In Search of the Perfect Investment

We’re getting sub-4% mortgage rates for five years buying sound commercial office buildings.  Amazingly low.

Yesterday I said I’d go with ALV, not AZO. Look what happened. AZO soared with higher earnings:

Can it go higher? Its P/3 is 17.9. Its latest earnings grew at 13%.  Frankly, I have no idea.

Which GPS for my car or for my walking? My conclusion: Garmin $59.99 Street Pilot for my iPhone. First, two images. Garmin has clean, simple screens on all its units and in all its software — no matter what you pay for.

So do other GPS companies, like Tom Tom.

All GPS devices will get you from A to B. That said, some offer fancier screens and fancier software. all of which is quirky and often very very slow.

This GPS testdrive took weeks. You don’t want to hear all the stupid stuff — like the $370 Garmin nuvi 3790LM arrived in demo mode, with its GPS receiver shut off. It took three days to get it switched on.

My big question: A standalone GPS unit (from Garmin or Tom Tom) versus an iPhone GPS? I thought the standalone unit would start much faster — like instantly — and beat the pants off iPhones and smartphones. Wrong!

The iPhone boots instantly. The standalone GPS units put you through loops about not driving and drinking. The iPhone version doesn’t. Further (and you’re not going to believe this), the iPhone finds satellites much faster and in much worse conditions.

Even worse, the Garmin units have an exceptionally nasty habit — if you plug them into your laptop’s USB port to charge their battery, they shut off (I kid you not) and hence, you’re now lost. The TomTom ones don’t. The iPhone doesn’t also.

Of course, you could just ignore this entire, boring GPS testdrive — Harry, as usual, is obsessed — and stick with the Maps application that comes native on the iPhone and does a perfectly fine job. My recommendation is use Maps if you don’t travel much. If you do, get the Garmin $60 StreetPilot for the iPhone.  

Don’t waste your money on a standalone unit, no matter how “full-featured.”  And don’t install GPS in your new car — unless they’re now charging a reasonable price. The last time I looked, it was way over $1,000 — for the same features I’m getting for $60 on iPhone.

Frankly, I thought all this research would lead to something useful — like a great product and a great stock? Pity I hadn’t done this research earlier, Garmin has had a huge run.

And now its P/E is 18 and its yield is 1.04%. Not overly compelling. Garmin is a Swiss company and has done a wonderful job of figuring all the markets that need GPS devices. Swiss management is talented. I’ll wait for a pullback.

“If I had to own just one bank, I’d probably own Wells Fargo.” Thus said Warren Buffett on yesterday’s CNBC:

I wouldn’t own Wells Fargo. It’s been a miserable investment, unless you bought it in March of 2009.  This 10-year chart also shows the ease of investing from 2002 to 2007. Stocks went nicely and consistently up. Then the financial crisis hit and bank stocks have yo-yoed — or, as they say in Australia, have gone up and down faster than a hot hooker.

Going forward? The world is deleveraging, i.e. getting rid of its borrowings — not borrowing a lot more. Hence the business of banks — which is lending — will remain soft. That’s not conducive to doing wondrous things to profits and stocks.

Use the telephone. Every time I call one of my my suppliers, I get a reduced price. Why bother with the Internet? Simple, the purpose of the Internet is to get a starting price. What’s the purpose of printed invoice or monthly statement? Simple? To get a starting price. The New York Times has a piece on buying cheaper car insurance. Don’t stay with what you have. Call your provider and “Do they maybe have something cheaper? Here’s some sentences from the piece:

And it was a good thing he decided to call. The Hartford told him it could offer him a policy with the same coverage for just half – yes, half – the amount he was paying Liberty Mutual, or about $1,267. Mr. Mitchell said he contacted Liberty Mutual with the news. And wouldn’t you know, the representative told him that it had revised its underwriting standards and he would now qualify for a premium of $1,207.

“I was happy to get the reduction, but I was dismayed to learn that the burden was on me, which means there are probably thousands of policy holders who are eligible for this but don’t know what they don’t know,” said Mr. Mitchell, who was insuring a 2002 GMC Envoy and a 2010 Toyota Prius. “It is a rip-off.”

Even more maddening, he said, was the conversation that ensued with a Liberty Mutual branch manager. Mr. Mitchell said he was really irked that the company was perfectly content to let him continue paying twice as much as he needed to, so he asked the manager if the company would have bothered to notify him of the “underwriting changes” when his policy came up for renewal this summer. “To my astonishment, he admitted that the premium reduction would not have been brought to my attention unless I asked for it,” he said.

For the entire piece, click here.

The Black Hole. Truly wonderful short video clip. Show it to your kids and ask them what the moral of the story is? Click here.

I’m obsessed also about safety. Three places my friends are hurting themselves:

1. In bathrooms, especially in unfamiliar bathrooms.

2. On stairs, especially the last stair.

3. In airports and on airlines. Your big problem is handling heavy luggage — like hoisting it into your overhead rack.

Sickest cartoon ever.

No matter what your job, you can always try and make it a little more interesting.

The latest Borowitz Report. Andy Borowitz is a funny comedian. He regularly sends a newsletter:

Poll: Given Choice Between Romney and Santorum, Most Voters Choose Suicide
Survey Spells Trouble for GOP, Pollster Says

DETROIT (The Borowitz Report) – With just one day until the key Republican contests in Michigan and Arizona, a new survey of likely voters indicates that in a match-up between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a majority would choose suicide over either candidate.

The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, shows Mr. Romney drawing 21%, Mr. Santorum 18%, and various forms of suicide 61%.

“Throwing yourself in front of a speeding city bus” was the most popular means of suicide at 22%, with “jumping off the roof of a really tall building or bridge” coming in second at 17%.

According to pollster Davis Logsdon, the surging popularity of suicide bodes ill for both Gov. Romney and Sen. Santorum as presidential candidates in 2012.

“It’s still early, but even at this stage of the game the prospect of one of those two being nominated shouldn’t be making voters want to kill themselves in these numbers,” Mr. Logsdon said.

Reached on the campaign trail in Lansing, Mr. Romney pointed out that while he did not do as well as suicide, he still polled higher than Sen. Santorum, adding, “That’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.”

But Mr. Logsdon was quick to throw cold water on Mr. Romney’s upbeat assessment: “In a head-to-head match-up, a sharp stick in the eye beats Romney by a two-to-one margin.”

Elsewhere, Academy Award voters hailed “The Artist” as the ultimate fantasy film, since it depicts a world in which the French are silent.

Harry Newton who has discovered the fastest way to lose weight — get a haircut. I did and evetybody is complimenting me on how thin I look.

Questions now: Should I shave my head? Can I bank the compliments?

I do love watching Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which follows. Last night was wonderful. Jon had a  guest who was a scientist and who told Stewart that his opening video had the earth spinning in the wrong direction! I died laughing. Stewart was embarrassed.