prizes. Top prize is $6,000 to help you get out of debt or pay your mortgage for a few months.

And best of all, it’s FREE !!!

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Lie to me...

No, I am not talking about the TV show...

In this case I am referencing an article called The 5 biggest lies on Wall Street by Michael Brush. I have highlighted excerpts and give my take on each as well as his…

Big Lie No. 1: The market will take care of everything.

My take:
I keep thinking of an example from the little book which recounts the professor asking his lecture class about graphs of stocks. It doesn't matter which one you look at (pick one). “Why does the chart go up and down all the time?”. The professor got all the good answers about valuation, supply and demand, earnings reports, product pipeline, etc etc...

The real answer is - “because the market has no idea what any particular stock is worth at any particular point in time.”

Yes, we can use all the good market analysis techniques to make “educated” guesses, but it still comes down to speculation.

Of course, what would be nice to go along with all this educated speculation would be proper regulation and oversight? But that did not happen...

Article…
Wall Street lobbyists persuaded would-be regulators to lay off. "The markets". They and the market would find the best solutions to any problems on their own. We convinced ourselves that the inmates could regulate themselves. Perhaps the biggest gaffe was allowing a multitrillion-dollar market in credit default swaps. In the free-for-all that ensued, the Wall Street Masters of the Universe made untold millions -- and left us with huge problems. The damage caused by all the tricks, scams and skullduggery has cost more than $7 trillion in market losses so far, not to mention millions of jobs and a deep recession. Of course, none of this could have happened if regulators hadn't looked the other way as mortgage originators handed home loans to anyone who could fog a mirror.

Big Lie No. 2: The 'experts' will help you.

My take:
When I first started investing, I did like most: bought a couple mutual funds and passively let others do my thinking.

Over time, I realized that I could do just as well if not better than some, on my own. Yes, it required more work and more thought, but hey, what’s wrong with some good ol' fashion work, research and actually thinking about things and coming to your own conclusions...

Article…
Most mutual funds are down as much as the market -- or worse. The geniuses running hedge funds did little better. A few commentators managed to forecast the market disaster; most missed it. There's a simple reason why they missed the coming carnage.The "experts" have conflicts of interest. Mutual funds, hedge funds and brokerages want to keep you at the table so that they can continue to earn fees from your nest egg. " They don't care if you win or lose; they just want you to keep playing the game.”
The media don't get a free pass either. Media outlets such as CNBC, and presumably this Web site (MSN Money), regularly fall short in guiding investors because their real priority is to provide entertainment -- and that they have to dumb things down too much to keep content interesting.

My take: (continued)
I am not so sure about his MSN Money reference. I don’t think the Money section of the site is soooo bad. MSN Money does want readers / viewers to keep coming back to their site. They do need to keep their content somewhat entertaining, if not interesting.

After all, I keep reading them because over time I have found some to have good insight and ideas. Also, the site has helped me in my research and screens.

I would however; put Cramer and Motley Fool into the dumb down and sacrifice content for entertainment category…

Big Lie No. 3: Buy and hold.

My take:
I actually used to follow this more closely than I do now. After all, one of the ‘rules’ from the little book is to buy and hold for at least a year. About the only thing I hold now is cash...

I did however stick to my 20 – 20 rule, more importantly the bottom 20% rule and sold as soon as a stock I owned lost 20%. Unfortunately I did not always follow the top 20% rule and ended up missing out on taking my profits when I had them. Lesson learned...

Think of it this way. Lets say we use a nice easy modest but good number of 10%. Would you be happy if, when you made money you were guaranteed to make at least 10%. Sure! If you could be guaranteed to never lose more than 10% would you be happy? Maybe, just so long as you didn’t continuously loose 10% over and over again…

If a stock hits your goal of return, be happy that you were right and take your money. If you were wrong, be happy you did not loose your shirt.

If you think you can be right again, you can always reinvest it.

