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Dart throwing and advanced pinching (oneself)

I can’t tell you what to buy.

Throw a dart.

Most everything is going up.

Especially businesses that are …

+ Scaleable (like use the cloud),

+ Have products that we use and which excite us, and

+ Has management that doesn’t put the company in a pickle.

Here’s a pickle story from CondeNast Traveler:

It reads “With all of its challenges, is it possible the Max would be grounded forever?”  Click here.

Apple is now $315. Amazon is nearly $2,000. Microsoft is $166. Google is $1,450.

Nike is over $100.

The hype is still pouring in: viz an email received at 10:39 PM last night:

China said it was growing at 6.1% despite the Trade War. That’s a lot better than us.

Here are two years of Apple. Who knows when this will stop? Maybe $400?

Apple itself designs the main computer chip that goes into its iPhones and has them made by Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM).  Apple’s A13 Bionic  chip in my iPhone 11 sports 8.5 billion transistors and  can perform one trillion operations per second. I don’t make these numbers up.

Look at TSM’s ten-year chart — a thing of beauty:

You didn’t need to own Apple or TSM to do well. This is the S&p 500 compared to the DJI (Dow Jones) and the IXIC (Nasdaq) over the last two years.

Tennis locker room banter yesterday

Harry: I did really great today. I can afford to buy you a cup of coffee.

Lucas: No sugar.

Urgent updates should be installed

Download the latest Windows 7 and 10 updates and install them pronto. There’s bad stuff floating around.

What motivates members of Congress?

Justin Amash is a politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district since 2011. Originally a member of the Republican Party, Amash became an independent in July 2019.

This week he tweeted:

Does anyone have a decent credit card?

For years I’ve used a Citi MasterCard American Airlines AAdvantage card. but the card is increasingly useless:

+ American Airlines keeps bumping up mileage to get a “free” ticket.

+ American won’t allow me to buy the few extra miles I need for the “free” ticket.

Does anyone have a credit card that’s any good?

I’m thinking of a credit card that gives cash back — not airline miles you can’t use, that are always blocked, etc.

How to find stuff on your laptop

Not easy is the simple answer. Here are the solutions I use, in order:

+ Everything is free software that finds files on your hard disk. Type in Eleanor and it will find all the files — photos, etc — with the word “Eleanor” in it. It doesn’t search inside the files. It just searches the file names. It’s brilliant, simple, fast, flawless and free. Get it here.

+ Lookeen searches inside Outlook. It’s very thorough. I like my stand-alone version of Outlook (not in the cloud), which is part of Microsoft Office. Click here.

+ Windows Search is the search software that comes with Windows. It’s OK, but cumbersome. It worked better in Windows 7.

Favorite cartoons

And my absolute favorite:

Another trip for the kids

Eleanor and Peter live in Portland, Oregon. Here they are in Portland, Maine. When I was their age, a “big” trip was a three-mile bike ride to Bondi Beach.

Good weekend ahead. I’m seeing two of the grandkids.  — Harry Newton

 

 

8 Comments

  1. Mark says:

    I use Wells Fargo Cash Wish card 1.5% Cashback on all purchases and $150 cash rewards bonus when you spend $500 in purchases in the first 3 months.

  2. Mike Nash says:

    I knew it! 90% of this fairly interesting column is about the stock market yet all the comments are about 2% back credit cards and grandchildren! Harry, you’re OK but some of your readers come off as idiots!

  3. Len says:

    Harry, love your posts, especially the grandkids. They are lovely.
    Add my vote for the Fidelity Visa 2% back on everything.

  4. Peter says:

    Another vote for the Fidelity 2% Visa Signature card. It’s my go-to card – I don’t have the Citi Double Cash card, but that would be tied for second, in my opinion.

    If you don’t mind the 5 minute hassle of looking up reward categories every quarter, Chase Freedom is okay. You get 5% cash back each quarter on 2 or 3 categories – this quarter, it’s gas, streaming (Spotify), and cable/internet/phone. The big “catch” is that it’s limited to $1500 of bonus purchases per quarter, for $75 bonus cash back per quarter. Anything above that $1500 (or any non-category expense) gets only 1% cash back. They frequently have Amazon, which makes it easy to blow through that limit.

    I also have a grandfathered Citi Dividend card that is similar – 5% on bonus categories, 1% on everything else. Their categories this quarter are fitness and groceries. It’s not available anymore, and they keep trying to get me to switch to a different card. They limit all cash back to $300 per year, which is $6000 per year of bonus purchases. The nice thing is the limit is annual, not quarterly.

    I put the categories in my iPhone notepad, so I use the right card at the right store.

    Cash back to me is king. Miles are nice, but airlines can make them worth as much or as little as they wish at any point. My Chase 5% cash back card let you buy gift cards with your cash back points for 10% off – so $9 worth of points gets you a $10 iTunes card.

  5. Lucky says:

    I like Citi double cash…us it the most…1% on purchase plus 1% when you pay your bill which I do in full on all cards. Chase Freedom is good for gas at 5% during their quarterly periods (which I don’t like but use) also 5% each quarter for a variety of things…restaurants, dept stores, PayPal and etc. I like Citi Costco for all time gas at 4%. I no longer travel so I do like “cash back” cards…some have been up around $1500.00 to pay off account or transfer to bank account. I closed out an extra BofA card once but first found $150.00 in Best Western rewards I never even knew I had. Used them a couple times on their Free Night program and got a fully paid free night at a beautiful hotel in Sedona…there was not even any tax or resort fees attached.
    I automatically charge everything from big items to a cup of coffee…it all adds up.

  6. TomFromVa says:

    You can set the Fidelity card to auto-claim so every $5,000 they put $100 into your account

  7. Gary S says:

    Been using Fidelity Investments Visa card for years that offers 2% cash back on everything. Only catch is you have to wait for 5,000 points ($50) to claim or $2,500 in Visa purchases and to get cash you can only transfer to your Fidelity Brokerage Account but from there you can transfer to any bank account or pay bills with Fidelity Bill Pay.