In Search of the Perfect Investment

Now we’re into our third up-day. All the shares we sold in recent days are now much higher.

This is the perfect “Gotcha” market.

When you think it’s going up, it goes down. And when you think it’s going down, it goes up.

This is not good for the sanity. But good for day trading — if you’d rather be poor even quicker.

Our best bet is to stand pat. If you’ve sold, stay sold. If you’ve bought, stay bought.

This “logic” won’t win me a McArthur Genius Award for great thinking. Nor for my homely bank:

I do need to start thinking out of the box — away from tech and away from FANG.

My “problem” is that the stockmarket feels (at least to me) to be too much like gambling.

I am attracted to real estate — because there are some genuine bargains around. I’ve bought into a couple of syndications this week.

It’s a good time to look for multi-family apartment buildings. Offer a ridiculously low price and see if you can snag something by year end.

Stupid me. I pushed the wrong money market fund

I pushed Fidelity’s SPAXX. Its seven day yield is 1.86%

Vanguard has VUSXX. Its seven day yield is 2.26%

Vanguard’s management fee is much lower, also.

Thank you, reader John Hinson, for pointing out my idiocy.

Meantime…

Read this review of Michelle Obama’s new book “Becoming”

It’s the number one best-selling non-fiction book.

The New York Times wrote a wonderful review. I cried. Please read it. Click here. You can buy the book here.

How the fight started. Totally tasteless “humor”

One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift.

The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift.

When she asked me why, I replied,

“Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”

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My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.

I asked her, “Do you know him?”

“Yes”,she sighed,

“He’s my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been sober since.”

“My Gosh!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”

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After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security.

The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s license to verify my age.

I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.

So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.

She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.

She said, ‘You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too.’

Harry Newton. Here’s my favorite Christmas grandchild photo. They took Zoe to the Museum of Firefighting in Hudson New York. (Here.) Zoe loved it:

P.S. I still think it’s a bear market. I’m really worried about Apple. Its phones are too pricey. None of my friends or family want to upgrade to the latest iPhones. They’re happy with what they have. I feel the same. I have an iPhone 8 plus. I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to test it. My friend lent me a T-Mobile GSM SIM card. The Note 8 is a really nice phone. I love the stylus, the screen and the Galaxy’s handle-ability. T-Mobile is remarkably good — especially in WiFi Calling where it outshines sluggish Verizon by a mile.