In Search of the Perfect Investment

I left on July 6 and came back last night. The good news is I’m leaving town again this evening for Cycle Oregon with son Michael and fiance Anne. I won’t be back until next Tuesday evening. Hence my next column will be next Wednesday.

Look on the right column at some favorite stocks. One is Annaly (NLY). It also did well in the last few days.

After the market closed tonight, NLY announced that it intends to make a public offering of 60 million shares of its common stock. They are going to use the proceeds of this offering to purchase mortgage-backed securities for its investment portfolio and for general corporate purposes, which may include additional investments and repayment of short-term indebtedness. The stock will sell off today but should eventually recover with their high dividend.

One business conversation.I met an incredibly successful English financial adviser. He’s ultra-optimistic. “It’s isn’t like the 1970s, where many places in England didn’t have 24-hour a day electricity.” The key, he believes, is solid, dividend paying companies. Stay away from overseas. “We tend to forget our great gains get easily wiped out by foreign currency devaluations.

The world’s shortest travelogue. The French Riviera is wonderful, though a trifle hot and humid in July and August. The sun burns fiercely. Without olive skin and/or oodles of SPF 50, you fry. But nights and early morning are stunning. We never saw a cloud.

Susan and I spent a week in Menton, an hour from Nice, on the Italian border. We stayed with friends in a house they’d rented. The house had a pool and sat on a hill with a view of the Mediterrean. It was about as close to Paradise as you could get.

We did typical tourist things — visited local hilltop towns and old churches. My wife caught me in one resting.  I said I was praying to be a good husband. If not, I’d go straight to purgatory.”

Susan replied, “Don’t pray for that. The change of your ending up in purgatory are pretty high.”

We went boating down the coast towards Monaco. The Riviera is full of coves to explore and ultra-clean water to swim in.

We explored Menton and bought a little stuff — all-cotton, lightweight, white shirts and pants. Now we look like the natives.

A short visit doesn’t make me an expert on the local economy. But it’s clear locals live very comfortably. The fruit, the vegetables, the croissants, the baguettes and the cheese are superb and not expensive. We shopped at farmers’ markets. Everything tasted as though it had been picked, cooked or baked that morning.

My friends tell me the French are taxed to death. They probably are (except in Monaco). But the quality of what they get seems pretty high. Their infrastructure made my envious. The main highway along the coast sported tunnel after tunnel — larger, brighter and newer than anything in New York. The streets are in superb condition, with no potholes. The trains are clean, run on time and are reasonable.

Coming in from New York’s Kennedy Airport last night, we were stopped again and again by highway flooding.  Water was a foot deep. It had rained. New York hasn’t built a new tunnel or bridge in eons. It’s sad.

The ten best Riveriera travel tips:

1. Don’t ever rent a Mercedes. Our friends did. It was a brand-new Mercedes C class waggon. The battery died on the fourth day. It wouldn’t jump start. They flatbedded it away. They made my friend travel 30 miles to pick up a replacement. He rented from Europcar. Don’t.

2. Trains work fine. They run on time. They can be cheap, especially if you’re a senior. The views along the Riviera from the train are incredible.

3. Virtually no shops are open on Sunday in France. This is annoying. Even more annoying are the weird hours they are open. Typically mornings and late afternoons. Get up early. Do your shopping and your business. Then sleep for a couple of hours. Always pack a couple of power bars.

4. Most hotels have the Internet. There are many Internet cafes. They’re closed on Sunday and during the middle of day most other days. There is no logic to business hours on the Riviera. Our favorite restaurant was closed on Saturday and Sunday. They have free WiFi at the Nice Airport. A session is limited to 30 minutes maximum. After 30 minutes, you can reconnect.

5. Laundries are pricey and slow. But they’re cheaper than having a hotel wash your clothes. It make sense to wear your clothes and then throw them away. Many friends take old stuff and do precisely that.

6. To pack: Take a lightweight backpack for day trips and shopping. There are lots of steps in the south of France. Take bandaids for blisters. Take an LED flashlight, conversion plugs (make sure they accept polarized plugs), a huge sun hat and lots of sunscreen.

7. Phone calls in Europe. First rule: Use your American cell phone provider sparingly. They charge a fortune for “roaming.” Better deal: Buy an unlocked GSM phone on eBay. Buy a local SIM card for every country you visit. Swap them out as you travel. Cheapest is Skype on your own laptop. You can make video calls back to the kids in the U.S. for free. Skype is an incredible service. We used it to make local phones in Menton. You can get your iPhone unlocked and use it in Europe with a local SIM card.

8. Learn how to drive a stick. Sometimes that’s all you can hire.

9. Roll your clothes. You’ll get a lot more in. Don’t take any formal clothes, unless you’re going to the Casino in Monte Carlo.

10. Eat the local stuff. Figs, berries, melons, baguettes, croissants, brie and Camembert. I’m told they have wine also.

The pleasures of coming home. Not one. Not two. But three letters from the IRS.  They threaten every arm and leg o fmine will be removed if I don’t. … That’s the first problem. I don’t know what they want. And their endless papework doesn’t help.

It gets better. The Census Bureau filled the memory on my answering machine. I call them. They have questions. One was: Was I checked into a looney bin on April 1?

I wasn’t. I told them if they kept calling, I would.

They didn’t think that funny.

Harry Newton, who shot a  million photos. Here are a few:

Menton Harbor looking up the hill. Italy is on the right.

Friends from England have an apartment on this hill with this view. The town is Roquebrune (brown rock). It used to be part of Monaco.

This the town of Menton in the distance from the water. The water is crystal clear.

This is a typical hill town. They have small alleyways and often shops for the tourist selling colorful candles, linens, porcelain stuff.

This is one  of the larger alleyways. You can spend a lot of time photographing arches and doors.

I took the time to smell the roses. Then I got rebuked for smelling fake roses. These are real fake silk flowers. They look better than the real ones.  I don’t know if they smell better or worse. Who’s got the time?

Technology is not their strength. These two thermometers hung next to each other. The real temperature was over 90. They were both wrong.

This is the Monte Carlo train station. Spotless and efficient. Do we have one train station anywhere that’s as nice as this?

This is Monte Carlo Harbor and city from the water. There are many bigger boats. They make you wonder what God could do if only He had the money and a tax-free haven to keep it all.

The principality of Monaco has been controlled by the Grimaldi family since 1297. It is the last European state — apart from the Vatican — with an autocratic ruler. When the towns of Menton and Roquebrune were whisked away from Grimaldi control in 1848, Europe’s poorest state lost its main source of revenues — a tax on lemons. But then Monaco built the casino, plus a railway to bring in gamblers. It was so successful, it abolished taxes for residents and companies based there. It’s been that way ever since. The guidebook says you can indulge your dresscode dreams. From sabels to labels, you can never be too ostentiatiously dressed. As for jewels, the bigger the better and if they’re real, never fear. There’s a policeman for every 60 residents and some 300 surveillance cameras in trees, at traffic lights, in lifts. There are fewer soldiers than there are members of the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra.