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If you have a real job, what should you buy? Buy Micrsoft, Unity Software or Apple?

The question I get most asked is not “Which stock should I buy now?” But “Should I buy now?”

If I answer Yes to buy now, the market craters the next day. I look like an instant idiot.

It doesn’t matter when you invest.

The best way is to buy $X worh of stock every month. That is called dollar cost averaging. My friends with real jobs do this. They typically buy an index fund like my favorite VGT. Here’s ten years of VGT. Not shabby. It’s much better than the Dow and the S&P500, which I’ve included for comparison:

I sold my business in 1997. I lost millions investing some of what I got in the wrong things. I must have had “Sucker” written all over my face. Every fast-speaking salesmen from Goldman Citi, and smaller ones got me. Until I figured out that the salesmen has absolutely nothing to do with the success of the fund. In fact, the more golden-tongued they were, the less well the fund (my investment) did. If they dripped charisma, the fund lost all my money.

It took me years to figure out “the solution.” And then I began to recoup some of my dumb losses.

Suffice, investing is difficult and takes time to learn. You have to learn, study and learn some more. That’s the major reason I write this blog.

It’s complicated.

One of the best TV shows is Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, every  weekday night at 6 PM.

He’s right more often than not. He also has an hour to fill every night — a huge amount of time. To keep his viewers (and his advertising) he must find good stocks. They’re not always easy to find. Last night he pounded the table for a company called Unity Software, ticker symbol U. It’s had a checkered stock price career. Here’s its price over two the past two years. A good or bad investment? Depending on when you bought it.

Cramer was so positive on Unity last night, I felt obliged to look at its finances.

They stink. The more sales it makes, the more it loses. It’s not meant to be that way. Here’s the dismal results, courtesy, Yahoo Finance.

I don’t own Unity. But it’s up strongly today. Cramer did someone a favor. Not me.

Watching Microsoft

I laid down at 11:00 AM to watch the Microsoft presentation yesterday. The first 15 minutes told me how much I was going to enjoy all the new features and how they were all deigned around me. Their stuff worked the way I worked, not the way Microsoft worked. Yah de yah de yah.

Then I feel asleep. In Apple’s recent one-hour gig I saw new equipment and new features. I ws engrossed. I immediately wrote down what to buy — a new iPhone 13 Pro Max and a new Series 7 Watch. This morning I checked Microsoft’s website and couldn’t anything to buy. Surface Pro has, to my taste, an awful keyboard and Windows 11 is not worth the upgrade for a new layout and access to some Android software, which I don’t use. A while back, I tried using Office 365 (or whatever it’s now called). It lacks many of the features which old versions of Office had. I’m using Office 2007 which I buy on eBay. Office 2007 is not as good as Office 2003, but Office 2003 won’t work on Windows 10. Why? Who knows?

The New York Times did a short review of Windows 11 and concluded “A mobile-inspired overhaul makes Microsoft’s newest operating system feel equally modern and unoriginal.” Click here.

If I were starting all over again, I’d go with Apple. They have a much more intelligent, user friendly way of upgrading and improving. Over the past two years, Apple’s stock has done much better than Microsoft’s. Apple is in brown. Microsoft is blue.

CNBC reported last night that FedEX was the worst performer of the S&P 500 this year.

The moral of this story: Move bits, not boxes.

Harry’s booster shot on Tuesday

It was Moderna. I got it at CVS. They have the best web site and the friendliest people.

I got it because I continue to hear of too many people getting sick — even those fully vaccinated with two shots. They seem to be all old, like me.

Today, I feel energized because of my booster shot — but not stupid.

I mask up, don’t go anywhere, and stay away from my friends — the few I still have.

You should get a booster shoot, too. The FDA is making it easier. And CVS is very helpful.

Congratulations to reader Barry Yarkoni

He has just been blessed with his 21st grandchild.

He has three children — two girls, each with nine kids — and one boy, with only three. The boy is still a student and, hence, has time to catch up to his sisters.

No one knows where they all sleep, but they share each others’ clothes.

Barry is hoping that one will become a billionaaire, another a philanthropist and maybe a champion tennis player. Though none play tennis, yet.

We have this tree in our garden

It is growing these coronavirus thingees:

The tree is called a Kousa Dogwood. In the Spring it sprouted white flowers. This is some amazing tree.

These are ultra-sick

+ A new Muslim clothing shop opened in our shopping centre, but I’ve been banned after asking to look at some bomber jackets.

+ You can say lots of bad things about paedophiles but at least they drive slowly past schools.

+ Being a modest man, when I checked into my hotel on a recent trip, I said to the lady at the registration desk, “I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled.” To which she replied, “No, it’s regular porn, you sick bastard.”

+ The Red Cross knocked at our door and asked if we could help towards the droughts in Pakistan. I said we would love to, but our garden hose only reaches the driveway.

My booster shot dragged me down yesterday. This morning I feel energized.

See you tomorrow. – Harry Newton