Buying Stocks on Historical Value

How do I pick stocks for my limited portfolio? Well, first I do whatever the TV tells me. But second, I pick on a company's historical record. I'm not saying that past performance is any indicator of future earnings. What I'm saying is, do they have a historical legacy (and at least some plan to be viable in a capitalist economy)? Case in point, Ford motor company. I picked it up at $2.9, and its riding at $5.49 this Sunday. I'm pretty impressed with myself. I picked up another 100 shares at $5.00 for my actual retirement account. I'm confident that Ford Motor Company survives this recession. They're already more focused than the other companies. They make a product that people want (the F-150), and they've survived the Great Depression. Over expansion kills companies. When they grow too large, they can't hunker down and hibernate through a bad economy. I watched it happen with Corning Revere (more on that later I think), but I think Ford's going to make it.

Besides, the Demecrats aren't going to let Ford Motor Company go out of business... Right?

-S

The anti-bottom shelf

Here's a link to what I suppose you could call the antithesis of the bottom shelf's philosophy. A posting with 10 bottles of wine that one couldn't afford to open. In my humble opinion, and where can I opine if not here, once the tool becomes so expensive you can't use it, its rather lost its value. (I of course say this as I contemplate an iPhone).

http://stylecrave.com/2009-05-08/10-bottles-of-wine-you-cant-afford-to-uncork/

Props, to use the parlance of our times, to stylecrave.com

- S

P.S. For those who care, my gross income for last year wouldn't net half of these bottles.

Sutter Home Cab

So, I'm not working... Why am I not working? Who knows, but I'm not. I graded some papers, actually assigned some grades, but I'm not getting it done. I'll walk to work later with the last of the papers to grade, and see if I can't get that going. But, in the mean time, here's a review of the Sutterhome Cab we enjoyed last week.

Sutterhome Cab
2007 Vintage (I think)
$3.50 - Rite Aid, on Robinson

Alright, was it great? Nope. But it was clearly a cab. That's about all I know about wine, but L had some helpful words. She used things like "fruity," "terrible," and "why did you buy this." Well, I bought it because it was $3.50 and it looked fun to try. So, it was a bit of a no go to the point where I don't even remember anything interesting to say about it. Alright, this was a bad review.

A solid 3 thumbs up from what I remember, and this was a 2 pain killer. So, the 3:2 ratio is not great, but its not bad either.

The Post Office

So, I fell victim to a post office scam. Thinking that I might save some money, and time spent at the post office, I would buy a role of 100 forever stamps through their "stamps by mail" program. Now, despite the fact that I checked the box for 100 forever stamps, they sent me 100 Flag 42 cent stamps. For those of us in the know, we know that come next Monday, my stamps will need 2 cent stamps to make it to the new postage rate. *sigh* How very, very annoying. Even the simplest of tasks seem beyond them sometimes. Why even sell the regular stamps if not to cause problems like this... Yes, I'll buy some 2 cent stamps to make up the difference, but this is just one more reason why the post office is failing. Did they make money on me? I suppose they did. They'll make a whole 2 cents x 100 stamps... $2. Was that worth it? Really? Some institutions deserve their fate.

- S

May Day

So, its May Day. Time for updates. First, make sure you get on over to the SDSU history department website this summer to see my write up of the 2009 Appleby Memorial Lecture. Its going to be a small 500 word piece in the Spring 2009 department news letter. I'm going to go ahead and claim it anyway. Yay publishing credit. Did it bring in any money? Nope. But its all about networking and helping people out. Dr. Blum mentioned that there was an opportunity, and how much work is it really to go to an event to network and then buy a coke at the coffee shop and write it up. Turns out, it wasn't that tough. When you have the time, help others. It helps you, but mostly it helps them, and making the world a little easier for people is a good thing.

Also, 29 days until the wedding. Get excited everyone... Wedding... tell your friends.