Where next?

Its time to consider where to put money in now. First, we need to assess the situation, then we can have an understanding of where we are and where we need to be.
Where are we?

• Housing is still going down, but the government is doing everything in their power to make things better. Hank Paulson of the treasury is thinking about asking congress to make an entity that will take all bad assets from banks, thereby allowing people to stay IN THEIR HOMES!
• Banking is getting crushed, but again, the new gov't rules will help em' out. They will recover, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are going have SURGING profits from the demise of Lehman (however, Barclays will try and prop things up...they are a business and are looking to make money, right?), Merrill Lynch is NOT gone, they are with Bank of America, and as far as CEO Ken Lewis is concerned, Merrill is going to win.
  
• Is this the end of the down market? Will THIS be the week that everything just turns around and gets better, or will there be more blood?

I think there will be more blood. This is NOT the week that everything gets better. We need more catalysts to slowly pick us up.
What to do?

I have some AT&T stock, should I sell and reallocate? What about MS or AAPL?
I think MS will come back, either by merging, or by going at it alone. Once banking picks up, MS will be surging back to a 52 week high. Goldman just REITERATED MS to their CONVICTION buy list, so someone feels good about them. Apple. Lets see, everyone has an iPod now, but there are still more people that need to buy their computers. They've had surging sales, but I do not think the PC market is saturated at ALL. Thus, they have room to grow.

S0 I cant sell AAPL or MS.

But what about AT&T? They are losing business with landline service, but....their cell phone service isnt doing bad. The only thing is, they arent a growth company, and since Im young, I need GROWTH.

Is energy the best place to go? Warren Buffett just threw some money in there. NRG enegry. The thing is- the stock is waaaay down from when he bought it. Consider getting into a stock at a better price than the Oracle of Omaha....just for a second. He obviously did HIS research, so why should we? Just piggy back on the ol' fella.

So, I have several options to consider ONCE I SELL MY AT&T stock. Yup, thats it, T is outta my portfolio. So what should I put 3gs in?

• XTO- I already have some, but natural gas is the energy of the future according to Cramer
• NRG- piggy back on Cramer
• Financials- they are going to pick up soon, right?
• Housing- same boat as financials

So, energy or housing.

Any other industries that are looking to grow?
---Not that I can think of right now.

BUT BUT BUT. I am already dumping $500 a month into a really good MS real estate fund, 5 star rated by Morningstar. So, I am ALREADY IN HOUSING.

So I guess its going to be an energy pick.

3 stocks- CHK, XTO, NRG.

Warren is buying NRG, your boy Aubrey K McClendon is buying a SHITLOAD of his own stock CHK hand over mother fucking fist. And its CHEAPER than XTO. And last time I remember, that stock was neck and neck with XTO at one point.
But what about NRG? Lets see...

I am going to see what the stock is at right now, and what analysts are predicting they will go up to based on valuations and a lot of grunt work.

CHK- Now 41, predicted 75. Thats a predicted 82% return
XTO- Now 50, predicted 75. Thats obviously a 50% gain
NRG- Now 30, predicted 50. Thats a 66% gain.

Winner is CHK.

Just drew up a 1 year chart with those 3 tickers, and CHK came out on top.

But what about the financials? (Not the industry, but a company's financial health)

It looks like CHK has a larger gain from year to year in income vs XTO, but they also lose a lot more in a down market. What does that mean? When both perform well in a good market, CHK will end up making more of a gain. And since they are both down about now, CHK has more to make. I think that, for now, I will sell my MS, AT&T, and XTO so that I can put about 7 g's in CHK. I think that will be a good move.

For Sale 1994 Toyota Corolla $1500

Up for sale is a 1994 Toyota Corolla with almost 150,000 miles. The car has minor cosmetic faults, but the engine, transmission, and all other moving parts work perfectly. This is certainly a reliable car, and has driven in snow storms for hundreds of miles with no problem. This car has never had problems starting, has never stalled while driving, and never had any engine problems...it always moves. This is Toyota quality at its best. The car also has a new cd/ipod player. You can hookup any mp3 player that has a headphone jack into the car and has good quality unlike radio broadcasting. The car has new tires, new spark plugs, frequent oil changes, and new air filter. The A/C and heater work, lights work, all driving lights work (i.e. reverse light, brake lights). The car will get about 25 mpg highway, and a fillup is around $40 (11 gallon tank). This is one of the best commuter cars, what it lacks in looks, it has in functionality and dependability. See for yourself, and email me with any questions at rahulmathew34@gmail.com

The price is not negotiable, sorry.











