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Fintechs versus the banks. A miserable comparison. More areas to stay away from. More tips on emergency generators.

This is a two year chart of two fintechs — PayPal and Square — versus three traditional banks — JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Not surprisingly, PayPal and Square have done much better.

I am a customers of all five, except Square which I watch with my friends, some local shopkeepers, who are Square customers.

I don’t understand how anyone can run JPM, C or GS and be so uncreative. If you work for one of them, send me an email and I’ll lay out twenty new services you should offer. I have emailed you, but you don’t respond. Yuch.

Look at the chart. The two best performers are PayPal and Square. Surprise, surprise.

I do not own any shares in JPM, C, or GS. But I own lots of PayPal and Square.

I wish all investing were this obvious.

Email sloppiness

For God’s sake, if you don’t respond quickly to your emails, you don’t deserve to be in business.

And while you’re at it… it’s a good idea to respond to all the points of the email. Like point one. Point two, etc.

It would be wonderful if your company website had a general email address which your customers could contact for “issues.”

Maybe your president should read some of the emails?

More on emergency generators

My friend Bruce reminds us:

+ Check your propane tank regulator regularly.  It WILL leak at some point and $1400 worth of propane will be gone in a week.  Ask me how I know.

+ “Maintenance free” batteries are not.  The caps can be pried off to add distilled water.  Keep a lithium car starter handy anyway.  (Like this one: bit.ly/3r6yC5N

+ Do you have the manual handy for when you need to get into the menus?  And will it auto report problems to your service company?

+ I found that the WiFi or even a HomePlug outside was unreliable. I ran an Ethernet cable and now it’s 100%.

+ Engines burn oil.  A Generac will burn up to a quart a DAY.  Shut it down and check the oil at LEAST every other day and have a case of the correct oil on hand.  During Hurricane Irma our 48KW Kohler ran like a champ for the 9 days we needed it and only burned 2 quarts.  Our neighbors with Generacs were scrambling for oil.

If you missed yesterday’s piece on Generac and its emergency generators, click here.

Eye Buy Direct has great glasses

I run this photo to show the breath of what they offer.

Go their web site www.eyebuydirect.com. They have zillions of other designs. This is my glasses place of choice.

Staying away from

+ Chinese stocks.

+ Crypto.

+ Conventional banks.

+ Cannabis.

+ Mining.

+ Energy.

+ Boeing, whose planes still have problems, viz the 787.

I understand tech. If you don’t, buy VGT, which is Vanguard’s tech ETF.

My friend owns an F150

He says Ford won’t be able to meet the huge demand for a Ford Lightning (next year’s all electric version).

This is me this morning and a random F150 I parked next to.

This is my friend’s F150. Notice he has two doors and comfortably seats five.

My friendly Subaru Outback happily fits tennis racquets, tennis balls and a cheeseburger.

What more does a grown man need? The F150 Lightning will need only new tires and new windshield wipers. My Subaru is being recalled for something to do with its gas-guzzling, ultra-unpowerful, internal combustion engine, which it still has, sadly.

See you soon. — Harry Newton