Girl Selling Her Virginity to Pay for College...

...ironically, she got her bachelor's in women studies and wants to get her masters in family and marriage counseling ;-) Here's the link to the story.

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Lehman, Money Market Funds, and the Government Guarantee Controversy

Before this week, most people probably thought of money market funds as ultra-safe places to park cash.

While money market mutual funds aren't FDIC insured like money market accounts at banks, they can only invest in "safe", short-term commercial paper with an average maturity of 90 days.

The funds work to keep their value per share at a constant $1. "Breaking the buck", or having a loss, was something avoided at all costs. If, on occasion, a paper dropped slightly in value, the fund's holding company would buy it from its fund at par.

In return for this safety of principle, investors willingly accepted yields lower than stocks or bonds.

Now, in the wake of Lehman's collapse, one of the original pioneers of money market funds, Reserve Management, wouldn't (or couldn't) buy back its Primary Fund's investment in Lehman paper.

Instead, the Primary Fund wrote off $785 million in Lehman debt, and its value per share dropped to 97 cents.

It became the first money market fund to "break the buck" in 14 years, and shareholders withdrew 60% of the assets in 2 days. The fund since delayed investor redemptions by 7 days.

Even though money markets remain one of he safest investments, and most of the money market fund companies (such as Vanguard, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, or Schwab) have many times the resources of Reserve Management, investors started to become worried about money market funds.

On Thursday, Putnam Investments closed its $12 billion Prime Money Market Fund after its institutional clients pulled their money out.

On Friday, to calm the markets, the Treasury took the unusual step of temporarily guaranteeing money market funds against losses up to $50 billion.

Needless to say, the American Bankers Association is very unhappy. They saw their FDIC coverage as a competitive advantage for their money market accounts vs. money market funds.

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Business Lesson: How NBC's "The Biggest Loser" Reverse-Engineering a Weight-Loss Brand

The Chicago Tribune business section recently had an article about a 4 year old reality show on NBC called "The Biggest Loser" - in which overweight people compete to see who can lose the most weight.

Reality shows tend to use product placement on their shows to make money. In the case of "The Biggest Loser", however, the producers turned down placement offers from the major weight loss brands - such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc.

Instead, they are now starting to advertise their own products.

It turns out that, from the beginning, the show was planned to not just rely on a television advertising model. Instead, they had a new business model in mind - to build a major weight loss brand in reverse.

The traditional brands - like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers - built up their brands, products, centers, etc. first, and then advertised on television.

The "Biggest Loser" will do the opposite. It started off as a TV show and they are now trying to expand into a brand with its own products.

Consumers have already spent $50 million on the current line of "Biggest Loser" products - fitness videos, cookbooks, a weight-loss club, and products in NBC's online store (scales, socks, etc).

Next to roll out will be branded exercise equipment, kitchen stuff, and protein powder. Future possibilities include meals delivered to your doorstep, yoga mats, exercise balls, etc.

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Lehman, Merril Lynch, and AIG Lead to The "Unbubble"

I recently heard a description of the current financial situation as an "unbubble".

I think this is appropriate because it does seem that, like in a bubble, emotion is starting to get ahead of fundamentals.

They say that there are 2 main emotions in trading / investing: fear and greed.

Well, in a bubble, greed wins out over fundamentals, and the markets eventually come back to earth.

In this "unbubble", it looks like fear is starting to win out over fundamentals. For example, the remaining 2 independent investment banks (Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) are relatively healthy, but are seeing their stock punished, and are being "pushed" into the idea of merging with commercial banks.

I think it is still wise to steer clear of most financial stocks, but this is probably a good time to start looking to buy good stocks in other sectors of the economy.

As they say, the big money is made by buying when there is "blood in the streets".

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Quote for the Day

Quote for the day:  'Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.'  So - if you give her crap, you will receive more shit than any one human being can handle  Love and appreciate all the women in your life.

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Programming vs. Management

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, 'Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.' The woman below replied, 'You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.' 'You must be a programmer,' said the balloonist. 'I am,' replied the woman, 'How did you know?' 'Well,' answered the balloonist, 'everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip.' The woman below responded, 'You must be in Management.' 'I am,' replied the balloonist, 'but how did you know?' 'Well,' said the woman, 'you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault.'

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How To Become Rich

In his Personal Financier blog, Dorian had a post entitled Coming To Terms with Never Getting Rich – A Look at the Pre-Requirements.

In this post, Dorian does a good job of describing the traits needed to become wealthy in business.

However, he then seems resigned that he is not strong in those areas and, therefore, will never be rich.

I commented that Dorian could surprise himself, and improve his abilities in those traits, by thinking in terms of yoga or physical stretching.

In the comment, I paraphrased from my post entitled Stretch Out of Your Comfort Zone, which is on my Tao of Simplicity blog.

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Get A Free Website and "The Rich Jerk" For Internet Marketing Success

If you are just starting out in internet marketing, or have dabbled in it without much success, then I think the first thing you should buy is the "Rich Jerk" eBook (electronic book).

A few years ago, after I started earning a steady $100-$200 a month online, I decided to re-invest some of my earnings in education. I chose the "Rich Jerk" book because I read a good review on it, and saw that it was only $9.95. I felt that I could justify this price.

I went to the website, read the marketing materials, and some of the stuff in the free forum, and I was laughing so hard! This "guy" is really wickedly funny and sarcastic.

I went ahead and bought the book. I also took the up-sell, which is the deluxe collection of 60 mp3's that are a companion to the book.

I loved the book and mp3's!

This eBook will provide you with a good, solid introduction to affiliate marketing, pay per click advertising and arbitrage, search engine optimization (SEO), creating your own information products, and even buying wholesale merchandise and selling it on Ebay.

You probably could find a lot of this info for free by spending hours searching through dozens of websites, but the "Rich Jerk" provides this information in a short, simple, and humorous book - for only $9.95.

Also, information on internet marketing can quickly become outdated, but the low price of the "Rich Jerk" includes lifetime updates to the book, plus lifetime access to the member's only forum.

The basic theme of the Rich Jerk is to be creative and think outside the box.

For example, the lifetime updates and forum offer mentioned above creates a "win-win" situation:

It's a win for the customer because they get the unusual benefit of having paid for an eBook once, and then getting years of use out of it because any outdated info gets regularly replaced.

It is a win for the Rich Jerk company because they achieve a "stickiness" with their customers - usually selling an eBook is a one-time transaction, but now there is an incentive for the customer to keep coming back to the website.

Another "win win" example is that, when you go to their site, they offer to build you a free internet marketing website - even if you don't buy the book.

You then win because you get a professionally designed website for free, and they win because they require you to sign up for hosting the site through them, so they get a percentage of your hosting fees.

Finally, I enjoyed their out-of-the-box example of a pay per click ad - first, they show a conventional ad for a fictional rust removing product, and then the Rich Jerk version. Which one is more likely to get clicked on?

Remove Rust Instantly
Removes, and repels future rust.
Buy online now. Onsale.

Rust Sucks
We wish rust was a real person
so we could do him bodily harm.

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Nicole Kidman - Most Overpaid Actor in Hollywood?