Article…
Anyone who has followed this advice since the late 1990s now feels deceived."Buy and hold" once seemed so obvious. Over the long haul, stocks advance 10% to 12% a year, goes the mantra. So you can't ever go wrong adding money to stock funds.Then the level of risk in the stock market changed violently. But investors -- or their financial advisers -- didn't adjust their portfolios away from stocks toward safer assets like cash, "If the risks in the markets change, your investment allocations must also change.”

Big Lie No. 4: Overpaid CEOs are worth the money.

My take: - I’ll just site the article on this one…

Article…
Company PR machines trot out the old saw that pay has to be so high "to attract the best talent."Oh, really?An extreme under appreciation of his problems; At Lehman Bros.' very last annual meeting in April 2008, the then-CEO Richard Fuld opined that "the worst of the impact of the financial markets is behind us.” In June, he told investors the investment bank was "well-positioned" because of efforts to strengthen its balance sheet. Yet by autumn, Lehman vanished, setting off the October 2008 market crash. It had been killed by mortgage-backed securities and other investments made on Fuld's watch. The cost of moving too fast; On Sept. 15, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis announced that the banking giant was buying Merrill Lynch, saying the deal -- cobbled together over a weekend -- was "a great opportunity" for shareholders because together the companies would be "more valuable" due to synergies. Bank of America reported a $21.5 billion fourth-quarter loss. The government responded by injecting $20 billion in new capital into Bank of America, and guaranteeing $118 billion in potential losses from the Merrill Lynch deal.
What seems clear is that these executives were blissfully ignorant of the growing risks to their businesses or simply chose to ignore them. They were rewarded for hitting benchmarks on cost cutting, pretax income and operating cash flow.
None of this is new. CEOs have been collecting big bucks for lousy performances for years.

Big Lie No. 5: Buy a flat-screen TV, save the economy.

My take:
On this is a little bit different than his but overall similar. Let me explain.
I think, for good reasons, that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Before it was too far towards ‘debt is OK’. Now, it is too far towards hoard all your cash…

Rather, some of the same old mantras should still be followed…

- Don’t spend more than your earn
- Save for a rainy day
- Set goals, be flexible and more importantly it’s ok to reward yourself once in a while.

Article…
Maybe the biggest lie about to be fed on people is that they should go out and shop to save the economy. Wall Street wants you to spend to pump up the economy. Much of the federal stimulus package enacted this week entails tax breaks and handouts to get people spending.But it's really just another big lie to tell people they'll make a difference if they go out and shop.The problem is that the economy is going nowhere -- no matter how much anyone spends -- until someone comes up with a plan to give the banks enough of a capital cushion so they start lending again. So far, we haven't seen that happen.So play it safe. Hold on to your money. Most of you need to save more for retirement, anyway.

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Save, Trade and Earn.

Ok, here is a continuation of my previous post with some other interesting and cost saving ideas and sites....

Zilok. Weird name but incredibly cool concept, Zilok is basically eBay for rentals. You can rent your stuff out or rent someone else's stuff for a day. For owners, get more out of your purchases -- just a few rentals could pay for the item. For renters, you can save money by renting, instead of buying, seldom-used items. Stuff like canoes, laptops, cameras, cars, books, baby strollers, and everything in between is available for rent from someone near you.

Shop It To Me. It's like having your own personal shopper constantly on the lookout for sales. Rather than scour through all the deals on the web, create your own wish list of clothes, then wait for a bargain to appear. Select your size, brand and other preferences, and Shop It To Me will e-mail you when there's a relevant sale. This is perfect for lazy but cheap shoppers like me.

UPromise. Save money and build a college fund at the same time. You get 1% to 25% back from shopping online through UPromise, or by shopping at more than 30,000 offline restaurants, drugstores and supermarkets. Your discounted savings can be automatically deposited into a 529 college savings plan.

Covestor. Covestor lets you follow the trades of other investors. Piggyback off proven winners to grow your wealth. If you're one of those proven winners, Covestor will pay you for every person who follows your stock trades.

