May, 2005:

I still wonder what the point of BlogShares is. It looks interesting though, so I signed up for an account, nonetheless. I’m trying to claim my blog, too, and I should receive 1000 shares for claiming it. I looked at some of the richest BlogShares member there. The amounts look ridiculous. Take a look at the top five:

1. Laila (B$953,060,218,869,094.00 total value / B$52,087,283,139,722.40 cash balance)
2. mars/iris Securities (B$733,775,913,201,747.00 total value / B$8,892,079,668,602.45 cash balance)
3. PnP (B$582,102,492,984,145.00 total value / B$116,831,035,031,531.00 cash balance)
4. Jim Wright (B$562,571,781,540,032.00 total value / B$2,870,494,361,375.48 cash balance)
5. Stan Dandyliver (B$465,554,211,582,388.00 total value / B$49,735,722,143,598.60 cash balance)

Laila has a higher value than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined (assuming B$1 = USD$1). I added this to the right side bar.

I have 15 Points for Betty Crocker cut out from a cereal box. I don’t have use for it, but if anyone does, let me know soon. I’ll mail it to you and I’ll even pay for your postage.

I went to Atlantic City over the weekend with my friends and we went to play Texas Hold ‘Em in . It was the first time for one of my friends so I accompanied her at the 2/4 table. There were two seats available on the table so we sat there. On one of the games, my friend had pocket Aces. She kept raising but she lost to someone who had a straight. On the next immediate round, I had . It was a total coincidence. There was another Ace on the flop so I raised the bet. I claimed the pot with 3 Aces. My friend was so pissed because she lost with pocket Aces on her round. On another hand, I took out a trip Jacks with a full house of Four’s. It was pretty fun. I doubled my initial funds at one point, but I gave some back later on. I started to lose my patience after three hours of sitting there and started chipping away money. My friend lost all her money before me and we left at that point. She was complaining about about her loss and her hand with the pocket Aces, so I bought her to make her feel better.

I also played a little bit of . I won some money there. I bet very little though. When it comes to gambling, I play ultra conservatively and I have a cap. In the very end, I netted around $40. One of my friends lost over $200 and was very upset. Another one won over $400 and took all of us out to dinner.

So, as you can see. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but always remember: Casino is not a place for you to get rich. Play for entertainment, not greed.

I was looking at the traffic report and I found something interesting. One of the links came from BlogShares. I was surprised. I didn’t even know I have a “company” that was being traded. BlogShares seems like a virtual stock market for weblogs, and in BlogShares the blogs are traded like companies like on Wall Street. I found it amusing. What an idea! But I wonder what is the point? Do you get to trade your B$ for anything?

Anyway, here is my company, Growing Money BlogShares. My B$ price is currently at 43 cents and it has a P/E of .74. Wow, that’s a low P/E, but it has a valuation of B$2,906.50. That shows you how much potential it has. Buy me, buy me. =)

Banco Popular is offering a generous 4.50% yield on a two year CD. The rate looks very attractive.

In light of Frugal Girl‘s ongoing quest to be as frugal as possible, I have discovered something for myself that will save me more money. I have a few Sharper Image air purifiers at home that I usually clean once a week. It would normally cost me several Bounty Towels to wipe the dust out of the air purifiers. I have tried something else yesterday that would do the job without costing me any paper towels. Every time I finish drying my clothes I would have the anti-static sheets lying around, so I took the used anti-static sheets and used them to clean the air purifiers. The sheets seemed to do a pretty good job surprisingly. I feel so proud.. hahaha… I have reused garbage and turn it into something useful AND saved money. Saving paper towels = saving money. I think I deserved a Frugal Star from Frugal Girl.

PACT climbs up almost 5% today. I actually didn’t want it to go up so soon. Why? Because I wanted to load up my second batch of shares at a low price. Why PACT? The company is loaded up with potentials. It has a very good support at the low 7′s range. I think it’s a safe bet to get in at the 7′s. We’ll see. I’ll still be around. I’ll let you know how it does.

FYI, Cisco is still doing very well. Too bad I already got out of it. I personally wouldn’t get into Cisco again until it drops into a price range that is more attractive for me. CKCM is another one I had bought a while ago and now it’s up over 60%. I’m not claiming I know everything. I’ve made mistakes before, and I’ve lost money. I learned the hard way by rushing into the hype and chasing stocks and getting burned. I have learned to invest more modestly now. I like to pick out stocks that havelittle to no debt, increasing revenue, growing fast, has lots of upside potential, low P/E and are still under the radar. I’m just an investor like many others, but I’ve learned to do my own research and analysis before I invest in a stock.

Cisco has hit and closed at the highest point today since the beginning of this year, at a whopping $20 a share. I was a little short sighted on selling early, but I’m satisfied at least I ended up with a profit. My friend is holding on to over 500 shares since he bought it at early 17′s. He’s going to be very happy today.

I’ve been looking at PACT very closely these couple of days. There is potential in this company and it should do very well in the long run. The stock price is at a very low point right now. I bought some shares at $7.60 yesterday. Today it is going up.

There are risks involved. This stock has a history of wild fluctuations. Play at your own risk.

I spoke to a financial advisor from Bank of America today and he suggested a variable annuity account for my parent. He explained to me what is it and how it benefits the owner. The advantages of a variable annuity account is that it allows you to receive fixed annual payments for the rest of your life when you retire. Also, there is this “stepped up” benefit which allows you to receive payments based on the highest account value you had at any time in the account. Say, you had $2M total account value in 2000 and today (2005) you have only 200K left, your payments will be based on the $2M account value. See below for a detailed explanation of a variable annuity account. After knowing the good side of the variable annuity account, I wanted to know the bad side also. It looks like the account eats off high fees, around 2%, and the account is intended to be invested until retirement age of at least 59.5 or else you will suffered from penalties and taxes.

Does anyone have experience with a variable annuity account? Let’s hear your stories.

A variable annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company, under which the insurer agrees to make periodic payments to you, beginning either immediately or at some future date. You purchase a variable annuity contract by making either a single purchase payment or a series of purchase payments.

A variable annuity offers a range of investment options. The value of your investment as a variable annuity owner will vary depending on the performance of the investment options you choose. The investment options for a variable annuity are typically mutual funds that invest in stocks, bonds, money market instruments, or some combination of the three. Although variable annuities are typically invested in mutual funds, variable annuities differ from mutual funds in several important ways:

First, variable annuities let you receive periodic payments for the rest of your life (or the life of your spouse or any other person you designate). This feature offers protection against the possibility that, after you retire, you will outlive your assets.

Second, variable annuities have a death benefit. If you die before the insurer has started making payments to you, your beneficiary is guaranteed to receive a specified amount – typically at least the amount of your purchase payments. Your beneficiary will get a benefit from this feature if, at the time of your death, your account value is less than the guaranteed amount.

Third, variable annuities are tax-deferred. That means you pay no taxes on the income and investment gains from your annuity until you withdraw your money. You may also transfer your money from one investment option to another within a variable annuity without paying tax at the time of the transfer. When you take your money out of a variable annuity, however, you will be taxed on the earnings at ordinary income tax rates rather than lower capital gains rates. In general, the benefits of tax deferral will outweigh the costs of a variable annuity only if you hold it as a long-term investment to meet retirement and other long-range goals.

http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/varannty.htm