Nicole Kidman made the top of Forbes magazine's second annual list of least bankable stars.

The magazine used a simple ratio - they added up each actor's salary for their last three films, and divided it by the films' combined gross income, to get a payback factor.

In Kidman's case, last year she returned $8 for each $1 she earned. This year, she returned $1 for each dollar she earned.

She was paid $17 million for "Invasion" and the film lost $2.68 for each dollar it paid her.

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Chicago Tribune vs. Google Over United Airlines Rumor

On Monday, shares of United Airlines suddenly plunged from $12 to $3 because of a false report that UAL was again seeking bankruptcy protection.

Trading was temporarily halted, and UAL confirmed that the report was not true.

It turns out that the Tribune-owned Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper had a 6-year old Chicago Tribune article archived on its business site about UAL's 2002 bankruptcy.

At around 1 am, someone viewed that article - making it the most viewed article for that time period, and causing a new link to be made to the "most frequently viewed" page.

The Google "bot" followed that link, indexed the page, and put a 9/08/2008 timestamp on it.

The Tribune now wants Google to keep its "bot" off their website.

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Don't Be A Seminar Junkie

There are a lot of good books, DVDs, courses, and seminars on topics such as internet marketing, investing, real estate, etc.

A good education is invaluable for those of us who want to succeed in life, and become financially independent with multiple passive streams of income.

The pitfall, however, is when the courses and seminars become an end in themselves.

It is very easy to become a "seminar junkie", where it becomes a form of entertainment to take classes and seminars, and you feel like you are making progress without the temporary discomfort of having to take concrete actions.

But the successful people are those who focus on one thing at a time and take action.

Even the best self-help and get-rich courses are not turnkey businesses.

Like any other profession, reading and studying is only the first step. You need to then apply what you have learned, grow out of your comfort zone by putting yourself in uncomfortable positions, build experience, and mold the material into a system that works for you.

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Leveraging Your Assets, Disney Style

Since Disney's 1953 movie "Peter Pan", Tinker Bell has been a popular classic Disney character, but they never did much with her.

Now, according to an article I saw last week in the Chicago Tribune business section, they want to "recast" her to launch a billion dollar Fairies franchise, aimed at girls who have outgrown the "Disney Princesses", but are still too young for Hannah Montana.

They are going to start the launch with the straight-to-DVD movie "Tinker Bell", which is due out on Oct 28, and made under John Lasseter - the creative force behind Pixar.

Then, there will be 3 more movies, followed by an online fairy world, followed by fairy-themed merchandise: books, toys, etc.

After the success of the "Princesses" line of merchandise (which should sell $4 billion this year), Disney had people hunting through their animation vault, looking for more opportunities.

They realized that Tinker Bell had a lot of latent demand they were under-utilizing, because Tinker Bell merchandise has always sold well at Disney parks and resorts ($800 million in sales last year).

Even before reading this article, I thought Disney does a good job of recycling assets. For example, they make expensive movies for the theaters - such as Lion King and Beauty and the Beast - then they reuse the characters in weekly shows on Disney's channels. Finally, they release the sequel as a direct-to-DVD movie - thus capturing a high profit margin.

I think Disney can serve as a lesson to small businesses and even individuals - take stock of your assets, and think creatively about how you can further utilize them for profit.

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Creative Thinking and Fair Dealing in Commercial Real Estate

I saw a newspaper ad for free seminars in my area for the Institute of Commercial Real Estate.

I didn't go - I want to concentrate on my blogs/websites for now - but I wrote down the website from the ad and checked it out.

I'm not sure if they are a get rich quick scheme or not, but I felt more credibility when I read the founder's blog.

I think it is true that small businesses get added credibility if the owner keeps a blog on the site.

Anyway, I really liked this post.

The guy could have taken the easy way out and raised the tenant's rent - wiping out their family business.

Instead, he did some creative thinking, and worked out a win-win situation that still made him money, and did not hurt them.

To me, this envisions the type of creative, ethical businessman I like to be.

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Fannie Mae: Followup to Five Stock Picking Ideas

Back in June, I had a post entitled Five Stock Picking Ideas, which mentioned 5 stock picks from Forbes columnist Lisa Hess.

One of her picks had been Fannie Mae.

Needless to say, in the latest edition of Forbes, she now calls it "one of my more spectacularly awful recommendations".

This is an example of why diversification is an important part of investing.

My stock trading system preaches diversification.

You can never know what will happen with any individual stock, that is why my system uses my mathematical formula to separately trade multiple stocks within my portfolio.

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Google - Best Company to Work For

According to this article, Google offers tons of benefits, like 11 free gourmet cafeterias, workout rooms, massages, barbers, day care, free wi-fi shuttle buses to the train station, etc.

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Even NBA Players Are Affected By the Housing Slump

The Wall Street Journal mentioned that NBA players Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace both reduced the asking price on their homes.

Iverson dropped the price on his house in the Philadelphia area by 37% - from $6.3 million to $4 million. He bought the house in 2003 for $5 million.

Wallace dropped the price of his home in Portland from $5.2 million to $4.9 million (down by 6%).

I think this story shows that the housing slump is now affecting the market for luxury properties.

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West Bengal Protests Over Nano Factory Show Indian Struggles With Land Acqusition

An interesting point mentioned in this article is that, when a state government in India acquires the land for a company, using the Land Acquisition Act dating back to British rule, there are more issues. When villagers deal directly with the companies, they have had more bargaining power, and the results have been more peaceful.

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Carnivals

My post on Tribune Wants to Structure Cubs Sale To Avoid Taxes: Will Baseball Approve the Debt Load? is included in the latest editions of both the Carnival of Debt Consolidation Loans, and the Carnival of Moneyed Midways.

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Scottrade Free Trades Promotion Through 10/31/2008

In my book "Stock Trading Riches", and on this blog, I have promoted trading stocks through Scottrade.

I have found their website easy to use, reliable, and they only charge $7 per trade.

Normally, if you open an account with them using this referral code (ZNTJ5666), you will get three free trades.

However, if you open a new account now through 10/31/2008, you will get 7 free trades!

Low costs are one of the few things that a trader or investor can control with certainty.

When I was younger, I didn't pay that much attention to trading costs - mostly because at that time I thought I would make a "big killing" in stocks and commodities ;-)

Since then, of course, the markets battered me into humbleness.

Instead of trying to get rich quick, the correct approach is to get above average returns by combining a system with a known edge with low costs.

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See Salaries at GlassDoor.com

This website lets you see anonymous salaries that have been posted by company.   You can sign up anonymously and give your salary, employer name, and title, then you can see the other salaries when you are logged in.

I think this is a great idea because, without a site like this, I think it would be almost impossible for workers at large companies to find out their salaries.

The alternative would be for someone at the company to organize a secret poll or newsletter where people anonymously give their salary info. Then, the data would have to be tabulated, and the results distributed - without management finding out about it.

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Detecting Tax and Accounting Fraud thru Benford's Law

On a recent tax blog carnival, I found this interesting post about how the IRS can flag "creative" numbers for audit by using Benford's law.

Benford's Law turns out to be interesting. It has to do with the distribution of the leading digit in any set of numbers (i.e. stock prices, population counts, tax returns, etc).

