Novel Investor • Compounding investing wisdom...

Happy Hour: Booze Will Save The Post Office & $50K To Happiness

May 4, 2012

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Jon

Welcome to Happy Hour, where I offer up some of the more interesting and informative things I’ve come across this week. Sit back, relax and enjoy the weekend!

Shipping Beer And Wine Via USPS

New legislation was recently passed in the Senate to help the financially strapped Post Office. The legislation includes several things like a 5 day delivery week, restructuring health benefit payments, provide retirement incentives to many employees, and most important, allow shipping of wine and beer by the postal service. Imagine, a 103 year old law has prevented the Post Office’s profitability and we’re only finding out about this now. If it we’re only true.

$50,000 To Happiness

Who says happiness can’t be measured in dollars. Continue Reading…
Savings And Debt Debate: Where Should The Money Go?

May 3, 2012

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Jon

The savings and debt debate has been ongoing since the first loan was created. With only so much income to spread around, a big decision must be made. Do you use any extra money to pay off debt or add it to savings?

It’s a fine line which is the right path to follow. On one side you have the debt first absolutists, the other is the futurist savers and some where in between you’ll find your comfort zone.

Debt First Argument

The debt first argument, in the savings and debt debate, is an easy one when you compare low savings account rates with high credit card interest rates. You can’t really argue against it. Pay off those 15% credit cards. But what about those other, lower rate loans, like a mortgage, car loan, or student loans? Continue Reading…
Bond Basics: Bond Price And Yield Relationship

May 1, 2012

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Jon

One of the more confusing aspects of bond investing is the relationship of bond price and yield. As bond investors we want high prices and high yields but it’s just not possible. At least not at the same time. This is where the confusion begins. In a time where interest rates are at all time lows, understanding the bond price and yield relationship is important.

Bonds play an important part of every portfolio. The basic asset allocation strategy says to have your age as the percent of bonds in your portfolio. I could argue for more or less based on interest rate risk and current yields, but that’s a post for another day. The bottom line is we should have some bond exposure in our portfolio. For now, lets just stick to the basics of the bond price and yield relationship.

Bond Yield

New bonds are issued at face value (par), with a time to maturity, and a yield (coupon rate) that involves several factors including risk. Bond yield is the return you will receive if you hold the bond till maturity. It’s in annual percentage form. So a bond with a 5% yield, will pay a 5% return each year until the bond matures. Continue Reading…
Happy Hour: The Fed Translation & NFL Draft

April 27, 2012

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and Happy Hour! Sit back, relax and enjoy a few things that I’ve read this past week.

The Fed Statement Translation

The Fed released its monthly statement this week without any major surprises. Jack Hough wrote a tongue in cheek translation of it, The Fed in 57 Words, which can give you a gist of the economy at the moment. Basically, unemployment is too high, people are spending more because gas prices are too high, and Europe is still screwed up. Tell me something I didn’t know.

NFL Draft

I have to say the NFL Draft is the ultimate tease for all the football fans out there, myself included. Somehow the fate of your team suddenly boils down to a draft pick. As if a single player will instantly propel your team to Superbowl greatness. Then watch as the analysts and fans scrutinize and criticize each pick. For most of these players, we won’t see an immediate impact, if any, for several years. Yet, I find myself watching anyways, with everyone else. Continue Reading…
Book Review: Millionaire Teacher

April 26, 2012

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Jon

I was recently approached to do a book review. It’s not a rare occurrence and I’ve had my fill of investing books over the years. When the Millionaire Teacher finally showed up in the mail, I honestly wasn’t overly excited about reading it. Despite my misgivings, I gave it a shot and quickly found it was not your typical investment book.

The Millionaire Teacher is an investing autobiography of sorts by the author Andrew Hallam. He is a successful high school English teacher, investor and writer. Did I mention he’s a self-made millionaire on a teacher’s salary?

Hallam breaks down his financial successes and failures into nine simple rules that everyone can use to build wealth. He attacks each rule from an educational perspective, with humor, research, and pure simplicity. Continue Reading…
Shorting A Stock: Profiting On The Way Down

April 24, 2012

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Jon

The Short Trade Of 2011

Shorting a stock is a high risk, high reward strategy. It goes against the market trend. It’s unnatural.

Everyone and their brother wants the market to go up, not the short seller. Shorting a stock is not the popular choice, but there are profits in going against the crowd.

Most of our investments go like this: we buy shares of a stock or ETF. Those shares will rise in value because our research says so. Then we’ll sell, make a cool profit and move to the next investment. That’s the simplified version. Shorting a stock or a short sale is the opposite.

What is a Short Sale?

The SEC defines shorting a stock as:

A short sale is the sale of a stock that an investor does not own or a sale which is consummated by the delivery of a stock borrowed by, or for the account of, the investor. Short sales are normally settled by the delivery of a security borrowed by or on behalf of the investor. The investor later closes out the position by returning the borrowed security to the stock lender, typically by purchasing securities on the open market. Continue Reading…