Archive for the 'Money/Investing' Category

7 Ways To Spend Money From Uncle Sam

It’s not “free money”, Lesko!

It’s tax time! According to data from IRS.gov, the average return for a single person in tax year 2005 was $4,983 (estimate based on all income levels for taxable returns). Obviously everyone’s situation is different; however, whether or not I suck at math, I’m going to assume a majority of you will get some sort of tax return. And don’t forget those Economic Stimulus payments we are supposed to be getting in May. In most cases, these rebates will range from $300 to $600 for individuals.

So, what do you plan on doing with this money? Many believe it’s your patriotic duty to put that money right back into the economy. However, I’ve got 7 ideas to consider that are sure to add stimulus to your life.
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Feed Your Stock Market Appetite With Agriculture

Recession or not a recession? That seems to be the burning question among market analysts nowadays, and it’s causing investors to second-guess themselves when it comes to buying stocks. All of that hesitation just results in missed buying opportunities. If you still can’t get passed the uncertainty, there is a sure thing out there — agriculture.

I realize “sure thing” is a bit idealistic; but if you take a closer look at the variables behind the agriculture boom and why it could be long-term, you just might reap the benefits (the pun potential for this article is bountiful…sorry).

BRIC & M
BRIC is an acronym that stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China. Recently, Mexico has been added to this list of emerging economies…forming BRIMC. Jim O’Neill, global economist at Goldman Sachs, has theorized the idea that the BRIMC economies as a whole could be larger than the G6 in U.S. dollar terms by 2050. Just watch this BRIC video presentation. This ain’t no ostensible theory.

Along with this economic growth comes a larger middle class population and an improved quality of life. And that means higher demand for quality foods.

Stocks Du Jour
So where can you park your money? There are a few ways to take advantage of the boom. One way, of course, is to invest in Agricultural Chemical companies. Two of these that stick out as long-term winners are Monsanto (NYSE:MON) and Mosaic (NYSE:MOS). Both specialize in technology to help farmers produce healthier foods and better animal feed ingredients. These stocks are up 154% and 456% in the last 12 months, respectively (as of market close, 01/14/2008). See Mosaic’s 52-wk chart below.

Mosaic’s second quarter earnings rose nearly 6 times…44% revenue growth.

Farmers need tractors to help foster this anticipated growth. Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) is reaping the rewards of the ag boom. In the company’s fourth quarter 2007 report, Chairman & CEO, Robert W. Lane, advocates that “Deere is well-positioned to continue benefiting from powerful global economic trends such as growing affluence and increasing demand for food, feed and biofuels”. Worldwide sales of John Deere agricultural equipment are expected to increase by about 17 percent for full-year 2008.

Last, but certainly not least are Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Perhaps the most popular Ag-related ETF is the Van Eck Agribusiness ETF. Actually, I just like the ticker — MOO. MOO currently represents 37 companies worldwide that are engaged in the agriculture business. To earn a spot on the MOO fund, a company must possess the following characteristics:

• Have a market cap exceeding $150 million
• Have a worldwide daily average trading volume of at least $1 million during the past six months, and over each of the past two months
• Have maintained a monthly trading volume of 250,000 shares over the past six months
• Trade on global exchanges

For those that appreciate the idea of portfolio diversity, MOO will do.

I’m no financial advisor, but this might be a time to throw out the idea of “buy low, sell high” and adopt a “buy now” attitude. This is one boat you don’t want to miss.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Blog Money — August 2007

Can you believe it is already September? I think part of the reason this summer has been such a blur is all the rain we’ve had down here in San Antonio. August was also a busy month as my business partner and I engrossed ourselves with the planning of RETOX, which hit a few snags.

Despite the decrease in posts, blogging revenues remained relatively unchanged. Here are my blogging revenues for August 2007:

Google AdSense:	$47.09
Text Link Ads:	$21.57
PayPerPost:	$129.50
AuctionAds:	$0.04
AzoogleAds:	$0.00
Amazon Associates:	$5.58
TOTAL:	$203.78

So, a decrease from July 2007 blogging revenue, but expected. I only did four paid reviews through PayPerPost in August; PPP is clearly my biggest revenue generator. AdSense did increase by about a buck. I’m a little discouraged that I have not sold more Text Link Ads. I lost one advertiser, but quickly gained another. Credit Solutions provides debt consolidation services and a learning center to assist those concerned with managing their debt. Thanks to them for advertising on Derrich.com. I’ve also stopped advertising on Brohans.com. I don’t think they are updating anymore, so they’ve also stopped taking money out of my PayPal account. I did get a free link to Sweethacks.com. The blog has 8 free backlinks since I last checked. Wander over and grab a spot.

And big thanks to all of you that contribute your thoughts and comments. I just remembered halfway through the month that my Top Commenters counter is set to 7 days, which means it resets itself sooner than I thought. I’ve fixed that to go for the full month. Cheers to a successful month of blogging for everyone…and if you’re not a blogger, then cheers to your pursuit of success.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Trade Like A Mutual Fund Manager With TheBuyList.com

TheBuyList.com contains unique data extraction and cleansing processes that gather incremental stock transaction data by top mutual funds. What this means is that someone researching stocks can query its database and to see which funds and fund families recently bought or sold a particular stock. Looks like Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) has been a hot buy as of late. Good thing. I included it the Derrich.com Stock Portfolio on August 1. Check it out for yourself.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Payday Loans & More At CreditLoan.com

Previously, I’ve written about the importance of consolidating student loan debt. CreditLoan.com offers solutions for this and more. Debt consolidation of any type of debt should be a consideration when “repairing” your credit. The possibility of reducing your monthly payments alone is worth it. The hope is to begin to provide relief on the limitations placed on your monthly cash flow making it more manageable.