You would think that this would be evenly distributed - i.e. 10% of the numbers would start with a 1, 10% with a 2, etc.

Instead, it turns out that the numbers are evenly distributed by their logrithms. So, for example 30% of the numbers should start with a 1, and the distribution drops until a 9 should only be the leading digit 4.6% of the time.

The IRS and forensic accountants make use of this mathematical rule.

If you want to read a little bit more on it, and see the actual formula, I also created an entry on my math blog.

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IRS and Substitute for Return

I just read this interesting post on the IRS Substitute for Return (SFR).

According to the post, if you don't file a tax return, then the IRS can fill one out for you - this is the Substitute for Return (SFR).

You probably don't want this because the IRS doesn't fill it out to your advantage.

They automatically prepare your SFR with the least deductions (single - no itemization). Also, they only go ahead and file it if you owe the government. If you are owed a refund, they don't bother to file it.

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Wisdom From Andy Rooney

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person. I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows. I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day. I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world. I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right. I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child. I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way. I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with. I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand. I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult. I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for. I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class. I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular. I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved. I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts. I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds. I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them. I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher. I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss. I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere. I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away. I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them. I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life. I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

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Amazon.com's 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards DVD Promotion

Amazon.com is running a special DVD sales promotion through September 30, to tie in with the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards.

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Carnival of Personal Finance #168

My post on how markets react to fundamentals is included in the 168th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.

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Dog Saves Abandoned Newborn Baby on Chilly Day in Argentina

The dog carried the baby to where its newborn puppies were and kept the baby warm, saving its life.

The dog obviously had more maternal instincts than the 14 year old mother who abandoned the baby in the woods.

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Candy Spelling Downsizing to a $47 Million Condo

Candy Spelling, widow of TV producer Aaron Spelling (Charlie's Angeles, Love Boat, Beverly Hills 90210, etc) has listed her 56,500 square foot mansion and is "downsizing" to a 16,500 square foot condo in L.A. that she bought for $47 million.

This is part of a new wave of luxury condo properties in L.A.  After traditionally favoring yards and houses, rich Californians are starting to copy New Yorkers so they can avoid traffic and sprawl.

She paid $2,848 per square foot for her condo, which is a record in L.A. but a bargain in New York City.

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How Markets React to Fundamentals

Freely traded markets, such as those for stocks, futures, and options, don't always interpret fundamental news in a straight forward manner.

Today, for example, ZachStocks had a post about Burger King. BKC just reported its earnings, and it greatly exceeded management's forecast.

You might expect that the stock would rise. Instead, the stock went down sharply. Zach gives the explanation that, because their predictions were so far off, BKC management lost credibility with investors.

Another example of "funny"mentals is the presidential stock market effect I wrote about on Wednesday.

While the conventional wisdom is that democrats are bad for business, the stock market does better when a democrat wins.

Investors already expect the worst from the democrat, so there is no downside, only the upside. This is reversed for the republican candidate.

This is what makes trying to time the market based on fundamental information very tricky. Not only do you need accurate, timely information, but you have to "out think" other market participants.

Like chess, you have to think many moves ahead, and try to piece together a puzzle based not only on what has just happened, but how other players will react to the news, what action will they take, etc.

This is why I only use fundamental information for two things: to choose good, solid stocks and (to a lesser extent) to see if they are reasonably priced.

Then, I buy my initial positions in the stocks, and then turn over the trading of the stocks to my mathematical formula which I write about in my book Stock Trading Riches.

My formula gets me to buy low and sell high based on pure, objective mathematics - not by trying to guess what people are thinking.

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Good Post About The U.S. National Debt Level

It's called:

Billionaires Acknowledge National Debt Is A Problem - Will Anyone Listen?

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Be Aware of ClickBank's Dormant Fees

I have promoted a few affiliate offers from Clickbank, and I made over $100 in sales.

Normally, $100 should be the minimum needed to get a check.

Clickbank, however, will not send your first payment until sales have been made with at least 5 different credit cards (PayPal sales don't count).

They say this requirement is for anti-money laundering or something, but basically it lets them hold onto your money and hit you with fees.

What happened is that I had put promoting Clickbank offers on the back burner, because I was making more money with other monetization programs.

Today, I logged into my Clickbank account for the first time in a couple of months and noticed that, because I have not had a sale in 90 days, they started deducting $1 per pay period from my balance.

Needless to say, this is something you should be aware of.

I guess I'll have to start doing more ClickBank promotions to avoid the dormant fees and get closer to the 5 different credit card requirement.

In fact, that is probably what they want - to goad us to keep promoting their products.

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Tribune Wants to Structure Cubs Sale To Avoid Taxes: Will Baseball Approve the Debt Load?

Chicago real estate billionaire Sam Zell bought the Tribune last December in an $8.2 billion leveraged buyout. Since then, he is anxious to sell assets so that he can make the debt payments.

The biggest Tribune asset he wants to unload is the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. Some experts think that he can sell them for $1 billion.

The problem is that, since the Tribune bought the Cubs back in 1981 for only $20.5 million, they could owe up to $400 million in taxes.

So, Zell is not only searching for the highest price, but also for a buyer who would be willing to work with a structured sale to avoid taxes.

Zell wants to avoid paying taxes so that he can have more money for paying down the debt.

In fact, since Zell knew at the time of the buyout that he would need to sell assets, he converted the Tribune from a C corporation to an S corporation. The advantage is that, 10 years after the conversion, any assets the corporation had at the time of the conversion can be sold tax free. Any assets sold in the first 10 years, however, would trigger capital gains taxes.

What Zell would like is for the buyer to form a leveraged partnership with the Tribune, which would keep a small percentage of the Cubs.

The partnership would borrow money to buy the Cubs, and the Tribune would get the money. As long as the distribution was borrowed money, the Tribune does not have to pay taxes.

There are 2 hurdles:

1. The buyer would not be able to start paying off the principle until Jan 1, 2018 (the 10 year anniversary of the buyout).

2. Major League Baseball has to approve any sale, and they have traditionally frowned on highly leveraged owners, because they are worried that they might not be able to field a competitive team.

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My Sudoku Book in Amazon Top 100 Gift List

My book Sudoku Fun, Volume 1 is #85 on Amazon.com's top 100 list of most gifted books, puzzles ->Sudoku category.

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Civil War Widow Died Yesterday

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune had an obituary for a woman named Maudie White Hopkins.  She died at the age of 93.

Incredibly, her first husband was a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War!

The Civil War ended in 1866, and now it is 142 years later.

How does the math work out?

Well, it turns out that her first husband enlisted in the war at the age of 16, was captured the same year, and spent the war in a prison camp in Ohio.

Then, she married him much later - in 1934, when he was 86, and she was 19!

It was a caretaker relationship.  He wanted her to marry him and take care of him and, in return, he would leave her his house and land.

She described him as a "good, clean, respectable man".  He supported her on his Confederate pension, and left her his home when he died in 1937.  The pension ended at his death.

That is how a Civil War widow dies in 2008.

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How Will The Presidential Election Affect the U.S. Stock Market?

Ken Fisher is a billionaire money manager who writes a column for Forbes magazine.

He recently had a column in which he wrote that a lot of investors are worried about how an Obama presidency might affect their stock portfolios.

His answer, which he backed up through analysis of historical data, is very enlightening, because it shows an example of how the markets can react 180 degrees from conventional wisdom, and illustrates why Fisher (like me) is a contrarian investor.

The conventional wisdom is that, since democrats are anti-business, a democratic president will cause the stock market to go down. On the other hand, a republican president will be pro-business and cause the stock market to go up.

Fisher says that actually the opposite happens. Based on historical analysis, a democratic win in the presidential election results in a bullish stock market. The stock market usually performs better during the inaugural years of a democratic president, than a republican president.

Why does this pattern happen?

Because of the principle that is a key to contrarian trading - reversion to the mean.

The markets expect the worst when a democrat is elected president. Then, they are pleasantly surprised after his administration takes office.

On the other hand, the markets expect the best when a republican gets elected president, and then get disillusioned with his administration after he takes office.

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New Black and Decker Drill Shows the Power of Incremental Improvements

Usually, people like to talk about break-through inventions that seem to come out of nowhere.

But, the truth is that, in the business world, most successful products and systems are the result of incremental improvements that are made to existing products and systems over time.

For example, Black and Decker recently came out with their PS122K Cordless drill.

Even though I already have a cordless drill, I am interested in this drill because it has a couple of features that, after seeing them listed in the description, I knew right away from experience how useful they would be.

For example, the AutoSelect feature would be very valuable because, currently, I have to guess what setting to put on my drill when I'm trying to drill holes or place screws in different materials, such as wood, metal, or drywall, etc.

This results in a trail and error process, which means that I end up taking longer to finish my project.

With the AutoSelect feature, I can select the material, and I'm ready to drill!

Another feature of this drill that I think is an improvement over mine is the battery level indicator.

I know you may be thinking that this is a minor thing but, it's "minor" features like this that can make a big difference!

With my existing drill, I might not realize that it needs charging until the drill suddenly starts to run slow. Then, it is too late. It takes time for the battery to recharge.

With the battery level indicator, I could see that the battery charge is getting low, and I could have charged it after the previous time I had used the drill.

I hope you can now see the power of incremental improvements.

First, making a few modifications to an existing, proven system or product is cheaper, lower risk, and has a higher chance of being completed on schedule than pursuing a completely new project.

Secondly, there is less selling needed, because customers are already experience with 90% of the functionality of your product and (if you have chosen the right improvements) their experience will allow them to instantly see the value that your upgrades add to the original product.

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Real Estate Lesson from Beijing's Athlete's Village

The Chicago Tribune has a reporter at the Beijing Summer Olympics whose assignment is to look for lessons that could help Chicago - if we get chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympic games.

She recently had a column about the athlete's village, which was built for the games.

Many of the athletes and coaches told her that it is the best village ever. They especially like it when compared to Athens four years ago - which is considered one of the worst.

Here is where the real estate lesson comes in. An Olympic athlete's village costs a lot of money (Chicago's estimate is $1.1 billion) and it will only be used for a few weeks. So, both Athens and Beijing designed the housing with a plan to reuse it.

The big difference is that Athens designed it to be a public housing project, while Beijing had the project done by private developers who build luxury apartments and were allowed to sell them before the Olympics to get their investment and profit.

So, in Athens, the athletes lived in basic units with dirt paths while, in Beijing, the athletes got to live in luxury apartments.

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Nishita Shah - Next Generation Billionaire?

Forbes Magazine had a list of possible future billionaires and, besides the expected names like Tiger Woods, they mentioned the glamorous Nishita Shah, who is only 28.  She is of Indian origin, but lives in Thailand.

Forbes estimates her worth as $375 million, and says she is the 19th richest person in Thailand.

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Not All The Olympic Women Gymnasts Are Tiny Little Girls...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/48882.html

In Beijing, Oksana Chusovitina won a bronze medal for Germany in the vault.  She is in her 5th Olympics, and is a 33-year old mother with a 9 year old son.  She competed in meets with Nastia Liukin's father/coach.

Sandra Izbasa of Romania won the gold medal in floor exercise.  She is 5'5", so she towers above all the other women's gymnasts.

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Olympic Swimmer Michael Phelps Eats 12,000 Calories a Day

According to this Yahoo article, swimmer Michael Phelps (who just won 5 golds in Beijing) eats 12,000 calories a day.

This is 9,500 more than the FDA recommended amount for an active, young male (2,500 calories).

He is still thin because he trains 30 hours a week.

Here is his typical daily diet:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

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Amazon.com Goes Green

Amazon.com has now set up a separate environmental section to promote green products.

One of the products they feature is the Scotts Classic Reel Mower, which I bought a few weeks ago.

I have been using it in place of my gas lawn mower, and I love it!

I had wanted to get a manual lawn mower because I thought they are simple and elegant - and I was correct!

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Amazon Prime Free Trial

If you make a lot of purchases from Amazon.com, you may want to check out their Amazon Prime service.

Basically, you pay a $79 annual membership fee. In return, you get unlimited two day shipping on most of their merchandise. You can also get overnight shipping for only $3.99 per item.

Amazon is now offering a free one-month trial of Amazon Prime.

This means that you can get free shipping for a month. Then, you can see how much shipping you saved, multiply it by 12, and see if it justifies the annual membership fee.

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Endless.com: Simple, Elegant Shopping for Shoes, Handbags, and Accessories

Recently, I needed new shoes, and I bought a great pair at endless.com.

This online store is owned by Amazon.com, and they sell men's shoes, women's shoes, kid's shoes, and handbags.

They have a lot of choices and they offer free shipping and free return shipping.

It is normally hard for me to find shoes in physical stores, because I have to requirements that really limit my choice:

First, I need size 10 1/2 EE (extra wide).  I can't comfortably wear shoes that have a normal width.

Secondly, I refuse to wear shoes with laces.  I  will only buy slip-on shoes (this irks my wife).

I haven't worn laced shoes for more than 10 years. When I used to wear shoes with laces, my left shoe would always come untied - so I decided that laces were an unnecessary complication to life.

Endless.com, however, offered me a lot of choice for extra-wide slip-ons.

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Fwd: A Pet's Diary

DOGS AND CATS - SAME WORLD - TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES!!! LOL

 

DOG'S DIARY

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!

1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with my people! My favorite thing!

11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

CAT'S DIARY

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet.  I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of.  However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight.  I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event.  However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies."  I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking.  I must try this again tom orrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges.  He is regularly released and seems to be more than willing to return.  He is obviously retarded.

The bird has got to be an informant.  I observe him communicate with the guards regularly.  I am certain that he reports my every move.  My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. That is.......For now...

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Making Money Online Through CPA Offers

Before May, I had made money online through pay per click (Adsense), affiliate sales (Amazon Associates and Clickbank), paid posts (PayPerPost) and through the sales of my own products (my paperbacks Stock Trading Riches and Sudoku Fun, Vol. 1).

In May, I decided to try CPA (Cost Per Action). While CPA could include clicks and purchases, they usually refer to offers that pay the publisher (i.e. website owner or blogger) for actions in between a click or a purchase. Examples include getting visitors to fill out forms, submit their email addresses, etc.

