The best investment strategy is to buy an S&P 500 index fund, like VFIAX or IVV, viz:
What I didn’t know — until I heard Cramer last night — is that “they” mess with companies/stocks in the S&P 500, regularly junking bad ones and replacing them with better ones.
I went to the S&P site (click here) this morning to see what I could learn. Here’s a clip of what I found.
Much better to go watch the tail end of Cramer last night in which he discusses the additions and the deletions. Click here.
Harry gets an email from PayPal. The email looked fake. I sent it to PayPal. They replied with this useful information:
Dear Harry,
Fake websites encourage you to enter personal information like credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and account passwords.
If you’ve entered any financial or other personal information on a fake website:
+ Change your PayPal password and security questions immediately.
+ Contact your bank or the company that issued the credit card or debit card on your PayPal account and tell them about the situation.
+ Review your PayPal transaction history to make sure there are no unauthorized transactions for your account. We’ve put together some tips to help protect your PayPal account from Unauthorized Account Access: Always log in to the PayPal site
PayPal will only ask for information after you have securely logged in.
For your security, PayPal will never ask you to re-enter your full bank account, credit, or debit card number without providing you at least the last two digits of the number. These digits let you know that we already know the full number and are asking you for the rest of it. Beware of any website or email asking for these numbers for “verification” that does not provide the last two digits. Web pages – make sure that they are hosted by PayPal
1. When using the PayPal service, always make sure the PayPal URL address listed at the top of the browser begins with “https.” The “s” ensures that the website is secure. Even if the URL contains the word “PayPal,” it may not be a PayPal webpage.
2. Look for the “lock” symbol that appears in the lower right hand corner of the browser. This symbol indicates that you are on a secure site.
Do not download attachments, software updates, or any application to your computer via a link you received in an email. PayPal will not ask you to download anything for your account to work.
3. Use a unique password for your PayPal account and change it every 30-60 days.
4. The password should be one that is not used on any other site, service, or login.
An ugly story. My friend bought a new, pricey Dell, called the Dell XPS 13.3 inch touchscreen laptop.
It’s a pretty machine. It has a beautiful screen, which happens to be touch-sensitive (like an iPad). You can do your stuff with the keyboard or the screen. It comes with Windows 8, a truly hideous operating system.
My friend, who’s intelligent and knows computers had to call “Support,” which is in some distant country that doesn’t speak English and is hence useless. I tried to get the machine to talk to my WiFi. No luck. Everything else here — from Windows 7 laptops to iPads and iPhone — talks to it flawlessly. But not his stupid Dell. There’s a part of the Dell Windows 8 Control Panel that says “Manage known networks.” Click on that and you get two priceless options:
+ “Choose a network to forget,”, and my favorite:
+ “Show connection options that this computer is not set up to use”
A happy story. I bought a $30 Lutron dimmer switch, thinking I was a genius electrician. I wasn’t. I needed help. I called Lutron on their 24-hour/day 800 help line. A man speaking perfect English answered all my questions and walked me through my installation, which now works perfectly.
I learned five things:
+ There are a million Lutron switches and dimmers. They range from $20 to $99. You’d better know what you want.
+ Your local hardware store charges 50% more than it should.
+ Online is the cheapest way to go, not Amazon.
+ They’re easy to install when you a install a simple single pole switch/dimmer. Three-ways are harder.
+ A good place to buy the simple single pole Lutron switch shown above (which I installed) is the Electric Bargain Store. Less than $20. Click here.
Harry Newton who is late this morning because he’s been juggling dentists (“You didn’t make the right impression. We need to make a new one”) to K1s — those ridiculous masses of paper the IRS wants to prove that you paid taxes on the smallest of your investments.
And me neither. Wonderful New Yorker cartoon. See you tomorrow, earlier. Promise.
