December, 2006:

Interview with Kas

Dec 29th, 2006
by Sean.
3 comments

I was talking to my coworker, Kas a few days ago and she told me she made $18,000 in the past two months. I asked her what she was doing. She said that she had this side business in addition to her day job. I learned that she was selling Christmas ornaments in the mall. It was her friend’s business, but because she had been working with her friend for a while, her friend trusted her with the merchandise and gave her 20% profit-sharing. If her share was $18K net, imagine what her friend’s was. According to my calculations, her friend made $72,000 in two months.

The business was selling Christmas ornaments at a small area in a mall. They rented one of those cart spaces. The rent was $25,000 a month, it was a special deal because Kas’ friend knows the owner. They hire a few helpers on an hourly base. They sold Christmas ornaments with personalized name labels on them. It was a perfect time because everyone was shopping for Christmas ornaments, and the lines were very long.
I believe they made a gross profit of 100K+ in two months. The ornaments are from a distribution in Hawaii. I was told that you would need connections to get to the supplier. Kas’ friend has connections to the supplier and the mall. She rents the mall spot for only two months and has the spot reserved for her every year. Kas’ friend has been doing it for years, and she will continue to do it indefinitely. It’s a no-brainer. Kas’ friend owns many business, including gas stations.
I was really impressed that Kas made $18,000 in two months. She did say it was hard work, it was very busy during the holiday season. But I think it paid off well. She seems to be very good at making money. She told me it’s easy for her to make money. If you’re willing to do some work, you can make money easily. I’m going to talk to her again and see what ideas she has in mind.

Be Careful on Giving Unsolicited Advice

Dec 28th, 2006
by Sean.
3 comments
I love reading up on financial news and learning more about personal finance. And I like helping people as well. Sometimes, I give advice to my family and friends. Although they would listen for the most part, they almost never act on what I tell them to do. It’s interesting that despite my honest advice to help them, they would push away everything I say. They would always have some kind of doubt or excuse.

Recently my friend is running low on money. He’s a real estate agent and he hasn’t closed any deals lately. Since I know a few extra bucks would help him, I told him about signing up for credit cards or bank accounts with cash bonus. Or he can play the 0% balance transfer. He thinks it’s too much hassle.

I have spoken to several friends in the past two years about contributing to retirement accounts, such as 401k and IRA accounts. They give me the usual answer, “I have no money.” I tell them the importance of saving up for retirement. Moreover, I provide them with important financial messages – pay off debt, have emergency money, save up for retirement, invest, etc. They don’t seem interested and don’t listen. Yet they like to complain about not having money.

Sometimes I feel that they don’t want financial advice — they want MONEY. What they want me to do is not to teach them how to make money, but to hand them cash. Everybody wants to be a millionaire but nobody wants to work for it anymore. It’s all about get rich quick.

They tell me they don’t have time, and it’s not worth making a few extra hundred bucks. If you have a lot of money, I would understand, but if you need money and have the opportunity to do it, why not?
It’s hard to teach family as well. They don’t seem interested in learning. I tell them to start ROTH IRAs because it really helps if you have low income, the government even give you tax benefits if you qualify. But they say they rather have the money now.

While I’m no certified professional, I know my advice can help my friends and family. They just don’t see it. Perhaps they need to learn their own way. I just thought maybe I can give them a shortcut, but sometimes people need to learn the hard way.

I figure I’ll save my energy on going out of my way to help people. People just don’t appreciate. Instead, I’ll focus on those who wants my help.

It’s a lose-lose situation if they don’t appreciate your advice. Because if they miss the opportunity, they would blame you. If they execute your advice improperly and the results come out bad, they would blame you.

The moral of the story is never give unsolicited advice.

New Year’s Resolution

Dec 27th, 2006
by Sean.
No comments yet

My Plans for 2007:

Move GrowingMoney blog to my own domain. This will give me more flexibility in the web design and I will also have my own web space to host files (photos, PDFs, etc.). Feel free to provide help for those with your own domain.

Contribute to my SEP-IRA. I have open a SEP-IRA with Fidelity and I will make a contribute in the beginning of the year after my accoutant decides what the amount should be.

Reallocate 401k Funds. I plan to shift more towards large-cap growth funds.

Qualify for IPO trading.

Year-end Coming

Dec 26th, 2006
by Sean.
1 comment

As the end of this year is approaching, what are your new plans for the new year?

Merry Christmas

Dec 25th, 2006
by Sean.
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Merry Christmas to all.

Word of the Day: Options

Dec 19th, 2006
by Sean.
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Options
A contract giving an investor a right to buy (call) or sell (put) a fixed amount of shares (usually 100 shares) of a given stock (or indexes and commodities) at a specified price within a limited time period (usually three, six, or nine months). The purchaser hopes that the stock’s price will go up (if he bought a call) or down (if he bought a put) by an amount sufficient to provide a profit when he sells the option.

Source: www.environmentalinvestors.com

SAI Is a BUY

Dec 14th, 2006
by Sean.
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SAI has been dropping for a few days and closed at 17.96 today. At under $18, it’s a screaming buy, and at under $19, it’s a good buy.

Upside
SAIC Report 8% Increase in Profits
SAIC Stock buyback up to 40 million shares
Still new to the market, large potential increase in institutional holdings.
Low P/E.
A good defense/homeland security play.
Winning lots of new contracts from government.

Downside
Options expiring soon (shares selling off).
$1.6 billion dividend to insiders.
Low guidance.

SAI looks like it’s going to hit rough waves in the near future, but after smoothing all those problems, it should sail smoothly higher in the long term. Its price is currently at a two-month low and seems to have support at high 17′s. At under $18, it would make a very good long term position.

Heelys IPO

Dec 7th, 2006
by Sean.
2 comments

I spent 30 minutes watching the roadmap of Heelys and did some research on the company.

My summary: Good short term play because of the hype, but its long term prospect is questionable because the wheel-in-a-shoe may become a fad.

Heelys IPO gets rolling

Heelys looks to stay on a roll with IPO

Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ Recap: Heelys Worth a Roll
“Looking at the comps, Cramer said Heelys should be worth $26 a share eventually and it could even go to the mid-$30s. The bottom line: buy Heelys in the low $20s and sell it as soon as it crosses the $30 line.”

Status Update

Dec 7th, 2006
by Sean.
No comments yet

I have been very busy lately with work and personal stuff but I am still very active in the stock market. I have made many short term trades but just haven’t had the time to post. I hope to do a post about my stock performance later on this month. I’m considering a tablet laptop where I can do some scrap work to depict my investment plans and strategies. I would like some feedbacks on tablet PCs. I know Neville uses a tablet PC, and it looks useful. Another thing I had been wanting to do is move my blog to my own domain, because I want to be able to configure everything and host files, but I thought the move and maintanence would be time-consuming so I didn’t do it.

Future Posts
Philly House Lease Renewal and Rent Increase
Annual Stock Performance Review
Student Loan Wipeout
2007 Financial Plans
My “Safe” Short Trading Strategy