I then signed up with 2 companies that promote CPA offers: Commission Junction and RocketProfit.

Out of these two, RocketProfit has so far turned out to be very lucrative!

They have a lot of "email submit" offers. These offers usually give something free (i.e. a gift card) for entering an email address and then filling out surveys.

Now, personally, I'm not sure if it is worth it to spend time filling out the surveys, but there are a lot of people who want to these regularly to earn something.

I have tried to attract them.

So, I added the link on my sidebar (the one that said "Hot! The Latest Mystery Offers! Get Free Merchandise!").

Now, if you had looked at this page when the link was up, you would have seen a no-frills page which just listed offers by number. I did this for two reasons:

1. purposely to build mystery, and to test my theory that minimalism is a powerful concept.

2. Because email submits are a little shady. Some of them don't work or don't pay. With the simple links, I could easily swap offers in and out. I changed them around and kept stats. A few of them stood out with lots of clicks and no conversions. I dropped those.

I then added this post on Free Visa Gift Cards.

Well, this worked very well! I earned a passive $33.60 in May, and I got paid on the 15th of the next month because RocketProfit pays as long as you accumulate $25 (vs. $100 for Adsense, etc.)

Even better - in June, I spent $65 on sending PPC from a lower tiered search engine (which I won't name) to my mystery offers and earned $236.75!

The reason I won't mention the search engine or discuss my landing page (except to say it was similarly themed to the free visa gift card post above) is that I developed something I can milk because it scaled!

In July, I decided to see if it would scale, so I spent $700 and....

... I made $2,239.90! (unofficial because I won't get my check until the 15th).

Needless to say, I recommend RocketProfit and CPA offers - with the caveat that (as I mentioned above) some of the offers are duds, so you have to spend some time monitoring your stats and cut the ones that do not perform.

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Published My Second Book "Sudoku Fun: Volume 1"

I just thought I would let everyone know that my second book, Sudoku Fun: Volume 1, has been published.

This is a book of Sudoku puzzles that I created myself.

Like my first book, Stock Trading Riches,  this book is available online at both Amazon.com and Target.com.

So far, the sales of the new book look promising. 

I have sold 69 copies of "Stock Trading Riches" in the last 10 months, but I have already sold 6 copies of "Sudoku Fun" in its first 3 days - without advertising it on any of my blogs yet.

I already have plans for my next 13 books!

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Canadian National Railway (CNI)

The western suburbs of Chicago are currently up in arms against Canadian National Railway because they are proposing to buy the EJ&E (Elgin Joliet and Eastern) railway, thus quadrupling the number of freight trains.

But, on a separate note, Forbes Magazine recommends the stock, which has Bill Gates as a major shareholder.

CNI has the rail industry's highest net profit margin (27%) and has shorter term freight contracts than other railroads - which allow it to raise prices.

Also, CNI's stock trades cheap - 12 times trailing earnings vs. 18 times for Burlington Northern Santa Fe (which Warren Buffett bought into recently) vs. 20 times for the industry average.

Finally, CNI is poised for growth because it has exclusive rail access to the new container terminal at the Port of Prince Rupert in British Columbia.  This terminal  should capture more freight traffic to Asia because it is 10 days to Shanghai vs. 12 days for the Port of  Los Angeles.

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This is really "telecommuting"

This would be a little weird - you are actually fighting the war, but are at home, and have to "leave it at the office"...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/ap_on_re_us/remote_war_stress

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Japanese Surrogate Baby Born in India Stuck in Legal Limbo

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080806/ts_afp/indiajapanbabysurrogacyadoptionlaw

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Hollywood Squares Laughs - Oldies but Goodies

 

SOMETHING TO PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

 

Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No; wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say 'I Love You'?
A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty

Q. What are 'Do It,' 'I Can Help,' and 'I Can't Get Enough'?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

 

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries . Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

 

Q During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A.. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

 

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horse radish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh

 

 

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Options on Cubs Post Season Tickets

The Chicago Tribune recently had an article about fans who are paying options for Cubs post-season tickets, including $99 for an option to buy Cubs World Series tickets - which may or may not become a reality (the Cubs last went to the World Series in 1945).

The website, FirstDibz.com, acts as a middle man between the option buyer and the option seller (a season ticket holder).

If the Cubs do not go to the World Series, then the option buyer is out $99, and the seller gets the money (less FirstDibz.com's 17% cut).

If the Cubs do go to the World Series, then the option buyer gets the tickets, and is charged the face value price.

The buyer is risking the premium and, in return, gets a chance to buy tickets at face value that would cost a lot of money through ticket brokers.

Why would the season ticket holder sell an option rather than wait and sell the ticket through a ticket broker for more money?

Because, while they could get more money by selling through a ticket broker, that would only happen if the Cubs actually make it to the World Series. This way, they make money even if the Cubs get eliminated.

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Zimbabwe Knocking 10 Zeros Off The Currency

In a previous post, I mentioned how Zimbabwe is running out of paper to print its hyper-inflated currency.

I read a related article in last Thursday's Chicago Tribune that Zimbabwe is now going to knock 10 decimals off its currency, because computers could no longer cope with basic transactions occurring in billions and trillions of dollars.

Now, 10 billion Zimbabwe dollars will be equal to 1 new Zimbabwe dollar.

Economists expect this money to become worthless soon.

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Amazon Gift Card Promotion A Sign That Fall is Around the Corner

For the month of August, Amazon.com is promoting their gift cards and tying it to students going back to school.

I guess that this is a sign that fall is around the corner.

Their gift cards are actually very convenient because, after buying them, you have three delivery options:

* Email for immediate delivery

* Print at home

* Send in the mail

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Bad Review for "Stock Trading Riches" on Amazon.com

Today, I noticed that someone had recently reviewed my book Stock Trading Riches on Amazon.com.

They mentioned that it was a "solid trading system" and was "not a scam", but it appears that the reviewer was disappointed that my system was not more aggressive, and was not designed to short stocks or trade leveraged instruments like futures or currencies.

The reviewer did not think my system could give a great return, and he only gave my book one star (out of five).  Well, at least it wasn't zero stars ;-)

I don't agree that my system does not give a good return.  My real life trading results refute that.

But, I figured that my system would be controversial because most people either talk about buy and hold investing or aggressive trading.  My system falls in between.  In my opinion, it has the best risk / reward trade-off.

That is not just my opinion.  I have several testimonials on the Stock Trading Riches website, and two people have included my book on their recommended lists at Amazon.com.

Anyway, I published my own review as a response.  It is not up on Amazon.com yet.  Here is what I wrote:

I wanted to respond to the above review.

I am pleased that the reviewer mentioned that my system is not a scam and is based on a solid principle. I am also glad that he or she mentioned that my system is intended for non-leveraged stocks, funds, and ETFs.

It seems that the reviewer is a more aggressive trader and looking for systems that can be used on leveraged futures and FX trading vehicles, as well as a system that can trade short and profit in bear markets.

My system does not use leverage, and does not go short. It "profits" from bear markets by taking profits in rising markets and then reinvesting at lower prices.