In the below picture, the cd player was taken out, but is brand new, and has ability to hookup with ipods and mp3 players.

Graduation....in stores.......NOW.....not just now....I just fooled you

Im a free man. Just finished my last class and the last day of my internship at an ibank. I woke up today with nothing to do.

Holy shit...I got a SHIT load of student loans to pay off. Those payments are going to start kickin in 6 months from now. What should I do?

Any financial adviser would probably suggest: consolidating.

1. Put all your loans together into one HUGE ass loan to have a shit load of debt.
2. Always Always pay minimum payments! This is NOT like your credit cards. Not only are the interest rates low, but they are also a tax write off.

On another note, Oil is predicted to be at $200 a barrel by Dec 2009. Expect gas to be at about $7-8 bucks a gallon.

Yesterday

It happened. Many analysts predicted it. The Fed cut rates AGAIN! by 25 basis points to 2%.

...which means absolutely nothing

Anyway, I just read that German's work a lot less than Americans. Nice life. It seems they average about 37 hours a week, whereas their American counterparts work almost 50. "Who needs to buy a bicycle at 8:30 pm?"

I guess that makes sense

"Free time cannot be paid for" So when you are thinking about working a couple of hours extra (and you are an hourly employee)--fuck it. Just leave and chill at home!!! The Germans do it, why cant you?

Freakin Crude

So it looks like oil is bouncing around the $115 mark these days...and so its no wonder that politicians are coming out with their own plans. John McCain and Hillary are both supporting a temporary suspension on federal gas tax, something that will make gas about 15 cents cheaper. They want to put this bill into place and have it ready for the summer driving season.

Barack, by the way, is against this.

And I am in favor of Barack. The government in this instance would lose about $9 billion so that the average consumer will save about $30 bucks...its not worth it.

But then again, Barack is going to raise the capital gains tax, and thats why I wont vote for him. IN fact, I wont vote at all!!!!!!!!!! Take that basketball playing, eloquently speaking presidential candidate!!

Move along move along like I told you to..... Move along

There was an article today about how some individuals who were hoping to retire could no longer do so. Unfortunately for them, the stock market's crash has taken value away from their retirement accounts.

Lesson: when you need money within 5 years, place your junk into
bonds! That's a joke... I meant to put you money into BONDS, aka fixed
income. BUT BY ALL MEANS- dont put you money in junk bonds...

Dont tell me you're confused...

Stop buying!

So someone called into a talk show and was wondering if he should decrease the amount he puts into his 401k. The financial adviser asks why... "Well, the market has been going down lately, so I don't really know if I should risk losing more money."

HELLO!!! Ever heard of the term, buy LOW sell HIGH?!?!?!?! This is the time you should be buying MORE, if anything. Don't let the media discourage you. This is one spending habit that you should always keep.


When someone loses their home because they can no longer afford it, both parties lose. The residents obviously lose their house. The banks lose money by having to sell the house at the lowest price, just to get the darn thing off their hands.

Yet there are these small guys in the corner waiting....they are the bankruptcy lawyers. They are raking in the dough big time, from drafting up the bankruptcy filing to representing banks in court, they are cashing in on other people's hardship.

"I ain't guilty cause, even though I sell rocks.
It feels good, putting money in your mailbox" 2pac

Hank Henry H.L.P. Paulson, Jr., III

Thats the name of the Treasury Secretary of the US. What the f*** is that? This dude basically looks to work side by side with the president to oversee the financial world in the US and make sure everything is cool, among many, many other things. Just type the guy into wiki or something to know what he really does.