CreditLoan.com also offers payday loans. While I’m not a huge fan of payday loans, they are no doubt a convenience to many borrowers. With all of the fees involved, they should only be considered as a solution for extreme cases. Imagine paying 15% interest (usually for every $100) for a 14-day payday loan. That equals 3,785% compounded interest annually.

CreditLoan.com also provides an unbiased point of view for a wide variety of loan products, for example an article about What To Watch Out For Before Availing Payday Loans. Its purpose is to help you eliminate any doubts about a particular financial product before you move forward. Once you decide which solution best suits your situation, CreditLoan.com has a large list of affiliate lenders to satisfy your specific need.

Visit CreditLoan.com and educate yourself on each of the financial services the website has to offer.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Stock Watch — 08/01/2007

Ok. So, it has been a couple of months since I’ve posted my thoughts on the stock market. For those of you that have been following the stock market closely, there have been a number of opportunities to buy and many shifts in focus with regard to industry. Technology stocks are back. Great. I’m glad I started my IRA in a Technology-specific fund right before the sector’s steep decline. Lesson learned. I’m ready to play again; more on that later.

The chart below is the Derrich.com portfolio as I left it since the last Stock Watch on May 21, 2007. As you can tell alot has happened since then.

Symbol	Last Trade*	Shares	Price Paid	Gain (thru 05/31)	Gain (thru 08/01)
AGII	$27.80	100	$33.12	0.03%	16.06%
COH	$47.41	100	$51.40	-0.08%	-7.76%
DEO	$81.83	100	$78.37	8.96%	4.41%
DOW	$44.16	100	$40.02	13.39%	10.34%
FMS	$47.56	100	$50.01	-1.84%	-4.90%
GPX	$10.73	100	$9.38	13.65%	14.39%
KCI	$62.06	100	$46.90	6.99%	32.32%
MOT	$16.69	100	$18.16	0.17%	-8.09%
Q	$8.40	100	$8.50	21.06%	-1.18%
SGU	$4.04	100	$3.91	22.76%	3.32%
SIFY	$7.45	100	$8.41	1.66%	-11.41%
SIX	$3.25	100	$5.97	3.09%	-45.56%
YHOO	$23.25	100	$26.87	6.81%	-13.47%

With so many changes in the prices of the stocks above, we’ll get rid of a few and add others in their place. Out with MOT, SIX, SIFY, and FMS. In come the following.

Symbol	Last Trade*	Shares	52-Wk High
SUNW	$5.10	100	$6.78
HPQ	$46.73	100	$49.09
UA	$64.13	100	$66.07

*Last Trade as of market close on 08/01/2007. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Moral of this story? Don’t leave your portfolio unattended. This is why many people opt to use a stock broker or financial advisor. If you can’t commit to the time necessary to do our due diligence, get some help from an expert. For me personally, opening Retox Bar in addition to my “day job” and my blogging has caused me to neglect the Stock Watch…to do the necessary research to make a worthwhile analysis.

Sun On The Horizon
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) was one of the dogs of the Technology sector since the stock peaked back in September 1, 2000 when it closed at $128.63. Now at just over $5 per share, it is being hailed by some as a steal. Sun has reported 3 straight quarters of profit and a stronger Balance Sheet despite an increase in long-term debt. And Sun plans to use $3 billion of its nearly $6 billion in cash to repurchase stock over the next few years. Perhaps we’ll find out more on Sept 5th in New York when the company holds its financial analyst meeting. As Jim Cramer so lucidly explains in the following video, Sun has accomplished its new found “green” by being a better manager of its operating costs…because it sure isn’t a significant increase in revenues. And don’t just pay attention to Erin Burnett. Listen to what Sun Microsystems CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, has to say about why his company is a good candidate for your portfolio. Think…international exposure.

Gotta love the Jim Cramer strongarm interrogation to get the answers when you need em. I’ve always wondered why he doesn’t “push # on your keypad to ask a question” during the call.

Despite uncertainties with regard to what Sun will do with its cash, and whether or not the company will grow its revenues more considerably, I’m putting all my chips on Sun. If you want to do your own research, check out this list of tech stock sectors for recent performance. You can drill down into each specific sector for a list of stocks. As always, I’m open to your picks as well, and will consider including those in future analyses.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Teach Your Teens Financial Responsibility With PAYjr

Part of parenting is teaching your children how to be financially responsible whether it means teaching proper ways to save, how to invest wisely, or to spend with discipline. PAYjr offers an interesting way to educate kids about budgeting. PAYjr provides a way for parents and their kids to manage chores and allowances together. Parents create chores. Kiddos complete chores and receive payment. Parents monitor spending and control how much money is on the PAYjr Visa Buxx Card. And as a safeguard, these prepaid cards may not be used to make adult-oriented purchases (dating, gambling, pornography, etc). PAYjr CEO, David Jones, suggests that their product is ideal for children ages 7-14…that regularly perform chores around the house.

As a promotion to launch the program, PAYjr Visa Buxx has also created a Teen Credit Card design competition. The grand prize winner will receive an Apple laptop; second place will take home an Apple Video iPod; and third place wins an Apple iPod Nano. Winning designs will be used in PAYjr’s gallery so that others may purchase them. Vote for your favorites and stay updated on which design has the most votes. Once you submit your design, PAYjr will send you code that you can add to your blog or MySpace, to help gain votes for your design.

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BlogRoll

• Milk Was A Bad Choice
• CrackBerry.com
• Stock Trading 101
• For The Love Of Sports
• Project Spurs
• Busted Coverage
• WallStreetFighter

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