I disagree with the reviewer about my system having a lower level of return. He mentions that I admit my system does not have a high rate of return.

In my book, I actually said that "when I was younger, I would not have used it [my system], because I wanted to get rich quick - I wanted "action" and triple-digit returns. Now I understand that those kinds of systems are unsustainable."

In my book, I also say that "While I'm no financial genius like Warren Buffet, I have made a double-digit annual return for years now."

I am down 19% so far in 2008 but, from 2005-2007, I made 13%, 14%, and 22% a year, respectively.

If I finish 2008 at -19%, then I would have earned 6.22% per year from 2005-2008. So, I will no longer have an unbroken string of double digit annual returns, but I still beat the S&P500 and savings accounts for that period.

If the reviewer feels those are low returns, then I guess the reviewer is looking for triple digit returns and aggressive systems.

I really take issue with the idea that a bank account could earn more.

My book is recommended on two different Amazon lists:

Contrarian Stock Investing Systems

Alawys successful formula

The creator of the first list writes that he tested my system against buy and hold on the SPY (S&P500 ETF) from 2001-2008, and my system returned 2% while Buy/hold returned 1.7%.

So, yes, a bank could beat that return but that is because of market conditions. I beat the market.

Also, I wouldn't recommend using my system on a diversified index fund. It should be used on a portfolio of stocks or narrowly focused funds, because the formula is applied independently to each portfolio component. Then, we take advantage of volatility - while still having the overall diversification.

I made my double digit returns because I was trading each stock on its own. Trading a diversified portfolio as a single unit (like the SPY example) dampens out volatility.

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High Gas Prices Turn Car Rentals Upside Down

I read in the Chicago Tribune that, due to high gas prices, rental car companies are seeing their business model flipped over.

Traditionally, car rental companies are organized such that their cheapest cars are the small subcompacts. Larger sedans and SUVs cost more to rent, or require an upgrade.

Now, with $4 gas, the rental companies are having a shortage of small cars, while the larger cars are less popular.

One business traveler mentioned in the article was renting a car for a 400 mile business trip. He said that, after seeing that he was assigned an SUV, went back in and demanded a smaller car.

The rental agent then ironically claimed that the SUV was an upgrade!

The businessman then said "I sure don't want an upgrade if it means driving an SUV."

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Credit Card Reward Programs - Airlines Out, Cash is King?

I have a lot of miles with American Airlines, and use an American Airlines mileage credit card, but I am re-thinking it after reading a recent article in the Chicago Tribune business section.

The article said that, with U.S. airlines making their frequent flier programs less attractive (less available seats, increase required mileage, fees, etc), it might be time to start using a cash-back card.

The article went on to give some tips for choosing a rewards card:

1. Go online - Sites like CardRatings.com, IndexCreditCards.com, and LowCards.com can help you choose a rewards card.

2. Prefer cash - it can be used in more places than miles, points, and gift cards. Also, unlike miles or points, cash cannot be arbitrarily devalued.

3. Get more than 1% back - it is possible to get a rewards card offering more than 1% back (at least on some merchandise like groceries or gas).

4. Consider other factors - no annual fee, automatic rewards payments, no reward limit. Signing bonuses are good, but watch out for introductory offers that expire after a couple of months.

5. Big spenders - if you can charge over $1,000 per month, consider the American Express Blue Cash card. It has a tiered system, with bigger rebates after $6,500 is spent.

6. Small spenders - find a card that gives 1% back right away, gives you the most rewards for your spending pattern, and pays after only $25-$50 cash back is earned.

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Slydial - The Simplest Ideas are Found While You Work on Something Else

I saw an article in today's Chicago Tribune about a new service called Slydial.

This service is if you need to call someone, but don't want to actually talk to them.

So, when you call their cell with Slydial, you are guaranteed to reach their voice mail.

This way, you can leave them a message - so you can avoid talking to them, while still getting credit for calling them ;-)

The service is free, and they make their money with 30 second ads you have to listen to.

The company behind Slydial, Boston-based Mobile Sphere, found the technology while working on a problem involving roaming voice mail in Europe. 

This lead to the founder saying, "the greatest and simplest ideas are found when you're working on something else."

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Minimum Wage vs. Cost of Living

Last Thursday, the Federal minimum wage went up from $5.85 to $6.55. This was the second of three annual raises required by a 2007 law.

After next year's raise, the minimum wage will reach $7.25

Unfortunately, this raise does not keep up with inflation. Last week, the Labor department reported the highest inflation rates since 1991: 5% for June (compared to June 2007). Energy costs were up 25%, while food was up more than 5%.

Today's minimum wage is lower than in the past (when adjusting for inflation):

1968 $10.06

1997 $7.02

2008 $6.55

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Incredible Shrinking Packages

Food inflation is currently running at its highest rate since the early 1990's.

This is being caused by a combination of soaring prices for commodities like wheat, and high oil prices (affecting transportation and plastics packaging).

Food companies, however, are not increasing the prices of their products.

Instead, they are quietly reducing the packaging and/or amounts.

Last year, for example, Coca-Cola began putting a smaller cap on its plastic bottles. This was a major design project because their engineers had to ensure the new caps did not leak or blow off.

The new cap is 24% lighter. Last year, Coke cut plastic use by 4 million pounds. This year, with the new cap roll-out complete, Coke should save 40 million pounds.

Kraft redesigned its 16-ounce dressing bottles to use 19% less plastic. This will save 3.4 million pounds per year.

Unilever is reducing the quantity of their products.

A jar of Hellman's mayonnaise has gone from 32 ounces to 30 ounces. A package of Country Crock spread has gone from 3 pounds down to 2 pounds, 13 ounces.

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Zimbabwe Running Out of Paper Currency

I was reading an article in the Chicago Tribune about how Zimbabwe may soon run out of paper to print currency.

Their German supplier halted shipments because of concerns about the recent election violence.

The state owned printing company then laid off 2/3 of its workforce - cutting from 3 shifts down to 1.

This company, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, is a key to Mugabe's power because he uses the money they print to pay his police, soldiers, and agents.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing extreme hyperinflation. Last year, they were printing 1 million dollar notes. Today, the highest bill is 50 billion Zimbabwe dollars (equal to 1 dollar on the street).

One beer now costs 150 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

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U.S. Government Waste in Iraq

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_vacant_prison

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Killer Barbies - Downtown

The Spanish punk band "Killer Barbies" version of the classic "Downtown":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QIMht3iZ-rM&feature=related

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Richard Simmons on Capitol Hill

Powerful testimony about P.E. classes in schools:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B3g6s7NTnDE

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Government Needs to Be Made Simpler

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/21/katrina.supplies/index.html

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Broadway Mogul Philip Smith and His YouTube Divorce

A Manhattan judge ruled in his favor during the divorce trial because the wife totally embarrassed him by hiring a film crew to make an angry You Tube video.

She even calls up his administrative assistant on the speaker phone, shows their wedding album, and makes fun of his relatives. 

It's weird...

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He Threw Out A $65 million Lottery Ticket

He accidently threw out a $65 million lottery ticket - after he knew it was a winner.

But he had a receipt. He had taken a whole batch of tickets to the store and they scanned them.

