Winning at tennis. Losing on the market. Subscriptions can rip you off forever. Fall is here. It’s superb.

14 October 2022, 2:54 pm

I won at tennis today. And lost at the stockmarket yesterday (but I am up big-time today).

You can learn to play tennis and improve.

You can’t learn to play the stockmarket, improve and win.

You can make money with the stockmarket — if you’re desperate and a have a long horizon. God bless ETFs and dollar cost averaging.

You’re always better off with your own business, with your own skills.

Doing your own thing, you get satisfaction and happiness. And money, if you want it.

With the stockmarket, you get frustration and unhappiness.

Used to be you could pick technology, invest in it and watch your rewards explode. 150 years ago, it was wondrous things like electricity, railroads, the internal combustion engine. Then we got fiber optic, satellites, the Internet, on-line shopping and the cloud.

But today?

Today we make up “diseases” (like a failing memory) and peddle cures made from brainless jellyfish (i.e. Prevagen).

I love seeing animals on Instagram. Every hour of watching gives me at least ten new shoe companies, with shoes I can slip into (don’t have to bend), with shoes that can be washed in my washing machine, with shoes that haven’t destroyed a tree or killed an animal. Amazingly, the best (and cheapest) shoes I find on Amazon and eBay – my favorite being these $21.99 ones on eBay.

Click here.

Yesterday I got a stern warning about my short-term thinking. I ought to be in this for 20 years, Craig told me.

But today I’m up $50, 000 on my shorts. On Monday, who cares.

I know there’s exploding technology out there. Elon doesn’t have a corner on it. I wish I could find a handful of new companies, e.g. Apple at $3.

I’m looking. Don’t tell me biotech or pharma. I’ve lost my shirt there several times.

Meantime, I can get 4.54% on a one year treasury. And a little more on semi-affordable multi-family housing.

All that fat dividend income pays my living expenses. The gambling on shorts is for fun. Right now, it’s working.

I don’t one single stock. Repeat: I am not long one single stock.

Get your kids and grandkids vaccinated.

News:

F.D.A. Authorizes Updated Covid Booster Shots for Children 5 to 11

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly signed off on the shots, the final step to making them available to young children around the country.

For more, click here.

O.K. I admit. I’m obsessed with bears.

This video is very good. Tells their story. The narrator is wonderful.

Sick and tired of scams

I get fake bills from everyone and their uncle: Network Solutions. Best Buy. The Geek Squad. Sams Club. etc.

Some are fake companies. Some are fake bills from real companies.

Sadly, I don’t get renewal notices from real companies I have (or had) subscriptions with. They just keep billing me until my credit card expires.

In August the Washington Post extended my digital subscription at the new, much higher rate of $120 a year. Today, after much bitching, they gave me a refund.

I told them I’d pay $50 a year, not $120.

Ah ha. They said their promotional rate was, in fact, $50 a year. But then it increases to $120, which they will bill on the credit card they have on file.

My mission impossible is to find a credit card good for $50 — and no more.

I can’t find one. I’m still looking.

There is a moral to this story. Every company you sign up with will overbill your credit card from now to Eternity (i.e. forever).

Anyone got any ideas?

My new Subaru has Apple CarPlay

If I don’t turn my car off completely, I kill the battery. I ‘ve done that twice.

I tried these things to start the car. They don’t work.

This works. Always carry a set with you. So when you’re stupid (like me), you can beg your nice neighbor (her name is Nansi) to drive over and give you a jump start.