BeatThat! This site, 100% community driven, rewards members for finding the lowest price with cold, hard cash. It's the perfect shortcut for deal hunters who don't want to endlessly search the internet to verify the best price on a product. Because deal hounds all over the Web are getting bounties for finding better deals -- versus a staff that may not be giving it 110% -- you'll find some really great bargains here. And if you're one of those deal hounds, you could make some beer money for all that time you spend at those deal sites.

Freecycle. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Find your location and see if anyone is giving away something you need, and vice versa. It's a great way to be green and frugal at the same time.

Smart Hippo. Smart Hippo is a community of people who post their reviews of mortgages, banks and lenders. You can use this information to find the best rates and loan officers in your area.

BillShrink. Get a list of cell phone plans or credit cards that are better than what you have in less than five minutes. Answer a few questions about your current credit card or cell phone plan (or have BillShrink do it automatically by uploading your last statement), and BillShrink will recommend better phone plans or credit cards that fit your needs.

SmartyPig. It's a hands-free savings account for specific goals or purchases. You set a goal and choose the amount you want to contribute each month to reach that goal, and SmartyPig automatically pulls that amount from your checking account each month. You can make your goals public to friends and family so they can contribute to your goal if they want to. Just like a savings account at your local bank, SmartyPig pays interest on the money deposited, and all deposits are insured by the FDIC. You can withdraw your money at any time via a debit card or electronic transfer.

excerpts from 10 innovative sites that save you money by Karen Datko

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Read my mind…

Maybe it is because I am in the middle of tax season…
Maybe, because of tax season, I always start thinking about charting finances…
Maybe, because when I start thinking about charting finances I start looking around at alternatives to my spreadsheet(s)…

But MSN had a pretty good article on just this topic. And I actually kind of like some of their suggestions, but I will probably sleep on it and see if I really want to break away from my good ol’ free spreadsheets…

Here is a list sites mentioned in the article…

Mint.com The one they like the most, seems well thought out and planned and claims to be 100% free and had some interesting, if not glitzy, blogs/discussion posts.

Geezeo and Wesabe put the power and appeal of social networking sites, along with a good dose of peer review, to help you keep track of finances, and goals.

BudgetTracker and BudgetPulse are for you paranoid and suspicious folks, such as myself (well, maybe not soooo paranoid) that we are not about to give out any personal information. For this you enter stuff in manually. They also give you a “limited free setup” with the hopes that you will pay for more.

Buxfer is a site that specializes in group budgeting and IOUs among friends. They even have Facebook application where you can invite friends and receive credits for upgrades to your account.

I think I’ll set up a couple accounts on these “free” sites and see how I like them and then report back with my own review(s).

As you can see, even this list of free sites has some examples of baiting you with free sign up and then charging for extras, or even the features that you really want.

I think I already know which ones I will automatically forgo signing up and test driving…

One other thing I have noticed over the years is that even the free sites, though they may not charge any extras, when you start tracking transactions online with logins and downloads; some institutions will charge you an online banking fee for this convenience.

Hence my use of spreadsheets….

Anyway, here is the article…

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Give some SAKS for Valentines Day

Romance your Valentine with these sweet stock buys
By Gergana Koleva, MarketWatch


NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The staple offerings of Valentine gifts are on display everywhere: from crimson teddy bears at your neighborhood drugstore to the velvety fare of Godiva's chocolates to the cool, robin-egg hued sparkle of Tiffany's. Add to that the perennial appeal of a dozen overpriced long-stem roses and you're forgiven if finding a present for your partner reminds you of a multiple choice test.

But love comes in more ways than red, sweet and sparkle. If you're looking for a unique gift idea for your Valentine this year, it may be worth remembering that the two of you are joined not just by your hearts but by your wallets. For some, there's nothing that says "I love you" like a stock certificate putting your spouse's favorite jewelry or lingerie brand in her hands.