I'm thinking he tried to throw away the others and accidently threw out the winner.

He finally collected now, after a year.

He had the receipt, but he had to wait for a whole year because, by law, anyone who turns in the ticket gets the money.

So he had to wait until the deadline expired and hope nobody pulled the ticket out of the garbage.

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Batman: Dead End

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUm0Te-SGMY

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I'm Thinking About Buying Southwest

I have avoided owning airline stocks because they are money-losing businesses.

The money-losing exception, however, has been Southwest Airlines (LUV). They have made money every year for decades.

I've flown them a lot in the last few years, and I love their philosophy of simplicity - no hub/spoke models, fly only one type of aircraft, and no assigned seating.

Southwest's stock looks like a great value. Despite it's rapid market share growth this decade, the shares are still $10 below its January 2001 peak.

But, the stock is acting strong. It is up 7% this year, while the Dow Jones airline industry index has fallen 46.5%.

Now, in the next few years,I think that Southwest has a good chance to explode and dominate the U.S. airline industry.

Why? one reason: fuel hedges.

Their CEO, Gary Kelly, was ahead of his time when, as CFO at the time of the first Persian Gulf war, he got the airline involved into fuel hedging.

During the low oil prices of the late 1990's, he talked the Board into expanding the fuel hedges into the future.

Now, Southwest will pay about 1/3 of the going rate for fuel through 2011.

This should save them about $5 billion, compared to the other airlines.

Now, Kelly is going to try a balancing act: expanding Southwest (including internationally) without losing their culture.

For example, Southwest will probably not buy any airlines but, they would take advantage of a troubled airline by buying gates, routes, and/or planes.

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Buffett Bitten By The Bear

A few days ago, the Chicago Tribune had an article that the current bear market has even caught Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway stock is down more than 20% since last December.

This was his company's worst first half of a year since 1990.

The stock closed last Thursday at $116,700 a share - down from $149,200 on Dec. 10.

Many Buffett fans see this as a buying opportunity. They have history on their side because the stock has advanced in 17 of the last 20 years. The last full year decline was 3.8% in 2002.

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Buffett vs. the Hedge Funds

Warren Buffett has been vocal in his criticism of hedge funds and their fees.

He calls hedge fund managers the "2 and 20" crowd because they typically charge 2% of the principal and 20% of the profits each year.

Buffett says "Investors, on average and over time, will do better with a low cost index fund then with a group of funds of funds."

He recently backed up his stance by agreeing to a wager with Ted Seides, a co-founder of hedge fund Protege Partners LLC.

The bet will compare, from 2008-2017, the performance of the S&P 500 index vs. five portfolios of hedge funds (including all fees, costs, and expenses).

The bet is being held by the Long Bets website.

At stake is $1,000,000 to the winner's favorite charity.

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Build A Business - Not a Job

On his DiegoNorte.com blog, internet guru James Brausch has a great article about how people should build businesses, instead of jobs.

Brausch has always taught that the "secret" to internet success has always been simple: products, traffic, and copywriting. He has mentored a lot of online entrepreneurs, and many of them have learned his secret and started to make money online.

Recently, however, Brausch learned that some of his students were working hard, but still were not making a lot of money. After investigating, Brausch realized that they were trying to do the work themselves.

Brausch has always been a advocate for hiring out tasks, so that the entrepreneur can build a "freedom" business, where his or her earnings are not tied to the hours they put in.
In the "company or J.O.B.?" post, I think Brausch states a great piece of advice very clearly: "These instructions are meant for you, but they are NOT meant for YOU to carry out. They are meant as a roadmap to start a company."

I have to admit that I have not hired out as much as I should. I still do a lot of things myself. This limits what I can accomplish because there are only so many hours in a day.

I guess I hesitate because I'm worried that I will lose money if I have to pay to get work done. The truth is that, if I design tasks properly, I should be able to make a net profit. The trick is for me to test and measure.

Once you have a profitable task that is performed by someone else, it becomes easy to scale up and make a lot of money.

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This is Cool - Voyagers Show Solar System is not Round

Back in 1977 (when Star Wars came out), NASA launched the Voyager space probes to travel beyond the solar system.  Voyager 1 went north, and Voyager 2 went south.

Now they both reached the heliosheath (the edge of the solar system), and astronomers were startled to learn that they are different distances from the sun.

This indicates that the solar system is dented, not a circle.

Surprised astronomers said they will have to change their models for what the solar system looks like.

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U.S. Says Nelson Mandela is No Longer A Terrorist...

This is surprising - until Bush signed a law today, in honor of his 90th birthday, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were considered terrorists, and had to get special permission to enter the country.

They were labeled terrorists in the '80's, due to a law passed during the Reagan administration...

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Doesn't It Really Sound Like We Are Now "In the Future"?

California lab will clone the dog that sniffed out 9/11 survivors from the ruins of the World Trade Center...

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History of the Libertarian Party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYQRzXd1UvQ

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Ron Paul Video Fox doesn't want you to see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1Litmd92g&feature=related

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Penn Jillette talks with Glenn Beck about Libertarianism

clip 1

Clip 2

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Verne Troyer's "Little" Problem...

A judge halted the release of the "Austin Powers mini-me" star's stolen sex tape...

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Finnish Version of Village People's "YMCA"

Sure to be a You-Tube classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjaFsXOS-y8&feature=related

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Security Comes Second To Freedom - Follow up

A former co-worker, who is conservative, replied negatively to my publishing of the letter to the editor that defended the Supreme Court decision about granting court appearances for terror suspects.

Below is his reply, and then my response to him:

Excuse me, but I beg to differ.  The prisoners of Gitmo are not fellow citizens.  They are ENEMY combatants.  They have never pledged allegiance to our flag, must less the way of life we live.  They would sooner see you and all of us dead rather than enjoy the liberties our country offers to them.  Remember the 3000 innocent fellow Americans that died on 9/11?  And now the liberals in the Supreme court think its "OK" for an enemy combatant to have access to our court system.  Do you think any of our fellow Americans are afforded the same luxury in their world?  I don't think Daniel Pearl would agree with you.  (In case you don't remember, Daniel Pearl was a reporter, captured by our enemy, and summarily beheaded with a dull sword.  The video was broadcast all over the world.)

Here is my response:

I respectfully disagree.  I think the Supreme Court made the right decision.  I think the Supreme Court dissenters were wrong when they fretted that it will hurt the war on terror.

The Supreme Court has to be concerned with defending the Constitution, not fear and worry about military issues.

We are the good guys who have freedom.  That mean we are, and should be "handicapped", in that we treat them better then they treat us.

We are civilized. 

It doesn't matter that they would not treat us like this.  We don't want to copy how they treat people.

Like you said, they caused 9/11 and do things like behead people on video.  We don't want to lower ourselves to their level.

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They Don't Think Too Highly of the Libertarian Party...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_en_ot/actor_senate_bid

About former action movie star Sonny Landham challenging Mitch McConnell:

Political scientist Michael Baranowski, of Northern Kentucky University, predicted minimal impact on the Senate race, though Landham could take some votes from McConnell.

"I'm not sure which is more of a hurdle for Landham, being a former porn actor or being a Libertarian Party candidate," he said.