Anyway, he proposed today that he wants the government to have more power. The first thing he wants to do is combine different groups that regulate markets into one body. The next thing he wants is for the gov't to be able to have access to a lot of information when you take out a mortgage. Among other things, they need to know if you own a golden retriever or a pitbull in your front yard. Its essential that they know.


THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST guys......

Where are you?

So theres some new technology that was announced today for cell phones. Basically, new phones from Verizon and Sprint will allow you to see where your friends are on a map so you can have an easier time meeting up with people...privacy, anyone?

"They" said that you can turn the feature off whenever you want, and they are initially not going to charge for the service...how nice of them.

Hey...have you signed up for that IRA yet? Still no, huh? Hopefully you get that taken care of next week.

Senile Guys

So I've got a lot of comments about people being old and rich--as a response to my first post. I guess I was jumping the gun on that one. You see, social security (that big ass deduction on everyones' paycheck) will not be able to help people anymore when we get that old, so basically, when you stop working, you better hope that someone will help you, because the government wont. This is important part-- stock as much money as you can in your ROTH IRA. Why ROTH? Well, because you do not get penalized when you take that money out to pay for things like 10% of your down payment for your first house, an emergency medical bill, or higher education.

If you invest in the stock market and make money, the government taxes you. And if you VOTE FOR OBAMA, you will be taxed HIGHER. So DONT VOTE FOR HIM lol jk. You can vote for him. Anyway, these guys (democrats) are looking to increase capital gains tax, and so when you have a ROTH IRA, you do not PAY those taxes when you take out your money for the purposes I mentioned above. But then again, for every other excuse, like taking money out to buy an iphone, you WILL get taxed. And money doubles about every 6 years in the stock market, considering a return of %12 a year... Id love to hear someone tell me not to save money. I dare you!

Economy posted .6% growth

So at 8:30am today, the report for GDP growth came out- .06%. This was recorded for the period from October to December. What does that mean? Well, considering that growth in the prior quarter was 4.9%, it can be easily seen that the machine that is our economy is slowing down. Now, if for some reason, the next GDP report comes out less than .06%, we are in a recession right? Wrong. A recession is only official when a group of economists somewhere say that we were in a recession. They analyze GDP, unemployment, inflation, and a whole bunch of other things; they are a secret society that everyone looks to. Unfortunately, they say things like, "so in March 2008 we were in a recession, but it ended March 31st." --The news comes after the fact. So what should one do? Nothing. Well, maybe play more xbox and watch March Madness. I think a couple of games are on tonight....in HD. Hopefully Memphis wins it all, but since they suck at freethrows, my bracket is ruined and North Carolina will win......

GOOOLD

I just heard something on the radio about gold, so I might as well shut people up. Sure, in the last 2 years, the damn thing has skyrocketed, from $500 to $1,000. But Apple went from $60 to $180 in just one year. What is the difference? For one thing, gold is one of the worst INVESTMENTS ever! Thats right... If you were to invest in $1 in gold 50 years ago, you would have 97 cents today. Now if you were to invest $10 in Apple 50 years ago, you wouldn't be reading this, you would be in one of your four mansions.....

Also, to better explain what to do with the previous post, try looking into target retirement funds. Companies offer funds called Target retirement 2050...i.e. you just keep throwing money in there until the year 2050. It does what every individual ought to do, 100% of the money in stocks for the majority of the time, but when you get older, it slowly transfers into bonds. Yeah, these mutual funds do all the work, except the work it takes to put the money in there...thats for the customer to do. 

To start

Anything in the news today? Not really. So I might as well mention
something pretty important. If you are less than 25 and you put away
$200 a month into a mutual fund, not considering you will ever
increase that amount, you will be almost certain to have a million
bucks by age 65! And since you won't be stupid, you will probably
contribute more-- the older you get, the more money you make, the more
you stock away. It is probably best that you start and no nothing
about finance. The more you know, the more you can mess up. Just let
it come straight out of your account, no questions asked, and when you
get older, you will have more than enough to buy a shiny new ferarri!
Or something more responsible of course...

Have questions? Just ask.
P.s I am not authorized legally to give financial advice, so take this
as a small guide to get you familiar