"We have everything, we've given each other everything, and we've reached a point where we rack our brains every time Valentine's Day comes around," said Lee Comer, a retired owner of a marketing agency in Toledo, Ohio. He has been giving his wife stock of Saks (SKS: saks inc com SKS ) and Tiffany & Co. (TIF:Tiffany & Co.TIF ) every February 14 for the last 25 years. This year, he is showing his love with 100 shares of Saks.

"The first time I did it, she didn't know what to think. Then she started really looking forward to it," Comer said, explaining that he chose those two companies because his wife loves shopping at those stores. To him, giving a stock certificate to your spouse can be no less romantic than surprising him or her with a thoughtful present, especially if the shares are of a brand he or she particularly likes.

Though it does take some getting used to, the idea of pampering your partner with shares instead of a shiny diamond is hardly new. It is a fairly popular gift that can be very intriguing, according to Alan Lancz of Alan B. Lancz & Associates, a money management firm.

"Companies like Tiffany and Limited Brands make for a great Valentine's gift because of their growth potential," says Lancz. "They are divesting less efficient operations, so if you're looking at it from a long-term perspective, say two to three years, you might want to pursue that idea."

Sweetheart stocks to love

In his annual look at public companies whose earnings typically get a boost from the sentiments surrounding Valentine's Day, Brent Wilsey of Wilsey Asset Management in Poway, Calif., a Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. affiliate, says the following three companies will melt your lover's heart but not your brokerage account:

FTD Group Inc. (FTD: FTD ) Growth looks good for this company. Investors will enjoy a 5.1% dividend and revel in the knowledge that the floral product provider uses only half its earnings to pay out the juicy yield. Return on equity looks good at 15% and the company's sales seem to be on track, increasing 19% year-over-year.

Steiner Leisure. (STNR: STNR ) This spa service provider has experienced good growth of sales and earnings, which are up 15% and 11% respectively, both well above the industry average. 2007 earnings per share are estimated at $2.64, and 2008 EPS is expected to jump to $2.99. The Nassau, Bahamas-based company, which has 53 resort spas and two day spas as well as a presence on 126 cruise ships, carries no debt on the balance sheet and has returned 27% on equity over the previous 12 months.

Limited Brands. (LTD: LTD ) The parent of the Victoria's Secret line is poised for growth, with return on equity at 33% compared with the industry average of 23%. The company pays a healthy dividend of 3.2% using only 30% of its earnings and its stock trades around 10 times current earnings. However, with debt-to-equity at 140%, debt could be a problem, so watch it closely.

While these stocks could benefit anyone's portfolio, when bought expressly as a Valentine's gift they are more likely to end up in women's hands.

Wonder what to buy your guy? How about shares of...

Best Buy (BBY: Best Buy Co. Inc BBY )

Coach (COH: coach inc com COH )

"Being romanced by public companies that profit from our affection for one another is easy, and these stocks certainly don't play hard to get,".

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OK, So what makes me an expert....

The Internet... LOL
Honestly, regarding stocks, I have about a half dozen screens that I've put together (on free sites) that I run once a month. From there I come up with a short list of stocks based a couple of factors like:
Frequency (how many times the same stock shows up on different screens)
Note Worthy News (mentioned in other articles, product announcements, etc)
Key Financial Indicators (PEG/Ratios, Debt Ratios, Estimates, %ownership, etc)
And yes interesting Patterns (I'll admit it, I dabble in pattern investing from time to time)

So, How have I done with my January Short List?

Note: I certainly do not have enough money to invest in all these. I usually pick one or maybe two (if any at all). As of right now, the market is too scary for me to invest a lot of money for a really long time. So, I have been investing a little for a short time. And yes I did invest in two which I may sell to collect my gains and possibly invest in my upcomming February short list.

Which ones did I pick? Fortunately they are still both gainers. The deciding factor in this case was an article which I read that basically said "the word recession is not in electronic gamers vocabulary". So I took a chance on GIGM and GME.

And how have I done with Fantasy Football?

I'll save that for another post... ;-)

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