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Break Out of the Employee Comfort Zone

I have a membership at the Smart Business Formula site, which is operated by online entrepreneurs Winston Yap and Thomas Choo. It has a collection of free tools, resources, and videos on internet marketing.

One of the videos on the site gave a reason why most people fail at internet marketing - and it was a great observation of human nature.

The problem is that many people who go into internet marketing are used to being employees - with its corresponding security and certainty.

When they get confronted by the insecurity and uncertainty of running their own business, and now have to make decisions, they unconsciously seek out a "boss" and get attracted to internet gurus. The guru becomes their "boss" and the marketer is back in his "comfort zone" as an employee.

For example, Joe was a web designer for a company, and his boss made the decisions, such as telling him what to design. At the end of the month, no matter how things went, Joe got his paycheck.

One day, Joe decided to "get rich" and start his own internet business. Well, Joe now found that he had to make all the design decisions, and there was no guarantee that he would earn any money at the end of the month.

So, he joined "Guru Mike's" newsletter, and bought his course on "Designing a killer website". Joe is now planning to attend Guru Mike's "Advanced Riches" seminar, etc.

The problem, of course, is that the guru is not your boss. - He is a marketer trying to make a sale to you.

The newbie marketer ends up spending his or her time reading info from gurus and ordering products - instead of taking action. They end up on many guru email lists with a lot of information products sitting on their hard drive.

The video concludes by suggesting that, instead of listening to gurus, it's better to get out of your employee "comfort zone" by focusing on enjoying the experience of internet marketing, rather than money - which will cause you stress.

They then compare internet marketing with learning to ride a bicycle, driving, or cooking. Even with a mentor guiding you, you will fall down.

Also, like riding a bike, you will only learn through developing experience and intuition. You have to develop abilities like intuitively evaluating products for money making potential. There are no shortcuts.

In addition, there is no substitute for action. You have probably heard the expression "Ready. Fire. Aim." You have to break the cycle of just buying courses and studying. To succeed at internet marketing, you have to take action, try something, and get feedback.

Write an e-book, set up a website, and try to sell it. Start a blog and try to monetize it with Adsense. You will make mistakes - you won't make an optimal amount of money - but that is ok.

Constantly test out things - try to optimize - and slowly you will increase your earnings.

Study and learning has its place - but you need to make your own mistakes and learn through failure and feedback.

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My Top 4 Stock Market Winners for 2008

So far, 2008 has seen a bear market for stocks. Even my account is down about 13% so far this year - after multiple years of double-digit gains.

I am at peace because I have complete faith in my stock trading system, and view a bear market as the other side of the coin. The yin to the bull market's yang.

A bear market has its necessary place in the ecology of the marketplace.

However, it still feels comforting to look at my top four stock positions of 2008, if for no other reason than to show that some stocks do go up in a bear market.

ADP (ADP) I bought this stock on 1/24/08 at 38.71, because of the trend for businesses to outsource their payroll and human resources. The stock closed today at 42.46.

Visa (V) I previously wrote about this purchase. I bought it on 3/24/08 at 65.40, and it is now at 82.06. You can read part 1, part 2, and part 3 here.

The final two winners were bought because of high gas prices. Apache Energy (APA) was a pure hedge, and Cummins (CMI) is more of a longer term play on the need for fuel and energy economy.

Cummins is one of the world's leading manufacturers of diesel, natural gas engines and power generation equipment. It also manufactures automotive components such as filtration, turbochargers, fuel systems and emission solutions.

I bought APA on 12/13/06 at 68.84. It closed today at 132.66.

I bought CMI on 4/24/08 at 53.69. It closed today at 72.57.

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Hollywood, Bollywood to Merge Into One Movie Empire?

ABC has a story that the potential $2 billion deal between Indian billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment and Stephen Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG is just one of many recent cross-over projects being discussed between Hollywood and Bollywood (the Indian film industry) actors, directors, and producers.

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ABCNEWS.com: A Window Into Bill Gates

A look back at Bill Gates.

After 30 years, Friday is his last day at Microsoft.

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Wilbur Hardee Dead at 89

I read that Wilbur Hardee, the founder of the Hardee's Hamburger chain, died.

His story shows that he was a true "wildcat" entrepreneur - not some buttoned down corporate type.

After he founded Hardee's in 1960, it expanded and went public in 1963.  A couple of years later, he was out.

Why?  He and his partners were out drinking and playing cards.  He bet some of his stock and lost.  His controlling interest was cut to 49%.  He refused to be controlled, so he sold off the rest of his stock and walked away.

He ended up launching 85 more restaurants in his lifetime.

However, he always loved Hardee's and considered it to be his little child.

He had a simple philosophy: "If you don't eat it, don't give it to your customers.  Make sure they get first quality."

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Japan Airlines and Non-edible Biofuel

In February, Virgin Atlantic successfully conducted the first flight of a commercial aircraft partially powered with biofuel.  One of its engines had a mix of coconut and babassu oil.

Now, Japan Airlines is planning to test fly a 747 which will have one of its four engines powered by a non-edible biofuel mixed with kerosene.  The other three engines will have normal fuel.

They are using a non-edible biofuel to avoid driving up the prices of a potential food source.

I think this is a great example of how capitalism works.  Now that the idea of "going green" has reached the mainstream consumer, and gas prices are high, private enterprise is dealing with the situation - instead of bureaucrats.

I also like that JAL is using the Buddhist concept of the "middle way" - and using one engine out of four for the biofuel.  This is better than taking an "all or nothing" approach, and not doing anything until the technology is perfected enough that they would use all four engines.

Finally, it is good to see that they are avoiding the debacle over corn ethanol.  That was pushed on us by Midwest politicians.  As a result, grain and livestock prices went up.

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Floating Through Life On A Yacht

I just read a story in the Chicago Tribune about a man in Newport Beach, California who lives the retired life many of us dream about and are working hard to achieve.

His story makes me wonder if he is crazy - or are we for not copying him?

The man, Dave Dixon, is 60 years old and lives surrounded by the multi-million dollar views of the bay, and spends hours every day golfing or playing tennis.

Yet, 8 years ago, when Dixon decided to live his dream life, he was an unemployed, twice-divorced, middle-age man with no savings.

He still only works 15 hours a week, singing at private parties and two restaurants in Orange County.

How did he do it?

He bought a beat-up 37 foot yacht with a credit card for $10,000. 

Instead of buying a permanent mooring, he saves money by being a guest boater in Newport Harbor.  He is allowed to stay 15 days a month on a mooring, and another 5 days at anchor in the bay.  He then anchors in the ocean for the last 10 days of the month.

He showers in the Orange County Harbor Patrol's guest facilities, and drives an old car with over 300,000 miles on it.

He became an ordained pastor, and sees himself as the richest resident of the beach town.

He believes that spirituality has set him free from the world's bondages, and he is living God's message that faith and people, not possessions, are of true value.

Here is a breakdown of his monthly expenses:

$15 Post office Box
$75 Rent for 15 days mooring in Newport Harbor
$85 storage unit
$90 car insurance
$150 gas and generator for yacht
$150 gas for car
---------------------------------------------
$565 Total monthly expenses

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