Gold's universal value

Where does gold come from? This explains the amazing story. Were I to live to see us mining the asteroid belt it would be prudent to invest in gold mining companies for the very long haul.

Investing

This year has been kind of weird for the stock market. The traditional summer slide didn't happen.

This site explains the 'Sell in May and go away' strategy based on seasonal changes in the market.

"We discovered that those best days on average are October 16 for the entry into the market for its favorable seasonal period, and April 20 for the exit from the market’s favorable season. However, those are just the best days as averaged over a very long time period. Obviously the market does not begin a rally on the same day each year, or begin to decline from a top on the same day each year."

These dates are consistent with other reports that I'm aware of.

Summer Sell-Off

Hopefully today marks the beginning of the summer stock sell-off. It was supposed to happen in May but didn't. It is now June 5th and we're seeing a decline. It should continue to decline until August or September when it'll pick up again. At that time I'll shift money into a total market index fund.

Sell in May

"Sell in May and Walk Away"

Tobias Suggests

GE - wait until august then reevaluate
CBH - wait until august then reevaluate
DD - wait until august then reevaluate
FMD - buy
TXCO - Don't buy

He also suggests some others but not in this post.

best,

Dave

WBuffet stock buys

2006-12-31 Buy IR
2006-12-31 Buy UNH

Finance Homework

Hypothetical Problem: You've just inherited 80,000$. What do you do with it?

My response was:
1) Pay off debt starting with highest interest rate debt. Don't pay
off student loans or mortgage because there is a tax benefit to those
and my fixed rates are lower than inflation or investment returns.
2) Repairs and Maintenance on paid off car or new 3 year used car.
3) 6 months living expenses in ING.
4) Max out my Ameritrade ROTH IRA (5000$)
5) Max out an IRA for a Significant Other (5000$)
6) Stock up on clothes and necessities
7) Buy a few toys and gifts
8) Throw a party
9) Invest the rest through Ameritrade in an Index Fund.

What would you do?

Chinese Food

I ate Chinese food for dinner last evening. It was tasty, but I brought 75% home with me.

I also started reading Home Buying for Dummies which has been great. The housing market still has a distance to fall before the prices are where I'd like them.

One of the gifts I got this year for the holidays was Forbes Magazine. The first Issue arrived today and has a lot of information to review. It seems to be a quality publication, unlike Money or Fortune. I've moved out of Atlas Mining (ALMI) because I see some interesting investments I'd like to pursue. Also, it'll be interesting to see how a loss in an IRA is calculated for the tax season.